[Fiction] The Case of Elyse: A Lividum Story

[Haplo]

"Early morning in Ukiah, CA. meant little activity, especially on a Sunday morning. A Sunday morning like this. Sheets of rain fell at a time, and there was no one to be seen at six A.M. As Haplopelma Lividum looked out the front window of her apartment, she was feeling angry, depressed, and yet content. She had awaked several minutes before and the sound of the rain was soothing. She had nothing to do today but to lounge on her couch, perhaps soak up the OpNet, or make a run to the store.

She hadn’t had an assignment in weeks. At this point, she’d be willing to work for free. She was a sucker for action, but growing up in crime-ridden Russia will cause that in anyone. As she looked out the window, there was no one to be seen. The cars were parked on the sides of roads, window shades were closed with no light peering through, and there was definitely no one to be had at the soccer field.

Haplopelma quickly put on her yellow tinted sunglasses, her grey sweatshirt, and black sweat pants. This was the weather that was created for soccer, thought Haplopelma. As she walked out of her apartment, she grabbed the ball near the door, and went on her way. She walked down the streets with her head pointed towards the sky, soaking all the rain she could. Her life was usually dry, copious with sand and long showers. No matter how hard she tried, there was always sand somewhere. Being in the rain let her forget that.

She reached the field and did her routine stretches, and kicked the ball around for a while. Never did it occur to her that someone would be watching on this Sunday morning, and neither did it occur to her to want anyone to play with. There were no novas in Ukiah. That was the great part of being a nova in Ukiah.

After she was tired of kicking the ball around, and the sun had risen, she decided that this was enough. She hated the chance of meeting up with a baseline on her way home. She hated how they tried to speak to her. She hated how they wanted her, wanted to be her, and idolized her. ‘I’m not a hero’ she would tell them, but they would insist that she was just being modest. She hated them. She wasn’t one of them, and didn’t care for them. She hated them with every fiber of her being.

When she reached her apartment building, she knew that someone had recently entered and exited. It must’ve been a little while ago, because the floor was starting to dry. As she walked through the corridor, she followed the fading footsteps, all while making muddy, bare footprints of her own. Someone will clean it, she told herself. The footprints that she followed ended at her door. Someone had knocked. Someone left. She smelt the door where someone had knocked. Sterile. Whoever this was didn’t want to leave a trace of evidence that he was there. Someone could have been there, but no one would know whom. Not even I.

She opened the door to find that a letter was waiting on the other side. She scanned the floor, and it didn’t look like anyone had entered. She stepped over the letter, getting it a little wet, and continued to the bathroom. Her apartment was very small, a three room. The main room served as a living room and bedroom. The other two rooms were a kitchen, and bathroom; all were bare of decorations. She got undressed and dried herself with a towel while walking back into the living room with a smile on her face. She felt twenty-three, but her body felt like it did when she first became a nova. She hardly had to work out anymore to keep in shape.

As she ran the towel over her blue skin, she stood over the letter. She peered at it while drying herself, still smiling. Finally. Some action.

After drying, she wrapped the towel around her upper body, and it was just enough to cover her entire torso. She bent down and opened the letter. Somebody had pissed off her affiliation, and somebody needed to be eliminated. Somebody small time, no doubt. Haplopelma was still a low rank in the Teragen, but she was doing well. She opened the letter, and inside contained a piece of paper, along with a picture. The paper wrote:

Vincent Lee Stoker

9857 Hollywood Drive

Sacramento, CA

The subject has committed villainous acts against The One Race and must be dealt with immediately. We know you will get the job done, and have already wired the full amount into your account. Before the subject is dealt with, you must find the circumstances of his crime. No matter the circumstances, he must be dealt with.

The picture showed a young man. He couldn’t have been in his mid twenties. He looked half Japanese, half American. In the picture, he had his arm around a girl. The girl looked familiar, a blonde. She looked about the same age as the guy. These baseline Americans all look the same. All plain. All dull. Still, she was very familiar.

Later that night, after a day browsing the OpNet, she was on her way to Sacramento. She used some of the recently received funds in her bank account to buy a train ticket. As she gets on the train, she attracted looks from the baselines. Some smiled at her, others scorned her, and some tried to ignore her. Of course she stood out, her blue skin and hair. Dressing in a sleeveless tee and long skirt didn’t help much, but she didn’t care. The baselines will learn someday not to stare. She slept most of that night and into most of the morning of the next day. She had dreams of pain, love, acceptance, and murder. A taste of things to come, or memories of a dead day? She pondered this in her waking moments, quickly abandoning them to the thought of soccer.

It took longer than she expected to get the train to Sacramento. They made a stop over, and it lasted longer than expected. When they finally reached Sacramento, it was already mid day. She had to find this man. Seeing as the man had committed a crime, she picked up the local paper. Nothing. It didn't take long to read a local paper, no matter the size of the city it was based out of. Might as well hit up his house and wait for him there.

His house was big. Very, very big. It wasn't actually in Sacramento, but right outside in the rich suburbs. This guy must have had a lot of standing, and Haplopelma thought about this a lot as she walked to the house. Bodyguards? Security system? Dangerous security system? She rang the intercom, and nothing happen. A camera made a noise, and caught her attention. It was peering at her. She gives it a friendly smile.

"May I help you?" Someone with a deep voice said from over the intercom.

"I would like to speak with a Mr. Lee Stroker, please."

"No one see's LS without seeing me first. Standby."

She waited, and waited, and waited. After ten minutes, someone walked out of the house. A big guy, broad shoulders, black hair, brown eyes, and a filthy face. Definitely a baseline. Definitely doesn't use deoderant. Disgusting... He approached the gate, weary of her.

"You're blue, you N?" His voice was very deep, and there was a hint of Russian in his accent. Why would a half Jap, half Cowboy keep a Russian guard?

"I am sorry, comrade. I do not know the meaning of the word enn" She reverted back to her Russian accent. Maybe this guy likes home.

"Uh.. " He was speechless for a few moments. The accent had caught him off guard. Good. His eyes were softer, and he was more relaxed. Stoker kept a Russian body guard so he would be tough against the Asians. That was clear enough. Haplopelma smiled sweetly at him, and hated every second of it. "Are you a nova?" He finally got the words out.

"I am a nova. I am here to.. how you say.. to please Mr. Lee Stroker. My friends sent me over on their bill." Technically, not a lie.

"No one sees Mr. Lee Stroker without being checked for weapons. I'll have to check you. All of you.. " The man said. He was beginning to sweat, unsure of himself. This was not protocol, but I'll play along.

She nodded, and he pressed a button. The gate opened and she smiled at him again. He would be dead before the day was out.

He led the way inside, and she memorized the layout as she walked through. They went to a room on the left in the first corridor, and there was one other person in the room. He was a Korean, and smelled worse than the Russian. Haplopelma almost threw up right there. The Korean looked at the Russian with confusion, than with a smile.

"Ahh. So Lee Stroker's got another Nova, huh? I thought that you were all to good for this stuff. Good to see that you know your place."

"Know my place?" The Russian would die, but the Korean would suffer, and he would suffer now.

She stopped walking and stared at the Korean. He started laughing at her. She looked to the ceiling, wishing that it were the sky. She was imagining herself in a better place, on a soccer field. As she looked to the ceiling, her skin became grainy, and looked as if it was starting to flow and fall. She looked down at the Korean who had stopped laughing. Her neck was a golden brown, and it was starting to spread very quickly through her body. She was turning into sand. One she had completely changed, the Russian pulled himself out of a state of shock and began to run. Sand rushed out of the floor beneath him and buried him up to his shoulders. He couldn't move with all of his might, and Haplopelma made sure of that. The Korean began to open his mouth, but it was quickly filled with sand. Haplopelma shot her hand out, and it stretched across the room, into his mouth. His lung were quickly filling with sand, and he was still trying to scream. The Russian didn't make a noise. He just watched in utter horror. The Korean stopped all functions a minute or so later, and Haplopelma removed her hand from his body.

"This will take weeks to not smell like you worthless pieces of shits. If you make a sound, you will die worse than him. I will crush each bone in your body personally. And I will start at your toes." She walked out of the room, and he wasn't making a noise above breathing heavily. She looked about the hallway, and saw no one. She reverted back to her blue skin, and walked back into the room. "Where is Lee Stroker?"

The Russian made not a sound, until he saw her nod to him. Than he whispered. At least he knows his place, thought Haplopelma. "He is sleeping."

She held up the photo of Lee Stroker and the girl to the Russian. "Who is she?"

"She is Vincents girlfriend. Another Nova. She is upstairs with him right now."

"And they are sleeping? If she is up there, why would you think I would be sent here?"

"They do that stuff all the time. Just never with another one of your kind before." He was starting to become more relaxed. Some sand reared up behind his head and buried it. He shouted and struggled, but was dead in the end. The sand fell through the floor cracks.

Shit. I should have found where he was sleeping. Oh well.

She accessed the security panel, and found all of the cameras. She took the DVD's for the cameras that she had already appeared on, and destroyed them beyond recognision. She than talked up the hallway, peering in doors. All empty of life.

It wasn't until the third floor where she heard noise. It was a pounding. She slipped under the door by turning to sand, and watched as the action took place. There was a man on a bed, facing the other direction, and a person unrecognizable beneath him. He was laying into the person good, a regular flurry of fists. Haplopelma reached her arm across the large room, and grabbed Lee Stroker by the back of the head, hurling him into a wall and nearly unconscious. The person on the bed sits up, obviously shocked. It was the girl from the photo. She was very much one of those pretty novas. Haplopelma let Vincent go, and turned back to Nova form. The girl on the bed jumped up, and ran to Haplopelma. She was naked, and crying.

"Who are you, girl?" Haplopelma spoke to the girl. Her words were tough, but her voice was soft.

"Did Geoffry send you!? Please! Get me out of here!" The girl spoke.

Haplopelma put a hand over the girls mouth, and a finger over her own. The girl began to calm down. A shot was fired from the other side of the room, and went into Haplopelma's shoulder. Haplopelma grunted and held her shoulder. She peered to Vincent Lee Stroker, who was standing near a desk, naked with a gun. He was pointing it at her.

"Not so tough now are you, bitch!? Not so fucking tough now!" He pulled the trigger until the clip was done, each shot sinking into Haplopelma. Once Vincent fired the seven shots, Haplopelma went to her knees and fell back against a nearby wall. Her mouth was open, and her eyes fixed on Vincent. Vincent dropped the gun to his side, and the girl was still screaming.

"Shut the fuck up, you whore!" He threw the gun at the girl, and she took the hit. She fell to her knees, trying to be quiet but still crying. Vincent tried to move, but fell over. He found that up to his knees were encased in sand. He tried to remove the sand, but there never seemed to be an end to it. It slowly moved up his body, and he begins screaming a blood curling scream. Each of his bones were being broken in his foot, and was soon traveling to his legs. The sand moves up to his waist, sternum, and he stops screaming. His eyes go dead, but the sand keeps moving until it completely covers his face. The girl stops crying, and stands up. She picks up the gun, and timidly walks to the desk. She opens it, and pulls out a handgun clip. She looks confused as she figures out how the clip goes in, but gets it in eventually. Haplopelma watches quietly, and breathing heavily. The girl walks over to the pile of sand, and starts to brush off where his face was. She finds it. Each bullet inside the gun finds his face.

The girl dropped the gun, moved over to Haplopelma and sat down next to her. The girl stared at the pile of sand for a long time, than the sand retreated back to the floor.

"He kidnapped my family, and held them hostage to get to me. I never went to the news, or the authorities. Thank you.. thank you so much for finding me. Why would you do this for me?"

"You are.. " Haplopelma coughs "You are a nova, right?"

The girl looked at her with some question in her face. "I.. I am. But I do not have powers like you. I can ju.. "

Haplopelma cuts her off. "I did not do this for you. I did it for money."

Haplopelma grunted as she stood up and moved to the door. The girl just sat there, speechless.

Haplopelma turned back to the girl. "By the way. What was your name?"

The girl looked down at her naked body, as if suddenly realizing it. "Elyse" She said it in a whisper.

"Elyse. I hope you better days." Haplopelma walked out the door, and down the stairs. Her sound of her footsteps disappear in time.