123 | Take Me Out [VII]
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It was a blessing that I’d managed to protect Saturnus from taking a bolt. With her safety secured, the entire sting operation had come out altogether positive. While the name of the game was to take a dealer off the streets, it was a fantastic turn of fortune that we’d also had the chance to apprehend a hired killer.

Not just any killer, but an infamous one, known for the strange calling cards they would leave at the scene of their crime. For every target whose life had been taken, a typed excerpt from classical literature would be found nearby the scene.

The Classical Killer was the name the knighthood had given to him.

Though his reputation preceded him, his hits were few and far between. Through the years of his activity, there had only been a total of 10 confirmed targets over 4 years. But that had all come to end that night.

After the incident, it was straight to interrogation and questioning for him. Given his potential connections paired with his actions, our knights had been granted full power to do what we could within the reach of the law. I’d taken part in the process and it was the only time we’d met after I’d played my role in his arrest.

Our team worked tirelessly to get any information we could out of him. After all, it was by intel that we’d had leads that this coldblooded murderer had ties to the very same organization that had manufactured and sold the hallucinogenic drug, Retro.

Unlike his personality had been on that recording, during his interrogation he was the coldest man imaginable. A rough face with eyes that stared miles away, through everyone they laid upon. As if he was looking past this world and into another one entirely. The hollowness his gaze gave off the chilling feeling of being lost in a moonless night.

No matter what we could ask him, no matter what we did, he’d remained as still and silent as a stone statue. The petty knights who were around began to joke outside of the room that we’d dragged in a corpse and that there were laws about the abuse of the body of a deceased.

Lights on, nobody home.”

Despite that he would refuse to speak, we had already confirmed, at the very least, that he had beliefs aligning with the organization whose existence was once believed to be nothing but a conspiracy theory held by the paranoid. The tattoos on his body were symbols said to have been used by practitioners of dark magic and rituals long ago.

Thus it was called, Astrologia. The mysterious cult that saw Eclipse as its god.

Of those tattoos I’d come to see in the files, the one that had disturbed me most of the lot was the marking that was used to denote a loyal worshiper of Eclipse. A thinner circle within another larger circle that was fractured on its side. Four rays lines like light side that formation.

Beyond even the chilling oddities of this killer was something more so unnerving. Whenever I would enter into the room, he would at last budge and his eyes would lock onto me. No matter what the other knights could do to attempt to take his attention away, he wouldn’t be affected by any of it and would continue openly staring while stuck frozen in that deathly silence.

His system had been checked for any drugs or remnants thereof before the interrogation and we’d found that he was clean. Sober as a churchgoer. Though it felt absurd, he hadn’t had Retro present in his system at all. By our estimates, he hadn’t been high on the substance in a very long time given that there wasn’t even trace amount in his blood.

The main means of application for retro would be through the cutting of the body before its powder would be pressed or rubbed into the wound. His body had noticeable scars from his prior use of the drug. Unmistakably.

Time dragged on without any progress in the investigation. The other knights gave up and left with Vestil to discuss the situation outside meanwhile I’d volunteered to spend a bit more time with him alone. And so I was the last to leave the room. All that I’d had left with me would be the single viewer who’d watched us through the one way mirror and the camera which recorded our interviews.

I’d decided to give it my own fair shot to ask some of my own questions of him and yet still all the same response. Eventually I too had had enough and had decided to call it, contesting the lack of sleep finally taking its toll on my mind and body.

I’d made myself busy with gathering the materials I’d brought for his interrogation when I’d first heard his voice.

You’re so beautiful.”

It had felt like my entire nervous system had been frosted over. A powerful chill ran up my spine as I’d glanced up from the files and witnessed that look on his face. Blank as it was, a maelstrom of emotions was just beneath its surface, ready to burst.

Sorrowful, joyful, bittersweet.

I was stunned to stillness and soon we’d made a matching pair. Mere moments later a trailing of tears began to drip down his face.

I can understand why you’re so loved. The light you have… it’s so bright, so radiant. You truly… are our Messiah.”

It hadn’t been the first time I’d been referred to as a messiah. There had been others who had referred to me in the same way, but each and every one of those people were bizarre characters tied to Astrologia.

I’d wished to question him but the way he spoke, the complicated, alien aura he’d issued forth had left me speechless.

When I’d seen you on the streets, I could barely believe my eyes. I’ve never once missed my target, but I’d hesitated as I’d seen your glory. I was afraid that I’d might strike you by accident.” His tear filled eyes overcame their limits and streams began to flow. “I can’t even put into words the relief I’d felt when you’d avoided that bolt. The fact that I’d failed the mission given to me wasn’t even a thought on my mind. I hadn’t really even realized that I’d failed until this moment. I suppose that this is my punishment for that and that I’d nearly harmed you, my lord.”

The camera was still rolling and I’d barely noticed it. But when I had, I’d twisted my body so to gesture to him that he’d had my full attention.

It’s so funny. All those years ago I couldn’t have ever imagined that I would see you for myself. How long I’d waited and then you’d just appeared like the rising sun.”

Finally moving, finally emoting, his eyes waved and contracted. He had become visibly shaken and his words choked in his throat, fighting to leave but coming out in a disorganized mess. At last compromised past his limits, his outburst began.

Our god… how much they love you… How deeply and lovingly they wished that you would be theirs… But… But….”

The quaking became worse as his posture failed and he’d slumped in his chair. Arms on the table, hands together as he’d laid his forehead onto them as if to desperately pray. A deafening silence enslaved the room for a dozen seconds before he’d shot his head back up to slam his weeping eyes into my own.

Please! Don’t hate it! You can’t let it go! You can’t just erase it like it had never existed! It was a gift to you! The greatest gift that only you could receive! Why do you think that you’re the only one who lives?! I only wish that I could be worthy!

Our god…! Our god is looking for you! A way to be with you! Don’t fall for the lies you hear! You’re our Messiah! Don’t forget that! Never forget that! Don’t listen to that demon! Don’t let it take you away from us!”

Coming back down from his outburst, he looks away from me, seeming apologetic for his behavior. He’d taken a breath to calm himself before letting his shoulders fall with a peculiar spoken apology.

If ever I fall for their lies, please forgive me. And when you finally rise to your place as our king, I… I shouldn’t even ask for such a thing, but… please remember me.”

The metal chain of his cuffs gently clinked against their restraining ring as he’d raised his hands to me as far as they could go. Reaching out, pleading, begging as if he’d wished that I would touch him.

I couldn’t do anything. Despite that he had spoken, it was all beyond me. He was lost, I’d believed so deeply. Past all of his killing and whatever other wicked things he’d might have done in his life, I could only feel pity for him.

I’d finished collecting the files before me and began towards the door while wondering how I could explain this situation to the other officers. But I’d agreed with myself that the simplest answer would be to say that he had become delusional and mistaken about the Celestial Knight.

There was no way that someone as wounded and low, as human as myself could ever be a messiah. And I would not see myself as the messiah to a religion that venerated Eclipse. To sick minded people who could ever see that monster as anything else than the devil it is.

Before I could put the room and his mania behind me, he’d had one final statement he’d wished to share with me.

“…They’re lying to you…”

I didn’t even desire to ask who. Something inside of me was twisting around, sickening me.

Maybe… I didn’t want to know who he would name.

The messiah you’re looking for… it’s not me. You should forget about me and all of that cult and move on with your life. Change your ways and live the rest of your life joyfully even if your body is left in a cell until the day you die.”

But you are… I know you are and I’ll always believe. Someday you’ll see it too. I promise you that I’ll live a good life for you, but I won’t ever even think of forgetting you, my lord.”

I’d shut the door behind me as I went on my way.

 

✩ ✩ ✩

 

I’d kept my truest thoughts quiet with Vestil and the guard before the video had played. I’d thought to myself that if that man had continued writing to me, pleading to me, it was because he’d wished to visit the person he’d been deluded to believe was his messiah. To plead with him.

But as I’d watched the scene play out, I’d been changed. That one recording changed the way I’d look at the world.

The final scene was burned into my mind despite how brief it was. I’d asked for a replay of the ending footage, wondering if the two had even realized what had happened since they’d both been so neutral no matter the killing that had taken place.

But as it had replayed, the events that had transpired were completely different from what I’d seen.

There was no one else, apparition or not, in his cell with him.

His death was deemed as a suicide.

A false tooth long unknown containing cyanide did the job for him. He had been left a convulsing mess on his cell’s floor with a froth of foam inelegantly spilling out of his mouth.

I’d watched his final moments there on the cold ground and I’d kept that other vision of his death that I’d seen to myself. I’d had doubts as to whether or not it was even reality and I’d wondered if Sloth had anything to do with the discrepancy.

But most of all, I’d felt sorrow having watched a man who had let the pain of his past rule his life. Riding him like a horse until the very end where he’d wasted all of it and left this world on the cold floor of a prison cell.

After holding a brief discussion over what we’d just witnessed, we’d decided that we would be visiting his cell as a start to the long day ahead of us.

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