I'm A Monster

Right Open

Rodriguez DeVae, a man of many faces, a man of many lies, a man who was going to meet his demise. "You aren't going to catch me! Murderer!" Rodriguez shouted to Lucas in a fury. A mad mix between a giggle a chuckle was heard from the shadows. Over the past eight months the shadows have become Lucas' friend, he hid in them, and they kept him hidden. It was the unspoken agreement between Lucas and his stealth that kept him alive in this harsh time. "I'm warning you! I'll slit your throat!" Rodriguez backed up and saw a shadow of a man standing in the rafters, the cloak the man was wearing, swaying in the wind from the broken windows of the building. "The neck, the throat, it pops right open doesn't it. With a little help of a knife, or, in your case, a people opener." Lucas voice was hoarse, rough, almost like it didn't belong to the Warden son. "I'll kill you-" "-Bold words, coming from a dead man." Rodriguez's eyes widened as blood began to flow out of his nose. "What did you do to me?" He coughed out "Oh, I already killed you three hours ago, that bourbon was good wasn't it?" Rodriguez dropped to the ground as the poison now started to kill him. He gasped, "What kind of poison is this?" Lucas chuckled, "One of my own invention." Rodriguez's life slipped out of his eyes. Lucas walked out, leaving a simple note, 'This is your swan song.'
A few miles away Lucas walked into a bar, "Listen kid, if I'm going to keep serving you, you at least need to get a fake ID." Lucas downed a shot, "I'm working on it, I don't quite have that skill yet". The bartender gave Lucas a soft look "You're going to burn yourself out, what are you trying to prove, son? You had a life, a good life, you got lucky, and you threw it away". Lucas stared at the jukebox in front of him while Lee-Anne was crying in the corner again, sometimes she got on his nerves but when she wasn't a nervous wreck, she was alright. "So what? I just leave it now? I already started like the optimistic idiot I am." he downed another shot "What am I supposed to do, Jim?" Jim, the bartender, didn't know what to say. "Optimism, is what makes us human, too much optimism, is what kills us." Lucas doesn't look up from the counter, in a lot of ways Jim was wise, this was one of them. "Get some rest, kid." Lucas doesn't argue at that point, he headed up to the room Jim gave him and passed out, as soon as his head hit the pillow. 

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Lucas was trying to get something stuck in the vending machine out when somebody kicked it a certain way and the food came out. "These vending machines suck." Lucas spun around, it was Jace O'Dany, the deer kid he briefly had math class with. "The cops are looking everywhere for you." Lucas pocketed the food, "Well they can keep looking." He walks away. "Was it you?" Lucas got confused "Finish the question." Jace continued "The one who's been murdering deviaphobics the past 8 months. It can't be a coincidence, you take off the tracker, and people start dying". 
Lucas spins around and slams Jace into the wall, "What are you going to do to me, announce my swan song?" Lucas' eyes narrow, "Easy, deer boy. I can make the last 20 minutes of your life miserable". Jace sighed, "Look, I want in." Lucas nearly allows his demeanor to slip, but he stops himself just in time "What? Why do you want in?". Jace sighs, "Because I've done nothing with meaning, and now I want to actually do my part, you know?". Lucas doesn't allow himself to soften, but he lets go of Jace, "Your job, is to get a job, support the economy, get married, and make babies. Goodbye". "Wait" Jace called out, "I can pull my weight". Lucas sighed "I work alone dude, don't want any attachments." Jace studied Lucas for a moment, "How do you know I won't report you?" 
Lucas didn't turn around, but Jace could swear he felt the air thicken, "Because if you value your life, you'll keep your mouth shut. If you tell anybody about seeing me here, I'll come for you". Lucas turned a corner and Jace could've sworn he disappeared into thin air. 

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Lucas was packing his bags and Jim was in the doorway listening to him ramble. "I knew I stayed here too long, damn, why did I think I could have something nice!?" He exclaimed as he threw clothes into his duffel. Jim looks at his watch, "You done yet?" Lucas glances at him "Yes I am, done with this place. It's only a matter of time. I mean, unless I kill the guy, but what good will that do, he hasn't committed a crime to me yet?". Jim sighs, "You're not going anywhere, son, why? Because you need to calm down, your paranoia isn't going to keep you alive forever. When you have something you love, fight for it". Lucas stops what he's doing "Fight for what? For them to kill you, for me to get arrested". Jim sighs "They'll kill me anyways, I harbored a criminal, whether you're here or not. I have a better chance if you're here". Lucas puts his duffel down, "Fine, but you can't say I didn't warn you." 
As Jim leaves the room Lucas sighs, shutting the door behind him and slowly unpacking his duffel. He couldn't shake the bad feeling in his gut, it wasn't paranoia this time, something bad was going to happen. Lucas couldn't put his finger on what was going on, but it was bad. Part of him wanted to kill Jace and get it over with, but another part of him knew that Jace was innocent. Lucas didn't want to go down the path of killing innocents, if there was one trail he wouldn't go down on, it was that one. Lucas headed out of his room and up the fire escape to the roof of the pub, he looked down at the streets below with a thoughtful look. If he couldn't kill Jace, he had to satisfy him. Satisfying him meant letting him work with him, Lucas didn't know if he was ready for that. The smokey and disgusting air from the slums wasn't very inviting, but it was better than the sometimes suffocating scents down in the bar. Lucas was no light weight, especially by now, but damn, did those guys smoke. He was getting used to it by now, but when he first took refuge in the bar, there were some nights when he couldn't even breathe. 
After being on the roof for a few hours he headed downstairs and opened his journal, he hadn't written in his journal in a little over four months. Looking back at it, he's seeing how much he's changed. From the selfish and stupid teenager he was to the stealthy antihero. It's been months since he's seen Thea and Mathius, nearly two years since he's heard of his dad. Lucas wondered if his dad was still alive, he knew his mom's fate, but he didn't know his dad's. If his dad escaped, if he's being tortured, if he got killed; Lucas couldn't know. Part of him was really tempted to go check, but his common sense overpowered his emotions on this choice. He turned on the old TV in the room and watched the news. He wasn't surprised when he saw a reporter talking about Rodriguez and spinning it around to make Lucas look like the bad guy. He changed the channel until he found a news article, a dead man, with his tag, but Lucas didn't kill that one. "Dammit Jace!".