No Conscience

Chapter One: Piercing Terror
In the dark of night, on a lone street corner stood a very drunk man, standing under a streetlight. In his hand was an almost empty bottle of whiskey. "Well fuck you guys, you just don't know how to party!" he yelled back at a bar behind him that he was thrown out of. He took another swig from his bottle of liquor, and downed the rest of it. After the bottle was emptied, he threw the empty bottle to the ground, shattering it on the sidewalk.

"Well, aren't you the party animal?" called out a voice.

The drunken man looked around, but couldn't see anyone. "Damn right!" he declared.

Then, a young man stepped into the light of the streetlight where the man could see him. He looked roughly fourteen, and was oddly dressed in a black suit, black slacks, formal shoes, and a white shirt with a red tie. He was smiling at the man, his hands folded behind his back.

"Who da' hell're you?" the man inquired, his speech slurred.

"Who I am isn't important. You, on the other hand....I see a lot in you. You have an extremely rebellious attitude, and hate being told what to do. You enjoy getting drunk for fun to spite people who condemn liquor for its harmful effects and drunk driving accidents. You drink very frequently; almost everyday. I imagine your liver is quite frail by now."

A look of anger crossed the man's face. "So, what? You wanna' make sumthin' of it, cha' little brat?"

The boy raised his eyebrows, his calm demeanor unwavering. "Oh, no. Not at all. In fact, I would like you give you precisely what you want."

"Huh?" the man mumbled, confused.

"All the liquor you can drink," the boy said, his smile growing wider.

The man's eyes widened in surprise. "Uhhh?! R-really?!"

The boy nodded. "Really."

A large smile appeared on the man's face. "Well gimme' the booze! Where is it?"

"Just follow me, and I'll take you to my secret stash," the boy said, turning his back to the man, and beginning to walk across the street.

"S-sure!" the man replied eagerly, and proceeded to follow the young man, who led him to a pitch black limousine.

The boy opened the door, and gestured the man to have a seat inside.

The man sat down inside the limousine, and was greeted by the sight of innumberable bottles of liquor lining the floor of the limousine. A large grin spread across the man's face. In his mind, he had just entered heaven.

The boy sat down in a seat across from the man, and closed the door to the limousine. He smiled at the man, and said, "Help yourself, my friend. You'll find that all these alcohols are top-of-the-line."

The man picked up one bottle and without even looking to see what brand it was, opened it, and proceeded to drink.

"That's it," the boy said, his smile slowly transforming into a smirk. "Drink to your heart's content."

The man did just as the boy said, picking up on bottle after another, and drinking every last drop. "Tanks a lot for 'dis, kid," the man slurred out. "I've always wanted to just keep drinking and not have to stop, and....and...." the man paused, as he suddenly felt a strange sensation in his sides. He put his hands to his sides, confused. "Wha...? What the...." Then, sharp pain filled his sides, and he began to scream in pain, lurching over in the seat as he did so. "What....what's happening?!" the man shouted, panicing.

The boy grinned. "Your liver and kidneys are failing, my friend."

The man fell to the floor of the limousine, knocking over a few bottles of liquor that had been sitting there. "Kid! I need to go to a doctor! Please!"

The boy slowly shook his head as he smirked down at the pained man. "No, I don't think so."

The man looked up at him in shock. "What?! What do you-" his sentence was cut off as another scream of pain bellowed from the man

"You're going to die here," the boy stated, a sinister hint in his voice.

"No!" the man pleaded. "I need some help! Why won't you-" Then, the man began to have a convulsion, shaking violently on the floor of the limousine.

Then, the spasms suddenly stopped, and the boy grinned down at his fallen prey, laughing scornfully. Then, he picked up one of the bottles of liquor, took the top off, picked up a small towel next to him on the seat, and stuffed the towel half-way inside the bottle.

Next, he exited the limousine, and looked up at a large apartment complex right next to his vehicle. Smiling, he took a lighter out of his pocket, lit the towel on fire, and threw the bottle of liquor right at a window of the apartment building. An explosion ensued, taking apart a large section of wall, and fire spread all throughout the complex. Screams of fear and pain could be heard, and the boy smiled widely, the bright flames reflecting in his eyes.

Then, he casually stretched, letting out a yawn. "Well, it's about time I headed home. Tomorrow will be quite the adventure, and I should certainly get a good night's sleep," he said aloud.

"This year alone, there have been over two hundred inmate suicides in the United States alone. This begs the question of: 'should prison conditions be improved before the situation gets worse?' This proposal has been brought before congress many times, but a solution has yet to be reached. That concludes this morning broadcast."

Adel turned away from the television, her eyes appeared distant, as though she were lost in thought, her silent sadness settling over her like a haze.

"I know how you feel, Adel," her mother, sitting at the kitchen table with her, said. "But there doesn't seem to be much that can be done about it." Her mother gave her a sympathetic smile, trying to cheer her up.

"I can't stand to see anyone suffer like that. Not even criminals. To be in so much pain that they feel death is the only way out..." Adel responded, gloomily.

Her mother's smile widened. "You're a very compassionate young woman, and that's something to be proud of. You should continue to advocate for more humane treatment in prisons. Don't give up. One day, the voice of your cause may just be heard. But you have to keep fighting."

"I know..." Adel said. "But that's not the only cause I support....I just....I just wish that people in general had more empathy."

"Your empathy is one of a kind, Adel. Be proud that you're so special in such a wonderful way."

Adel smiled sheepishly; her mother always knew how to cheer her up.

After a little while, Adel packed up her bookbag, and her mother drove her to school for the day. Adel walked into her highschool building, and was greeted by the sight of a food drive box in the opening room. Often times, she gathered up as many canned goods from her cupboard as she could, and put them all in these boxes, trying to make as big of an impact as she could. Today, however, there were no canned foods she could give, and the box appeared to be filled from the last donation she had made the day before anyway.

She made her way into her biology classroom, her first class of the day, and sat down. She was soon greeted by many of her friends who came into the classroom a little while after her.

The boy in the black suit gazed at the large highschool building. He was poised, and ready to strike.

Adel was looking at the teacher, listening to his lecture about terrestrial animals. Truly though, only a part of her was paying attention. She had concluded that it was near impossible to focus completely on the lectures for the whole class period. But she wasn't nearly as bad as other students, some of which texted during the entire class, others shamelessly sleeping. She and her friends weren't like that. They were relatively attentive and hardworking. She loved that she always managed to hang out with just the right crowd.

Suddenly, there was an ear-shattering explosion from outside the classroom. Some students screamed, and the sleepers awakened instantly. Adel, who had her hands to her ears, trying to protect her ear-drums, slowly looked up at the door to the classroom. "What the hell was that...?" she choked out.

The teacher, and the students, all gathered around the classroom door. The teacher slowly opened the door to reveal a very gruesome scene. Entire walls separating the corridors of the building were missing, and scorch marks lined the floors and ceiling. What was even worse were the severed body parts of students that had been blown apart by the explosion, and the copious amounts of blood all over the floor, and sections of the walls that still remained. Severed arms, legs, and the like, all saturated in blood.

Adel's heart began to race. "A bomb...?" she thought. "Planted in the school....?" She stared with disbelief at the horrible sight she was facing.

The teacher, quickly, began to round the students back into the classroom, locked the door with trembling hands, and instructed the students to get under their desks, and try to remain calm.

The students, promptly, scrambled under their desks, but none could calm themselves down. Adel and her friends all looked at one another with expressions of great fear. Some students vomited on the floor, the sight of the dismembered body parts and blood still fresh in their minds.

Then, the door to their classroom was blown to pieces by a small explosive, bit and pieces of the door flying all over the room. A boy in a black suit and red tie stepped into the room, holding an odd looking, purple gun with a cone-shaped barrel.

The teacher, trying to protect his students, charged at the boy. But the boy simply raised the strange gun to the teacher's head, and fired a strange, orange energy beam. This beam pierced right through the teacher's skull, killing him instantly. He fell to the floor, blood spilling out from the hole in his head.

Many of the students began to scream, and the boy began to shoot one student after another with his odd, energy gun, killing them.

Tears spilled from Adel's eyes as she began to tremble. "No...!" she thought. "This can't be happening!!"

Students, and close friends, that were near her were shot, and Adel soon became splashed with their blood.

Soon, Adel was the only one alive. She looked around at her fallen friends. Her voice wavered "Steph...? Carly....? John....?" She looked over to the teacher. "Mr. Ashford....?"

Then, the young man walked towards her, a large smile on her face. He moved the desk away from her so that he could see her in full view.

Adel was on her knees, her eyes continuously gushing tears, staring up at the boy with wide eyes of terror.

The boy pointed the gun right at Adel's forehead, and looked into her eyes, smiling. But then, he paused, and continued staring into Adel's eyes. There seemed to be something stopping him from pulling the trigger. "I see a lot of empathy in you," he said. "More than I've ever seen in anyone else." He laughed, and continued, "I don't have an ounce of empathy. I have no conscience at all. But you....you're like my exact opposite!" He laughs again, and lowers his gun. "No, no; it simply won't do to kill my opposite. Why, the world needs its diversity." He crouched down to Adel, a large smile on his face. "My name is Fatal. I surmise you'll be hearing about me quite a lot on the news." He stood up, smiling down at Adel. "Well, farewell for now." He turned around and threw a small explosive at the ground, creating a hole in the floor. He jumped down through the hole, disappearing from Adel's sight.

Adel looked around at her dead friends, classmates, and teacher, and then, looked at her own blood-soaked clothing, tears continuing to stream from her eyes like waterfalls. Then, she put her hands to the sides of her head and released a loud, long scream of sheer terror and despair.