Crimson Judgment

by Robert Lyons

  “Nice move,” Alfred grunted.

  Zayde finally released the young man’s hand, keeping his mouth shut.

  “Mister Maddox, that was assault!” the two security guards almost said in unison.

  “I’m not pressing charges. Just get them out of here.” Zayde nodded, a sort of sendoff to the two young men. He was suddenly acting as if he had known Alfred on a personal level from some past event.

  Alfred returned the nod to Zayde, allowing the guards to escort him out without another incident or word of complaint. Rick followed, although nowhere near as composed as his friend. All aggression that Alfred previously harbored had vaporized.

  “C’mon. Let’s go.” Zayde nodded in the direction he came from. He had used a tunnel that opened up to seat everyone in the amphitheater-style layout in order to get to his friend in time. He placed his hands back into his pockets.

  Wade followed behind the same friend he’d met in kindergarten. “What the hell was that back there, Zayde?! You caught that guy’s punch right out the air without even looking! Seriously! What was that?!”

  “I don’t know.” Zayde’s bumbling was barely audible over the general murmur of the crowd. “Guess I knew he was going to do it.”

  “Really? That’s all you got?” Wade took a deep breath. “You were banking on a hunch?”

  “You could say that,” Zayde responded. The hand he kept hidden in his pocket had gone completely numb from intercepting the attack.

  Yeah, that would have hurt Wade, no doubt. Zayde trudged on. I hate depending on whatever this is. It feels so dark…

  Wade shook his head, unable to wrap his mind around his friend’s disconnect with the previous stunt. “Did you see that shit, Jess?” Wade looked back to this girlfriend. “Zayde caught that … punch … Jess? You okay?”

  Wade realized halfway through expressing his awe and excitement that Jessica had run up behind him, grabbing a hold of his arm with trembling hands.

  I knew it. Jessica kept her mouth shut, too afraid to speak out loud in fear of being heard. The last time was no accident. No human can do that. Zayde’s changed … into something else.

  3.

  Jessica’s memory leapt back to the time where she first began to fear Zayde.

  About six months ago, Jessica was walking back from college to the apartment Wade and her shared. The few friends she had held her up with social hour and a dinner after an evening class. In the end, Jessica was walking by herself after sundown. The neighborhood they lived in was not one that would be considered “pleasant to take an evening stroll” in, but there wasn’t much choice for the location of their living area. After all, they were just starting out.

  Only two hundred yards away from the front door, Jessica quickened her pace. Tightening the grip on her backpack strap, Jessica kept her apartment key wedged securely between her fingers like a makeshift dagger. An ominous feeling was slowly growing larger in her gut. She kept blaming it on her tendency to over-exaggerate, but there was only so much she could shrug off. She quickly realized why she felt exposed.

  Standing between her and the apartment complex was a young man wearing a pullover with the hoodie flipped up over his head. He was standing on the sidewalk, heading in no particular direction.

  I need move over to the other side.

  Jessica immediately obeyed the still, small voice in her. The figure might not spell out danger, but there was no reason to attract unnecessary attention by crossing paths. Jessica stepped off the curb.

  A shout, directed at her, was flung into the night air.

  “Hey! Jaywalking is a crime, you know!” The young man awkwardly laughed, still keeping his hooded head pointed down. “There’s a crosswalk back where you came from!”

  “Y-yeah. Sorry about that!” Jessica kept her head down while she walked on, not daring to meet his gaze.

  “Hey! Are you going to ignore everything I say to you, Jessica?”

  Jessica froze. She willed her body to move forward, but her muscles wouldn’t yield. Anxiety had paralyzed her.

  “You have no idea how much shit I had to do to get your address.” The young man finally started to move, making his way toward Jessica with his hands in his pockets.

  “Chase?” Jessica’s voice cracked, eyes wide open.

  The ugly mouth twisted into a smile as he lifted his head. The young man’s deep-set eyes were staring at Jessica like a hungry predator. “You remembered my name. I guess I do mean something to you.”

  “Leave me alone! Wade is going to kick your ass!” Jessica recoiled from Chase’s undressing stare, finally breaking past her paralysis and dodging past Chase. He turned around, pursuing his perverted goal and blocking her path more aggressively.

  “Yeah, but I’ve been watching. Wade isn’t here, is he? How about we do something that we keep between us?” Chase reached out to grab Jessica. “Being with one guy can get boring, right?”

  SLAP!

  Chase’s eyes widened with surprise. The left side of his face grew increasingly numb after a sharp pain pierced his jawbone. Jessica’s small, hard hand left a giant red mark across his cheek.

  “What. The. Fuck?!” Chase’s face contorted with rage.

  “Stay the fuck away from me!” Jessica screamed, bolting for her life. Her heart was beating like a battle drum, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

  “AH!” Jessica cried out suddenly as her arm was wrenched backward, an iron grip clamping down on her delicate wrist.

  “This is why I can’t stop thinking about you! I know I’m screwed up! I’m a twisted degenerate! The way you reject me is just … hhnng! It’s so hot!” Chase’s breathing was deep and drawn out. “Wade won’t be home for another hour. There’s a lot we can do in an hour.”

  Jessica unleashed a blood-freezing scream. She regretted being nice to him back in high school. Chase was a troubled youth with an obsessive type of personality. Jessica knew he was devastated when Wade and her became an item, but she never thought Chase would fall to this depth of madness.

  Reaching into her jean pocket, Jessica quickly extracted a small bottle of pepper spray. She clenched her teeth, bringing the canister up to her assailant’s face. In turn, Chase grabbed her other wrist and disarmed the young woman right before she could pull the trigger, kicking her last hope of escape down the gutter entrance.

  “That won’t work if I can get a hold of you!”

  Chase easily secured a hold on Jessica’s small body, since he was almost as big as Wade. Her brief shrieking was cut short as a hand was slapped over her mouth. Her world grew quiet, except for the insistent heartbeat stuck up in her throat. The realization that she could very well not make it out alive made her briefly hallucinate that Death itself appeared to wrap its bony fingers around her throat. If she survived, coming out of this with her mind and body intact was the best thing she could hope for.

  Someone … please! Help me!

  “Hey!” Zayde Maddox’s voice was suddenly behind her. “Let. Her. Go!”

  Jessica’s eyes flew open to see her last ray of hope standing below a streetlight on the sidewalk she was being shuffled across. Even though Zayde’s appearance was not one that would conjure fear from sheer size, his abrupt arrival caused enough of a disruption for the young man’s grip on Jessica to slacken. Seizing her opportunity, she ran forward, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her in Zayde’s direction. In turn, he reached out, pulling the young woman behind him and placing himself between the two.

  Zayde lived in the same apartment complex as Wade and Jessica. Even if he was somewhere downstairs and happened to hear the yelling, he had somewhat of a distance to cover. Now he was there, shielding Jessica.

  How did he get here so fast?

  “Jess!” Zayde yelled behind him. “Get home, now!”

  “Huh?” Jessica couldn’t hold her disbelief back. “Zayde … you’re going to be by yourself!”

  “Didn’t you hear me?!” Zayde snarled.

  “Oh
. I’m so scared by this short, little shit,” Chase mocked. “My adrenaline is pumping.”

  Body tensed up, Zayde flexed all of the muscles in his body at once. Jessica felt an “impression” bleeding off of Zayde. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but it made the hair all over her body stand on end.

  Chase’s smirk melted off his acne-riddled face.

  Jessica didn’t have many chances to talk with Zayde in the past, since they could barely be considered acquaintances. However, she was witnessing a change in Zayde. Although Zayde was at least eighty pounds lighter than the giant standing in front of him, Jessica couldn’t misplace the momentary fear that had overcome Chase. It was only a flinch, but the young man second-guessed himself.

  “You need to get stepping,” Zayde warned. “Jessica, leave—now!”

  Jessica took a couple of deep breaths before shaking her head in frustration. Turning around, she bolted down the street toward her apartment building. She contemplated what Zayde could accomplish. Or was that it? Was he just delaying Chase so that she could make her escape?

  What the hell am I doing?

  Jessica suddenly found herself coming to screeching halt about fifty yards away and turning back to look.

  I can’t leave him by himself! I need to help him—somehow!

  “Listen, I had to do a lot of things to get this chance. You’re not getting in my way!” Chase slung his right arm out, attempting to land a quick jab into Zayde’s face. The only problem was that Zayde was no longer in the path of the punch. He had completely evaded it. The smaller man was moving significantly faster than his opponent.

  Throwing his left arm out, Zayde knocked the right jab away by slamming his hand into his opponent’s right arm. After taking a big step forward, Zayde stomped the ground and launched himself into extremely close quarters.

  With the jab deflected and his arm out of reach to recover in time, Chase was unbalanced and vulnerable. Five seconds was all it took for Zayde to beat Chase down to the ground. Zayde stood over his opponent triumphantly, knuckles red, as some of the skin was torn off with the punches.

  “Z-Zayde! Are you okay?” Jessica ran up, her voice strained as her body trembled. The creep was practically unconscious, face beaten to a purple pulp, but the last thing that Jessica felt was relief.

  Zayde slowly turned to face her. She finally got the full effect of why that young man, who was physically much more intimidating, lost his confidence.

  The reason was in Zayde’s eyes. His irises, normally dark brown, were black in appearance.

  Jessica yelped in surprise. Zayde grabbed her hand, checking the bruise on her wrist. When he spotted the small contusion on her fair skin, he reengaged the downed target.

  “Hey! You!” Zayde’s voice shifted an octave lower as he glared at the form on the ground. “If you so much as get close to her again, your legs will never move the same way. You feel me?”

  There was no response at first. Chase’s eyes were struggling to open as he laboriously drew one painful breath at a time.

  “Hey, stalker! Did you hear me?!” Zayde leaned down, grabbing the front of the hoodie and hoisting Chase’s head off the ground.

  “Y-yeah! I won’t go near her again! I’m sorry!”

  Zayde’s voice turned eerily calm without warning. “…Oh, you’re sorry?”

  “Y-yes!”

  A silent moment passed.

  “I know what you were about to do to her. There is no way a fucking ‘sorry’ is going to cover it. There is no trusting predators like you,” Zayde growled. “Just to be on the safe side, I’ll make sure this can never happen again.”

  A barrage of fists came raining down, the attacks launched seemingly without provocation. The young man yelped as the back of his head was repeatedly bashed against the concrete sidewalk from the impact of each fist landing. He didn’t have a chance to defend himself and Zayde was not charitable to give an opening.

  An involuntary shudder ran down Jessica’s spine as she saw blood splat against the ground and broken teeth ejecting out of the swollen mouth.

  This violent side of Zayde that she witnessed was beyond terrifying. Zayde’s murderous smile and haunting, soft laugh were the cherry toppers. Wherever this was coming from, it was definitely not the Zayde that Wade had introduced her to.

  “Zayde, that’s enough!” Jessica’s soft-spoken words weren’t capturing Zayde’s attention. “C’mon—Zayde! Stop! Zayde! You’re going to kill him!”

  “He deserves it,” Zayde murmured, continuing to rain his fists down. “He is a monster!”

  “You’re the only monster I see!” Jessica jumped on his back, hugging Zayde from behind and pulling him away. Instantly, the black irises in Zayde’s eyes faded, changing back to a dark-brown color that had originally complemented his normal, friendly demeanor. She released him out of her bear hug.

  “I-I…” Zayde stuttered, losing his train of thought. The aggressive side that beat the daylights out of the Chase vanished into thin air. “Oh shit. What have I done?”

  The unconscious body of Chase was stretched out motionless on the sidewalk. His breathing was labored, but he was still alive. Zayde took a couple steps away from the fallen form.

  What the hell was that? Jessica thought as she stood frozen in place, trying to understand how Zayde shifted so violently.

  “Zayde?” Jessica studied his face carefully.

  Zayde was looking down at his bloodied, shaking hands. Jessica saw the unmistakable fear in his eyes.

  “What … was I going to do…?” Zayde whispered, posing the question to himself.

  Jessica took a deep breath.

  From that moment on, she feared him.

  4.

  What a mess, Zayde thought as he trudged down the access tunnel.

  He hadn’t been at the concert for more than an hour and there was already an incident. Not only did a fight almost break out, but his best friend Wade and Jessica were about to get thrown out of the festivities. Zayde figured it was some sort of misunderstanding, because Wade was never the type to throw his weight around. It was more or less for self-defense.

  “Wade, you mind telling me why I had to bail your ass out?” Zayde asked, not particularly happy about running all the way to the front when he heard that an altercation was about to break out near the entrance. Zayde had a feeling that Wade was somehow right in the middle of the shit storm.

  “The short of it, Jessica bumped into some guy and he dropped his drugs. In doing so, the product was stepped on and destroyed. The guy retaliated and I stepped in.” Wade shrugged.

  The group was currently walking the outer perimeter of the concert hall, where there weren’t so many people grouped. Leading the two of guests to this area, Zayde reduced the chances of being disturbed by any “fans.”

  Thanks to all of his efforts, Zayde Maddox had made a name in the music industry, but it was nowhere near a celebrity level. He was slowly building a following online, releasing content on a set schedule. He chose this secluded area to have some face time with his best friend, but Zayde was also subtly dodging a certain someone at that moment.

  “Jessica, huh?” Zayde raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. “I get the feeling that you just attract trouble everywhere you go.”

  “Whatever.” Jessica looked away.

  “So, Zayde … how are you doing otherwise? You know, with the whole family situation?” Wade asked, approaching the subject cautiously.

  “About as good as you’d think,” Zayde replied nonchalantly. “I mean, aside from all of the abuse from that bitch of a stepmom, I think I came out on top. I’m about to move out of the apartment complex. Some of the cash flow from the music is starting to hit the bank.”

  “My man!” Wade held out his fist. “Finally stuck to something long enough to make a living off it? Can’t call you a quitter anymore!”

  Sharing a chuckle, the musician and his friend bumped knuckles. However, the laugh that Zayde shared with
his friend was merely a front. The word “quitter” struck Zayde like a jolt of electricity. He did not want to think of all the failed endeavors he simply walked away from just because it didn’t pan out on the first attempt.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Zayde,” Jessica said quietly, barely audible over the general murmur of people and the musicians getting their gear ready to be played. “It’s nice to see someone from our ‘group’ making it big.”

  There was something hiding behind Jessica’s eyes. She was indirectly poking around in Zayde’s business. Narrowing his eyes, Zayde leaned back slightly.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours, Jess?” the musician inquired.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. You’re not saying what you really mean.”

  “What are you going about, Zayde?” Wade raised an eyebrow, looking between his girlfriend and his friend.

  “Damn you, Zayde.” Jessica sighed. “I can’t get anything past you.”

  “Let me guess … you’re wondering about how my music is bringing in enough money to be able to move out. Am I right?” He hesitated momentarily, plucking out the statement from thin air. “Nothing to worry about, my income can be filed with the tax man without trouble.”

  Jessica had the “deer in the headlights” stare.

  Nailed it. Zayde nodded to himself.

  “H-how?” Jessica withdrew. “What are you, some kind of psychic?”

  Zayde couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Call it a supernatural intuition.” Zayde pointed his two index fingers inwards toward his temples.

  “C’mon, Jess! I told you that Zayde is one weird sonavabitch!” Wade laughed. “Although, you weren’t always like this, Zayde. I remember there was a time where I could have sworn you were like the rest of us.”

  “You do? Well, don’t remind me.”

  Although what the two were saying brought about a small annoyance over Zayde, he knew that their observations of his transformation over the past couple of months weren’t completely unfounded.