Ch 50: Memories: Wraith Raising

Rain poured down from the heavens, and thunder cracked overhead. The intermittent lightning strikes briefly illuminating a dark cloaked figure crouched on the roof of a building staring intently at the pristine turn of the century villa across from it. A hunter had found his prey.

Ebony Jenkins, a suspected child predator with almost two dozen suspected victims. He was merely suspected because his older brother, Leroy Jenkins, was a member of the Vale Council and worked hard to cover up his younger brother's extracurricular activities. However, the parents of his latest victim weren't so easily silenced and had posted a bounty of 100,000 liens on the dark web for anyone who could bring the monster to justice. And since his brother would ensure that the courts never passed a fair verdict, that left just one option. Ray smiled coldly to himself beneath his helmet. He had chosen a good first job.

Ray reached out with his semblance and mapped out the flow of electricity in the building.

[Hmm, security is pretty tight. Let's see here. Short out that presser plate there. Shift that camera a few degrees to the left. Freeze the image on the camera facing the cellar door. And presto, a clear path to the root cellar. No idea what the hell he's doing down in a damp basement on a rainy night like tonight instead of sleeping in his warm comfy bed, but it sure makes things easier for me.] Wraith slowly rose into a crouch and then leaped across the divide between the building he had been standing on and the stone wall surrounding his objective. His black hooded cloak billowed behind him, revealing its blood-red inner lining and the jet black cloth and leather armor he wore underneath as the flashing lightning glinted off the visor strip of his red and gunmetal grey helmet.

Without a sound, he dropped down within the stone wall precisely on top of the pressure plate he had shorted out earlier. With swift, subtle movements, Wraith maneuvered through the blindspots he had created by shifting the cameras slightly and reached the cellar door without any problem. The cellar door proved to be even less of an issue. The arrogant piece of shit hadn't even locked it.

[I love Electromancy, it makes things so much easier.] Wraith thought as he quietly slipped inside. With the closed cellar door muffling the pitter-patter of the falling rain and the occasional crack of lightning, Wraith could now hear a rhythmic grunting from up ahead. The sound made his gut twist as a dark premonition began to stir within his heart.

[But he was alone? I was sure of it!] Ray used his semblance to scan the cellar once again.

[He's still the only one down here, but the way he is moving. Is the bastard masturbating?] Wraith's face twisted in a grimace beneath his mask. Great, his first job was going to be soured by the memory of a fat pig cumming from being impaled by him. What a lovely thought. Still, that twisting feeling in his gut didn't ease, and Wraith found his steps subconsciously quickening as he silently made his way down the stairs towards the partially open door through which a sliver of light was shining.

Easing the door open a fraction more, Wraith peeked inside to fully assess the situation and froze in horror. The target was inside, he was alone, and he was pleasuring himself, but what he was using!

[You animal!!] Wraith roared inside his head, his jaw was too tightly locked together in anger to let out a single sound as he charged through the door without any further thoughts of stealth or finesse. With a thought, his gun-knives leapt from their holsters at his sides and flew into his hands. With a flick of his wrists, the guns straightened into hilts, and the blades beneath the barrels extended from 10 to 32 inches turning from daggers into swords in an instant.

*Crash* The bipedal pig in front of him barely had enough time to whip around at the sound of the door that the force of Wraith's entry had shattered before Wraith had plunged his blades through its shoulders and impaled it to the wall next to the metal bed frame he had been enjoying himself on just moments before.

Wraith had only gotten a glimpse of her before his anger blinded him to all but this filth, but that glance would haunt his dreams even years later. She couldn't have been more than six and must have been an adorable and lively little girl in life. But now. Her youthful skin was more black and purple than white and split by innumerable crimson trenches. Her frail frame was broken and twisted in all the wrong directions. Her glittering eyes hung dully beside her ears. Her sunny smile was shattered and still open in a silent scream of pain, pleading for help, for release. But he had come too late to help, and the only release she had found was death, though only her soul had been able to escape as her tormentor had continued to play with her cooling corpse.

*Squeeeeee* "Release me this instant, you beast! Do you have any idea who I am!?" the pig squealed in an attempt to imitate human speech.

"A dead pig." Wraith softly growled from beneath his mask, the anger, bloodlust, and pure malice in his voice deepening it and removing any trace of the youthfulness of Ray. The two-legged pig's eyes grew to the size of saucers as it could hear the sound of its impending doom within that cold voice. It opened its mouth to try to speak, to plead, to reason with its assailant, but all that came out was a wet gurgle as Wraith's gloved fingers wrapped around its throat and began to squeeze.

It tried to raise its Aura, but the pain was too great for it to focus, and the brown glow flickered and died without easing Wraith's grip in the least. The fat tub of lard's legs kicked in vain against Wraith's unmoveable torso as his arms flapped helplessly against the cold brick wall.

[Not enough!] Lightning flashed from Wraith's hand and arced across the brute's flailing body as every nerve in its body was set alight. Its eyes rolled back in pain, and strangled oinks began to escape its throat as it writhed and tried to scream in pain. Through the red-tinted fog of his rage, Wraith almost thought he smelled bacon cooking.

[Not enough!!] The thought continued to echo within Wraith's mind, unsatisfied with the suffering the animal was experiencing. Something like this would never be comparable to what it had inflicted upon that poor little girl. Then a thought flashed through his head. An idea so dark and evil that at any other time, he would have shoved it straight back down into the abyss it had come from without hesitation. But now? Now he acted on it without a second thought.

Focusing his mind and enveloping the struggling beast in his azure Aura, Wraith began to imagine his Aura as a hungry wolf devouring its prey. Its dripping maw agape as it sucked in more and more of its Aura with every breath. He had found years ago that he could absorb the ambient Aura released by the lives around him to increase his own reserves through a gentler method, like a tree absorbing the light from the sun, the gases from the air, and the nutrients from the soil. But, what if, instead of that gentle approach, he aggressively turned that technique on a living person? What would happen? What sort of pain would they experience as a part of their soul was forcibly ripped from their bodies?

The answer? Excruciating. Wraith could almost hear its soul screaming though it made no sound as every muscle in its body contracted at once, nearly ripping the bloated meat sack off the blades that had impaled it to the unyielding wall. Then it began to shrivel. Its potbelly deflated until Wraith could play the xylophone on its ribs. Its neckless head collapsed into a leathery skin-covered skull sitting on a spindly spine. In just under a minute, Wraith had reduced the flabby meat bag to nothing but skin and bones, but the withering didn't stop there. Its skin and organs continued to decay and rot until its leathery flesh began flaking off as dust to reveal cracked bones that splintered and cracked into pieces as the flaky skin that had been holding it together fell away, and the atrophied ligaments snapped, breaking jagged shards off. Before the second minute was up, Wraith held nothing in his hand but a handful of dust and a couple of bone splinters. The rest of the animal lay in a dirty mound at his feet.

Wraith opened his gloved fist and watched the last of it fall to join the rest on the ground. He felt sick. It was like he had been contaminated by something disgusting. His Aura was roiling out of control around him. Streaks of brown polluting his pure azure Aura. Voices whispering filth into his ears. Telling him who he was, what he wants to do. Whispering, enticing, corrupting.

Wraith stumbled backward, disturbing the morbid dust pile with his uncoordinated kicks. Holding his head in his hands as he twisted and struggled against himself. Trying to free himself of the insidious voices that were worming their way into his skull, corrupting his very being. But this was not a battle that he could win in the physical world, and no amount of struggling or martial prowess could save him now from his own rash mistake.

[It's ok. It's fun.]

[It's disgusting.]

[They enjoy it too. The begging and tears are just part of the game.]

[There is nothing pleasant about a child's tears!]

[It is their honor to be graced by the attention of one as great as me.]

[There is nothing great about one who would use their power to harm the weak. My power exists to protect such people! I exist to protect the defenseless!!]

[Look at her budding, immaculate body. Her smooth, tender skin. The innocent and pure light in her eyes. Doesn't it make you want to take her? Claim Her. Own Her! Defile Her!! PAINT HER IN YOUR COLORS AND MAKE HER…]

[SHUD UP!!] Ray's mental shout finally drowned them out as he fell to his knees and slammed his fists against the ground cracking the cement floor, making the whole foundation shake, and causing dust and dirt to rain down from the rafters. [I am Rajeev Rose! I am a warrior! A huntsman! A protector! I know who I am! I am a servant of my God, his righteous blade! I will protect my friends! Cherish my family! Destroy my enemies! I am ME!!] His Aura surged and tore the invading brown splotches to shreds. Its azure color becoming stronger and more vibrant than ever before. [No matter what name or form I took then, now, or later! I AM ME!! ...And I always will be.] Feeling emotionally drained and yet firmer and more grounded than he had ever been, Ray returned his focus outward to the grim reality surrounding him.

Ignoring the insignificant scattered dust and bones, Ray reluctantly turned his attention to the one that should have been sleeping snuggly in her bed as she dreamed of being a princess and meeting her prince charming. He wanted to cry, but no tears could come. With staggering steps, he approached her and gently brushed a golden lock of her hair away from her face. He wanted to hurl, but his throat was too constricted by emotions. With shaking fingers, he carefully returned her eyes to their proper place. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out. With a shuddering breath, he took off his cloak and protectively wrapped her in it. The least he could do was return this child to her parents. The target may be dead, but Ray knew he would always consider this first job a failure.