Black Roses

Chapter Six - William

Grease clings to his clothes and hair, grime sticks under his nails. Car pieces surround him as he starts the process of repairing the broken pieces and putting it all back together, like a life-sized 3D puzzle. The motions ease his troubled mind. Working at the garage and allowing it to eat up all his free time keeps him functional. Mechanical systems and machines have always made sense to William. When everything around him challenged his sense of right or gave him unanswered questions, he has relied on the machines. They always remain, unwavering.

William connects the chains to the outside of the car's engine, pulling on the metal to check that it's completely stable. Once secure, he steps back to the large, mucky red toolbox and wheels it to the side. When he finds the right place – one he can see everything from – he smiles to himself for a second and pushes the large red button on the remote. William stands in awe, watching the engine slowly be placed in the precise position so it can run the car. The engine falls neatly inside and the remote makes a loud ringing tune, letting William know it's done.

Excitedly skipping to the hood of the car, he unclips the chains and connects the wires, greases the engine and steps back, gazing down at his project. Lacking the ability to wait any longer, he races to the driver's seat.

Taking a deep breath, he places the keys in the ignition. Counts to three. Turns the key once. Nothing. Exhales and tries again.

Counts to three. Turns the key. This time, the engine begins to purr. William can feel the car's urgency to run again. Granting the machines wish, he turns the key one last time and smiles at the sound of the engine roaring back to life, feeling the car move to the vibrations of its restored life. Throwing a fist in the air, William releases his excitement and pride, "Yes!"

Getting out of the vehicle, one that is still missing its doors, William finds the brown stained cloth atop his toolbox and wipes his hands as clean as the unwashed cloth can make them. Glancing over the car in front of him – junk to most, broken and unable to be repaired – he imagines how beautiful it's going to be when he's finished fixing her up. Once deep blue, through time the paint has faded and peeled off, turning it a combination of rusted brown and grey. The hardest part is done, he thinks to himself, her motor, her brain, it's been repaired. Now all that's left is her appearance.

William is tied up in his thoughts of the miracle car that no one thought he could fix, when a women arrives at the opening in the garage. It takes a while but William eventually notices her presence. "I'm sorry to intrude. You seem busy but…I was told you could help me." William leans against the car while a fair distance separates him from the woman, he can't see her clearly but he can plainly see she's flustered and in a hurry. By sensing her anxious fidgeting, William moves closer to listen to her, "What can I help you with?"

"Are you William Blackwood?"

William nods, "I am."

Now the woman steps forward, closes the distance between them and holds out her hand to him, "I'm Jane."

William stares down at his smeared and tarnished hands, wipes his palms on the side of his blue, faded jeans and shakes her hand.

"Marcus told me I'd find you here. And to come to you about a," Jane looks around her to see if anyone was close enough to hear – never once noticing Marcus's man hiding, spying – "a shifting problem."

Immediately, William noticed one of Marcus's followers in the dark and knows Jane is telling the truth. While a decent undercover agent, the man lurking in the bushes may be undetectable to human senses, but for a nightwalker his scent was lofting through the garage almost at the same time this woman was. Wondering why Marcus would send a human his way, he draws a blank for the answer. A human hasn't willingly handed themselves over for sacrifice for many years. And Marcus has never helped them make the sacrifice, certainly not of his own accord. The gesture leaves William curious, however knowing how pleased Katherine will be with this development, he agrees, "You've come to the right person."

It takes William a few seconds to gather himself – washing his hands properly, putting on a clean t-shirt – but he eventually takes Jane to Katherine's gates, ready for processing and if everything checks out according to the Queen's standards, the human will become one of them. Wearing his smugness like he wears his leather jacket, William hands the woman over to the hound on guard duty and exclaims, "Present for the Queen, from her favourite."

"Well, since your her 'favourite', you can take care of this."

The hound tosses a piece of paper at William. He tries to catch it but the wind’s too strong and it travels around him, landing on the ground. When he finally catches it, and holds it firmly in his impoverished hands, he reads a shop name. "Timmy's? As in the candy store?"

The hound grunts as he crosses one huge, pale arm over the other and William assumes that means yes.

"What's he done?"

"The Timon's haven't been following protocol. Katherine orders – complete termination."

"For all of them?"

"All of them."

William mentally runs through the Timon family. Mr. and Mrs. married for twenty or so years. And their two children. One just graduated high school, and the other had just started.

"Done."

The candy shop, ironically named ‘Sweet Tooth’, is painted with an arrangement of bright, neon colours – designed to get little children's attention. The cartoon logo stuck to the door is two dancing teeth, each holding handfuls of lollies. William services the Timon's car. He's seen the small, awful hand drawn pictures from the children's day-care days glued to the dashboard.

Ignoring every personal connection and memory of this family, William allows himself to slip into assassin mode. Like a machine, moving through the motions, William pushes through the door, opening onto a peaceful family scene of a perfectly ordinary group of innocent people, completely prepared to tear each of them apart. Jonah Timon stands at the counter, counting tonight's earnings. Karen Timon sweeps the floor with a long, wooden broom. Bryan Timon does his math homework on the table, a calculator firmly in his hand. Amanda Timon leans on the wall, texting a boy who told her she looked cute today. No one has noticed William standing at the entrance yet. The four of them are busy with their ordinary, simple lives when he bursts through the bubble of elementary and sends them all into turmoil.

"Jonah. Katherine isn't happy with you."

The man freezes in his place, unable to move or speak. From across the room, William can see the sweat beading down his face, causing the little amount of his remaining hair to stick to his forehead. It is Karen who drops her broom, letting the wood clank on the tiled floor, and speaks directly to William, "Please, this has to be some kind of mistake. The last time we had any contact with Katherine, she had no problems with us."

Looking over the line of jarred sweets, William finds the strawberry bubblegum and throws a cube of it in his mouth while listening to this women's fight to keep her and the family alive. He presses his lips together and blows a bubble. The bop it makes as it breaks apart makes the little boy doing his math work jump in his chair. William laughs at the sight of his fear and replies, "Clearly, you've done something. Or else, I wouldn't be here."

Being ruled by fear, Karen tells her children to stay behind her, in an attempt to keep them safe if something is to go wrong. The two of them scramble over to her, dragging their feet as they move. By the look on Jonah's face, he knows William's presence means something has already gone wrong, and his family doesn't stand a chance.

William finds a jar of red twisted liquorice. Removing a piece, he swings it around, pointing at the four of them, "Any last words?"

No one is brave enough to speak, yet.

Taking a bite of the twisted strand while moving the piece of gum already in his mouth around with his tongue, William shrugs, "Very well."

In a flash, he picks up the closest chair, breaks it over his knee and throws the pieces at Jonah, pointed edges facing the target. One after the other, the splinted wood pierces the shivering man.

Whack, whack, whack.

Each piece hitting him in the chest. Blood seeps out of him, saturating his favourite grey t-shirt. As he falls to the ground, breathless, the rest of the Timon family scream. The sound of their voices blending together in a high pitched bellow reminds William of the first m******e he performed. The first time he killed a family, the first time killing anything really, it was an uncontrollable rampage that lasted days. Dashing from village to village, wherever William went, death and c*****e followed. For the most part, William was blind to his own actions. Barely remembers any of it. But the first family, he'll never forget. The screaming will remain locked in the depths of his mind for eternity.

William had been a shifter for the whole of a couple of hours when he came across the first side-effect of the virus. The hunger. The rage. The bloodlust. A bloodlust that wasn't purely for survival. For William, he battled against his own desires – wanting to kill anything with a heartbeat. His lust was to inflict as much pain as possible.

He remembers the moment he saw the girl. She was picking flowers from around the well that stood near the centre of town. From the front door of her house stood her parents, watching.

The day was warm, the sun hot. William's last time experiencing the warmth of daylight. Even then, he could feel it stinging his skin. He was in pain, and the pain made him angry. Looking over at this pretty girl, smiling and smelling flowers in the sunlight, made William even more angry. The welling of jealousy the girl's simple pleasures sent through him hit the trigger. Slipping into rage, William was lost to the mechanics of the beast, thirsty for blood.

The Timon girl, Amanda, looks a little like the girl from all those years ago. The same long brunette hair, the same crooked smile. The comparison makes this reality merge with the memory of his first kill.

He charges for Amanda. The girl picking flowers never saw him coming.

She screams and Karen steps in front of her daughter. Her father yelled, trying to pull William's attention but it was no use.

He can't reach Amanda so he grabs Karen and pushes her back, into the two children. Grabbing hold of the girl, he watched her smile fade and horror take hold of her features.

The three of them fall to the ground. He pulled her up and shook her around, forcing the happiness out of her.

They try to crawl away but William grabs Amanda's foot and drags her out. Noticing the family, seeing her parents try to protect her attacked his emotions.

William digs his nails into her ankle, feeling the blood ooze beneath his hand. Destroying their hope and happiness, he placed his hands on the side of the girls face.

Bryan throws whatever he can get his hands on at William, trying his hardest to get him off Amanda. Using force, he spun his hands around and pulled.

A math's textbook hits William in the face, pushing him back a little. The sound of the girl's neck breaking and snapping off her body, soothed some of William's wrath, until he heard the mother cry out for her daughter.

William uses his advanced speed to race to the boy’s side, and pushes his head into the wall, cracking his skull against the plaster, causing brain matter to splatter across the fractured surface. The rage returned, William had no choice but to feed it again, by throwing the bloody head in his hands at the parents, and released his first uncontainable, encaged roar.

Karen reaches for the boy but William punches his fist through her chest and rips her heart out. Distracted by their daughters head in their hands, they never saw William coming.

Tossing the heart aside like useless trash, William returns to Amanda. Pushing the two grieving parents into the house, he targeted the mother first – her cries scratched at his nerves.

Amanda cries to herself, waiting for his return, sobbing louder when he reaches out and grabs her hand. Clawing at the mothers face, she became unrecognizable while she bled to death.

Using his strength, William applies pressure to Amanda's wrist and drags her to her feet, forcing her to face him. He threw the warm corpse at the father and growled.

He asks her if she has any last words. The father fought his way to the door, but William jumped on his back.

She looks around at her dead family and begs for it to be quick. William bit into the side of his neck, ripped out chucks of flesh.

William grants her dying wish and snaps her neck in one, fast motion. He kept pulling at the flesh until the father stopped fighting and fell hard to the stoned floor.

William stands in the bloodbath he created in the candy store. William stood in the pool of blood in the strangers home.

The screams still echoing in his head, screams that laced his every thought.

Sighing deeply, William spits out his bubblegum, takes another red liquorice and heads to the door. Turning back to look at his work, he smiles to himself, "Home time."

He walks away without a shred of guilt or regret, and goes home.