Grace/Gene/Mason

Chapter 3

With the focus off of his new friends and their strange abilities for the time being, Ari began answering Bouche, Jessie and June's many questions.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Jessie asked immediately, cutting off the others.

Ari smirked for a moment, not realizing he had caused such a scene earlier that day. He began explaining to his new friends that he had been training hard for his entire life. Telling them all how he held multiple awards in various forms of martial arts however, he still had much to learn as a fighter. Martial arts were a relic of the old world though by some inconceivable manner, it had managed to withstand the test of time.

“What is it that brings you to Ends County?”

June's question caused a shift in the air of the room. Almost before she had finished speaking, Ari's face visibly changed, contorting with a mix of anger and sorrow that startled his new friends.

"I am here, I’m looking for someone,” Ari said quite vaguely then stopped.

“What do you mean?” June asked, her curiosity piqued now.

“Yeah man,” Jessie added, “You can't just say that and then not tell us the details.” Ari looked up at them, unsure of whether to bring them into his past. This was not a story he had ever told. Of course, he re-lived his troubling past experiences every night while lying awake; however, not once had he ever spoken the words out loud. The words that told the story of what led him down the path he was currently on. Could he truly lay all of this on people he had just met? Were there words that existed to convey such horrors? Normally it would seem insane to place that much burden on a virtual stranger though, Ari was fond of these new friends. There was something about them.

Ari felt he could trust these people he had met. Many times, he had met others in his travels, though this felt extremely unprecedented. These people had shared so much with him already. Maybe he was repaying a debt in a manner of speaking. It was only courteous of him to return the favor.

Ari's internal deliberation on the matter continued for a moment until Jessie barged right into his line of thinking, “Come on story time! Whatever it is, we can keep a secret!” Jessie was always the over eager type.  Rash and not one to give heed to warnings.  

To learn of one of the most psychopathic and deranged human beings that existed or might have ever existed. One so foul they could bring down legions of people with words alone. An ego and psyche that is almost unrecognizable when contrasted among the human race. Yes, Jessie did come to regret his initial reasoning however, it was not at first.

Unaware of what was to come, the group's eyes lit up and other patrons of the bar began to eavesdrop on Ari as he cleared his throat and began to tell them of a man named Gene Ward. Gene was a youth leader in his hometown of Avignon. Ari told them of his parent's desire to provide his little brother a more secular upbringing than Ari had growing up. His little brother, Augi, began going to a youth group led by this priest named Gene. At first, everything seemed normal and Augi was truly happy. He was making many new friends from day one, something that he was uncomfortable with up until he joined the group. “Always so shy,” Ari said as if he were looking into the past fondly. “He loved that group; he honestly would never shut up about it. All the fun he was having. We were all so happy for him. That's probably why we never noticed...”

Everyone began to slowly lean in, as if Ari's words were physically pulling them by unseen gravitational forces. “After a while Augi began to change, there was a darkness about him,” Ari told them as his face began to sour. Ari explained that his little brother had stopped listening to their parents and took up many activities in which Ari referred to as 'dark hobbies'. Describing to everyone the numerous times he would catch his younger brother playing around with roadkill or torturing small animals. At first, Ari was unable to correlate the cause and effect of it all. In his mind at that point, this new group Augi was a part of was completely unrelated to the strange new behaviors. He wished to keep his brother safe from any trouble, therefore not telling his parents of the things Augi had been up to. Admitting that this was probably one of his biggest regrets, Ari explained that he was working while attending school full time and was rarely ever home. Those lapses in time with his family was most likely the reason he was the only one who noticed as his younger brother began to slowly change.

That was where the story began to turn drastically. Ari's face had signaled the dark shift in tone as he almost looked ill recalling the horrible events of the day he lost everything. There were a few times that he had to pause, for he could not physically carry on with the story. However, he realized how far he had already made it and that it was too late for him to stop now.

Then, after a moment of pause, Ari told them of the day he came home to find Augi standing over their parent's bodies laughing and crying hysterically. Having not heard Ari come in, Augi bent over and continued stabbing the lifeless corpses endlessly, his laughter growing with each grotesque spurt of blood. It was clear that the knife in the boy's hand was the weapon used to stab them both repeatedly until they had ceased moving. Augi’s blood was also spilling as the blood from his parents caused the knife to become too slippery to be held firmly. However, he did not seem to notice or even wince at the pain from his sliced up hands.

Ari recalled the murmured chanting his young brother had been repeating himself, “I can see the lights!” That one phrase, over and over without end. His voice was cracked and dried, they had been repeated to no end. Ari screamed in terror at the sight as Augi turned around to acknowledge him, finally realizing that his beloved brother had finally returned home. Augi giggled then rushed in with such speed and ferocity, Ari proclaimed that he had no time to think. Acting solely off muscle memory and adrenaline, he threw Augi off of him before he could strike him with the knife. The young boy fell chest first on the knife he was wielding as he toppled across the ground. It was all over in the blink of an eye.

“I have to go to Go-, Gene..” Augi's final words slowly left saddled upon his final breath. They were all gone now, Ari's entire family ended in an afternoon. His mind was immediately consumed by the maddening loneliness that overcame him in the moments of that harsh realization. His family was gone now.

“That's awful,” June cried as Ari took a moment to breathe. Bouche had noticed that sweat was pouring from Ari now. His white shirt had become nearly transparent in spots from the stress of reliving that sunny afternoon of the cool season.

“I know that was hard for you,” Bouche stated earnestly, “However we are glad you were able to share that with us.”

Ari's eyes suddenly darted up at them, “There's a lot more,” he declared, almost sounding panicked.

“You don't have to-,” Bouche began to say, but was cut off by Ari.

The young out of towner before them was now too far in to go back. As if possessed, his experience poured out before them. Though everyone already appeared as they had heard quite enough, they had not even begun to touch the surface of the depraved scene that changed Ari. No longer was Ari worried about how they would handle it, they were all past the point of no return already. Ari was entranced. He was no longer telling a story but reliving it all aloud.

They all began to sit back and continue listening as Ari went on, telling of how he finally managed to calm himself down, assessing his new rather horrendous reality.

“I didn't know what to do, none of it felt real. I just sat there hysterical for what felt like days but in reality, maybe fifteen minutes passed,” Ari explained. Time had ceased to have meaning to him any longer. It was now just a concept to him as he begged and pleaded for his family to return to him.

“He said his name, I'll never forget it,” Ari said in a hushed voice as if he were telling a very intimate secret with them all. Ari then immediately headed to the building Augi attended his youth group under Gene's tutelage. It was that phrase, that mantra, which Augi had been chanting. It had to have been something he learned from the youth group.

As Ari finally arrived, his gait began to lighten. He ceased running as the scene before him finally came into view. Much to his horror, many dead bodies were littered across church grounds. Small corpses, clearly around the same age as Augi. A brutal canvas of dark red and green hues contrasted an otherwise beautiful cool season’s day. Ari knew it was connected.

All of it pained Ari immensely. Certainly, he was on the right track to discovering what was responsible for bringing about such a violent change in his younger brother. There was blood splattered across the yard indicating the bodies were striking the ground with incredible force. The blood began pooling to the point where individual blades of grass began disappearing within it.

Ari told his friends in detail, that harrowing sight which presented itself before him. The smell was putrid, causing Ari to fall to his knees, vomiting until he eventually became accustomed to it. “There is something about people,” he said, recalling a lesson he had learned at that moment. “We just adapt and grow desensitized to the point where I actually stood up and began walking through the blood-soaked front yard of the church. At some point it reached my ankles...” Then as his legs gained new strength and found the will to continue, another child came crashing down from the top of the building right before him. The kid squirmed around on the ground for a moment as the fall was not high enough to cause an immediate death. Unfortunate for the young girl at his feet. With wide eyes, Ari watched as the life slowly faded from her eyes. They were hollow, vapid eyes, as if they had been erased of any shred of humanity.

Everything was going on just above him. It was faint; however, he could hear it. That chant again. The same one as Augi repeated as if he were an old record on a loop. That meaningless, nonsensical phrase. Ari raced to the top to find out what exactly was going on. There he found Gene, the new priest who oversaw the youth group. Gene was standing watch among the few children that remained in his care, overseeing a death match between two children. The two young boys were fighting on the edge of the building. Their faces were bloodied and swollen from beating one another mercilessly.

"What the hell is this, what are you doing?"

To this, Gene simply laughed, “They are earning God's love..”

After months of psychological manipulation, Gene had turned the youth group of children into warped killing machines. That day was the day they were to reach salvation as Gene described it. They had been instructed to kill their families and meet at the church. Everyone was going to meet God. Everyone was going to escape this harsh existence in a foreign world.

There on the roof a battle royale was held and only one was to remain. The last one was chosen to lead the world toward a new future according to Gene. Gene was explaining this to Ari with a most disturbing look of pleasure in his face. As if he were an author creating a story from his own twisted imagining. He was proud of the scene he had orchestrated and elated to now have an audience. Something that he had never in all his years realized was missing.

Just as Gene finished vainly fabricating the terms of salvation to Ari, the kids suddenly stopped what they were doing and began chanting in unison. Gene raised his arm up into the air ordering the children to pick up their various sticks and other weapons they had put together as part of club activities.

“Now kill this nonbeliever! He is against our future.”

More in control of his emotions and power now, Ari stated that he carefully managed to knock the children out one by one without shedding any more innocent blood.

“They were psychopaths not fighters,” he recalled, “However, it was all a ploy.”

After dealing with the youth group, Ari looked up to find Gene had completely fled the scene, escaping Ari's wrath. Gene had his fun and deserted his creation.

After Ari had searched around to see if he could still catch Gene, he called for the authorities to explain what happened and gave his statement. The church grounds were immediately taped off as Ari stood out front, lighting a cigarette, watching as seasoned officers of the law began vomiting, some fainting and some even shedding tears at the sight that lay before them. He watched a slew of bodies being exhumed from the church and the grounds by the stern, hardened faces of emergency workers. They found the minister and other members of the clergy in the back. They had been dead for some time leaving Gene to move freely.

Around that very moment, a man had run up in hysterics, demanding to know what happened. It must have been a concerned parent; Ari had thought initially. Though if Gene's orders had been followed, which they were to the letter, none of these children's families were alive. However, after Ari explained the scene before them, he continued his interrogation.

"His arm?" Ari did not understand at first.

“Was his left arm missing?” the man shouted more frantically with each shaking breath.

Shocked, Ari slowly nodded yes to confirm the man's suspicions. The man broke down before him, eyes tightly shut. Involuntary convulsions began taking over the man’s body as Ari began to cease nodding.

“He cannot be stopped, he can't, he won't, he can't..!" Bang.

Smoke, blood and skull fragments was all Ari could recall from that moment. His cigarette fell from his mouth and sizzled as it extinguished itself in the blood on the ground. His ears rang from his proximity to the man. The strange man had pulled the gun with haste. Ari had never even seen one in real life before, but he had heard stories. The man had ended his own life there on the side of the street without a moment’s hesitation.

The police had quickly rushed over to the two as Ari took a step back and explained he did not know who the man was. The man's identification card stated his name was Kenneth Menta. It was a mystery who Menta was in a small town where most people knew each other. No one had ever seen this man before.

Paramedics began to take the body when a car pulled up. Inside was a man who claimed to be a private detective. He was looking for a man suspected of killing his family. The news of the church's gruesome scene had made it to the town, so he had rushed over. “I just knew he would show up here,” the detective claimed. Ari continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.

According to this detective from the town over, Kennenth Menta had lost his entire family to a person described simply as a tall and slender man named Grace Wayne who was missing his left arm. The detective stated he had no confirmation, nor did he have proof of this individual's existence until Ari piped in and confirmed the description Menta had originally given. Everyone in his department had believed Menta to be the killer. The detective stated he was the only one sure of Menta’s innocence and had spent the past two months coordinating with law enforcement agencies in other areas. Based on the information he received, he managed to compile a profile on the enigma that was passing through these towns.

Ari explained to his new friends how the detective gave a recount of what was believed to be all the information the detective had on this mystery man. Ari was informed that this man, “Gene,” went from town to town, assuming a different alias each time, causing chaos wherever he went. No one knew what District he was born in or when his crime spree began. The detective told Ari he estimated the body count behind the one-armed man in the hundreds, yet he had never been known to lay a finger on anyone.

“After that day, I dropped everything and went on the hunt,” Ari stated, his voice sort of unraveling now. “I've come close to him twice since then. Though, I never have been able to stop him in time. All I know is that his real name is Mason. I've managed only that much in all this time. He shared it with me last time. He thinks we are friends or something… I don’t even know…”

Since that fateful afternoon, he had been searching for the man endlessly following him through the trail of madness and death he left in his wake. Each time he could only watch as he found himself too late to do anything to help the lives Mason destroyed. He had now told his entire story and it almost felt cathartic for him in a manner of speaking. Here in Ends County, he had met friends he could trust enough to hear of his past. He had met people in his travels, but nothing like what he was experiencing now. Nantis. It was still too much for even him to reason with. Ari looked up to find his new friends were silently still, their mouths agape.

“Holy shit!” Jessie called out, breaking the silence of the room with his usual tact.