The White Shadow 1: The Dancer

Chapter 21

Nia gripped her wound as Diane ripped the blade out and simply took a step back, wiping the knife with a wet tissue. She tried to teleport, but found that she couldn't find the right muscle to activate her ability. Then it occured to her. Teleporting too much always made Nia's abdomen cramp. Had Diane aimed for that muscle specifically?
What had Verez said when talking Nia about the benefits of the serum? It entered the Pancreas and seeped into the veins to activate? It must be leaking out now, Nia thought. Fuck.

Nia stumbled back but stopped, focusing on maintaing her strength. She slowed her breathing, lowered her heart-rate, and kept her focus on the mirage of Diane that vanished into the air. But the White Shadow was not intangible. She still breathed, walked, and had a heat the beat in her chest...

Nia listened intently, pulling her attention from her bleeding wound into her surroundings. She let herself hear as the wind blew around her, and then the Dancer swung her free hand out to her right, and her knuckles slammed into Diane, who materialised only to fly down onto her face, hitting the ground with a bone crunching snap. Nia panted, gripping her side with laboured breaths. "Hey, Doctor!" She yelled, "A little hel-"
But the Doctor was nowhere to be found, and Darryll was stood, somewhat shakily, upon his own two legs with a magnum in his hand, aimed into Nia's forehead. The Dancer moved to attack, but Darryll clenched the trigger harder, causing a click that stopped Nia dead in her tracks. "Move and I'll end you here." He said, viscous blood spilling from his cut, bruised lips. His hair was tinner than before, his eyes swollen and purple. His face was smeared with gravel and blood, his arms lined with gashes and cuts and shirt ripped in several places. And yet, and YET-

He was still grinning. A wild, unhinged, crazy grin that curled at the edges like rotten fruit and flashed chipped, broken and bloody teeth within blackened gums.

Nia slowly removed her hat and dropped it, letting it fall slowly to the ground. She undis her jacket and let it fall, revealing a white blouse stained with spreading blood. She smiled with uncontrollable frustration, "Why not kill me now?" She asked, "I might take a leaf out of your notebook."
"Apparently," Darryll sighed, "We're not that different. For all my virtues, I can't help but wish you were tied up before me." Darryll cocked his head, "Remind you of anything?"
Nia spat, "Fuck you. I have lots of friends-"
"Sure you do. Now chop chop, I haven't got all day." And Darryll gestured toward the car the Doctor had arrived in, and began to lead Nia over.

The sky was grey above the graveyard, thick with grimy clouds that loomed overhead. A light mist of rain hovered in the air and a large oak tree sheltered many gnarled and disheveled gravestones that jutted out from the ground like tumors and growths.

The coffin had been lowered; Darryll was dead.

Nia, the Doctor, Darryll's former adopted parents and a few heads of the police department now conversed solemnly. How tragic, Nia said. Such a young soul, Dr Hurwitz said. The couple lamented upon their foster child's life, how carefree and bright he had been, how much potential he had. Nia sighed, "I only knew him through my Partner, but I heard many great things about him," She said, "It is truly regretful that he had to die so violently, and at such a a young age to." She looked into the sky, full of lurching clouds and depressed rain, "Maybe he's still watching us."
Darryll's former father asked whether  Dr Hurwitz was Nia's partner. Nia shook her head. "Sadly my partner died in the same crash. The funeral was three days ago."
Darryll's carers apologised, but Nia shook her head, "Its tragic, but you musn't lose yourself too much." She commented, "After all, life goes on."

Long after the funeral had ended, Nia entered her apartment complex, stepped into the elevator and bought herself up to the floor number fourty, and walked through a few corridors into the Dance Theatre, wherein a woman was bound to a chair, her long red hair strewn down her face, her hands tied behind her and her shins tied to the legs of the chair. The real Nia looked up from her imprisonment as her doppelganger walked into the room and stood beside the chair, as if aimlessly. Clearly she was waiting for something, and the real Nia knew what it was.
Darryll entered the theatre with a skip and
a grin. He was dressed in a suit, complete with a shirt, jacket, and tie as he found his prisoner where he had left her. "Hey Nia!" He waved at her as he hopped over, "I see you've met Florence, not to be confused with the now very deceased Flores." He tried to lean on Florence's shoulder, but Florence was a tall as Nia, which was too tall for Darryll. Florence looked down at Darryll, "Sir, you asked me to come here for a reason?"
"Correct!" Darryll replied loudly, hopping up and down on his toes with glee. He shoved his hand into his jacket, pulled out the revolver from three weeks ago and shot it up into Florence's chin. She dropped to the ground and blood rained down upon Nia, who glared at her captor. "When are you going to kill me?" She asked bitterly.
"Soon, don't worry," Darryll chuckled, placing the weapon pack into his jacket, "But I want to have some fun first." He sat cross-legged in front of Nia, who looked down in spite. "So are you going to tell me where THE FUCK my Colleagues are?" She spat blood upon Darryll's face. He just smiled wider and drummed the floor in excitement, "Yes! That I am. But first, what do you think you know?" He looked up into Nia's baggy, swollen eyes expectedly. Nia groaned, "I think the Doctor was unhappy that I got a promotion." Nia said, "And betrayed me."
"Anything else?" Darryll asked, "Details, I want the when and how, what got me involved, you know?"
"I think she promoted the joyriding incident," Nia sighed, "So that Diane could stab me."
"Yeah, that," Darryll chuckled, "She figured that out with my help after the fact. We discussed the biology of your powers over a rather short lived dinner." Darryll began to gesticulate as he explained, "Basically, Diane always knew using her Cloak too much would cause her abs to cramp. But she noticed at Joshes shop that it happens to you too. I predicted to was to do with an organ and asked her to stab there." Darryll again beat the ground in excitement, "This is fun! Anything else?"
Nia leaned back, exhausted "So did you call The Doctor of did they call you?"
"I called a friend of yours," Darryll replied. With a maniacal grin and a twitching finger, he pointed out, "But not the Doctor."
"What?"
Darryll laughed, falling back and shutting his eyes which began to tear. Nia persisted, "Who did you call?"
Darryll climbed to his feet and dusted his jacket off, before replying, "Turns out most dad's don't like their sons getting blackmailed and stabbed in the arm."
Nia gaped in silence, her mind on fire with so many questions. Darryll continued, "Think, Nia, you're smart. The Doctor is entirely loyal to Verez, and interfering with his decisions, such as to give you a promotion, would go against their code of conduct!"
Nia sputtered, "But Song- He- You stabbed Jr in the arm though!"
"You never told Prof though," Darryll shrugged, "And if you lied once you could lie again, so I told him." Darryll opened his arms and cocked his head, "Too bad! Ya missed your chance."
"So..." Nia started to think with portals. Rather morbid and worrying portals. "Verez never wanted to promote me?"
"You only gave him Diane," Darryll noted, "After several missed deadlines, I hear. Wow, and you thought that was a promotion?" Darryll began to pace, "and when would Verez have the time to create those files your dearest Song handed you? The man was blown up only an hour after receiving Diane!" Darryll laughed, thoroughly enjoying the slow realisation  sink deep like a knife within Nia's eyes.
Nia felt like her stomach was filled with mustard. She asked, "And then you called The Doctor afterwards?"
"Actually that was Song," Darryll corrected, "Who then called me to say that the Doctor was on board and our plan was ready to put into motion. I created a public disturbance, The Doctor, in all their stoicy, convinced you to expose yourself, Diane got you in the gut and then I drove you home. Bingo!" Darryll pumped his fist into the air, "Whoooo!" He cried, energetically celebrating his victory.
Nia remained doubtful, "How did you know The Doctor would accept?"
"Basic observation and deduction." Darryll explained, "They would clearly be unhappy with you after your several missed deadlines, given that efficiency is the most important thing to them. This, on top of your very risky strategy to dump a ton of money into your business that you couldn't afford and hope for a single paycheck... Not to mention the Doctors general snobbery-"
"How did you know about my strategy to throw a bunch of money into my business?" Nia asked perceptively.
"Oh that," Darryll replied, "I half guessed based on how Dennis described his fight with your goon."
"Who the fuck," Nia scoffed, "Is Dennis?"
Darryll stopped. Then, with a sigh and a brief chuckle, he placed his hands in his pockets and sat down, "Let me tell you a story...

"Last week me and Diane- she's still alive and still Hayes your guts- were enjoying dinner in one of your restaurants for free, and I accidentally let slip that Dennis had told me something. She asked about him and I told her what I thought- that Dennis was the voice of my long dead brother in my head talking to me sometimes. Then, confused, Diane told me that she was certain I definitely didn't have a second brother after Danny, the saint brother."

"Funny story, I did some digging, and Dennis never existed, and never stole drugs from Verez. That was Danny. It's odd how it only took one moment for all my psychological problems to reveal themselves."

I am Dennis.
Dennis is me.
Danny was never a saint.

And so I ask," Darryll finished, now heading for the door, "What is good and bad? It is like Darryll and Dennis,
nothing but the rules and ideas we decide for ourselves. But once you begin to break your own rules, nothing is left to hold you back. Instead, you have priorities to bring you forward." Darryll stopped at the door. "The Demo team are gonna fuck this place up good and put you and Florence in the crematorium. The police don't give a shit what they find in the Dancer's rubble."
"Even if they find the Dancer?"
"Oh Darling," Darryll sang, "You don't catch on quick, do you?" He performed a simple swing shuffle within his new, polished shoes before he confirmed, "I am now the Dancer."
Nia's eyes glowed with rage, "You did what?"
"Song doesn't care," Darryll replied, "And the Doctor is happy to be rid of such an untidy, disorganised thing as Nikola Swigovich. The paperwork has been signed, and The police have been notified. Verez will be gaslit or simply worked around for the foreseeable future. Maybe we can legitimise me at some point. Like I said, rules are only that; a word."
Nia was in outrage. She struggled furiously against her restraints, cheeks flushed eyes red, "You can't do this! I built this empire from the ground up! A somar like you wouldn't last shit up here! I will-"
As Nia yelled in frustration, The new Dancer checked his watch. "Oh dear," He said nonchalantly, "It's 8:30. I may have overstayed my welcome by a little bit, but I'll be fine. I just hope the builders follow the orders I gave them-"

Only telegraphed by a slight whoosh from outside the large window behind Nia, the wrecking ball swung with unparalleled force and slammed into the window, shattering it instantly. Darryll raised a hand and ducked as hostile shards of glass zipped past him like daggers, and then he watched the aftermath. As quickly as the ball had came, it was gone, and so was Nia. There was a large, sawdust emitting crater that circled the space Nia had once reside in, tied. Now she could be anywhere. Darryll didn't know anymore than he cared. He reached into his coat, pulled out his revolver, shiny and functional, and pointed it at his head. One more time? For old times sake?

Nah, he decided, tucking the gun away. Darryll didn't exist anymore than Dennis did anyway.