Chapter 25: Rey’s Departure

Date: November 20, 3007
Time: 05:30
Location: Navasota Island

His eyes flashed as the lights rushed past him. He was falling, but he loved every minute of it. The elevator came to a halt with a distant ding and the doors slid open, revealing a narrow corridor leading to one and only one room. Rey walked forwards, his red irises glinting with a maniacal hint of pleasure. That was the problem of a psychopath: their movements were reckless but deadly, much like those of a gun.

The padlocks unlocked themselves at his presence, heralding his coming like a king. Lights flashed on with each of his every footsteps forwards towards the lone room. A musty draft flowed into the hallway, the AC sucking all feelings of hope out of the area. There was someone in the room.

Rey kicked the door open; light flooded the tiny room, revealing a woman tied to a chair, her head down with her hair covering her face. Such a pathetic sight. Rey loved it. He advanced and shut the door with a loud clang; he was going to enjoy this very, very much.

“Deirdre,” he leered, kneeling at her side and placing his hands on her kneecaps. He felt a shudder run down her body, but she did not look up. “Deirdre, look at me.” Deirdre stirred feebly, as if awakening from a thousand-year dream. Slowly, she tilted her head up to look at him; her brown eyes obscured by her long brown hair.

Rey smiled devilishly and gently took her cheeks in his hands. He leaned forwards and kissed her on her forehead, feeling another shiver run down her spine. The aura of the room was perfect for him, and deathly for her. Rey smiled once again, his spear-like teeth glinting in the light from the hallway.

“How are we today, Deirdre my love?” he chuckled as he returned to his kneeling position. Her breaths were shallow and uneven; Rey noticed an untouched and now molding sandwich beside her chair, but ignored it. However, she returned his question with a penetrating stare, as if willing him to die. Too bad wills never worked out.

“Not talking are we?” Rey continued, taking no notice of her lack of voice, “Well I have something special planned out tonight. He started to stroll casually around her chair, circling her like a vulture spying on its prey. Taking her silence as an invitation, he brushed her brown hair off of her shoulder and pulled her collar back to the side so that her bare shoulder was revealed. Rey felt her cringe as he licked her flesh, but he loved every moment of it. Her skin tasted like salty beads of sweat, like the essence of fear.

Rey patted her on the shoulder and continued his lackadaisical walk around her chair. He could sense her fear as well as disgust as if he could see it with his naked eyes. Deirdre was so obvious, it was hard not to notice her. Though the room barely had any light, Rey could tell she was very pretty. But there was one other who she reminded him of…

And then she spoke, her voice slicing through the air like a hot knife on butter, “Go to hell.” Rey smiled with a deep sigh at her three beautifully spoken words. He could not agree more, because that was exactly where he intended to go. Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.

“Oh but I will,” Rey simpered, “And I expect to see you with me.” He laughed jubilantly, as if the funniest joke on earth had been told to him and to him alone. Rey felt Deirdre’s anger spike tremendously, and decided to provoke her even more. He shoved his face forwards into Deirdre’s neck; though she had been chained up for roughly ten days, she still smelled faintly of fruit-scented perfume. She yelled out in pain as he bit down on her neck.

Suddenly, everything around him exploded. In one second, he found himself hurling to the floor, his head throbbing in pain as a figure pranced away into the hallway. A heavy object fell beside his head; his bat, now broken in two as if smashed with too much force with a block of concrete. Then, he realized his head was the block of concrete. A trickle of blood ran down his scalp, pooling sickly on the cold metal ground. That b****…

Rey rushed out of the hallway, but she had already gone up. The elevator’s mechanisms rumbled and groaned as they pulled the roomy box up to the surface. He roared in anger and pounded the wall furiously with his fist, creating a small dent in the metal plating.

Almost succumbing to his anger and excruciating pain, Rey suddenly remembered the maintenance passageway built along the inside of the elevator shaft. He pried the doors open with his hands and saw the ladder leading up; the elevator was at the top now, Deirdre no doubt desperately trying to find her way out.

He climbed up the cold metal rungs. Each floor had a metal outcropping jutting out of the side of the shaft roughly a foot wide. Rey continued to pursue his prey, jumping with the agility of an animal from one floor to another. Then, without warning, something lurched up above, the creaking and sheering of metal on metal clawed at his ears with impunity.

It came, slowly at first, then faster and faster as it gained momentum. Half a ton of titanium made its swift descent down into the abyssal shaft. The elevator crashed downwards, cut from its restraining cables, straight at Rey’s head. Scowling in rage, he dove forwards to the closed door that lead to another level. With all of his strength, he managed to open the heavy metal slabs a crack and slip through. The elevator shot past him; he could feel its wake brush against his side as he fell down onto his hands and knees. Cursing once more, he rose up and ran forwards. The distant sickening crash of the elevator reached his ears from behind him. Deirdre you’re one stubborn dame…

Gun shots reverberated from a few levels above as Rey reached the winding stairwell. Pumping his legs like no other, he made his way to the top, huffing and panting in exhaustion, his muscles screaming in fatigue. The pounding in his head grew steadily worse as the blood continued to stream down the back of his head. A crescendoing hollow echo clouded his brain, smashing all other thoughts into bits and pieces.

Throwing open the double doors leading into the main room, he found two men dead, each with bullet holes in their chests; their guns were missing. So there’s more to her than meets the eye…

Rey walked out into the morning air. A blast of refreshing breeze met his face, rushing through his lungs like the tide on a beach. The sun was just breaking over the horizon, revealing the first of its glorified rays in the form of red streaks across the cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere. No birds were awake yet, still snoozing in their many nests across the forested island, but there was life out there: Deirdre. Rey reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a silver pistol. He cocked back the hammer, stepped over a fallen body and was off sprinting through the jungle, following Deirdre’s trail of green stomped-down grass and golden bullet casings.

But he had no intent to kill her at all. Rey wanted to see her suffer above all else. The very thought of what he wanted to do to her spazzed his muscles into a grin. Suddenly, he heard a rustle right in front of him. Raising his pistol cautiously, he advanced. Rey was sure it was Deirdre, stopping for a rest before trying to regroup with her companions. He smiled at the gesture; it was noble, but foolish indeed.

“Well, well,” he snickered, stepping out of the bushes silently. Deirdre jumped up and aimed an automatic rifle at him. However, he instantly jammed the trigger in place with his mind. Her brown eyes dilated in horror as the gun wrenched itself from her hands and flew through the air into his. Armed dually, he bore down upon Deirdre, who was backing up against a tree, her eyes glimmering in tears of temerity.

“I know you want to see your friends again, and I won’t stop you. In fact, I’ll even take you to them, for I have seen all that I seek.” He paused, a senile grin spreading across his face. “But you’ve been a naughty girl, Deirdre,” Rey laughed maliciously, “You know what I do to naughty girls?” He dropped the weapons on the ground and rushed forwards, grabbing her waist and pulling her body towards him. Only Rey ever heard Deirdre’s scream.

Date: November 25, 3007
Time: 01:30
Location: Navasota Island

Rey knew something had gone wrong. The entire place was deserted, not a soul in sight. A chill ran down his spine, creeping into every cell of his body like a cold fire. The darkness of the night seemed to enclose around him, trying to squeeze the very life from him. Black, murky clouds covered the full moon once more, shrouding the island into the shadows. The perfect setting.

Then, the snap of a tree branch registered in his sensitive ears and he whipped around, aiming his pistols at a bush to his right. The underbrush shook violently: he cocked the hammers back and closed his fingers around the triggers, ready to blow the intruder’s brains out.

And then, Mikhail Shale stepped out, pulling leaves from his clothes and hair. Watching in wild confusion, seven more people stepped out of the bush. Suddenly, he saw her, and was sure by the end of the night, only one of them would survive.

“Great to see you again, love.” He sneered at Rena, whose jade eyes had just focused in fury on his own. She fumed deeply into the night, unable to suppress her abhorrent feelings. But then, he noticed the other one by Rena’s side. He was sure he saw her before, but from where?

Then, as if to answer his mental question, she spoke, and Rey instantly realized who it was. “We meet again, Rey,” Nova said through gritted teeth. A sudden surge of panic rushed through Rey’s mind, but he closed off his mind to the two Shadows. He put on his usual menacing façade and continued to smile unpleasantly.

“Hey newbie,” he retorted; Rey sensed Nova’s anger rise tremendously and felt a surge of selfish pride. He had called her “newbie” since the day he first saw her, and didn’t see any reason to stop now. Though she had risen to become the most powerful Shadow in MapleStory, and a pretty one at that, she was still a little trainee in his mind. His memories flooded back, how he had watched her from the start of her training, how he had gotten tired of Rena, how he had a voracious lust for Nova, how he had tried to get under her shirt…

A scream of fury erupted amidst the dark trees like a dormant volcano exploding after a millennium of dreams. Rey felt it, and knew what was coming. He tried to raise his rifle to her head, but Rena was already on top of him, her S-36 Seraph aimed directly at his nose. When someone has a gun pointed to his head, time generally slows down. Rey, however, could not wait for the moment to be over.

“Gonna kill me?” Rey laughed, wheezing a little because of Rena’s weight on his chest. She seethed in frustration and brought the butt-end of her rifle across his cheek; blood spurted out of his mouth in a small fountain. Wincing, he met her eyes once more, “You b****! You were nothing to me!”

Rena snapped. Every nerve and synapse in her body seemed to become disjointed and screwed up. She dropped her rifle and pulled Rey up by the collar of his shirt, “I LOVED YOU! I F***ING LOVED YOU AND THIS IS WHAT I GET? THIS IS WHAT YOU CHOSE?” Her screams were the roars of a lion, echoing unnaturally off the compacted trees. Rey’s panic seeped into Rena’s brain; he slowly started to lose control of his mind as if was slowly being pried from his cold hands. The joint forces of Rena and Nova’s minds were driving themselves into his brain like an iron spike.

“Rena…” Rey started, but was stopped with a smack across the face. Turning back, he realized it was Deirdre who had thrown the punch. Suddenly, he found himself surrounded by three women, each with a strong will for him to die. The feelings were mutual; he was wantonly pouring gasoline on their fires, creating his own dynamite that would blow him up.

He looked from the women to Mikhail, who was standing in the background looking quite amused. Help me… he thought out to him. But he just stood there, his face twisted into a sick smile.

It was then, when Rey realized he had lost. Mikhail had betrayed him, leaving him alone in his personal endeavors. He only cares for the Confederacy. His followers mean nothing to him… It was his turn now. Rey faced Mikhail and muttered, “We’ll see each other real soon won’t we?”

Mikhail chuckled and replied, nodding, “Yes, Mr. Starks. Very soon.” He waved a goodbye, knowing exactly what Rey was going to do, yet not moving a muscle to stop him.

Rey took a final look at his surroundings, soaking up the frozen black night on a forested island in the middle of the dark blue Ossyrian Ocean. Then, he took a black sack from his pocket and hurled it onto the ground. And then the world, everything, was gone.