Riley Ross

"I apologize for my tardiness, T-I just realized that I do not know what to call you yet while you are wearing that mask."

Riley's steps echoed throughout the entire warehouse, but it wasn't his voice that caused Tomoe to turn. It was the sound of his footsteps. Each seemed heavier than the last, and all felt as if he was walking directly behind her.

He looked like a shadow in the night, disappearing into the darkness if one didn't look hard enough.

She already felt a sense of dread when she looked at him. She could only imagine what those who are in the direct line of his darkness would feel—and now, his path was right beside her.

Tomoe stepped away from the cage and watched as her mother started banging the cage once more. Her mother still held a look of derision, or perhaps disgust, just moments ago, when Tomoe was the only one here.

But now, all that was gone. Whatever pride she had left was stripped away into nothing—everyone else would have been shocked to find she had any left in the first place.

But not Tomoe. She knew her mother, and she knew how delusional and cruel she was.

This was the woman who watched her own daughter get molested in front of her, and pretended it didn't happen at all.

This path of darkness that was leading to her, she deserved all of it.

"I prefer not to have a name while I have this mask on," Tomoe said, glancing at her mother one last time before turning her focus to Riley.

"We will work on it." Riley shrugged, making his way to Tomoe and seemingly taking his time to do so, "I believe I also need to change how I speak while wearing this helmet. Anyone who knows me would know it is me who is under it. So…

…that's not ideal at all, isn't it? Why don't we start this?"

Riley stood next to Tomoe, slowly turning his head toward the cage. Tomoe's mother flinched at the sight of him, and she crawled back until her head hit the other side of the cage.

He then glanced at Tomoe, and she quickly bowed her head and waved her hand. The crystal cage started to crumble at her will, the fractals bouncing off each other before scattering on the ground.

"You need to work on that," Riley said as he pointed at the fractals rolling toward their feet. "It's evidence."

"I will."

"Hm. Now then…" Riley stepped forward, and her mother quickly used this chance to get away, using whatever strength she had left. But before she could even stand, both of her shins cracked at the same time—the sharp fractured bones, grinding across the dirty floor.

Tomoe's mother screamed, and Tomoe saw Riley's head slightly lean up and tilt at the sound. She didn't even have to see underneath the helmet to know that a menacing and horrendous smile was painted on his face.

She'd seen it before when he killed Steph, and she just knew that he was making the same face.

Riley… loves the screams.

She hated it. She hated the screams. She only wanted—

"...Erik Reynolds, Reynolds Sakura—the two of you will die tonight."

Riley continued to speak, cutting Tomoe's thoughts off.

"I want to say that you're going to die here without any reason, but… that's not true at all, is it?"

A loud sigh seeped out from Riley's helmet as he approached Sakura. He glanced at Erik, but there was nothing there anymore but an empty husk. And so, he focused his attention on Sakura alone, slowly walking with her beside his feet, still trying to crawl away.

"I'm actually talking to you."

"K…Khrah!"

Riley stepped on her leg, and a deafening screech forced its way out from her throat. Riley let her scream as much as she could, only speaking again when it seemed like she had gotten tired.

"I guess it doesn't really matter," he said, sighing as he crouched beside her. "Anyway, where was I… Ah! Yes. I do have a reason to kill you. For one, you let your daughter be molested by your boyfriend. What… sort of monster does that? I could even argue that you're more of a monster than Erik, no? No? Yes? Pft. HAHAHAHA!"

Tomoe found herself flinching as she heard the laugh that came from Riley. It was… unnerving in a way that she couldn't quite explain at all.

"You… you killed my son!" Sakura screamed.

"You… don't have a son." Riley leaned back, glancing at Rob's body before placing his hand on her shoulders to stop her from moving away. "That's weird, but okay. But I believe what you and your boyfriend did was worse than what I did, no? I mean, once I turn sixteen, I can watch movies about violence, war, and death—but I need to be eighteen before I watch anything that involves nudity and sex. So… Huh."

He shrugged, standing up and turning around as he finally made his way to Erik.

"Don't go anywhere, I'll just talk with your boyfriend, okay?" He said, glancing at her before looking down on Erik and standing in front of him.

"You're not the first person I will kill, and you'll definitely not be my last… and neither will you be killed by me." He sighed, shaking his head at him, "Like how Ryan was my monster, you are someone else's monster. And you're definitely not my monster to kill."

Riley turned around, extending his hand toward Tomoe.

"He's yours," he whispered. "I'll kill your mom, but you have to kill him."

"That…" Tomoe slightly gasped, the robotic tone of her voice faltering as she glanced at Erik. She opened her mouth a couple of times, with each wanting to say completely different things. But before long, she didn't need to say any words at all and only responded to Riley with a nod.

"Okay then." Riley clapped his hands and raised both his thumbs up, "I'll take your mommy with me, and we'll leave you to it. We'll give you some privacy."

Riley was about to turn and leave, but Tomoe stepped forward and raised her voice.

"No!"

"Oh…? Huh. I guess it's too early for you, then? Then I'll kill him for you and—"

"I mean, no…" Tomoe glanced at her mother, "...I want her to watch."

"Oh? That's… interesting." Riley slowly approached her, standing right in front of him with his helmet just a foot away from his face. Tomoe stood her ground, trying not to flinch at all. With him this close, it almost felt like she had her eyes closed from how dark his helmet was.

"Well… I'll leave you to it."

With that, Riley shrugged and walked away. He didn't look back at all, just went straight outside and stood there like a shadow.

"Hmm." He stood with his back against the wall, not doing anything else at all but just… stand there. Minutes passed, and it was still completely quiet inside. But before long, he heard a scream—it was weak at first, but gradually grew more and more hopeless.

…And it didn't stop.

The screams continued to trail into Riley's ears, his head slowly dancing with a tune that perhaps only he could hear.

And this performance went on for two hours until it abruptly stopped.

"Oh?" Riley tilted his head, waiting for a few more minutes to make sure there weren't any screams anymore before heading back inside.

His steps faltered, however, as he looked up and saw a giant silhouette made entirely of crystal. This… golem slowly turned to look at him, and he saw Tomoe right inside of it.

The golem crumbled, and Tomoe carefully stepped down from its ruins.

"I didn't know you could do that," Riley said. "Did you just discover that, like with the dark crystal?"

"No." Tomoe shook her head, "I've… had this ability since I was a child. But… not to this extent."

"You are—" Riley paused for a moment, glancing back at the main entrance of the warehouse before turning his focus back to Tomoe.

"You're growing. That's very good—our only issue now is that your powers are highly recognizable."

"That is a non-issue," Tomoe said, shaking her head as she looked at her hands. "I searched the database, there are at the very least a hundred thousand supers who have a similar ability—and at least eight hundred of them are here in the country."

"Huh. How many telekinetics?"

"Millions."

"Hm." Riley shrugged before finally turning his attention to Erik. He was… well, perhaps it was faster to describe what he wasn't.

He wasn't intact, that's for sure. There was, however, something that Riley had noticed.

"It looks similar to the way I killed Ryan."

"Yes," Tomoe said, standing beside Riley as several of Erik's parts reflected in her eyes. "And also the Illicit Lovers."

"Interesting."

"It is—I don't know if you realized, but you developed a pattern. I've… done some extensive research about the people you've killed. Firstly, Ryan Roman is a serial sex offender targeting primarily young boys. Mark had a relationship with a minor, but not only that, she beats his wife."

"Oh? I didn't know he was married."

"He was." Tomoe nodded. "Stephanie, I have several evidence about her bullying normal people. And not just typical bullying, violent ones. And now, mother and his boyfriend."

"Oh." Riley quickly realized what Tomoe was getting at.

"Unknowingly, you've targeted abusers…" Tomoe lowered her head before glancing at her mother, whose eyes were now completely empty, "...the detectives would connect it sooner or later. We might as well make a path for them to connect so we could control the narrative."

"Admirable."

"It would set you up as a super serial killer who primarily targets abu—"

"I would definitely love to hear more of this, but I believe we have visitors coming."

"What?"

"Yes. If I'm right…

…there are thousands of them."