The Social Media Murder Corp

by Stephen Signorelli

  The two girls ignored her and furiously raced to the top of the rope, some 35 feet in the air. They both hung on the top of the rope laughing at each other.

  “Whoah they look so small from up here!”

  “Hi Mom! You look small!”

  “You two come down right now before you fall!” Genesis ordered.

  “Hey what are those bars for?”

  “OH I bet I can grab onto one!”

  “I bet I can go faster!”

  Both twins leapt from the rope and grabbed into a pair of bars bolted into the ceiling. They hung there, now out of reach of the rope, dangling their legs.

  “Cool! But how do we get down?”

  “Hmm yeah, oh look, there are more bars! Just jump onto the next one over and over till we get to the other side of the gym!”

  “Last one there is a doo doo head!”

  With no fear and the balance and reflexes of a cat, the two girls began to jump from bar to bar, 35 feet up over the floor, as they raced the length of the building to the pegged wall on the other side. They dodged, they weaved, and they flew like it was born to them. A frantic Genesis, now cursing in Spanish, ran beneath them as she followed their path across the ceiling.

  “You two are in so much trouble!” she cried as she raced beneath them.

  Finally the girls made it to the pegged wall. They began to descend, grinning at each other. Their feet hitting the ground at the exact same time.

  “I win!”

  “NO I win, you are a doo doo head!”

  “I think it was a tie,” Stepan said laughing as he leaned against the wall.

  Genesis finally caught up to the girls, panting heavily.

  “What the….you two are in so much trouble!”

  “I think she means you,” Marcy said to her sister.

  “No she means you because you are a doo doo head!” Gabby replied.

  “English please,” Stepan said gently.

  “Sorry Papa,” the twins said in unison.

  “Girls, while that was very impressive, you must remember to obey your mother. When she told you to come down, what should you have done?”

  “Come down,” the girls answered.

  “And why do you think your mom was so worried?”

  “Because we could have fallen.”

  “And do you know why that is bad?”

  The girls shook their heads.

  “Because your mother and I love you very much and we would have been very sad if you had hurt yourselves. You must learn to control your abilities first and foremost, and always remember when your mother says something, you are to listen.”

  “We are sorry papa,” the girls said as they hugged Stepan.

  Genesis laughed.

  “Please do not scare your mom like this anymore ok?” she asked holding her arms open.

  “We promise!” the girls said in unison as they rushed into their mother’s arms. She picked them up and twirled them around, kissing them both.

  Later that night the twins were put to bed, but not without a bedtime story.

  “We want a story!”

  “Yeah tell us a story!”

  Genesis smiled.

  “What story do you want to hear?”

  The girls thought for a moment then said in unision:

  “The Goddess and the Ogre!”

  Genesis frowned, this was an old Cambodian legend, and the only book they had with it was written in Khmer, which she did not know.

  “Dears, I can’t read Khmer so I cannot read the story to you,” Genesis admitted.

  The twins frowned and gave Genesis their saddest looking eyes.

  Genesis shook her head and chuckled, it was useless to resist such wonderful faces.

  “Stepan, can you come in here?” she called out.

  Stepan, dressed in a dark red silk robe, came into the bedroom.

  “And what can I do for my three favorite young ladies?” he asked with a smile.

  “The Princess and the Ogre!” the twins shouted in unison.

  “Oh, that is in Khmer and you know your mother cannot speak it. Perhaps you should choose another story,” he told them.

  The twins frowned and gave Stepan the same sad eyes.

  “No use in fighting it, besides, I want to hear you tell it too,” Genesis said as she climbed into bed with the twins. The two girls snuggled up to her.

  “Please?” the girls asked.

  Stepan knew he had lost this round.

  “Ok ok, I will read it to you,” he said with a grin.

  Stepan took the book from the shelf and sat at the foot of the bed. He would read the story in English, translating from Khmer, so Genesis could understand.

  “Long ago in Cambodia, there lived a hermit who possessed magical powers. Moni Mekhala, the water goddess, asked the hermit to be her teacher. The hermit agreed.

  The ogre Ream Eyso decided that he too wished to possess magical powers. The hermit agreed to teach him as well.

  The two learned a great deal. As their lessons came to an end, the hermit gave each an empty glass, and said, "The first to return tomorrow morning with a glass full of dew will win a prize." Moni Mekhala and Ream Eyso then departed.

  The ogre went to sleep early, as he planned to wake up very early and collect dew from tree leaves. The resourceful goddess, however, laid a cloth upon the meadow, and went to asleep beside it.

  The next day, before sunrise, Ream Eyso squeezed the leaves of trees, and dew slowly filled his glass.

  When Moni Mekhala awoke, she squeezed the now-saturated cloth over the glass. In a matter of moments, her glass was full. She hurried to the hermit's hut.

  The hermit gave her a magical glass ball as her prize. Overjoyed, she departed.

  Arriving much later, Ream Eyso was furious when he learned of his defeat. The hermit gave Ream Eyso a gleaming gold ax as his prize.

  But Ream Eyso coveted the magical ball. So, he went to the heavens, to look for Moni Mekhala. When he found her, he growled angrily.

  "Give me that ball!" he demanded.

  Moni Mekhala began to run away, and the ogre flung his ax at her. It narrowly missed her and, upon hitting the ground, filled the heavens with a thundering sound.

  Moni Mekhala tossed her ball above her head. When she did, it radiated a streak so bright, it blinded the ogre, and Moni Mekhala escaped. Ream Eyso howled and rubbed his eyes, but by the time he could see again, Moni Mekhala was gone.

  "I will find you," he cried. "I will chase you forever," and with that he too raced into the clouds.

  This, the people of Cambodia say, was the origin of thunder and lightning.”

  Stepan put the book down and smiled. The twins were sound asleep, snuggled up against their mother. Genesis carefully got out of the bed, so as not to wake the girls up. She got out of the bed and watched as the girls snuggled up against each other, holding hands. Mr. Fluffywoogums jumped on the bed and took his place at the girl’s feet, shooting Genesis and Stepan an angry look, he closed his eyes and curled up into a ball. Genesis and Stepan quietly exited the room, shut the light out, and closed the door.

  The girls opened their eyes, which had the slightest hint of a red glow, and looked at each other for a long time. They began to speak softly to each other in Khmer.

  “I love you so much”

  “I love you too”

  “We should have secret names, that only we call each other.”

  “I like that idea, it will be our real names, the names of our souls.”

  Gabby looked at Marcela and thought of a name.

  “I name you Danger, because you are so dangerous it makes me lose my fear of anything.”

  Marcy smiled and looked at her sister.

  “I love that name. I name you Destruction, because you destroyed any fear I had.”

  “I love that name. These are our true names now, the names of our real selves.”

  The two girls held each other tight and drifted off to blissful sleep.

&nb
sp; As you sleep

  As I dream

  I hold your hand

  I feel you breathe

  I can’t live without you

  I’ve always lived with you

  And our two hearts

  Beat in time

  You are the answer

  I am the question

  You are yesterday

  I am today

  You are summer

  I am spring

  You are my diamond

  And I am your ring

  As we go out

  Into this world

  So full of wonder

  So full of love

  I am reminded

  Of the power

  That you give me

  I thank God above

  You are the answer

  I am the question

  You are yesterday

  I am today

  You are summer

  I am spring

  You are my diamond

  And I am your ring

  I hear your thoughts

  Inside my head

  I hold your hand

  Down the road we tread

  I gain courage

  I gain power

  Every day

  And every hour

  You are the answer

  I am the question

  You are yesterday

  I am today

  You are summer

  I am spring

  You are my diamond

  And I am your ring

  7 years old

  “Remember to watch the corner of your eye, the things that can hurt you come from unexpected places,” Stepan said quietly.

  “Ok,” Marcela whispered.

  She was standing in the training hall, two paintball gun pistols in her hand. As their training progressed the twins had developed their own preferred weaponry. Marcela preferred wielding to pistols, sacrificing hitting power for accuracy. Gabriela preferred an AK-47, going for brute force over finesse. Marcela also could wield knives and daggers with frightening ability, while Gabriela preferred unarmed combat should the need arise, but she also had been practicing with dummy hand grenades, and could throw them with pinpoint accuracy.

  “Prepare yourself,” Stepan said as he stepped into the shadows.

  Marcy nodded and readied herself. She heard a faint buzzing from her left ear and, in one fluid motion, she pivoted right, correctly compensating for the echo effect in the hall, and blasted the target out of the air. Without missing a beat, she spun around and dropped to the floor as another one whizzed by her head. She rolled over and shot it as it passed by her. She felt a slight breeze to her back and she flipped over and thrust her guns forward, right into her sisters grinning face.

  “Hey!” she laughed.

  “I gotcha!” Gabby said with a smile.

  “No you didn’t, I got you!” Marcy shot back.

  “Look down,” Gabby said.

  Marcy looked down and saw the barrel of a paintball pistol pointed at her heart.

  “We got each other!” she said.

  Gabby leaned in and kissed her sister on the cheek.

  “Yeah we did,” she said.

  Gabby pulled Marcy up and the two twins started to chat.

  “I totally felt you behind me”

  “No way, I was like a cat!”

  “No I felt you, I could also hear you breathe.”

  “Yeah well I heard you burp!”

  “I did not burp! You are a doo doo head!”

  “You’re a doo doo head!”

  “English please,” Stepan said as the lights turned on.

  “Sorry Papa,” the girls said in unison.

  Stepan surveyed the scene. Over the past two years the twins had wrecked the training hall. They hadn’t destroyed their own training facility maliciously, but rather through the sheer amount of training they did and the nature of it. The girls had stamina that seemed to Stepan to border on the superhuman. Their speed and their lack of fear were not just impressive, it actually worried Stepan a bit. But what really concerned him was their ability with guns. Both girls were expert shots, and rarely missed. But the incredible thing was the conditions they could function under.

  Many times Stepan had purposely set up the training for the twins to fail, or at least slowed down. But for every trap he set, for every disadvantage he tried to put on them, they kept over coming it. He had even at one point gave them no weapons, and turned every target machine on in the hall, pointed right at them, with the challenge that the girls could not get hit and had to disarm all the machines. He had set up 35 various devices, shooting everything from skeet shooting plates to tennis balls to paintballs, and not only had the twins NOT been hit once, they disarmed each machine effortlessly, while joking with each other.

  Stepan had never seen anything remotely like this. Their combat abilities were staggering, their fearlessness was remarkable, their ability to function as a unit was so advanced that it was almost supernatural.

  “Ok girls that is enough for today, your book lessons start in 20 minutes. Please go shower so your teachers do not have to hold their noses,” Stepan said with a laugh.

  “Ok Papa!” the girls said.

  “Hey lets wash Mr. Fluffywoogums!”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, cats don’t like water.”

  “Ok, but later I want to dress him up like a sailor!”

  “That sounds fun!”

  The girls chatted away in Khmer as they bounded off for the showers. Stepan stood in the training hall, looking at the wreckage. Inside, he was immensely proud of them, but part of him also had a nagging concern. They were TOO good, and they knew it. They had to be brought back down to Earth, to be shown they were only human.

  Stepan walked back into the house thinking, contemplating. He walked into the kitchen and got himself a bottle of water, Yuki greeted him as she chopped vegetables.

  “Master,” she said with a nod.

  “Yuki, from your perspective, how do you see the girls training?”

  “They are fearless, bold, and very skilled.”

  “Yes, they are. Maybe too much.”

  “Temperance comes with maturity.”

  “Yes, but they are frighteningly advanced for their age. They need to learn the limits of their abilities now, before they get arrogant.”

  “Master, do you feel that you may lose control of them?”

  Stepan took a drink of his water and thought hard.

  “I am afraid that if I do lose control of them, you and I won’t have the ability to reign them in.”

  “Have you discussed this with the Mistress?”

  “No, she has been tired the last few weeks, run down. I don’t want to burden her any more than she already is. The girls are a handful for her, they wear her out faster now than before.”

  “What will you do?”

  “I am thinking of sending for someone to ground them in reality.”

  “Who?” Yuki asked.

  “The Bell,” Stepan answered.

  Marcy and Gabby lay in bed, facing each other, and holding hands.

  “What do you think papa means when he talks about balance?”

  “I know, he is always talking about balance needing to be maintained.”

  “Balance of what? I know the concept, two equal weights on a scale that align perfectly flat.”

  “Maybe he means it in another way!”

  “How?”

  “Well, the universe is like a scale right? On one side you have all the good, and the other side you have all the bad, see?”

  “Ok.”

  “Well, if there is too much bad or good, the universe is out of balance, and things don’t go the way they are supposed to.”

  “So, if there is too much good, there needs to be more bad, to balance the universe.”

  “Yes, the universe has to balance evenly, like a scale.”

  “Why is it bad when there is too much good? Isn’t that a positive thin
g?”

  “Too much good makes people lazy and complacent, and breeds arrogance and corruption.”

  “And too much bad breeds anarchy and oppression!”

  “Now you see the concept!”

  The twins snuggled close together.

  “We aren’t normal are we?”

  “What do you mean? We have all our toes and fingers.”

  “No silly, I mean our lives, we don’t live a normal life do we?”

  “What is normal? Who decides that?”

  “That’s true. But we, you and I, we aren’t normal.”

  “No, we aren’t.”

  “It’s because we think the same, it’s because we know what each other is thinking and feeling.”

  “We are tuned together, our hearts even beat in sync, look.”

  The twins placed their hands on each other’s hearts.

  “They are in sync.”

  “If we aren’t normal, then what are we?”

  “We are like the tsunami, like the monsoon, like the thunder.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “We are forces of nature.”

  The two girls stared into each other’s eyes for a long time, their eyes softly glowing red.

  “I hear the universe talking to me.”

  “So do I, it sounds like a whisper, like a small breeze in my ear.”

  “It’s the same for me, I bet it says the same thing to you.”

  “Balance,” the twins said in unison.

  “The universe demands balance.”

  “It wants us to balance things.”

  “We should learn all we can here and then go and do what we were born to do.”

  “What about mama and papa?”

  “What about them? The universe demands balance.”

  “We have to balance things, its important. They will understand, I hope.”

  “And if they don’t? What if they don’t let us go?”

  “They can’t stop us. Besides, this is a higher calling.”

  “Do you think it’s God?”

  “Well God created the universe, so in a way, yes.”

  “We cannot defy God.”

  The twins held each other tight and drifted off to sleep.

  The Bell of Saint Mark

  Gabby and Marcy stood in the middle of the empty training hall. They both clung to Stepan’s legs and peered out from behind them at the figure standing before them.

  The old man was around 80, dressed in a simple white tunic. His feet were bare, and his old wrinkled face was accented by a small white goatee. His eyes were narrow, and a small smile was upon his wizened face as he studied the girls.