Malefic Society

14. Starting a New Life

Ding Ding Ding...!

The tram's bell rang as it approached its next stop. After about a thirty-minute ride, the siblings finally reached their destination; The East End.

They'd noticed that as they went farther east, the atmosphere changed. People's clothes gradually changed from fancy to plain, and the street also got more and more crowded. The buildings became duller looking and older cars started filling the road.

The tram door opened and the siblings got off onto the empty platform. As they exit the tram stop, they were greeted by the sounds of children playing, car honking, and people yelling. It was a lively afternoon in that part of the city.

"You cheated! That was not a goal!" shouted a kid wearing a dirty loose shirt.

"It was a goal! Ask Matt!" another kid shouted back defensively.

There were children playing football using a plastic ball by the side of a smaller road, while women were seen hanging in groups in front of their houses, probably gossiping.

"It's no different here than back home," Catherine whispered.

Crane and Chris nodded in amusement, the former stroking the doll's head gently.

"How are we going to find a place to rent here? You don't plan on just walking around, do you?" asked Chris.

"Of course not. We can ask around, or we can trust Catherine's spiritual intuition." Crane said.

"What does finding a place to live have anything to do with my spiritual intuition?" 

"The last time we found valuables, it was thanks to your intuition, so there might have been something left behind for us to find again," he replied half-jokingly.

After walking for more than twenty minutes, the siblings found themselves in an even more crowded area, which looked to be a shopping street. The road was made of cobblestones and the buildings were painted grey, giving the area a nostalgic atmosphere.

There was a small butcher on their right with a strong, burly woman holding a cleaver, busy cutting meat into pieces. To their left, there was a tailor. From the glass wall, they could see someone taking the measurement of a young woman.

The siblings kept on walking and saw a store selling glasses, and right across it, there was a barbershop. 

"This is not what I thought this place would be," Catherine commented, "I thought the West End would be a quiet, criminal-invested den."

"To be honest, based on the description of those ladies from before, I thought so too. Maybe they just heard the rumors and have never been here themselves," Crane replied.

"Yes. This is not a poor area--modest, yes, but it's a homey place for sure," Chris added with looks of excitement in his eyes.

"Tell me, Cath, why are we walking this way again?" Crane looked at his sister, who was busy admiring the buildings with their old architectural styles.

"I was just following you. I thought you chose to come this way," she shook her head and looked at her brother weirdly.

"No, I was definitely following you..." 

"I am just following you two," Chris interjected from the back nonchalantly.

By the time they realized it, they were standing in front of a shop with the sign 'For Rent'  on its door. It was a two-story building, and the second floor appeared to be a living space. 

"Well, I guess we're lucky," Chris shrugged.

Crane looked around and seemed to be thinking about something, but he quickly brushed his thoughts aside for the time being.

"What do you think? Should we ask about this place?" Catherine looked at her brother.

"We're already here anyway. Might as well..." he replied and then walked over to a greengrocer across the street.

...

"Get the fuck away from me...!" there was a desperate voice of a man that was getting farther as he spoke. It appeared that the man was shouting while running.

Step Step Step!

In that dark, empty building, the footsteps of the running man echoed against the concrete walls. The only source of lighting came from the streetlight outside, penetrating through the broken glass windows.

Is that the serial killer that people say can phase through walls? How the fuck do I run away from a monster like that!

The man's mind was racing, and his body kept moving without stopping. Subconsciously, he was avoiding walls and stayed in the center of the dark hallway.

"Wind!"

He extended his right arm and a strong gust of wind rushed forward, pushing the wooden door in front of him ajar. The man quickly entered the room but didn't bother placing the door back, since, in his mind, his assailant could walk through solid objects.

There is a window ahead! I can get out from there.

"Wind!"

Another strong air wave came out of the man's hand, pushing the window away, along with its frame. The wooden frame fell down onto the road below, breaking its glass into pieces the moment it came in contact with the ground.

Crack! It made a sound that broke the silence of the night.

This is the fourth floor. I should still be able to land safely... Here goes!

The desperate ma leaped out of the gap where the window used to be. At once, gravity took its turn ad dragged the man below. Without hesitation, the man pointed both of his palms to the ground and shouted.

"Wind!"

Whoosh!

The man's landing was cushioned by the strong gust of wind coming from his palm, preventing him from breaking any bones. However, the impact still hurt him, so he limped away as quickly as he could from the spot.

"Won't you stop running? I'm getting tired too, you know," a calm, muffled voice came from the floor where the man jumped from.

Startled, he looked back and noticed a figure of a man dressed in a black suit. The figure was wearing a white stocking mask, making him appear faceless. With the moonlight shining upon him, the figure gave off an eerie feeling.

He shouldn't be able to jump down without breaking a bone or two. I need to get away from here quickly! 

The man forced his legs to run and ignored the pain. He created wind around his body, making it lighter and easier for him to run.

"Is that a rule that falling from here will break my bones? In that case, I'll just break the rule." the figure said mockingly. His muffled voice sounded hoarse, like a mechanical doll speaking.

After saying that, the figure jumped down without even hesitating. 

Thud!

The figure landed with his right knee bent and calmly stood up after that as if the fall didn't affect him at all.

What the fuck! It's not a rule, it's common sense you dimwit! How the fuck did he do that?

The man started running faster without even looking back. It was a small alley lit by street lights and there seemed to be no one around, but the big street ahead should still have people roaming around, so the man was betting his life on it.

"Do you think running that way will get you to safety? That is a dead end," the figure shouted coldly from the back.

What the heck is he talking about? It's the way out... isn't it?

Doubt started forming in the man's brain. He was scared and the situation was not under his control. A wrong move would cost him his life, so he could not afford to make mistakes.

Shit! Is it really a dead end? There should be a way to the street after that building. Please be there... please be there...

Whoosh!

The man ran as fast as he could with the help of the wind encircling him. His heart was beating faster and faster as numerous thoughts started filling his mind.

What if it's a dead end? What would I do?

!!

As he reached the building and looked to his right, the way that should have been there was gone! It was really a dead end!

What the fuck! What do I do now?! 

Sweat started forming on his forehead as he was racking his brain. He didn't know what his assailant could do, and due to the rumors spreading around, he knew that the serial killer was someone really powerful, so he didn't think he could win in a fight. That was why he chose to run, but now his escape path had been cut off.

The man still stayed away from walls, and now that he was cornered, he had no choice but to do anything to stay alive.

"Finally, we have some private time. Running is tiring, don't you think so?" came the figure's voice from the wall behind the man.

!!

The figure's head was coming out of the wall!

"Wind!"

The man threw gusts of wind from his palm. The attack that was effective against the wooden door and window seemed to be powerless to do anything against the person who was still walking calmly through the wall.

"First of all, my body is still within these walls, how do you think you're going to push me away with this breeze?" he said mockingly, "Second of all, I'm not doing this because I like it, so stop resisting and be my sacrifice," he said seriously this time.

"I'm not just going to let you kill me, fucker!"

The man's spiritual energy had almost been drained from creating the wind that he used for running, and his stamina was also gone from all the running. However, he didn't want to just die, so he thought hard about a way to escape his predicament.

The figure didn't seem to want to let his body out of the wall completely in defense against the man's wind attack, so the man couldn't really do anything.

"Do you know how I have killed my past victims?" 

Nobody is asking that! Why does he keep talking?! The man was still racking his brain to find a way out.

"I'll let you in on a secret. I can create a clone behind my target..." the figure said coldly.

Shit! Can he do that?! 

The man's heart began racing faster. He wanted to keep his eyes on the figure coming out of the wall, but he also needed to watch his back.

He decided to quickly look back for a split second to make sure that nothing was there.

!!

The man froze in fear.

The figure was standing there menacingly, in the shadow of the building his featureless face. However, the man was sure that the figure was somehow 'smiling'.

Stab!

Suddenly, he felt a cold sensation penetrating his body. It was a precise attack aimed at his heart, and there was no hesitation in it at all.

The assailant quickly withdrew his weapon and wiped the blood off with a piece of cloth that he took out calmly from his pocket.

With that single strike, the man fell to the ground, blood pouring out of his open wound. His whole body felt cold, and he felt inexplicably tired. His mind, which was still trying to process the whole thing, began slowing down until there was nothing else in his thought. 

The man had died, and his expression showed his disbelief at the situation that had befallen him.

"I understand how you must have felt. Please don't think too badly of me. After all, we're all just trying to survive in our own way," the figure said calmly without the tone of mockery that he had been using before.

Kneeling down, the figure used a clean dagger to cut open the dead man's chest and took out his heart. After that, he drew a sigil on the ground using his own blood. The sigil looked like a goblet with an intricate design on it.

Once the sigil was drawn, the figure waited a few minutes without doing anything.

Suddenly, something seemed to have surfaced in the dead man's mouth as it looked like he was gobbling something. The figure opened the dead man's mouth and took out a red orb the size of his fist. The orb was emitting a mysterious breeze that was neither real nor fake.

As soon as he had taken the orb, the figure placed the dead man's heart in the middle of the sigil and started chanting quietly.

Suddenly, the heart liquefied, and with that, the figure's body also turned into a pool of blood before evaporating from the spot, disappearing along with everything he had with him. What was left on the scene was the dead body of a man with a hole in his chest. 

Screech!

The sounds of police sirens came and stopped quickly as their cars stopped near the scene. Several men quickly ran towards the spot, through the 'wall' that had blocked the dead man's path.

A man in his late thirties wearing a grey coat held a gun in his hand and looked over the dead man's body with an angry expression on his face.

"We're late again... Dammit!" 

...

"We've finally finished cleaning our new place! Great work, Felix," Crane patted the head of his puppet gently as if it was a real kid.

"You seem really happy," Catherine commented. The sleeves of her shirt were rolled all the way up, and she was holding a feather duster.

"How can he not? He saved a lot of money for this place," Chris added. He was shirtless, and sweat was running down his skin as if he had just done a lot of work.

"Shut it. With our remaining money, you guys can also live well for a while," Crane protested. "It's already late today. Let's finish up and continue tomorrow. The bedrooms upstairs should be ready to use."