XMEN THE MAFIA - Day 2: Serial Kill - Alone In The Dark

The day had almost faded when the mutants at last arrived at their destination. Most had eventually joined up with Sabertooth’s group, but a few lagged behind, and fewer still had arrived first. Those already there waited outside, either unable or unwilling to find a way to break inside. Toliver’s Hardware had been abandoned long ago, but the previous owners, or someone, had boarded up all the doors and windows. They had done more than that, actually, installing thick iron grating and several locks on every conceivable access point. The place was a fortress, at least against normal humans. The defenses would do nothing to stop a sentinel or trained teams of mutant-hunters. Still, though, it looked a lot safer than their last safehouse.

As the mutants gathered outside the main entrance, the little girl, Quinn, spoke to them. “Stay here, while he checks it out,” she commanded. The he he referred to was obviously Sabertooth. He strode up to the barricaded front door, grabbed a hold of some of the iron grating, and in one brutal motion accompanied by a quiet grunt, ripped the door, grating, wooden boards and all, straight off of their hinges, and then tossed it on to the snowy ground.

Peering through the now open entryway, all that was visible was blackness. The place was a general hardware store, and fairly large. Essentially just a large warehouse with aisles of shelves placed inside, the observers doubted that there would be much to see inside. Still, they allowed Sabertooth to scout it out without complaint. He walked through the doorway and disappeared.

The little girl stood sentinel outside, ready to relay anything he found to the waiting mutants. Like a soldier being debriefed, she reported: “The place looks untouched, but the lights are still off.” A few quiet minutes passed, and then the mutants could see through the doorway as the lights of the store flicked on, one row at a time. A few moments later, the girl commented, “No one has been here for a long, long time.” The girl walked towards the door without further comment, but as she was halfway through the doorway she stopped and turned her head to face the group and said impatiently, “Well, are you guys coming or not?” and then continued inside. The other mutants followed.

She led them past the cash registers and through the tile and flooring section, to the back of the building and through a pair of large swinging doors. As the mutants entered this employee-only storage area, the lights shut off behind them, and the main area of the store was once again dark, although a little bit of light shone through from the storage areas. To one side there was a flight of stairs leading up to the administrative offices, as well as the second-story maintenance areas. Sabertooth emerged from these officers, his inspection of the area finished, and walked down in to the midst of the group.

The girl spoke, as if lecturing small children. “Stay here, leave the main lights off, and don’t do anything stupid. Anyone who does anything to draw attention to this location will wish they died quietly and quickly out in the snow like that other fool. I’m going to look for food.” With that, the girl walked out through the swinging doors, the massive man following behind her, fading in to the darkness.

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It wasn’t long before the mutants grew tired of waiting and started to explore their new surroundings. They honored Sabertooth’s wishes that the main lights remain off, and no one left the premises. Most of the mutants, who were afraid to be alone in a dark warehouse after the killings earlier, chose to remain exactly where they had been left. A few, though, had shopping lists of things they needed or wanted, and a hardware store is a great place to find nearly anything. A box with some flashlights, and then soon after some batteries, were discovered in the lit storage area. Thus equipped, a few mutants ventured off into the darkness of the store in search of whatever it was they needed.


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A man walked alone in the dark, his flashlight off, stepping lightly as he crept back to the storage area. As he passed through an aisle full of hand tools, he heard the faintest of sounds come from a behind him. He froze in terror. Who else would be out here in the dark, with their light off? His question was never answered, as a something hard and heavy cracked against the base of his skull, and he knew no more.


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Hours later, Sabertooth and Quinn returned. They burst through the swinging doors, startling several of the mutants who waited in the lit storage area. Sabertooth, strangely, wore a large grin on his face. In addition to the rare facial expression, he carried a large box under his left arm. In his right arm, propped on his shoulder, was a rather large dead dog, whose neck was twisted at a gruesomely unnatural angle: a recent kill. Thus, the reason for Sabertooth’s grin was explained. He tossed both the box and the dog on the ground, then produced a rather large knife from somewhere on his person, and knelt down over the dog.

The girl spoke to the crowd of mutants, who watched with faces full of shock and confusion: “We found a cache of canned food in the basement of an abandoned house, as well as a pack of dogs that tried to eat us. We figured you guys would like some meat with your vegetables, so we brought one of them back as well. It’s only fair, since they tried to do the same to us.” She grinned sadistically, and continued, “I’m going to go find a can opener and some stuff for a fire while he skins that thing.” She started to walk away, but turned back at the door just in time to watch Sabertooth slip his huge knife under the dog’s skin and begin to cut it away. She grinned again, grabbed a flashlight, and entered the darkened area of the store.

A few minute’s later, Quinn was walking down the aisle for hand tools, shining her light from side to side and taking in her surroundings. Everything in this warehouse had been in perfect condition, exactly as it had been left years ago when the previous owners had fled the area. A thick layer of undisturbed dust covered everything she could see: floor, shelves, tools, everything. In addition, it looked like the place had never been looted at all. On all the shelves, all the merchandise had been moved to the front of the shelf and oriented so that the front label faced outward, and the lack of any gaps suggested that nothing had been taken or moved since the store was boarded up and abandoned. Very interesting that no one had been in here in years. The barricades on all the entrances were certainly formidable, but she suspected that after several years, someone would have wanted to get in bad enough to find a way. She wondered what could have kept people away so well….

Her thoughts were cut short as she noticed a small drop of blood on the floor. She grinned, and rushed ahead, eager to investigate. Most people would have retreated, gone for others. Not her, though. No one would dare hurt her, not with Sabertooth nearby. Even if someone did succeed in hurting her, she would no doubt see their face in her final moment, and then Sabertooth would know the face as well. Their death would not be a pretty thing.

She continued on, anxious to find the newest victim of the violence. Back with the others, Sabertooth grinned an even broader grin. Soon, Quinn found what she was looking for, a small puddle of blood in a distant corner of the store floor. Near the puddle were several 55 gallon storage drums, which she tapped one by one until one of them let out a muffled echo, letting her know that it was not empty. She used a nearby crowbar to pry off the lid, and looked inside. At the top of the barrel was a tarp, which she pulled out and tossed aside. She then reached eagerly inside the barrel and felt handfuls of thick hair, which she grasped and pulled on. As her hand emerged, it held a severed human head. She did not know the mutant’s name, but she knew his face. She set the head down on the ground at her feet, and investigated the other contents of the barrel. Packed inside, she found his other appendages: both legs, both arms. Warm blood covered her hands and forearms as she pulled the limbs from the barrel, and flowed further up her arms as she lifted the dismembered body parts aloft to get a better look at them: they had definitely been sawed off of the man’s body. When she was done looking, she tossed them irreverently aside. At the bottom of the barrel lay the man’s torso. It was too big and heavy for her to lift out, so she just tipped the barrel over, spilling both the torso and copious amounts of congealed blood across the floor. Satisfied that there was nothing else of interest left in the barrel, she again lifted the head up by its hair, and went back to the others to show them her findings.


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She must have made a truly remarkable sight as she walked through the swinging doors to the storage area. What the waiting mutants beheld would haunt even the most hardened of them to the end of their days. A young girl, with pale white skin, arms completely coated with a slick layer of fresh blood and clothes splattered with red, holding a severed human head by the hair. She walked towards them, then tossed it in to their midst. A few of the greener females, and maybe even one of the men, screamed aloud.

“Relax,” she said casually, “I didn’t kill him.” Sabertooth guffawed aloud at this, although everyone else remained silent for some time to come. Quinn stared intensely at them, appraising them and analyzing their reactions. “One of you did.” There were gasps of shock and horror, and one of the mutants dashed aside to be ill.

No one spoke for a long time, but someone eventually found the courage.

“Wh… what was his name?”

“Evan. His name was Evan Meyers.”

Sabertooth went back to his work as the shocked silence continued for a minute longer. Finally, Quinn spoke: “Well now, the dog’s ready for cooking! Who’s hungry?”

No one was.

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