The Mantis Synchronicity - Book Five - 15. Chapter 15 - Murder

Abernathy was heading back through the Teshon City streets toward the Spritehood. He grinned at the thought of his new weapon. The process Olona performed caused no pain, and now Abernathy was armed with something on par with a Shift’s power. He was very satisfied with his trip to the First Organic Mechanic of Teshon City.

The sun was beginning to set as he turned onto one of the main streets in the Spritehood, and he was appalled by what seemed to him an assault. A parade of protesters was marching together carrying signs and chanting about Demifae. Abernathy stepped back and scowled at the rabble. The people mostly looked human to his eyes, but there were also a few Biological Shifts among them. Abernathy was disgusted.

There were signs that read Clean up the Spritehood, and Stop Killing Shifts, and Demifae are the New Messiahs – Run them out!

“I haven’t killed a Shift in too long,” he growled to himself.

The group continued on, and Abernathy followed them. They walked all the way to the fallen remains of what had once been the Messiah Tower, and when they arrived, they cheered and clapped for what seemed to Abernathy like ages. Eventually they began to disperse, and the newly mechanically-enhanced Demifae followed a trio of men that included one of the few Biological Shifts who had been in attendance. When the three of them were far enough away from the other protesters, Abernathy attacked. He stepped out of the shadows behind them, activated his new weapon, and fired.

The Biological Shift gasped and collapsed forward with a smoking hole punched through his torso. The other two people who appeared normal to Abernathy spun around in alarm, and the Demifae found himself in contest with two more Shifts. One of their hands suddenly raged with green fire, and the other began to open his mouth much wider than any human ever could, almost like a snake, and the look of it terrified Abernathy. He targeted the man’s gaping maw, fired a second shot, and the Shift fell dead. The third man lunged forward, his green flaming fingers stretching for Abernathy, but a third blast from the weapon killed the final man as well. The trio of shift corpses lay sprawled on the pavement, holes burned through each of them.

Abernathy was intent on stealing their mantis glands. He wanted to complete his task and be gone before anyone found him doing that. He pulled a wicked blade from his belt and began hacking through the neck of one dead Shift after another. Abernathy worked with haste, and only the Biological Shift gave him trouble; there were protective scales like those of a fish or reptile, which grew on the side of his jaw, around his neck, and across his upper back and collarbones. The scales were very tough, but Abernathy managed to finish his hideous task without being seen. He stuffed the heads in a sack, left the bodies on the pavement, and headed back to his shop. The sack dripped some of its leaky contents as he walked.

“I’m back!” he called out as he entered. “Croosen, are you here?”

His assistant was behind the counter. “Yes,” she replied, “I’m here. Why have you been gone all day? And why did you insist that I…” Her voice trailed off when she saw the sack. It was bulgy and dripped with red, sticky fluid. “Is that a Shift head?” Croosen asked at a whisper. Her eyes were wide and sparkling, and she was smiling maniacally. “Show me, show me, show me!” She rushed out around the counter and grabbed the bag from Abernathy.

He laughed as she pulled it open. “I like your enthusiasm. It’s been a while since I brought you a Shift head.”

“Three of them?” Croosen exclaimed in glee, pulling each head out of the sack and setting them onto the countertop. She gasped and whispered in a voice filled with awe, “A Bio-Shift?”

Without another word, Croosen picked it up, and she began to kiss the hideous thing. The jaw hung slack, and Croosen stuck her tongue into the sagging mouth. She turned the head so its gruesome neck wound faced her, and she began licking the coagulated blood. She peeled the head’s eyelids up, and Abernathy laughed again, as Croosen began licking the rolled-back eyes. She let out a delighted hum and moved on to the second head, kissing its dead mouth and tonging the bloody gash of its neck. The third head was the Shift with an oversized mouth, and Croosen pushed her entire face into its gaping maw, rubbing deep into the dead tongue and lips. She returned the head to the table beside the other two and looked over at Abernathy. Croosen’s face was covered in gore and slime. She was beaming.

“I’ll get your tools, alchemist,” she cooed.

Abernathy’s lips curled up into a vicious smile, and he whispered, “My tools.”

Croosen took a leather case out of the back storeroom and placed it onto the countertop beside the heads and in front of Abernathy. “Your tools, alchemist.” She bowed.

Abernathy’s hands were sticky with blood, and he did not wipe them off as he released the case’s metal fastenings. He let out a satisfied sigh as it opened. Inside were a small sledgehammer, a medical knife, and a brain-sieve. Abernathy pulled out the knife, stuck it into the forehead of the dead Biological Shift, and he sliced a deep groove all the way to the back of the severed head. He continued to use the blade to peel the scalp away from the skull in two large pieces like the petals of a revolting flower. Abernathy then swapped the knife for the hammer, and Croosen let out a giggle as he struck the top of the skull and it cracked. After two more hits, he put down the hammer and pulled the pieces of bone away from the grey-pink brains beneath.

“Here you are, alchemist,” Croosen said, extending him the brain-sieve like it was a holy relic.

Abernathy used the tool to scoop out the dead brains, and with his bare hands, he forced the soft flesh through the mesh. A moment later he let out a groan of satisfaction and raised the tiny crystal.

Croosen squealed. “What are we going to do with three mantis glands?” She set a small dish onto the countertop, and Abernathy placed the gem into it. Croosen unceremoniously slid the mess of the first skull into a wastebasket.

“I have an idea what to do with them,” Abernathy replied, as he continued with his gruesome task. He sliced along the second severed head and peeled back the scalp.

As he turned to grab the sledgehammer again, Croosen leaned forward and licked the exposed bone of the skull. She looked at Abernathy with eyes full of passion and whispered in a sultry voice as if she was asking for sex, “Smash it.”

He raised the hammer, and Croosen squealed in glee as he broke the second head open. She breathed in deeply of the iron-like aromas, and Abernathy laughed. He pushed the brains through the sieve and held up the second photonova gland. She took it from him and placed it with the first in the dish.

The final head had the oversized mouth, and Abernathy scowled at it. “What a disgusting creature.” He took his knife, stuck it into the hinges of the jaw, and pried away the bottom half of the face. “There,” he sneered, “much better.” It was now seated on its top teeth. Abernathy grabbed the hammer, crushed the bone into the brains, and he shoved them through the mesh sieve. A moment later, he placed the third photonova gland into the dish. He turned to Croosen. “We’re going to see the witch.”