Random short stories

The Heir of a Monarch (Part 2)

The sight he beheld there caused his heart to race. Faces adorned the walls, their facial expressions locked in a macabre mockery of everyday life. He identified some of them to be the murdered victim's missing faces. Their looks contorted with pain. Forever frozen in the state of fear as their final moments. And a television set with a flickering, static-filled screen stood at the very end of the space.

With caution, Rindou approached the television and pressed play on the tape player beside it. As the screen came to life, images flickered across the screen, images of the victims in their final moments of life. But the tape did not end there, Rindou heard the killer's voice. A voice that was all too familiar to him. It can't be. And then, as the tape reached its end, a voice spoke, a voice that sent a chill down Rindou's spine.

"I never thought you of all people would find out," the voice said, its tone laced with malice. Rindou turned to see his long-time friend Mikey standing in the doorway, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. That smile was wrong. Very wrong. It was a smile Rindou has never seen on his face before. It was sadistic, psychotic. It drew shivers down the raven head's spine at the sight.

"But why? How could it be you?" Rindou asked, his voice seemingly begging for answers. He could stand it. The very friend he trusted more with his life, to always have his back, was the man behind the gruesome slaughter of so many innocents. Betrayed.

Mikey just shrugged his shoulders still smiling, not caring. Mikey asked, "Hey, Rindou. Do you still remember about how I told you my mom disappeared a year ago. Abandoning me? What if that was a lie?"

Rindou could only stay silent, listening to his former best friend whilst still on guard, ready to defend himself. "My father had abandoned me and mom before I was born. And mom was neglectful of me. I always wanted her attention, you know? To have her smile at me at least once. I decided to study hard and become a doctor. To make her proud. I thought maybe. Just maybe. That would get her to look at me. When I finally got the job, I went home. To show my mom my certificate. Only for her to still not pay attention to me." Mikey chuckled, it sounded hateful.

"I finally snapped. I yelled at her, demanding that she looked at me. To tell me just what I did wrong. Then, she finally turned to look at me, she was glaring at me. In pure hatred. It was then I learned the truth from her. Mom had been raped by my father and ended up pregnant. I was the product of a rapist and his rape victim. I felt my entire life came crashing down on me. By the time I realized what I was doing, I was strangling her by the neck. She was looking at me in fear, her eyes begging for me to let go, struggling to breath... I wanted to let go. But... my body did not seem to listen. Eventually, she died weirdly enough. I did not feel remorse. In fact, I was happy. I took a knife from the kitchen and carefully removed her face."

"Why, Mikey?" Rindou asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Why did you do it?"

Mikey's smile widened; his eyes gleaming with madness. "Because I wanted her to look at me," he said, his voice dripping with venom. "I wanted her to see me for who I truly am." He shrugged, "And since then, I started killing women and taking their faces. Preserving them in this very room for me to admire. For them to always look at me."

And then, before Rindou could react, Mikey lunged at him with a knife in hand, his movements swift and precise. Dodging the blade by mere inches, Rindou fought back tooth and nail with all his strength, his mind racing with a thousand thoughts. But it was no use. Mikey was too strong, too fast. With a savage grin, he pressed his advantage, driving Rindou back against the wall with each blow.

Just when all hope seemed lost, a shadow emerged from the darkness, its form towering over them like a spectre from another world. With a mighty roar, it lunged at Mikey, knocking him to the ground with a force that sent shockwaves through the room. As Mikey lay sprawled on the floor, knocked out cold, Rindou moved in to apprehend him, his hands trembling with adrenaline.

He looks back the shadow in which was in a form of knight, covered in armour, only to see it kneeling before him. It greeted him, it's voice sounding eerie, "I, Rasheel, greet the Prince of Shadows." Now Rindou was confused. One, this shadow knight came out of nowhere and protected, which he appreciates, Two, it called him prince. Prince of Shadows? Just what the heck is that?

Noticing the confusion on the young man's face, the knight, Rasheel responded to answer his prince's questions, "My prince. All of this must be confusing to you. We wanted to wait until you were of the proper age before knowing the truth. But." Rasheel took a glance at the unconscious Mikey, "Seeing as to how the situation was dire. I had to intervene. If you wish to know. Please return home and search for your father's journal. Everything shall be revealed then. Even the truth behind your powers. Goodbye, my prince." Rasheel then seeped into the ground, returning to wherever he came from. Leaving Rindou to his own thoughts.

The truth of his powers? Rindou has sometimes wondered how he got it but never could come up with an answer. He repeated the words of the knight in his head. 'Search for my father's journal? What does my father have to do with this?' Snapping back to reality, he shook his head. He should focus on the task at hand first. Rindou took out his phone called his captain. By the time backup arrived, Rindou was outside the house waiting with Mikey cuffed to the porch. He informed everything that happened to his captain, omitting, and leaving out the details about his shadows of course.

After a job well done, Rindou hurriedly drove back to his apartment. He opens the storage room and searches for his father's stuff. When he finally found the journal, he hesitated. Ever since his death, Rindou had never dared to open his father's journal before as it was private. But this would be the key to answering all his questions. So, without further ado, he opened the journal and read through the contents.

Hours later, he closes the journal. His gaze staring at a wall in a daze, trying to organize the information he had obtained from it. His father, YuHao, the great detective that has solved cases that were deemed unsolvable, was formerly the Monarch of Death. A being that control ruled over the souls of dead and the darkness itself. He was able to fully control and bend the shadows to his will and actually have the soul of the dead be fully form into a human rather than it being a swirl of black fog. That was how he was able to solve those cases that were deemed cold cases. He had the same power as Rindou, albeit more powerful than his. His father had fell in love with his mother who was a normal woman who found out about his ability on accident. He thought she would leave him after, but she was not afraid of him. They then had Rindou. Unfortunately, Rindou's mother died of childbirth so his father was the one who raised him.

His father was the Monarch of Death. He was just like Rindou. And Rindou, is his heir. At that moment, Rindou had decided. He shall accept his fate. His father was a good man and raised him with care. He would make him proud. He will be the guardian of the shadows, the protector of the innocent, and the scourge of the wicked. For he was the Monarch of Death's Heir.