Chapter 8: 2.4 New Semester, New Me

It was faint, but I was sure I was hearing footsteps. I turned the corner to the right. The sounds continued, louder. Someone was following me.

Could this be my much-anticipated attacker? I veered left, into a dark alley to embolden this asshat.

Again, just presenting an opportunity.

I pretended to fumble with my phone before switching on its flashlight. I turned around and shone the light on… a normal-looking guy.

He wore a dress shirt and slacks. No visible tattoos. A clean haircut and a bland-looking face. Could pass off as one of the thousands of corporate slaves working downtown. He was very much out of place here. So, why was he here?

“Who are you?” I demanded, adding a crack at the end of my voice stifled by my mask. “What do you want?”

“Nothing, miss.” Corpo Slave raised his hands. “I saw you talking to Teflon and the others. Are you friends with them? I’m their friend too. You can call me Dillon.”

“No… I’m not,” I warily replied. Teflon was Tattoo Sleeves, right? I had a hard time remembering nicknames that I didn’t give. “I don’t know any of them. We just chatted about random stuff, and I left. Nothing to it.”

“Is that so?” Corpo Slave walked closer to me, a creepy smirk on his face. “Maybe we can be friends then?”

Yes! He was going to commit a crime. No normal person with innocent intentions would use that line in this setting. Ever.

“I-I have e-enough friends.” I retreated until my back was pressed against a wall—a dead end. Perfect place to be a crime scene.

“What about one more?” His creepiness was off the charts. The light from my phone made him look threatening. In a movie, it was the normal-looking guy who’d end up the villain. “Let’s get to know each other here.”

Another cliché line. Someone should rewrite this script. But I’d make do with this.

“Dillon! What’re you doing there?”

One, who the fuck was interrupting this scene? Two, this guy’s name was really Dillon? It sounded so fake. They should erase that name from history.

I was surprised to see Beanie Twig enter the alley.

“Teflon was right that I should tail you.” Beanie Twig looked at me, then at Corpo Slave. “Yo, man. I know what you’re thinking about this girl here. You’re wrong. Imma tell it to you straight—she doesn’t have any part in this shit. In the shit between us. Our shit.”

“Trying to cover for your friend, are you?” Corpo Slave said, chuckling darkly. “I’m of the mind that she can partly cover your debts.”

Beanie Twig raised his hands to show that he was unarmed as he slowly walked closer. “It’s not like that at all, man. We were just talking to her. First time we’ve met her. As for what we owe you, we’ll pay you next week for—”

“You told me that last week!” Corpo Slave erupted. “Where’s your payment now, you brokeass, good-for-nothing liar? Still no money?” He pulled out a gun he had tucked behind him. “If you can’t pay, then fuck off. I’m going to have fun with Miss Red Hood here.”

“Don’t do this, man.” Beanie Twig reached for Corpo Slave’s arm. “Leave her alone. She got cancer and shit. Let’s talk this out and—”

“Cancer? How the fuck did you know something like that? Then she’s really your friend!”

I have no idea what’s going on. Where was the script? I stumbled into a different movie.

Beanie Twig made a grab for the gun. “I keep telling you that—woah!”

Corpo Slave pulled away from Beanie Twig and aimed his gun at him. “Fucking hands off, Fender, my man.” Beanie Twig took a couple of steps back. Corpo Slave waved his gun, pointing to the street behind Beanie Twig. “Go on. Leave us. You don’t want to get hurt, do you?”

“Wha-what are you going to do with her?” Beanie Twig asked.

“I’ll have a bit of fun with our lady friend here. Maybe she’ll make me forget about your debt… for a couple of days. And then, I’ll go looking for you and your friends again.”

“Yo-you can’t do that!”

Should I say something here? It sucked that I didn’t have any lines. I was supposed to be a scared girl, so I should shut up. There was a gun too. Annoying, but I had to stick to my role.

“I can and I will,” said Corpo Slave. “Stay and watch if you want, Fender. I’m not going to judge you. But don’t dare try to cock block me. You can have her after I’m done.”

Beanie Twig glanced at me with a conflicted expression. Guess he wasn’t hero material. This was my chance to get the camera’s focus back on me.

“Fender!” I cried out. It sounded more desperate with a mask on. “Help me!” I couldn’t resist messing with them. Calling his name gave him a bit more bravado, so he stepped forward. But he instantly balked when Corpo Slave pointed his gun at him. I turned to Corpo Slave. “I…I’m going to…the police will arrest you!”

“No police here, Miss Red Hood,” Corpo Slave said with a sneer. “They’ve given up on this place. Those who have weapons are the law. And would you look at that, I have a gun. Now, take off your clothes.”

I crouched down and hugged my body, acting like I was paralyzed by fear. “Please…no…” I couldn’t do a proper sob because I was too excited to try something out. And no, I wasn’t going to kick his balls, though that did enter my mind. Scrambled eggs… hehehe—Don't laugh!

“Why do I have to do everything myself?” Corpo Slave approached me, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

Yes! This was the opportunity I was waiting for. Time to test out sweeping legs and putting enemies off-balance. Crouching down made sweeping easier; I wasn’t sure I could execute a proper standing leg sweep without any practice.

Corpo Slave grabbed my hair. “Listen here, you—”

Shampoo that claims to strengthen my hair, prove yourself. I extended my right leg, aiming for Corpo Slave’s right foot, kicking out as fast and with as much power as I could. I hooked his front leg and swept his back leg too.

“The fuck? Ahhh!”

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I felt a slight tug on my scalp. Corpo Slave let go of my hair as he did a half pinwheel. His feet went up in the air, his head down, his arms flailing. Looked like a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. His head smashed against the ground, stopping his rotation. A nasty crunch followed as the rest of his body crumpled in a heap.

Beanie Twig and I stared at the unmoving body.

I didn’t mean to do that. Too much power. An odd sense of déjà vu patted me.

“Hey, man?” Beanie Twig shone his phone’s light on Corpo Slave.

There was a huge gash on Corpo Slave’s forehead. His neck was bent into an L-shape. A dark pool of what I guessed to be blood was slowly spreading. I did way more than just putting him off-balance.

“I-I’m so… I’m sorry,” I cried out, coupled with the standard hands-covering-the-mouth-in-abject-horror move. Normal humans were squishy bags of flesh. Easy to pop like zits. I barely had zits.

“Is he… dead? Holy shit!” Beanie Twig grabbed his head and looked around.

Duh. Time to fake cry.

This was actually pretty hard for me to do. I couldn’t just focus on a sad memory and internalize the feeling like an actor crying for a movie scene. I didn’t feel sad in the normal sense. I didn’t care enough for anything to be worth crying over. The last time I cried for real was probably when I was a kid.

I forced myself to yawn but kept my mouth shut, making my eyes water. This initial step needed a lot of practice to pull off. Then I pressed my tongue against the roof of my mouth and tightened my throat, just like when someone was crying. I piled on all the other physical stuff, like faster breathing, quivering lips, a keening sound. My brain started thinking I was crying, so I should be crying.

Tears rolled down my face as I kept repeating, “I’m so sorry…”

Beanie Twig snapped out of his shock and rushed to Corpo Slave’s side. “This is bad, man. Really fucking bad. We’re toast if he’s dead.”

“He… he was going to attack me!” I scampered to the back wall, pressing myself against it while hugging myself.

While my face was on autopilot, I wondered how I overestimated my force by a mile. It reminded me of picking up a bottle of water, thinking it was full but was actually empty, ending up with nearly throwing it because of using way too much strength. Mental note: practice controlling my super strength to not give myself away.

“Dillon? You alright?” Beanie Twig shook Corpo Slave as if trying to wake him up. Corpo Slave’s head swung back and forth on the broken neck. “Shit, shit, shit! What do I do?”

Crunchy human, I thought. The sound of Corpo Slave’s body breaking replayed in my head like an ad for a fast-food chain exaggerating the crispiness of the skin of their fried chicken. Humans were supposed to taste like chicken. Adumbrae ate humans. Fortunately, I had no urge to do it because I didn’t care what humans tasted like.

Beanie Twig arranged the broken corpse into a better position, pulling Corpo Slave’s legs out and straightening them. “What the hell…?” Beanie Twig whispered. He shot me a look of fear.

Before I could say anything, he dove for Corpo Slave’s gun and pointed it at me.

I yelped. Pretty good yelp, I might add. “Don’t shoot me! It was an accident!”

“Ho-how are you so strong?”

“What? I just ki-kicked him. Please… don’t kill me. I don’t want to be here.”

“Dillon’s legs,” he said. “They’re broken. No way you’re that strong. You shouldn’t be.”

“He was leaning forward and—”

“Smashed! His bones are fucking smashed are smashed. It’s like a sledgehammer hit his legs. You’re one of them Adumbrae attacking the city! I knew you were suspicious as fuck!”

“I was just walking home,” I said, raising my hands as I stood up. At this point, this guy wasn’t going to listen to what I was saying.

Holding the gun with both hands, Beanie Twig pointed it at my leg. “Don’t move. I’ll shoot you.” He was speaking rapidly, his breathing becoming agitated. “Just your leg, okay? The leg. If you regenerate, that means you’re an Adumbrae. Then I’m going to blow your head off.”

“I’m not an Adumbrae! You’re crazy!” I was doing so well with the yelling. Shrieking, even. Good job, me. And such an asshole wanting to shoot my leg. He’d ruin my pants! I couldn’t ride the subway with bloodied pants. I already had a hard time sneaking into the station.

“If you do-don’t heal, I’ll call an ambulance!” His hands trembled. “Tha-that’s right. This is the right thing to do,” he said, more to convince himself. “Just let me shoot you.”

What’s wrong with this guy? I had no intentions of killing him. I kind of liked him and his friends. Too bad that fate had a way of fucking things up. Mostly, for him. I better wrap this up before the rest of his gang appeared and would get caught up in this mess.

I raised both my hands as a sign of surrender. “You got me,” I said.

“Huh?”

“I said you got me.” I shrugged. “I’m an Adumbrae.”

His brows furrowed, still not quite understanding what was going on. “You really are?” His confusion turned into panic. “Fucking hell!” He aimed for my head. “Die, you Adum—!”

I stepped forward and cupped the end of the gun barrel with both hands. Beanie Twig pulled the trigger. A crack echoed. Stinging on my palms. That was the signal I could bother him. I slapped the gun away before he could shoot again.

Bones cracked. I clenched my jaws, frustrated. His hands and fingers were messed up. The gun flew away. Fuck, too much strength again.

Beanie Twig was about to yell, but I grabbed his mouth and clamped it tight. Just enough strength to hold it in place. His eyes were full of fear. He cried with real tears. “Don’t kill me…” came his muffled voice as he spoke into my hand. I could feel his lips move. Gross.

Not sure if this guy did some criminal things, but he was nice to me. He even protected me.

Unfortunately, he saw me kill someone. And knew that I was an Adumbrae. Unfortunatelier, if that was a word, he shot me. I had the license to bother him back.

Lex talionis, the law of retaliation—an ancient legal principle. It was the ‘eye for an eye’ thing of the Code of Hammurabi.

That wasn’t my thing.

Rule #4 didn’t have a threshold for the counter-bother. No requirement to be commensurate. An eye for a life didn’t violate Rule #4. I just didn’t have the opportunity before to do it before. Like, how would I even kill someone? And what would I do after?

Things were different now. I had to kill Beanie Twig because he knew that I was an Adumbrae. Could I invoke self-defense here instead of Rule #4?

I decided to grant Beanie Twig a swift death for being nice to me. I grabbed his head with both hands and twisted his neck in one move. I released him. He fell to the ground.

“Wow, that worked?” I giggled while looking at my hands. “I’m like a frigging ninja.”

I gazed down at Beanie Twig as I placed a hand on my chest. A sense of heaviness weighed my heart. Was this regret? Such an alien feeling. If only this guy hadn’t shown up.

Anyway, that was enough killing for tonight.

Next was chores—I had some cleaning up to do.

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“And there we go,” I pushed the two bodies tied to a manhole cover over the bridge. They all fell into the dark waters below.

I had researched for a dumping spot before coming here. This was a deep river bordering about two-thirds of Marsh Row. Not difficult to find a good place to hide the bodies. I just needed something to weigh them down. Bad luck to whoever would fall into the uncovered manhole.

I savored the cool night air. I had lowered my mask and breathed deep. This place stinks.

I looked left. A small fire flickered in the distance, partly obscured by squat buildings. That was the bloody clothes that I burned. I probably should’ve bleached them or something to get rid of the blood before burning them. Too bad I only recalled now the stuff from the true crime documentaries I had watched with Mom.

“Three kills in one day,” I muttered.

That should be enough fun for now. I wasn’t some serial killer thirsting for blood. I shouldn’t be reckless—that was what got most criminals caught. Focus on my normal life. Remember that change sucked. If I get exposed, my life was going to change big time. I might have to run to Marsh Row to hide someday. A freaking dump, this place was.

“Back to law student Erind tomorrow. Behave.”