VILLAINS TO VANQUISH | FICTION | CHALLENGE-RESPONSE
Villains to Vanquish: Meet Parasite
In the dark, rotting manor sits a man, withering and slowly devoured by disease, planning revenge for the murder of his parents.
“Albert?”
The elderly, grey-haired butler sighs as the hoarse voice breaks the silence of his gloomy thoughts.
“Albert?!”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. This is his sworn duty, even if it pains him. Reluctantly, he picks up the tray loaded with medication and food.
“ALBERT?!”
His hands tremble while he walks to his master’s office, or possibly lair would be more fitting. The man he had sworn to raise and nurture had given in to the darkness, consumed by a desire to avenge his parents’ death.
The butler walks through reinforced steel doors and into the panic room the size of a luxury penthouse. Of the countless beautiful rooms in Wakefield Manor, Master Bennett had chosen this one and rarely left it.
A vast array of screens faintly illuminates the dark room. They are his master’s connection to the outside world, providing information and various opportunities to spy on the city. Somewhere in that glowing halo sits a withered, unshaven man plotting revenge.
“Here I am, Master Bennet. I have brought your medication and lunch.”
Dark, sunken eyes glare at the butler. Albert misses the kindness in the eyes of the child that had to witness his parents being butchered. His master wasn’t only orphaned on that fateful day. He died and was reborn as this cesspool slowly dying before Albert’s eyes. But his master had never needed him more than since that tragedy.
“Not hungry. Just give me the pills, Albert.”
He places the tray on a table and helps his master swallow the pills, unmoved by his pained expression. The butler looks stone-faced when he sets to clean his master’s festering, oozing black wounds, never revealing his disgust at the smell and the maggots. Dutifully, Albert collects the biggest of the grey worm-like creatures.
“You wish me to proceed, as usual, Master Bennett?”
“I sent the list of recruits to your mobile, Albert,” his master says, momentarily interrupted by a painful cough, “Once you ensure the parasite infested them, I will be able to control them from here, and we finally infiltrated all corners of the network of crime and corruption plaguing this city. Revenge for my parents’ death is close.”
Albert cleared his throat, immediately regretting the interruption of his master’s daily monologue.
“Do you have objections, Albert?!”
“Not at all, Master Bennett,” the butler lies, “I am hoping you would eat your lunch so you may witness your revenge unfold.”
His master’s laugh is barely distinguishable from the rattling sound of his breathing, but it delights Albert. Maybe something human is left after all. Master Bennett nods cumbersomely, his head weighing heavy on his shrivelled neck. It would be easy to free Master Bennett of his pains and himself from this servitude of misery.
But he has sworn an oath to Tobias and Maria Wakefield always to watch over and care for their son. Albert would not leave this world in dishonour. He just hoped to leave it soon.
Hey Zane, here’s my response to your “Villains to Vanquish” challenge. I had to write it in prose as I turned one of my favourite superheroes into a dark abomination.
💯 Story Challenge (85/100)
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