• Approximately four in the morning, of a Wednesday in the middle of June, a man was reported dead after an excessive beating. It seems like every other murder, until you realize one little fact. In one of the evidence photos taken at the scene, you'll realize the man who died was at his computer. It was only a suspicion, until two weeks later, when another person, a girl this time, was beaten to death unsuspectingly while at her computer. Blood and brain matter was found stuck into the keyboard and computer screen.

    Next, there was a triangle of murder. Three miles, and a month later, a man was killed with a note written on his back. A quite visible note, written in the man's own blood.

    "I'm not like any other killer, as much as I kill, I am for the peace of obsession. I am the repellent of procrastination, you could say. I have to intent on killing, I just love doing it. Yet, if you look deep into these victims' profiles, you'll see what I mean when I say 'these people deserve to die'."

    - xXx -


    The typing echoed through and out a lightly illuminated room. There wasn't much to see, but from this boy's position, everything was just fine. Of course, the light beaming from the computer screen was enough to make a strobe light. Oddly enough, that stood out the most, the boy actually was a pretty boy. An androgynous example of beauteous perfection.

    The boy leaned back in his chair, typing to a girl in a IM conversation. Everything going silent as the squeaking of his huge leather chair became high, then back to low.

    The girl spoke softly. "Going back to the Towns for Adrian?"
    "Well, of course. You saw what those guys did , ganging up on her."
    "It's just the Internet, Dante."
    "I just can't stand that. It's disgusting, and who knows what will happen, Sara. Those guys could live right across the street from her for all you know."
    "You do have a point."
    "You know what, screw this. I'm heading over to Adrian's house. Meet you there."
    "Hey, wait!"

    Sara was, of course, too later before Dante left the server. Meanwhile, over to Dante, this courageous, yet stubborn wonder headed out the door in a hurry over to Adrian. No matter what would happen, internet or not, it concerned Dante.

    - xXx -


    As a response, it didn't take long for Sara to rush out the door as well. Her headphones being ripped off her head, thrown to the ground. Sara was always jealous of Dante's concern for Adrian, and usually wouldn't run to these scenarios. Yet, you could say a consciousness spoke to her in the back of her head. That little suggestion from the smallest part of her intelligence left her heart pumping, and her lungs going off at full capacity.

    Sara stopped in the middle of the driveway to Adrian's house, not sure of what or who got here first. Stomping through the door, Sara witnessed the beginning of a horrible end. Dante was being stared down by a black, shadow figure. Flowing with streams of steaming darkness, everything was getting a bit slow the more everybody lasted seconds with this shadow's invisible eyes.

    Unbelievably, for just a shadow, it had possessed a odd, baseball like weapon. But, as expected, all of the weapon was covered in obscuration. Dante began to slowly stand normally, a more calm stance.

    "Telling from your weapon, you are going to kill Adrian."
    "You aren't very stupid after all." A demonic voice escaped dark lips.
    "But I'm not the brightest."
    "So Adrian says."

    This left Dante in his tracks. What did he mean by these words? Not only was that question surfacing into his now completely eradicated mind, but many were that wanted these back story answers.

    "Stubborn, but cute. Thickheaded, but incredibly intellectual. A genuine genius."
    "Adrian said these things?" Dante was left standing still, his eyes wide, looking to the ground. He couldn't understand fully. Was Adrian pretending to be his friend?
    "I can read anyone's true intentions. I can read everyone's true mind. I can be at every place at any time. And it so happened I got bored, listening to Adrian's complaining about how you always would 'talk about Sara, all it was about was Sara'."

    Sara now was getting dragged into the conversation, now standing by Dante. Looking up to him, Dante looked back, caught off guard by her sudden appearance.

    "You ... talk about me?"
    "Do you think now is the time to get into the mood?"

    Knocking back into composure, both look to the shadow before realizing stories revolving Gaians being bent up senseless manually. But, as usual, Dante and Sara knew from previous incidents, they had to leave it as a coincidence.

    "Ugh, I'm wasting time. Gotta hurry."

    Dante hurried, with his right foot colliding with the shadow's face in an unbelieveable speed. Even Sara was surprised by the wind knocked to the shadow's cheek. How could this happen so suddenly? In fact, it was so sudden, it left Dante questioning this sudden rush of power.

    "You little punk!" The shadow sat flat on his butt, hurt; rubbing upon his face, wiping dark blood from his mouth. And as soon as the blood dropped to the ground, it was almost like a raindrop echoed into the house. Gore exploding made a clear presence as the anti-light disappeared. Dante only found himself facing the shadow straight in the eyes. Bright yellow, cat-like eyes stared down Dante like an ant.

    "Disciples shouldn't f**k with the Umbrage." The shadow said, imposing as a member of some dark organization, telling from the rather odd name.

    Dante threw a punch through some sort of new instinct, to only have it be caught dead in its tracks by the shadow. Shocked, Dante was launched from the carpet, to the wall in a second almost. A small crater left in the ground below them, the shadow looked to Dante as he flew through the wall.

    Sara and this odd person, were stuck in the room. Only them, and with no protection, Sara left weak. How could all of this happen so quickly? She could feel his footsteps creeping up to him, the lights nearby fluttering to darkness. With eahc malfunction, the man got closer and closer.

    But as soon as the shadowing man laid a hand on Sara, Dante knocked the door out of the hinges with his foot. Kicking the door back up, flipping it to a frontal position, and kicking the door at the man with no effort, and with only one leg, the dark man was shot back into his place as those same steaming streams of darkness swept the door as if it was burning on contact.

    "Bastaard!" Punching the door back at Dante, the door split into three pieces. Flying like comets, all Dante could have done was catch the spikes. And to his own command, he caught the spikes in success; winding up for the kill, and shooting all three back at the shadow. Stabbing both his arms and a leg, the strange man was pinned onto a wall.

    "Nowhere to go now." Sara said, chuckling at the now defenseless coward.
    "So, you thought you'd kill us?" Dante also chuckled with Sara, looking into the shadow's yellow eyes.
    "You will all die with that wench Adrian!" Razor sharp teeth revealed in anger, the shadow brought the both into preserved composure. They both were caught complete off their guard by this scream.
    "Guess you'll have to send your friends to come and kill us, then." Dante said, getting serious.
    "I'll kill you myself! I don't need help!"
    "Looks like you do, with the situation of you being pinned to a wall with an incredibly strong man standing in front of you. Looks to me you just got the crap kicked back into you." Sara said, her reply being cute, as always.

    Picking up a missing fragment of the door, Dante came over to the shadow and tried to slice the man's throat. Guessing from the major fail in this kill, the man was seriously all just darkness.

    "Hm ... well, guess we only have one other way to kill him."
    "That'll work?"
    "Assuming he's made of nothing, but darkness and can't die from sharp objects, let's try it." Sara said, grabbing a flashlight nearby; tossing it over to Dante. An easy catch.
    "Thank you." Dante said, studying where he would put the flashlight. Then, it came to him. "Why didn't I think of this earlier?" Dante threw the flashlight into the shadow's mouth, letting it swallow the entire thing.

    Walking away from the man, the two headed upstairs, then hearing, and feeling, a massive explosion from the wall. "Holy sh*t!" Sara yelled, ducking for cover. Dante ran upstairs to dodge the rest of the needles shooting at them; grabbing Sara's hand in the process. "Didn't see that coming." Dante said, sighing in relief. He was just scared the ever loving sense out of him by that explosion, and it left both of them shaking.

    Busting through the door, Dante rushed to the computer, Sara right behind him. Turning the chair of an asleep Adrian, Dante smiled. "Hey, Adrian, that guy's ... d-dead." Dante's eyes went wide, Sara covered her mouth in disgust. Adrian, was dead. A needle has spiked her in the heart. Blood was covered over her clothes from the blood stains from the chest, and the mouth.

    "God damnit!"