The Joy of Murder

Despite the impression I might give, I don't actually get to kill large groups of people that often. When I do it's like a wonderful gift and when I get to kill large groups of people who actually deserve it, it's like fucking christmas. So, I was already excited when I got out of the car.

The immediately viewable part of the building was a simple looking thing. A small metal box of sorts built into the side of a cliff. Of course I could already guess that most of it was probably built directly into the cliff or down. It was probably some kind of research station or outpost at one point, before The Children somehow got hold of it. Getting inside proved to be the first challenge, but it was at the same time a... proof of concept as it were. See I had some ideas about how this strange defense The Children employed worked and it seemed the building used the same kind of defense. Which meant I had a short, but beneficial amount of time to try out my theory and if it didn't pan out I could leave with only minor embarrassment... Which still would have been awful. I'm sure Poe would have had a field day if this post contained only: "So, I couldn't get inside,"

Regardless I did get inside and having gotten inside I now know exactly how to kill these fucks. Their defense is nothing more than an illusion of sorts. The version of them we see is essentially a hologram. Their real self is invisible to our eyes, but must be within a certain distance of the hologram or illusion version. Also I know there is a better word for this, but I'm too happy right now to care to look it up. Anyway this is why 11 reacted with a start when I swung for her neck, she must have been close enough that my swing almost hit the real her, same with Michael and that angry Martyr.

So, I couldn't enter the building through the visible entrance and instead felt along the cliff face until I found the invisible building and by looking at the real one as I felt along I found the door and entered.

The inside was a tiny room barren of any furniture and a stairwell heading further into the cliff and downwards. I followed the stairs and found the first one of them. He was a big man. It was hard to tell his exact size though because he was laying back lazily on a couch. His eyes were open, but he appeared to be asleep. I approached and looked around. The room consisted of nothing, but the couch and the entryway to a hallway leading deeper in. He didn't stir at all. I almost wanted to leave him alone. Killing an unaware opponent isn't any fun. Still I watched him for a few seconds before moving to the seemingly empty spot on the couch next to him and sliding my machete into his throat. Neither version of him moved or reacted. I must admit, I am very impressed with The Quiet's work here though. There wasn't even a visible depression in the couch where the real one was. As soon as he was dead though, his body became visible and the hologram vanished. I moved on.

The hallway was annoyingly complex. There were six exits from that hallway. A room on either end and stairways leading to more hallways. I picked at random and chose the right stairway leading up. This one lead to a suite of rooms. They were numbered. 9, 10, 11, 12. 11 and 12 were unfortunately empty. 9 was empty as well, but 10 wasn't. 10 had a woman inside. She was awake when I entered and looked startled to see me. Her copy was lying in bed and holding a book. She stayed perfectly still and just stared at me as I approached. I stopped in front of her bed and then raised my machete over the copy. She smiled, but her smile vanished as I twisted the blade and stabbed it into the real her instead. She let out a scream. My blade hadn't hit quite where I'd intended and I'd stabbed her in the gut instead of the chest. I rectified that mistake quickly and stabbed her a few more times until her screaming stopped and her real body became visible. I grabbed the book she had been holding as it fell out of her limp hands... It was a children's book. The kind with big letters and only a sentence per page.

Unfortunately her scream had alerted the others, I rushed back down to the hallway and saw that some of the others were fleeing now, I managed to block a few, but some made it out. I blocked the way up from the downwards stairs on the left side and in the tight quarters, it was fairly easy to catch them even with their decoys. The first one up the stairs caught my machete through their face and tumbled back down the stairs. The other's were more wary and stayed at the bottom. There were two of them. A young boy and a girl about 14-17. She was embracing the boy protectively or at least her decoy was embracing his so, she probably actually was. We stood squared off for a bit. I don't know what they were planning, but all I was doing was trying to judge where they probably really were and once I had a reasonable guess, I jumped down the full flight of stairs landed in front of them and plunged my machete through his face and into her chest, then pulled it out and watched them fall. I searched the rooms to make sure there was no one else and there wasn't I then headed back upstairs. I'd killed 5 of them and about 3 had managed to escape. With 11, 12 and 9 seemingly not here at all. That's 7 still alive. Actually that's eight, but I killed one more at this point. See at the end of the hall was another room and in that room was good old Zero. It was a large chamber of sorts. Almost like a church with pews and a pulpit. She was standing beside the lectern and glaring at me as I entered.

Tell me... Those of you who have read The Children's blog... What was your mental picture of Zero?

Did any of you guess a girl seemingly no older than 10 complete with brown hair in pig tails, because that's what I found waiting for me. She spoke and her voice sounded exactly like the petulant child she was.

"You've killed my friends! It doesn't matter though. You won't send me to The Archangel and you won't stop the coming of The Nothing," she screeched at me. I stood there just admiring this little girl, acting like a big shot... Well I stood there until she pulled out a shotgun.

"I've heard The Archangel is very fond of these, I thought it would be appropriate," she said and fired. I dived behind a pew, but I didn't really need to. The room was far too large for the shotgun to have been all that effective at that range. All she really managed to do was slam herself against the wall with the recoil. I leapt over the pew and rushed the pulpit as she was standing back up. Before she could raise the shotgun I was in front of her decoy. I raised my machete and placed it so the blade was poised at the temple of her decoy. She grinned, "You can't kill-" she started and stopped as the hilt of my machete slammed into the side of her real head knocking her to the ground, I heard the shotgun clatter to the ground and it became visible as the one in her decoy's hands vanished. I then reached down until I found her and pulled her up by her hair slamming her against the wall and pushing the blade of the machete to her throat. I couldn't see so, I moved it slowly, until I felt resistance and saw blood begin to appear on the blade.

"Say hello, to The Archangel," I told her and I heard her sobbing. She was terrified.

"Please! Please don't! I don't want to die! He'll torture me!" she begged.

"Well you should have thought of that before you sent 11 and 12 to kill me," I informed her.

"I'm sorry do-" she began, but never finished as my machete tore through the skin of her throat. As her body became visible I tossed her to the ground and headed for the exit.

11, 12 and any other Children of Nothing who are still alive. I hope you're reading this. You are all going to die. Every last one of you. Especially 11 and 12. If you think what I did to Zero sounds bad, just wait until you see what I'm going to do to you two.

YOU DO NOT FUCK WITH THE FACELESS BASTARD.

P.S. Michael might not of been home, but that's because he was going to meet The Archive. I told them about The Children's little defense mechanism. I doubt he'll be coming back home. So, I guess that's 6 Children still alive.

P.P.S. It's actually kind of amazing how accurate that name seems to be. Most of the people I killed last night were seemingly under 18...

P.P.P.S.? Hey Children. Tell me who I killed I want to be able to cross you all off a list as I kill you off.