Settle, Mortem

I looked out the window to see Pablo standing next to gravestone near the sea. There were daisies in one of his hands, and a sandwich in the other. Annie’s favorite things. We retrieved her ashes, but we haven’t had a funeral yet. The gravestone was simply a memento of Annie; she wasn’t buried there. Pablo still wasn’t his normal self. He was still in shock that the love of his life had died. Heartbreak can do that to someone. I sighed and leaned back against the chair, closing my eyes and putting my hands behind my head.

The last few days had been hectic. As soon as we landed where our house had been, there was a nasty shock waiting for us.

The entire house had been demolished. Through the wreckage, I could see Kevin, one of my best apprentices, lying bloodied on a stake. The strange part was that I couldn’t sense his soul. It hadn’t gone anywhere. We inspected the wreckage to try and locate Alli, only to find out she had disappeared completely. I could track her aura up till her room, but there it changed to that of a demon’s. The only logical conclusion we had managed to put together was that Alli had been a demon and the traitor Pollux was talking about. Pollux’s death caused ripples in almost every dimension. When someone as powerful as Pollux dies, it affects everyone. Alli must have fled for her life, taking out Kevin as she escaped. It looked like she hadn’t gotten away uninjured, though. There were bloodstains in multiple places. Michael was distraught, but he got over it quickly. It turned out that he was mortified he had had feelings for a demon.

As for me, I was ashamed. Ashamed by the fact that Alli had managed to sneak past me, ashamed that I, the Demon Lord, would allow a demon to sneak past me. That I couldn’t even sense it. She had blended into the human world perfectly.

After the word got out that Pollux had been defeated, the human government settled down rather quickly and immediately pressed charges against Dragonside and Mortem. In response, we fled. We did not feel like fighting anymore, and it seemed like the some people in the government did not want to see our executions. We relocated to a small cave Kenny and Danny had discovered when they claimed they were on a mission. All of us doubted that. We renovated it into a rather large base with wards, defensive measures, and illusion charms surrounding it.

I opened my eyes and swung my legs off of the chair. It was time for me to get back to work. I cracked a small smile. I had barely slept at all, and my injuries hadn’t healed completely. I walked towards the main compound, stopping for a slight second to check my reflection.

People say that you don’t change much when you get a year older, but for my birthday, I got my eyeballs and face tattooed. The scars were still etched in my face. The worst part was that I was still bonded with the Demon Lord’s spirit in some way. Every time I saw blood, I got hungry. I could smell the person’s soul, and the Lord’s spirit was telling me to eat it. I couldn’t continue work as a doctor if this continued. I sighed and continued to the main area.

The way we had designed our new home was cool. It was like a tree. The roots were the place where we could keep watch, the tree trunk was main meeting place, and the branches and leaves were hallways and rooms. Everything was dark down here, and we often got bugs, the only things which could slip past wards of the strongest type.

As I walked towards the main compartment, I passed the room we kept the Gem of Power in. The highest people in the government didn’t receive as much protection as we were giving the Gem. I remembered what we had to go through to get it and inwardly shuddered. I had lived with the guilt of killing Pollux, but somewhere, deep down, I had known that I had not killed him. But now I had. There was no doubt about it. I stared down at my hands. How much blood were the covered in? I had killed my own family with these hands. Maybe I was a monster. Maybe all of those people were right.

“Take it. The Gem can reverse all of that. It can give you power. You won’t have to kill anyone, for they will succumb to you out of fear. There will be no other like you, and there never will continue to be!”

That voice. That voice! Ever since I had gotten back, whenever I saw the Gem of Power, it whispered into my mind. Telling me to take it. To gain power! And I was tempted. I was tempted beyond what I thought was possible to take it. Infinite power! One would have to be insane to turn that down. And that insane person was me.

But I wasn’t insane.

I was terrified.

I was terrified of what I would do with the Gem or Power and the Demon Lord. I was terrified that I would become even more of a monster than what I was.

What had that reporter said such a long time ago? “Although she’s only six, she’s a beautiful monster.” I snorted thinking of it. That’s exactly what I was now. I scowled and made my way to the main area, trying hard not to get distracted. It was hard to, especially with so many thoughts running around my head, but I did it.

“Hey,” I said as casually as possible. The people who were already in there looked up. Scarlet’s eyes narrowed, and although Nick didn’t do anything, I knew he could tell that something was wrong. They knew me too well. They also knew me enough to not ask me about it while I was with everyone.

“Hey,” Kenny said, barely glancing up. He was leafing through a big stack of papers.

“What are those?” I asked.

“Requests for meetings,” Kenny said.

“Any good ones?” I asked.

Kenny looked at me. “You’re looking for something specific, aren’t you?”

I nodded slightly. “I’ve been doing some scouting.”

“Soul scouting?” Scarlet asked. I nodded. Scarlet sighed but didn’t say anything, so I continued.

“Anyway, as expected, there are still a lot of people who want the Zodiac ways back. These people could prove to be, uh, dangerous in the future. I want to get rid of them as soon as possible.” I sat down in a chair after saying that.

“Can’t we just kill them?” Danny suggested.

I rolled my eyes. “No, we can’t. The scary thing about Mortem is that we kill anyone, regardless and without discrimination, if we get paid to. If we start attacking people in a clear pattern, people won’t be as wary,” I said.

“So you’re worried about our reputation,” Nathan said. I nodded. “Good to know.”

“Alright,” Kenny said. “Just stick the people you want to kill in randomly with some of these contracts. That won’t be too hard.”

“Yeah, but I want to get rid of them as quickly as possible,” I said.

I could tell that Kenny was about to lose his temper. “This is the fastest way,” he said. “Take it or leave it.” I was about to answer when Nick cut across me.

“Or we could get rid of them here.” He pulled out a newspaper. I couldn’t believe we were still getting it. Someone could track us down just by following the newspaper boy. On the front of the newspaper was a headlines that screamed about how the people who used to support the Zodiacs would come out later this week to make a speech about how they never supported Pollux.

“That’s a load of bullshit,” Scarlet said.

“That’s not the point,” Nick said. “We could kill them all there.”

I snorted. “And lose our aura of mystery.” Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. “How no one sees Mortem kill their target, but they are found dead. We don’t have to take care of witnesses because there were none. This is how we got the title of best murders around,” I sighed. “How do you guys not know this?”

“Guys! Guys!” James burst into the room. We all looked up. “I was watching the news! The King of the city we went to has been named Protector!”

“Good choice,” I said.

“What does a Protector do?” Nathan asked.

“You’re so ignorant,” Nick said. Nathan rounded on him, but I quickly spoke.

“A Protector is not a ruler, but a person who watches over the world,” I said.

“So they don’t get to make any decisions,” Nathan said.

I nodded. “Unless they have been named ruler of a place.”

“Wait, there’s something else,” James said. “Some people are against it.”

“Of course there are people against it,” Kenny said. “This is politics.”

James shook his head. “No. They’re really against it. The police have already captured people having secret meetings about how to overthrow him,” James said.

I looked at him in alarm. “Were the people plotting to overthrow him former Zodiacs?” I asked. James shook his head. “Look in the newspaper,” I told Nick. “There’s got to be something.”

Nick looked as sheepish as he could get. “Actually, I forget to tell you something.”

I looked at him suspiciously. “What?” I asked.

“While we were fighting Pollux, some people took the chance that they got since they were gone and got a new King,” Nick said.

I tried to keep my temper under control. “When did you hear about this?” I asked.

“Almost as soon as we got back,” Nick said. “Sorry,” he squeaked.

“Oh, no problem,” I snapped. “Because saying sorry definitely works.”

“That’s not the point,” James said. “Look, this new ruler is weak. He’s a puppet. The real mastermind knew that people wouldn’t vote for him, so he picked someone who would follow his every order and put him up in the elections.”

“Wait,” I said. “How did they even get rid of the first King?”

“Murdered,” James said. “Probably by the new guys.”

“Of course,” I muttered. “Who are they?”

“The King is a human, last name Hernandez,” James said. “The puppeteer is a Snake.”

“Snake?” Nick repeated, an eyebrow raised. He glanced at me. I had my fears, too.

“Is this the same Snake that was one of the closest allies of the Zodiacs,” Scarlet said. “But no one could prove it, and he ended up causing a lot of trouble for us?”

I held out my hand to James. He handed me the newspaper, and I quickly scanned through it, looking at the pictures. “Yep, same one,” I said. He was smiling, shaking hands with several people who didn’t know what he was like at all. Something about donating a lot of money to the Protector. How did these people not know? He slaughtered people in the thousands!

“So many things can happen in just three days,” Kenny said.

“Anyway, the government is a lot more corrupt, and there’s a war brewing,” James added.

“People are splitting again?” I asked.

James nodded. “Those for the new government are staying here. Those against it are leaving.”

“So this is just like the Zodiacs, but less powerful,” Danny said.

James shook his head. “The people in charge now are just corrupt. They’re evil. It’s not discrimination or anything. They’re just bad people.”

“So those are our targets,” I decided. “We’re going to kill them. Has there been any sign of revolutions yet?”

“It’s kind of unclear,” James said. “More and more people are trying to leave his rule, but it’s kind of hard. On top of that, those who are known to oppose the King are killed immediately.”

“What do we need to do?” Nathan asked.

“Wait,” Danny said. “We’re assassins. Not killers.”

“The reason Mortem was started was to watch over of people like this in secret ways,” I said. “This is our job.”

“Well, Snake hasn’t done anything bad yet,” James said.

“Why are you defending him?” Scarlet snarled.

“Calm down,” Nathan said. “We don’t have any current evidence of him or his officers doing anything wrong. We’ll wait it out. We only kill for a reason.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Nathan’s right,” I said. “We’ll wait.”

“This man was already torturing people!” Scarlet exclaimed. I remembered that one of her closest friends had died at the hands of Snake.

“You’re right,” I said evenly. “But Snake claimed that he had changed and realized the error of his ways. Until we have concrete evidence, we have to go along with it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Scarlet said in disgust.

“Innocent until proven guilty,” Kenny said. That seemed to calm Scarlet down.

“Thank you, James,” I said. “Where’s Michael?” Although the war was over, I still felt responsibility for him since I was his Guardian.

“About that,” James said. “A number of our classmates actually left this morning.”

I simply stared at him. I was the leader of Mortem, yet people don’t bother to inform me about anything. “Would you please explain?” I asked.

“They felt like assassination wasn’t their thing, so they left with Mr. Dragon” he said.

“Wasn’t their thing,” I repeated.

James nodded. “So they left. They’re joining the group of people planning to rebel against Snake.”

“So people are already organized?” Danny asked. James nodded. “And they’re a part of that?”

“Why would they leave?” I mused.

“They felt like they had learned enough,” James said.

Nathan looked at James in shock. “No way,” he said.

“Whatever,” I said. “Those twerps aren’t my responsibility now.” And like that, the thought of their well-being disappeared from my head. It was a nice skill to have.

“So now what?” James asked us.

“Now we sit back, relax, and wait for a decent contract.” I grinned, lifting the front legs of my chair off of the floor slightly, and putting my hands behind my back.