(1) Grievances
Author’s Note: First chapter! Really excited to see where this goes.
A black Toyota Prius ended its climb up the mountain at a graveyard. The sight of the lost souls were enough to rustle them up restlessly. A chubby man in a rich black suit stepped out of the passenger seat, secretly wishing they hadn’t visited in the middle of the night, when all the ghosts must have been lurking. He knew it was stupid to be scared of ghosts at this age and time, even after all he had done and experienced in life. But something irked him to the tenth degree.
Why would a monster like him want to come here?
That’s right! He thought. There was really no need to be scared. After all, he had just survived a 40-minute trip with the freakiest man he’d ever met. When it came to his line of business, William Rothschild had met his fair share of ‘freaks’, people who were rich only due to their craziness and unhinged morality.
But when he met Rufus all those years ago, something different travelled down his spine. It wasn’t the fearful chill he had usually experienced at these expensive affairs.
It was the feeling of his lifespan draining away from his soul.
A good friend of his in the oil sector had popped up behind him and introduced each other, trying to get the two together on Rufus’ request. William was anything but curious when it came to such crazy people, but this mid-twenties man wasn’t even rich! How could someone, without even the slightest hint of wealth, have such a strong, unwavering presence?
He might have been young, but he looked like the type of person who had already experienced the troubles of life. Baggy eyes that only a trained eye could detect, the muscles on his arms that signified not physical strength but emotional restraint.
Was he stealing other people’s lifespans?
William decided then and there itself to get onto his good side. The two had since then formed a strong bond, if only for business purposes. He should have been leagues higher than the young man, but his very presence was enough to result in a partnership rather than an outright master-slave relationship.
Was it really a partnership though? Or were the tables turned on him? After all, he was compelled to follow and obey very little request Rufus made, like coming all this way to a quaint little graveyard in the middle of the night.
He wouldn’t pretend like Rufus wasn’t a big help to his business, though. Ever since they had begun working together, his business had doubled in value, and any threats to his work had been erased by this man, though how he did it was unknown. He knew better than to question it.
The source of his concern finally stepped out of the vehicle. A man of moderate height, about five foot ten, donning a leather jacket and orange scarf, though colour doesn’t really matter when your only source of light is a couple of fireflies hovering over a grave.
Rufus looked at the fireflies with a childlike curiosity. Walking over to the grave the fireflies surrounded, he squatted in front and read out the name quietly to himself, and smiled. William watched his smile closely. The smile was not necessarily a happy smile, but instead one of regret and melancholy.
“Mister Rothschild,” he called out, the slight smile still intact. “If you’re not comfortable you can leave. I’ll take a few minutes, so you can go further up to that charity event that’s starting in…”
Rufus looked up at the moon and then at William again.
“…an hour or so.”
William was never excited to visit any charity event, but the Ferox Montarro Gala just so happened to contain a large number of bigwigs within, and the opportunity to network was enough to convince him to give it a shot.
When Rufus heard about this, he invited himself into the vehicle and asked his chauffeur to drop him off at the graveyard. Considering it was in the way to the gala anyway, William didn’t object.
Not like he had the courage to object to Rufus anyway.
“I-I’ll be heading off now. Goodbye.”
The vehicle soon left, and Rufus was left alone with the humming fireflies. He reached out to the grave and patted it, before standing up again and readjusting his jacket.
“I don’t feel sorry for what I did. I considered you my friend. Well, I still do.”
The smile on his face disappeared; he was now serious.
“You were the only one that understood me,” he sat down on the grass, which was slightly damp from the rain the previous night.
“That’s why I killed you first. So you wouldn’t have to live with watching the others die. It really wasn’t your fault.” He paused for a moment to regain his composure, and his smile.
“And look! You’re still attracting the fireflies! Weird how the world works, even after a decade you’re still… alive.” He tilted his head to the side, reading out what was inscribed onto the stone.
“Kai Brown, the Living Supernova. Ironic name, considering your, uh, current condition. Maybe I should save ‘current condition’ for Voltwire.” He giggled.
Getting off the wet grass, he stepped back a few inches and stretched his arms.
“Hngh! Gosh, I’m tired. These years have been super depressing. I have too many messes to clean up. Or I guess, one very large mess. Charlie’s been jumping around quite a bit recently. But I think I’ve got a good idea now.”
He stretched out his right arm, all fingers pointing forward.
“Hope you’re okay with helping me one last time.”
A whooshing sound emanated from his fingers. Wind swished around like crazy, engulfing everything in the graveyard. A black sphere the size of a football spawned on top of the grave, and promptly consumed the Living Supernova’s grave. As the sphere got larger, more graves and loose grass were sucked in, at which point it was evident that this was a miniature black hole. The sky was not responsive to the events taking place below in any way, shape or form.
Rufus didn’t move an inch, and was rather relaxed through the whole ordeal. Still keeping that bittersweet smile throughout the disaster, his hair and clothes were swishing around furiously. Eventually the entire graveyard was destroyed, and he put his hand down.
Sitting back on the ground, which now only had dirt and nothing more, he threw his hands in the air and pushed himself back, his arms and legs now outstretched on the ground. He stared at the stars lightly.
About four hours later, the Prius had arrived at the scene. William Rothschild wasn’t even sure if they had reached the right place, and asked his chauffeur to check. Stepping out of the vehicle, the chauffeur walked over to the body lying on the ground and bent down.
“Sir, are you alright?”
The chauffeur showed no signs of fear. That seemed to be reserved for William.
Rufus got up slowly and dusted his jacket, removing whatever loose dirt had settled onto his clothes. He walked up to the car and sat in the back seat.
“Mr. Rothschild,” he said, with a smile on his face, “sorry about the mess here.”
William just stared at him in disbelieving horror. “What the-”
Rufus interrupted. “I’m planning to launch an attack on the Warper Consortium today. Could I visit the closest warehouse you got? I’d like to get rid of the Dreamkiller as soon as possible.”
Feeding the black hole was necessary in his plans. While he knew his plans were rushed, he felt it had to be done quickly. He wanted to celebrate his sister’s birthday next week in peace.
Not like she’d be able to celebrate it, anyway.