Starry Days & Sunlit Nights: Volume 3 - Warm Winter

Chapter 2.8 - Hostile Takeover

That same evening, within the deepest confines of a maximum security penitentiary in the Noon District, a dark-haired man in a prisoner's jumpsuit was strapped in a chair, patiently waiting for his sentence to be carried out. Around his glass chamber, an audience of Magi, Witches, and ordinary human officers attended the event in which he was the main attraction.

One of them, a stern, middle-aged fellow, stood right before him. "Charles Greyford, for multiple charges of abduction, human trafficking, serial murder in the first degree, hypnotic duress, human experimentation, human mutilation, poaching, smuggling, assault of officers, wanton sorcery, and attempted city-wide conquest, your sentence of execution by flash fire immolation is to be carried out tonight. Do you have any last words before your departure?"

The condemned stared him down with his deep black eyes and grinned confidently, as if his last day was little more than any other Tuesday. "In other words, you've gotten all you could out of me, and are finally going to get rid of me. Too bad, but I think you're mistaken about who's outlived their usefulness."

That sent a chill down the spine of half the people in the room. The overseer narrowed his eyes defiantly, then turned to order the executioner standing next to a control panel.

The sound of gunfire interrupted his order, and all turned towards the door. That was no illusion. There was real fighting going on just outside. Fear filled the whole room.

The overseer turned to the executioner. "Throw the switch, qui—!"

He and the one he addressed was silenced by two quick, successive gunshots. They came from one of the guards standing by the door. His eyes were glazed over, and yet had an unnaturally fierce and feral look to them.

Three of the Magi jumped to action and took him down with simultaneous firebolts to the chest. No sooner than the controlled gunman fell did five inmates break through the door, each of them armed with a light machine gun.

Bullets sprayed everywhere, dying the walls with red. Pools of blood spread all over the floor as dozens of corpses fell limp. Behind the protection of his blast-proof glass Greyford indulged himself with a long maniacal laugh.

"Enthralling this many security guards, I'm impressed," a balding man in another prison uniform approached the cell.

"It was easy, really," Greyford told him while one of his thralls freed him from his bonds. "I just had to pre-program the same thought into the black sand you smuggled in and out of my cell: 'anyone dressed like a prisoner is your friend or family, everyone else is a depraved monster out to murder those you care about'. All that was left was to mentally send out my spell Enthrall."

"Black Eye magic," the mob boss muttered. "Such a terrifying power, in the right hands."

Greyford waved his hand. "Wouldn't have been able to pull it off without your agents slipping the sand into the guards' drinks over the past week."

Escorted by their fellow prisoners, Greyford and his associate casually made their way through the institution. All around them, guards gunned each other down while prisoners wreaked havoc, capitalizing on such an opportunity. By the end of the day, the building would be full of holes, bloodstains, and the stench of rotting flesh.

Amidst the slaughter, they remained untouched even when they strolled right out the front door, where several inmates piled into buses. A lone limousine waited in reserve for the Night Magi and his friend.

"Have your people retrieved my belongings?" Greyford inquired.

"Yeah, it wasn't easy, but they managed to swipe your stuff right under their noses. The Crimson Fall is just as much of a force to be reckoned with as you are."

"And yet, neither of us have enough to take over this hive. At least on our own."

The mob boss smiled. "You'll hold up your end of the deal, then? I have all too willing test subjects waiting for you."

A very pleased Greyford twiddled his fingers. The next couple of months were going to be fun.

The vehicles split off from one another so as to not arouse suspicion, but they were all headed to the same place.

Eastward. Towards the Dawn District.