iAntivirus: Shadow in the Dark

If you're going to betray and mow down your old friends, you should have style, right? Betrayal planning short story about an RP character from http://z3.invisionfree.com/iANTIVIRUS

There was a sound in the dark. A repetitive sound… but a smooth sound. A long drawn out scrape, like metal against stone. It had echoed in the dark for many long minutes.

There was a window in the room. The moon outside came over the horizon, and eerie bluish light spilled into the room. It was an empty room, all but for a bed in the corner. It was a small thing, rented on borrowed funds. And it was plain and insignificant, only made interesting by the inhabitant.

The scraping sounded again. What looked like a plain card against a dagger, producing sparks and briefly shedding light to the area. Over a dark smile, and one anxious red eye. Again and again he drew the card against the dagger in what seemed a patient and slow thing.

In truth he had nothing of the sort. Patience had long since abandoned him, but the will, or rather the need, to carry out his mission would always overpower the temptation to be foolish and brash. Patience was not what kept him waiting. It was the wisdom of a twisted mind.

“It’s almost time,” he said in a low, melodic voice, his hands keeping the same steady motion as with each flash of the sparks his eye slowly rose to stare assertively into the darkness. “I’ll be starting soon. This plan of mine.”

The darkness sighed. “You’re insane.”

“Of course I am,” he said lightly, his action still perfectly precise, though his demonic red eye watched the shadows with much amusement. “Wasn’t that what I told you when you decided to supply my funds? And this wonderful education?”

There was a sigh in the dark, easily found to be an affirmative response. “Still. You’ll die.”

“I’ve died before. It’s not a bad thing. Besides, I’ve less to lose.”

A laugh came out of the dark again. “But you’ve been with her again. I’d call that more than nothing.”

“You don’t know much about it,” he said. The next flash showed a narrowed, angered eye, although his voice had not so much as wavered. “It’s a bit of a bold thing to suggest.”

A sound like a shrug came forth. There was a long pause before either of them spoke again, but the first words came from the shadows. “What’s that you have there?”

“A card.”

“I can see that. Why?”

The scraping ceased. He held the card up before his eyes a moment before throwing it onto the ground in the square of solid white made by the bright moonlight streaming in the window. It fell, numbers up. Or, they should be numbers. Instead, there were symbols on the corners, as some kind of cross between a V and a T. In the center there was a sword.

A hand reached out of the darkness and picked the card up, flipping it over and looking at the other side, which bore only an elaborate representation of the same VT symbol, and laughing. “A calling card, I suppose? What’s this then, to leave at the sites of your crimes?”

“No, no… There’s no point in that. With no corpse, how could there be?” He smiled, though in the dark one wouldn’t have seen. “They shall find the cards in advance.”

“What a brilliant idea,” the hidden figure said dryly. “Let them all know who you are.”

“That’s the whole idea.”

“Rather stupid one.”

“Forgive me my love of theatrics.”

“You are forgiven.”

He stood, a rather imposing silhouette against the dark window, and pulled something from his inventory. What had before been an imposing silhouette was now positively frightening as he turned to face the light, and in doing so revealed so a nonexistent audience the result of his action.

A dark cloak hung heavily about his shoulders, over a costume already as black as night. Lined in the same violet as the ink that coloured his calling card, it was a variation of the virus uniform… and with the hood pulled over his face one could still see naught but his shining eyes, one red and one deep violet, through the digital black haze, no matter that he faced the light directly.

“I should thank you for this again.”

“Why? You have already.”

“Yes, but who else would be able the untangle the code Virus uses…”

“It was easy.”

“Of course it was.”

In the following silence he raised a dagger in front of him. “But all of your ideas have been an amazing help. Changing the weapons in imitation of all of the other members of Virus… using what they gave me against them in an extreme.” He laughed. “Oh what fun.”

“You sound like a kid with a new toy.”

“This is all a game, isn’t it? So that would be a fitting description.”

The shadowed one hummed a moment. “I suppose it would. Now… do you think you’ll actually get anywhere?” They asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, his gaze on the moonlight reflected by the dagger.

“I’ll just have to wait and see, won’t I? It would be hard to make a difference, seeing as I’m only one person.”

“But you’re a smart person. You use what I gave you, you hide among them and take them out. They won’t find you.”

He nodded, hoping she was right, and at the same time, in the back of his mind, knowing it for a fact. He smiled and reached under his cloak, pulling out another card and turning it slowly between his fingers. “Of course. I am Trojan… the Trojan Virus. For them to come looking for me among themselves when I do all of this?” A deft movement sent the card spinning to dig into and stay in the wall as he silently went to the door.

“That would be like chasing your shadow in the dark.”

Author's Note

Some prior knowledge may be required to fully understand this.

Reviews

[Michael O'neal]

i think i'd be interested in reading more of this.

i love that The Darkness is being personified and given a Voice. i'm sure there's more to this than what is printed and displayed here thought...