Extracurricular Activities

[Doc]

Doc unlocked the front door to Genesis Solutions, entered and was headed to the back office when the carpet squished under his foot.

“GOD ******* DAMMIT!” The expletive ripped out in a sudden burst of fury. “Four ******* times!” He seethed. The office was plagued with plumbing issues. That was it. He had had enough. He was going to visit that plumber and ensure he understood the significance of Doc’s displeasure.

Doc: *dialed Phoenix’ cell from his office land line*

Phoenix: She stared at the caller ID as the phone rang before hesitantly picking it up. "Yes?"

Doc: "Ah good. Employee.. the last time the plumber was here.. I asked you to obtain his street home address. Did you?"

Phoenix: "Of course I did. I also told him that I expected good work. Why do you need it?"

Doc: "I will deal with it. Let me have the address.. please."

Phoenix: Some rustling could be heard in the background before a muttered curse. Something shattered. "****... It's 87 Cedar Street."

Doc: "Thank you. Have a good evening."

Phoenix: She paused. "Why're you calling me from the office?"

Doc: "It was convenient. Alright?"

Phoenix: "Defensive. Why're you defensive over a ******* phone call!?"

Doc: *Doc hung up.*

Phoenix: She called him back immediately.

Doc: Doc sighed into the receiver of the telephone. "What?"

Phoenix: "You're being extra cranky today. Why?"

Doc: 'Because there is yet another ******* leak ..."

Phoenix: "Blame Jane and her IBS."

Doc: What he didn't say was, 'Sparrow is pissed at me, the baby spawn has lost an arm already, the hate-filled spawn is being extra hateful, the ex is pushing my ******* buttons, and the girlfriend wants me to move in,.. and we have another ******* leak.' He counted. "Apparently."

Doc: "Are we done? I would like to go torture someone now.."

Phoenix: "Can I watch you torture someone?" she asked politely.

Doc: "It hasn't escalated to the point of physical torture, it is in the prep stages, so no."

Phoenix: "Maybe I can help you prep?"

Doc: "No.. that would suck all joy out of it." Females would be his undoing.

Phoenix: "But... I'll contribute joy, I promise." She frowned. "Wait. What? You don't feel joy."

Doc: "Have a good evening Phoenix." He hangs up again.

Phoenix: Scowling, she called him back.

Doc: "****!" Was shouted into the phone. "No! NO.. and **** NO!" He hung again.

Phoenix: She burst out laughing, reaching out to poke into his mind. "You're such a killjoy!"

Doc: Things may escalate to physical violence tonight after all, he thought.

Entering the home at 87 Cedar Street had been effortless to the say the least. He didn’t even need to use powers. Before entering, he watched the house from the outside, getting a feel for the family inside. The neighborhood was middle class. The houses surrounding number 87 were well kept and tidy. Looking at the outward appearance of the house located at 87 Cedar street, he could tell a lot. He could tell that the house, which had been cared for once upon a time, had fallen into a state of disrepair. The gutters were sagging, the shrubbery was overgrown, rubbish overflowed and piled around the garbage cans, the light by the front door was busted and the garage door was left half way open.

By half past eleven that evening, the lights had all gone out and the house had settled down and fallen silent. Access to the garage had been effortless due to the open door. A perusal of the items found within the garage told him, that there had been a change in the family fortunes. From the piles and bags of refuse found within the garage that which had spilled over from the over-full garbage cans outside, he presumed alcoholism was partially to blame. What caused the alcoholism, that remained to be discovered.

The door from the garage to the house was unlocked. Another sign that things in the household were far from ideal, however it allowed him easy entrance. He had figured he would spend the first night reconnoitering the house and habits of the inhabitants. Yet, things were so lackadaisical and haphazard, he was hours ahead of schedule. Wandering through the living area of the home, he found empty beer cans mingled with empty frozen dinner plates and video games. The place looked like it hadn’t been vacuum in months, or dusted in years. Making his way upstairs to the bedrooms. From the heavy and labored snoring he knew where the parents room was. He carefully made entrance to the master bedroom and noticed immediately that there was only one occupant. The plumber. He stood there silently watching the plumber sleep off his alcohol. It was apparent that the wife and mother had either died or left him. Both scenarios explained the unkempt appearance of the house. Dead or absent wife did nothing to soften Doc’s heart. He still had a ******* plumbing issue that after three visits had not been addressed in the proper manner. The absent wife gave him that much more leverage against the plumber.

Slipping out of the master bedroom, he entered the remaining two bedrooms. One belonged to a teen male too old to be a child, too young to be a man; the other one belonged to two females. One still young enough to be considered innocent and the other on the verge of becoming a woman. He moved forward, tucking a blanket about the little one securely, then he looked at the other female, and the items in the room that belonged to her. Womanhood was burgeoning forth in the little things. The use of cosmetics, in this case, tinted lip balms and scented lotions. The plumber was going to have his hands full when she embraced her feminine ways that came with age. As he stood there, watching the girls sleep, he found the weak link.

[Doc]

Phoenix: She dialed his number and waited.

Doc: 'Nilson."

Phoenix: "**** your Nilson ********. I'm angry."

Doc: "Alrrright.. " he wasn’t about to give up his plumber. "You can have the Harrison case… happy?"

Phoenix: She wasn't anywhere near a computer and her ability to look things up without the necessary hardware was long forgotten. "I don't even know what that is. I want to... do something."

Doc: "Well?" He counted to ten.. no twenty. He had to give her a fair chance.

Phoenix: "Show me how you murder people?" Systematic, logical murder seemed like a fabulous idea.

Doc: He pinched the bridge of his nose. "What makes you think I murder people?

Phoenix: "That wasn't stage blood you had on the day you came back to the office after the session where I... made you feel stuff. And if that was your first instinct - murder - then I'm sure it's not a foreign concept to you."

Doc: ****. Double ******* ****! "Why me? OF all people.. me? why?"

Phoenix: She frowned at the phone, knowing the expression leaked into her voice. "Why you what?"

Doc: "Why do you want to shadow me? I am a ******* nobody.. Shadow Vel or Micah.."

Phoenix: "I like you," she mumbled. "Your company is enjoyable."

Doc: What? He rubbed his forehead. She had no idea. Just left her shadow him once.. she would run screaming. He sighed. "Tomorrow.. midnight. You have to be silent .. no one .. AND.. I mean NO ONE can know you are there."

Phoenix: She blinked; she was a shadow, after all. "Deal. Where am I meeting you?"

Doc: "87 Cedar Street" The plumbers address.

Phoenix: That was easy enough, though she made a note anyway. "See you then." And she ended the call.

Fuuuuuuuck. He sighed and rubbed his brow in seething frustration. There were some things a person just liked doing by themselves. The solitude gave them a sense of peace and personal satisfaction. The plumber was going to be that for him. But now that ******* shot.

Doc leaned back in his chair and mulled things over. Phoenix wanted to watch. Why? She was capable of murder as much as he was. She had the sadistic streak needed, she just had not embraced it. Once she did, she would find her niche and wouldn’t want to shadow him anymore. Unless… the act of cruel and sadistic murder excited her. Perhaps, instead of being gruesomely bloody, he should be the opposite. Boringly predictable. He smirked to himself. Yes. She would be so utterly disappointed that she wouldn’t want to waste her time with him anymore.

Being boringly predictable meant he would have to re-evaluate and change plans. Before he had left the plumber’s home previously, he had prepped the place for his next visit. The house had a basement that at one time had been the plumber’s home workshop. It boasted a workbench with a variety of tools both plumbing and carpentry related. The tools and other necessary items and supplies had been laid out with care, with thought as to how to make things convenient without sacrificing efficiency. However, it now lay mostly disused, covered with dust and cobwebs used only by the spiders and insects that tended to inhabit basements.

The basement would still need to the be scene of that crime. It would ensure the most privacy since there were no windows or exits to the outside and since Phoenix would be viewing from shadows, it also worked. On the previous visit he had disabled all the lights, and set up a construction lamp he found in the basement, that he planned to use as a light source, leaving an abundance of shadows for her skulk about it. The goal was to disorient, confuse and strike fear into the plumber and his family. Phoenix might expect a murder, but that wasn’t going to happen. At least not yet. He wanted his plumbing to be ******* fixed first. However, this meeting was a pivotal and key component of this particular style of murder.

============

It was a twenty minutes until midnight, as Doc hefted the unconscious body of the Plumber up, after having pre-tied his wrists with rope. The predetermined intention was to hang him by his wrists from the load bearing floor beam in the basement ceiling. Doc was used to dealing with dead or unconscious bodies, but the plumber was a sizable man, and moving him from his bedroom upstairs to the basement below, silently so that he didn’t what up the whole household, had been challenge. But then to hoist that unconscious body of dead weight and hang it? That particular job took some time and effort.

It was nearly midnight as Doc held the chloroform soaked cloth over the teenage boy’s airways, knocking him out. The youth was easily carried down to the basement and then hanged beside his father. The midnight hour was struck as he ripped a couple of pieces of duct tape off a roll that the plumber conveniently had on hand, and placed it over the male’s mouthes. He glanced at his watch and smirked to himself, he was right on time. He wasn’t going to check and see if Phoenix was there or not, he told her midnight, and it was midnight. Surely she was smart enough to find him. Not his issue if she didn’t.

Doc broke an ammonia ampule under the father’s nose and succeeded to get him to rouse slightly, breaking another one accomplished the task of bringing him to semi-consciousness. The realization that he was strung up like a side of beef, brought him to full consciousness. As the father ineffectively screamed and yelled from behind his duct tape, Doc moved to the teen, and used another ampule under the boy’s nose. The teen readily came awake, his eyes slowly widening in fear and confusion as though he wasn’t sure he was even awake, perhaps even hoping that he was dreaming.

Doc clad in all black, including a face covering balaclava took a headless axe handle swatted the plumber left thigh. “Shut the **** up.. I talk.. you listen.” The plumber not realizing the seriousness of the predicament he was in, continued to try to scream, shout and yell at Doc.

“Apparently we have to do this .. the hard way.” Doc swung the handle and connected solidly with the boy’s right side rib cage. There was an audible crack when the wood made contact.

The boy screamed behind his duct taped mouth, and tears immediately began to pour down his face. After the initial scream, the boy whimpered.

“See what you’ve done?” Doc gave the plumber a sad knowing look as he shook his head, his face still hidden behind the balaclava, “You’ve made your son cry. What kind of ******* father are you?”

The plumber was still trying to indignantly squeak out his outrage from behind the duct tape, when Doc raised the handle again aiming once more to have a swing at the boy. The plumber shut up.

“Ah.. good.” Doc’s voice took on a passive conversational tone. “It appears you are ready to listen, now.” He leaned back against the workbench, his legs crossed in a relaxed pose while the axe handle was held loosely in his hand.

“You see George,” he paused and straightened a bit as he leaned forward, “You don’t mind if I call you George, do you?” Hearing no argument, Doc returned to his relaxed pose. “I have been hired by, … let’s call it a ‘consortium’,” he smiled behind the balaclava, “of your past clients. You see George, they aren’t happy.

“How did this come about you ask? Well as it happens,” He bounced the axe handle on the top of his boot as he explained, “there was a business after hours networking event put on by the Chamber of Commerce. It was aimed at local business people to have them all come together and network ways to boost Harper Rock’s presence on the landscape of business destinations. Imagine if you will, a group of business people after a long day at work unwinding with some cocktails, when one of them has to vent over the shitty service they got from a plumbing business.

“Now you have to understand that is a sore subject with anyone who has ever had plumbing issues. So the one vent, became many. And after a few more drinks, it came about that all these people had the same shitty plumber.” He stopped bouncing the axe handle. “That shitty plumber would be you, George.” He let the silence lengthen as he watched George.

George’s face was red, sweat beaded and ran down his brow. Being hung by his wrists with that amount of bulk, put increasing strain on his body. As his arms fatigue, waves of cramps will sweep over his muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside.

“As the business people drank, they fantasized about getting pay back. The more they drank, the more the idea had merit. And .. well here I am. And let me tell you George,” His tone was matter of fact, “I am not cheap.” Doc pushed off the workbench. “Now they want blood. But I had a good look around your place, and I can see you’re hurting. Your wife either left you or died. From the copious amount of beer cans I would imagine it was the latter. Suddenly you are a single father, raising three kids alone. The pressures of a business, household, laundry, kids, bills.. it can be quite daunting. Your work suffers.. I feel for you. But I have a job to do.

“What I propose is a week’s grace. How does that sound? That is fair isn’t it, George?” Doc swings the axe handle absently, as he walks and talks. “You have one week to call your clients and try to rectify their issues. If you’re successful.. They may call off this hit and you will never see me again. The catch is.. I’m not telling you who complained. So you’re going to have figure that out on your own. And I would suggest you do your finest work.” He nodded, “Because if I have to come back here.. it won’t be just you and Junior here, that pays the price. But little Miss Thing upstairs will get to join the party. And she will be.. intimately.. involved.” He smiled coldly behind the balaclava.

“But just so you know I am serious,” Doc swung the axe handle and it connected with the boy’s knee solidly. Having been hanging for some time now, the boy wasn’t able to draw enough breath to breathe evenly, much less scream. Instead he just hung his head and silently cried.

Doc moved to stand in front of George, “Basement stairs are so dangerous George. You should teach your children have due caution when using them.” He pulled a knife from a pocket and flicked it open.

George’s eyes widened and he started shaking his head negatively while staring at the blade, as though he was silently begging not to be cut with it. However, instead of cutting the Plumber with the knife, he used it to cut the boy down. The boy collapsed into to a huddled ball on the floor, dragging in big ragged breaths of air.

“I’m going now.. I may be back.. that is all up to you, George.” He moved into the darkness, “And one more thing.. clean this ******* house. You’re bringing down the neighborhood.”

Once he was completely swallowed by shadows, he read his tome and disappeared.