Claire's phone dropped onto the carpeted floor of the living room. It fell with a soft 'thud' that aroused no one as the wounded friend had awoken moments prior.
His tired form silently opened his door, peaking at the figure of the one he wished to covet. A desire forsaken by himself.
Drawing his gaze, a low grumble shook his stomach. No less than two days would have passed since his last meal. Kage was hungry yet the sound alone did not provoke that gnawing feeling which tickled many. Not even a sapped diet could motivate him away from his goal.
While Claire stood shocked as the gruesome beating took place within the confines of her phone's screen, Kage marched on, creeping from behind her, making his way to the ladder entrance of the basement. There were some items to collect before he could be on his way.
When he applied his foot to the ladder's rung, he didn't so much as swing a step lower to realize he was befitting a terrible lack of strength. A puzzling reality that produced his untimely drop from the ladder onto the hard surface of concrete below. Luckily, the fall wasn't as steep as he presumed, allowing him to simply wave off the injury.
In Arthur's haste to find the Madame, he left the basement unlocked, a mistake which left Kage to smirk as he pushed open the commonly tightened door. Beyond, where there usually stood a surgeon's platform as well as several instruments to conduct medical aid, was an empty room with nothing but a solitary cabinet accompanied by several pairs of blinking eyes. Pairs that presumed their fear as they watched the boy stride over to the cabinet.
They were those Kage kidnapped and forced to spew their answers one by one. A process that eventually granted him the knowledge to now know where Daniel was being held. These souls provided him with great use despite some being disposable.
Their gazes watched as their captor, a man they presumed to be well-experienced in the dealings of death then subjugation, walked into the dim light from a single bulb hung high in the air from a strand of copper wire. The man at the center of their woes was none at all but rather a boy no older than the unluckiest of children in the cage. Shocked by this revelation, none of them could perceive Kage stealing the sharp utensils stolen from the drawer of a cabinet that they had desperately attempted to reach during the past month of captivity.
Kage took every form of weaponry from the drawer. Countless surgical scalpels filled his four pockets as well as military styled daggers. Holdovers from the time Arthur fought in wars. The sentimental value did not matter to the boy as he coveted their fear inducing forms. They all served the same purpose, to kill. A matter that he needed to be prepared for. He would not make the same mistake as the last time he encountered the lurking idea.
Its grimace shuddered his core as he approached in the past, but now as he turned the gaze back at those who were captured, a resolute voice spoke. "I'm going to kill all of you now." A voice stolen by cold wrought painful memories of the torture these kidnapped fellows endured, some even broken in the process.
Kage whispered a sullen prayer that could not be heard by their voices as he came near. Their mouths bound by rope tightly fastened as assured by Arthur.
'Arthur.'
An insurmountable debt maintained the balance between them. But, even after his attempt to assuage that compensation, the man did something foolish again in saving his life. Throughout the period in which they thought him asleep, Kage heard their words. He understood the anxiety that determined their decisions.
Then, now the only answer Kage had to at least ease that burden from his savior was to do the unthinkable. Long they debated over the means to dispose of the twelve they kept in the basement.
Arthur thought they wouldn't squeal because of their families, their friends, potential for harm. A lacking resolution to a coward's sample of decency. Yet, Kage knew better.
The lot were sows awaiting the second to whine at whoever may listen.
'Vermin.'
Kage stooped low over a woman's face. The wound still had not healed from when he bashed her forehead against a door's knob. Of course, a happenstance of when he stole her from the comfort of an ill-father's abode. His decision was final as he held the boot knife to her throat. A squeal flung from between the rope and her lips.
'Just as I thought. Vermin.'
The blade touched her throat, readied for a horizontal slash that would end her life, yet by way of a sole tear was a person reflected in its reflection. Then, the same womanly silhouette draped over the back of his body, forcing his hands away from the vermin. Claire's immense strength as a high-tiered Evolved trumpeted Kage's, wrenching him onto his bottom as she clung to him.
In her embrace he precisely took aim at her jugular with his elbow. His instincts predicated reason as he looked to silence this intruder.
"Kage, don't do it."
'Her voice.'
The voice of her stopped the action. No, it stopped everything in his body. There was no longer that built resolve to end the woman's life nor for any of the others.
"You don't have to do this anymore."
'NO! There's still so much left to do. I have to protect all of you... I have to save you.'
His hand took hold of the blade once more, gripping its handle to a point where the metal snapped under the pressure exhibited.
"Talk to me, please." Her voice shook in its attempt to sound persuasive.
Kage would not, he could not. For if he did then - Claire's touch stood firm around the gloved hand that bent the handle. It was from a warmth long since felt. Yet, his eyes still burned fiercely as they gazed into the endless tears flowing from the sockets of the disgusting grime beneath his discretion.
Finally, Kage's resolve burned out. "They need to die. They all need to die, the fucking vermin must."
"They're just people, Kage."
He bared his molars in a nasty swirl that sucked away the loose saliva from his gums. "No, no, no! They are the reason for all of this! They kill, they maim, they rot the world with their sickness!"
"They're all just people."
"They took children. They fucking let their masters do as they please to them feigning ignorance so to save their minds! Deluded to strip their dignity whole." Venomous spit flung across the room and onto the wiggling worms ahead.
Claire/Sophie did not allow him to move forward in his swipe to rid the woman of her eye. All the attack met was the dusted air which swirled about in his hate. "Don't become like them, Kage. There's always a reason for what someone has done, the same for you." Claire/Sophie/Other Mother/Mother let go of Kage. He promptly evacuated from her touch, away into a dark corner of the room to analyze his situation, one in which he could do no such thing as the voice persisted.
The mouths of each of the gagged men and women came undone as their faces changed to resemble one with glaring spectacles, another with undone mousy hair, preceded by the wild flowing mane of a red-haired mongrel. They all jeered at him speaking the same words yet jumbled about in wayward fashion to puzzle the world.
"Look at us/me/you! We are corpses awaiting your touch, O' Reaper of Doom! O' Reaper of Doom strangle/fuck/slice us/yourself/me then continue your bruteness. O' Reaper of Doom, fallen of children, slay your enemies, slay your heart, slay your soul." Maggots wrenched from their gaping mouths. The very burning rot of flesh malformed their cheerful mugs that urged him to seek further with his blade.
Peeling scraps from the walls came undone seeping with it a purple fluid that flooded the floor. In seconds did it reach his ankles surrounding him with a cool fluid that began to swirl. The swirls soon formed faces that he keenly recognized. They were those he had not saved.
The families which were torn apart because he was too slow. He was a coward unable to take that damn blade which flew again and again stealing lives before his very vision. Leaking words may conjoin to an apology, but it was one that the dead would never hear nor be willing to forgive. Kage was the reason for their misfortune but now he had a choice.
For some reason, the boy found that a gun now lay in the grasp of the hand which once held a knife. Glancing in a single bout he was again in the gang leader's room. The scent of semen blanketed its endeavors.
The filching retch sat in his sight. Its cocksure grin expressed to him how invincible the bastard believed himself to be. No man nor thing could dethrone him, but that was an ill conclusion as-
'BANG!'
That's right. A solitary shot sprang across the four walls, ceiling, and floor conveying an end to the parasite's existence. Never more shall someone be witness to the horrors inflicted by that disgusting waste of God's grace. A similar credence must occur here as well. These twelve he had kidnapped were the very same. Parasites living off the backs of those who worked hard, giving something back to society so that they may live peacefully.
For a fourth time, Kage raised the gun pointing it into the head of William. His varnished rows of shark-like teeth seemed to wink with the idea of death looming ever closer. Surely a choice he would rejoice with unlike the one Kage bestowed at their passing.
Thus he clenched a finger around the trigger but was stopped by the exasperated voice of another. "Do what you think is right." Kage swiveled his head to the origin, seeing Claire's face. The only face unblemished by the ruination around him. She spoke in a tone frazzled with nerves but an inner calm ladened each word, "Kage, whether you stop now, continue, or do worse, I won't stop you. I have no right. No matter what you become, I will be there beside you." She closed her eyes contemplating the oath she would give.
"I've chosen to follow you. Even if you grow to hate me, I will follow and stay there. So, choose, Kage. Then we'll go save Daniel."
Kage stared at her for a while. For once no thought or plan ran through his head. It was empty as he digested what had been told to him.
In turn, his harshly cold gaze fell on the one he was close to finishing. William's drooling look of gleeful need vanished, the maggots as well as the decayed flesh disappeared with the wind. In their once bedridden presence now left only a woman, composed of a mess with snot and tears caking her face.
The blade was pocketed as he quickly strode across the sterilized linoleum, fleeing to the room above the basement. Claire followed directly after, shutting the door tightly behind her as she was hot on Kage's heels. However, on her way out she denied the voice which spoke thanking her. A sentiment expressed by the many others bound to a dark fate delayed by her efforts.
All that she mustered was a subtle nod. One which forced her face away from their awful figures for if they were to see it then no such apology may have been thrusted forth. Claire bit her lip letting a dribble of blood ooze out. She too found the creatures disgusting and worthy of a cold death. However, Kage should not be the one to be tarnished by such nuisances.