The Day The Dark Wind Blew

The girl spun and laughed as she avoided capture yet again. Then she noticed the boy watching her and she waved her hands at him while she shouted "Hey, Randy! Come and play with us!" Randy just kept sitting on the bench and answered her with mock disdain "No thanks, I'm not retarded enough to play tag with a bunch of kids" The girl stood with her hands on her hips and shouted again "You're a still a kid too, you idiot! Blehhhhhh!" She stuck her tongue out at him and returned to her game.
Randy smiled slightly at her reaction as he continued watching her. She was just an ordinary 8 year-old who was hard at play, yet she was the one who changed his life so dramatically. His smile turned ironic as he recalled his life until a month ago. He was raised in an orphanage, or rather, a few of them. According to the caretaker of the first one he lived in, when he was about 3 days old, a woman brought him there and placed him in the caretaker's hands. "Take care of him" was all she said before disappearing into the rain. The story would have been totally unremarkable if it wasn't for the fact that she was bleeding profusely at the time, and she was discovered about 10 blocks away from the orphanage 3 days later. Most of her anyway; she was chopped into God knows how many pieces, and based on the flesh collected, a great number of tortures were inflicted on her while she was still alive. Death must have been a relief for her.

He stayed at the orphanage until he was 6, then it got shut down, because the caretaker couldn't afford to take care of them anymore. Social services tried to place him with a foster family, but they were terrible people, so he ran away. Since then, he lived on the street, relying on himself and trusting only the children he knew from the orphanage, and even then only so far. It was a good thing that he always roamed the street even while he was living at the orphanage, since it taught him many important points for survival. He also knew where to scavenge for food in thrash cans. It was amazing what people threw out sometimes, once he got a box of still-hot fried chicken and another, super sushi. Of course, mostly he got moldy bread that made him sick (but he eats them anyway) He lived that way for about four years, much like a stray dog, though in truth there were times when stray dogs were treated better than him. He remembered this one rich old lady who's garbage can they went through. A pack of hungry dogs came by and bit him and his friends, so he picked up a stick and shooed them off. The rich old lady ordered her servants to the rescue; of the dogs. She adopted the dogs and had the boys beaten half to death for 'hurting such darling creatures'. They were so angry that the next day, they stole some meat, poisoned it, then threw it to the hateful dogs. they stayed until they heard the dogs in their death throes, then ran away as fast as they could. The old lady received such a shock at the death of her dogs that her heart stopped working and she died on the way to the hospital. He felt very satisfied when he heard the news at the time, but now he felt very guilty about it. the old lady wasn't really mean, she was just crazy and thought of dogs as her children, and she thought of children as monsters who loved torturing dogs.
He smiled again when he considered how Elia managed to awaken something he was very unfamiliar with; a conscience. It all started four days ago when they first met. Randy was out scavenging through thrash cans at his favourite spot; the back of a restaurant, when he saw a really big boy trying to bully an 8 year-old girl. He's seen such a thing many times before and he doubted that it would be the last time he would see such a thing, but for some reason, it bothered him. Maybe because he thought she was pretty cute, with her really large green eyes, short brown hair, and a school uniform that was sure to attract pedophiles; which made him wonder why he was thinking it was cute in the first place. Point is, he was bothered enough to interfere by saying "Hey, fatso! Why don't you go harass someone else, somewhere else? This happens to be my spot, and you're ruining my appetite" The boy was bending over to threaten the little girl before, so he seemed pretty normal sized to Randy, but when he drew himself to full height, he could see that the boy was twice as large as he was. Then again, there was the fact that Randy was pretty slight for his age, maybe from lack of nutrition. In addition, he was always wearing clothes several times his size, he bathed rarely, and his hair was always unkempt; he didn't have anything to cut it with anyway. The large boy seemed to forget his prey for a while, and walked over to Randy, as he said menacingly "What was that you just said, you little runt? Who the hell do you think I am, anyway?" Randy started picking his nose and replied "A pig who's about to squeal" in a bored manner. The boy turned red with anger and shouted "I'm gonna kill you, you little runt!" while he let loose with a punch, intent on cracking Randy's head like an egg. Randy dodged nimbly, and the boy's punch connected with the large metal trash container behind him. A loud crack could be heard, and Randy knew taht the boy just broke his knuckle. As he flailed about in pain, Randy kicked him behind the knee, then proceeded to trip him, so that his head got knocked against the trash container. Just to be safe, he gave the boy another kick to the back of his head and jumped off him quickly. As he was very cautious, he picked up a stick and started poking the large boy with it. Satisfied that his current nemesis was out cold, he walked over to the girl. She started saying "Th..thank.." but Randy didn't let her finish but snatched her lunch box and started eating from it at top speed. The girl eyed him a little fearfully at first, but as he just continued eating, she felt curious and kept watching him. Feeling a little annoyed, he snapped at her "If you like seeing hungry people eating so much, why don't you go home and watch Natonal Geographic or someting. I'm not giving this back to you, and I'm not giving you anything in return either!" The girl jumped in fright, and looked as if she was about to cry again. With tears pooling in her large eyes, she replied "I...I wasn't going to....I mean...I..I was just...I mean...you ate my lunch and I'm not complaining..and, and you're yelling at me...and, and I was just trying to say thank you..sniff...and....and....waaaaah!" She couldn't stand it any longer and cried her heart out. Randy has never talked to a girl before, so it was understandable thathe didn't know what to do when faced with a crying girl. "Wh..what are you crying about you idiot? I didn't even do anything to you!" he said, panicking. The girl sniffled some more, before replying "Because...because, I was trying to be nice...and you're so mean to me! I don't want anything from you, I just wanted..to,to properly thank you and you,...you yelled at me" Feeling guilty and idiotic, Randy quickly said "Look, I'm really sorry I yelled at you, okay? Now, please stop crying or this place will be crawling with creeps, all right?" Noticing a change in the air, he quickly said "On second thought, it might be better if we made ourselves scarce from here, the creeps are already on their way" The girl subsided her crying, and asked him sniffily "Umm, why are we running from crepes? Are you afraid they'd give yo bad teeth?" It took all of Randy's willpower not to yell at her again. "Calm down, she's just 8 years-old, she has very limited vocabulary, and she definitely doesn't know any profanities. Her parents could hardly have taught her any"
That gave him a thought and he asked her "What are you doing here, how come your parents didn't come and pick you up? Don't they know how dangerous this place is?" For the first time, the girl looked rebellious and replied "My mommy and Daddy cares a lot about me! They're somewhere over there, feeding some hungry people. I just got bored and wandered by myself when that scary boy found me" Randy held out his hands and said "Alright, alright, I get it, you have very loving parents. Come on, let's get you back to them. I'm a stone-cold bas...err, person, but even I wouldn't want to see a kid like you getting hurt in a place like this" He grabbed her hand and started towing her as he asked "Which way are your parents, again?" "Ah, ahh! Not so hard! You're hurting my hand...err, what's your name?" she said as she was forced into a fast walk by Randy's pace. Sighing in annoyance, he replied "It's Randall, you can call me Randy, though. I let just about everyone call me that" "My name's Elia, my name doesn't have a short form so you'll just have to call me Elia I guess. I really like banana crepes and jello, do you like them, Randy?........." she kept prattling on and on and Randy had to depend on his awesome willpower not to yell at her. She was being irritating, but he supposed it was better than being ganged up on by a bunch of depraved men eager for the flesh of a young girl. As he said before, he was a stone-cold bastard, but even he found such things too repulsive to bear. Which was the only reason he was helping this pretty cute, but extremely annoying girl. "Randy, my parents are over there, where are you taking me?" she suddenly said. Randy snapped back to attention and realized that he was walking automatically as he tried to block out Elia's voice. A blush crept to his cheeks as he said "Oh, urmm, sorry, I didn't hear you the first time. Well, there you then, goodbye, and don't let me see you here again" He turned and started to walk away, but to his surprise, Elia grabbed his hand and attempted to pull him out of the alley. "What in the world are you trying to do, you idiot girl?" Pouting, she answered "My name is Elia, and I told you that I want to thank you properly, first for saving me from that scary boy, and now for taking me back to my parents!" Randy stood firm and said "Well I wasn't saving you, just your lunch box from him, and I took you to your parents because you're god damned annoying!" Well, it was what he felt like saying, anyway. As it was, she was looking at him with her puppy eyes again, and instead he said "Well, I guess there's no harm in just meeting them" He actually had a great foreboding, since most people would misunderstand HIM as the culprit trying to take advantage of this little girl. He started preparing himself mentally for the shouting match that he was sure about to come.
To his great surprise, Elia's parents just fussed over her for a while, then asked him who he was. While he was still tongue-tied, Elia answered for him "Ah, mommy, daddy, this is Randy, he helped me earlier, and he's the one who brought me here" she said brightly. After a brief conversation, they brought Randy back home(although he wasn't completely willing at the time). Domestic life suited him more than he thought, so he stuck around. Reflecting on his old life, he wondered how it might have turned out if his first foster family was this nice.
Suddenly the ground rose and hit him. It took him a while to figure out that he was just pushed off the bench. Elia's face filled his vision and she asked him brightly "Watcha thinking about, Randy? Your face looked so serious just now"Feeling irritated again, he said "None of your business, you little runt. You ready to go home, now?" Elia grinned at him and replied "That's why I pushed you, silly. It's already dark, I need you to take me home, in case there are any scary guys around. Right, big brother?" Randy almost smiled despite himself. He couldn't think of Elia's parents as his father and mother, but Elia he thought of as his own little sister. Feigning irritation, he said 'Hmph, whatever, come on, I'd better take you home before your mom and dad get worried" He took her hand and started escorting her home. On the way, they talked about tomorrow, as he was starting school with her the next day. Randy has never went to school in his life, but he knew letters and numbers as it was part of his activities at his first orphanage. He was uneducated, but hardly stupid, as they discovered that he had an almost photographic memory and was especially talented at maths. It took quite a bit of an effort to get him to go to school, however, and he only agreed when Elia begged him; for the 5184th time. As they talked, Randy discovered that he really liked this family, and he would stay with them for as long as they would have him. When they came to the front door, however, he had a sudden premonition. As a street kid, he developed a sort of 'sense' when trouble was coming. Right now, that sense was going haywire.
His foster interrupted his premonitions a second later as they opened the door and told the two to get in. For the first time that night, Randy was totally dumbstruck. Usually he would respond in feigned arrogance whenever he was asked about anything, but tonight he was unsually quiet. He went to bed right after finishing his dinner, wondering what kind of trouble his foreboding was warning him about. The answer came just as he fell asleep. It felt as if he just closed his eyes when his senses flared up again and he jumped out of bed looking for unseen opponents. Beads of sweat broke all over his body as he knew that they were already inside the house, though not his room. Silently, he made his way to Elia's room and woke her. She came awake with a sleepy "Huh?" but Randy quickly put a hand over her mouth. Whispering in her ear, he said "Elia, calm down and do everything I say. There's something wrong downstairs, I'm going to take a look. Lock yourself in the closet and don't open it no matter what you hear, understand?" Elia looked as if she was going to cry again, but she nodded once, and he let her go. He crept to the top of the stairs and took a peek at the intruders. There were 30 of them, and all of them were young, none of them were even 20 yet, but almost all of them looked dangerous, and they were all armed. He noticed one guy holding a bloody nailed bat and looked at his feet. He almost charged them when he saw his foster father lying there, with blood flowing freely from his fractured skull. His foster mother lied not far from him, white-faced in death, while the remaining half of her tongue stuck out of her mouth. Although he was merely 10 years-old, he could guess what happened. These punks broke into the house and demanded money from the safe. One of them decides to have his way with his foster mother while his foster father was opening the safe and a struggle ensued. His foster father heard and tried to help his wife, and gets a nailed bat in the head. His foster mother chose death over dishonour and bit her own tongue before they could they rape her. Tears of rage fell silently on Randy's cheeks as he considered the whole stupidity and waste of what was happening. He understood robbing a rich snob's house and messing his face a bit; he's helped punks like these do so before. But to break into an honest man's home and kill him because he was trying to defend his wife's honor was downright wrong. In his eyes, these were not human, they were beasts deserving slaughter. Knowing full well that he didn't have a chance against 30 armed teenagers, he decided to go to Elia's room and escape with her. Luck decided to abandon him at that moment and the leader of the punks noticed Elia's picture sitting on the mantel.
Moving before even he knew what was going on, he jumped the nearest punk and drove him to the floor with the help of gravity. He kicked the shins of another, and grabbed his nailed bat, flailing it around to prevent the punks from getting to him. His struggled ended a second later, however, as the leader threw a bottle at him, smacking him right in the face and forced him to drop the bat. Two of them immediately grabbed his arms and forced him to the floor. The leader walked up to him with a great leer on his face and said "Well lookie here, guys. We've got a pint sized hero on our hands" All of them laughed except for one boy. He seemed to be 14 and was very disgusted with the whole thing, although he didn't say a word. Randy quickly snapped at him "Laugh all you want right now, you bastard, the cops are already on their way" With vicious eyes, he stared at them as he said "You dare to kill me and they'll fill you full of lead, you dumbshi..." his words trailed off as the leader dangled the cut phone cord before him. "You've got some mouth on you, kid. Maybe I should cut your tongue to make you more respectful of your elders?" he drew out a knife and placed it on Randy's tongue. The boy never changed his expression, even when the blade pressed against his tongue. The leader laughed when he saw that and resheathed his knife. "My, my, what a brave little man we've found here. This is the first time I've met someone like you, someone who doesn't fear the death I'm about to grant him, and is able to look at me with contempt until the very end. I wonder where your courage come from, is it from all those movies they've been allowing to watch, or maybe it's......" "Ouch! Let me go!" Randy's eyes went wide at the voice, and he struggled with all his might to look at the source. He didn't have to struggle for long, as the owner of the voice was brought before him, the one he treasured as his own sister. "So I see, this is the source of your courage, huh? Sibling love is so beautiful, don' t you think?" Randy struggled desperately, but he couldn't shake himself free of the grip of his captors. "You bastard! Let her go, damn you! If you dare lay a hand on her I'll kill you, you hear me?! I'll kill you!" Slowly the leader stood and said "I see. If I harm her, you're going to kill me. Interesting" Without warning, he drew his knife and slashed Elia's neck. Blood seeped slowly from the wound, and the light in her eyes slowly faded. The punk holding her released in disgust, as he didn't like holding corpses very much. Smugly, the leader said "I've harmed her, so what are you gonna do now, hero?"
All the punks laughed except for the 14 year-old, but Randy couldn't hear any of them. Something inside him broke and he felt as if a great hand just tore open his cheast and yanked his heart out. From the empty place, something came pouring out, a thing of great evil and pure darkness. A cold wind suddenly blew and the room seemed to darken despite the fact that the lights were shining brightly. The wind carried a voice with it, a whisper too low to understand even if you strained yourself to hear it. Randy heard it clearly however, as it was speaking to him. It whispered the word to him over and over, as the emptiness in his chest was replaced by anger. It got clearer and clearer as his anger grew, and he realized a terrible purpose. It told him, "Kill, kill, kill all your enemies. Kill those who dare to stand in your way. Kill those who takes anything away from you. Kill, everyone!" Randy's whole body suddenly shook, and the ones holding him down had trouble keeping him pinned. His flyaway hair covered his face as he softly repeated the words. "Yess, that's right. Kill, kill everyone. I will kill everyone" The punks realized the change in the atmosphere, but the leader still tried to act tough by saying "D, do you even understand what you're saying you punk? We're much bigger and stronger than you are!" Randy didn't seem to hear, as he said "Kill everyone, kill everyone, kill everyone, kill everyone!" At the sound of his shout, the hands of the two punks holding him were suddenly severed and a great amount of blood spurted out, totally drenching Randy. The punks screamed in pain and the rest quickly made room around Randy but it was obvious he didn't give a damn. The cold wind suddenly swirled around him as he stood, and a pentagram emitting a bright, emeral-green light appeared around his feet. The pentagram's color changed into a sickly and evil-looking green as black wisps of smoke came out of his body. In the middle of the room, now stood a creature that was once a boy called Randy. It was 3 feet tall, and incredible power seeped from it's pores. The black smoke made it seem like a creature of ebon shadow, yet it had physical form It's hands ended in claws and sharp fangs decorated the inside of it's mouth. The red glow from it's eyes illuminated it in an eerie manner, as the rest of it was covered in the smoke. The most chilling thing about it was that it still looked human, much like the boy they tormented just a few seconds ago. Yet they knew that it was not, for no human could possess such a cruel countenance; all the things they did just now were just cute, childish tricks compared to what this creature was capable of. None of the punks knew what this creature was, or how it came to be, but all them knew one thing; it was death in human form.
As they stood rooted in fear, the creature lashed out, and suddenly fountains of blood sprayed from the necks of the punks who held it down just now. It formed a claw with it's hand and slashed left and right, creating blades of vacuum and killing the punks who were still too afraid to fight back. Some of them it even killed with his bare hands, by plunging it's hand into their stomachs and pulling out their intestines, livers, and some even their still-beating(at the time) hearts. In less than a minute, it not only killed 30 or so people, it also tore up their bodies so badly they were no longer recognizable. It stood in the middle of the room and screamed in frustration as there were no more prey for it to play with. Suddenly it heard a cough behind it, and it rushed to kill the one still alive. It stopped dead in it's tracks however, when it saw a little girl lying there, choking on her own blood. The eerie light and foul smoke dissipated from the creature's body, and the boy called Randy existed once more. He rushed to her side, happy at first because she was still alive, but then he realized a terrible truth; she would die if he didn't get help at once. Remembering that the phone lines were cut, he tried to pick her up and get her to a neighbour's house, as they should be able to send her to a hospital in time. His body picked that moment to betray him, and he found that he didn't even have the strength to lift himself from the ground. The power he just used took a great toll on his body, though he did not know it at the moment. He tried to scream for help, but discovered that his throat was too sore from the screaming he did just now. Tears started pooling in his eyes as he realized that there was nothing he could do to help her.
They fell on Elia's cheeks and suddenly she said "Who..who is there? Why are you crying? Is that...you, Randy?" Randy found that he couldn't speak, for he was choking with emotions. "It's you...isn't it?" Elia said, as she also cried. "It doesn't hurt anymore, really Randy. But..it's so dark, why can't I see anything? You're just there, but why can't I see you, Randy? Am I dying? I don't want to die yet, there's so many things I want to do. I feel so cold, someone help me, please...help me" Unable to do anything else, he gathered her in his arms and held her as tightly as he could, crying unashamedly as he did so. "God, if you can hear me please don't let her die. She can't die like this. This isn't right. it's just not right" he prayed again and again, yet no help came. At last, Elia said "Thank you, Randy, it was...very...warm" She never said another word, neither did she open her eyes no matter how loud he called her name. He never released her corpse, however, even when the police finally came. He couldn't hear or feel anything, and even if he did, he wouldn't have answered. Nothing mattered to him any longer, as all the people he loved were now dead, and he might as well be with them in spirit if not in body. As he made up his mind to commit suicide, he heard two voices. One was a soft, sweet voice, asking him what meaning was there if he wasted the life he gained from the loss of one he loved so much. The other whispered more sinister thoughts to him; if such a sweet and innocent child should deserve such a fate, then surely all of mankind deserves it as well, why not be the one to deliver that fate to them. With the terrible resolve, he changed his mind, though not his expression. The police will deliver him to the station, but there is no way for him to be charged of all the murders. He would claim that he lost his memory due to shock, get sent to an orphanage or foster family, then escape and polish up these powers he just gained. Yes, all it required was just a little patience. With that he sat quietly in the patrol car, and laughed silently all the way to the station.