In Sanity: Alpha

Chapter 5

The smell of the innocent and the pure loft around. A bird perches on the edge of the skyscraper and begins singing the song of it's people. My heart beats and I awake to the sight of the sun only feet away from me. I stand up in the heat and begin looking off the side of the building, "How did I get all the way up here?" I remember the beautiful maiden named Kali, "Curse you lady." I attach my mask to my face and prepare to launch into the air. As I pull my hood over my head, I lightly step off the side of the skyscraper. I fly down the building at max speed as the concrete gets closer and closer. I take a stance where my feet point towards the ground right before I land. The second I land, the concrete shatters and dust flies up into the air. My blood red irises glare through the smoke and frighten those around me. I begin calmly walking towards the alley and before the smoke clears out I disappear. 

I walk around the alleys and watch as the homeless stare right back at me and ask for change. One of them tells me, "Nice mask man. What are you trying to be, that guy off the news?" I chuckle and walk past him calmly. The alleys are closed in and intersections appear everywhere, so they're basically like secret tunnels for people like me. Sirens blare off into the distance as I calmly look for a sewer cap. I step on a rusted, dusty plate as it makes a clinging noise. I look down and on the plate it says "Sewers" in big bold letters. I open the sewer door and hop down. 

I splash into the water below and look around for details. The tunnels are huge and smells of old sushi. Blood marks on the left side of the tunnel points forward. Scratch marks are everywhere around the tunnel like there was a war here a long time ago. I follow the blood trail that leads down winding paths that don't even seem like they should be a part of the tunnel connection. Finally I come across a burial ground. "This is where the fallen Reapers go to be buried. We dig with the darkness that is stronger than diamond." I spin around to see Kali there staring at one of the grave stones that says Michelle, "That is my sister." I offer my condolences. She chuckles and says, "I don't need your pity. You're as nasty as the rest of them." I look at her bewildered, "What do you mean?" She turns around as fast as ever with anger written all over her face, "You kill for joy! You're a monster!" This concerned me. "Are we not monsters? Do we not kill to survive?" She looks at me like the rest of my class does, "You are worse than the rest of them. You don't even feel any remorse for the ones you kill. It's like you don't even understand that they are humans like you once were. Just because you signed your soul over to the devil doesn't mean you have to do his bidding!" My anger begins to boil, "You don't even understand me. How could you know me like I was your own flesh and blood?" She takes her jacket off and tells me, "There is only one way for us to understand each other. That is to battle until one of us either gives up or dies." 

She prepares her darkness to penetrate my skin, but I use my own to build up a shield to protect me from her darkness. As she releases her power onto my shield she screams out, "I bet you don't even know the name of your power." My eyes widen; our powers have names? Her darkness cracks through mine and I jump out of the way. I then morph my darkness into a tentacle and swing at her, but her nimble self bends backwards and dodges the attack. She smiles, "Nice try newbie!" Her darkness comes out from under her and stabs me in the chest. She cracks a couple of my ribs and penetrates almost to my lungs. I spit up blood and my vision begins to blur. "You got me good..." She begins to laugh, "Maybe killing Reapers is more fun than humans! At least they put up a fight, but you on the other hand is like taking candy from a baby!" I use my darkness to drag myself closer to her and swing at her with the rest of my might, but she uses her darkness to smash through mine, "You call that an attack?" She uses her darkness to warp into a sword and she keeps stabbing me over and over and over again as blood spills out of me like a faucet. She pushes her dark beautiful hair out of her eyes as she realizes I'm to weak to go on. She kneels down to pick me up and drags me to the wall where she chokes me out as she speaks to me, "Now you have to listen to me. There are real people out there who are innocent, but there are also people out there who are not. These people are called Convicts but not for no reason like the humans give the title away. These Convicts are Reapers who are trying to kill the humans for fun and game so they can become stronger. Their main nemesis is the R.E.G. We call them the Regulators. The title stands for Reaper Extermination Group. They are a really strong militia that are set out to kill the Convicts and the Acquits who are us." I spit up more blood, "And why should I join you guys?" She laughs as she pulls out her darkness from her body, "If you don't that means only one thing. You're either a Convict or a freelancer. So which one is it?" I smile, "I'm a nobody, so don't worry about me. You can call me a freelancer, but I don't mind helping the cause as long as I get more powerful." She looks at me for a good long minute before putting her darkness away, "I'll take you up on your offer."

She puts me down and and begins to walk away, "Are you coming?" I look up at her, "Where are we headed to? Another funeral?" She laughs, "At least you're funny, no I'm gonna show you around the base." She takes my hand and leads me into a door inside the tunnels and there is a giant operating room filled with Reapers. One of them walks up to me with his blonde hair stretched all the way down to his ass and tells me, "You must be the newbie. My name is Ghost." I answer, "Why do they call you ghost?" He grins and replies, "Because they don't see what happened to them when they die my Kaktu." I question, "What is your Kaktu?" He shows me his darkness and starts to stroke it's side, "Every power has a name. We need to figure out yours so you can grow stronger. When you and your darkness understand each other you will grow to become more and more powerful. We will begin teaching you at once." He takes me by the hand and leads me outside, "By the way, why do you wear a mask?" I answer, "Because when I use my power I bring fear to others just with my mask." He laughs, "That's priceless. You won't scare a Reaper with such petty things like that." I look at him, "Challenge accepted." 

He takes me to a waterfall in the sewers where all the drainage comes in then he tells me to sit under it and meditate. I stare at the waterfall, "That's disgusting no way am I going to do that!" He grabs me by the back of my collar and throws me into the water, "There, you're all wet. No matter what happens you can't get more wet." I look at him pissed off but he makes a point, so I begin to meditate under the waterfall. As the water spills onto my clothes, I notice something that I didn't notice before. How quiet the sewers can actually be. The music of the dripping water soothes the soul and allows me to enter a universe of my own. I physically leave my body and travel to a world where it is dark and even though there is fire burning in the background. I spiritually get up and search around. I'm standing above a dark abyss what looks like shouldn't be able to hold anything in place. When I yell out for anything living here I didn't expect a response, but something spurs in the abyss. Bleeding red eyes stares up from the abyss and ask me what I'm doing here. I respond, "I am here to learn the name of my power demon." The demon laughs a dark terrifying laughter and uses my all so familiar darkness to strap me to the abyss, "Let me devour you ant!" His enormous claws wrap around me and squeezes me until all my blood leaves my body and then he chomps me into half. Each crunch you can hear my bones shatter. Once I'm digested by his saliva, he swallows me into his stomach where the darkness corrodes my flesh and meat. I look up to the light of the fire and I finally make it out. "I will name you Kai!" The demon's eyes widen with ferocity and laughs. You survive this time ant, but don't tempt to accomplish my power because you don't have to strength to wield it's true potential. 

I physically open my eyes and see Ghost standing before me yawning, "I did it. His name is Kai!" Ghost smiles gently and tells me, "Good luck with your future Reaper and Kai. You're going to need it if you're going to be a freelancer." Kali comes running into the scene worried, "I felt this dark presence in this area; is everything okay?" Ghost responds, "That was just the lad's new power accepting him. It's name is Kai." Kali looks at me, "Nice, well be careful with that power of yours. For some reason I had this shiver come down my spine when you were summoned to the Hall of the Dead." I ask, "The Hall of the Dead? What is that?" She looks at me surprised, "You don't even know the Hall of the Dead?" You were just there! It's where your soul is trapped by the demon you possess!" I look at her stupefied. "You're useless you know that kid." 

When we get back to the operating room I introduce myself to everyone as Edward. A little girl comes up to me and ask, "Are you a new reaper?!" I nod my head while smiling. So this is what a true family is. I never had a father. He left when I was just born. The bastard doesn't have a soul himself nor any self respect. I clutch my hands together in anger just thinking about it. I'm gonna show the world what a demon actually is. After dinner from packaged meat, where they get it I have no idea, Kali comes up to me and asks me if I want to go up to the real world with her so we did. Looking over the world is beautiful as we sit down on top of the skyscraper, "Do you have any plans Edward?" I look over at her, "Yes, but they are my plans and I will complete them on my time." She smiles, "You're not a bad guy at all, you just made some mistakes that's all." She looks at me with the biggest smile, "I hope you and I can be best of friend forever." My eyes widen, so this is what a friend feels like. I can get used to this...

I'll protect my friends no matter if it cost me my life.