A dream long-forgotten

I spent a long time thinking about what happen there, by the waterfall. The words he said to me that resonated with me so much. I did not know what was I supposed to do next. What I knew was that I had to find the reaper.

I’m sure that Thanos already knew who the killer was, and he was giving me hints to taunt me. The way he alluded to the past made it seem like my first destination should be Carl Watson, our former friend. I haven’t heard from Carl in years. I wonder how he’s doing? He and Thanos used to be really close, to the point where they called themselves the “unstoppable duo”. Thane was the brain and Carl the brawn. Mal used to be really jealous of the two and they would often get into arguments. Man, it used to be so hard to deal with those guys, but I liked it. They were a fun bunch to be around.

I searched the police records, and I found the address Carl was staying at. When I drove there, it didn’t take me long to realize that it was a care home.

What the hell happened to you carl?

As I walked it, I noticed that this place seemed very dirty and worn down. I went to the reception and the girl at the desk told me that this place I supposed to help underprivileged people with severe physical and psychological trauma. I came here expecting to see a young man full of energy, instead I met a crippled, broken man in a wheelchair.

I found Carl in a sorry state. He was very skinny, bony to be exact, covered in scars with a medical eyepatch over one of his eyes. His face seemed to constantly maintain an almost automated blank expression. From the very first moment I saw him, I knew this man was dying.

“Carl, my name is Alice. We were friends a long time ago.”

As soon as I said that his dead expression changed, his face regained some of its long-lost color, he seemed happy to see me.

“Ah, Alice, what a surprise. This old albino expects to see you here. Well, I’m sorry you have to see me in this state.”

“Carl, what happened to you?”

“You’re better off not knowing. I can offer you one piece of advice. Whatever you do, don’t associate with Thane in any way.”

“Carl, what do you mean? Thane is the reason I’m here.”

Upon hearing this carl startled, you could see his face shift from somewhat okay to as pale as snow in a matter of seconds. There was no doubt he was terrified.

Carl, it’s alright if you don’t want to tell me. I think I should just be on my…

“shut the hell up and listen,” carl interrupts me.

“Thanos Asinus is both a maniac and a killer. That man is nothing like he was when he was just a kid. I’m not sure when it was, but somewhere in his life, he changed. He became this cold, twisted and manipulative person who’s been living the same day in and out for a couple of years now.

Me and Thane got in touch again 6 years ago, we started to occasionally meet up, going out to beaches and bars, hitting on chicks and getting into fights. It felt like we were the king’s back then. When we were together, nothing could stop us. We quickly became best friends. I even to told him about my dream of becoming a private investigator, to look for missing people and hunt down criminals. Life was going well until that day.

It was the day that Thane lost his parents to the first killer to dawn the name of the reaper. He told me it was a woman. She tortured both him and his parents for 7 days, making dozens of cuts all over their bodies, then pouring spirit over them and sowing them up just to cut them open over and repeatedly. On the seventh day, she gave them a choice. She said that only one person can get away alive, and they had to pick who it was. That is how he survived.

At first, it seemed like Thane was okay. Nothing seemed out of place. His wounds healed quickly. Our life simply continued from where it left off. Our lives were full of wild parties, beautiful women and heart-pounding adventures.

Although I didn’t notice it at first, something felt strange. Everything seemed to be the way it had always been, but Thane seem to want to do progressively more dangerous stuff.

He started by getting into fights with gang members, going into their meeting locations and beating them up, but he quickly got bored with that. Then she started jumping off a plane with a parachute. But that only lasted until he asked if he could jump without one. That got him quickly kicked out. He even used to jump off a cliff every morning as a part of his daily routine, but he quickly got bored with that. It seemed like Thanos got addicted to the feeling of danger and he pursued it without an end.

His strange behavior culminated when he said he wanted to play a game with me, “Lets see which one of us is stronger, lets see who can break the other”, I mostly laughed off his strange request, seeing that it came out of nowhere it made no sense for me to take it seriously. But indeed, he was serious.

A week later, he would give my address to the gang he used to harass. They killed off my entire family. He killed two birds with the same stone. He eliminated my family and then gave an anonymous tip to the police, so he wouldn’t have to clean up himself.

I managed to loosely escape the attack, only suffering a few considerably minor injuries. The next 2 months I spent trying to get away from Thanos. Running proved futile. No matter where I ended up, he would still find a way to get to me. I ran like a lamb that was being chased by a starved, ferocious lion.

It all culminated when one day I got tired of running, I came after Thanos and attacked him, but he proved to be much stronger than me, he cut out my eye, and injured my spine leaving me a cripple, then he took whatever money I had left and place me here. That, to him, seemed like a fate worse than death.

Last time I saw him was 2 years ago. He said, ”you lost” with a disgustingly ominous smile dawning his face. That was the moment I realized that Thanos didn’t do any of this because of emotions like hate or anger. It was all for fun, just to entertain himself, to satisfy his urge for excitement.

He was no more than a foul beast.”