Damien Broke In

[laZardo†]

((Continued from Headhunter))

It was a gray day today...dark gray. It rained outside. It wasn't exactly pouring, but just more powerful than showering. Either way, the degree of the rain forced two very opposite-looking boys from the same school, trapped on an island full of psychos, to take shelter in an even more ironic place - a school building.

Both of these boys clearly appeared as they had been travelling for a while, which was correct to assume. However, one still bore a great resemblance to a proper ritzy private school student despite being rain-wet and quite disheveled. One the other hand, it was hard to tell exactly what had happened to his androgynous companion, who had been walking with only an open button-down shirt covering his upper body.

Elias McConnell knew he could easily have the upper hand of the two if things broke into a fight. He did, after all, have barbed wire and most of the supplies while his "friend" really only had the pot lid and that strange notebook he always seemed to write in. Although Elias still seemed suspicious at first glance, Elias was thankful that the boy never turned on him while his back was turned while going #1 or #2. Still, he wasn't entirely secure in that fact. After all, he actually hadn't touched the barbed wire directly since they'd met at the garden earlier, and that his classmate probably spotted the barbed wire at any one point where they shared supplies. Speaking of supplies, they were running out doubly fast.

That they had been lucky not to run into anyone despite the news of increased slaughter was compromised by the fact that supplies for one were feeding two. If they survived another day, they would have to get someone else's supplies by any means necessary. Those last three words, of course, disturbed Elias regularly. Still, it gave him solace that the boy he was travelling with didn't seem to be bothered by it. It was tainted solace from what little knowledge he had of the boy's tribulations, but solace nonetheless.

In fact, all Elias seemed to see was Damien Carter-Madison's innocent, child-like smile. It was a smile that he had come to trust, though for some strange reason he saw that smile riddled with imperfection, and not just from the fatigue of travel. The feeling of course was NOT mutual, but only Damien knew that as the two entered a classroom on the upper floor. It was still quite murky and gray outside, and the chill had transferred into the room, but the two were thankful to have a ceiling over their heads as they slumped into seats at the front row of the classroom. Elias put his backpack on the desk, Damien's on the floor and to the side.

Elias sighed and looked out the window, and Damien just sighed, curling his arms and resting his head on them like a student sleeping in class. His pot-lid rested on the table and pressed under his arms nobody would try to steal it without his noticing.

Damien didn't show it, but he bristled inside at the fact that the man who had served most to make his life miserable in the weeks leading up to this manhunt was actually prospering on this island. That classmate had already been awarded a special prize - twice, none the less - for his aptitude at this bloodsport. He could imagine Franco Sebberts' mocking, snobbish yet triumphant laughter from him and the others over the fact that he was on the way up. Memories of the party that he unflinchingly followed his mother to and the things Franco and the Syndicate Valenti did to him haunted his mind almost non-stop. He remembered as they dressed him humiliatingly, undressed him even more humiliatingly, but what they did in between those moments brought his humiliation to new lows. Those camera flashes that he saw once again in the darkness felt like gunshots, and seeing Renee's face going through the glass table was hollow solace.

But the worst noise of all...was that of silence.

Damien's "friend" - as he'd affectionately labeled that strange voice that manifested himself in the shadowy wraith of his near-death experience - had not said one word to him since Damien had started traveling with Elias. He wasn't sure if his "friend" would tell him when it was time, or if he'd simply been abandoned altogether. Either way, it only served to aggravate his frustration that one of his targets was walking at his side, and that he had the very means to kill Elias if he could.

A bolt of thunder rumbled outside, obscuring all of what Elias started to say except for a couple of words that sounded a lot like...

"family...loser..."

Damien then heard thunder going off an inch beside him in his own mind,  but it was abruptly stopped after a second.

And suddenly...it was all clear.

"Elias?" Damien groggily asked as he lifted his head up. "Did you say something?"
"No...no...just thinking out loud," Elias replied. His voice was expectedly soft but seemingly distressed.
"Ah...something about family?"
Elias did not seem much more perturbed by that question. "Yeah...just thinking about them...they have to miss us..."
Damien smirked sarcastically, then looked around for a camera. His smirk dropped upon spotting what looked to be a black dot seeming to stick out of the chalkboard.

"At least you have family that miss you. Like..." the following name suddenly showed up in his mind, "...Benjamin?"

Elias' attention suddenly perked to Damien like someone was about to die. "What do you know about him!?"

Damien started to talk like he'd rehearsed for hours straight, despite the fact that he felt like he was improvising. To be more clear, he felt like he was reading from a TelePrompTer. Thus, he also seemed "disturbed" by Elias' sudden reaction.
"I'm not sure...I don't know if I remember..."

"Did you see him? Hear of him?" Elias was slowly becoming more tense and inquisitive. There was a good chance that Benjamin was probably playing this crazy game, and even though he didn't hear Danya didn't mention any "Benjamin" it still worried him that maybe he didn't hear through all the announcements.

"I think..." Damien appeared in thought... "Oh crap...I think I saw him..."
"Shit...was he alright?"
"I don't know...it was pretty brief. There was someone with him but I don't remember."
The thought that that "someone" might be doing unspeakable things to Benjamin caused Elias to suddenly stand up. The chair he sat on creaked on its quick shuffle across the ground to the desk behind. "Who was he?!"
"I don't remember! I just saw them for a brief moment!" Damien's voice was too girly at this point...though his hand was tightening on the pot-lid's grip.
"What was he doing? What were they doing!?" Elias' questions were becoming more frantic and incoherent. Days of traveling with a buddy alone on an island not even remotely armed enough to face probably 50 psychos otherwise roaming around looking to kill him with extreme prejudice could do that to a guy.
"Calm down! You're freaking me out!"

"Freaking...TELL ME, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF-" Elias screamed, advancing for Damien.

The lunge was all the provocation Damien needed to cut off that scream.

The blunt edge of the pot-lid flew up from the desk in a circular motion and impacted the side of Elias' head with enough velocity to stun him. Elias wasn't too weak by most measures, but he wasn't Marvin-resilient enough that the pot lid had severely rattled him. Enough of a rattling, it seemed, for Damien to be able to come right around for a knockdown blow that sent Elias tumbling onto the desks beside them. Wood clattered and creaked as Elias created a nice space for Damien to move around in.

Damien smiled childishly as he looked down upon his fallen classmate, moving for Elias' backpack. The impact of the relatively light pot lid had stunned Elias, which led Damien to put his foot down just so Elias could stay down while Damien could still reach for Elias' backpack to pick out the barbed wire. He was no longer afraid to wield such a weapon, and good maneuvering by his fingers enabled him to bypass most of the barbs.

Damien then proceeded to wrap a nice length of the barbed wire around the flesh of Elias' neck. Elias let out a pitiful gurgling whimper as Damien pulled it tight, but all the latter heard was his own seething, as pulling the barbed wire caused his grip to slip enough that the edges of some of the barbs jabbed into the side of his hand. Still, nobody save for Damien noticed that the seethes had turned his innocent smile maniacal. For a brief moment, Damien thought he had fangs for teeth, like that kid from that one animé that the nerd-nerds often loved to compare him to. But right now, there were more important matters on his mind.

Elias could feel his eyes starting to bug out from the tautness of the barbed wire wrapped around his jugular, just above his collar. Damien had seized the opportunity to take the tin of crackers from the backpack, set it on the ground and pull up Elias' head just enough so he could set it down with him biting the edge.

Then Damien proceeded to lay another foot on Elias. The barbed wire, sharp as it was, barely poked into the rubber soles of his loafers. He wanted to beg Damien to stop, because he still believed he didn't do anything to hurt his classmate in the events prior to the island or even the fateful party. Of course, for the androgynous child clearly in control of the situation, it was this lack of action that made him guilty by proxy, like every other Gilroyal on the island. That and all Damien heard was choked, tearful whimpering.

"Now...say goodnight..." Damien muttered. One could see through his childish, almost effeminate voice to the sadistic Gollum-like guttural murmur below.

"...loser."

Elias didn't. And he didn't say it even if he could, as Damien brought his foot down upon the back of his classmate's neck. Parts of the barbed wire viciously wrapped around it severed through whatever flesh and arteries and sinewy muscle it could. Damien couldn't quite see where he'd stomped his foot down, but if the force and leverage of the stomp was directed at the crown of the skull it would've separated Elias' jaw from his head. Either way, all Damien could sense at the moment other than the searing pain of the barbed wire's cuts still going through his hands was a cracking sound of sorts, not unlike a pop-bang firework.

Damien winced violently before looking down at the impact zone.

Damien's foot had impacted the back of Elias' collar. By using all the force he could he had cracked the back of it in two and forced it to detonate. He didn't need to see what part of the gore was hidden, the puddle of blood expanding from under Elias' head was evidence enough. He let the echo of the explosion ring throughout his own head. Eventually, that faded, leaving only the muffled wave of the rain pouring outside. It was the rain that seemed to calm everything down.

He'd never know that when Elias said "loser" earlier, he was referring to himself and his sorry condition.

Damien slowly went back to his backpack, fingers clenching, curling and stretching at irregular intervals. He took out his notebook, not minding that the paper was stained pink by the blood. The pen was clipped to the cover, and as he took it out he almost fumbled with it as he secured it in his hand, after which he slumped into another seat. He looked around and giggled briefly, this was a seat that just happened to be in his least favorite spot of the classroom - its "geographic" center. But today it seemed a lot more comfortable, not least because he was now the only living person in this room, at the least.

Underneath Marvin Hendrick, Franco, Roland Thomas Kelly, and Reneé Valenti, and above Kristey Burrowell, several names were written. Marvin had long since been crossed out, and there were many more that would be, but it wasn't the reason Damien was smiling.

Damien's hand quivered as he crossed out Elias McConnell from his list, and all the while he giggled softly. It was the kind of giggle that would send shivers through someone's spine when played over an intercom or through a phone speaker. It was a giggle through which he imagined erasing this child - guilty by association - and his memory from the face of the earth. In fact, Damien Carter-Madison continued to smile and giggle as he looked upon his handiwork, both physical and metaphorical.

He really had to admit...after so many long years of waiting for this opportunity and having to resist the temptation for these past few days...it felt good.

B56 - McConnell, E

For some strange reason though, Damien's smile suddenly faded. He had Elias' supplies and "weapon" at his disposal, and with his achievements soon to be broadcast to the island around him, he had also realized that he could not stay in this room forever. There were bound to be others in the school that would have heard the sound above the rain that started to fizzle out. Without much further hesitation, he went back for Elias' backpack to get the first aid.

As he started to apply the bandages and ointment - and Damien was thankful for those elementary first aid classes, he began to improvise a song, his voice starting to shed its guttural murmur to restore itself to its effeminate childishness...

"My my...so much to do...so little time..."

===

His mother, Nicole Carter-Madison, watched in abject horror from her PaCAS headquarters, the fingers that had been firmly clasped around a Rosary for the past hour suddenly opening and letting the wooden beads clatter to the floor in front of her equally shocked colleagues. To her, the sound the beads made as they hit the floor rang multitudes louder than the detonation of Elias' collar.

The same feeling went through Reneé Valenti, from her plush condominium. She hadn't left it much except for school, since filming for the latest season of Lady Valentine ended. She had been focused on Franco since he saw her killing Marvin with a gorilla he had picked up. She had tried to console herself with the possibility that Franco's own untamed arrogance and snobbery would eventually do her former protegé in.

But here was a boy who had been stripped of everything down to his dignity, more than once. No amount of material luxury had been able to even quell the rage that had burned inside and it was by Damien's own efforts that he had even been able to conceal it for so long, underneath a pitiful, tearful face and a constantly-battered exterior.

Nobody had ever directly told both them that they had seen it coming, at least not to their recent memory. If they had, they merely brushed off the threat. All they knew was that if Damien eventually got his way - and chances were now getting ever greater that he would, there would be nothing stopping him from taking them out too.

===

The rain had stopped, and the setting sun started to peer through the clouds, with the right timing that it basked Damien in its golden glow as he walked past a doorway. He imagined Glassian opera or choir music playing as he passed through that light and sighed, looking down at his bandaged hands.

((Think GTA IV trailer. Hi-yah.))

The bandages on his left hand were wrapped thicker than others, almost rendering those fingers immobile. That of course was because he wielded Elias' barbed wire - albeit wrapped in a cruder, more oblong fashion in that hand, and the pot lid wielded in his other hand. He still wore his backpack, but it was thicker now, with the supplies he had gotten of Elias's.

Good job, my friend. I see great things for you.

Hell, of course, hath no fury like Damien Carter-Madison pushed over the edge.

MALE STUDENT NO. 56 - ELI McCONNELL - DECEASED

((Continued in Beauty and the Beast))