Illumination and Umbra

Illumination and Umbra, Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don’t own any original characters from Heartless City. Those are property of JTBC. I do however own all of the other random ones that show up within these pages.

Illumination and Umbra

Chapter Two

There’s a boy laughing as he stumbles through the streets, weaving and winding throughly dimly lit alley ways. He’s cackling on a endless euphoric high, unaware of the blood dripping from his fingers as he wrings his hands back and forth. He’s a boy of eighteen, but he’d snarl at any anyone who dared to call him less than a man. He pays for his respect, and friends, with his family’s well padded pockets, and his branded clothes reflect his own taste.

He’s laughing on an endless loop, replaying over and over scenes in his head. At the club partying, tossing back drink and drink, party favors, girls on his lap, the white noise of his friend’s talking in his ear, dancing, that girl. That girl with the long black hair, red luscious lips, long legs that had been so eager to wrap around him…. Hotel room… white walls, white sheets, white carpet…. like a pristine bridal suite… shared red wine…

Red wine, red walls, red sheets, red black hair, red lips stretched out in death’s grimace….

He’s laughing and he can’t stop, the noises coming out of his mouth are choking him. He can’t stop, he can’t breathe. He’s putting stained hands to his face, leaving red streaks on his already red splashed cheeks. He’s falling against a wall, the laughter is overwhelming him, his vision is turning black but he’s still laughing….

There’s a boy who drops down, caught in death’s final game. His eyes are wide open with a glaze of amusement, his mouth is locked in a final grin.

Elsewhere there’s a man standing on a roof and he gazes out and surveys this city, so bright and beautiful but ugly and vile. He’s lost in his thoughts of streets and violence and song when a call comes in. Still looking out, he puts the phone to his ear and he’s listening to words he’d hoped not to hear but there’s no stopping the turning of time and ambition of man.

“There’s been another body found. That’s makes number fourteen.”

“Are you sure?”

“Same signs as the others. He also killed a girl before he succumbed to the full effects it seems. Her body was found in a hotel room the next day. Nasty stuff.”

“That makes twenty five victims so far.” The man runs a hand through his dark hair.

“Have the police made a connection?”

“So far it seems they’re just thinking it’s a drug overdose coupled with homocide, but I can only muddy the water for so long before they start to get suspicious. And once they get a scent they’ll be worse than sharks in bloody water.”

Shutting off his phone without answering, the man walks to the edge and looks down at the city. This city currently with it’s treacherous secrets so craftily concealed, like an old friend greeting with a wide smile while hiding a knife behind their back.

He takes one last look out and turns around, straightening his shoulders in his black suit as he leaves, the sound of his footsteps echoing against the dusky sky. He nods to the man waiting for him by the stairs. The situation was as bad as he thought, if not horribly worse, and the bodies were still piling up.

———–

A single light swung back and forth like a metronome against the inky blackness of the stark empty warehouse, devoid of objects except a single steel chair. The chair was currently being occupied by the smallish stout of frame of Do-Shik, a man of middle age who liked to clothe himself head to toe in bright garish patterns, with a mop of curly brown hair that bore the signs of too many perms. His latest mistress behind his back frequently compared him to a pig that had been fattened up for a king’s banquet. His small beady eyes were fixed wide in his round face with wide gaze of horror as he struggled desperately against the ropes that bound his arms and legs.