Being Human – Part Four
David’s heart hammered in his chest as he scurried down the empty pedestrian walk towards his home. He hadn’t encountered another person for almost ten minutes and a palpable tension hung heavy in the air. It was eerily quiet.
He lived long enough in the slums to know what this meant. There were strangers in the neighborhood, gangers or police. He desperately hoped for the former.
When he’d arrived for his shift, his supervisor Miller had taken him aside. “You silly bastard, Dav’, what have you done this time? Police called. I covered for you, but they are coming in. You shouldn’t come here anymore. Me and the boys, we haven’t seen you. “
Miller had constrainedly rubbed his mouth with one of his huge paw. “Friend to a friend, you heard from her?” David hadn’t answered.
He hadn’t gone back to his apartment, instead spending a rough night under a bridge. There, alone and hungry he had realized how little he cared about his own safety. Without his wife, he was a hollow shell. All his dreams, all his plans for the future had included her. Without her, that future was irretrievably gone too. At the very least, he wanted to retrieve the little brass clock. He owed Emilia that much.
Interrupting his ruminations, David paused inside a dark alleyway, gazing towards the towering silhouette of the apartment complex. Everything seemed normal, but he couldn’t shake off the gnawing sense of being watched.
He clung to the shadows, as he carefully advancing towards the backside of the building, using the high piles of garbage that littered the street as cover. Far away, sirens wailed through the twilight.
Almost all windows looking out to the street were barred with thick wooden planks, thus making entry impossible and David had to climb a narrow fireladder that creaked threateningly as he ascended its rusty steps. At one point he was almost sure that he heard hushed voices and the crackling static of a radio behind the windows but he quickly disregarded the thought.
He found an open window on the third floor and quietly slipped into the darkness within. The place smelled of mildew, urine and despair. He carefully groped his way around a few wretched pieces of furniture, trying to avoid the many cobwebs that hung like gauze veils from the soggy ceiling.
Like the streets outside, the corridor was deserted, and the complete absence of human voices was highly disquieting. Once again, the door to their apartment stood wide open. Barely daring to breathe, David sneaked in. There was no sound except for the rhytmic ticking of the little clock.
Everything was exactly as he had left it. He gently blew the dust from the clock and had to supress a cough as it billowed. He quickly grabbed it and hurried towards the door, ignoring the urge to linger. He almost sprinted towards the exit, kicking the door open when he reached it. He almost crashed into the bulky shadow that suddenly appeared in front of him.
It took him only the fracture of a second to realize that the shadow was wearing heavy black armor. David knew instantly, he could not afford to make the slightest mistake. “Whoa! You scared the shit out of me officer!” He slurred, flashed a toothy grin at the policeman while faking his best drunken stagger.
“Didn’t mean to frighten you buddy.” ,the officer laughed, munching on the pastry he had clutched in a greasy napkin. “Say, do you have a light?”
“Nah, don’t have money to smoke. The booze is too fucking expensive!”
“I must be jinxed!”the officer exclaimed, taking another bite. “There is just no one else here i could ask! The whole fucking street is empty. Creepy, right?”
“You’re dead right, officer!” David grinned.
A horn blared. Twenty metres away, another officer stood in the open door of a patrol car. “Allright, allright, i’m coming” the officer shouted. “Nah, i told you no one here’s got a fucking lighter.”
“Well, i gotta take a whiz officer. You have a good day, you hear?”
“Yeh, you too.” The officer whiped his mouth and turned. “Say, do i know you from somewhere, citizen?”
“Don’t think so officer. Gotta go.”
“Hey, don’ take off, what’s your hurry.”
“Don’t feel so well, officer.”
“Take it easy, man. Come back here for a moment. I want to make sure you’re allright.” David kept walking.
“What’s the matter citizen? You scared of something?”
“No. Just leave me alone.”
“I need to see your ID.”
David startet to run.
“I want your ID now! That’s an order! Stop right now!”
David didn’t stop. He sprintet down the street, crashing into a trash barrel, sending garbage flying high into the air. He heard the engine of the patrol car start with a low grumble.
“Stop right now or i shoot! Stand down or i shoot! That is your last warning!”
David Wells kept running without looking back, clutching the brass clock to his chest like a talisman, never noticing the figures that stepped from the shadows a few metres in front of him.
Three shots echoed through the night in quick succession.
Once again, silence descended upon the neighbourhood.
3 years later
A golden dais hovered above the dancing crowd, held in the air by glowing blue antigrav units. On it stood a young woman, surrounded by a magnificent string quartett in flowing red robes, so good that despite her enhanced hearing Emilia was unable to make out a single imperfection in their play.
Emilia barely paid attention to them, for all she cared about was the woman and her extraordinary voice. She was singing old, sentimental ballads and it was impossible not to appreciate the emotion she put into them, impossible to fight the feeling that in her voice, the trite and corny words were ringing true for the very first time.
Snatches of her husky voice carried through every corner of the grand hall, cutting through the ambient sounds, and Emilia felt her eyes drifting towards her swaying form every time the crowd parted enough to afford her a view.
And the view was spectacular. The singer was tall and lithe, with shoulder length hair of a coppery shade of blond Emilia had never seen before, framing a face which nearly stopped her artificial heart when she saw it.
Her eyes were the sharp blue of a clear sky, transfixing Emilia whenever she looked in her direction. Her thin, almost translucent dress had the exact same color, clinging to her figure like mist.
She was the most beautiful thing Emilia had ever seen and she instantly decided that she had to kill her. She was captivated by this godess. She wanted to posess her, to hear her cry out in that delicious accented voice as she made her experienced hitherto unknown levels of agony and pleasure.
Unfortunately she wouldn’t have the time to explore the complex death this beauty deserved. She wasn’t here to enjoy the masquerade ball. She was here for him. The man in the jester costume, sitting on a balcony on the far side of the hall.
She looked down at her once so delicate arms, now scarred and covered in black runes and symbols, each marking a different victim, a different kill. A few centimetres above her elbow she spotted the crown, the symbol commemorating one of her greatest exploits as of yet.
The death of Lord Governor Ismael Kreesh had changed the balance of power in the city profoundly, considering the fact that Byron was the most promising candidate for his succession. That was, until Kreesh’s illegitimate son had stepped onto the stage of politics. Claiming his fathers vacant throne for himself, the man had quickly managed to gain the support of a majority of lords in an electoral campaign of unparalleled momentum.
That son, the very jester sitting on the far balcony, was the only thing standing between Byron and absolute power and as always, it fell to her to do his dirty work. A tiny part of her felt regret. From what she’d heard, the jester was a honest man, a marked rarity these days. She shrugged off the thought. She knew that she should be glad. After all, if Byron forced her to kill, she didn’t have to burden her conscience with guilt. She was only a weapon, while he was the hand and the will wielding her.
Above her head, the floating dais hovered towards the balcony and the beautiful singer crossed the distance with a long step, grabbing the jester’s offered hand for support. Even from afar, she could see their familiarity, their affection for each other, reminding her of something in her past, something painful and long lost. Even though she couldn’t remember what it was, the memories pained her. Anger flared up in her and she instantly decided to kill the singer first. She would make the jester watch.
The galley was buzzing with activity. Legions of cooks and servants hurried through the hot, smoke filled corridors to cater for the assembled nobility It was immediately obvious that she wouldn’t be able to sneak through. Already a fat, red faced cook had spotted her, marching over to her, while yelling at the many menials around him.
Emilia had to improvise. Fortunately, her various encounters with human males had teached her one thing: Men are always ready to believe that a woman finds them attractive.
She smiled at the man, letting her outfit do the work for her. Her black rubber-skin clung had taken the form of a long, skintight dress, which parted in the front to reveal a cleavage that almost reached down to her navel. Part of it covered her head, creating a black, cat-like mask, fitting to the long rubber-tail that sprouted from her tailbone.
The man did not dissappoint her, his eyes immediately darting to her cleavage. “This area is for employees only...” the man began, his apparent fury already leaving his voice.
“But it’s so dull and boring down there. I feel lonely and all these nobles do is talk about money and politics. None of them is man enough to give me what i want.” She gave him her cutest pout, putting her hand over his. “What about you? Are you busy?”
His eyes lit up, his expression changing to one of pathetic desperation, his suspicion immediately ousted by faint hope. “Well, i shouldn’t but...but i don’t think anyone will notice if we leave for a few minutes.”
She closed the distance between them, whispering breathy in his ear. “We could go upstairs, to the gallery. I saw it from downstairs. As employee you surely have access to it .”
“Oh..well...i do actually.” He grinned at her proudly, producing a keykard from his pocket.”The entry is guarded, but i happen to know the soldiers at the door.”
She moaned into his ear with feigned excitement. “Then let us waste no time.”
Emilia pulled him into a dark corner, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him into a passionate kiss. He was stiff for a moment, unable to believe his luck, but soon melted into the kiss. He put his hands on her hips, roaming them across her body until his left found its way between her legs and she began to grind herself into the curve of his body.
Thes kissed for as long as she could bear it, before she dragged him to the floor, tearing at his clothes in a frenzy. The sensations of his stubby fingers between her legs was repulsive, but even that sensation was welcome to pierce through the dullness, and made her cry out with pleasure.
He broke the kiss, blood dripping from his lip where she hat bitten it, a look of surprise on his bloated features. She moaned loudly as he entered her, and soon they were coupling like animals on the bare stone floor, the inadequacy of his tiny member more than compensated by the material of her suit.
A single claw formed on the thumb of her right hand. The cook barely managed a look of confusion as she slashed it across his throat, spraying his blood in arcing jets. He trashed in his death throes, sticky red fluid covering her while she convulsed at the wash of sensations flooding her body.
He gurgled beneath her, his hands clawing at her in desperation. She remained impaled on him as his struggles increased for the last time, her pleasure heightened to an explosive climax. He came with her, as she died with him, both united in an inhuman crescendo of sensations.
She lay still for some moments, still joined with his lifeless, twitching form. When the sensations of the kill faded, guilt almost consumed her. Curling into a little ball, she wept like a child, cursing Byron for hooking her to the vilest of experiences. Even now, the sensations of the last death barely faded, she could barely await the next time she came face to face with death.
She knew she wouldn’t have to wait long, as already heavy boots were racing towards her. Apparently her screams had been a bit too loud. Not that it mattered. The jester’s balcony was barely fifty metres away.
An orange ball of enery stuck her shoulder, ripping through her suit and the flesh beneath. An armoured guard stood in the corridor, his wrist mounted weapon hissing with energy as he fired again, screaming into his radio. Emilia barely managed to spin away from the second shot, feeling its searing heat slash past her.
She jumped him with pehenomenal speed, her clawed hand smashing into his helmet, slashing it open from chin to temple. A spray of bright arterial blood splashed her face as another shot tore into her neck. She purred in delight, welcoming the searing pain as it shot through her body.
More guards were approaching, drawing swords, attempting to overwhelm her through sheer numbers. Emilia laughed at their foolishness, cloving through them with shimmering claws, slaying them as a man might crush insects.
Emilia forged her way through the corridor, killing guards by the dozen, her red hair whipping madly around her head like smoke as she fought. She could taste their blood, smell their fear and surprise. Never before had she felt such physical delight in combat, such a vivid sensation of the sheer brutality and virtuosity of it all.
The hatch that led to the governors balcony blew out with a hollow boom as it was knocked in by inhuman force, taking large bits of the superstructure with it. Smoke billowed like a bloom.
The gubernatorial guard fanned out, but a savage volley of gunfire cut them down in under a second. Never even flinching, the jester planted himself in front of the singer, who cowered weeping in a corner.
With a wide smile on her face, Emilia pranced through the smoke. She had hoped that he wouldn’t run. “Valiant of you to protect your wife, governor. Futile, but valiant.”
The jester stared at her coldly. “She is my half-sister.”
“I see. Not unusual in noble families i hear. It’s called genetic sexual attraction, yes?”
“Spare me your little fantasies! I am here because i am the only one she has left. All male family members were murdered. But i assume that you are very aware of this fact. Were you responsible?”
Emilia snorted. “Of course it was me, what do you think? Unfortunately, this conversation doesn’t really fit into my timetable, so let’s get down to business.”
“Oh, i don’t think that you’ll kill me.”
“Oh, and what exactly makes you think that? My scans show that you are unarmed.”
“I assume that you are Byrons litte toy. In that case, it’ll probably interest you that right now, his shuttle is trailed by two of my gunships. If you attempt to kill me, your master dies too. I fear that there will be no one left to pay you.”
“You’re bluffing.”
The jester simply removed his mask, tossing it carelessly aside to reveal a rough, yet handsome face. “Look into my eyes assassin. I am telling the truth.”
With a simple thought, Emilias mask melted into several strands of black goo that quickly dissolved into the collar of her suit. “Look into my eyes, governor. They are the last thing you will ever see.”
She immediately noticed that something was amiss. She had seen the last moments of hundreds of men, but the expression on the governors face wasn’t surprise, nor fear or anger. It was something else.
Recognition? Impossible. A quick scan of his face told her that they had never met before. Another detail caught her attention. Something small and shiny, dangling from his belt on a long chain.
A tiny brass clock.
She remembered that clock. She remembered a life, far away from all of this, a live without violence. But she didn’t live alone all these years, did she? Someone must have been there. Did Byron encrypt the information? Did he order her to forget?
It took her mere nanoseconds to reach a decision. The sucess of her mission was paramount. The encrypted information was important for her mission. Therefore the earlier commands to forget were overruled. When the memories returned, she almost collapsed.
“D..David?”
“Emi? God, what have they done to you?” A wild mixture of emotions danced across his features, ranging from fury to complete disbelief.
“You’re the governor’s son? How is this even possible?”
“My father was Lord Ismael Kreesh, yes, but my mother was only a simple housemaid who was in no place to resist his adulterous advances. When i was six, Lady Kreesh tried to have killed, but one of the guards helped me to escape the palace. And it is thanks to Byron and you that i am here. Byron is a monster, many lords fear him. They decided that an illegitimate son was the lesser of two evils.”
“But..”
“I believe it’s my turn to ask questions now. I dismissed all reports about a synthetic assassin as fairy tales and now that assassin turns out to be you. You of all people! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know! Honestly David, i didn’t know! Byron controls me. He order’s me to forget you and i do, just like that! I minute ago i didn’t even know you existed.”
David nodded slowly. “What do we do now?”
“The moment Byron is safe, i will kill you.”
“Just like that?”
“David, i love you! I love you more than my own life. But the only thing that stops me from killing you right now, is Byrons order to protect him from all harm.”
“Unfortunately time works against me and soon Byron will be out of my reach. Look.” He pointed at a large round window that revealed a magnificent view at the monstrous grey shapes of the city towers and the thousands of tiny lights that danced between them, each a shuttle the size of a small house, dwarfed by the massive skyscrapers.
A moment later, the entire skyline was lit in a bright flash of red light as as explosion tore through the polluted sky. Several seconds later, a massive shockwave shook the building, and finger-thick rifts appeared in the armoured glass.
“I fear Byrons shuttle just suffered a critical reactor overload.”
Emilia looked at him in pure shock. Somehow she knew that Byron was in fact dead, that his command wand had been destroyed. Now, with no reason left to delay her, her need to kill David returned with undeniable force.
“What have you done?! Are you out of your bloody mind David?! ARE YOU CRAZY?! She screamed in barely contained fury, and already the claws on her fingers were growing as her suit adapted to her palpable bloodlust.
David regarded her with a mixture of sorrow and regret on his face. “I am setting you free.”
Emilia fought to adhere to the last shreds of her humanity. She longed for the all consuming passion, closing her eyes as she tried to remember her last kill, but the fleeting memory eluded her. Almost weeping with frustration she tried to imagine the tearing of skin and the crack of bones, the pain that had given her a moment of pleasure until it had faded a few seconds later.
Each new sensation and passion made her crave more, a new high, a new level of experience, but everything was soon forgotten like a volatile dream and the memories did nothing to ease her craving. The extended claws began to cut the skin of her arms and legs, but each droplet of blood, every incision only held its vibrancy for a short time.
The certain knowledge that she wouldn’t be able to hold back for more than a few seconds drove her to new heights of self-loathing. It was all in vain. “Please forgive me, husband.”
With a wail of defeat she attacked.
A blazing white light tore across the balcony with the power of a caged sun, vaporising most of the carpet along with a generous section of the wall. The stink of ozone filled the air and something hit Emilias head with brute force. She realized that it was the floor.
She had a vague impression of someone standing above her, screaming, but it was hard to be sure. The flash had left a deep black afterimage on her retina and roaring white noise filled her ears.
She found that she couldn’t lift her head, but she soon discovered that she didn’t need to. The wall on her left was covered by a full-sized mirror that permitted her a clear view of the balcony.
David and his sister were kneeling on the ground, the singer fidgeting with a strange, steaming gun while screaming at David. To his feet lay the strangest creature Emilia had ever seen. Seemingly entirely made of metal, it had long spindly limbs and a face that looked like a bad caricature of a human being. Somehow, looking at the battered body of the broken, pathetic metal creature filled her with great sadness.
She saw that David was crying. His lips were moving and albeit she couldn’t hear him, she knew what he was saying. “I forgive you. Everything is going to be allright.”
She wished she could go over and comfort him, but her body felt heavy and her mind tired. It was rapidly getting dark and she decided that she would sleep first. Somehow she knew everything was going to be allright. A smile played about her lips as she closed her eyes.