Cyanide

-PART SIX-

-ANOTHER SIDE STORY HAPPENING-

-HAPPENS DURING THE SURGERY OF BLADE PETERSON-

The traffic snaked up the road, two lines of steel and tire, each capable of over two hundred kilometers per hour and each averaging about five in their stop-start fashion. Bathed in their own putrid fumes a hundred hands reached forwards in unison to turn their air-flow to internal circulation only. In each self-contained world a radio told stories, sung or sold products to the citizens, some talked on cell phones or texted. In the upscale minivans the children gaped at movies barely noticing the scream of sirens from behind and the ambulance driving rapidly into the oncoming traffic which veered to the curb. It was just another day in the town. One person's misfortune became the inconvenience of the many in their hermetically sealed indifference. The cars litter the streets, empty husks. Tens thousands of dollars each now only good for the gas in tank and the battery. One day perhaps will be melted for their metal. Already many have the electronics cannibalized. At best they are a place to duck out the rain when it falls in sheets so dense the buildings are just hazy grey blurs. At worst they are places for the scum of the town to lie in wait, unseen, until the situation is most favorable for whatever they have in mind. The cars moved fast as exactly one hundred kilometers per hour. It seems impossible but I almost make my car fly just to make sure that I'm on the specific location that the caller gives to me. I drove as fast as I could and passing through each streets like a hurricane.

I wish she's fine

…

-FLASHBACK-

Between those calls I make to reach Lycko, an anonymous caller makes my phone rang.

"Knight-Lock Chase speaking?" I answer it pretending to be calm

"Chase? Your acting like a real one Lopez" the guy from the line laughs very hard. I clenched my fist controlling my temper.

"I'm sorry mister, but this is not the right time for jokes… who are you by the way?" stated while my fist was shaking out of anger

"Seems you have a problem Knight-Lock" the man hissed

"what do you want?" I exclaimed.

His pissing me off

"Seems the little demon was missing" the man over the line laughs as if he was teasing my ass out.

"Fuck you! Where's my sister?" I ask angrily but instead of answering my question the bastard ended the call

I angrily punch the wall out of anger. I look at Knight-drain's face and it was like a bloodless flesh.

Shock?

This is all your fucking fault bastard

I know his fucking worried also yet he doesn't even do any actions to find his girl. I kept on dialing the anonymous caller's number but he wasn't picking up the phone. Receiving a message from the same number makes me more anxious and run towards the garage and get my car and pulled the road.

"Westfield Drive, The Land of Happiness"

-END OF FLASHBACK-

…

Reaching the sites were the anonymous asked me to go, immediately ran toward this abandoned place and broke in. The sky above the dilapidated theme park was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel. I could see the black outline of the hazardous roller coaster above me, parts of it obscured by the fog. Dark ash was scattered across the broken tiles, and vines creep up the walls, finding refuge in the cracks of mortar. It was quiet, almost too quiet, but I could hear creaking from the ancient Ferris wheel as it slowly turned on its repetitive path. I could see the silhouettes of trees swaying eerily in the distance, their outlines slightly blurred, giving off a sinister atmosphere. The temperature seemed to drop, sending chills up my spine. I could smell smoke, it hung suspended in the air above me, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. The ghosts of children's screams haunted the abandoned theme park. The scene was unearthly, surreal, I felt like I was in another world entirely. This place had lay derelict for years. The weather was drab and bleak, which just made the atmosphere more unnerving. I felt like I was disrupting the theme park's peaceful sleep, and it would soon awaken. Decaying cobwebs were strung between beams, neglected by the spiders. I could see fog hovering in the air above my head; only a glowing sphere of the sun setting was visible through the clouds. The sun hid behind it, trying and failing to break through. Torn bunting was strung in the air above me, their colors now dull, flags fluttering slightly in the breeze. An elaborate merry-go-round sat in the center of the park, its once bright colors painted over with dust. I could hear the echoes of cheerful music that no longer played. I could see the theme park reassemble itself in my mind, all the vibrant colors coming back to life.

"who's there?" my system activated by adrenaline when I heard a footstep around me. I tried to calm thyself to be more quick and alert, I heard a grasp from the other direction. I run finding a safe place to hide yet I bulge myself into something that makes me lay on the floor.

Fuck

"Fuck! Shit!" he cursed

I immediately stand up and compose myself. If I'm not mistaken, he was the second man in the picture handed to us.

Kelley Reed

"The Lock Lopez" He utter seems he was preparing himself, folding his polo to reveal his forearms

"it's Knight-lock Chase" I stated while enduring the pain from collapse.

"Nah! You're way too great to fool everyone that you're a Chase, Lopez" he utters those lines with a death glare him seems calculating my movement if I was going to attack him or not.

"Someone called me, is that you Reed?" I stated while looking around as if I can find any way to get out of trouble

Damn it

This isn't the right time for a fight

My sister is missing you, idiot

"nah, I didn't do any… I'm here to get Bailey back!" he utters while composing himself. "someone call me and tell that you have our Bailey so return him"

"fuck! Reed I don't have time for this, I don't have Bailey for Pete's sake" I coldly stated

On that very moment, I kept checking my phone for some texts or even calls from that anonymous.

Fuck

there was something that made me feel nervous. It could have been a tincture of the wrong aroma, or the temperature being too cold sort- like a window had been opened in my absence.

I wasn't sure.

My instinct told me to run, yet decided that maybe I was too silly and walked in regardless. No sooner had hit the phone to dial and a golfing iron hit me in the head. I felt the pain and saw the second blow come for my abdomen.

Fuck!

I didn't see him coming.

"Your demon sister has Bailey" He hissed out of anger. "The impostor of Chase's. The Knight-Lock Chase. The adopted one… protecting his demonic sister" he was circling around me and savoring my pain as if it was his energy to gain

"how did you know that Lycko is with Bailey?" I stated while trying to gain my strength

"Someone send me a photo of that Demon stabbing Bailey" he stated like a psychotic guy

"Wtf! I don't know! She's been missing for an hour" I shout that makes his eyes widened "so you plan all this? You're that bastard who called me a while ago?" I angrily hissed while standing and fixing my posture.

"nah! I didn't" he serves notorious number of punches "you and your demonic sister hides Bailey isn't it right?"

"We didn't hide Bailey so fuck off!" I shout

"So each one of us has its own truth and lie, who among us lie?" he utters dangerously.

Those fucking lines

In that frozen second between stand off and fighting I see his eyes flick from me to him. Our faces are unreadable, no fear, no invitational smirk. In that instant he flies towards me with punches and all I can do was to make any defense about it. He expects it to be one on one, over in a bloody flash and then go back to their quarry. Not to kill, but to have him do their dirty work, he's young and strong after all. But things don't go his way,

not at all.

In seconds I have taken some punches. The dusts stains darkly with the flow from this good looking idiot. When it comes to the fight there's no honor, no code. All that matters are the win and each one of us take nothing for granted. This boy has the exits covered, there's nowhere to run. I'll offer him peace first, a chance to surrender on my terms, something he will of course refuse. Then the first blow comes, a single hit shot in his head. Then the negotiation restarts with the second in command. Perhaps it isn't a fair fight,

but isn't that a strange concept anyway?

I always leant toward short and brutal to curb the fatalities, maximize the fear and thus my power base. After all, what's the point of winning if there's no-one left to subjugate?

"Fuck! You're getting into my nerves bastard!" I shout as he stubbornly fighting back against my will.

There is blood on my knuckles, a bruise above my right eye and a blood flowing at the back of my head, I continue punching him as he lay on the ground, it struggles and want to let go but helpless because of my continuously punching. My fist was slamming into his face while he sunk into my stomach. Blood pooled in his mouth as I gagged. We stumbled apart for a brief second to catch our breaths

That bastard still manages to stand barefoot

Diving back at each other, eyes narrowed in determination. I dodged him fist and came up with my own, for a brief instant, his cerulean blue eyes widened before he managed to tilt his head back and slam it into mine. Stars burst in my vision but I shook it off, blinding throwing a sloppy kick. He stepped back, easily evading the kick.

"Is that all you got?" he crowed, smirking infuriatingly at me.

I growled and threw myself at him, changing direction at the last minute. My blood hummed in my veins as determination and anger took over. I threw my body weight behind the fist that edged closer to his face, it hit his jaw with such force blood pooled into his mouth. Pain erupted from the point of impact. With my own two hands I grasped his head and brought my knee cap up to his nose, there was a blunt crack after hearing that sound I released his dark haired head. Kelley leaked from both his nostrils and his nose was twisted right. He drew his fist back again and it ploughed into my stomach, it was like hitting a train head on. My guts smashed together, blood vessels bursting. I repaid this by punching his jaw, my fish collided with all my body weight. I continued this battering until he fell to the floor. His chest gently rose and sank with each shallow breath he drew in, and passed out. I stumble to the ground out of tiredness.

An urge suddenly hits me as a result to rise quickly not even thinking about the pain and tiredness. Quickly grab a rope from a stall of teddy bears and ties the boy in excruciating position allowing no movement to escape.

Searching the area on every corner of this abandoned theme park hoping that Lycko was in here tide up or passed out but she was not here.

I angrily shout out of despair and out of disappointment, I was being fooled with that bastard anonymous caller. Going back to the location where I leave Reed behind and carry him up towards the car. Reaching the wheels gives me a relief, seating him on the shot gun seat while I lay myself on the hood to feel the burning sensation towards my muscles.

This guy was pain in the ass

But at least I got him

…

Those angry eyes are his pain untold, and wishing that he could tell it. Angry eyes are his shield and sword, gathering of clouds for a rainfall that everyone never witness. Maybe one day he'll let everyone see that torrent, the release that feels like a downfall. He's frozen inside, that's all. When he turned at last to face everyone there was no trace of tears, not in his eyes or in track marks on his reddening face. His eyes were narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. Once more and anyone was the enemy. These swings from most loved to most hated would be the end of him. His states had no greyscale, only the polar extremes existed, dewing a deep breath, the burning hard stare would last only as long as it took him to think of the most brutally cutting thing he could tear his tied up down with, it was so hard to tell and so pointless to run. The laughter evaporated from his eyes. His customary warmth gone faster than summer rain on the tarmac. Indeed, even his focus was somewhere on, as if everyone had become invisible to him or he could not bear to see pain at all. Thinking that Pendelton crossed some invisible line, offended his sensibilities. seeing him do this to others before, but he thought that their bond immune. Now his blood drained and heart hammered erratically. Young Chase was never afraid of his anger when it came as fire, for that burnt hot and fast. He was deathly afraid of his ice. It coated him like protective permafrost, it had saved him from the torments of his youth, but now the same method could isolate him from his new family, his friends. It was pointless to try to reach him now.

His eyes were a knife in his victim's ribs, the sharp point digging deeper. Where there had been love was an emptiness, but not in any vulnerable sense. Uncomfortable with the void, he had filled it with an emotion he was more at ease with a raw anger. The unmoving gaze was accompanied by deliberate slow breathing, like he was fighting something back and loosing. His eyes flashed with indignant and anger, much like lightning on a pitch black night. He couldn't recognize anymore; it is like his inner demon has returned from its deep sleep.

Seems hellhound have return.

…

Bark of a tree seems to bring a very anxious atmosphere, the cracks footsteps seems to be strange, crouches down to detect the aroma, it's like nothing I've ever smelt before, not bitter, not sweet, not like pollution

Smell of a man

Seeing a silhouette besides the trees location makes me feel nervous. Seems like there's another one. The so-called watchman was close. This was no time for extra noises, my jaw clenched, silently grinding my teeth as the combat boots crunched over the pea gravel. Each step was with military precision, the high shine on the boots reflecting the intense pole-mounted lights. The watchman's shadow passed over Finch, finally, the sucking noises ceased. When the man notices that I was observing him, he quickly run through making the gravel to cling at each other and cause loud footsteps noise. I run to follow that culprit sort of man, managing my tiredness to get any strength from it. I feel the numbness all throughout my legs, running gives me shiver as I try to run as fast as I can to reach his arms.

Gotcha!

I froze when I got to grab his arms

It seems familiar

"who are you?" a deadly tone quickly slips out from my mouth

Instead of answering my question, he just walked away held himself throughout the darkness. I froze and didn't do anything, trying to move myself but I couldn't. Something about him looks familiar and something about him makes me froze.

Why'd he didn't attack me?

I decided to walk away from the site, thinking who might that guy be, I'm furiously confuse about what's happening. A sudden trench of pain comes from my shoulder, before I even realized that something is being strung on my shoulder back, I had come to look at that nostalgic tree side where I belong envisioning the silhouette of that man again. A sudden dizziness stops my mind from thinking strategies even the controls and functions of my body. Holding onto my aimless feelings, I look back at him, seems he was walking closely at my direction, although he was wearing the same clothes yet his skin color had changed and he was shorter.

Am I hallucinating?

"who are you?" I manage to ask him even though I'm struggling with my mind.

"Knight-lock Chase… or should I say Lock Lopez" my eyes widened as he speaks with a familiar voice that I can't distinguish who he was.

"why did you know me?... ugh… who are you" managing to stand up and hold my forehead.

"Happy birthday LL! Happy birthday LL!" he sang the rhythm of my birthday song that makes my head aches as if it was hit by a baseball bat.

As I look around the settings was changed, the man disappeared yet I heard what he's singing. I was on a padded room where I am not really alone, someone's humming a little tune.

"Little corpses, trying to greet me, hallucinations that nibble my toes, cantaloupe ants and evil cow rings, these are a few of my favorite things!"

That song!

Another whirling effect that makes my mind aches and the scene was change it was like a courtyard or a playground.

"Hey! Are you alright?" a two figure of a kid standing in front of a boy who's fell down on the ground

"Am I hallucinating?" the innocent boy asks as the twins laugh and giggles. They help the boy to stand up catching his breath.

"We're twins" they both synchronize giggly shout

They're identical to each other. The different was their styles, the one with red hair wears a cool luxury clothes and the one with gray hair wears a very high graded glasses with a very thick lenses, wearing a black casual polo underneath a suit.

"Hi I'm Knight-drain Pendelton Chase… five years old and you are?" the boy with glasses offer his hand for a hand shake

"I'm Lock Lopez… same age like you and your brother… I'm not rich as you are… don't be friends with me… your father might get angry" the boy hissed out of shy

"Silly! I'm Knight-Blade Chase… it doesn't matter; we want you to be our friend… besides our father was a kind man… besides we're not on any medieval period" the boy with a red hair murmur

"I'm Knight-drain Pendelton Chase!"

"I'm Knight-blade Chase!"

"Lock Lopez"

Those lines were unpredictability repeating inside my head, it was like there is a million of voices inside and kept on reciting those lines from my childhood.

"Happy birthday LL! Happy birthday LL!"

"Arrrrggghhh!!! Fuck! Stop it!" I shout as the man still singing the line while I was hearing these eerie voices of the past children.

A whirling pool of memories suddenly flashes over and over again as I was hearing the sounds. I could help but to shout and curse

Fuck! What's happening

The scene changed and the man disappears.

"Happy birthday LL! Happy Birthday LL" A boy sweetly sang with sadness and pain. He looks like he was celebrating his birthday alone.

"LL make a wish, blow your candle" He murmur and blow the candle clapping like an idiot while crying softly

"This is my chance to have a cake… I guess" He whisper

"I really missed them."

"I badly want to be with them."

"I badly needed them."

"Happy birthday LL… Happy birthday LL"

"Is it your birthday, today too?" as the two identical boy approaches at the back, "Ooops! We're sorry, your cupcake spill"

"nah. It's not my birthday today… it's tomorrow" wiping out his tears

"You're crying… aren��t you?" the both shock when they saw the boy's face

"We can tell mom and dad to throw a party for you too." The child with glasses giggles

"Nah! It's okay not to have party, I'm too grateful to the both of you and to uncle and auntie with what I received" the crying boy murmur as he hugs the two "I just missed my parents"

"We know…"

"hey! What if we changed your name?"

"what if"

"What if"

"Change"

"Change"

"Knight-lock"

"Knight-lock"

"FUCK! STOP!" as I shout so loud, the man disappears and I left on the foggy site dumbfounded

Fuck what was that

Felt dizzy yet I ran barefoot through the forest and go back to the car, reaching it serves as it was my safe stop, going inside and sit on the driver's seat a sudden object poked at my shoulder back.

A cyanide

The pain suddenly strikes again, hearing the song again makes me anxious.

Am I going to die?

"you're not enough" - Lycko's voice

"you��re not enough" - Drain's voice

"you're not enough" - Blade's voice

I rock back and forth, mumbling at myself. I tug at my hair, tufts come out. My heart beats loudly, this heavy drum only I can hear. I find myself scrambling inside my car, checking back to see if I am being followed, checking and observing my surroundings if I was safe. Moonlight reflects on the tinted glass windshield of my car. The sound of a breaking twigs echoes in my head. Then it hit me. This was fear in my mind, controlling me. Using me.

This poison controls my sanity.

Sanity is just a limited mind; it is like a mental operating system accepted by the masses as within normal parameters. Imagining the worst nightmare,

"wake up"

"Fuck! Knight-lock! Wake up!"

My brain is an extinguished fire, once it burnt bright and I knew of happiness and light, I could see a future. Now my mind is dark, subsisting on the burnt tinder of who I was. In these ashes there is nothing to even renew a spark. All I can do is huddle in this moment, live from heartbeat to heartbeat. I feel like the world isn't really there at all, like it was stolen and replaced with something empty, fake. It makes sense in a weird way, the real world gave me feelings of joy. I felt connected to it, part of it. But either it was taken away or I was, every second of every minute all I can do is float in the void. I know things they don't. I know things. Reality shifts and turns, it isn't static like people pretend. Time doesn't run in straight lines and logic is a circle.

"Ugh! Lock Fucking wake up on thoughts!"

"Knight-blade was my only brother"

"Stop acting like one Lock"

"Fuck Lock Stop!"

"Everyone here isn't real. You're all just projections of this stupid poison." I shout as I immediately get the antidote and drink it.

A moment later when my emotions and mentality became semi-stable I quickly pulled of the road, multi-tasking immediately dialed his phone number.

"Yow! Gray Williams on the phone, how may I help you?" he quickly answers his phone after a few dial and greeted on the mouthpiece

"Gray!" I speak while panting out of panic attack

"Yow! Knight-lock what's happening? Where are you?" he worriedly spoke

"I'm struck with a cyanide!" doesn't making any explanation, I drive as fast as I can to reach Sol y Luna

"who did that?" he utters as if he can do the same to the culprit

"Fucking help! Mate! all symptoms were striking!" I shout out of fear

"Okay! Okay! Don't panic stay calm Lock, where are you? Lycko was well-experience about this kind of stuffs, just stay calm"

"few blocks from Sol y Luna" as my head ache strikes my heart beat become fast than its normal rate.

"ugh! Lycko's missing! They had a fight and the leave! Fuck it's fucking hurt" I shout through the line as my heart rate become even more fast than before. My eyes start to tremble and became blurry.

"Hey! Hey! Calm down! Lycko's here she's asleep! Calm down! You're too close at Sol y Luna! I'll fetch you outside! Don't hang up!" he worriedly speaks

"uh-"I try to utter as word yet I couldn't it's painful

"Hey! Speak up! I'm riding the cart now!"

"where are you?"

"Hey Lock!"

"come on speak!"

"I'm with Lycko now!"

"Hermano!" – Lycko

Her sweet voice, my world. Seems everything was fine as I heard her voice. Suddenly their voices become too blurry as my sight. My hands are shaking and trembles.

"I'm glad you're safe Hermana" and everything went black