The airport was too quiet for the middle of the day. I’d been planning the “festivities” since the year before, and it required a full lobby. Man was a herd animal in many ways, and it only took a spark of fear to drive the whole mass into a frenzy. It had to be today, though, since I’d already set all of the other pieces in motion. If nothing else, it would be a good test.
I looked around for the first “victim”. A pretty young woman with hair dyed varying shades of blue sat looking at her phone. She would do nicely. I strode over to her, pushing my cart, my disguise making me practically invisible. No one paid that much attention to cleaning staff, not even on this side of the most recent terror attack.
I pulled the syringe from its hiding place in the cart’s handle. I needed just a moment of her failing to pay attention. She was a sheep, just like the rest of these soft, simpering mortals.
Sharp eyes glanced up at my approach. The gaze latched onto my weapon, meager as it was. With reflexes faster than I expected, she pulled something metallic from a nearby bag and swept it across the back of my hand.
I hissed as the thin tube sprang from my fingers. I didn’t have time to swing a fist against the side of her head before I felt the impact of her phone against the bridge of my nose. Pain bloomed between my eyes, and there was a crunch, whether from the phone’s glass screen or my nose’s cartilage breaking, I was unsure.
Neither of us made a sound as we continued the dance. I swung my hand again and caught the length of her braid in my fingers. It was her turn to hiss in pain as strands tore loose from her scalp. I was about to bring her head down while my knee came up, but then a molten ball of pain filled my stomach. I screeched as she pulled the crochet hook back out from where it had impaled my scrotum. My hands dove for the injury, and I curled up into a ball as I fell to the floor bleeding.
“We’ve been watching you.” Her voice was a calm whisper, though there was a familiar hint of madness in it. “You’ve failed your test. Entry to our league requires more finesse than that.” Her voice louder, she began screaming “rape” in a ringing voice that carried through the boarding area.
I had time enough to wonder what she was talking about before the first of a series of stomps began fracturing my skull, and darkness took me away.
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