The BridgeWater triangle part 4: Wake

Kaz bounces off a tree after being struck by a bolt from Bridget, he hits the ground hard and lies still for a moment as his ears ring and his vision blurs.

It takes him a few seconds to realize he cannot see out of his right eye, and he stirs for a few seconds on the ground before gazing around seeing his eyeball on the ground with the retina still attached.

He gets up and stumbles when he realizes he also can’t feel his left arm, he looks down and to his shock, his arm is severed on the ground by his feet.

“You fucking serious?” He says looking at his severed arm with a concerned look.

The heat from the lightning blast he took Cauterized his wound, Bridget hovered closer as he gathered himself picking up the book of Thoth.

Kaz opened it, looked at the scripture on the next page from the previous scripture, and then began to read aloud.

“Sesquipedalian! Verta! Zento!”

The book began hovering in front of him as energy started to shoot out around him and the book.

He suddenly felt a rush of energy throughout his body like he had never felt before, it was like adrenaline but way more intense.

He began to float as the energy shooting throughout the air roared and surrounded him,

His hair and eyebrows turned a Snow White color and his sword began floating through the air towards him.

Kaz grabbed the sword and crashed to the ground, landing on his feet. The iris in his eyes glowed white, and the ground vibrated beneath him.

Enraged bridget screams before surging forward at sonic speeds towards Kaz but he side steps effortlessly dodging.

Bridget stops herself and turns around to be instantly blitzed by Kaz as he dashes around her slashing his sword.

Kaz was moving so fast that even Bridget despite her immense power with the ebonthorn ring couldn’t track him.

Bridget took wild swings at Kaz but he dodged as he continued to move around and attack at different angles.

Kaz then stopped leaving more distance between him and Bridget, she staggered in pain and in pure disbelief.

Kaz knelt and began charging an attack, a bright white energy built up around him as he gripped the sword staring directly through Bridget.

“Sorry bitch, you picked the wrong one” he says confidently before he darts straight towards Bridget and blitzes right past her cutting her clean in half before she could even react.

Bridget began to wither away to dust as she lay on the ground in two halves.

“Ma…ma… moloch, molach will devour your flesh” Bridget says weakly as she withers to dust slowly, Kaz watched as the ebonthorn dropped to the ground with Bridget fading away into death.

He picked it up and put the ring on his finger and he started to smile, “I finally got you” he says to himself.

The book dropped down as his power boost began to wear off and suddenly the triangle spawns right near it 10 feet away from him.

Kaz put his sword on his back before picking up the book and looking at the triangle, which glowed its usual red color and had its low humming sound.

Suddenly the ground around him began to shake violently and it split the ground between him and the triangle.

He staggered trying to keep his balance before charging full speed at the triangle and lunging across the split ground and directly through.

Chapter 1

The beach was quiet, waves crashed along the shoreline and the sound of seagulls echoed through the air.

The triangle suddenly spawns above the beach and Kaz warps through falling into the sand.

He lands hard on his back knocking the wind out of himself, he coughed and groans as he slowly gets to his feet.

“Excuse me! Mr!?” A voice called from behind him, he turned around and saw a man approaching him.

“Oh my god Mr! Your arm and eye are missing you need to see a hospital!”

“No no we don’t need to do that” Kaz responds with a chuckle, he knew that being back in his time in the present meant he was still being searched for by the cops.

“What in the hell happened? How did you end up washing up on the shore?”

“Uh I don’t know actually, I just got done fighting with a crazy hot witch lady” Kaz replies.

“Huh?” The man looks at Kaz, perplexed. He was a short chubby man with a bald head who stood at around chest level next to Kaz.

“What year is it?” Kaz asks him

“It’s 1974” he replies shortly.

“Hmm somewhere a 3-year-old Kaz is running around” he says to himself.

“Ok!” Kaz says clapping his hands together,

“Could you help me out in any way?” Kaz says to him.

“I got a beach house I spend the summers at down here, I really think you need a hospital though mister” the man responds.

“I have something better in mind” Kaz says with a look on his face like he was pondering something.

Kaz follows him down the beach back to his cabin, upon entering kaz looks around eyeing a door to the far right.

“You got any power tools?” Kaz asks looking over to the side at him.

“Behind that door is my garage, I have a bunch of different tools and items there” he replies.

Kaz’s metal armor clanks on the floor as he walks into the garage and looks around.

He sees a long workbench with multiple power tools hung up above it, next to the table he sees closed cardboard boxes that he opens.

Inside are different kinds of chips, circuits, and wires along with motor drivers, servo drivers, servo motors, and a microcontroller.

“Oh hell yeah” Kaz says with a smirk as he empties the boxes on the table.

He takes out the metal arm from his medieval armor, which gets removed from his severed left arm, and begins adding the drivers and circuits inside.

He then attaches a thermium clamp to his left shoulder and attaches the now modified metal arm, the thermium fuses to his skin at the cellular level.

He moves it around testing its movement before he removes the handle from his sword.

He then adds more modifications attaching the blade to the knuckle and forearm of the armor.

He then begins dismantling and mending a piece of his medieval armor into a circular shape for his eye.

He implants the camera and adds the wires and sensors and after a few hours, he successfully makes a new arm and eye.

Upon implanting the eye the magic from the thermium fuses it just like the arm.

Kaz tests its features by looking around and switching between regular, thermal, and night vision.

The door suddenly opens and the man who owned the house walked, “Oh, I was just bringing you some clothes… he suddenly stopped speaking stunned at Kaz’s new arm and eye.

“Oh hey, whatcha got for me kind Sir”

Kaz says turning to him.

The man hands him clothes while observing him, “You built these in 2 hours?” He asks shocked.

“Yeah, you learn a lot fighting demons… or are they aliens since they’re from another dimension? Hmmm,” Kaz says pondering to himself as the man stares at him awkwardly listening.

He noticed something off with Kaz, he took Kaz’s demeanor as non-hostile but could tell he was a bit odd, he decided to chalk it up to Kaz maybe just being an awkward person.

Kaz put on the black jeans and shoes he gave him and the white t-shirt with a dark thin vest.

Kaz picks up the ebonthorn and slides it on his ring finger, the ring glows a dark red color as its energy idles.

He extends his arm and opens his hand channeling the ring's energy as a humming sound begins to go off in the room.

The triangle then starts to form slowly appearing in front of them emitting its bright red glow.

“Mr Bald, you’ve been of great help. Also, be on the lookout a year from now a movie named Jaws comes out and it’s fucking great” he says as he turns to the man.

Kaz lunges into the triangle portal and he warps through traveling through dimensions and timelines quickly drops from the sky and lands on the ground in the woods.

He gets up brushing some dirt off himself as he looks around.

“I swear to god… if this is the fucking forest I think it is” he says to himself, he was visibly annoyed at the possibility of being back in the Freetown forest, the place where everything started for him.

He walked through the forest and after a few hours, Kaz found himself on a highway.

He hid in the tree line peering at cars as they drove past and he took note of the car models.

He noticed some of the car models were cars from the late 80s and early 90s leading him to believe he could be back in his time.

Kaz pondered on what to do, he wanted to stay low-key as he knew he was probably still wanted because of his vigilante criminal activities.

But at the same time, he needed a ride back to his apartment, he figured if he could hitchhike a ride home he could call Monique or Asante.

He hesitated before he got up and walked to the side of the road and stuck out his thumb.

After a few minutes, a grey Nissan slowed and stopped next to him and the passenger side window rolled down.

“Where are you headed, kid?” An older southern man with a baseball cap sat in the driver's seat.

“Freetown, you know the Freetown community apartment complex?” Kaz responds.

“Oh yeah that’s about 20 minutes north” he says before the door clicks and unlocks.

Kaz gets in the passenger seat and they head off down the highway.

Alive by Pearl Jam played through the car radio as Kaz looked out the window at the sky and trees.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with prosthetics like that, do they work?” The guy asks Kaz.

“Yeah it’s military grade prosthetics, I was wounded in the Gulf War” Kaz lied.

He didn’t wanna tell the man too much so he was thinking of stuff to make up as they drove along.

“Wow, you look young, how old are ya” the man asks, “29” Kaz lies again he was actually 21.

“Well thank you for your service bud, you’re a brave young man” the guy says to him.

Kaz smiles and nods his head turning back towards the window, he began to think of his friends and how they would react to his look now.

His hair was now permanently white and he had a robotic arm and eye so he looked vastly different from when he saw them last.

Eventually, the car stops by the entrance of the Freetown community apartment complex, Kaz exits the car and looks upon the building “home sweet home” he says to himself as he walks towards the front entrance.

After going up multiple flights of stairs Kaz approaches the front door to his apartment, room 3C.

He turns knob curious to see if it would actually open and it did, stepped inside his living room and stopped while he scanned the room.

Everything was… different, his furniture, the things on the walls and that’s when he began to hear voices coming from the kitchen.

He walks into the kitchen and he sees a man and woman with a young boy having dinner and they immediately recoil and scream in reaction to Kaz.

“Who are you!?” “How did you get into our apartment?!” The woman cried out.

“Wait what the fuck this was my place” Kaz proclaims, he stood completely confused when the man got up and walked around the table.

“Get the fuck away from my family!” The man shouts as he marches towards Kaz.

Suddenly the back door behind the table shatters and a dark grey creature with long black hair lunges into the room.

Kaz immediately recognized it as the creature that had attacked him before when he came home one day.

The family shrieks in horror as the creature shoves its hand through the husband's back and out of his chest, blood sprayed all over the wife and son.

“Do you remember me kazley!?” He asks smirking at Kaz, it had a stump on the side of its body where its 3rd arm used to be, which Kaz had severed with a wire line.

“Didn’t I throat fuck you with barbed wires?” Kaz asks with a confused look.

The creature discarded the man’s body by throwing it across the kitchen, his body hit the floor with a hard thud.

“You can’t finish the job kazley! Now I’m gonna throat fuck you with these!” The creature sarcastically proclaims while showing sharp claws protruding from its fingertips.

Kaz pulls out his short shotgun from his waist and fires a shot directly at its body which knocks it back into the fridge, the young boy held his mother in horror while Kaz and the monster fought.

The creature screams and lunges a long distance through the air at Kaz but Kaz drops his gun and catches it in mid-air body slamming the creature through the kitchen table.

He flex’s the fist on his metal arm and a long blade shoots out from the middle of his knuckle.

He begins stabbing the monster over and over but the creature kicks Kaz in the chest making him roll backwards.

He jumps to his feet at the same time as the creature and he slashes it across the face spraying more blood on the mother and son who are shaking sitting in the corner.

Kaz slashes it multiple times across the body and face and follows up with a spinning back kick knocking it into the window which shatters it.

The creature grabs shards and begins whipping them at Kaz but he skillfully evades every shard blocking a few of them with his metal arm as he moves closer.

The creature became afraid as it realized its wounds were not healing, Kaz’s weaponry was made out of thermium an ancient magic metal that hurts the monsters.

Kaz blitzes the monster and stabs it right through the heart causing it to freeze immediately, Kaz then yanks the blade out.

“You're 0 for 2 bitch. Now, do me a favor, stay outta my pad” he says with a smug look before he whips his left hand across and decapitates the creature, its head falls backwards out of the window.

Kaz then front kicks its body out of the window and peers out with a smile as it falls down the tall building splattering on the concrete.

He turns back to the mother and son and sees the woman on the phone as she hugs her son in the corner of the kitchen.

“No no fuck! Is that the cops?!” Kaz asks as he begins to panic, “cmon I just saved you guys! 2 of you! At least!” He says after seeing the dead husband on the floor.

The woman just stares at him while she talks on the phone, “he has white curly hair and this prosthetic arm and eye” she shakily says into the phone.

“Son of a bitch” Kaz says as he runs out of the now shattered back door, he quickly makes his way down the 3 flights of stairs and exits the building, and takes off running through the parking lot into the woods.

Chapter 2

A police car that had the model of a Lamborghini Aventador pulled into the parking lot driveway parking right in front of the main entrance as people all stood outside.

Michael gets out of the car and walks over to the small crowd of people.

“Agent Michael Stetson, FBI, is everyone alright?” He asks in a professional tone, “We’re ok but my neighbor Chris, someone murdered him!” The man proclaims.

“Yeah we heard all kinds of screaming and gunshots from their apartment” another woman chimed in.

“Ok, where are the mother and son” Michael asks, “in their apartment, it’s 3C, they haven’t come out yet” a man replies.

Michael turns and enters the complex and takes the elevator up.

After walking down a hallway he eventually sees room 3C with the door open ajar, and he slowly enters the room pushing the door open quietly.

“Michael Stetson FBI is anyone there!” he calls out, “In the kitchen” a woman’s voice shakily responds.

Michael moves to the kitchen and sees her sitting against the wall holding her son, they both look like the life was completely drained from their eyes.

“Hey miss, it’s ok im a cop… why don’t we get you and your son outside before the ambulance arrives” Michael says in a calming tone.

Michael escorts them both outside while the forensics team deals with the dead man, he sits them down outside as more cops arrive.

“Agent mike I see you're back from New York city” an officer says, “yeah I got back a few days ago and then got this on the radio”.

“You think this could be your guy?” The officer asks him “That vigilante kid”.

“Sounds like it could be” Michael responds, “the woman’s description of him sort of matched with the hair texture and skin color”. He responds.

“That crazy son of a bitch needs help” the officer replies, “first he was killing these cult guys and now an innocent?”.

Michael replies coldly “Yeah his idea of justice is ass backwards, I’m not resting until I get him”.

***

Kaz sprinted through the woods as he tried to remember how to get to Monique’s house on foot, He wasn’t even sure if he was going in the right direction but he kept moving forward anyway.

He cut through a neighborhood and realized he was on Oscar street which is where Asante lived.

He ran behind houses trying to stay as discreet and hidden as possible, he slowly made his way to the fence that led to Asante’s backyard and jumped it.

He dropped down and froze as he and Asante, Monique, and Mary locked eyes.

“What?” Asante says dumbfounded, “Is that fucking Kaz?!” Monique says.

“Yeah I had a rough couple of days, I literally became a cyborg in the matter of like 2 and a half days Kaz says.

“Dude it’s been over a year we thought we lost you” Asante says as the three of them rush down and group hug him.

“Where’s lane is he alive?” Kaz asks; “yeah he’s away at school, Boston university” Mary replies.

“Well we gotta go see him; but first I gotta eat something cause I haven’t eaten anything in a period of time that I can't recall” Kaz says while walking up Asante’s back porch and through his back door.

He enters the kitchen and begins digging through Asante’s pantry with the others following him in.

“So what the hell happened after that night?” Monique asks, “You took off into the woods we never saw you again”.

“I ended up fighting a giant wendigo thing i don’t know, it was like 25 feet tall and it looked like a moose” Kaz responds, “after I killed it, that triangle appeared and I got a little taste of what it can do”.

“So what does it do? Mary asks, “It seems to have the ability to send you through time and also go to this other… world” Kaz replies.

“I ended up in Salem during the 1690 witch trials, they assumed I was a witch and tried to kill me so I had to fight with them so they didn’t tie me up and burn me”.

“What about your arm and your eye?” Monique asks, “So there was this witch demon lady or something, Bridget bishop… she had the ebonthorn and was apparently the one who opened the triangle and cursed Freetown all the way back then” Kaz says.

“So is it over, are we gonna have to worry about the C O M or those monsters?” Asante asks.

“I killed her before she set the curse but I tried going to my apartment and got attacked by one I had previously killed” Kaz responds.

“My apartment wasn’t even my apartment either, some family was living there when I walked in” he continues.

Asante Mary and Monique all exchange glances at each other briefly, “yeah about that, for us you were gone for over a year so eventually your apartment went up for sale and we had to move all of your stuff” Monique explains.

“We thought you were dead” Asante chimes in, Kaz looks at them as he listens before responding, “ok so where did you guys move it?” He asks.

“We moved all onto that big boat you had, I guess you’re gonna have to live on that for now” Monique responds.

“Alright alright I’ll deal with that later, I wanna go say what’s up to Lane first” Kaz says.

“Speaking of lane he actually made you something that we have stored in the garage”

Mary replies.

The 4 of them make their way to the door that leads to the garage and they step inside, on the other side of the garage was a table built into the wall, and in front of that sat a slick all-black motorcycle that looked in perfect condition.

“Holy shit!” Kaz proclaims in a shocked reaction that he found the design of it to be mesmerizing.

“He spent 4 grand on it and made a ton of modifications and upgrades to it” Monique says.

Kaz turns his attention to the table behind the bike and on it sat a briefcase, he approached the table and clicked the briefcase open unlocking it.

Kaz took out a black and teal thermium exosuit with the gas mask helmet design.

“Ohhh shit! Lane made this!?” Kaz turns asking with an excited look.

“He’s a genius, and he thought for sure you’d come back so he made you upgraded gear with that metal Zhong was talking about” Monique replies.

“Oh this thing is so sexy” Kaz comments, “but if we’re going to his college I want to stay low key, so I’m gonna keep this in the briefcase” he says.

“Not gonna lie though, I do need some better clothes this vest is not it, this shade of green is so dull” Kaz says showing it towards Monique.

“I gotchu” Asante says leaving the garage briefly before coming back with a long-sleeve shirt and a bomber jacket.

Kaz changes into the long-sleeved jacket, the sleeves on the shirt barely fit over the metal arm.

Kaz put his hood up and got on the motorcycle, “I’ll follow you guys” he says as he puts on the two earpieces that are connected with thin metal pieces, he taps them both and the gas mask helmet quickly forms around his face and head leaving space on top for his hair.

Chapter 3

Asante drives Monique and Mary as Kaz follows them on the motorcycle, Kaz turns on the radio of the motorcycle and something in the way by Nirvana plays.

The wind in his hair felt nice as he took in the nice sunset and orange sky as he drove, he felt peace for the first time in a while which felt odd at first since Kaz was used to chaos and violence.

Meanwhile, in Asante’s car, they talked about Kaz’s return.

“I can’t believe he’s alive, he’s superhuman” Mary says, “I missed him, he’s a nut job but a good friend” Asante adds.

“I wanna know how the hell he made those prosthetics” Monique says, “it’s literally like something out of terminator” she adds.

“Lane will be impressed that’s right up his alley” Asante says.

“Hopefully I can sleep at night now with him back, I’ve been worried about the C O M coming to my door every night” Monique says.

“Yeah me too, I try to keep up with the news and what’s been going on, they’re still active locally and it makes me nervous” Asante says.

As the sun got close to setting Asante pulled into the Boston University parking lot with Kaz trailing them.

Kaz parked next to them as the 3 of them got out of Asante’s car, he made his way over to meet them.

“Is there some sort of back exit I can get into or something” Kaz says to Asante, he replies after thinking for a moment “yeah your gonna have to find a way to slip in around back”.

“Alright bet I’ll meet up with you guys later” Kaz says as he disappears further into the parking lot and around the building.

Asante, Monique, and Mary made their way up to the front entrance and walked through the glass doors up to the front desk.

“Hey we’re here to visit Lane Malone” Monique says to the old man at the desk, the man unenthusiastically turns and reaches over to the side grabbing three small square pieces of paper.

“Sign these visitor passes” he says in a somewhat grumpy tone, they sign their passes and begin walking down the halls towards the elevator.

“The hell was his problem?” Mary says to Monique as they walk, “old miserable guy at a job he hates I’m assuming” She replies.

The 3 of them enter the elevator and press the button to the 6th floor, the elevator closes and rings and seconds later begins rising upwards.

Suddenly the lights begin to flicker quickly and the elevator stops, the 3 of them look at each other exchanging concerned glances before the lights shut off.

In an instant, the elevator drops at a rapid rate and they all scream in fear grabbing onto the railing for dear life.

“We’re gonna crash!” Asante shouts and Monique quickly shouts back “Lie on your backs!”

The three of them lay down and covered their faces moments before the elevator thudded to the ground hard.

***

Kaz snuck through the bushes around the back of the huge building, “This feels weird, they’ll think I’m some kind of pervert if I’m caught” he thinks to himself.

Suddenly he notices all the lights in the entire building abruptly turn off, and he stares for a few seconds confused.

“The powers off?” He thinks to himself before his attention turns to a door that says “employee access only”.

He approaches the door and notices the key card reader was shut off so he turned the knob and opened the door.

Upon stepping inside Kaz realized it was pitch black so he shifted the vision in his gas mask to night vision and he sees he’s in a stairwell.

He walks up the stairs and goes through a door with a sign next to it that says “level 6”.

He sees lockers and a very long hallway with classrooms on both sides, he slowly walks down the hallway and stops after hearing faint yelling.

Kaz pinpoints the yelling from an elevator shaft and he sticks his metal left arm in between the small gap in the doors.

In a swift motion, he prys one of the doors open with his robotic arm and does the same to the other door.

“Who’s down there?!” Kaz shouts down, voices quickly call back, “Kaz! Kaz! Help!” He immediately recognized Asante’s Jamaican accent and Monique and Mary’s voices.

“Fucks sake what’s happening now” he says to himself before he calls back, “The briefcase is on my bike it has all my stuff!” He shouts to them.

Kaz looks down and scans the floor switching modes in his gas mask from night vision to X-ray vision, he sees the 3 of them outlined in the elevator car, and outside of the elevator was what seemed to be some basement area.

“Where’s lanes room I’m gonna get him and then I’ll be down I promise I know how to get you out!” Kaz shouts down.

“603!” Monique shouts back, Kaz then quickly turns running down the halls switching back to night vision.

He passes rooms as he goes deeper down the hallway”556, 557” he says reading them out loud quickly as he runs.

He eventually stops when he reaches 603 and begins knocking on the door quickly, “lane buddy you in there?!” Kaz says as he frantically knocks.

“Lane hey we got a situation out here you there!?” Kaz asks again after getting no response.

He puts his ear up to the door and listens closely and hears a sound that startles him, it sounds like choking, like someone is in there choking.

Kaz immediately hammer fist punched the knob off the door with his robotic hand and kicked the door wide open.

In his night vision setting, he saw a terrifying scene, Lane was hovering above his bed and his eyes were completely black, dark smoke surrounded him as a small figure sat in front of him with its hand stuck out.

The thing turned to face Kaz, it looked like a wooden puppet, it wore a suit, and had a nose like Pinocchio.

“There you are kazley” the puppet says to him in a cheerful tone, “the ventriloquist has been waiting to meet you!” It says with a sinister smile.

Kaz looked back and forth between the puppet and Lane as he took the situation in quickly before he instinctively took out his pistol and fired multiple shots but the puppet disappeared instantly.

A high-pitched laugh echoed as the black smoke dispersed and Lane fell bouncing off his bed onto the floor.

“Lane!” Kaz says rushing over and crouching down next to him as he lay unconscious on his back.

Suddenly Kaz heard movement behind him and quickly got up and turned around. There, the short wooden puppet stood before he extended his hand, and a thick cloud of black smoke shot straight at Kaz.

The force of it sent Kaz through the air flying into the wall leaving an imprint.

Kaz sprung to his feet and fired another couple shots but the puppet vanished once again, Kaz began to feel sort of sick as he looked around aiming the gun.

He moved towards the window and noticed the sky outside was red, it had that same red glow casting across the trees that were in the forest that night.

He rushes back over to Lane and sees him stirring on the floor so he helps him up, “Hey there sir, remember me?” Kaz asks.

Lane looks at him with a confused look before Kaz taps his ear pieces and the mask retracts.

Lane's eyes immediately light up despite his hurt condition, “Kaz.. how?” Kaz cuts him off quickly “shhhh it’s ok love bug I’m gonna get us out of here ok? Class dismissed”.

Kaz leads him towards the door and the two of them go out into the hallway, they heard screams echoing faintly down the halls as they run to the stairwell.

Lane was in complete shock, the last thing he remembered was studying in bed and the next thing he remembers was Kaz of all people waking him up after being attacked.

They flew down the staircases eventually reaching the very bottom, “Is there a basement level where the elevator leaves?” Kaz turns to ask him.

“Yeah, it’s this door right here, what the fuck is going on?” Lane asks, Kaz responds quickly “No idea I wanted to come surprise you since I’m not actually dead”.

They walk through the door into the pitch-black basement and Kaz leads the way.

He looks around as they walk and notices tall beams in the floor connecting to the ceiling and a wide opening unlike the halls upstairs.

The elevator was at the very end of the basement, “This way Monique Asante and Mary are in here” Kaz says as he leads Lane in the direction of the elevator.

Suddenly dark smoke spawns and begins expanding and a tall figure emerges from the clouds into view.

It was a man who had grey skin wearing a trench coat and suit with a magician's hat, he had bright red lips that formed into a sinister smile.

“The last dark angel” the man says, “your voice is oddly soothing” Kaz responds quickly.

“Bridget’s arrogance and lack of intelligence were her downfall against you, I do not make such mistakes” He says to Kaz.

“Yeah, who the fuck are you dick head her dad?!” Kaz asks, “You better not tell me there are others like her she was a huge pain in my ass”

The man in the suit cackled, “I’m worse” he says grinning evilly.

“What you want some lovin?” Kaz asks in a sarcastic tone, “Or do you want revenge for her?”

The man in the suit responds “I want the EbonThorn! Give it to me now!”

“How about I fuck you up instead” Kaz quickly claps back before he takes out his speed square and whips it in the man’s direction, the speed square hummed as it flew.

The man teleports and the speed square bounces off the wall behind him boomeranging back to Kaz.

Suddenly white strings shoot out from thin air and tie around Kaz’s ankle pulling him to the floor and dragging him around.

Lane had moved to a corner of the basement unable to see what was happening, Kaz struggled as he was dragged by the string when he shot out a sword from his robotic arm and cut the string.

The man teleports behind Kaz and kicks his back sending him face-first into a support beam.

Kaz turns swinging the blade protruding from his knuckle but the man teleports away in an instant.

“The fuck?” Kaz says turning and looking around for him, the man appears to his left side hitting him in the face before teleporting again behind him grabbing him, and throwing Kaz into the hard stone wall.

Kaz hit the floor hard and tried to scramble to his feet but suddenly more white strings came from nowhere and began tying him up.

“What kinda kinky nonsense is this?!” Kaz shouts as he struggles on the floor, the strings tightly holding his ankles and torso to the floor.

He began cutting with the blade on his forearm

When the strings pinned both of his arms down by the wrist in a t pose.

Kaz struggled unable to move on his back as the strings overwhelmed him and kept him strapped down.

“You're fighting delays your guaranteed demise” the man says as he walks towards Kaz, holding his left hand by his chest moving his fingers with the strings.

“Yeah, you just wait, buddy!” Kaz shouts “Give me 10 more no, 20 more minutes and your ass is grass!”

Kaz is suddenly jolted upright, he hovered in the air as he stayed restrained by the strings.

The man moved his fingers making Kaz turn in mid-air to face towards him.

“Be quiet now animal… your meaningless life is close to the end” the man says to Kaz in a sinister cold tone.

Lane sat in horror listening as he knew Kaz was in trouble but he couldn’t see anything, he thought of what to do as he panicked.

A knot then tightly forms around Kaz’s neck and begins to squeeze, it got tighter and tighter as Kaz began to choke.

His vision started to flutter and his hearing became distorted, he could hear the man chuckling as his vision faded to black.

Chapter 4

Kaz slowly came to as he stirred on the floor, he still had the night vision setting on so he got up and looked around.

The strings were gone and so was the man in the suit, he saw someone sitting in a corner and he rushed over to find Lane unconscious sitting against the wall.

“Hey come on get up” Kaz says tapping him awake, “I don’t know how the fuck we’re even alive but I’ll take it” Kaz says.

Lane slowly comes to and he groggily looks up at Kaz, he’s slowly helped to his feet and Kaz looks at the elevator door flipping his vision back to X-ray.

He sees the outline of three people in the elevator and makes his way to the door with Lane to find it ripped open.

Asante, Monique, and Mary all sat unconscious in the elevator, Mary had a cut on her cheek that dripped down her face.

“Hey… come on wake up” Kaz says as he lightly shakes Asante, “we gotta get the fuck out of here” says Kaz.

Asante's eyes slowly flutter open and with blurry vision and ringing in his ears he can see Kaz looming over him.

Kaz slowly lifts Asante to his feet as Lane gets Mary and Monique up and they eventually exit the elevator box.

Kaz then looks down at his left robotic arm and his heart sinks… the EbonThorn was gone.

He frantically looked around in night vision mode, “fuck! That motherfucker got the god damn ring!” He yells in frustration.

“Lost a fucking arm and an eye for it and this bootleg Houdini just strolls in and grabs it?!”

Kaz continues to scream.

As Kaz rants in anger lane suddenly starts to feel dizzy, at the same time he feels his right wrist going numb and he holds it as he falls to a knee.

“Lane! You ok?” Mary says as they all turn their attention to him.

Lane rolls up his sleeve as he breathes heavily and his blood runs cold, on the underside of his forearm was a black symbol that looked like it was carved into his arm.

Kaz immediately recognized the symbol as the children of Moloch’s cult symbol through his night vision, “I need a light is there something wrong with my arm?” Lane asks.

Kaz shines a flashlight down at lane and they all see what’s on his arm and Lane immediately freaks out.

“What the fuck is that?!” He screams, and the rest of them look in shock as fear begins to instill itself in them.

Kaz then starts to feel dizzy and a numb sensation in his forearm, he rolls up the coat sleeve on his right hand and shines the light on the underside of his forearm.

“Ahhh fuck” Kaz says staring at the same symbol that’s on lanes arm.

Asante Monique and Mary check their arms in a panic and to their surprise none of them has it.

“Why do we only have it?” Lane asks his voice cracking with fear.

“It must’ve happened when I was in your dorm room, when that creepy puppet doll was trying to molest you” Kaz responds.

“Fuck” Asante says running his hair through his dreadlocks as he begins pacing, “I wanna leave man, I wanna get the fuck out of here” Asante proclaims.

“I think I have an idea, let’s get outside first” Kaz says as he leads the way towards the door leading back.

They follow Kaz through the dark college halls as he keeps his wrist sword drawn, they pass an open door leading into another dorm and Kaz glances inside as he passes by.

He sees a body lying on the floor briefly, “he paid the others a visit” Kaz says, “watch them say in the news tomorrow that I did this” Kaz says jokingly.

They pass more bodies throughout the college including the rude old man at the front desk from earlier.

They get outside to where Asante and Kaz are parked, “I’m gonna go back to my boat, I guess it’s the only place I can stay now” Kaz says.

“Tomorrow we meet back up and we go to the temple to see Zhong, he’ll definitely have an answer to this” Kaz continues.

“So just stay safe, stay lowkey, and keep an eye out for bondage boy” he says to them.

“You're sure Zhong can fix this?” Lane asks Kaz, his tone tells Kaz he is scared.

“I promise we’re gonna live and Zhong will have an answer” Kaz says reassuringly.

Lane felt a bit better as he had faith in Kaz, after all Kaz had saved his life as well as Monique, Asante, and Mary’s multiple times over.

“I’ll call you all in the morning” Kaz says to them, “lane come back with me, you don’t really have a dorm anymore and the cops for sure are gonna be here” he says to Lane.

Lane gets on the back of Kaz’s motorcycle and they drive off in the opposite direction from Monique, Asante, and Mary.

Eventually, Kaz and Lane pull into Red Claw Boat Yard, and Kaz parks in front of the docks that lead out to the water.

He grabs the briefcase as he jumps off the bike and Lane follows him down the dock and into his large boat.

Upon walking inside they enter into a small living room with a couch and TV and stairs leading down to a kitchen.

Past the kitchen was a bedroom and a door off to the side leading to a bathroom, lane looked around admiring the place.

“We remembered you had this spot so we moved all your stuff here” Lane says turning to Kaz.

“I forgot about this place” Kaz says making his way down the stairs to the bedroom.

Upon entering the room he looks to the left on his wall and sees his board with the different pictures of cult members.

“My planning boards here!” Kaz says raising his hands up, “This is clutch as fuck!” He says in excitement.

“And bones?!” Kaz exclaims turning to see his leopard gecko in its tank.

He turns to lane “I’m gonna go cook some pasta” he says going into the kitchen.

While it boils lane asks him how the metal fused to him perfectly;

Kaz smiles and chuckles as he moves his left arm around, “me and the thermium are two peas in a pod…alright… pasta time and then we gotta go to bed, we have a lot ahead of us tomorrow”.

Kaz and Lane sit down at the small kitchen table in the corner of the kitchen, they both have a bowl of pasta shells and a can of Coke each.

“So what actually happened with you when you disappeared?” Lane asks, Kaz looks up and responds “I went back in time to the Salem witch trials, had to fight a super hot witch lady”.

“She took your eye and your arm?” Lane says, “yeah she was a pain in my ass, she almost beat me actually” Kaz says in between eating and sipping his drink.

“I was able to take her down and get the EbonThorn, I thought I had it in the bag, I had control over the triangle; now fuck face has it”.

“I couldn’t even see anything, what did he look like?” Lane asks, “he had grey-looking skin and a creepy smile with oddly red lips, he was dressed like a magician”.

“A magician? He’s a demon magician?” Lane replies, “yeah I guess, I couldn’t touch him at all he kept vanishing” Kaz says.

“And before I had time to get the book out he had me tied up with his strings, he had these strings that would just appear out of nowhere and tangle me up”.

Lane looks at him with a look of concern, he had stopped eating by this point and only had a little bit of pasta left.

“It’s fine, when I face that guy again he’s fucking cooked” Kaz says boldly, “that teleporting bullshit won’t work on me”.

“I have no choice but to have all the faith in the world you can save us, wouldn’t be your first time honestly and I gotta thank you for that” Lane says.

“It’s no problem brochacho, I ain’t letting these nasty inbred fucks hurt my best friends” Kaz responds.

Lane smiles feeling a bit reassured knowing Kaz was the ultimate force more than capable of saving everyone.

They eventually get up and both wash off before lane lays on the pull-out couch while Kaz goes to the bedroom.

“Rest well” Kaz calls across the boat, “you too brother” Lane responds, he rolled on his side and sighed feeling the numbness in his arm.

He tried thinking about positive thoughts and let his mind drift and after a while, he eventually drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 5

Michael sat in his cruiser parked in a grocery store parking lot eating a sandwich on his lunch break.

Suddenly his walkie-talkie goes off and a voice comes through, “Agent Stetson, we got a situation at Boston University”.

Immediately upon hearing this mike heads towards Boston University while answering back “on my way”.

He drove going over 60 the entire way thinking of catching Kaz Everest the entire time, “it’s gotta be him” he thinks to himself.

After around 20 minutes mike arrives at Boston University and parks right by the front steps.

He gets out and scans the area briefly noticing all of the lights are out throughout the entire building.

He draws his pistol and turns on the light that’s attached to the barrel of the gun, he checks the magazine to confirm it’s full.

He slowly makes his way up the steps before entering the college, “FBI is anyone here!?” He calls out.

Upon entering he keeps the light pointed straight creepily illuminating the long dark corridor.

He hears nothing but silence after he makes his presence known, he turns a few corners and peeks in a few rooms to find nobody.

He opens a door and shines his light inside and jolts for a moment seeing a man with their back to him.

This startled mike but he remained relaxed, “FBI, are you alright sir?” He says to the man.

The man stood motionless in a grey hoodie and jeans before slowly turning his head 180 degrees, his neck cracked and snapped as he freakishly turned to show his mouth sewn shut with white strings and black button eyes.

“What the fuck?” Michael murmured as he felt his adrenaline start to rush, the man’s body then fully turned around and he charged Michael.

Mike took 2 shots at his chest which stopped him and caused the man to look down at the bullet wounds.

He then looks back up at Michael and tilts his head, “What the fuck is going on?” He thinks to himself before the man grabs both of his wrists and the two begin to fight for the gun.

Mike was surprised by the man’s freakish strength, despite his appearance as a small, skinny person compared to Mike.

Mike then moves his leg behind one of the man’s legs and sweeps him off his feet, he lets go of Mike and falls to the floor and Mike aims down at him.

“Turn on your stomach and put your hands behind your back” he yells before the guy swats the gun away and tries to tackle Mike.

Mike catches him as he wraps his arms around Mike's back trying to tackle him down and Mike begins kneeing the man’s body.

Mike then elbows down on his back multiple times but the man lifts Michael with surprising strength and hurls him across the room into the window which shatters.

Mike spreads out his arms to stop himself from falling out as the possessed man charges Mike quickly.

Mike picks up the gun quickly and begins firing multiple shots at the man which slows him down hurting him.

Mike then pistol whips him over and over before grabbing and rotating both of them and shoving him towards the window.

He reloads the pistol at an impressive speed and begins to shoot again over and over, michael never wanted to take lives but would do it if necessary and right now it felt necessary.

After the 5th bullet the man fell through the broken window, Mike rushed and looked out the window and saw the man splattered on the ground outside.

“The fuck was wrong with him?” He thinks to himself, “the fuck happened to his eyes and mouth”.

He looks around the room for a few seconds as he thinks about the situation, he figured Kaz could’ve done this to the guy but he didn’t know for sure.

He talks on his radio, “found a suspect who got violent, shots fired and the suspect fell out of a window to the ground”.

He keeps his gun aimed as he makes his way back to the entrance and around the side of the building to where the man would be.

He looks around with the light but gets confused when he doesn’t see the man anywhere.

He shines the light up at the windows and sees the shattered one right above him, this is where the guy should be.

He aims the gun shining the light around him scanning the campus, if the guy got up and took off he can’t be far.

Mike begins moving away from the building and a bit deeper onto the campus, and the light shows nobody in his immediate sight.

He suddenly stops and gets a weird feeling in his gut, a feeling he hasn’t felt since his Delta Force days.

“This feels like some kind of trap” he thinks to himself, “this person is trying to lure me away from the college into the woods”.

He stands still for a few moments as he ponders his next move when he notices something in the distance deep in the woods.

He sees a red glow emitting from the forest, and he stares in confusion for a few seconds.

Mike decides to turn back and get to his car and he speaks on his radio while he goes back.

“Hey, there’s a suspect out here I think it has something to do with the Massachusetts murderer”.

He waits for a response but gets nothing, he tries adjusting it in different ways but he just hears nothing but light ever so slight static.

He turns on the car and reverses out of the parking lot, he breathes heavily as the freakiness of the situation crept him out.

After 10 minutes of driving his radio walkie suddenly goes off again.

“Agent Stetson? Do you copy?” The voice sounds much clearer than before.

“Yeah yeah I tried my radio while I was in there but for some reason it wouldn’t work, I got attacked by a suspect and I had to fire shots”

Mike replies.

“What’d they look like”; Michael takes a moment before responding.

“He had these strings that kept his mouth closed… and buttons for eyes” Mike says.

There was a brief silence before there was a response, “ok… did he die?”.

“No he survived and took off into the woods I lost him” Mike responds.

“Alright, you sure it’s just been your lack of sleep from this whole Massachusetts murderer case”.

“No I know what I saw” Michael shortly responds, “I think this guy is somehow connected to Kaz Everest I just have a feeling” he adds.

“Alright man just be safe, plus it’s late so you should probably go get some sleep”.

Michael sighs before replying “alright copy that, signing off for the night have a good one” he says before putting his radio away.

***

Kaz is awoken to Lane shaking him lightly, “dude come see this” he says before walking out of the room and into the living room.

Kaz rubs his eye as he gets up and grabs his robotic arm off the small desk and attaches it.

Kaz walks into the living room shortly after Lane and looks at the TV as a news reporter speaks.

“The alleged Massachusetts murderer kazley Everest is apparently back in Freetown after his year-long disappearance.

Lane and Kaz stand next to each other and watch the TV as the reporter speaks, “FBI agent and former delta forces soilder Michael Stetson has been on the case and has stated he will relentlessly pursue Everest until he’s behind bars”.

A picture of Michael Stetson is shown on the TV, he wore a black FBI vest with black tactical pants and he had short black hair with a fauxhawk style.

“Look at this fucking guy” Kaz says while smirking, “probably gonna end up running into him at some point”.

Lane reaches in his pocket and pulls out his flip phone, “I’m gonna call Asante and let him know to meet us at the temple”.

Lane dials Asante’s number and the phone rings briefly before Asante picks up.

“What’s up man you guys going to the temple?”.

Lane replies “Yeah, we’re about to head out now but I watched the news, this FBI agent is after Kaz now apparently so we gotta keep him lowkey”.

“Alright me and I are gonna head there now Mary stayed with us last night” Asante responds.

Lane hangs up and he grabs his backpack when the TV catches their attention again.

“There was a horrifying incident at Boston University where hundreds of students were found brutally murdered”.

The news reporter continued, “Michael Stetson investigated last night and claimed he was attacked by someone he thinks could be connected to Kaz Everest”.

Kaz puts on the teal and black exo-suit and the gas mask helmet forms over his face, his white wavy hair hangs over the top of the mask.

“One thing before we leave” Kaz says before walking back to his bedroom.

He opens a drawer under the desk and puts on the evil eye necklace that’s in there, he takes out the book of Thoth and a notebook.

He looks at the board above the desk and sees all the red lines connecting the different children of Moloch members.

He sees a few unmarked people he hadn’t killed yet, but focuses on one person pinned at the top.

The person at the top was the head ring leader, he had previously just added his picture before being sent to 1690.

From the research he had done this man was known as the Freetown wraith and he was their newest appointed leader.

Kaz turned and left his bedroom and he left his boat with the lane following.

They walk up to the parking lot and Kaz gets on his bike as Lane gets in his car, “Just follow me” Kaz says before turning on the motorcycle and taking off out of the parking lot.

Lane follows Kaz down the street as they make their way towards Zhong’s temple.

He looks down at his forearm with the dark symbol still engraved, and he looks back up at the mirror briefly.

His eyes looked like they were losing the life within them, he had his hair in a man bun with shaved sides and normally bright green eyes but now they looked like they were drained of vibrant color.

Lane didn’t feel good but he continued driving following Kaz, after about 15 minutes they pulled into the parking lot of the temple.

Kaz approached Lane as he got out of his car, “How’s your arm feeling? Gotta be honest I’m feeling, not good” Kaz says.

Lane pauses before he responds; “My arms numb right now” he says softly.

Just then Asante’s car pulls into the parking lot, and he parks between Kaz’s bike and lanes care and Monique Mary and Asante get out shortly after.

“How you guys been holding up” Mary asks, “Oh, you know, demonic yeast infection in my arm I feel like I’m gonna pass out” Kaz responds.

“Zhong should be able to help right?” Lane says as he turns to Kaz.

“I think so, he’s the man with all the knowledge” Kaz responds as he begins walking up the steps into the temple.

The rest of them follow Kaz entering the building, in front of them was a long corridor with two large doors at the end.

The five of them walk through the two large doors into a giant room with huge pillars on opposite sides.

There was a mat down in the middle of the floor and a bald monk sat in a criss-cross position.

“Hey there professor” Kaz proclaims causing Zhong to snap awake from his meditation, he looked at Kaz and then at the rest of them.

“Kazley!” Zhong exclaims while getting up with a smile, “Where have you been?” He asks.

“Oh I had some things to take care of, took me a little while” Kaz responds; “I’m here because my boy here and I have a little situation”.

“What’s the matter” Zhong replies in a concerned tone; Lane shortly after rolls up his sleeve showing the mark.

Zhong's eyes widened when he looked at the black symbol engraved on Lane's arm, “good god” he said softly.

“We both have it on the same arm” Kaz says to Zhong; he looks at Kaz then back at Lane, “that curse is voodoo, it affects two people giving them the children of Moloch symbol on their arm and it slowly kills them” Zhong says coldly.

Lane begins to feel panicked upon hearing this as he visibly begins to look uncomfortable, “alright well there’s gotta be a way to stop it right?” Kaz asks.

“Only one way, if one person dies then the other lives” he says in a soft low tone; “ok alright hold on now” Kaz says turning to Lane in an attempt to calm him.

“I’m sure once I find this magician asshole and face fuck him with a shotgun shell that will fix all of this” Kaz proclaims, “and that little puppet too I hate that little fucking puppet” Kaz says getting frustrated.

“I’m sorry gentlemen but this is a truly terrible curse that has been cast upon you” Zhong says;

“There’s nothing in my abilities that can fix this specific curse”.

Lane takes a loud deep breath as he quickly turns and heads back towards the door and Kaz follows after him, “lane come on dude I got this we’ll be fine”.

They make it out into the parking lot and Kaz catches up to Lane, “Where are you going?” He says.

“Just bring me back to Asante’s” he replies softly, “I gotta stay in Fall River there’s some activity out here” Kaz says to him.

“I’ll bring him back” Asante says stepping up to the driver's side door, he gets in and so do Monique and Mary.

“I’m gonna find a better way I always do alright? We’re both gonna live” Kaz says to Lane.

He nods at Kaz while tapping his shoulder before he turns and gets into the backseat and Asante drives away.

“Now I gotta search around through shit stain city for these little pricks hiding out” Kaz says to himself before he turns on his motorcycle and drives away heading towards the city.

Chapter 6

Kaz parks his motorcycle in a parking lot that leads into a wide alley between multiple large buildings.

He scans the area with the thermal vision in his gas mask;

He doesn’t see anything so he climbs a fire safety ladder and begins making his way to the roof.

Kaz climbs onto the roof that overlooks the city, Fall River always had a dark depressing tone to it that seemed grungy.

He looked upon the city for a moment before looking around with X-ray vision.

He looked down and saw about thirty feet below him what looked like people, Kaz had to get a closer look to make sure.

Suddenly he stops when his phone begins ringing, after the 4th the fourth ring he opens the flip phone and answers.

“Heard you're back in town iron angel” a deep almost robotic voice spoke;

“Who the fuck is this?” Kaz asks, he could tell by the voice that it was someone using a voice changer.

“You’ll know soon enough”

The voice responds before immediately hanging up the phone.

Kaz puts his phone away but jolts around from a voice behind him,

“FBI get on the ground now!”

Michael yells as he slowly approaches Kaz with a pistol drawn.

“Are you serious?” Kaz says as he chuckles, Mike wore a dead serious face with cold eyes looking right through Kaz.

“On your stomach now or I will shoot!”

“You're under arrest for the murder of 58 people including Officer Nathan porker” Mike says sternly keeping some distance as he aimed at Kaz.

“Listen bud these guys are way worse than me I’m just say-, Mike shoots at Kaz cutting him off mid sentence and Kaz runs at mike dodging the bullet as he unleashes his hand blades.

Mike fired more shots but Kaz swiftly cut bullets in half before chopping mikes pistol clean in half.

Mike immediately pulls out two metal batons and begins swinging at Kaz but he moves his head fluidly and dodges and hits a backflip that clips Mike in the chin causing him to stumble back off balance.

“Not fast enough captain” Kaz says taunting him, Mike ignites the batons and the tips of them begin emitting electricity.

“Oh look at those toys” Kaz says pointing, “Was that the only gun you brought?” Kaz asks him.

“Last chance to lie down and put your hands behind your back” Mike says to him in a professional stern tone.

He was a bit caught off guard by Kaz’s speed and agility, Kaz got into a Muay Thai stance and raised his hands as the blades shone in the sunlight.

“Let's go” Kaz says before Mike closes the distance fast and swings his electric batons.

Kaz dodges all of Michael’s attacks as the sound of electricity buzzes in the air, he hit a spinning leg sweep that knocks Mike off his feet followed up by a hammer fist with his metal hand but Mike rolls away.

Mike throws a roundhouse kick but Kaz blocks it and throws a front push kick sending Mike into a rooftop unit.

Mike charges again but Kaz flips over him and slices his back leaving a long cut in the vest but not cutting Mike.

Kaz throws boxing combinations with the swords protruding from the middle knuckles of his hands.

Mike backpedals keeping his hands up and moves his head getting nicked on his forearms and shoulder.

Kaz throws an outside calf kick which causes Mike to stumble, Mike swings his right baton but Kaz blocks and counters with a stabbing straight right to Mike's body.

Mike side steps and dodges Kaz’s stab and round house kicks Kaz’s back, he turns and throws more punches at mike but he shoots a double leg takedown catching Kaz by complete surprise.

“You're a fucking wrestler too?” Kaz says as mike try’s to get a full mount.

Kaz gets his knees to his chest and kicks Mike off him, he falls back rolling across the ground on the rooftop.

They both get to their feet and charge each other once more, before they collide Kaz begins baseball sliding across the ground dragging his blade on the concrete;

Michael tries to jump over but his ankle is nicked by the sword causing him to stumble and fall face down on the roof.

He gets up running towards Kaz with a pain in his ankle, blood trickling from his nose and forearms but he kept swinging.

Kaz moved his head and body well with fluid motions dodging Michael’s attacks before he kicks him in the calf again dropping him to a knee.

“You gotta check those buddy they don’t teach you that in the police academy?” Kaz says jokingly before Mike attacks again swinging his batons about from different angles.

Kaz blocks and swings a few shots but Michael uses the batons to block, they reach a struggling point when Mike has both batons pressed on both of Kaz’s swords as they push against each other.

Kaz runs up mikes body doing another back flip and kicks him in the chin;

Mike stumbles briefly before throwing a front kick that Kaz side steps and counters with a spinning back elbow.

Mike fell on the ground in a sitting position, and more blood trickled down his nose as he got up picking up his batons with him.

“You’re still under arrest” Mike says stumbling forward, he readies himself in a boxing stance holding the batons.

Kaz laughs in response;

“You still think that?”

“I could’ve put you in the grave already I just don’t really want another cop kill on my hands with the current hot water I’m in”.

Michael swings and Kaz steps back pulling his head just out of the way before coming back with a knee to mikes abdomen.

Mike groans in pain and staggers forward but keeps swinging his batons at Kaz while he backpedals and blocks with his swords.

The sound of Mike's electric batons buzzed through the air and metal clashing together as they traded shots, Kaz suddenly hits a spinning back kick to Mike's abdomen which sends him stumbling back but he keeps his balance.

He charges Kaz and Kaz quickly retracts his blades and hits Mike with a judo throw using his momentum against him sending him near the edge of the building.

Mike quickly gets up and freezes, Kaz stood about 10 feet away from him with a dessert eagle aimed.

“Kaboom” Kaz says before he shoots Mike in the center of his FBI vest, Mike falls back off the edge of the roof and bounces off a fire escape before falling another 15 feet down bouncing off a closed dumpster, and onto the ground in a dark alley.

Kaz looks over the edge standing at the top of the building, Michael lies on his back motionless.

“Well at least he went out a hero”

Kaz jokingly says as he walks back to the ladder going down.

***

Zhong put the duster and the dustpan away after finishing dusting the tables and shelves inside the temple the sun started to set in the large temple mirrors over the horizon.

He went into his personal office on the far right side and took a book from the bookshelf, it was about voodoo magic and its different forms.

He flipped through the scriptures looking for the specific curse that Lane and Kaz have;

He stopped about halfway when he saw the symbol that was on Lane's arm, the scripture read “Moloch’s curse”.

“The symbol of Moloch is used by his followers, the children of Moloch, to place his curse”.

“The children of Moloch wear this symbol on their cloaks and once a person is casted his symbol is engraved on them”.

“It works like an infection, the black withering effect spreads throughout the body, turning the skin black and destroying the internal organs”.

Zhong reads the scriptures with a concerned look, he was extremely worried for Kaz and Lane.

As he got near the bottom of the page a loud metallic thud suddenly broke his concentration;

He froze and continued to listen for a few seconds hearing nothing.

He gets up and opens his door and steps out into the main temple lobby;

It was almost completely dark outside as moonlight just barely illuminated the room.

He stood in the middle of the temple on the praying mat, he had a slight feeling of fear and paranoia but he couldn’t see anyone.

Suddenly slight movements out of the corner of his eye caused him to look around, he froze in fear as he saw dozens of cult members in robes and animal masks emerging from the shadows and surrounding him.

Directly in front of zhong he saw a tall man dressed a little differently than the others;

His animal mask was a white cat and it was more like a helmet, he wore a red jacket with jeans and black shoes with gloves.

He had a very tall but somewhat slim build, he looked to be around six feet five and he towered over Zhong.

Zhong then recognized him, he was on the news recently for being a suspect in the kidnapping of a couple;

He was the Freetown wraith.

Zhong’s eyes were wide as adrenaline and fear built up inside him, he had nowhere to escape and no way to fight back;

The wraith held an aluminum hockey stick with barbed wire wrapped around the toe of the hockey stick.

“Zhong quiang” the wraith spoke in a deep robotic voice, he slowly walked closer to Zhong resting the hockey stick over his shoulder.

The rest of the cult members stood still as the wraith got closer, “You’ve been helping Kaz Everest, and I know you’ve given him the evil eye and the book of Thoth” the wraith says as Zhong stays still, he was too afraid to move.

“You're gonna tell me where Kaz Everest is”

He says to Zhong as he gets about ten or so feet from him and stops;

The temple was quiet as the tension built around the room, “I don’t know where he is” Zhong says in a shaky voice, “he moves around”.

The wraith drops his head and sighs, in an instant he jams the hockey stick right into Zhong’s abdomen, he groaned in pain and dropped to his knees.

“Where is Kaz Everest?!” The wraith says again this time screaming it at zhong, he coughs before he looks up at him from his knees.

“Answer me!” The wraith shouts before slapping Zhong across the face with the hockey stick, and the barbed wire cuts the side of his face upon making contact.

Blood began flowing from multiple small lacerations on Zhong’s face, the wraith gently put the toe of the stick under Zhong’s chin and tilted his head up towards him.

“Tell me where he is or I turn your skull into red paste” the wraith says now in a calm tone of voice.

Zhong began to feel… a sense of peace, even though he was about to be murdered he closed his eyes and was able to accept his fate.

“If I knew Mr Everest’s whereabouts, I wouldn’t tell you” Zhong says taking deep breaths in between words.

The wraith raises his hockey stick above his head with both arms, he stared down a zhong and zhong looks back;

His eyes didn’t have a look of fear anymore, he had a bold look as he closed his eyes again.

In an instant, the hockey stick was slammed down on top of Zhong’s head, and a loud crack echoed throughout the temple as his body fell.

The wraith followed up with 2 more heavy hits on the back of Zhong’s head, he lied motionless afterwards as blood covered the back of his head;

“Pick him up!” The wraith ordered and 2 men quickly walked over and brought Zhong back to his knees.

His face was completely stained red, and on the floor where he was lying, teeth could be seen scattered about.

Zhong’s head dangled in front of him while the men held him by the arms, the wraith slapped the hockey stick across his face again;

He resets and slaps Zhong left and right back and forth over and over.

“Let him go” the wraith orders his men, they promptly let go of Zhong and let his body thud on the floor.

The wraith flips Zhong on his back and then stands back up, he raises the hockey stick and begins striking Zhong in the face over and over again.

Blood sprayed as wet thudding noises echoed throughout the temple with occasional sounds of the skull being cracked.

After a dozen hits or so the wraith stops and backs up a bit, the entire toe of the hockey stick was covered in blood and had chunks of Zhong’s skin caught in the barbed wire.

The wraith then took out a spray can from his coat pocket, he shook it around before spraying red paint on the floor a few feet in front of Zhong’s body.

He painted the children of Moloch symbol and then moved to the wall;

He sprayed out the words in big letters

“1 down kazley”.

“Alright let’s go now” the wraith said as he started towards the temple doors, the cult members all followed him out without saying a single word.