Into The Night

It was more than an experience for me. It was all about the journey, the tradition, the honor. My father handed down a legacy to his oldest son and I carried his title of Top Man. There has been disappearances all throughout history. Men have walked down the streets never to return again. That is my legacy. The legendary title of Top Man is nothing more than a glorfiedmurderer and I am Janai, my father’s son and most apt pupil.
I have been training with my father since I was very young. Days of training that would peel the skin off of your fingertips. I have the fingerprints to prove it. I have more noticeable scars too. My body is like a collage of scars, each telling their own story.
I picked up on all of the arts of murder, listened to the wisdom of the elder Top Men, including my father, and begun to study all forms of fighting arts. I was bred in every dojo, every treacherous house in the forest, every top private school. I was educated to blend in at day and by night, I was bred to vanish all those who went against Top Men. I did this without hesitation. But tonight, on this foortop, that changes.
Tonight is supposed to mark an anniversary. A special anniversary for only Top Men. Tonight I was supposed to make my hundreth disappearance. Tonight I was supposed to become a man in the Top Men’s eyes.
This was a contract killing of epic proportions. I was supposed to remove a corrupt Asian politician from the comfort of his penthouse suite in elegant five star hotel in New York City. He was supposed to meet up with some of his drug connections in New York, some Italian family of great importance to the city. I never asked for too much information. It only seemed to complicate matters. The only thing that was important to me was the target. I didn’t need to know the reason behind it.
I usually wouln’t hesitate to snatch this man from his reality and place into mine, a bleek and harsh reality that mostly ended in an abduction into the night and a sending into an eternal darkness. That’s how I earned my name and ranking within the Top Men. They called me Ruthless and you don’t receive that moniker by not exacting a beautiful punishment upon the Top Men’s enemies and their contracts. But at the same time, this was my hundreth act of disappearance, my most personal one yet according to the Top Men, yet I couldn’t tell you the difference between the corrupt politician and his subordinates.
Maybe that was the plan. Maybe they were trying to throw me off of their tracks by placing a decoy in the corrupt politician’s place. Maybe they were trying to make a fool of me. I’ll show them. I only planned on leaving quietly with my victim, but today I’ll show them why I am Ruthless of the Top Men. Tonight, I shall show them why they should have named me Devil.
I felt the demon inside of me roar with anger, and adrenaline rushed through my veins as my blood pumped supernatural power as the nearby edge of the rooftop adjacent to the hotel became something surmountable. Even though the two edges were the exact same height and the distance between the two weren’t exactly what you would call a hop, skip, and a jump. I crouched to find extra strength in my calves and took to the air like a hawk in flight enjoying the sweet company of the brisk air in my wings.
The distance between the two buildings was nothing for me to overcome. Not for a being like me. Not for one with my power. They say the Top Men have these powers because we made a pact with the devil that in order to live our dream lives on earth and in hell (cause there was no possiblity for a man of the Top Men to ever enter Heaven) we had to send as many fresh souls for the devil’s pleasure, granting us more power with every soul. I don’t think much of the tale. Sounds like insanity to me. I was born with these powers, and I’m sure I never killed anyone from my crib. Not unless my mother counts. I was the reason for her death anyways. Maybe that wasn’t it at all. Maybe the sins of my father passed down to me. Either way my blood boiled with the anxiousness of the hunt. I could smell the scent of their blood coursing through their veins, giving an exhilaration that even sex could duplicate. I could hear in his heartbeat that he was calling out to me, drumming in my ear in a taunting manner. Oh yes. Tonight was to be a bloody night.
I summoned more of my supernatural powers and began to cling to the side of the building slipping in and out of the shadows. That was my favorite part. I loved the cat and mouose aspect of the abduction. I loved the thrill of the hunt, the feeling of the chase.
I neared the immaculate suite where he was getting dressed for what was apparently a meeting he would never make it to. I waited for the perfect oppportuntity to strike. I listened to him adjust his tie and spray his cologne lightly over his body. Good, make it easier for me to cath you. I could feel the dignity of this seemingly upstart politician as he fixed his appearance repeatedly, trying hard to make a perfect first impression of the clean cut Asian business man. He was a good actor. His blood had me at hello. He couldn’t fool a man who could clearly through his soul. There was a hint of fear in the man’s heart, probably an inch of wisdom plucking at him from the inside, telling him that he should not have come to the states and that he was going to die. In a few minutes, I’m going to make him wish he had adhered to that warning from his soul.
I didn’t have to wait long for two of his subordinates to enter the room. I waited for their conversation to get to the meaty part. I wanted the advantage of the surprise. I wawnted to see the shock on the crooked politician’s face when he saw that I was here to make him disappear.
“Sir, I do not place any faith that these Italians will hold up there end of the deal. In fact, I have a grave feelling that there will be a betrayal on their behalf.” With a sadistic smile, I realized it was time for my appearance. I thought about shattering through the large glass window, but I thought about the code of Top Men. The world can never know we exist, they can never know our demons. We are Top Men. We move in silence.
I jumped off of the side of building while my black rope detangled and split at the ends of my rope, materializing into large, sharp claws grappling into the building. Truly demonic, just how I liked it. I became a silhouette with blood red eyes and a sharp toothed smile and I flew through the glass unscathed . I saw the fear in the men’s eyes when they saw a dark figure move throughout the room, especially with floating orbs of blood glaring back at them. I materialized just long enough to wipe the life from their bodies. They would never know how they died, but it was not with honor. It was not with glory. Their limbs splayed all over the room with their blood sprayed all over the walls. I’ll leave that there for the room service to find, but that’ll be all. There would be no trace of the men that existed in this room. The thought of this made me laugh as I snapped my fingers and their bodyparts materialized into the air. They were now disappeared. A smile curled on my face as their life energies flowed into me.
When I first began this mission, I doubted the true power of disappearing your hundreth man, but I was wrong by such a degree, that it was staggering. I had earned my night that night and soon I would have the strength to prove it. The strange power that coursed through me levitatated me in the air, flowing through every cell in my body. I closed my eyes for a mere second to savor the first moment I had with this newfound power, and when I reopened them, I found myself on another plane facing the original Top Man: the Devil, himself.
My eyelashes fluttered,trying to grasp a hold on to what I was witnessing. His smile was enchanting. His eyes were a blood red crystal color giving his eyes the illusions of having a long red tunnel as pupils. When someone says they could fall into the devil’s eyes, they mean exactly what they say. His voice was demonic and rocky, smelling as though a fire was boiling in the depths of his esophagus. His voice boomed like he was a talking statue. “Hello, Janai.”
My mouth stayed agape. I mean what do you say to the devil. “Hello….” I paused, thinking about whether I should regard him as a pupil would his tutor or as a son would address his father. Sometimes I thought my own father was the devil himself, but after tonight, if I survive, I’ll know better. “Master.” I decided to regard him with as much respect I could muster.
He smiled an anticipating smile, almost as if he had been waiting for me for a very long time. Then it occurred to me. I am Janai, Ruthless of the Top Men. He has been waiting for me. “Being that you have figures out that I have been waiting for you, it should be no problem to infer as to the reason why I have been waiting for one such as yourself.”
It shocked me that he knew what I had been thinking, but then I quickly realized that he was the devil in his own realm, of course he was going to be able to read and torment the minds of the captive souls inside of hell.I decided to leave it alone and find out exactly what it was that was going on. “Why have you called me here, Great One?” Again, I wanted to show the upmost respect for the most powerful fallen angel.
His smile was once again breathtaking almost as if his smile was supposed to represent the beauty and temptation of sin. Maybe it was easier to feel at ease under his smile than it would a let’s say a Penecostalan. I was already knee deep in sin, thanks to my father. No dreams of me going to Heaven now, especially after being in front of the devil like this. His mouth opened and a smalll, well compared to the devil himself small, flame exited out of the slit of a smile. He began to talk through the fiery blaze. “I have a task for you young man. One of great importance.” I raised an eyebrow in a confused manner and I could tell that the devil picked up on my confusion. “First let me tell you how this usuall happens.” The devil’s laugh was chilling. Bone chilling even and had I not been surrounded by flames, I surely wouold have been frozen in shock. “This is the secret of the Top Men. Rumors that the Top Men are in allegiance with me are completely true. They are in league with me. I grant them their powers, at a small dose, the same dose I had given you when you were just a babe, but after their hundreth kill, I provide them with a greater power, giving them a greater demon power based on their assassin tactics.” His smile grew longer as he talked about the bloodshed that had occurred over power. “I have given the power of sight and mastery of all firearms to one of the Top Men elite sniper, the gift of shadow to the one who lived in the darkness, but you, you are special, Janai.” I wondered what was special about me, but I decided to let him finish. “You have aptly lived up to your name ten times over, Ruthless, and I have been waiting for someone of your caliber to come along, and here you are.” What was he talking about? “You can help me get rid of a nuisance that has been a thorn on my side for many years.”
A new thought occurred to me after he said his last statement. I was being assigned a target by the devil. “Who?” I asked simply, anxious to learn the answer to that question.
“The Top Men.”
The answer was simply stated almost as if it were an easy task to destroy an organization completely dedicated to the art of killing then blending into the shadows. I wanted to ask why, but I knew I couldn’t do that. It went against my code. I had my target. I had my orders, I just had to accomplish my mission. “I like you, Janai. You aren’t like your brothers in the Top Men organization. They feel because they place a few of the evilest of human souls here. They feel as though I owe them, like I should bow to them, but I bow to no man, and I bow to no God.” His voice caused an earthquake to shake throughut th entirety of hell. I held no fear though. I knew what he was talking about. I, myself, felt the Top Men started becoming more diplomatic then world-class assassins that we were bred to be. What was the point of going through that agony if I was not able to take out my pain on innocents and not-so-innocents. All I wanted to do was kill, everything else seemed unnecessary. The devil smiled, knowing what I was thinking, he could already tell that I needed no convincing to take this mission. I only had one question. “Can I kill my father?”
The devil bursted into a maniacal laughter. Then he stopped and smiled widely, “I was hoping that would be the first peerson you would kill.” I smiled, my silent confirmation. “One condition.”
I smiled, already knowing that no deal with the devil came withou a catch. “Yes.”
“There will be no more quiet killings.” Flames shot from his nose as he inhaled and exhaled and he continued, “I want the entire world to know that these men were killed and in the worst way. I want the truth about the Top Men to be seen in the light.”
I nodded and smiled. “I can do that.”
He looked over the olive color of my skin and he approved. I saw the gleam in his eye, coming like a train, and I knew what came next. “Usually I would assign a greater demon to you but today….” He began to illuminate and in the middle of his chest, a black pearl the size of a boulder came slowly from the devil’s leather skin and hovered above the palm of his hand. I watched curiously as the devil’s wound began to seal together slowly. I can tell he rarely did this. I embraced the moment the black pearl floated toward me. I spread my arms and waited for the pearl to engulf me. When the pearl first touched my skin, it felt as though I was being trapped inside of a bubble but when I was completely surrounded by the pearl, I felt it harden and I knew something was about to happen. Then I felt the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life. Then I felt a peace.
I opened my eyes to the same blood filled room with the room service boy in the room staring down at me and the pools of blood with his eyes wide and mouth agaped, petrified by fear. He was so beautiful to me in his fearful state. So beautiful in fact, that I didn’t even want to take his life, but I knew that I couldn’t let him identify me. With that, I rose slowly, knowing I didn’t want him to be the first soul I sent to the fiery abyss of hell with my newfound powers. He was too innocent for me to corrupt, to ripe for me to spoil. But he did succcumb to blindness when I opened my palm, exposing a power that I have never had before. I looked into my palm and figured that my body was now fully equipped to carry out my mission. I hoped so anyways. I needed all the power I could muster if I was going to face my father. Surely that would have been a more gratifying kill than this weakling who knelt blind stricken in the blood stained room. No, this was to be as satisfying as a sixteen ounce sirloin steak with all of the right spices with a side of potatoes. This was to be delicious.
I disappeared into the shadows with only deep ruby red eyes peering onto the murder scene once more before I took my leave to my father’s house. It was a masterpiece. I fell into the night sky taking flight into the stars. It was unlike a feeling I have ever felt before in my life. Somehow my body had grown gigantic black angel wings with a wing span of at least twelve feet in the time span of me falling into the shadows of the room and falling into the sky. Amazing the power of flight. It gives you a feeling of freedom that only a bird could fathom. I felt as though I were the Bald Eagle of the skys. I didn’t want my freedom to end, but I knew I had a mission to carry out. I knew I had men to kill. Top Men.
I flew until I saw my father’s humble mansion far out away from the city to earn some well-deserved peace and rest after a hard days work in the office. I bet when he came home this night he didn’t expect to die. He couldn’t see into the future like Shaman could. He was a warrior blessed with a greater demon who was notorious in hell for killing souls many times over, a tortuous demon who lusted blood. My father’s powers are some of the most feared in the world, and I was about to put his powers to the test.
I knocked on the door hard enough to make sure that he could hear me. I knocked three times until he came to the door. I backed up so he can see the product of which he created. I wanted him to see how dark I became, how devilish I had become. I wanted him to see the demon in my eyes and realize that mine was greater than his own. I wanted to see the same fear in his eyes that I see in all of my targets. I wanted the fear, I wanted the pain, and I wasn’t going to strike until I saw it. “Son?” I saw it then, and that’s all I needed.
“Yes.” I said with a malicious smile that caused my father’s heart to stop for at least a full two seconds. That’s when the sword materialized from my palm. The most immaculate blade I have ever seen complete with a statued dragon’s head as a hilt and a blade with an ancient script inscribed into the beautifully polished blade. It was beautiful and I was grateful that it was in my possession, at least for the moment. The blade was swift in finding its target. I chopped him in half with my first swing and seeing how I swung the blade so effortlessly, that I couldn’t control myself from swinging repeatedly, slicing into smaller bits with each swing. A sardonistic laugh escaped my mouth until he was nothing more than a pool of blood and gore on the front step of his porch. A scream never left him. The perfect M.O. I turned around and embraced the power that rushed into me as I looked deep into the moon. I had killed my father this night. Now I only needed to take down the rest of the Top Men.
My mission was clear now. I jumped in the sky, yearning to be closer to stars. I knew this is where I belonged, in the night, surrounded by infinite darkness with my sin only being illuiminated by the stars. I will be the only Top Man left and the loneliness is a good enough constellation.