They let me out of those straps about a week ago. I guess I feel okay for at least being there, making him afraid, but... well, I guess it doesn't matter now. Officer Doyle as well as half the police force and the jury are under protective custody as of this point.
We haven't really been doing... well, doing anything. There's apparently Omicron and Phi, and then there's O'Zalia, who seems to have powers similar to mine. Definitely similar, but... not too similar, I guess. He can speak into people's minds like me. But he can also read them. I think I've even seen him do crazier things than that.
Phi seems to have taken an interest in me. And not in a good way, either. Upon questioning, I happened to answer that I think I've had this thing for... about 15 years? She had this look on her face. You know, the half confused, half startled face. I hope she doesn't try anything. I've actually grown fond of these people. May be Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe they're actually nice people... well, they're nicer than me, and that's a start.
Well... that's not what I really wanted to talk about.
I had a kind of crew. We called ourselves The Demons' Hands, because we each had some pretty strange powers. You know mine, but there were a few others. There was a little pale kid tried as an adult for the murder of three hermits on the beach (with an icicle, no less) that seemed to create icicles and other ice weapons from thin air, there were a couple of religious fanatics who claimed they could ask their god to raise the dead (at one point, one actually did after a man convicted of perjury got shanked in the neck over cigarrettes), there was a man with fangs who saw people in mirrors, there was a man who seemed to have a strong link to insects, there was... oh God, I can't tell what's real and what was bullshit to keep themselves from getting killed.
But then there was Camazotz.
Goddamn Camazotz. Of all of the Demons' Hands, he was the most violent, the most testy, and the one who helped me gain some control over my abilities. And he was my closest friend in that shithole. He helped me get out. I heard his power was that birds came out of his body. I never believed it before, though I guessed the scars that ran up and down his arms and chest told a different story.
I saw Camazotz today. O'Zalia said that I should wait outside, and he would try to evaluate and help me train my abilities to keep them from getting under control.
He was off smoking or doing Tai Chi or God-knows-what he does. It was late. 8:15, late. I was in an alleyway when I heard the squeaking of bats next to me.
"Hello, Kord."
"Camazotz?" He stepped out of the shadows very dramatically. He knew he was putting on a show and he played it up.
"Yes, Kord. It's me. So, how's life outside prison bars?"
"It's going well."
"So, who's you're new friend?"
"Another gifted one."
"Ah. From the outside, though, Kord. Tsk tsk, you changing heart?"
"Dammit, Camazotz, why are you here?"
"Followin' your lead, Kord. You were the first one of us to make it out, and I saw your attempts. Well, I read your attempts. So I decided, if he's getting revenge, why shouldn't I?"
"Revenge? Then why are you talking to me?"
"I need a partner in this. You scratch my back, and I scratch yours. I heard most the jury that sent you down the river is under police custody. It'd be a bitch for you to get in there, but I..." He lifted his arm to show me a large, new slit down his wrist. Instead of blood, it seemed to be leaking a black substance. Slowly a large, fuzzy bat head peeked out. "...I can hide in the night."
"...I can't."
He stopped. He glared. He was pissed off at me, for the first time I can remember since my first week of prison. "What?"
"I can't. I have people now."
"People?" He laughed. "People!? These so-called 'good, upstanding people' you're hanging with?"
"I never said they were that."
"Well, aren't they?"
"...they seem to be."
"You're getting weak, Kord. I told you my penalty for weakness long ago." He took out a long switchblade. I stepped back, but instead of thrusting it at me, he stabbed himself in the chest and pulled it to the right. A long cut appeared, and bats started flowing out. Dozens of bats began swarming, scratching and biting, trying to lift me off the ground.
I was almost pulled up and away- or killed- when I remembered something. So I tried as hard as I could and sent a sonic burst. Camazotz stumbled back, and the bats reentered his cut. His eyes were bleeding, and one almost seemed to swell out of it's socket. "Son of a bitch! What the fuck was that?"
"Sonic burst. Sucks when your avian friends rely on echolocation."
"Fuck this. Next time we meet, Kord... I ain't going to play fair and I ain't going to give you any time to think."
Again, this conversation has been replaying in my mind a lot. It's almost as big a scar as when Isaac took me down.
I tried keeping this from O'Zalia. I didn't do well at that. He noticed the bites and cuts, so I filled him in. After nodding his head for a while, he finally said, "Well, we'll keep an eye out for him."
...and that's really all I have to say now.
Dammit, Camazotz.
Just...
...why?
