Perfect Wishes
By Billy_Ray77
Chapter 18: Descent
“I’m a joker... I’m a smoker... I’m a midnight toker...” I sang along cheerfully with the radio as I pulled into the driveway. I grabbed the pizzas and headed in.
Just before I reached the door I stopped. Something wasn’t right. It was too quiet. I couldn’t sense any emotions from the house. Dropping the boxes I rushed in.
“Melody! April!” I ran through the house. I found her in the kitchen.
The table was on its side. There were utensils scattered on the counter and floor. There was blood all over the floor. April lay amidst it.
As gently as I could I cradled her in my arms.
“Oh God, sweetie, what did they do to you?” I whispered in anguish. “MELODY!” I screamed knowing she wasn’t here. Who could have done this? Where could Melody be?
I returned my attention to April. There was a spark of life. I heard a ragged exhale and pink froth speckled her lips. Her eyes were open but they weren’t focused on anything. She was dying in my arms.
I sent my eye into her and found three ribs in her back had been broken and plunged into her left lung. The lung was collapsed. I tried to heal her but it didn’t work.
I had never healed another person before. I remembered when I took over Danny’s body. I had moved his ribs and mended his heart before entering. I could do this; I just had to do it like I did it with Danny.
I tried putting myself back in that frame of mind. I pushed the ribs out and tried mending the lung. It was working. I looked for other problems. There were many other broken bones but nothing life threatening. Her spleen had ruptured and a kidney was crushed, I worked on repairing those. Sever head injury, brain swelling could be an issue, she needed a hospital. I needed to find Melody.
Her lung was taking a long time. A lung isn’t a balloon, it is a million tiny balloons and I had to fix all the broken ones.
As I concentrated on healing April I suddenly realized that I wasn’t ‘in’ April anymore, I ‘was’ April.
She must have been so close to death. In healing her the same way I did Danny’s body, my power thought I was committing to April’s body. I was in her mind—I was her mind. I knew her hopes and dreams. I had all her thoughts and memories as though they were my own. I felt the love she had for Melody and I. I relived the fury with which she had fought off the men who attacked the house, and the fear she felt as she fell, knowing that there was no one left to protect Melody.
I couldn’t be here. April was still here—she wasn’t dead yet. I pulled back. It was too hard. I started getting dizzy. I was succumbing to the unconsciousness that currently bound April’s body. I reached out for my own body and found it. Anchoring part of my mind there I pulled with all my might, it was like trying to pull myself through a large vat of molasses. I pulled harder, then harder... and then... Darkness.
I woke up looking at the kitchen ceiling. I looked around and found I was lying next to April. I don’t know how long I had been there. I rolled to my knees. And checked her.
She was still breathing, but just barely, her heartbeat was faint. I picked up her as gently as I could. I carried her into the living room and lay her on the sofa. I prayed she would make it. I was still worried about her head but I had done all I could. I kissed her gently and stood. I had no idea how long I had been out. I had to find Melody.
I looked for the phone. I saw the clock; I had been out for hours.
Then I saw it. In my rush through the room earlier I hadn’t noticed the item sitting on the TV. It was a video camera with cables connecting it to the set. I turned on the TV and pushed play.
I found the phone and called 911 while the video started and pleaded for an ambulance for April, I gave them the address. I wondered if she would still be alive when they arrived.
The TV had my attention.
Bob stood in front of the house looking at the camera and speaking in hushed tones. “Okay Boy Scout,” Bob was saying, “you want to fuck with me? Lets see what that gets you.”
He turned to the door, entered and stood aside. Drones poured past him. Melody started to come out of the kitchen, saw the men, screamed and ducked back in.
The drones went after her. Whoever was holding the camera was right behind them. As it entered the kitchen April was pulling a knife out of a drone’s neck and swinging it at the next closest one. Melody was behind her. April slashed them with her knife keeping them at bay for several seconds. Finally one of the drones rushed her, taking the knife deep in his chest. As he died he grabbed her wrist preventing her from pulling the knife out just long enough for the rest to reach her.
She tried to keep fighting. She tried to stay between them and Melody. She was valiant and fierce. But there were too many and they were too big. It was over in a minute. Then they were on Melody. She was watching April fall and screaming. A drone had each arm. One stood behind her and clamped his hand over her mouth.
Bob entered the picture; he glanced back to make sure I could see Melody in the frame.
“That’s a damned shame.” He said looking down at April. “But we still have this one.” He gestured towards Melody. “Now then, what should we do with her?” He signaled to someone off camera and a drone approached her, ripping open her shirt. “I know... its not Friday, but they have worked so hard tonight! Lets go boys!”
They dragged her out. Just before shutting off the camera, Bob came back into frame and said, “By the way... we are all out of KY Jelly.” Then he laughed and the picture went black.
The trip to the office was a blur.
I tried calling Stuart but he wasn’t in. Of course he wouldn’t be at this time of night. I reached him on his cell.
“I don’t know,” he said after I told him what had happened. “Sounds like they were both with you out of their own free will. That doesn’t mark them as your property. That just makes them dead heads up for grabs. So it looks like you stole Bob’s property. Look, best advice I can give you is to just hole up for a few weeks. Stay out of sight. Bob will calm down and we can probably get him to accept a cash settlement for you busting up his club. If you start trying to throw your weight around now, we’re gonna have to put you down.”
“I want to talk to Tex.”
“He is gonna say the same thing. Hell, boy, he may not even give you the option of laying low. He may just have you come right in so we can blow you away. No... you stay put and don’t stick your head up for a few weeks. This will all blow over.”
I threw the phone out the window.
Tires squealing I pulled up to the office.
I entered the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor. As it rose I sent out multiple eyes to try and find Melody. I searched the apartments, the offices and the conference rooms. It was too many eyes. My stomach flipped. On my hands and knees, retching uncontrollably I finally I found her in the main conference room.
By the time the elevator reached it’s destination I had finished puking and was back on my feet. I strode through the hall rapidly; reaching the doors to the office I blasted them off their hinges.
Gary burst out of his office and I slammed him through the wall back into it; he lay limp and broken over his desk.
I headed towards the room Melody was in. A mental eye swept the offices to either side of me looking for any signs of the Telepaths.
I saw streaks of fire zipping across my path. I took out the machine gun out with a mental ram carrying all the strength I could muster.
The guns were hidden behind the wall. I had no idea where they were until they started firing. Those controlling the guns were watching cameras hidden about the complex, but not connected to the guns. The only chance I had was that the remote operators couldn’t adjust the direction of their fire until they after they began throwing tracers. Assuming the gun wasn’t pointing at me with its first burst I should have a few seconds to destroy it before rounds started hitting me.
As soon as one would fire I would hit it with my two thousand pound sledgehammer. Utterly destroying it. Most of them weren’t pointed at me. I took a few slugs but I had already turned off my nerves and didn’t care. I had to reach Melody.
Drones swarmed in upon me. Time slowed, making it easier to take out the guns but with the added distraction of the drones more bullets found their mark. Any of the drones able to avoid my telekinetic bolts caught a foot or fist and went to sleep.
It didn’t matter how many I blew away with my mental blasts they kept coming. The machine guns mowed them down as they searched for me. The drones were fanatics of the worst kind. They had no choice, no other options; they had to stop me no matter what. I didn’t have a choice either.
Don came around a corner and hit me with his fire. My shield deflected it. More rounds hit me as I sent a bolt of energy through his forehead.
No signs of Bob. No problem. Once I got Melody to safety I would deal with him.
There was door I was looking for. I threw a drone through it and saw her.
She was bound to the X-frame. He had shackled her wrists with chains just long enough for her to get her hands in front of her. Her waist was tightly bound to the frame and her feet were free. He did all that on purpose. He wanted her to resist. He wanted her to fight. The drones had gotten what they were told to get, and they hadn’t been nice about it. Drones were still lined up and one was starting to fuck her. I snatched him with my mind and threw him against the wall.
She had been here for hours and wasn’t resisting any more. An unspeakable amount of blood and cum had run down her legs and pooled at her feet. I could see bloody patches of raw skull through missing clumps of her golden hair. Blood from her flattened nose ran down her chin and streaked her once lovely chest. Her lips were swollen and adding their blood to that from her nose. Her jaw was slack and at an odd angle. I could see she had teeth missing. Her right arm was bent one too many times between her shoulder and the iron cuff holding her delicate wrist. Her battered body was mottled with red welts and angry purple bruises.
I saw all this as I rushed to her, Throwing bolts as fast as I could. Drone bodies broke and flew around the room. Snapping her bindings with my mind she fell into my arms.
Weakly, barely conscious, one eye focused on me, the other drifted off to the left, she managed through swollen lips and a broken jaw to say, “I... I knew...you... would...” but that was all. She never drew another breath with which to finish her sentence.
My beautiful, delicate flower was dead. Desperately I searched for a spark of life. I could try to save her like I had tried with April. But she was gone.
She had gamely held on. Knowing I would rescue her she refused to submit to the unconsciousness that would have spared her much suffering. She had endured it waiting for me and I hadn’t come in time.
I wondered how many times the door had opened and she had looked, hoping to see me come charging through it, only to see another tormentor walk in.
My perfect memory betrayed me and I was assailed with a clear vision of me, sitting on a bed, my arm around Melody’s quivering bare shoulder assuring her that no one would ever hurt her again.
It was my biggest lie to this sweet angel.
I hugged her to me, too late to protect her, too late to save her.
The drones poured through the door and I put my body between Melody and them. Fists, feet and various weapons rained down on me. I quit caring and the block on my nerves dropped. I screamed. Not in pain, in despair. I deserved the pain. My pain mattered not. The blows I absorbed mattered not. The blood pumping from a dozen bullet holes mattered not. Only Melody mattered and she was gone. Before long, so was I.
I floated above the fray. Even my spirit was numb. I looked, hoping that in my ethereal form I might see Melody in hers. I couldn’t. Maybe she had been gone too long.
The drones were still beating at my body. To dedicated to their masters to stop.
These were the bastards who had beaten and fucked my little beauty to death. They had tortured her for hours. In a rage I struck out. Fighting the pressure trying to draw me to my next body I swept the room brutally.
Broken bodies flew against the walls.
I was still trying to lash out as I was pulled away.
The ground flashed by. I had no idea where I was headed.
I was in an alley. It was dark and wet. A boy of about 17 lay under a makeshift shelter of cardboard. He was gaunt, long blondish hair and pale skin. A needle in his arm told me all I needed to know. He was already gone or I wouldn’t be here.
I purged the poisons from his body and committed.
When I awoke it was night—still or again? I didn’t care. I lay amidst a pool of vomit, urine and diarrhea. I didn’t care. All I cared about was finding mind fuckers and killing them as brutally as I could.
I rose and left the alley. Passersby looked at me with distaste as my stench hit them. I didn’t care. Fuck them. None of them had done anything to help April or Melody.
I looked around and realized I was in New Orleans. The location of the local office came immediately to my mind. I started running, lashing out before me. People were thrown to the ground.
Fuck them. They let it happen.
But they didn’t let it happen. I let it happen. I sobbed as I ran. I reached the building I was looking for. I pounded through the main doors to the office. There was a bimbo at the front desk. I slapped her unconscious and headed deeper into the complex.
My mental eye found a group of four telepaths just noticing the commotion.
I blew apart the wall and was among them. Four blasts of fire hit my shield. Prickles of heat leaked through and I relished the pain as I reached out and snapped a neck.
Drones streamed in through both the door and the hole I had made. The telepaths backed away as the horde of drones tried to take me down. I helped one of the telepaths with a one-ton shove and his skull splattered against a steel window frame. Then the drones overwhelmed me. I was striking out with my hands, feet and mind. Drones flew away from me as fast as they poured in. I was holding one by the neck, his feet off the floor. Just as I felt the satisfying squish of his windpipe collapsing—his head exploded. I hadn’t done that. Then my arm exploded. I hadn’t done that either. A streak of something scribed an angry red line across my bicep, quickly followed by another, which brushed just past my nose.
I was floating above the room. Tracers from the machine gun still stitched through it even though the danger was passed. The body I had so briefly occupied lay headless among a pile of dead and dying drones.
The ground flashed by. I needed to get back to California. I couldn’t tell which direction I was going.
A young man lay twisted at the bottom of a snowy ravine. Face down; his shoulder lay against a tree, his skis tilting off at an angle that didn’t seem possible. Three young women stood at the top crying and screaming a name. Two other young men worked their way down the side of the ravine calling the same name the women were screaming.
The mountains... Colorado, not California. Pass
Three teens were in a mangled car. I could fix any of them. Two boys and a girl. A flashlight shone over the scene. A Maine State Trooper held it. Pass.
Four kids were in the back of a pickup truck. It had been a drinking game. Three were unconscious. One was dead. He must have won. Texas license plate. Pass
A body floated in the water. Brackish water. A swamp. Pass
She was skinny. Too skinny. She was naked. Her feet tied to the legs of a wooden sawhorse. Her body bent over it and her hands tied as well. Two people, a man and a woman argue. He wasn’t supposed to kill her. Just beat her and fuck her. She was gagged. At some point she had thrown up, but the vomit couldn’t get past the gag. It filled her mouth and sinus cavity. She had drowned. He never stopped.
On the table. A phone book. Orange County.
I cleared the vomit from her lungs and airway blowing out the gag. I snapped the bonds and committed.
I struggled to remain conscious. Dizzy... everything foggy. Then it started to clear.
The man and woman looked at me with horror. Two quick flicks with my power and they were asleep.
While I looked for clothing I searched their minds, trying to find out who I was. The woman only knew her as Jasmine. No last name and she had no confidence in the veracity of the first. She didn’t care either.
He hadn’t even known that much. Didn’t even have a name to use when he would brag to his buddies how he was brought to orgasm by a skinny teenage hooker in her death throws.
Fuck them.
Dressed, I found my way to the street.
Fuck! Orange County... New York.
So. There were telepaths here. The location of the local office came unbidden to the front of my mind.
I needed a car. I had to keep moving. I had to find telepaths and kill them. I couldn’t afford to stop. If I stopped I may have time to think. I didn’t want to think. Not about...
Tears streaked my face and huge sobs racked my chest as I stumbled through a parking lot looking for a car with the keys in it.
Keys? Fuck.
A minute later I was roaring along a highway using telekinesis to help me make corners at speeds that were unthinkable. Tears blurred the road; they mingled with the saliva and snot speckling the windshield as I howled out my rage and anguish.
I’m not even sure I stopped the car before I jumped out in front of the office. The large window in the front imploded cutting the bimbo to shreds. I leapt through snarling like a feral animal. Two telepaths looked out to see what had happened and I snapped out a mental blade severing the head of one. The other disappeared. I followed and was beset by a dozen drones. I mowed them down trying to follow the telepath. I was more animal than human, growling and lashing out in all directions with every weapon I had. I was too focused on finding the telepath and many blows found their marks.
I tried to push the drone away but my arm was broken in too many places. I reveled in the pain. The physical pain drowns out the more horrible one. He wouldn’t leave so I darted my head forward and sunk my teeth into his neck.
Blood spewed over me as I twisted and yanked backward. He fell back and I spit out a large chunk of flesh I found in my mouth.
Something hit me from behind.
I was floating above the skinny young girl. She lay with her neck at an odd angle. A man stood over her with a stool. As I was pulled away I sent fire into his brain as long as I could reach.
There were more dead kids. Another body, another brief, violent existence.
Then more dead kids.
There were more deaths and more lives. More violence. I don’t know how many. I quit trying to figure out where I was. I had descended into sheer madness. I would look for a body I could animate and use immediately, enter it, and make my way to the nearest office as quickly as I could and kill as many as I could before I was killed.
Often the bodies were not in the best condition but I found that with rudimentary splints I could accomplish quite a bit even with several broken bones. The pain was welcome—it was penance for my greatest failure.
At some of the smaller offices the drones were armed and I died in a hail of bullets. A few times there were far too many telepaths and I was mentally burned to death. I considered that to be good practice for when I got to Hell. But then, I was already in Hell—a hell of fury and torment. I killed dozens of telepaths, hundreds of drones. I drown my rage in blood. But it couldn’t bring them back.
After a long while my anger was subsiding. My sorrow was not. I passed on body after body not caring. At least I couldn’t cry in this form.
I have no idea how much time passed. Perhaps minutes, perhaps days, perhaps weeks. I was drawn to death after death but none as horrible as the one death I needed to stop remembering.
I was about to let it all slip away when another memory came to me.
I was lying by a pool and asking two lovely girls, “Are you really going to let them get away with it?”
I had wanted to make sure they wouldn’t. I had believed in justice.
Justice...
Fuck justice...
Revenge.
The room was small, dim and cluttered. I was looking down at a boy of about 16. He had black hair just past his ears. He was skinny. There were porn magazines strewn about the bed. He was naked. There was a scarf tied around his neck.
It’s called autoerotic asphyxiation. The lack of oxygen to the brain is supposed to intensify orgasm. But sometimes a practitioner will pass out before or during orgasm and not have a chance to loosen whatever they were using to constrict their neck. That’s what happened here.
My mind loosened the scarf. I re-animated the body and committed.
When I woke, it was even darker than when I entered the body. The clock said 2:48. I rolled over. Magazines crunched under me but I paid them no mind. I buried my face in the pillow and cried for hours.
I must have cried myself to sleep because somebody was pounding on the door.
There was a female voice with a thick southern accent. “Get up, loser! Mom will be home soon and them dishes better be done or its my ass too!”
I sent out an eye and found a heavyset girl standing in a hall. She had stringy brown hair and too much make up. I read her and found out her name was Susan. My name was Wesley. Our mother worked the night shift at a manufacturing plant. There was no father. The mother usually stopped for a few drinks at a co-workers house on the way home. Generally she got home around nine in the morning, was drunk and—if the chores weren’t done—she was violent.
I had to wash the dishes or the mother would hurt us. Looking around I found a dirty pair of jeans and pulled them on. I unlocked the door and opened it.
She looked past me and saw the magazines on the bed and rolled her eyes in disgust.
“God you’re pathetic. Get your ass in the kitchen and get them dishes done.”
I brushed by her, fatigued, my thoughts in disorder, and headed down the narrow hall. It was a mobile home. It had two small bedrooms off a hall on one end and a larger bedroom at the other end. Between the sleeping areas was sandwiched a tiny living room and an even smaller kitchen
I started filling the sink with water and she flopped down in front of a nineteen-inch television. Music videos.
When I finished I went in and sat down. I was still in a fugue. I was exhausted. I was confused.
She rolled her eyes again. “You best hide them fuck rags before mom gets home. Remember last time.”
I didn’t. She did. I found it in her mind. The mother had beaten the boy with a broom and then called someone. A man. They called him Uncle Robby. He had come over. He had rolled up the offending periodical tightly and the boy received another beating, this time with his own magazine. After, the boy lay on the floor whimpering and was ignored while they ate and drank beer.
The uncle had taken the magazine with him when he left.
Nice family.
I went back to the room and stuffed them all under the mattress.
I was still confused. Where was I? I was supposed to be doing something—but what?
While cleaning up the magazines there had been an Asian girl with long black hair on one of the covers.
Long black hair...
Like Maria...
A lump in my throat... a hole in my heart.
Another hole in my heart.
April... Melody...
Memories came flooding in and I buried my face in the still damp pillow crying in despair.
The door was open. The girl must have heard me. I sensed her presence. She just stood there, watching. After a few long minutes I heard the door gently click shut.