#The teacher suddenly stopped teaching and was staring in horror at his computer screen

[koko-mochi]

I do remember where I was basically every part of that day. The thing that sticks for me is that it wasn’t like…a moment. It slowly unfolded with increasing shock and horror over the course of the whole day. I remember finding out what was happening from my teachers at school. I remember fighter jets scrambling from the nearby Air Force base. And I remember gathering together with my family in front of the TV that evening as President Bush read Psalm 23.

I also remember the adults in my life being furious a week later when we went to war in Afghanistan. I remember the way that war sucked in so many of my peers, people my age, chewed them up and spit them out. I remember the Iraq war and the televised execution of Saddam Hussein. I remember the Abu Ghraib photos. I remember people dancing in the streets in DC after the Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden.

Like…I dunno…yeah I remember the details of the day of 9/11, but there’s so much more to it than that. It traumatized and defined a generation. The repercussions of it went on for decades. It’s hard to fully describe the memory of 9/11 without all of that.

I often tell people that the single most important thing to understand about millennials is that when we were the age where we were discovering ourselves and figuring out who we wanted to be, our lives were shattered by watching thousands of people burn to death, live and in real time, on television. It’s not something I can forget.

I am curious, bc I just ran across one of those, 'everyone remembers where they were when 9/11 happened!' things so-

This isn't meant to be a commentary on the event, just whether or not you remember where you were/what you were doing when the news hit.

As an example, I was home sick, doing dishes, when mom yelled for me to get in the living room RIGHT NOW.

[fallenqueen2]

Alpha + Omega [Macgyver/Jack]

Bad Things Happen Bingo Square Filled: Pinned To The Wall

Prompt: Alpha/Beta/Omega

Love + Angst 

Bad Things Happen Bingo

Ao3

Jack let out a silent snarl at Kovac who was lounging in a chair across from him, a smug look on his face only increasing the urge for Jack to tear the other Alpha apart. He had been freaking stateside for a meeting about their newest plan to track Kovac and the damn terrorist himself had grabbed him off the street when Intel told them he wasn’t even in America.  

“I’ve waited a long time for this face to face Agent Dalton,” Kovac admitted as he picked up a pen, spinning it around his hand that smug smile still on his face.

“Why don’t you come just a bit closer for a real face to face?” Jack leaned forward in the chair he was cuffed to, flashing his sharp Alpha teeth as his inner Alpha growled at being restrained and taunted by the other Alpha.

“Cute,” Kovac chuckled before he spun to the side in his chair, using the end of the pen to hit a button and the bank of computer scenes on the wall behind him came to life and Jack inhaled sharply as he went eerily still.

“I considered the young lady, but when I saw this cute blond Omega, I knew which one would hold more power over you.” Kovac’s smile widened as Jack’s eyes bled Alpha red as his body shook in restrained anger.

Mac was displayed on every screen, Bozer was nowhere in sight. What shook Jack was that Mac was wearing nothing but one of his Metallica shirts that stopped about mid-thigh. Jack traced Mac move across the screens from getting a drink in his kitchen to dropping down onto his couch as he picked up a stack of papers and a pen. A pen that instantly was stuck between his lips as he chewed absently on the end while he pushed his black rimmed glasses up his nose as he poured over the papers.

Jack felt heat bubble in his stomach at the sight of Mac looking so domestic and relaxed in one of his shirts. His inner Alpha crooned pleased when Mac ducked his nose down to the collar of Jack’s shirt and any remaining tension fled from his body as he settled down on the couch with his bare feet tucked under a blanket Jack also recognized from his apartment.

“Such a nice domestic sight, I don’t know why on Earth you would willingly leave that pretty Omega behind to chase me!” Kovac whistled and Jack’s attention snapped back to the terrorist, a snarl forming on his lips when he saw the dark look Kovac was giving the blond on the screens.

“I honestly thought it would take longer to find him, but it wasn’t even that difficult. The think tank he worked out was shut down a few months ago and now he works as a teacher. It made it every easy to find him Dalton, you really should have checked in on your Omega more often.” Kovac spun the pen around his fingers as he smirked at Jack who went still at the new information.

“When I get my hands on that pretty little ass, oh the things I have planned. He’ll be pregnant with my pups before the week is up, he’ll make a perfect breeding mare.” Kovac smirk widened when Jack snarled, straining against the cuffs.

“You won’t even get close enough to touch him!” Jack promised darkly.

“What are you going to do Dalton? Kill me? You couldn’t before and you only found me because I wanted you to.” Kovac leaned close to the screen, tracing Mac’s face on the screen as the blond turned on a movie without looking away from the paper’s he must be grading.

Something inside of Jack snapped when Die Hard started playing and a small, sad smile formed on Mac’s face. Jack had to get back to Mac; he had to protect his Omega from Kovac.

Jack’s vision went red and his inner Alpha howled inside of Jack’s mind as it took control. Jack allowing it to do so for the first time in years and his vision blurred with a deep red as his body moved.

Jack snapped the cuffs around his wrists with ease, his eyes burning a deep Alpha red in a way that was rarely seen nowadays. It only meant one thing and Kovac realized it too late as the Alpha solider pounced on him, Jack had gone feral.

The Alpha didn’t recognize anything but a threat to his chosen Omega in the room and used everything he could get his hands on to tear the threat apart. The opposing Alpha fought of course, but not even an angry Alpha could overpower a feral Alpha.

The Alpha stood in the middle of what could only be called a blood bath, dark red liquid dripping from his fingertips onto the floor as the Alpha stared at the mess that used to be the opposing Alpha. The Alpha turned his attention to his chosen Omega on the screen, oblivious to the fact he was being watched and the Alpha knew he needed to get to his Omega fast. The Alpha turned his back on the screens and left the blood-soaked room with his new mission burning in the forefront of his red-hazed mind.

~~/~~

Mac tapped his pen against his lower lip as he glanced up at the sight of John McClain tying a fire hose around his waist, as he got ready to jump off the rooftop. Mac considered shutting it off, but with it on had him feeling like Jack was there with him. Mac sniffed the shirt he was wearing again and sighed when he realized he could barely smell the Alpha’s leather and gunpowder scent that he adored so much.

Jack had been for a long time and so much had happened in that time. Mac twisted his toes in the soft fabric of the blanket he stole from Jack’s apartment, it still had a faint scent of the Alpha and Mac wasn’t above admitting he slept with it bundled around him on his rougher nights.

Mac shook his head as he ticked something off on one of his student’s papers before adding it to the finished stack. Teaching was fulfilling in a different way than he was used to, but he was adapting and he had to admit while he missed the adrenaline of a mission, he didn’t miss being hurt and shot at without Jack at his side to watch his back.

Mac set the stack of papers aside as he rubbed his hands over his face before he all but rolled off of the couch so he could refill his drink.

Mac tucked his pen behind his ear as he shuffled around his empty house, it hadn’t been a proper home since Bozer moved out and Jack left for his Kovac’s hunt. Mac wished he had been allowed to go with him, to watch Jack’s back but that wasn’t his place anymore.

Mac leaned his head against the front of his fridge before a knock echoed out and he blushed when he realized he was just wearing Jack’s shirt.

“Er, just a minute!” Mac called out as he looked around for something to work as pants that wouldn’t be so obvious when his front door crashed open. Mac gasped at the group of 4 Alpha men all of who were decked out in military tactical gear.

“Shit!” Mac swore he grabbed a knife from the counter that he had meant to wash later that night.

“Stun only men,” one of the Alpha’s barked and that gave Mac a spark of hope, they wanted to knock him out not kill him and that gave him an edge. Mac dashed out of his kitchen as he ducked under a spray of what Mac to assume were rubber bullets. Mac jumped over his couch, hiding behind the back of it as cover as his eyes darted around the room for something he could use to protect himself.

“Give it up little Omega, you’re coming with us one way or another!” The Alpha barked out as footsteps echoed out in his house. Mac resisted snorting at the cliché statement as he adjusted his hold on his knife. Mac leapt into action, swinging his knife as one of the men came into view, pausing to aim at him. The man went down with a gurgle of blood and Mac darted behind a wall to hide from the new spray of rubber bullets.

“Fucker!” One of the Alpha’s roared before he lunged towards the wall Mac was behind. Mac caught the enraged Alpha in a chokehold, dragging him out of sight before dropping the man to the ground when he passed out in the chokehold.

Mac inched back to the corner of the wall, peering around before gasping as a thick, gloved hand snapped out and grabbed him by his throat. Mac dropped the knife out of pure shock as his hands reflexively flew up to the Alpha’s wrist, gasping for air as he was pinned to the wall behind him.

“You’re more trouble than your worth Omega bitch,” The Alpha snarled, eyes flashing red in his anger as the remaining Alpha approaching with a needle prepped in his hand.

Mac couldn’t help the Omega cry that weakly escaped his throat as he clawed at the Alpha’s hand, his feet scrambling at the floor as he struggled to get out of the hold that was pining him to the wall.

Suddenly the man who was holding the needle went down with a spray of blood from his neck and Mac was slumped on the floor, gasping for air and holding his neck tenderly as the Alpha who had been pinning him by his throat was tackled off of him.

“Oh my god, Jack?” Mac rasped out as he got a good look at the blur that had tackled the Alpha off of him.

Jack’s hair was longer than Mac had ever seen it, his beard bushier but his eyes were glowing a deep, dark red that Mac had never seen before. His face was set with anger and the snarls falling from his lips as he all but tore the Alpha that had Mac pinned with his bare fingers.

Feral.

Jack was a feral Alpha right now and Mac couldn’t do anything but watch in shock. It was too much to process right now and by all accounts Mac should be shaking in fear or whining in hopeful submission. Feral Alpha’s and Omega’s were the horror stories that every child heard and warned of at some point in their lives. Mac never thought Jack would become feral, yet here Jack was, feral and protecting Mac.

Mac didn’t fall just that much more in love with the Alpha, no, that would be insane.

The Alpha breathed heavily as he looked satisfied down at the bloody Alpha who was just barely alive. The opposing Alpha no longer was harming his Omega so he could only puff his chest out in a job well done.

The sweet, tantalizing scent of his Omega wafted over to him and the Alpha turned to see the blond sprawled on the floor looking at him with wide eyes and a hand cupping his already bruising throat. The Alpha prowled closer, slowly and cautiously, as he didn’t want his Omega to be scared of him.

“Jack?” His Omega rasped out, voice quivering as if he wasn’t sure that the Alpha was truly there but the Alpha was pleased to note that there was not a single sour note of fear in his Omega’s scent. His Omega was sprinkled in one of the Alpha threat’s blood, proving what the Alpha already knew about his chosen Omega being capable on his own.

“Omega,” The Alpha crooned he nuzzled their cheeks together; smiling happily at the familiar scent he had been missing for so long.

“Alpha,” The blond gasped out, happiness bursting in his scent as they scented each other. The Alpha’s chosen Omega made a happy noise when the Alpha ducked his head down and lapped gently at the bruises that were forming on the Omega’s throat.

“Threats neutralized,” The Alpha reported smugly as his Omega gasped that before hugging him close.  

“Will you stay with me Jack?” The Omega begged, breath hot on the Alpha’s skin.

“Never leaving you again darling,” The Alpha replied and held his Omega close, content to let his feral side drift away and he collapsed in his Omega’s arms, feeling safe and finally at peace.  

[sending-the-message]

I Lost My Family to the Deep Web by Erick_Alden

Allow me to just preface this by saying that I never used the deep web for anything too bad. I never bought drugs. I never stole movies or music. Hell, I rarely even looked at porn. I had the most generous wife you could ever imagine. I honestly didn’t need porn with a woman like that in my life. I had always been fascinated by computers but the town I grew up in was a small hick town if that. I remember hearing about computers and the internet, and the idea of it blew me away. Being able to access information from anywhere in the world was amazing, and it astounded me that it wasn’t embraced and pursued by more people. So, I not only lived in a technology desert, but my family wasn’t exactly rich either.

My mom slaved away at a large corporation where she was paid much less than she was worth. My dad worked various odd jobs, but always invested most of his time into the local church. He was a stereotypical bible thumper, and as one might expect, I grew to resent the religion. I always felt like religion was a one-way street. They expected me to pray to and serve some deity in the sky and all those who don’t would burn in hell. My interest in history led me to the realization that every religion was similar in that regard. And that, for me, was enough to dismiss them all.

Thankfully they raised my sister and me to work hard. We both went to college and got decent jobs. She became a nurse and moved to New York. I followed my passion for history, and eventually became a world history teacher at a small high school.

I married my high school sweetheart shortly after getting my teaching job, and we moved into a more populated suburb not too far from where I grew up. We found a nice house that was close enough to both of our jobs. My wife and I had been saving up money because we were trying to have a child, although it was taking longer than we thought. After about a year of trying, we saw a doctor. He said that we were both able and healthy, but it would take some more time. This was almost nice in a way because we had more money than we needed for when the baby came. I decided to take a few hundred dollars and get that computer I’d been dreaming about for years. I was so excited when my wife agreed that I should. We couldn’t raise a kid in this day and age without a computer after all, right? Well, I put it in our home office. And I quickly became enamored with the thing. I can honestly say, that my life would have been so much better if I’d had one of these growing up. I could literally learn anything in the world I wanted. I found myself reading dozens of articles, speeches, books, and watching tutorials. I could not have been any happier. Time marched on and I found myself finishing up the semester and getting ready for the summer. It got pretty boring honestly. I still got paid for it, but because the school was such a crappy district, there weren’t many things for teachers to get involved in over the summer.

That was when my genuine interest in the internet became something of an addiction. I was on that thing at nearly all hours of the day. Since my wife and I were still trying to have a baby, we were having sex like two animals. Life could not have gotten any better. Unfortunately, when things get that good, they can only get worse. It was a month and a half through the summer vacation when I found myself reading the same shit on the internet. There was nothing new, or at the very least nothing worth learning about. However, I did recall hearing about something strange. It was called the deep web. I never studied it in depth, but I eventually had a basic understanding of it. I downloaded Tor and starting looking around online. I made sure to be extra careful because I have heard stories of people being stalked, kidnapped, or even killed from using the deep web.

I found myself staring at dozens of random links on the hidden wiki at 3 o’clock in the morning. I kept clicking away until something, anything useful came up. I did end up finding a lot of mathematics and science stuff, but I’m a history teacher, I’d rather learn about history. A few more hours of searching and I found something that at least remotely peaked my interest. It was a conspiracy theory page. Now I don’t consider myself to be anything of a conspiracy theorist, nor am I the least bit paranoid about things like the Illuminati. But these were some of the most solid arguments for foul play from the government I had ever seen. There were classified documents, in-depth research, and an overwhelming amount of evidence for almost every theory I saw. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few that seemed a bit farfetched, but the vast majority of them made some damn good arguments.

Eventually, I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer and had to go to bed. I powered down my computer and as quiet as a mouse, crawled into bed with my tender loving wife. I felt a bit of a void between us though, she never had the lust for knowledge like I did, and if I were to ever tell her about the crazy and interesting things I read online, she’d playfully tease me that she was falling asleep or something to that effect. The next day, I was right back on the deep web looking for new things to widen my world view. Nearly an hour had gone by and all I had found was a bunch of broken links. I was about to sign off when a box appeared in the corner of my screen with a link in it. Being as naïve as I was, I clicked on it. I was absolutely mortified at what I saw next. At first glance, I thought the abomination on my computer screen was some kind of a torture video. No. I was dead wrong.

A toddler whimpered as he sat there gagged and bound. Covered in blood and piss, he begged the man in frame to stop, but to no avail. A deranged man in a Guy Fawkes mask stared at the camera as he thrust his body to and fro. A few seconds went by when the man finished, and he got up to do a strange dance. If there was a cross between a football player’s victory dance and a circus clown’s opening act, the resulting atrocity might resemble the strange act the man performed over that poor child.

To my horror, I realized it was a live feed hooked up to a webcam with a live chat box on the side. It took a few minutes for the shocking realization to fully wash over me. After I’d collected myself, I foolishly started to read what was in the live chat box. The most horrid and disgusting things you can imagine were being requested. I had a hard time believing that real people were behind a keyboard somewhere in the world typing these things. I really don’t want to go into too much detail about what they were saying. It suddenly dawned on me that I could just close this shit and be over with it. I jolted the mouse and clicked to X out the page, but nothing happened. I felt my stomach drop.

“What… what the hell is going on?” I kept asking myself. I’d never heard of anything like this happening. I was about to manually reboot my computer when the man from the video stream called out my full name. “Leaving so soon Mr. Edwards?” “Off to teach another history lesson at that little shithole you call a high school?” He asked in a rough, distorted tone.

I had no idea what to do. I clicked every button on the computer, keyboard, and mouse. No matter what I did, there was no reaction. I heard him start reading off my credit card information and I’d had enough. I unplugged my computer from the back and powered it down. It was a relief to have finally left that nightmare of a web page. I was in awe at the speed he was able to get my personal information.

I changed my credit card number and any other information I could. My wife was a bit suspicious but she didn’t pry too much at it. We had a very trusting relationship, and I didn’t want to frighten her, so I kept the incident to myself. A few days went by and I didn’t even go into my office. I left my computer in there unplugged, admittedly scared to turn that damned thing on ever again. I knew I’d have to eventually face my fear, so I entered the office. I booted her up and everything seemed to be normal. I deleted Tor and made sure to be done with the deep web. I casually loaded up google chrome and everything seemed to be perfectly fine. Nothing seemed to come to fruition from my little mishap and decided I was going to be safe after all. Oh, how wrong I was…

About 5 months later, my wife’s sister ended up moving in. She really was such a pleasant woman, and we did have extra space so we decided to allow her to stay with us. It was just a few weeks later that my wife and I got the good news. She was pregnant. She was already a couple weeks in, and she and the baby were both healthy and in good shape. It was the best feeling in the world getting that news. I had gotten back into the swing of things with my job and occasionally reading some decent articles on the internet. It wasn’t long before we were days away from the birth of our daughter. I had completely forgotten about the events that had transpired the night I decided to use the deep web.

It was a typical Sunday afternoon. I sat on my back porch drinking some cold sweet tea and listening to the hum of nature. Natural life can be so beautiful. Alone I sat, in a serene peace, seemingly impenetrable from the vile world that lay outside the boundaries of my own little haven. That was when I heard a crash and screaming coming from my house. Immediately I thought it was my sister-in-law watching TV too loud, which she had a tendency to do, but then I heard my wife sobbing uncontrollably. Panic sunk into my heart and I dashed into the house. I entered the large living room just in time to see a large masked man slit my wife’s throat. I screamed at him but he didn’t even acknowledge my existence. I was screaming uncontrollably and ran toward him with intent to kill.

I smashed a glass lamp over his head but he didn’t even flinch. I was questioning if he even felt it or not. He turned around and grabbed me by my throat. He lifted me up off the ground and brought my face close to his. “You thought I forgot about you, boy?” I instantly recognized him as the man from that deep web live stream I saw all those months ago. That was the last thing I remember before waking up.

I awoke to see my sister-in-law’s mangled corpse on the floor. It looked like she’d been cut in fucking half. To my horror, I saw my beloved wife’s body there, drenched in blood. I sobbed uncontrollably for some time. I’m still not sure how much time passed while I knelt there and sobbed. Time may very well have stood still for all I knew or cared. But after I composed myself, I noticed something strange about my wife’s corpse. Her stomach was not nearly as large as I had remembered it to be. I crawled over to analyze her body further. The wicked idea danced across my imagination. I pushed her on her side and my hunch turned out to be true.

That sick bastard had cut my child out of my wife and had taken it. It was certainly far along enough to have been born at this point. What the fuck was I going to do? I called the police and the operator’s apparent apathy toward the situation did nothing but anger me.

“911 what’s the emergency.” The operator said in an uninterested tone. “Someone killed my family, and I think they took my daughter.” I frantically let out in a single breath. I continued to tell them my address. “We’ll have someone over there as soon as we can.”

The way she said that, frustrated me. Here I am, sitting in a puddle of my family’s blood. My life’s been drastically changed forever, and she makes it seem as if it’s just another day at the office. Where’s the empathy? Where is the compassion for your fellow human being?

After days of investigation and questioning, they were unable to find the killer or my daughter. I told those lazy fucking cops that this man found me and my family because I used the deep web. But because it was so long ago, and I couldn’t find the website again, they couldn’t do anything about it. They called it a random act of heinous violence, and within two weeks. The story did make the local news, but nothing more happened than that. I guess it wasn’t shocking enough. The whole incident was forgotten and people were worried about the next terrible thing. How could I live with myself after this? My entire family was dead because I was snooping around something I had no business to be partaking in. The following weeks were the worst of my life. I would drink as soon as I got up, and then drink all day. Alcohol was the only escape from this fucked up reality I had to live with. I was a shell of a human, nothing more than a clusterfuck of negative, hideous emotions. Misery became my only companion, but I had no one to be miserable with. I had to live this horrible fate alone.

Years had gone by when I looked into the mirror to see the unshaven face I’d come to despise. Every day I thought about where my daughter might be.

“Maybe they sent her away to live with a nice loving family across the country.” I half-heartedly deluded myself. Deep down, I knew she was most likely raised in some human trafficking ring where she’d be beaten, raped or even worse; in some hellhole filled with those sick fucks. I slowly made my way to my porch when I saw a familiar vehicle pull into my driveway. I could barely remember who it belonged to. When I saw his face I instantly recognized him. It was my father. I hadn’t seen him in years.

“Son I know you’re hurting, but this is no way to live your life. Do you think you can move on?” I looked up at him grimacing. “Do you think I’d be here doing this if I could move on?”

He gave me a rough look and said that I needed to get revenge. He placed a revolver on the table in front of me, gave me a stern nod, and left. I was honestly shocked. This was the most religious man I’d known in my life who argued against the killing of any kind. I didn’t know if I could do it, but I started to think of how many people those bastards had done this to. I can’t be the only one. So, if I were to theoretically go through with this, I’d really be doing the world a service. No fuck that. I’m avenging my family, and I’m going to save my daughter. Over the next couple of days, I drained my bank account and purchased thousands of dollars in weaponry and ammunition. I quickly realized there was a lot of illegal stuff that would come in real handy. I turned back to the deep web to buy spying equipment, heavy weapons, and explosives. It took about a month to gather enough supplies for my suicide mission, and as I sat in my basement with thousands of rounds of ammunition, pounds of explosives and, almost 20k dollars in spying equipment, I knew I was going to wreak havoc on these sons of bitches once and for all.

Days went by, and I began to feel lethargic about the whole situation. I hadn’t any idea of how I was going to find these people, or even if I could. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Two weeks went by of endless hours on the deep web, looking for the bastard who’d taken my family away from me. I came across something that seemed almost familiar in a way. It was another live stream of people torturing a child. I felt a vile hatred rise up from the pit of my stomach. I knew this wasn’t my guy, but I’d grown too impatient to wait any longer. “If I can’t find the needle in the haystack, I guess I’m just going to have to burn down the entire thing.” I thought to myself with hatred oozing from my pores. I made use of some of the spying equipment I bought and was able to figure out where these bastards were broadcasting from. An evil grin stretched across my face when I figured out they were right here in my own state.

I loaded my car with a machine gun, an AK-47, and C-4. I started my drive. This may have been the longest two hours of my life. I was so excited to finally kill some of these sick disgusting people. After almost taking a wrong turn, I found the rusty old barn house the torture porn was being broadcasted from. There were surprisingly only a few people there. A total of 4 men were running this operation. I watched for a while, but they never came out of the barn house. With my AK-47 in hand, I made my way to the entrance. I could see them raping a small boy, no older than twelve. He was crying hysterically, and covered in blood. They were completely oblivious to me. I aimed my rifles sight down. Admittedly, it took me a minute to actually pull the trigger. Pulling it was much harder than I would have thought, but seeing these sickos violate this defenseless child made me realize these people really were better off dead.

I opened fire and screamed “FUCK YOU” as loud as my lungs would permit. From what I could tell, at least two of them were dead. One was shot, but alive, and the fourth noticed quickly enough and got behind a truck. He had a pistol on him and fired back at me. This guy must have been legally blind or something because he missed pretty damn bad. Minutes went by and I slowly crept around to the other side of the building. The one with the gun was screaming at the other one to get up, but he was clearly unable. I got as close to the other gunman as I could in preparation to kill him. I aimed my sight, but I must have made a noise because he heard me. He spun around and shot. The bullet nearly grazed my skull. The gunshot was deafening. I ran toward him, expecting him to have had just fired his last shot. He had. I put a bullet through that motherfucker’s head. I stood over his bloodied corpse for a brief minute. I wanted to spit on it, but I didn’t want to leave any evidence for the cops, so I resisted the urge.     I walked over to the bloodied one I shot earlier. Laughing as I did, I placed my boot on his throat. He kept begging for his life, but there was a better chance of hell freezing over before I spared him. I made sure his last minutes on this earth were as miserable as possible. Glaring down at this sick man I knew I was doing the right thing. I knew I was ridding the world of scum.

“Please, don’t kill me. This wasn’t my idea.” He begged.

“What did you fucking say? You have the nerve to try and talk you way out of your inevitable death? How dare you.” I pulled my leg back, and in one swift motion I kicked his skull in. His gray matter spilled all over the floor. The poor boy was sobbing uncontrollably. I pulled out my pre-paid cell phone, dialed 911 and told them of the situation. I told the boy to forget this night and then turned to walk away.

The ride home seemed to drag on for hours. I’d heard so many things about having PTSD after killing people. So many articles online said that after killing someone, you’d almost always feel guilty, even if you know you did the right thing. But the truth was, I didn’t feel guilty at all. I felt powerful. More powerful than I’d ever felt in the years leading up to this day. I knew after I saw that babbling pile of shit beg for his life that I was going to kill again. It felt so right to have someone begging for their life, and knowing that you weren’t going to grant them their wish made it all the more satisfying.

My life continued like that for many months. I’d spend almost all my free time on the deep web trying to track down anything that could lead me to my daughter and killing anyone I deemed worthy to die. I was like an over the top vigilante or something. Jesus, those were the days. Eventually, I became more involved in the private sector and started accepting payments to kill people. I’d gained enough notoriety in the criminal world that almost anyone knew who I was. I just wish I could go back in time and tell myself how much more money I could make by simply killing people. It makes me realize what a waste of my life teaching those hopeless dipshits really was. I was making chump change compared to what I make now. People apparently pay good money to have someone killed. I’d already made just under 3 million in the past 6 months. And I didn’t even have to repeat the same monotonous lecture 7 times in a day.

I almost became apathetic about ever finding my daughter again. She was most likely dead, or even worse. She could be anywhere in the world, and the odds of ever finding her were next to none, I thought.

One day a connection of mine told me he had a really good gig set up. He said that if I could kill 3 people well enough, I could become a regular for an underground overlord. For those of you that don’t know, this was the kind of guy who had more money than God. He ran a lot of the underground operations and even had a strong affiliation with the silk road before it gone shut down. I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I jumped at the chance. I went over the information. I immediately realized these were going to be the highest profiled people I would ever kill.

When I first discovered I was going to have to kill a family with a young child I was mortified. The only people I have had to kill up to this point has been other criminals and sadists. How was I going to bring myself to take the lives of a seemingly innocent family? I would never even know why exactly I was being hired to kill them. You can’t ask questions like that to the higher ups though. Anyone who did was normally killed themselves, or at the very least ostracized by the organization they were trying to work for. It was a pretty serious business I got myself into. I had no problem with that. I only did what I was told, and nothing more. That was part of the reason I gained so much notoriety in my field. In fact, most people in this field never even get a chance to work for the overlord. And if you’re wondering why I keep referring to him as the overlord, it is because he does not communicate with you directly. There are a lot of people looking for him, and he’s responsible for billions in damage, and the loss of countless innocent lives, although they don’t have a lot of information on him as of right now, and will probably never catch him.

The next day, I was going to have to start tracking down this family I was ordered to kill. But that night, I was in a small bar in the middle of nowhere. Downing alcohol like there was no tomorrow and contemplating how exactly I was going to bring myself to do this. I knew in the pit of my stomach that I wasn’t a murderer. Well, let me rephrase that. Not a murderer of the innocent. I had no problem killing the evil men of the earth. I encountered so many sickos in my life. How could someone torture an animal or another person? I still couldn’t bring myself to understand how anyone could do such a thing. Even if I found the man who kidnapped my daughter, I wouldn’t torture him. I’d end his pathetic life and be done with him. Even after all the pain and agony that bastard put me through, I still knew I was better than him. I wouldn’t become the monster the I sought to destroy.

The bar began spinning after I downed my 5th shot, and I immediately came to regret this. I didn’t feel threatened by the few others in the bar before, but once I lost control of myself, it seemed as if I became all that much more paranoid. I became so much more vulnerable to those around me. And I couldn’t die just yet. I knew the events that were soon to come, would be life altering. I had this great feeling about this next job and the opportunities it would bring. Which is quite unusual. I never feel intuitive like this. With hopes of surviving until tomorrow, I drunkenly made my way back to the motel I was staying in. The snow and ice outside made it much more difficult to get there. As sad as it is to say, I ended up falling three times before I got home and locked the door. It wasn’t a far walk. But adding strong alcohol to any walk makes it seem like a journey around the entire globe. I laid down and the thought of becoming the most powerful criminal in the world rushed through my mind before I went to the realm of the unconscious. That night, I dreamt that I was a hero destined to save the world.

The next morning, my ears were assaulted by the alarm I’d set on my phone. I downed a couple aspirins to cope with the headache and got to work. The family I was going to be attacking lived in a relatively populated area, and I knew if I was going to pull this off, it would have to be quiet. I sharpened 3 separate knives and placed them in my coat pocket. The idea of bringing one of those blades across the neck of a little girl rushed through my mind and made me sick. But I knew that sacrifices were going to have to be made. I knew I had to be bad for the greater good. Unfortunately, I’ll never even know why I’m killing this family, but I did my best to separate myself from the idea that these were good people. They had to have done something pretty bad to have powerful criminals hiring hitmen to kill them, right?

I drove my SUV to their neighborhood and parked down the street at 3 o’clock. Looking toward their backyard I could see the father, Ronnie Williams on the back porch. I knew I was going to have to kill him within the next half hour because the mother, Bridget Williams, would be picking up their daughter from school and would arrive home at 3:30 every day. I thought to myself how easy this job was to do since someone else had done the monotonous task of stalking these people and recording their schedule. I locked my vehicle and started walking toward the house. I knew where they kept their extra key in the front yard garden and made my way into the house from the front. I waited for Ronnie to come back into the house for 10 minutes before I started to become impatient. I was going to need time to hide the body I thought and knew I needed to do this fast before Bridget and her daughter got home. I decided to push something over in the kitchen and hid behind the refrigerator as Mr. Williams slowly crept into the house saying “hello.” I realized how truly inept this guy was by this. I waited until he came close enough and I reached over to slice his throat open. He screamed, much to my dismay. I tackled him and plunged the knife into his neck violently, nearly cutting his fucking head off.

Watching the blood drip onto the floor drained me in some way. I sat over the lifeless body of a man who never saw me coming.

I collected myself and dragged his body to the basement. My goal was to leave no evidence for the police to find. Making my way up the stairs, I heard the front door opening. I remembered the blood all over the kitchen floor. “Shit,” I said to myself. I heard the woman and her daughter started screaming at the sight of the gruesome murder. I quickly rushed upstairs. “Ma'am, I need you and your daughter to remain calm. I’m part of the FBI, I’m afraid a murderer has made his way into your house earlier this day.” I said. “I want to see some identification!” The woman abruptly demanded. I pulled out my fake badge I always carried around and showed it to them. Anyone who knew anything about Federal Badges would easily detect it was a fake, but most people don’t.

“Is my husband alright?” She asked me. I told her he was downstairs. She slowly made her way down the basement stairs, and I followed closely behind. When she located her husband, she fell to her knees and began sobbing. That was when I pulled out my knife and slit her throat from behind. She was dead within seconds.

“Now for the hard part.” I thought to myself. I made my way back upstairs to find the little girl. She was nowhere in sight. I frantically looked all over the house but she was nowhere to be found. I grew increasingly worried. I knew I was being watched by the overlord, and if he saw this clear display of incompetence it would hurt any chances I had of working for him. I began walking up the creaky wooden stairs to continue my search. I knew I heard a sound coming from behind the door. I slowly and quietly made my way toward it. I wrapped my hand around the shiny doorknob and began to turn. A large German Shepard dog jumped on me, biting my arm. This caught me by surprise. I’d been wondering where that damned dog was. I struggled with the beast on top of me for a few minutes, but it was not long that I had my blade through its skin, and its blood soaking the cold wooden floor. After composing myself I continued my search for the girl. “This girl is barely 6 years old,” I thought “Where could she have gone?” There were enough rooms in this house that this could take a while. But I knew the longer I was here the worse it was for me. I checked each room in the house thoroughly but found nothing. That was when I remembered the girl’s father had built a fort in the backyard for her. “That has to be where she is.”

I began outside and exited the back door to the porch. I saw that the small makeshift door on the fort was closed and knew I’d find her in there. I walked over and opened the door to the fort. She screamed as I forcefully pulled her out of the fort. All her energy was spent trying to free herself. I tried calming her down but to no avail. She was crying and sobbing uncontrollably. I brought her back inside to finish the job. I threw her to the floor as I mentally readied myself to drive my knife through the little girl’s heart. I could feel my own moral compass screaming at me to stop this madness. It was hard enough to kill the parents, how was I going to kill their daughter now too? I closed my eyes and brought my knife close to her chest. She was screaming, but I did my best to distance myself from the whole situation as much as I could. I closed my eyes and began to focus.

The screaming stopped and I opened my eyes to see the lifeless corpse of the little girl oozing blood onto the floor. I started sobbing as the realization of my actions washed over me like a tidal wave of guilt and regret. “I had to do it. I had to do it.” I kept telling myself.

“Yes, you did.” A strange voice exclaimed behind me. It sounded really familiar but I had no idea where I heard it before. I turned around to see a large masked man standing behind me. He began to speak. “I know this whole ordeal has been difficult for you, killing your own daughter and such. But I’m…”

“What did you fucking say? This was my daughter… but my daughter has been dead for years.” I said, cutting him off.

“What do you think I did when I kidnapped her from you Johnny boy? I stole her from you and gave her to a loving couple incapable of having a child of their own. And honestly, they did a much better job of raising her than you ever could have.” He calmly stated. “Why would you do this to me?” “Because I can. And if you even think of attacking me a bullet will be through your head so fast your fucking head will spin.”

I didn’t know what to do. I fell to my knees and began sobbing. Why did I let this happen? Why God? Fucking why? What the fuck was the point of any of this? I thought there was something strange about her. How could I have been so stupid?

People always say "when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back." As I stood there over the corpse of my dead daughter, looking into the eyes of the man who'd led me down the road to hell, I knew I was no longer looking down toward a monster. I was looking at an equal. The amount of self-loathing and hatred that lurked in my soul left me devoid of any other feelings. I knew that I was even more despicable than the monster that dragged me down here, for he at least knew he was doing wrong. I have been nothing but a vigilante masquerading as a hero. I'm no hero. I never was. It's ironic in a way. I became the very thing I set out to destroy. I looked up at the overlord, and said: “Did I pass the test?”

He looked pleased with my response and nodded his head. He extended his arm to help me up. After getting back up, I lunged at him and managed to place a knife directly into his throat. As I did, a bullet pierced through my stomach. We both fell to the ground and began bleeding out. As my consciousness faded, I looked at him and whispered: “today, I killed two monsters.”

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