FirstLineFiction beta

from Contest #6

Almost everyone thought the man and the boy were father and son.  The residents of Dewberry Lane had no time to spare for delving deeply into the personal lives of their neighbors.  They were a community of similar souls.  Most worked jobs that drained them, had children requiring quality time, and numberless household chores to attend to.  None of them gave a rat's ass that Vic Vengeance, the best damn bounty hunter in eight galaxies, was the boy's guardian, not his father.  This disinterest suited Vengeance.  It was the reason he had chosen Earth as his planet of residence.

The child was named Cain.  His mother, Yelania, had been a long-time informant on the Vengeance payroll.  She had been an excellent resource in the hunting down of the criminal types that was Vengeance's business.  Yelania was dead now, an unfortunate victim of a shootout between Vengeance and her equally dead pimp, Darvon Jones.  Vengeance was disturbed by the death of Yelania.  She had been one of his best informers and would be hard to replace.  Angie Creedance, the wily Wiccan, who had partnered with Vengeance on the caper that cost Yelania her life, insisted that they owed it to Yelania to raise the child until it could fend for itself.  Vengeance had no choice in the matter.  Angie was a powerful ally, had a hell of a temper, and would have blown him to smithereens with a flick of her wand if he had refused.

Unlike Angie, Vengeance didn’t waste his time marveling at the amazing changes they would witness as the infant matured into a being that could survive on its own. As Vengeance saw it, the more the kid aged the easier it would be to deal with.  Trying to mind meld with an infant was a futile effort.  The kid was only concerned with eating, crapping, and staying warm.  Only smidges of actual self-awareness came through when Vengeance had attempted a mind meld on the infant. 

Two months ago, Vengeance relocated the kid to his sanctuary, a bungalow house on Dewberry Lane, planet Earth.  Angie morphed the spare bedroom into a nursery.  She also produced documentation proclaiming Vengeance the child’s legal guardian.

Angie came daily to check up on Cain.  She also paid the wages for a nanny to care for the child  when Vengeance  was working a case and Angie, herself, was unavailable to care for the boy.  Angie always arrived with a flash bang of energy that shook the room, followed by a cloud of stinking brimstone.  Concerned for the child's health, Angie had conjured some kind of deal so that the smoke emitted when she zapped in smelled like violets instead of the sulfuric brimstone.

“It’s my new signature poof!”  Angie explained to Vengeance when he sniffed the air upon her arrival.

“Fascinating,” Vengeance replied handing over Cain to the witch and preparing himself to transition to planet Alder, where he planned to nab Nicky Grebes a minor criminal with a fat price on his head. 

“Ohhhh he’s so adorable,” Angie crooned as Cain began to wail angrily in her arms.

How anyone could find a squalling, red-faced infant adorable was beyond Vengeance’s comprehension.  If he had held one shred of belief that the erratic Wiccan was competent enough to keep the kid alive during its infancy, he would have fobbed it off on Angie to raise.  Vengeance figured he owed it to Yelania to insure that the kid had a chance of survival, so he took on the job as the main caretaker and limited Angie's role to that of a doting Aunt.

“Make sure the neighbors don’t notice you,” Vengeance warned Angie.  “They don’t do magic on this planet and I want it kept that way.”

“Oh, don’t fret.”  Angie grumbled.  She pulled out her wand and conjured up a small green toy frog that floated in the air above the wailing infant.  Cain immediately ceased crying and held out chubby arms.  The frog flew into Cain’s hands and the child gurgled happily.  The frog squeaked with an irritating consistency that grated on Vengeance’s nerves.

“It’s a huggy buggie froggie!”  Angie explained as Vic looked with suspicion at the toy. “I got it in Sacktown.  Guaranteed to keep baby amused and it’s not toxic.  Just a little happy hex toy that makes baby feel safe.”

“Just make sure you aren’t seen in that get up,” Vengeance said with an irritated expression.  

“And what’s wrong with my outfit?” Angie asked in an affronted tone.

“You’re a bit underdressed for this community.” Vengeance replied as he opened a steel gun safe, pulled out a black leather utility belt, and buckled it around his waist.  Vengeance began loading the belt with the tools of his trade, weapons and devices that would help in tracking down and capturing criminal types.

“Reflectus!”  Angie commanded pointing her wand at the wall next to Vengeance.  A large mirror appeared on the wall, reflecting back an averaged height, voluptuously proportioned female with cornflower blue eyes and impeccable creamy skin.  Angel blond curls cascaded down her back.   She was holding a cooing infant with dark curly hair and large chocolate brown eyes.   A sky blue tunic, so sheer that it scarcely hid her womanly assets and a pair of white sandals with ribbon lacings that wound around shapely legs and were tied in neat bows at the knees were her only clothing.  She looked at her reflection, delighting in how maternal she looked holding Cain.  “I think I’m quite lovely,” she stated.“

            “For a Sacktown whore, maybe,” Vengeance replied, holstering a set of handguns.

            “I was feeling angelic this morning,” Angie told him, kissing Cain on the forehead. “I always dress the way I feel. And today I feel angelic!”

              “Just don’t answer the door,” Vengeance said rolling his eyes in annoyance as the witch posed before the mirror admiring her form from all angles.

            “If that doorbell thingy rings, I will open the door,” Angie informed Vengeance.  “I’m too curious not to.”

            “Suit yourself,” Vengeance said, closing and locking the gun safe.  “This isn’t Sacktown.  They have their own brand of deviants living on this planet.  You can take care of yourself, but the kid is depending on you to look out for him while I’m gone.”

            “We’ll be fine,”  Angie promised Vengeance.  “I suppose I should drab down to a more earthy look just in case.”  She flicked her wand and her outfit morphed into tight black stretch jeans, a blue-checkered top, and white sneakers.  Her hair changed from blond curls to her usual shoulder length red frizz.  Her eyes she left blue.  “How’s this look?” she asked Vengeance.

            “Better,” Vengeance replied as he pressed the transmute button on the well-stocked utility belt.  “See ya later, babe,”  Vengeance said before dissolving into the innerspace.

            Vengeance returned later that evening to find five cops in his living room and a dead corpse in his kitchen.  He had experienced a crapper of a day previous to his return.  Grebes had managed to elude capture, and Vengeance had ended up having to pay triple the cost to his informant, Silas Cobb, a minor criminal who specialized in the fencing of stolen merchandize and selling out his fellow crooks to the highest bidder. 

            The transmute system returned Vengeance to the exact location in his living room where he had stood when he zapped to planet Alder.  His return caused a general commotion amongst the cops, who were flabbergasted when the room shook as if an earthquake was occurring.  There was a loud “pop” followed by a buzz as a black clad male, tall and well muscled with a huge black drooping mustache and dangerous obsidian eyes, appeared on the scene.  Weapons were pulled and curses shouted.  It could have ended badly.

            “FREEZE YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!”  Angie Creedence shouted, using one of her favorite new Earth slangs to address the group. 

            With a flick of her wand, time stopped and the rancid smell of brimstone  made itself present.  Vengeance sneezed as the acrid smoke reached his nose.  He strode angrily across the room to stand menacingly in front of the grinning Wiccan.  Angie was standing beside a frozen cop, her eyes bright with excitement.  Cain was fast asleep on the sofa, the huggie buggie froggie clutched to his chest.

            “Who did you kill?” he snarled at the Wiccan.

            “I didn’t kill anyone!” Angie responded with a miffed expression.  “He fell over dead on his own.”

            “How did he end up in my kitchen?” Vengeance asked, trying to keep his temper under control. 

            “He was standing there when he died.” Angie said with a pout.  “You do know you are hurting my feelings deeply.  I can sense your distrust of me, Vic.  You think I’m an unremorseful killer, much like yourself!  Well, let me be the first to inform you, I am as tender hearted as any other female!”

            “Yeah, right.” Vengeance muttered.  If the female was an insane cobra with a migraine, he thought.

            “Who is he, Angie?”  Vengeance asked again.

            “His name is, or rather was, Edward something or other.”  Angie replied leading Vic to the kitchen where the corpse of a white male approximately forty years of age lay splayed on its back.  The face of the corpse held an expression of supreme joy.  It appeared he had died happy.  “He made his living going from door to door explaining his religious philosophy!”

            “Why did you let him in my house?”  Vengeance asked.

            “He asked to come in so he could pray for my soul.”  Angie replied with a regretful sigh. “I’ve never had anyone pray for my soul before.  I wanted to experience it.”

            Vengeance closed his eyes and counted to ten.  Twice.

            “How did he die, Angie?”

            “Well, he and I got to talking about his devotion to his god. He only worships one!  That’s amazing!  I mean, most folks on Alder have ten or more gods they worship.  But not Edward.  He had only the one.”

            Vengeance rubbed his eyes, trying to dispel the headache that was building in intensity the more aggravated he became.  

            “How did he die, Angie?” Vengeance repeated the words slowly.

            “I granted his greatest wish.” Angie replied.  “That’s all.  I didn’t pry into his mind if that’s what you’re thinking.  I merely rewarded his sharing his philosophy with me.  I gave him a wish gift.  It was up to him to use it wisely.”

            “You gave him a wish gift.”  Vengeance repeated her words.

            “Yes,”  Angie replied. 

            “Did you explain to him how a wish gift works?”  Vengeance asked.

            “Uhmmmm no, I didn’t.” Angie said with a guilty look.  “It never occurred to me that he would use his gift wish to ask to meet his god. He sort of had to die to do that”

            “Damn it Angie!’ Vengeance raged at the Wiccan.  “I told you not to use any magic on this planet!”

            “Yes you did.” Angie agreed in a calm voice.  She smiled cheerfully and patted Vengeance’s arm in a confiding manner.  “I now realize why you asked me not to use my magic here!  Isn’t that a good thing?  Now I know never to give Earth folks a gift wish without fully informing them of the potential hazards!”

           Vengeance held back the froth of swear words he wanted to spew at the Wiccan.  Angie Creedence was too damn powerful for her own good!  No wonder her Wiccan order had kicked her sorry ass out and banned her from returning.  She had a habit of acting on her emotions rather than using common sense.

            Vengeance took in a deep lungful of air and expelled it slowly, clearing his mind of all irritation with the Wiccan.  He would deal with her later, he promised himself.  Now was not the time.  There was a larger problem to address.

            “How long do we have before time continues?”  Vengeance asked. 

            “Let’s see.” Angie thought for a moment.  “I believe in Earth time we have thirty minutes from the time I cast the spell."

            “Not much time to plan,” Vengeance muttered. 

            Obsidian eyes narrowed as Vengeance analyzed the scene in the kitchen.  Dead corpse, two paramedics, and a cop.  In the living room five more cops, all of them frozen in time with guns drawn. 

            “We need to move all this,” Vengeance waved his hand towards the corpse, the cops, the two paramedics and all their gear, “and everything else that doesn’t belong here outside the house onto the street.  Make it look like the guy died walking down the sidewalk.”

            “Why?” Angie asked with a frown.  “That sidewalk is so dirty and Edward seemed like he was a rather tidy man.  See how impeccably dressed he is?  I don’t think he’d like laying on a filthy sidewalk.”

            “Just do it!” Vengeance snarled. 

            “Very well,”  Angie sniffed, annoyed at Vengeance’s abruptness.

            Angie stared thoughtfully at the scene in the kitchen, memorizing the placement of all that did not belong there.  She then flicked her wand and chanted in Wiccan tongue. The bodies began dissolving, their essence flowing in a thin stream of green ooze into the tip of the wand followed by all the gear.  When the last of the ooze had entered the wand, she walked to the living room, Vengeance following behind.

            “Pick up Cain and hold him so I don’t accidently vacuum him up,” Angie instructed Vengeance.

            Vengeance strode to the sofa and picked up the sleeping infant.  He stood aside while Angie studied the room and memorized the placement of all that didn’t belong.  She chanted them into a green ooze then vacuumed them up with her wand.

            “All righty,” Angie said brightly when the last of the cop essence had been sucked into her wand.  “Now we go outside and cough them all up onto the street!”

            Vengeance followed the witch out the front door and onto the sidewalk in front of his house.  It was dark outside, and there was a throng of frozen onlookers massed on all sides of the street.  The cop cars and the ambulance had drawn a large crowd of curious neighbors.

            “Shit!” Vengeance swore.

            “Ok, now we need to create a credible scene,” Angie told him.  “You need to move those five folks to somewhere else.  Angie pointed to a group of five adults and two pre teens standing on the sidewalk.  “I need that space for Edward and the folks from the kitchen.”

            Vengeance handed Cain to Angie then labored to drag the gawker's bodies to new locations.  By the time he had moved them all he was sweating profusely and so angry with the Wiccan he couldn’t speak.

            Angie directed him to move several more of the gawkers out of the way so she had room for the five cops from the living room.  By the time he was done, Vengeance’s back was sore and he didn’t bother to hide his rage.

            “Spit em out!” he ordered, taking Cain out of Angie's arms and stepping back.

            Angie began a chant, then pointed her wand at the street in front of them.  A green ooze shot out of the tip and morphed into a cop with gun pulled and a face frozen in terror.  Four more similar cops oozed out.  She then turned and pointed her wand to the sidewalk and oozed out the corpse, the cop, the two paramedics, and everything else that did not belong in the kitchen. 

            “Everything’s out of the house!”  Angie said looking around with a pleased expression.   “What do you want me to do next?” she asked Vengeance.

            “Mass memory alteration,” Vengeance said.  “Make them all forget about being inside my house and talking to you.  Make them think the guy passed out on the sidewalk and a neighbor called for assistance.

            Angie pondered for a moment, then flicked her wand and chanted in Wiccan tongue. The stink of brimstone filled the air.  “Ok, everyone’s thoughts are altered.  Now we need to figure out why the cops have their guns drawn.”          

            Vengeance surveyed the area.  He noticed a sad looking mutt standing next to a group of neighbors, all who had their cell phones in hand.  No doubt their plan was to snap pictures when the cops removed the corpse from his house.  Vengeance strode over and picked up the dog, placing it near the cops.  He then arranged the cops so that they surrounded the dog.

            “Cops pulled their guns out to confront a vicious mutt.”  Vengeance said.   

            “That dog does not look the least bit vicious.” Angie said, studying the mutt.  “He looks hungry.”

            “Just make them think that’s why they pulled their guns,” snapped Vengeance.

            “All right, you don’t have to be so grumpy!”  Angie retorted.  She cast the spell and more stinking brimstone wafted through the area. 

            “Ok, everything’s in place,” Angie announced.  “We should go inside in case our presence messes up someone’s altered memory.”

            “Good idea,” agreed Vengeance.

            Angie took Cain from Vengeance then led the way back into his sanctuary.  Vengeance closed and locked the door.  He went to the kitchen, retrieved a cold beer from the fridge, then joined Angie at the living room window to observe the scene they had set up, waiting for time to restart.

            Time restarted with a sharp crack of lightening.  The folk outside began to move.  The dog started barking.  Cops with guns drawn confronted the mutt.  The dog’s owner ran into the fray to rescue his pet, while phone cameras flashed, recording the scene.  On the sidewalk, the paramedics pronounced that the corpse was deceased.

             Angie kissed the sleeping infant.  "Isn't he adorable, Vic?" Angie crooned.  All this excitement and he didn't even wake up! 

             Vic Vengeance took a long swig of cold beer, glared at the Wiccan, and sighed deeply.  Raising Cain on Earth, he realized irritably, was going to be a challenge.

             

           

           

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