Mania and the Executioner

by A. L. Bridges

  I walk over to where my finger is on the floor and I pick it up. I walk back over to the still screaming Aengus, who has disintegrated up to his waist and in past his shoulders.

  “I usually don’t have such a kind attitude towards turncoats, but since I’m short on time…I’ll make an exception.” I say before I vertically bisect him.

  “Airi, helmet”

  “Dagda…I think it’s about time I went home…” I say quietly while my helmet retracts.

  “Bye, Lila.” I say without looking at her, too afraid of what I’ll see.

  “Sorry I ruined dinner, everyone…” I address the room.

  Dagda snaps his fingers, I get that falling feeling, and we are both standing by the gazebo that I first arrived at; this must be the gate Brighid was referring to.

  “Ready lad?” Dagda asks and I nod the affirmative.

  Chapter 18: You two are obviously doing something wrong…

  “I need to get back and maintain order; that was quite the show boyo.” Dagda says with a certain lackluster quality as we stand at my front door. I’d say his lack of enthusiasm is understandable for a man who just watched his son get tortured to death.

  “Yeah…bye.” I say quietly as Dagda ports back to Tir na nOg.

  My Mu-cutter is still active as I walk through the front door; I’m going to need it for what I’m planning to do.

  “COLE!…Cole?” Cheza angrily screams as she runs at me, but she stops when she looks at my hand. I notice that she is wearing a black v-cut dress that flows into a short pleated skirt, similar to the one she wore at her graduation party. Now I feel bad…

  “Give me a moment.” I say as I walk past Cheza, Natasha, Tia, and Sara on my way to the kitchen. I pull out the cutting board and then I set my little finger and my left hand on top of it. I use the Mu-cutter to slice the tiniest piece off of the cut end of my finger.

  “MMM!” I yell with my mouth closed, gritting my teeth while slicing into my hand. I take the recently cut finger, connect it to my recently cut hand, and hold it there.

  “Airi, is this going to work?”

  (Yes; it seems you have expunged the wounding agent from Moralltach’s cut)

  I stand in the kitchen for a few moments just holding my finger to my hand as if I were waiting for super glue to dry. I disconnect the Mu-cutter and then Cheza tackles me to the ground in a flurry of tears as she pounds away on my chest.

  “IDIOT! DUMBASS! STUPID MOTHERFUCKER!” Cheza screams through her tears while she beats her fists against my chest. “Why didn’t you tell me Cole!?”

  “I didn’t want you to see me like that again…” I quietly reply as I wrap my arms around her.

  “Cole…it took the severing of your finger to keep you from losing yourself! That’s something I can help with, and that’s why you are not visiting any more pantheons without me…” Cheza says into my chest.

  (This is one fight that you cannot win)

  “Yeah, I know. Thanks Airi.”

  “Okay; I promise that you will be with me when I have to do that again.” I whisper in her ear.

  “Good *Sniffle*…now for the next question: why are you wearing a hot pink shirt that says ‘JUICY’?” Cheza asks.

  “And why does it say ‘Tir na nOg Spring Break 2010!’ on the back?” Tia asks.

  “That’s a really long story…” I reply, not really wanting to discuss it.

  “You’re not switching teams on us are you Cole? The Celts were known for that…” Tia asks.

  Cheza suddenly has this really unsure look on her face as she inspects me. Tia, you just had to go and wind her up didn’t you? I’m tired and my hand fucking hurts so I think of the quickest way to eliminate this dilemma. I’d first like to say that, in my defense, I know I can make some really stupid decisions when I’m tired and/or in pain:

  I respond to Cheza’s uncertainty by sticking my tongue down her throat as I reach around the strap of her dress to take her left breast in my right hand. It’s so soft and warm…and it fits my hand so perfectly…I start to massage it and Cheza moans slightly into my mouth in response as I feel her nipple stiffen in my palm. I pull away to find that Cheza is a little shell-shocked so I scoop her up and carry her to my bedroom.

  Tia is beaming at me like a mother who’s watching her son take his first steps. I recall Tia telling me before Hawaii that there was only one more situation in which she could be prouder of me; I’d face-palm right now if I had a free hand. I walk into my room while leaving the lights off, still cradling Cheza as I kick my door shut. I set her down on the bed; she looks excited, but flustered. I strip off my shorts and JUICY t-shirt, and then I crawl in past her to lay down on my right side, facing the wall. I hear her undoing her dress before she sees that I’m turned on my side, sleeping.

  “Cole! You can’t get me all worked up like that and then just leave me hanging!” Cheza says.

  “Fine; go ahead, but do I have to be awake for it?” I ask. I’d be lying if I said that I don’t find this switch in gender roles to be highly amusing.

  “Cole! I...would that even work?” Cheza asks curiously.

  “Well, Airi might have some sort of blood timer feature so I can set it to automatically shut off before that four hour time limit when we need to call a doctor.” I tell her whilst yawning.

  “Listen Cheza, I’m really tired and my hand hurts so if you’re going to sleep rape me, then just watch my left hand.” I mumble to her.

  “Nah, I don’t want our first time to be like that anyway.” Cheza says as she moves in and places her naked chest on my back. Something stirs slightly in my boxers…

  I started this little fight, and now Cheza is taking measures to end it. She reaches around me and grabs my crotch as the stirring increases slightly. The stirring increases much faster and I realize that Cheza is manipulating my blood! I retaliate by flushing all of the blood from that region. She responds by bringing it back.

  “Stop that! I’m trying to sleep!” I tell her as I blanch the region again.

  “Stop what?” Cheza innocently replies while giggling and bringing the blood back.

  I start laughing when I realize exactly what it is that we are doing: playing tug-of-war with the blood in my penis. I turn over on my left side to face her, throw in the tug-of-war towel, and move my mouth to hers as I start fondling her. We’ve been laying there dry-humping each other and making out for a few minutes, when I feel the bed start to get a little wet and my hand along with it…I’m going to avoid saying what that is.

  Then I realize that the same hand that is wet is hurting, like really fucking badly.

  “FUCK ME! My finger popped off again!” I say.

  “SHIT COLE! DON’T SURPRISE ME LIKE THAT! HURRY UP AND FIND IT!” Cheza exclaims.

  “I CAN’T FIND IT CHEZA; THAT’S THE PROBLEM! WHERE IS ALL THIS WET STUFF COMING FROM!?” I shout.

  “WELL IT’S GOT TO BE DOWN THERE SOMEWHERE!” Cheza yells.

  “Okay I’m coming in to fucking coach you guys because you are obviously doing something wron—HOLY SHIT! IT LOOKS LIKE A BLOOD ORGY IN HERE!” Tia exclaims as she barges into my room and turns on the lights after slightly misinterpreting the situation.

  Here’s a fun fact: When people hear the phrase ‘blood orgy’ apparently they come running because now Sara and Natasha are in my room too. Now that the lights are on and I have a good view of this scene, the phrase blood orgy doesn’t seem entirely inaccurate because Cheza and I are both covered in it.

  “AIRI WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” I scream aloud.

  (Sorry…I was preoccupied trying to find the record button on the DVR remote…and we are currently out of D batteries…)

  At this point, Cheza and I start laughing our asses off while the other three look at us like we are mentally disturbed.

  “Don’t worry, Airi just made a joke. Cheza, I need you to get out of bed and go to your room so I can find my finger and get it reattached. Don’t look at me like that; I’ll be in there
in a few minutes!” I say.

  Cheza leaves my bed and retreats to her room while flashing me an amazing view of her black-silk clad ass. I find my finger down by my foot and I take it to my sink where I rinse it and my hand off before sticking the finger back on. I go back into my room and see Sara stripping my sheets and mattress pad so that more blood doesn’t seep into the mattress.

  “Thank you Sarah.” I say as I hear Cheza’s shower turn on while I rummage through my dresser for boxers.

  “Yep. Cole, come to my room after you take a shower.” Sara says as I walk into my bathroom.

  “OKAY!” I shout while turning the shower on. A hot shower feels really nice after one hell of a long day. I step out of the shower and get dressed after carefully toweling off; then it’s off to Sara’s room. I knock and walk in.

  “Sit.” Sara says as she heads to her closet and comes out with a medical kit. She takes out some tape and wraps my left little finger. “There; now you don’t have to worry about it falling off. Cole, when did you make that bracelet?”

  “Oh, I made this earlier today. I needed a way to make the Mu-cutter without having the handle being obviously in my hand so I made a bangle instead.” I tell her.

  “That pattern is really interesting; where did you come up with that?” Sara asks.

  “I actually had Airi make the bracelet. I left it up to her artistic discretion because I have no experience with bracelets.” I inform her.

  “Eh…? Anyway, you go and get some sleep Cole; I have a surprise for you tomorrow!” Sara says with a smile as I bid her goodnight and run to Cheza’s room.

  “Hey, I was beginning to think you weren’t coming…” Cheza says quietly while hugging a pillow to her chest.

  “Of course I came Cheza!”

  (Phrasing)

  Although I can understand why she wouldn’t exactly trust my words at the moment. “Now, let’s go to bed; this day has been way too long.”

  “Alright Cole, we will postpone our activities for another night.” Cheza says with a sly smile.

  I slide into her bed, wrap my arms around her, and we both fall asleep.

  …

  [May 27th]

  Waking up to Cheza’s sleeping face is a pretty great way to start a morning. I untangle myself from her sleeping form, head to my room to get my basic training clothes on, and walk out to the kitchen. Sara is already out there making eggs and bacon. When I finish eating, I stand up and turn to walk to the basement when Sara stops me.

  “Cole, come to my room for a moment.” Sara says as she stands up and walks to her room while I follow. I sit on her bed as Sara goes to her closet, which I can only assume is some sort of portal to another world because she seems to keep everything in there. She comes out with what I assume is my new holster.

  “I was able to make the modifications you wanted.” Sara says as I inspect the new holster. This one is also worn like a backpack, but there is an X on the back that connects to the looped straps in the front so that it sort of looks like an infinity sign. The bottom legs of the X have metal buckles that clip into the pack on my lower back.

  “I had to make the pouch a lot longer to fit the length of two 25-round magazines, which is why I had to change the gun holster’s placement. I also made the hole at the end wide enough for the silencer to pass through it.” Sara says. I look and see that the gun holster is now positioned so that the grip of the gun faces up instead of to the left. “I had a little trouble with the placement for the short Sic blade. I knew that you needed the handle to stick out to the right but the magazines would get in the way. That’s why I made it so the handle faces diagonally up and to the right.”

  “This is great Sara, but what about the pouch for the silencer when it isn’t in use?” I inquire.

  “That’s another problem I had. I could put it on this left end but that would be a poor placement choice when you have to use your right hand to attach it…” Sara said.

  “Wait a second…if I’m only using the 25 round magazines, which are about four inches longer, couldn’t I reload my gun just by sliding it over the magazine until it locks if the magazines were on my left side?” I ask, but Sara just looks at me puzzled.

  “Just a second.” I say before I race to my room, grab my gun, and head back into Sara’s room.

  I unclip the pouch from the straps and stick it to my back upside-down, so that the mags are sticking out to the left. I let the mag that is currently in my gun drop to the floor. I move the gun around behind my back and try to slide the protruding magazine into my gun, only to find that the knife attachment gets in the way.

  “One more second, I need to use your bathroom.” I say as I walk over to her desk/workbench. Grabbing a pair of scissors, I slice open my right wrist just below the bangle. I walk into the bathroom and hold my right hand flat and parallel to her sink as I form a Mu-cutter. After I pour one and a half liters of blood down Sara’s sink, I use the Mu-cutter to slice off the knife at the bottom of my gun; I rarely use it anyway.

  “That Mu-cutter is so cool!” Sara says as I disengage it.

  I try and reload my gun again and this time it works.

  “That’s what I’m talking about! Can you flip the whole pouch?” I ask.

  “Ugh…yeah, I just have to scrap most of my work…” Sara says slightly downtrodden.

  “I’m sorry Sara but this way the pack will be more effective. You can make it so the Sic blade’s hilt sticks out horizontally to the right and then put a silencer pouch on the right as well! Keep the gun’s holster how it is though; I like the feel of that more than the previous design.” I say excitedly.

  “Alright, I can probably salvage the magazine pouches just by adjusting the front and since I don’t have to make those from scratch, I can probably have it done in two days.” Sara says.

  “Thanks Sara; you’re the greatest!” I say while hugging her.

  “Oh stop it!…Cole? Can we talk about what happened the other night?” Sara asks quietly. Does she know about how I almost killed her?

  “Tia, could you please come in here?” Sara asks at a normal volume as Tia walks in.

  “Spill it little bro; what’s with the helmet and the new swords? I’m not all that surprised by the ‘still being alive despite getting shanked in the heart’ thing. Your regeneration skills have always been impressive, but the helmet interests me.” Tia asks and I let out a breath of relief.

  “Well, as I was blacking out, these voices said that I wasn’t allowed to die yet and that they were going to help me just this once. It was like I was back in a drive state again; just watching and feeling as I reached around to the back of my neck and scratched it from my crumpled position on the floor. Then this silver liquid enveloped my head and suddenly I could see clearly in the pitch black room. I stood to my feet while the creepy voices started laughing as I cupped two handfuls of blood from my chest, and clapped them together. As I pulled my hands apart two scimitars, that I identified as Talwars based on the hilt, formed in each hand. I thought about how I didn’t like single-edged blades and suddenly they morphed into those clear, double-edged blades that are in my room.” I explain. Tia and Sara both look really concerned.

  “Cole, go grab the blades from your room and then go downstairs and try to cut through your old Sic blade.” Tia says. I walk to my room, grab the diamond swords, and head for the basement.

  “Sara, tell me the truth; do you know what’s going on?” I hear Tia sternly ask as I reach the base of the stairs.

  “No…but I plan to find out. Go keep an eye on Cole.” Sara says.

  This isn’t sounding too good…

  Chapter 19: I don’t care if you want to play Christopher Walken! I said no rain scenes!

  “Hey Tia, I can’t get a good swing in on the Sic blade; could you hold it?” I say to Tia as she walks down the stairs after I try to cut my first three foot Sic blade with one of my Diamond swords. Tia walks over and I hand her my Sic blade; she holds it steady while I swing my Diamon
d sword as hard as I can. The Diamond sword chips the Sic blade, but just barely.

  While they may resemble diamonds, if the swords were made of diamond then they would break because diamonds are hard, but rather brittle. Even silicon carbide is relatively brittle because of how hard it is so how has it been standing up to steel this whole time? The only logical explanation that I can come up with is that it utilizes a carbon nanotube structure for its strength.

  I think something like this would be perfect for Cheza but I’m not sure if I can make pure silicon carbide that large. I’ve probably become more capable at making pure silicon carbide since I made Cheza’s ring, but to make the short swords I have in mind, I’ll need far more blood than I have.

  (To make the twin blades that connect together and slide into a sheath, making them look like a single sword, you will need 20.4 liters)

  “Wow, that’s way out of my league. There has to be some way to do this…Hey Airi, is it possible for me to do something like drain my blood into a container to use at a later time?”

  (I am proud of you, Master. Yes, you can save your blood in containers. My recommendation is to drain 3 Liters of your blood each night. Your blood supply will be restored each night while you sleep and you will have enough blood in a week’s time)

  “Thanks Genie! If only you could grant wishes so that I could just fast forward that week.”

  (I could put your body on autopilot so that you will respond normally for a week’s time. Your consciousness will not feel the passage of time)

  “Uh, no thanks. I know how this ends: with me dying in a hospital gown while lying in the street when it’s raining. I am not Adam Sandler!”

  (Damn…I really wanted to play the part of Christopher Walken…) 10

  I laugh out loud at the thought of Airi impersonating Christopher Walken while Tia looks at me. “Airi again. Hey, do you think blades made of pure silicon carbide would work for Cheza’s icy abilities?”