Chapter 373: A Different Kind of Test
Laz laid in bed, his mind filled with thoughts of doctor Nora... or more accurately, doctor Nora’s body.
"Why does it feel familiar? After all, I only know of runes... but that seal seemed like a seamless blend of many different styles. Could she have done it herself? Devised the rune and had someone ink it on her? That... how long would something like that have taken? To even do that to a patch of skin the size of a fist would take hours, much less her entire body. Obviously something that unique would stick out to me if it was something I remember seeing... or maybe it’s something else... like something I recognize without having seen it before? But how... yeah.... it must be related to whatever happened when she awoke. Either way, I’m not going to figure it out by thinking about it tonight. I should just focus on sleep. I have to work those girls tomorrow anyway. I wonder just what I should do this time? The bloodlines will help their body a bit for now, so obviously I need to work on their minds. I remember Kat once told me that it’s not the body that lets us down first when trying to defy out limits, it’s our mind telling us we can’t. Hmmm... I guess I could do that, even if it goes against what’s allowed these days... desperate times call for desperate measures. Besides, I’m already going to burn in hell as it is, might as well be the best fucking sinner I can be while I’m at it, right?" Laz felt the silence was a little strange tonight so he spoke to himself to help alleviate the quiet.
Laz got up, scribbled a quick note and walked to the door, exited and walked to the end of the hall. When he got there, he noticed that the two guards on duty were two who had been in Joan’s group. It made sense considering they worked the night shift. In general, these people were less hostile towards him than others so he figured this would be fine.
"Give this to Gretchen or Wilma please? Preferably first thing in the morning. Thank you." After handing off the letter, Laz went back to his room and laid down.
"When the hell did we become a delivery service?" One of the guards asked.
"Hey, watch it. You know that guy isn’t normal. Besides, we were told if he wanted to be let out, he could be. And you saw the way the elder and mistress treated him, right? Best to just do it and be done with it. Least he said please and thank you. I wouldn’t have expected it considering what I hear about him," the other responded.
"Yeah. You’re right. Fine. Yot got this? I’ll got run this into her mail slot and be back in twenty minutes. Just use the com if you need something. God damn... i wish we could still use cell phones..."
"Ha. No kidding. But honestly, who do you think would follow your social media anymore, eh?"
"Shut up." And with that, the first guard left.
Laz, who had been laying in his room and observing their actions, smiled.
"I’m sure this will be educational."
With that, Laz turned over and went to sleep.
The next morning, Laz met Gretchen and Wilma at the training field early.
"You sure you want to do this kiddo?" Wilma asked, looking over at the things she had brought.
"Do I? No. I don’t. And neither will they. But they must if they want to survive. You both know this."
"We did it so yeah, we know. But these kids?" Gretchen replied.
"Aren’t kids. No more so than you or me," Laz concluded.
"Besides, I will make sure of it first so don’t worry," Laz reassured them both.
"How?" Wilma asked.
"Just watch." With that, Laz walked over to one of the five men who were kneeling on the ground, hands tied behind his back.
"Well then. You guys are here because you’re pieces of shit who would sell out anyone to make a buck. I won’t speak like I’m some saint either, but compared to you all... I’m the fucking pope. Or at least, that’s what I would say. For now though, it seems that some of you may have a chance. You’d better pray though that most of the decisions in your life were good ones and you just happened to make one bad one that ended up up here. Now then, let’s begin."
Laz’s eyes turned gold and pierced the damp, cold morning. Bringing a hand to the first man’s head, he made him stare into his face before saying,
"Speak to me of your sins..."
...
Normally Celes would have joined the afternoon group, but considering what had happened with the morning group yesterday, she wanted to be present for this one. There fore she arrived with everyone else and got changed without a hassle seeing Wilma and her grandma close by. Strangely though, they were standing next to a mound of something that was covered over, acting like guards who kept their eyes on it. More interestingly, they glared at that mound with a hatred that seemed to pour from their bodies, making Celes more than a little curious. But of course she wasn’t going to ask.
Laz was standing at his normal spot in just his speedo shorts as he was deep in thought. To everyone else, it looked like he was trying to make a decision, but the truth was he was just trying to ponder over whether he should call the whole thing off today and handle the man personally or maybe even give him to the two old pros, Gretchen and Wilma. They would probably be much better at it than him.
On the other hand, Laz was also trying to come to terms with just how powerful this thing was that he did. He honestly didn’t know if it would work as it was just something he had seen in a movie but seemed like it was worth a try. But it had ended up working much better than he had expected. It was truly a dangerous skill and he should be wary of using it in the future.
When the time came and Laz noticed he was now a minute late himself according to his watch, Laz looked up to see the forty women looking at him with a mixture of emotions. Laz had thought he would see more anger and hostility today, but instead, there was much more curiosity than anything else.
"I’m sure many of you have questions and they will be answered, but first, it’s time to run. Same as before, except today, I should warn you that those two are in an incredibly bad mood so if I were you, I would take it seriously.
"GO!"
With that, the women proceeded to run with a will they didn’t know that they had. Between the lessons learned yesterday and the anger the two women had today, no one wanted to test just how high the shock output would be on the shock sticks.
Every women there, even Celes, did the run in half the time they did yesterday. As they looked over at Gretchen and Wilma they noticed that their attention had been focused on the lump the entire time and they hadn’t paid attention to the girls once.
"Well then. Now that that’s over, I want you all to come up one at a time and get something from me before going back to your spot. Just wait until everyone has one and don’t bother asking questions. For you girls," Laz said, facing Gia’s group.
"Just do some pressure training with out little friend here," Laz said, pointing to the area around the statue.
Due to Laz’s arrangements, 32 people came forward and grabbed a small pocket knife from Laz who had been randomly grabbing them from his pouch that he always carried around.
Wondering why anyone would need 32 pocket knives? Well, the upright answer was that Laz had a tendency to stash anything useful in there. The more truthful answer was that he was a bit of a packrat and collected a lot of junk.
"Now than, ladies?" Laz said, calling over Wilma and Gretchen who reached down and grabbed the lump. As the cover came off of it, they realized it was a person, a man to be more precise.
"Why did they bring a prisoner out here?" Celes asked, a bit louder than she had intended.
"Good question. Well, your task today is I want all of you to come forward and stab this man, one time..."
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"
"I’M NOT STABBING SOMEONE!"
"FUCK NO!"
The complaints came quickly from some while others were silent. Of all the things they pictured they would be doing today, this wasn’t one of them.
"Well then... If none of you are going to do it, maybe we should just let him go, hmm?" Laz said, with a weird smile on his face.
"After all, I should be able to use a rune seal to make him forget all of his memories of this place once he leaves. And unless someone as skilled as me and as strong tries to undo it, it will never fade."
The more Laz talked, the more the group ended up having a bad feeling.
"But let me tell you this guy’s story first, shall I? You see, I asked him a few questions earlier in a way he couldn’t help but answer and we got quite a bit of information out of him."
Laz started looking each girl in the eye as he spoke.
"The first thing I said to him was ’speak to me of your sins."
"And do you know what he told me? Well let’s begin with the time he raped his girlfriends twelve year old daughter. Shall I describe that to you in detail?"
Not a sound could be heard from anyone now on the field as the weight of Laz’s words hit them.
"How about I tell you how he killed his own mother so that he could cash her social security checks without having to beat the money out of her hands every month."
"Or maybe you would like to hear how many girlfriends of his he put into the hospital because they just couldn’t shut up and leave him alone?"
"I won’t even mention how many animals this guy has tortured and abused over the years, just because he couldn’t get his hands on an actual person."
"Or perhaps you’d like to hear how he lured some grade school girls into his car by blackmailing his girlfriends daughter after having video taping when he raped her?"
"ENOUGH!!!!" Celes came forward, her eyes black as her energy went out of control. She turned to look at Laz and simple said,
"Is this all true?"
"I swear it."
And with those words, Celes plunged her small knife into the kneeling man’s stomach. He had been passed out before, an after effect of Laz’s skill. But as the knife bit his flesh, he woke up and started screaming.
Just as Celes was going to stab him again, Laz stopped her hands, earning him a glare from her void like eyes.
"Once each. You’ve got a line behind you."
Celes whipped her head around and noticed the other 31 girls lining up, their eyes also a blaze with their anger.
After that, it proceeded quickly. As the progressed and the man started bleeding more and more, the girl’s white shirts were getting covered. As for how he survived being stabbed all these time? Well, the pocket knives didn’t have large blades so they didn’t reach any organs. Also, the man had been an infected before his had arrived here and the collar made him like a normal man, meaning his body was quite robust.
As the final stab took place and the one who did so moved away covered in this fallen man’s blood, Laz took one last step forward.
"You’ve gotten your first taste of blood, even if you didn’t take his life. This is a good step and I’m glad none of you hesitated. Rarely will anything be as open and shut as this but you must continue to not hesitate in the future,"
Laz pulled Sever from his pouch and held it up high.
"Remember this, when you encounter someone who needs to die...,"
Laz swung down with Sever and the man’s head separate from his neck.
"Make sure they don’t live! Or you will regret it."
