The Time Killer

Sixteen

                                                                               Domi-ium

                                                                       Second Cycle Past 9F

      The Ambassador had gone to his small room behind the Council room and blinking, had been sitting in total darkness for hours.

      “This is not the proper way for the Ambassador, the second most powerful being on Domi-ium, to behave.”

      “I agree, Litworth.”

      “You have a responsibility. In the beginning was Muah. You were endowed with powers by your creator.”

      “Yet you, Gra, have chosen to squander that power.”

      The Ambassador remained silent. He tried to remember where it all began to go wrong. In the beginning, he had it all. Besides Muah, he had been the most powerful in the universe. Now, he couldn’t make it through a speech before the Council without help from this thing inside his head. “You know me better than anyone else Litworth. You know what I have done. You know how great I was. What happened?”

      Litworth laughed. “How great you were? How great you were? You were never great! All that you ever did was believe that you were great!”

      “You have had nine hundred years and have accomplished NOTHING! You were the most beloved of all of the twelve disciples. The others travelled, spreading the gospel and converting nonbelievers. But you, you did nothing.”

      Gra said nothing. He felt unable to speak.

      “Disciple Hrab became famous in the CrTem Galaxy. While there he wrote the Gospel of Hrab. Eventually, much of what Hrab and others taught were collected in a work known as the Good News.”

      “But you, you did nothing.”

      Still Gra said nothing. He felt unable to think.

      “Disciple Cru travelled to the 459 solar system. He took what Muah had taught him and gave of himself. His life became what is now known as the Book of Cru.”

      “But you, you did nothing.”

      Gra said nothing. He was now unable to talk, think, or even move.

      “Muah was the beginning. He will be there in the end. Muah gives and Muah takes away. Muah has demanded that your time is up.”

      Gra felt nothing. He just simply ceased to be. His Kha^ta no longer existed, the Ambassador had received the Curse. His soul found its way back to Muah. It was here, back with Muah that Gra understood what ‘The Curse’ meant.

      With Gra ceasing to exist, Litworth now inhabited the body of the Ambassador full time and would quickly begin to use his power. However, he would also find that he would have to answer for the Ambassador’s sins.

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                                                    Center of Universe

                                                              +0-

      Before becoming part of the Gra household, Muah had enlisted Thing as a spy.

      ‘Augmon 1475, your lord demands your aid,’ Muah began. He didn’t speak, but his voice vibrated within the center of you. ‘Today you will go with Disciple Gra, my most beloved. You will observe. You will report to me.’ That was how it began.

      Over the next six centuries, the Augmon would disappear from Domi-ium and report to Muah. Muah had known that Gra would betray him, but he wanted Thing as a witness as he knew that the Augmon were a race of collectives. This meant that what one knew, they all knew. As they travelled throughout the universe, word would spread of not only Muah omnipotence, but also his forethought in a backup plan.

      Thing, like all Augmons, are highly intelligent. They only speak when they have something to say, and use as few words as possible. They also only speak with beings who intelligence level they respect. This is the reason neither the Ambassador nor Cain believed Thing was capable of speech.

      Muah had shared with Thing what Cain’s plan was, and again told him to go with the younger Gra and report back.

      Muah knew the end, and this time was hoping to be able to change it.

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                                                     Tokyo, Japan

                                                    December 2000

      On the early morning of New Year’s Day, the four bodies of the Miyazawa family was discovered. They lived in neighborhood of Setagaya which is in the western suburbs of Tokyo. Cain had tried to keep each string of murders unrelated from the other. This one was no different. He used a Japanese sashimi knife for the murders, the medical examiner’s report would later give detail description about what occurred when part of the blade broke off inside one of the victim’s head. Cain then used the broken blade too finish the job on the last two.  

      The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department concluded that the family had been murdered on December 30 at around 11:30 p.m. JST. They would also conclude that after killing the family, the killer stayed in the house for several hours. Cain stayed in the house for ten hours, leaving shortly before the bodies were discovered. He used his time as he believed a human killer would.

      He used the family computer, connecting to the internet between 1:18 a.m. and 10 a.m. Secondly, he became human enough to consume 4 bottles of barley tea, melon, and 4 ice creams from their refrigerator. Lastly, he left 10 items behind on the family sofa, including a knife, sweater, jacket, hat, gloves, and shoes.

      The elder Gra brother would, literally, leave enough at the crime scene to solve several murders.

      He could barely walk he was laughing so hard as he entered his ship.

      This was his favorite one so far.

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                                                      Lexington, KY

                                                    October 27, 1961

      Cain sat in his ship after murdering Betty Gail Brown. In his hand, he held an essay Brown had written just a few weeks earlier. He read the sentence aloud that was the focus on his attention “when a man commits a crime, he no longer has the right to liberty, but his right of life should never be taken away from him.,” she wrote.

      He reread, this time louder, his voice booming from the walls of the ship. “When a man commits a crime, he no longer has the right to liberty, but his right of life should never be taken away from him.” He stopped, this time his laughter filled the ship.

      “How do you feel about that now, ape?, How do you think she feels now Thing?”

      Gradually, the laughter tapered off as Cain sat and observed the empty winter streets in the Bluegrass State. In just a few hours, this murder would attract the attention from everyone not just in the state, but in the country for several years.

      “What an ugly, ugly, planet this is. In my benevolence, I am not destroying the planet. Although would it be kinder to rid these apes from their petty existence?”

      Cain sat there while campus security discovered the body. He began to laugh again with the exaggerated movements of the security guard. He stared in the car, quickly turned and began to run back to his car, then quickly turned and ran back to Brown’s car as if he wanted to ensure that he saw what he actually saw.

      Cain read the guard’s lips.

      “Quick. Murder. On Clay street. Hurry.”

      The guard then ran back to the car. He started to open the door, then caught himself.

      By this time, another security guard had arrived, driving very fast. The second guard skidded to a stop, a noise very loud in the early morning stillness.

      Once the second guard saw the same thing, Cain’s laughter increased. A third guard joined them, followed shortly by law enforcement from the county and then the city. I was seeing what the elder Gra brother was seeing. I was reminded of the Keystone Kops, the silent movie comedians of the early 20^th century. I was not laughing at my fellow officers, but looking at it from an outsiders perspective, I could see why Cain was laughing.