“Hey, Harvey”! A voiced called from the event room, it was a familiar voice; my friend had returned, this time she brought company; but she wouldn’t stay for long, I took the suitcases and prepared myself to say goodbye, already the tears started welling up in my eyes. I walked out the receptionist office and closed the doors behind me locking up for the night; my steps echoed of the walls of clear tile and I took the elevator into the event room, it was still beautiful and pristine as it always was; this place is an asylum, a home, a place to heal and forget your wounds, to have your sins forgiven, this is my home, as I speak my family rests peacefully and I am about to say goodbye to a member of the fold; with each step I took her voice grew louder, I felt my dread increased as I knew she would die a martyr for a cause she had no intention of being a part of, that man she was with; he wasn’t evil nor good, he’s just like me; a psychopath looking for a family and trying to make a difference in life, that is what scares the most, he sensed me to, my fear and insecurity; we’re on the same page, afraid of the uncertainties of the future; he had seen his share of loss, Elaine would be happy with him; I know it, but as a father I couldn’t bare the idea of losing my family, but against all reason and conventional wisdom: I’m letting her go, this is the last stage of her healing: I’ll trust this man, he’ll do great things eventually; he’s been through much in the past years, slowly become desensitized to the bloodshed and loss of his loved ones, yet he still remains compassionate to the few friends and family he has left; your sins are already forgiven, give yourself a second chance as you have forgiven those closest to you, you’re entitled to that much; his fear, his doubt all mirror my own when I was younger, he has found faith and belief in his life today; he sees Elaine as his last hope, he very well might be right; I saw my friend dressed in light red sweats and next to her I saw him, he was angel in his own right; he displayed himself as an impetuous mercenary full of bravado and charm; but inside he was still weak and fragile, his soul was knotted into a ball of pent up frustration and rage. I placed the bags on the ground and embraced Elaine after she slapped him in the face to make get a grip on things, “You sure know how to pick them”. “Shut up, Harvey; he’s cool, when he’s not being a spaz”. She said smiling coyly at him, “Tell me what’s your name, son”? He was dressed in a t-shirt and tattered jeans, “Ashton”; he replied, in his voice I sensed no paranoia, he knew what this was place and it would bring him no harm; “Tell me why we’re you so nervous a few minutes ago”. I felt the ground shake, “Nikolai, that’s why”: Ashton said grimly, “Harvey, Ashton who’s Nikolai”? A raging beast of a man stormed into the ball room, all I saw were the whites of his eyes; he cried out in guttural screams of rage mixed with agony; “I swear he’s such cry baby”, I walked forward and punched his abdomen and heard a snap, “Good at least I know you’re not off your rocker anymore”. He slammed his fist, I stepped aside and twisted his hand before throwing him aside like a ragdoll; he scrambled up and rushed me with his arms extended, he slammed his hands into the floor; I grabbed his head and smashed my knee into his face; rolling on his back like a demented turtle, I took out the cleaver stuck in his foot; his rocky hide tore apart at the wound as I removed the somewhat corroded blade, his granite skin covered the wound instantly as Nikolai settled down and stopped crying pain; “What the fuck just happened”. Ashton said with his mouth hanging in disbelief; “A fly will go down your throat if you keep your mouth open, as for what happened; this is just another Monday for me”. “Nikolai, are you alright”; Elaine asked, he stared at her dumbfounded, Ashton as looked at the expression on his face he simply nodded his in agreement, “Ouch; yeah I’ll be fine, I just stepped on a cleaver that’s all”. Elaine looked at the wound and repositioned the bones in his feet, “Well he’s your problem now”. Harvey said
“What the fuck do you mean he’s my problem”? Elaine and I said together, “Take him with you; he needs the fresh air”. He replied calmly, “He’s not a dog Harvey, he’s a person just like you and me”. I shot back at him, “Before I forget; Elaine say hi to Nikolai, and Nikolai say hi to Elaine”. They smiled awkwardly at each other, “See he likes you, toodle-oo”. Harvey said sticking his tongue out, he vanished leaving us in ballroom with a little girl in a white lace dress; “why the fuck is the little is there a… you know what I’m trying to say”. “Hey I can hear you, I’m not a little girl; I’m thirteen god dammit”, She warped forward as a stream of water and punched me in the face, covering my head in a sphere of water, she took a few steps back with her hand still on my face, her arm turned to water allowing her to move freely as I slowly suffocated; she let go of her grip, I fell on all fours and coughed out water trapped in my windpipe; I checked the luggage to bring back home, “Six suitcases; interesting, alright who wants pancakes for breakfast, I’m cooking”. They raised their hands, Nikolai stared awkwardly at me: “Pancakes”? “Astoria what are pancakes”? I looked at her eyes, and couldn’t sense a thing within her, in fact I couldn’t sense anything inside Nikolai either; I saw their souls were wiped clean, all trauma gone without a trace… except their scars, old wounds that have cut deeper than any blade or bullet; they’ve forgotten their injuries, but never truly healed; I hope those wounds never open up again, for all our sakes. “Pancakes, are delicious round circles of flavored dough”; I heard their stomachs growl, from Astoria’s description I saw Nikolai salivate; maybe we can do some good after all, I smiled and opened a key port back home.
We’ve arrived home dead tired, it was odd for me to have permanent residents at my home after living alone for all these years; I remember drinking whiskey for the first time in ten years that night, I gave the others members a shot glass; on the count of three we took a swig and went out like a light.
My dreams come few and far between, I slept like a baby most days; but today was strange even by my standards, it was an out of body experience I stood in a room, a memorial colored stark white, with five black tombstones on either side of me; at the foot of each grave was a blank facemask, on the graves were the symbols of our elements, I saw the owners of the grave: it was members of my team, I was surprised to see Lex among the body count; people I haven’t even met yet, died under my command. “Not yet, Ashton”; said a grim voice behind, I turned around and saw Death dressed a morning suit, like an angel he was dressed in all white his purity and gentleness shined through his smile; but past that gilded shell he was nothing but decaying sepulcher, “I thought Shakespeare said not to go gentle into that good night” I said with a smirk, Death punched me in the face; “No one has beaten me, and no one will”. I wiped the blood of my face and looked him straight in eye, I stood up and punched him back in the face; he stood unaffected and glared at me with annoyance, he smashed his elbow into my neck, I immediately curled into a ball and he kicked my stomach, sending me flying across the room; I crashed into the wall, and stood up. I loosened myself from the wall and rolled out of the way to dodge an axe kick, I grabbed his foot as he tried to curb stomp my face into the ground; twisting his leg I threw him off his center of gravity, his back slammed into the ground; I wrapped my leg around his and broke his femur, the eerie crack echoed through the room and soon it was replaced by a sinister laugh; I felt my sanity slip as the room morphed into a twisted hellscape, we stood in Limbo; I summoned my ninjato’s and faced Death dressed in my pajamas, he stood up and morphed into a ten foot tall reaper, with a scythe shaped as a grey wing. He did a triple axel and swung the blade gracefully in midair, he slammed it down at my feet, I dodged the blow; between us there were no words or noise, just the sounds of wills colliding through our blades, the sounds of striking metal putting me at ease, I flowed through motions like stream of water; our weapons sang of a happier tune, this is wasn’t a battle just a friendly wager between old friends, okay fine; this is a battle, and we’re both trying to kill each other, but come on this is how guys become friends. I dodged the wild swings and stepped back readying my stance, I held my blades in front of me and sent back Death in a blast of air; before lunging forward to end this battle in one desperate act. My blades glowed bright green, the ground trembled, I exploded with magical energy and unleashed flurry of swings, placing Death in the center of my tornado; he shielded himself in a ossified cocoon of bones, I weathered away at his defenses slowly tearing them to shreds of marrow, blood and bone, tearing through I placed my swords at his neck; “Do you yield”? He hung his head in shame and nodded, I sheathed my swords and he put away his scythe; clapping his hands we appeared back at the memorial, we walked down a hallway and entered a speakeasy. “How did you beat me”? He asked, pouring himself and me a shot of bourbon, “Don’t know, don’t really care; I all know is I beat your ass in combat, so I’m happy”; I smiled like an idiot, he passed me the glass of bourbon; “You don’t know how you did it”? He asked flummoxed, “Yep, but I can make a guess”. I replied back, “I’m childish and I hate losing”. I replied, “Can you keep this between you and me”, he said pulling out a checkbook and a pen; I looked at the masks on the graves through the glass doors of the bar, “The masks I want them”. “No, anything but those; you’ll run me out of business if I hand those over to you”. “I’ll give you anything else, please have mercy”. “That’s why I want them, all ten of them; I want an immortal army, these masks are their souls made into a physical shape, their identity made manifest”. Death pulled a revolver from his blazer, and aimed at my head; “All is fair in love and war, Ashton”. He cocked the hammer and I saw squeeze the trigger, in an instant the round pierced through lower part of my left eye and I was on the floor twitching as my motor functions ceased to work; I learned two things equally awesome yet scary things at that moment, the grim reaper is a neurosurgeon and he’s also a tattoo artist. I staggered up and placed my hands on the counter, gaining my balance I reached for the cutlery drawer, finding the butter knife I dug it into my wound and scraped out the .44 bullet; the wound on my face closed up stinging like hell, I sprayed water on my face from the kitchen tap; “Ah damn it”! I screamed, “Fucking hell that hurts; just because I’m a fae doesn’t give you the right shoot me in the face”. I said taking a seat in the library, “You mind telling what I’m going to say friends when I wake up with a hole in the back of my head”. “You’re not dead”? He said coyly, “You don’t get to joke damn it; I’ll say it ag---“. I got out a steak knife from the drawer, “Fuck it, I’m getting even”. I threw the knife into Death’s face and watched him stagger into the chair opposite of me, he pulled the knife out his right eye and threw it to the ground staining the wood with thick black blood; “You earned it, take the masks; congratulations you beat Death, as a reward I will tell you my name; I will not be responsible for what comes next”. I wiped the dried blood from my face, “Go ahead… I’m ready”. “Reico Grimm”. His voice rippled downward several octaves tearing reality apart and sending me back home, I woke up from the nightmare and in the living room; I saw ten works of art hanging from the fireplace, those masks were beautiful and exquisite… hell each one goes for about a hundred grand each; “I just got a million bucks worth of art from a mindfuck of a nightmare… sweet”.