《Binary Progression》Volume 5 - Chapter 5: The play!
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"Man... I hope they won't be any trouble..." Felix thought sitting beside his gruesome project, located in the basement of his home.
"..." he looked down at the girl he tormented.
"I'm not even in the mood for our games..." he sighed placing a hand to his stomach.
"This stress is giving me a stomach ache..." he sighed.
His ring began to glow as in his hand appeared a dagger, he placed it to the girl's throat and slashed it open, as her life escaped her, her soul was destroyed, meaning she wouldn't respawn anymore.
Felix looked at her body.
"Too bad... she was a pretty one..."
Felix turned his attention to the man from two days ago, the same one who tried to kill him.
He considered him as his next target but eventually let out a sigh.
"Nah, a man's no fun chopped up..." he sighed as he turned to leave the basement.
"Mons... ter..." the man said through gritted teeth looking to Felix.
"Yeah, I guess you could say I'm bat-shit crazy, eh?" he asked jokingly.
"You will be caught... and when that'll happen... I promise you won't get a quick death!" the man said, his missing tongue made it hard to speak.
"Well, you know what they say, he who lives by the blade dies by the blade," he shrugged.
Felix smiled as he walked up the stairs.
He made sure to lock his basement twice.
He sat down in his living room, the room directly above the basement.
"I really should relax..." he said.
A knock came from the door.
A chill ran down Felix's spine as his thought ran wild.
"Did they link the murders to me?"
"Is that really it?!"
He walked up to the door and carefully opened it.
"Hey! Felix!" Alex exclaimed.
Hearing the casual tone Felix breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh, Alex! Come in!" Felix stepped away from the door and let Alex into his house.
"Rule one, don't act suspicious around your house, just lock your basement and silence your victims..."
Alex walked inside, he was holding a paper bag in his hand.
"I've been doing some late-night shopping and bought some snacks, then I went to give some to Bromy and Dylan and they told me I should give you some!" Alex exclaimed holding out a rectangular box made from thin wood.
Inside was a bunch of baked, then fried potatoes covered in a creamy garlic sauce with toothpicks sticking out of each one.
"I heard the salesman call these 'Garlic Potatoe-Poppers...' so... I guess I have no idea what they are..." Alex shrugged.
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He wore a pair of woolly gloves and a scarf, both of which he bought earlier that day.
"A scarf in the summer?" asked Felix taking the garlic-smelling box from him with a smile.
"Yeah, it's been getting colder recently!" he laughed.
Felix walked over to his kitchen which was one room across.
"Your house smells nice," Felix remarked.
"Thanks! I make a point of keeping the place smelling nice considering the smell of the city!" Felix laughed gesturing to the scented candles placed in every corner of the room.
"Rule two, don't let your home smell or look odd, if it smells bad they might want to go into the basement to check if there is a leak or corpse..."
Felix returned with two plates, he placed both on the table and removed the potatoes from the box, giving half to Alex.
"Oh, you didn't have to, I already ate earlier!" Alex replied.
"It's rude to eat by yourself when you have guests!" Felix laughed.
They dug into their meals.
"This is nice..." Felix remarked.
"Mm, I'm glad to see you're looking more upbeat!" Alex said with a smile.
"What?" Felix asked.
"You seemed really down earlier, I don't really have the head for all that paperwork stuff, so I'm glad some garlic potatoes helped your mood!"
"Don't mind him... Alex is weird that way..." Thal commented.
"Hey!" Alex exclaimed.
Felix laughed.
"Thanks, guys!" Felix said.
"I was getting pretty stressed out by the whole murderer thing, It's nice to talk and to just have a nice meal with someone now and then!" he laughed.
"I know what you mean, I can drop by tomorrow if you want, we can hang out since Bromy is handling all that corpse business alone!" Alex offered.
"Really? I'd love to!" Felix replied.
"Rule three, don't avoid making appointments, the more time you spend with people the less suspicious you are!"
"No need to worry about the murderer business! It'll all be over soon!" Alex exclaimed giving Felix a thumbs up.
As much as Felix was aware of the fact one of them would probably end up dead at the hands of the other and that they could never truly be friends, he chose to lie to himself just for tonight and pretend to agree with Alex.
"Hey, did you know plays are performed by the artists guild outside the cathedral every night?" asked Felix.
"Seriously!? I have to go check it out!" Alex exclaimed.
"I'll come with you, it's not like I have to get up to work at any set time, I can sleep in a bit," he chuckled.
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"Awesome! I'll be waiting outside, I'm so pumped!" Alex said heading towards the door and seeing the lights around the cathedral far in the distance.
Felix grabbed his black coat and put it on before heading outside himself, he made sure to lock the door twice before heading out.
"Let's go!" Alex said excitedly.
"Alright, alright! I'm right behind you," Felix grinned.
It really was getting cold, every breath he made generated a cloud of steam.
They made it to the cathedral in the matter of a few minutes.
There, a tall harpy wearing a tophat stood, he had pointed teeth like a shark and was covered in bandages from head to toe, over the bandages he wore a fancy red suit.
Dozens of people stood around the dimly lit area, no stage was placed, though curtains were wheeled in on a massive wooden frame.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to tonight's play brought to you by the artist's guild, donations are appreciated and will be collected at the end of the show!" with that, the harpy bowed and left behind the curtains.
"Who is that?" asked Alex.
"Nobody knows his name, he runs the artist's guild... that's all we know really..." Felix replied also puzzled by the person.
A dark-skinned frogman walked onto the stage.
"Today's tale will be of Jonathan the tyrant!" explained the frogman, the crowd cheered.
Alex raised an eyebrow.
On the left side of the screen appeared a skinny looking human with white makeup.
"One day, due to their sadness, loneliness and inability to interact with a human or find any meaning in their empty lives, a cowardly man by the name of Jonathan entered this world!" Spoke the frogman, he served as the narrator.
"That's harsh..." Alex thought holding back laughter.
"I'm tired of helping people! I want to rule the world!" Exclaimed the pale human playing Jonathan.
From across the room stood a massive, muscular ogre with grass painted yellow glued to his face to resemble Bonifacius.
A human standing on their knees with a bag painted-yellow stood beside him.
There also stood wolfman wearing a bucket on his head and a wooden cut-out of a scalpel, in his hand he held an unlit cigarette.
"We must stop'th him!" exclaimed the ogre lifting a blade in Jonathan's direction.
"Yes, I will use my legitimately acquired magic to defeat him!" exclaimed the pseudo-crown who tossed a red fruit painted at Jonathan's face causing it to splash all over his face, the red tomato-like paste dripped from his face.
"Oh no, now I'm ugly and dirty!" Jonathan exclaimed pausing for the audience to laugh.
Alex made sure to take a screenshot of this.
"At least you can wash the dirt off!" pseudo-Bonifacius exclaimed.
Again there was a pause for laughter.
From above, a human with blond hair and glasses was roped down.
"It's me, Lorb!" he announced as the robe moved him behind Bonifacius.
"I give thee my blessing to defeat the tyrant!"
"That's not fair! How else will I give meaning to my empty pathetic life?!" Jonathan demanded throwing a convincing tantrum in front of everyone.
Suddenly, he reached into his coat and pulled out a long strand of rope.
"That's right! I'll use my hacks and cheats to turn innocent people into my slaves!" Jonathan laughed as the others gasped.
A bunch of skinny, frail-looking people, a person in a wheelchair and someone who was clearly a ghost, as in they were see-through, walked onto the "stage".
Jonathan whipped them all with his "tentacle" as they all let out shrieks of pain.
"Ah! The pain! The suffering!" one of them cried.
"That's right! Suffer for you great sins!"
"What have these innocents done to you?!" demanded Bonifacius.
"They're stronger and smarter and probably better in bed, that's why I resent them!" Jonathan exclaimed.
Alex was practically crying at this point.
The three people and ghost began making a zombie-walk towards Crown, Bonifacius and Bromy.
Bonifacius fake-slashed one of the people.
"Agh~ thank you, hero, for freeing me from this torment! I am eternally grateful!" they person exclaimed as they fell to the ground.
Crown and Bromy did the same.
"What!? how could this be!? My minions were defeated?!" Jonathan demanded.
"Indeed! That's because you're stupid and ugly!" Bonifacius exclaimed as he fake-punched Jonathan causing him to fall to the ground and begin crying loudly.
"No! Please don't! Not my ugly face!" he sobbed.
"What do you think, hat-man?" asked Crown.
Pseudo-Bromy shrugged.
"Yes, I agree, let's bring him to the dungeon!" Crown agreed.
They dragged Jonathan behind the curtain.
Last, a frogman walked out from behind the curtain.
"And I, XxFoxlyxX, was also there," the pseudo-foxly said with a bow.
The crowd cheered as Alex turned to Felix.
"That was the best thing I've ever seen! I can't wait to show John the pictures!" he laughed.
"John?" asked Felix.
"It's the guy in the play, 'Jonathan' they called him!" Alex laughed.
"..."
"You know Jonathan?!" Felix demanded.
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