Villainous Acts

Chapter 6

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"Hello darkness my old friend"
- Simon & Garfunkle
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Atlas 

He always sat and stared into the wall, his eyes always open. Drowned in the dark sea which made him lose his breath every time he closed his eyes. 

He didn't speak to anyone willingly, except for Obsidian who basically threatened his life in the process.  

He was a shy guy before any of this happened, but he had friends. He was born and raised in a good family and had a bright future ahead of him.

He was an art student and he expressed his feelings through his work and was praised for it by his teachers. 

Now, he is going through his daily exercises.

He was escorted into a room, similar to the white room with a two way mirror, desk and chair but was dimly lit and almost completely dark.

And a dead body placed onto the desk. 

A carcass rotting on the table right in front of where he was sitting, the face of the dead man was of fear and it painted the last aspects of his life perfectly. The body, this person was..... fresh.

They always did this to Atlas and he hated every minute of it. Forced into the chair, locked in the room and can do nothing but what is asked of him. 

"Atlas, tell me. What life did this man live before he died? You have 5 minutes", A feminine voice echoed from the speakers in the room. He was always timed and his every move was recorded, nothing could help him escape this oblivion which he called life. 

Atlas looked over the body in fear and reached his hand out to touch the hand of the body. His hand shook and his breathing sped up to hyperventilation in anxiety and fear.

Fear. That was all that consumed in this moment and he couldn't do anything about it. Terror sucked the very breath from his mouth and he couldn't breathe. 

Rotting bones, pale, cold skin and a certain smell are what described the man in front of him. "The body could only be about a week old" , Atlas thought and shivered. The man wore a faded blue suit and a nametag was pasted onto it. His name was Daniel. 

"Hello Daniel", Atlas said under his breath and forced a weak smile. He took a breath and stopped his shaking hand as he touched the face of Daniel. Feeling the smooth surface of his head.  He closed his eyes and felt the smooth skin under his fingertips, moving his hand and tracing over Daniel's nose and forehead. He calmed himself this way, he wasn't afraid of the body in front of him, as it was just a person. 

He was afraid of the people behind the mirror and what they did to Daniel. And what they wanted to do to him. 

He opened his eyes and they turned a glossy grey. A ghost figure removed itself from the body and it looked exactly like Daniel but he was alive, his eyes were bright and full of hope, but he held no colour to his skin or clothing. 

This man, the one that looked well and alive was Daniel as a grey spirit, a wanderer, a ghost of the past.

Atlas looked at him with tears in his eyes but not in fear of him, but in sadness at the life that was taken from him.  Daniel the ghost was smiling and his face held promise and excitement but soon his smile vanished, it was nothing more than a memory.

 His face changed, it completely melted like wax on a string, along with the rest of his skin and muscle. 

A skeleton of a pale glowing grey was leftover. It stood and Atlas began to sweat lightly. 

The skeleton looked over it's hands and body in confusion, looking over the remaining patches of skin on his bones. The thing... Daniel, began to turn to ash, starting from it's finger tips. But before the remains of Daniel's ghost was completley gone, it looked over at Atlas and began to walk toward him as if begging for help, fighting for the last bit of life taken from him. 

Atlas started to pace backwards but was stuck in a trance of his own, the skeleton screamed as if in pain and phased throught the table and through Atlas himself. Then it disappeared into a puff of grey smoke. 

It was as if in that moment his soul left him, he felt nothing and everything. He could fly, but was drowning.  He felt life and death. He felt complete oblivion and complete light. He knew everything about the ghost, he knew Daniel. 

"Your five minutes are up", The voice spoke again and it pulled him out of whatever stance he held. This whole event could only be experienced by Atlas himself, to the spectators behind the mirror, they saw nothing. Atlas was in the same place as they had left him and nothing else had changed. 

Atlas shook his head and began to speak, "He was a small business owner to a convenience store. He had a wife and two children that were... were attending school at..at the time of his death. He wore a suit.. because he was on his way to...to his wife's convention and was about to close shop for the day.... Age 41, weight of 146 lbs". 

"Very good Atlas. Bring in the next body", And the process started again. 

*** 

He saw them all the time, he didn't need a body unless he was looking for someone specifically. 

The ghosts would walk around him in circles, groaning or crying. They would stare at him from time to time, but he only saw them when he closed his eyes. So, he wouldn't sleep and he never planned to in the future. He'd be so silent and rarely spoke unless forced to (Obsidian for example when she wanted answers) in exercises. 

The guards didn't even give him a second glance and he would be poked or prodded, just to see if he was still alive. Atlas liked to call himself a forensic because he discovered what others couldn't, he tried to make light of it. 

But that would never stop him from shedding a tear or two.