Deathwish, Part 11: Crime and Punishment

Part 1: Cinderfell
Part 2: Deal With a Vorpal
Part 3: Calmsquare Cantina
Part 4: The Wailing Chamber
Part 5: Grector Smash
Part 6: Rebmauk
Part 7: Chantim
Part 8: Homesick
Part 9: Traitorous Humans
Part 10: Journalistic Integrity

Alicia left the next day from the empty house. Neither of her parents were home very often, and she was expected to basically take care of herself. This included making or purchasing her own meals for the day, and waking up early enough to walk to school. Other people had their parents or other guardians walk them to school, but her family had too much work to do so.

But she didn’t mind. No one knew, but she now had her own bodyguard going with her to school. For once, she knew that if anything happened that put her in danger, she had protection. Such a small assurance of safety made the usual morning walk completely different. She no longer looked at every passing shadow or rustle in the bushes, and even the sunlight seemed brighter.

Dapper wasn’t enjoying himself as much. “Ugh… did you really need to bring all this junk, Alicia? It’s crowded in here.”

Alicia smirked slightly. “Yes, I need all of that. They are my text books and school supplies.”

Dapper scoffed. “It all seems unnecessary… we Vorpals just figure things out as we go. How long is this school thing, anyways?”

“It takes most of the day.”

“AN ENTIRE DAY?!”

“Yeah, and that’s five days a week.”

“Whoa, wait… ALMOST A WEEK?! What’s even the point of spending all that time learning?”

“Humans don’t forget things after a week. Don’t you remember? I reminded you of that less than a few hours ago.”

Dapper was silent. “I’m still not sure I believe that… it sounds completely preposterous.”

Alicia shushed Dapper as she walked into the school building. “You need to be quiet while I’m around other people, Dapper… I don’t want to get you killed.”

Dapper laughed, but switched to a whisper at Alicia’s insistence on keeping the volume down. “Please, who hasn’t gotten their friends killed every now and then?”

Alicia quickly took her seat. The rest of the class sat down, and Alicia couldn’t help but notice that her usual bully was right behind her, ready to distract her for the entire class. She groaned to herself.

Dapper whispered just loud enough for Alicia to hear him. “Hmm? Is that someone you despise?”

“That’s Persephone. Persephone Stoic. Yeah, I don’t like her much, and the feeling is mutual.”

“...should I kill her?”

“I’ll think about it, but for now, no. That would be a very bad idea.”

Dapper sighed. “I’m starting to think there is going to be almost no killing at all…”

“I can only hope.”

The class went by faster than Alicia expected. In fact, the whole day flew by before she knew it. Having someone she could chat with about random things made the whole day better. Persephone still attempted to pick on her, but now she had Dapper. He extended an arm to the floor to steady her when she was about to slip on a quickly formed patch of ice, and alerted her when her meal was being chilled by Persephone so Alicia could move somewhere else in the cafeteria. The best part was seeing the confused expression on Persephone when each of her prank attempts failed to work as they had previously.

Alicia was soon walking home, albeit with a very noticeable Persephone and her posse following her. Dapper was getting irritated. “Can I kill her now? Let’s lead her down an alleyway, and...”

“No! You can’t kill people just because they are annoying!”

“Why not? It certainly makes them stop their troublesome antics.”

“Yes, but death is permanent for humans.”

“...oh. Yeah, I guess that’s a fair point.”

Alicia exclaimed with a hushed yell. “Are you telling me you seriously forgot about that detail?!”

“Don’t yell at me! I don’t talk with many humans! Most Vorpals go straight to killing a human when they come into contact! I can think of a dozen Vorpals right now who would call my current civility with a human as a crime against Vorpality!”

Alicia just couldn’t make sense of it. She refrained from asking how he could remember how Vorpals normally dealt with humans, but nothing about humans themselves. But what snapped her out of it was the feeling of a cold chill creeping over her.

She had hoped Persephone would have left her alone when she specifically walked through a seedier part of town. But when she turned around, sure enough the relentless bully was there. On the bright side, her accomplices did seem spooked by the setting. “Alicia… I bet you think you are pretty brave coming down this way. But you can’t fool me. You are a coward, looking for any method to avoid me.”

Alicia had had enough. “Persephone! I’m done with your nonsense!”

Persephone was more than a little surprised at the change in tone. She held out a palm as snow circled in mini tornado above it. “You will regret those words… I take that as a challenge to combat. I’m eager to show you what I can really do.”

Before Alicia could explain that she obviously hadn’t challenged her to combat, she heard someone else approach. “Well, now… this is a surprise. Two young girls in our territory, acting as if they own the place.”

It was a tattooed man with no shirt, many scars and just as many piercings. He held a knife that burned with a light orange flame. Persephone was concerned, but refused to back down from the aggressor. “Do you know who I am? I’m the daughter of Stoic! You can’t threaten me! My family-”

The man grabbed both girls by the neck, pinning them against an alley wall. While Persephone tried to summon her powers of ice, the paltry amount of could she could gather barely affected the man, his entire head on fire as he looked at both of his victims with evil in his eyes. “Perfect. I’m sure they will pay a lot of money for you back, then… and I don’t know who this other one is, but I certainly can’t have her running to get help…”

Another man walked up behind him, laughing. “Heys, that’s the deathwish kid! She’s the crazy one that actually went to the Inverse and came backs!”

Alicia struggled. She tried calling out to Dapper, still hidden in her now abandoned bag mere feet away, for help. But she could hardly breath, much less speak. Her captor looked her in the eyes. “Deathwish, huh? That explains why you would come through our territory. To think, we normally need to setup a trap to kidnap the likes of you, but you just waltzed right in.”

“Yeah, that was pretty careless of you, Alicia!”

Both men turned around and jumped back when they saw Dapper, standing there oblivious to their surprise. “Fold it! Deathwish has a Vorpal… kill it!”

Dapper didn’t take long. One stretched arm later, the tattooed man had a snapped neck and was already dissolving before he had a chance to attack. The other one tried to run, but Dapper grabbed him by the legs and dragged him back, kicking and screaming. With his other hand expanded into a giant fist, he crushed the criminal with a wet sounding crunch. The man vanished in a cloud of black dust.

Three more criminals came running out after hearing the commotion. “What the… WRECK IT! A VORPAL!”

Dapper spun around, tipping his hat. “Well, hello, hello… more players I see. Grand. How long will you last, though?”

Dapper moved with blinding speed, stretching along the ground like a snake one moment and leaping overhead the next, always avoiding jets of fire and shards of ice. The three panicked as one of them just fled before his sudden lack of focused defense let to a impalement from behind. The remaining two didn’t last much longer, leaving a total of five now dead to Dapper.

He walked up to Persephone. She looked at him with eyes wide and filled with terror. Dapper knelt down, to look at Persephone face to face. “Hello there, Persephone Stoic… I’ve heard and seen how you’ve been very… unkind to one of my acquaintances.”

She spoke with stuttering words. “I-I-I’m… uuhhh… I didn’t… w-w-what are you g-g-going to…”

Alicia stepped in. “Dapper… that’s enough.”

Dapper looked at Alicia with a serious expression. “She’s a caster, Alicia. You know what needs to happen. What do you care? She’s not your ally. She’s not your friend. She’s not even courteous! No one will ever know, nor could they ever blame you for it… just say the word. And she’s gone.”

Alicia was not even willing to consider it. “Dapper… no.”

Dapper turned back to Persephone, frowning. For several moments, he just looked at her as she trembled with fear. His expression broke into a wry smile. “Well, what can I say. Unlike you, I value Alicia’s opinion. Congratulations, you get to live another day.”

Persephone looked at Alicia, still unable to completely process all that had just happened. “Alicia… d… did you really…”

“I told you, just like I tell everyone. Vorpals aren’t all evil. Persephone Stoic, meet Dapper. He’s the one who saved me the first time I ended up in the Inverse.”

Dapper tipped his hat, standing back up to his full height. Persephone, unsure what else to do, did an awkward curtsy and then turned to Alicia. “Alicia… you were right, weren’t you? This whole time… they can be reasoned with.”

Dapper laughed hysterically. “Reasoned with?! That’s a stretch. It’s more accurate to say we aren’t just one dimensional killers. We are multi-dimensional killers! We have VERY high standards to adhere to!”

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Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying the story, you might also enjoy my novel! It’s set in the same fictional universe, but follows different characters.

Same post on Minds

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