A Fan Till Death Do Us Part - Anthology / CLOSED

Within - @xX-Strangeness-Xx

He gazes out the window at the end of his patience.

When will he come? When? Stefano's been waiting. Waiting long and hard for Sebastian to arrive. To show him the art he has made.

Where is he?!

He has last been here hours ago. He must be holed up in a safe-house somewhere... but it was so unlikely. In all his godly omniscient power, he hasn't found any vital signs of Sebastian. A silent flatline. 

The only pulses that have resonated are that of the three Mobius operatives and his masterpieces scattered about. But they mean nothing. He knows the only audience to ever watch would be Sebastian, and Sebastian only.

Stefano glances back up at the giant camera being in the sky, its black tentacles driving into the broken land like roots. He self-consciously brushes the eye under his black bang, the same one he had given up to create the all-seeing camera lense. The flesh still throbbed under his fingertips, but wow, had it been worth it!

He senses something at last, a faint heartbeat in the distance. The singular, distinct heartbeat. At once his focus goes back to the cracked land just outside the Theatre, the barbed wire protecting it long gone, destroyed just before Sebastian went into hiding.

But now he is on his way at last. Stefano smiles as the tiny figure comes closer, holding a weapon in his hand as always.

The smile dulls. Sebastian is the only one with a heartbeat in all of Union. Nothing resonates from any of the Mobius operatives, nor his own creations. All have dropped out from the frequencies. Not even Obscura's constant sounds of curious marvelling don't come through. They have just suddenly cut out.

The man jumps over fences effortlessly and slashes every oncoming monster down with ease, as if controlled by a higher force. A clean, crisp bandage covers his forehead.

Sebastian walks boldly through where the fence had been and, taking his leisurely time, crosses the empty space between the border and the theatre doors. The artist leaves his post to prepare for the show.

Although he knows everything is in order, the performance will be even better if he tops it off with an appearance to his own gorey 'art.'

The red curtains flap in the hallways as if there's a breeze, surrounded by the discarded movie previews that hang on the walls. Half-way to the stage. He hasn't heard the theatre doors open just yet. The audience must be taking his time. Stefano doesn't waste it on the double-doors into the actual theatre; he simply teleports to the other side.

Sebastian still does not come through, and it sends a pang of worry through the artist. He assures himself- why would he come this far if he refuses to attend the show?

He walks proudly down the aisle, Union citizens squirming to his left and right with bags on their heads. Whatever sound they are making, it's muffled by the explosives he has attached to their faces under the bags.

Stefano is only halfway to the stage when he stops at the sensation of stepping in something wet. He looks down. A small puddle of some liquid pools at his feet. In an instant, he's thrown to the ground. His camera skitters a few feet away, just out of reach. He rolls over and sees his attacker.

Sebastian.

All his firearms are discarded, leaving only a single knife in his belt. His skin is oddly pale for a man like him, and the bandage has been torn off to reveal what looks like the scars of a lobotomy. It is difficult to tell the color of his eyes- a fiery red, or an icy blue.

This could not have been the man who Stefano had last seen only an hour before.

"Where is she?" comes the first obvious question. His voice is distorted.