Madness At Noon {COMPLETED}

Something Wicked This Way Comes 4/10

I did not run. There was no need. I stood and watched, eyes following the red pearls fall from the tip of the minute hand and scatter across the floor.

The man raised a gun before his brain could ever process what was about to happen to him.

I smiled.

A resounding BANG shook the kitchen.

"Now that's just overly dramatic."

In one slow blink, the scene transformed. A bullet, red hot and spinning, hung suspended in the air just between my eyes. A long line of ice trailed back in a glistening stream, back to the black gun, a twisting coil of smoke trapped inside of crystal glass.

Time stopped, and the Guard's heart, with a single touch. Encased in ice, the man was forever in that moment, the eyes beneath a heavy black tactical helmet empty beyond all emotion. A sculpture of a soldier, nothing more.

Death immortalized.

In a way, I envied Jack's gifts.

Our eyes met; Jack grinned wickedly, one hand running along the new sculpture of his creation. Frost played on his fingertips, the white ice reaching up in needled points from the sculpture to touch him like a dog greeting its master.

Cold, white mist rolled off Jack's shoulders, pouring down his back like cool water. The white wrapped around his feet and flared out, creeping across the floor. Silent, yet whispering.

The image struck me: a young man cloaked in white with blood pooling about his feet, smiling at the sheer carnage he had wrought.

I could not help but say it: "You remind me of the Gentleman."

The grin vanished, replaced at once with a snarl. "Say somethin' like that again, I'll freeze your lungs solid."

"You can try."

A smile played on my lips. But before we could begin this game again, the pressure in the air changed.

The kitchen door barely began to open when I whirled and hurled the silver minute hand as hard as I could. A hand appeared, pushing the swinging door just a crack, with the barrel of a machine gun not far behind. An eye leered in the darkness... blinked... and then was speared through.

A splat and a muffled thump, and the door swung shut.

I breathed in deeply. Better than any candle, sweeter than any wine, the air of my home was soaked in blood. Mmm. But heavens... it was going to take a very long time to mop it all from the floor.

I suppose that was why I kept slaves like Jack.

Except the young man seemed to have vanished entirely, leaving only a cool chill in the air and the frozen man-cicle. That was fine. Let him hunt. I needed to find my Cheshire. And if I found him in any other condition other than flawlessly perfect...

The Royal Guard was designed to face and contain the most hellish creatures on this earth. But they of all people should know: for every boogeyman, there was always a worse monster waiting below.

My fingers began to itch.

So the hunt begins and I – The ground pitched beneath my feet as the entire house shook. Almost at once smoke started to pour through the main ventilation vent above the stove range. My lips curled. "STOP LIGHTING MY THINGS ON FIRE, GODDAMN IT!"

Yanking the minute hand out of the dead Guard's mangled brain, I stormed down the hall, robe flared behind me, a streak of red in a bloodied house.

Someone-

No.

Everyone was going to die.