Letum

Chapter 1: The Beast

Water dripped from the cracks in the ceiling and slowly made a puddle on the floor of the holding cell. The chains softly rattled as the beast slept in their cold embrace. 

"You see there Toni? That's the beast called Letum."

"Why does everyone call him the beast?"

"The Beast is a nickname that everyone here at area 35 holding facility calls him. He adopted the name Letum from the code name that the founder of this facility gave him. You see, Letum is Latin for death. Needless to say if you piss him off, that's all you will know."

"Must not be that dangerous if a couple of chains can keep him bound up."

*Chuckles* "Those chains couldn't stop him from sneezing."

"What do you mean? Those chains are thick enough to tow a monster truck, or maybe a tank."

"He sleeps while wrapped in those chains on purpose. He said they make for good resistance training."

"Sir, if those chains aren't keeping him here. Then, what is?"

"He stays here to remind us, that even behind bars. We can't stop him."

"Why not send him to Holding Block Alpha with the rest of the overpowered mutants?"

"Toni, Toni, Toni, don't you think we tried that before?

"What happened?"

"A war"

The legs of the chair scraped against the cement floor as Toni got up with haste. Taking his hands and grabbing onto his superior's collar like a desperate kid looking for answers to why Santa isn't real.

"Toni, remember in your training when you new shits were told about the war at Area 34? About how that war was due to an uprising by every triple S mutant and the facility lost 3,000 armed workers?"

"Of course we were, the facility beat every mutant into submission and sent those dead beats into the afterlife."

"Now listen very clearly Toni. Look at that monitor and you tell me. Does that so-called deadbeat look like he's in the afterlife?"

"One mutated freak couldn't bring an entire facility run by the world's highest trained professionals, troops, and doctors into a war bad enough for the president to want to nuke his own country."

*Whispering* "Look at the monitor Toni."

Toni turned his head as his heart raced and the sweat from his brow dripped on the floor. He looked at the monitor, and to his horror. The cell was completely empty. Not even the chains that were wrapped around the sleeping body that was just laying on the cement floor, weren't there anymore. That's when he felt the soft breeze of the wind on the back of this neck.

"Hi there, Toni."

The deep bass of the voice made his rib cage vibrate as his heart skipped a beat. Toni heard the swinging of a loose chain behind him. He could hear water dripping onto the floor behind him. He knew that his biggest fear was standing right behind him. He tried to speak, but his voice only came out as a little squeak.

"Come on Toni. Afraid to look a mutant freak in the face? Afraid to look at the being that holds your life in its hands.

The only way that Toni's body would let him reply to the monster behind him, was by pissing itself.

"Jeesh, Mike, I thought you guys trained the fresh lambs to read up on what they're looking after."

"Well, you know the saying, Mr. Letum. Staring at the sun and the feeble go blind."