8: If I Were The Devil (3)

As Andrew and Thomas walked slowly into the large and expansive garden of the Wayne mansion, a strange and somewhat ominous atmosphere permeated the entire garden… Though, Andrew was unaware of this.

His inexperienced little mind could not detect these changes.

But what he could detect was the strange state of mind he had as he listened to Thomas' words. He found himself strangely enthralled by Thomas' words. He instinctively knew that something was wrong, but even this feeling was suppressed and he completely forgot about it.

The only thing on his mind was to never forget the words that Thomas was about to speak… He was afraid.

"If I were the devil…" Thomas started.

"If… If I were the devil… If I were the Prince of Darkness, I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness."

"I'd have four-fifths of the world's population, but I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, THEE."

The moment Thomas said these words, Andrew felt his entire soul and body shake. His heart pounded in fear.

"So I'd set about however necessary to take over the Tech Union. I'd subvert the religions first. I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to the first fool, "Do as you please."

"To the young, I would whisper that salvation and victory is a myth. I would convince them that to reach the top requires extreme ruthlessness and lack of morality so that the word 'TRUST' would be alien to them."

A dark gleam flashed in Thomas' eyes as he spoke.

Meanwhile, despite Andrew's entire body and soul not wanting to listen to the words that were being spoken by Thomas, he found out that he could not stop.

His eyes became wet.

"If I were the devil, I'd soon have families at war with themselves, religions at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves... until each in its' turn was consumed."

"And with promises of more power, riches, and fame, I'd have all the media fanning the flames."

A cruel smile crept up on Thomas' lips.

"If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but to neglect to discipline emotions, just let those run wild until before you knew it, students would kill each other just for the smallest of things."

Thomas' smile widened.

"If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentives of the ambitious."

"I would caution against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, and in moral conduct."

Thomas chuckled.

"...In other words, If I were the devil, I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing."

Thomas paused, and then he looked at Andrew who had tears running down his face.

Thomas' smile widened, "You didn't die or faint. I knew I was right to choose you."

As Andrew heard this, more tears poured out from his eyes.

He didn't know why, but ever since Thomas started speaking about what he would do if he were the devil, he knew that he was in danger.

He finally listened to his instincts which told him that his life was in danger.

When he was listening to Thomas' words, he finally realized a lot of irregularities ever since Thomas woke him up.

First of all, how did Thomas get into his room?

He remembered locking his door, and if his door was locked, Thomas should not have been able to enter.

Second, how did Thomas know that their garage was in this direction?

They did not give Thomas a tour of their house so he shouldn't have known where their garage was. But he knew. In fact, Andrew just realized that Thomas did not get lost at all on their way to their garage.

It was almost like he knew the layout of their mansion at the back of his head.

Lastly and most important of all, how could Edgar, their butler, be missing with all of these happening?

It was inconceivable that Edgar, a man who everybody knew as the perfect butler, would be missing as all of this was going on.

Although, he hated Edgar, he knew that Edgar would actually never allow their lives to be in danger.

Thomas wished he noticed all of these from the onset. He wished he was smarter and calmer. He was scared. He was terrified. He wanted to run, but he found out that he could not.

He regretted not listening to his father's advice and Edgar's words. He regretted ever helping this beggar.

'Father. Mother… Edgar… Somebody… Please save me.'

More tears dripped from Andrew's eyes as his heartbeat increased by a large degree. It was a miracle he was not dead due to his high heart rate… or maybe it was not a miracle?

"Why are you scared?"

Thomas chuckled with a wide smile. He knelt and looked at Andrew straight in his eyes.

"Weren't you abusing me and calling me all sorts of names?" Thomas raised his brows.

"I'm- I'm sorry." More tears spilled out from Andrew's eyes as he stared at the wide smile of Thomas. He felt like he was looking at a demon.

"But for real. You should calm down." Thomas patted Andrew's shoulder. "I can't have you dying on me yet. Your heart is beating like crazy. You'd be dead if not cause of me."

Thomas grinned, and Andrew pleaded once again.

"I'm- I'm sorry… sob… I'm really… sob… sorry."

"Woah Woah. Chill out kid." Thomas raised his arms. "If you keep on crying like that, you'll make me feel like a bad guy."

Thomas grinned while gesturing to the front. "Besides, don't you want to see your sister?"

"Esther?" Andrew looked at his front, and he realized that they were in front of his father's garage.

For some reason, Andrew had a bad feeling as he looked at the garage in front of him.

Maybe it was just him being paranoid due to how he was feeling, or maybe this was another one of Thomas' abilities.

Andrew did not know. But what he knew was that he had to check out the garage to see his sister. Whether what he would see would be terrible beyond his imagination and scar him for life or would grant him immense relief could only be known when he sees what was inside the garage.