by Shaun Hupp
Emrys smiled, wrinkles that were there previously were now gone, his teeth not so yellow anymore. “What did I do? I gave you the ability to do what you wanted. You beat your bullies. How did I make you do that? The power of suggestion is at my disposal, my dear boy. I just gave you the push needed. You did that. What am I? I doubt very much you would understand.”
Luke was shaking on the ground. He didn’t say anything.
“You’re welcome. The youth these days can’t even thank someone for their help.” Emrys shook his head, turned, and walked out the door.
The next couple of cars were still empty. Emrys finally reached a car he knew was full. He entered and was surprised to find most of the people standing near the door.
“Hey! We thought we heard some gunshots. Is everything okay?” The man held a camera phone in his hand, no doubt waiting to capture anything to post on Facebook to get likes and shares. He had dreams of being a viral star. Emrys could help him.
“Everything is just fine,” Emrys said, searching for the reader, the daughter. When he saw her with her nose still in her book, he gave the bottom of his cane two gentle taps.
They didn’t even notice her stand up. From the box, she pulled out a surgical scalpel. The box dropped from her hand but disappeared before it could hit the floor. One of the men in back screamed out first, dropping his iPad on the ground. The others turned to see what had happened and the reader slashed a woman’s throat. She desperately held onto her neck, trying to stop the bleeding, but her iPod and body ended up falling into a pool of her own blood. The rest of the passengers attempted to leave from the door Emrys had just come from. Emrys used his abilities to lock it, for the red of his cane was slowly growing. The next man caught the scalpel in his eye. He screamed as the reader twisted, carving it out like a hole in a jack-o-lantern. The rest were pinned to the wall as she continued her assault, methodically killing one after another.
Blood flew freely in the air as Emrys embraced its mist, pushing through the crowd of soon to be corpses. More wrinkles disappeared, his teeth turned pearly white. This had been going better than he had planned and there was so much more behind the next door.
The next car had the racist, his son, and the teens. Emrys had enough power to change his appearance, but he decided not to. The other teens had treated him harshly and he wanted to see what this group would do when he walked in covered in blood.
“Holy shit! Are you okay man?”
Emrys was surprised. All of the teenagers came forward to check on him. It was a nice gesture, but they were going to be helpful in a much different way.
Tap. Tap.
They didn’t notice as the father stood up, hammer in hand, and came up behind them. His child remained asleep until the first hammer strike. The teens’ screaming woke him and he joined in screaming as he watched his father bash in their skulls. The boys tried to fight back, but the floor was slick with blood, causing them to fall down. Emrys had designed it that way.
The father continued breaking bones while Emrys made his way over to the child. The boy was cowering behind a seat. “Don’t worry, child. Remember, your father is doing this for you.”
With that, Emrys walked, unaided by his cane to the door. The handle turned without him touching it and he entered the final car. He decided to camouflage his blood stained clothes.
Back to where I started.
Marianna and Ryan were still sitting in the front sleeping and Marianna’s mother, Joan was still towards the middle. She looked sad. It was as if nothing had changed, but Emrys would take care of that.
Tap. Tap.
Joan stood up and opened her box, revealing a nail file inside. She silently walked to the front with no one paying attention to her. She bent over Ryan and thrust the file into this exposed neck. He let out a small, gurgled cry. It was enough to wake Marianne.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?”
Ryan fell to the floor, clutching his throat while blood poured out between his fingers. Joan held him down and repeatedly stabbed him in the chest and stomach. Marianne made a grab for her mother and caught an elbow to the face. She fell into the aisle way and look towards the rest of the train car.
“Help him! Someone! Please!”
Everyone in the car remained in their seats. No one moved to help him. They just continued on doing whatever they had been doing as if there wasn’t someone being brutally slaughtered in front of them. Some blood sprayed across the face of an old woman near them. She continued knitting as if nothing had happened.
“What is wrong with you people!? She’s killing him!”
Marianne turned back to her mother to try to stop her, but it was too late. Joan was already standing with the crumpled body of Ryan underneath her. She was covered in blood and grinning ear-to-ear as if she had done something she had wanted to do for a long time.
“What is wrong with you!? You killed Ryan!”
Joan just stood there and said nothing. Emrys stepped between them. The top of cane swirled and glowed bright red. “Joan and Marianne, mother and daughter. . . That is a bond that should not be broken. I thank you two for finally making me whole again. How about you two go back to your seats and forget this ever happened? Marianne, you’ll forget all about Ryan. You’ll do what your mother asks of you. You two will love each other as a mother and daughter should. This is my gift to you both.”
The two walked away from Emrys and went back to their seats. No one would find Ryan’s body until the morning along with all the other carnage. The blood all over Joan would not be seen by anyone and his magic would continue on until the clothes were loaded into the washing machine and she showered. No one would remember Emrys. No video camera would capture his image. He had the power to do this now that he was strong enough.
He walked back to his seat and sat, looking back at his reflection in the glass. His body was back to being that of a man in his early twenties. He was perfection though he liked to remain average so that he could go unnoticed while feeding. He had enough energy to last quite awhile and his stop was coming up. He could just sit back and enjoy the rest of what was left of the night. Emrys could sense it was near midnight. He had thought today might have finally been the day he died. But, as it turned out, today had been a very good day. . . For him, anyway.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
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Shaun Hupp lives in Michigan with his wife, two kids, and dog. While he mainly writes in the horror genre, he also dabbles in the supernatural and comedy. When he’s not writing, he wears T-shirts of sports teams he could care less about. He also needs to take the trash out. You can reach Shaun on his author facebook page, writing facebook page, Amazon author page, and blog.