He’s a killer. If he’s nothing else, we can all agree on that.
I used to be a hunter in my younger days, before I took up the job of a detective. Things were much simpler back then. Animals are more tame than humans it seems these days. There’re many names for the guy, but at the office we just use the term “vigilante” and everyone knows who we’re talking about.
Crime scene to crime scene, they seemed to get more gory and passionate. This guy, as calculated as he may be, he sure is ruthless. He’s got a way with letting his hatred show in his handiwork. Too many guys at the precinct seem to be happy about him. As if he makes their job easier. My thing is, this job should be difficult. It should never be easy to enact the law. Not with these new corporate-hired militias around enforcing any law that they please.
Now it’s even harder to tell the difference between us and them- they dress like us, drive the same cars, hell- even better cars than we do. They have better guns, better armor all funded by that shareholder money to carry out some for-profit justice.
But this one, the Vigilante, is a ghost. He seems to be some rogue mercenary doing his own work, not that of a company. It’s really weird to see that nowadays–someone not out there looking for a profit, but for some sort of fulfillment, or vengeance.
His technology is far beyond ours and even holds up against that fancy BS CEO-funded-tech that the militias wear.
I’ve been able to spot him a few times, he’s mostly just a red streak of light slicing through the night leaving behind dead criminals, sometimes leaving them unconscious or mortally wounded.
One time though, I saw him save someone.
The Vigilante’s terror on the city had us scrambling to crimes as they happened with less of a hope of catching the criminals–it was more about catching him.
So we got the call to a gang fight on the east side with the guys hoping to catch him. I had to ride along because we were short staffed. We came up on a burning building filled with lots of screaming on the inside. It was raining, and yet the fires still raged on. More sirens filled the night as we got out of the van, guns drawn.
“Secure the area!” I barked as we marched toward the building.
That was when he jumped from the entrance through a window, with a little girl cradled in his arms. She was screaming something bone-chilling. Not something I hadn’t heard before, but one of those noises that stays with you.
And there he was. He had just saved a little girl from a burning building and yet, when he stood up, he still looked like he carried nothing but anger.
“Hold your fire!” I yelled. It seemed like we knew not to shoot at that armor right next to the girl, yet I still ordered it for safety.
Then three gunmen came running out of the building as two of our guys ran to get the screaming girl.
We opened fire on them, not caring if we hit the vigilante or not. Either way, he was too quick for us. He seemed to outpace our bullets as he took on those gangsters with ease. He had murdered all of them. I’ll spare the details. When he was done, he looked over at us with his mask spattered with more red.
Instinctively, I yelled, “Hands up!”
I knew what I had done was stupid the moment the words left my mouth.
Then his helmet turned towards the girl, still screaming and crying as our guys wrapped her in a blanket. When I looked back for where he was standing, he was gone. He scaled the building across the street, and into the night he went.
I still am lost about what to make of that night.
It’s everyone’s obligation to save a girl from a burning building, right? But that wasn’t the reason he was there. He was there to enact his pleasure, his justice–not to save people. We all knew that. It confused the hell out of me. But had the girl been in his way, he might not have done it. Or maybe she was, and he just saved her anyway.
I don’t know.
He’s a killer.
Moral or immoral, I don’t know–it probably depends. But that’s the only word I can use to make sense of it.
He was cold. No, not the cold where he was shivering, cold as in when you saw him, you were shivering. Which was weird because of the red glow from his eyes and all throughout his suit. And it just happened so fast, I only pretty much saw a blur of streaking neon red lights through the darkness. It was deep in the night–like, near morning kinda late. I had just gotten off my shift at the bar. Slow night. I was thinking about making the rent next week when all of a sudden I heard a loud crash on the other side of the street. It was so loud, it felt like the blast moved me, and shoved me to the ground like I was nothing. Then I turned around and seen this group of guys running from the car, had to be about six of ‘em. All with big duffel bags filled to the brim with what seemed to be jewelry, and all running as fast as they could as if they had just seen the devil himself.
Then… I saw him.
It was just two deep red slits of light shining through the dark in the alleyway. Oh when I say he was cold, I mean it. I’m shaking right now just thinking about it. Not a moment after I first saw the eyes, the whole thing came zipping out of the alleyway. It was like a blur, he took on those six men like it was nothing. And boy, was they terrified. I was terrified and I wasn’t even one of them. Some of them had guns, I heard em go off while I was hiding behind a car. Still, it wasn’t no match for… for…? What they call him now? Oh I don’t care. I saw him. He looked like the devil. He moved way faster than they could, and those neon red lights shining from his suit sort of covered how much blood was on it.
Now I didn’t see his face, but I imagine if I did it’d be ugly. Nothing but pure evil and hatred on it. From how he took on all those men? He killed two of em. After I saw him take out the first one, it seemed the rest had the wits about them to run away. But oh no, like I said, there was nothing but evil under that mask. He rounded up everyone of them before they could make it to the next block. I seen it all through the car window. Everytime someone tried to hit him, he would hit back ten times as hard. That suit he was wearing? Oh, boy. It’s just like what they say on the news. It makes him look like a superhuman. He hit way harder, ran way faster, and seemed like he could hate way more violently than we can.
I don’t know how long it lasted, maybe about thirty seconds? Oh I don’t know. But it wasn’t long. I don’t know what those men did, but I don’t think it were enough to warrant that kind of punishment.
None of them could move. I mean, even the ones that was still alive couldn’t. And the second one he killed, well, that one it seemed like he did it out of spite. Or anger, or hatred or vengeance.. I have no idea.
He was trying to crawl over to his buddy, and hand him something, it seemed like a bag of jewelry, I think. I’m still watching this through two sets of car windows mind you. And then he walked over and stomped his hand. He yelped and screamed for god as if he was going to help.
But even I knew watching from all the way where I was, that there weren’t no savior for him anymore.
God ain’t coming to help.
At least, not for him. Judgment had come for him and it was dressed in that black metal suit of armor with glowing red lights. I couldn’t see an expression, and his eyes were only two thin slits of red lights but, I could tell he wanted more blood on that armor of his.
I ducked back behind the car and the man on the ground stopped screaming for good.
I still can’t imagine what made that man into the devil.
Is it even a man under that suit?
No… no, man at all. I can’t walk, I can hardly even speak now after what that thing did. I regret it, you know? Robbing that place. But I tried, I tried to get a real job but my resume gets thrown out most of the time, and the rest of the time I get laid off after a week because of something I did twenty-five years ago. I’m not gonna go into detail. None of you need to know that–in fact, it ain’t even important. What’s important now is that I will never walk again.
That thing is no man.
The metal from those fists, the light on its suit… the slits of deep red light on its face. I have to disagree, it didn’t look hateful or angry. It looked like a machine possessed by something. Something more powerful than you or I will ever come to understand.
Whatever it was that made that thing do what it did, it weren’t about justice, or protecting any laws that I know about. That thing had no code, no boundaries, no nothing.
And speaking of laws, you know where you can shove ’em as of late. I am not here to incriminate myself, seems society decided my fate for me already. All that I want is for the powers that be to hold that monster accountable.
You might have caught me on the wrong side of the law but it don’t make what that thing is doing on the streets anymore right. If it’s any help to the cause, I’ll tell my goddamn story. Do with it what you will.
I was… I was holding the gun on the cashier. We heard on the news that The Vigilante was spotted on the other side of the city that night not too long before we broke in. With the law supposed to be investigating that freak and all, we thought it’d be the perfect time. We had planned it for over a month– got a tip that the owner was running some shady side business so we knew he had extra cash. More than enough to share, that is. The kinda money that will cover fake passports, travel, and housing so I could live with my family down in mexico. Ah, what a dream that was.
Anyway, I had the gun on him. And he, well he wasn’t the owner so he didn’t really deserve what happened to him, so there’s that. I saw the look in his eyes and I can’t lie, the gun started to feel a bit heavy. There was something so confused, something so hurt in them. It was like they were saying,
“Why me?”
His name was Alberto. I remember hearing that from the trial. Alberto Gillespie.
And my partner, John- well, you know what happened to him. He was keeping watch by the entrance. In that split second I felt like dropping my gun and ditching, the lights started to flicker, and it sent a shock through me.
I whipped my head to look for John and I saw it. Just like they say, with those red neon lights for eyes, the black armor, and its fists were clenched. He was tall, had to be about six foot four or something like that.
In that instant I panicked, and my finger was on the trigger. The bang from the gun synced with the window shattering from that monster leaping through it.
Before Gillespie’s body hit the ground my partner emptied several rounds into that thing. Screaming all the way to the wall as he did. It was no use.
That monster was calculated, unforgiving, but most of all, it was so fast all I could see was the red lights between the flickering in the store. John screamed for help as I saw it pummel into his chest. The sound of metal piercing flesh and crunching bones with each hit sent more shockwaves through me. I ran behind the counter and put more rounds into it, knowing it would do nothing. The flashing lights from the store, and the sweat from my forehead made the world around me tilt, and I dashed for the exit to the back room, but it was blocked shut.
I banged and banged and banged on that door as I heard those heavy footsteps get closer.
It could’ve moved faster.
But it didn’t.
That maniac friggin walked.
I could still hear John moaning in pain on the floor by the entrance. Before I could even turn around and see it, it grabbed my head with one hand and smashed me into the door.
The world around me went blurry as I hit the ground, and then right away, it’s boot rammed straight into my lower back. The blow rippled through every inch of my body, and I could feel the life being drained from my legs.
I was able to look up and see it again–this time, real close. Right after It kicked me, I looked it right in its eyes if thats what you can even call them. These deep red slits seemed to be as deep as valleys when you saw them that close. I was so disoriented, it felt like I was seeing four, maybe six sets of eyes. But for a moment, I got it down to just the one pair. Its head tilted as if it were… examining me? Or maybe It saw something in the way I gazed up at it. Staring right into its face. I get the notion that for a second, my stopping to look it in the eye made it stop and question killing me. Was it something in my eyes? Or was I just some helpless creature that he wanted to admire before sending me off to hell?
Maybe the look from Gillespie’s eyes had found its way into mine. I don’t know. But whatever it was stopped it long enough for John to pick up his gun and shoot another few rounds into its back.
That idiot. Stubborn about my protection till his last breath.
I watched him choke on that very last breath under the black, metal hand of that freak. And then… it just walked out of the store.
Wanna know the craziest part?
I saw nothing but red lights that night. No red and blue, no orange ambulance trucks. Just. Red. The ambulance weren’t there until dawn.
I’m no religious man, no lawyer, and I sure as hell ain’t a cop, but I know, I know, that whatever that thing is must make the world look so simple for you.
So black and white huh?
I guess being on the wrong side of the law no matter the circumstance, means your life now? I don’t give a damn about the law. I care about the fact that now it’s whatever that bastard says it is.
Don’t take a lawyer or a priest to tell you it’s not right.
He was in pain when I saw him. A lot of it. I saw his eyes. I didn’t think he was so scary. You guys made it seem like it was just this big bad monster and that I should run away at the first sight of him. But he was weak.
I was sneaking out, in the middle of the night, I know–how stupid of me. My mom nearly killed me for it already. I didn’t know about the curfew put in place by the new militia yet, and it didn’t occur to me how they were acting on it.
But on my way back, I made something for her. She usually says my friends are bad influences, only because they’re so much older than me and already in high school, but they actually always reminded me about how important it is to feel grateful for what I have. So, while they were messing around in the basement, I had crafted her a necklace.
It was made out of broken pieces of glass that I shaved down to look like pearls, and it was tied together by a shoelace. It sounds stupid when I think about it, but they encouraged it. Anyway, it was getting too late to justify waking up for school in the morning so one of them agreed to walk me back to keep me protected.
Then, we heard sirens and saw red and blue lights run right past us in the night. It sounded like a big car chase and I got real excited but my friend, Rudy tackled me behind some dumpsters in an alley, and told me to not make a sound. I was real confused and I gripped the necklace and started to worry when we heard footsteps approaching and fast. I peeked over the can to get a better view but then Rudy yanked me down and cupped my mouth.
Then I started shivering, I couldn’t hold in my sobs.
The red and blue lights drew closer, and stopped right outside of the street. That was when I knew the cops weren’t looking for us.
They were looking for him.
And as I was looking around the alleyway, I saw the two slits neon red lights round the corner, piercing the darkness. A chill went down my spine.
“Hands up!” I heard the cops shout.
“We know you’re there!”
“Run!” Rudy yelled, turning his body toward the lights.
In a flash, he jumped from our cover into the middle of the alley. He must’ve thought the cops were talking to us.
They were after the Vigilante.
I barreled through a door just a few yards away from the can, into a dark warehouse, still clutching the necklace. I heard voices yelling, and looked out a broken window to see what was going on. The cops were dressed like militia, with their faces covered by a dark helmet, and armor instead of a vest. There were maybe like ten of them, walking toward Rudy as he tried to inch back from them slowly.
I looked back over at the small red outline in the darkness lurking in the corner just behind him.
I screamed at him for help. I needed him to save my friend, but I accomplished the opposite.
Gunshots rang through my ears the second I saw the vigilante make his move. I cowered behind the window, knees up to my chest and hands over my ears. There must’ve been tears on my cheeks but my body was shaken too much to feel them.
I ran from the window as more gunfire and shouting filled the night outside. I had just made it to some stairs on the other side when–
BAANG!!
Right behind me the door where I had entered from was gone, replaced by a cop car that rammed straight through it, sending the vigilante rolling toward me with his mask broken and his armor falling apart. I panicked, looking for anywhere to hide, and the best I could find was a tower of boxes in the far end, the stairs seemed too dangerous. That’s when I dropped the necklace, and for some reason in that moment it felt like I could fall apart, like my skin would lose its grip on my body and I would fall to the floor like jelly.
I leaped into cover as more gunshots rang out, and more bodies fell. The vigilante was limping yet he still managed to subdue all of them.
Except for one.
As I was trembling on the ground, I heard footsteps coming from the direction opposite the crash. Before I could react, his metal boot pummeled into my shoulder sending me into the ground. I looked around as the world split into two, expecting to see the red lights of the vigilante towering above me, but no.
It was a cop, with the helmet on covering his face, and red and blue lights shining from the top of his mask.
And his gun trained on me.
I let out a bloodcurdling scream and closed my eyes as I prepared for going somewhere I didn’t know and was not ready for.
“No witnesses.” His robotic voice was cold. It echoed down my body even though it was a mere whisper. He cocked the gun and I saw his trigger finger begin to tighten as the boxes came tumbling down on top of him. He fell with the pallets of boxes as I scurried away on the floor. When I looked back, I saw the neon red lights still moving at half the pace of the cop yet it seemed his will was much stronger.
My arm felt like deadweight, and my shoulder was barely holding onto it as I got off of the floor. I went back to the stairs, and hid under them as their fight went on. A few moments passed, and I heard more sirens in the distance and no more blows or gunshots echoing in the warehouse, just more metallic footsteps…
Clunk… Clunk.
This time they were scattered and limp.
Clunk… Clunk.
As they got closer to me, I could feel fear more than I felt pain. I felt more dread than I had in those last few minutes that night.
Clunk… Clunk.
I didn’t know anything about him, he just seemed to be some creature of the night, something out of myth. A monster who couldn’t be explained.
Clunk… Clunk.
And with my head racing, my shoulder throbbing and my heart pounding all I could do was wait. I thought to myself how much of an idiot I was not making a run for it, but I knew I wouldn’t have made it far.
That’s when the footsteps stopped.
My eyelids were clenched as I heard a wince and metallic armor creaking right in front of me. The dark red light made its way through my eyelids and caused pain in my head before I blinked them open.
There he was.
A man.
He was hurt, his mask was gone, and he was bleeding from his forehead down his right temple and from his nose, as half of his face was swollen. He was crouched down and panting, as he looked me straight in the eye.
He blinked as well, not out of pain, but he seemed to be as shocked as I was. His skin was a bright golden brown, in the areas that weren’t bruised or covered in blood. And he looked young, not much older than college guys I see hanging out at the corner stores and the bars.
With the mask off I could see that his eyes were brown, as they reflected off of the flashing lights in the warehouse.
They weren’t red.
He seemed to hesitate for a second as he picked up his hand from his side, and extended it out to me slowly.
My mouth agape, I saw the necklace I had made for my mom in his hand. It might as well have been real pearls in that moment, because I could not for the life of me believe what was happening.
Then he nodded, real slow.
There had been a weird feeling in his eyes before, like some sort of confusion, but now as he looked at his hand, stretched out to me, they seemed to soften. And when I grabbed the necklace, they grew warm.
The conflict settled in his eyes for a moment, and as I saw it return, his face tightened, and he clenched his eyes. Then he stood up, and just like that, he was gone. Back out into the night, injured and beaten. They didn’t catch him that night, and I lost a friend. And here I am now having no idea what to make of it.
Velocity 
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