The friend who couldn't be

Dec 8 2019

I look over my last kill. My penance is almost over. I wish to die. My name is the phantom question and I will rid this world of the monsters that inhabit it. 

At the dawn of time, there was nothing and then everything. First, came galaxies, then planets,  then life, then evil. I’m the one of the first humans to walk the earth but I committed a grave evil and opened a box. For that, I was punished by the council of elders to walk the earth and kill all the monsters I helped unleash. 

I unleashed a million monsters onto this world and sometimes they infected humans, such as Gengis khan, Attila the Hun, Hitler, Stalin, and every other evil person in history. I kill these monsters in every form and eventually I rid the world of evil. It’s getting harder now because the monsters sense I’m killing their brethren and are defending themselves better. The last one I killed was a asian drug dealer who locked himself in a panic room surrounded by guards. The next one will probably be harder. I hear something shuffling behind me and pull my sheath as I turn around. 

A small chinese girl, who looks about six, with two pigtails and a hello kitty backpack looks back at me with her big eyes. She flinches back and then I realize she was trying to pickpocket me. I start to yell at her when her rumbling stomach interrupts me. She’s starving and I can’t resist those big puppy dog eyes.

I buy her some food at a local fast food restaurant and watch as she hungrily narfs it down. She cleans her plate in a minute and is still hungry. I ordered a second round and wonder what it would have been like if I should have had kids but I immediately think it would have been impossible to hunt monsters and keep kids safe. But still it would be nice to have a family. A satisfied sigh from the little girl jars me out of my thoughts. Normally, I try to distance myself from people because if I get close to someone I put them in danger but something inside me connects to this little girl. 

“ What’s your name?” I ask, in perfect marandin. Picking up languages is one of the advantages of living since the beginning of time.

“Emma Tzu.” She replies as she pushes her empty plate away.

“Where are your parents?” I wonder.

“I don’t know. I was in an orphanage since I was born but I left because I didn’t like it because the other kids were mean to me.” She whimpers. I obviously hit a nerve.

“No one will ever hurt you again.”  I promise. 

Dec 9 2018

As I walk the streets of Shanghai, I flashback to that day when it all started. I was in the woods ,like a twenty year old of 30,000 B.C would be,hunting when a shiny gold box tucked in a bush catches my eye. Something inside me urges me to pick it up and open it when Pandora, my best friend’s sister, rushes onto the scene. I found out later that she had tucked it in the bushes to hide it from anyone. She yells at me not to open it but my curiosity gets the better of me and I rip the top off. Monsters rush out of the box and I fall down. As I pick myself over and run over to the box, and push the lid closed against the force of the monsters. I hold the box tenderly and look around the forest. 2,000 monster eyes look back. Pandora is dead, killed by one of the brutes, and her killer slowly nibbles on her spine. I shout and unsheath my bow and they break and run in different directions. I run into my village but I’m too slow. The monster got there first and killed everyone. I slump to my knees when a flash of white light envelops me and teleports me. 

I’m in a cold stone room, shackled to the floor, as five old men are discussing something, most likely my punishment.

“For the grave crime of unleashing sin upon the world, you must face judgement. The council has sentenced you to rid the world of all the monsters you unleashed. You shall not die and see the horror of the sin you unleashed until you defeat the monsters you unleashed. ” The man in the center booms from his stone chair.

“Please, have mercy.” I beg.

“ The council has no mercy but we do have something for you. This map will tell you the location and name of the next monster and the little bubble will tell you how many monsters are left. It is unreadable except to those who believe like you. When your penance will be done, this map will burn up and you will rest. This sword is crafted from the finest stygian metal and is able to kill monsters,” They say as they hand me the sword and map. “Now, good bye.”

In a flash of light, I return to the village and feel the map and sword in my hands. Before I go, I bury my family. I say a silent prayer as I weep. I pick myself up and go to redeem myself.

I snap out of it as I see the little girl from yesterday, Emma Tzu, standing in front of my hotel jars me out of my thoughts. I let her stay in my penthouse suite because I couldn't bear her being by herself on the streets and because she was starting to grow on me. She holds the magical map in her hands. I hadn’t bothered to look at the map after I killed the last monster ,so if she runs, my penance will never be over. I bolt over to her, as quickly as I can, but she doesn’t move. If she’s planning to steal this, she's wasting her valuable running away time.  

While I run up to her and grab the map out of her hand, she asks “Why didn’t you tell me? You’re like the people at the orphanage.” 

The question stops me dead in my tracks. 

“You can read this?” I ask in disbelief.

“Yes,” She says as if I’m the stupidest person in the world. “It’s in Mandarin.”

“Who is she? On face value, she looks like an ordinary girl but she has to believe. I feel like I’m not being told something. But maybe it’s just me. Maybe she’s an ordinary girl who read one too many fairy tales and started to believe in it ” I think.

“Who is the monster in New York?” she asks.

I make a snap decision to trust her and go to the room. She follows suit and I close and lock the door.  I tell her my story, omitting the part about me dying . Because she has no questions, I tell her how monsters can shapeshift and corrupt humans to their will and about my magical items. 

“Can I be your apprentice?” is her only question.

“Fine,” I respond. “Your first job is to get me a cup of coffee. Two creams and a sugar.”

“Wheeee.” She yells, as she runs downstairs to fulfill her first job as an apprentice.

I grab the map and look at it. Like Emma said, my next target is in New York but when I look at how many monsters are left, I'm shocked. There are two monsters left but the last one I killed was the second to last monster, that means that there is another. This has happened before. The monsters sometimes have children with humans and they have some special ritual to activate the inner demon inside of them. I never really thought much of it but this doesn’t really make my job that much harder. Normally, the kid and the adult stick together so it’s taking two birds out with one stone but it must be a heck of a coincidence that right before I kill the guy, he gets another demon. But that’s the world we live in.

Since, the next monster is in Hell’s Kitchen, New York and goes by Derek Rogers. I google the name and spend the next few hours learning about the secret life of Mr. Rogers. On the outside, he was a real estate baron who was making a play for Hell Kitchen’s apartments but on the inside, he was the boss of every criminal enterprise in the Kitchen. Every reporter that decided to report on him was killed within the week. He had more litigation on him than anyone in the U.S but nothing stuck. Killing him would be one of the best things I ever done. 

After a couple minutes, my little apprentice came running up the stairs with a perfect cup of coffee. As I pat her on the head for a job well done, I think about what’ll happen to her after I kill the final monster.  If I die, she’ll be all alone again.

I start researching boarding schools for her in London. She’ll have lots of friends and will never find out that I’m dead. My mouse hovers over the apply button. I hit accept and pray for her to get in and forget about me. 

I get two tickets to the redeye flight from Shanghai to New York and log off the computer. I look around for Emma and see her take the sword, which I nicknamed Soulcrusher, and try to swing it at her reflection in the mirror. I catch up to her and wrestle it out of her hand before she can do any serious damage to the mirror. I realize that she can’t be my apprentice if she doesn’t know how to fight. 

For the next three hours, I turn Emma into a fighting machine. When I’m done with her, she’s trained enough to fight with me against Derek.

On the security checkout, I compact my sword into a pen, one of the magical features of it, and put the map carefully in a plastic seal and in my duffel bag. In one of the airport shops, she sees a teddy bear she loves and I can’t resist her bambi eyes. When we get on the plane, she curls up with her bear, which she lovingly calls Susie from a book she read once, but I can’t fall asleep so quickly. I look at her face, lovingly curled into the bear, and just hope that she doesn't remember me after I die. 

In the penthouse of the best hotel in New York, Emma asks me “Who are we going to fight?” 

I responded by telling her to go to my computer and look at the tab I have open. Then, I decided to take a little nap before the big showdown tonight. 

I awake to a computer in my face and Emma berating me about something. It takes a second for me to focus on it but the computer screen says that Emma got into the boarding school I applied for. 

“How could you,” She asks, breaking into tears. “I thought you were a good person.”

I swallow and tell a little girl that her best friend wants to die. She takes it better than I hoped but still when I’m done, she’s openly sobbing. I want to reassure her and tell her everything will be alright but I realize it isn’t going to be alright. I’m going to die killing the monster and she’s going to a boarding school for the rest of her life. Mind as well go finish the job.

I give her my hand to help her up and she takes it. I lift her up and we walk out the door to kill a killer

Dec 10 2018

As I sit pondering what to do, I think back to the last twenty four hours and see where I went wrong. Emma and I snuck into his Skyscraper office building and went up to his corner office. I appoint Emma as lookout and I explore the two filing cabinets and impressive, mahogany wood desk. Derek isn’t very good at hiding evidence therefore I find enough evidence to put him away for life but that’s not what we’re here for. Emma hears some noise. We flank both entrances to the door as he walks into the door. I point my sword to the throat of a caucausian man dressed in an Armani suit. 

“Hello, little girl,” He says to Emma, who had jumped out of her hiding space,and ignoring me completely. “You have such nice eyes.” 

“Do you know the ritual for making a monster unleash the demon inside themselves,” He asks me. “All you have to do is expose them to someone magic and make them fall in love with them.” 

Suddenly, it all makes sense. But he beats me to the punch.

“Hello,little girl,” He says to Emma, “You’re my daughter.

“How!?” I question.

“I had a wife once but I got hungry and couldn’t control myself. Now hand her over.”

“No, you will not corrupt this child.” I shout

“I will not. I just gave her a little nudge in the right direction.” He chuckles and as if on cue, Emma breaks into a monstrous form but just as suddenly into a little girl.

I can’t take it anymore and drive my sword straight into his throat. He smiles as he dies.

I can’t process anymore. I’ve hated these monsters but can I kill something I love so much. I drop my sword and crumple to my knees. I can’t do it.

December 10 2098

1200 hours

It's been eighty years since I dropped the sword and adopted Emma. Due to both of our immortality, we’ve been the same age through it all. I started a farm and Emma hasn’t grown up a bit. I lost my family when I opened the box but I think I just got a new one.