The Black

Edward Morgan Wyatt was born on 26 October 1972 in Chicago, Illinois. Up until the age of sixteen Edward Wyatt was your typical child, on 13 December 1988 Eddie’s parents had a second child, a girl they named Melanie. Due to the birth of his sibling, the young Eddie had become a truly happy child. The young boy loved his younger sister dearly and even helped his parents raise Melanie, during that time the Wyatts were the happiest family on the face of the planet. Any happiness they had was about to be cut short however, as are such the ways of our world – nothing lasts forever. A disaster struck the Wyatt family in the form of a car crash.

On a certain Halloween eve while the Wyatt couple was making their way home from a movie theater when a large truck ran into the side of their car sending it flying out of the road, flipping it and killing the couple on the spot. Eddie being a young cop at the time received note of the incident, ended up capturing, and arresting the truck driver.

Seeing as how the Wyatt siblings were now, orphaned Eddie had to take care of his younger sister, and so he did, sustaining all of their needs while working as a police officer. Despite being much older than his younger sister, the two siblings got along remarkably and remained the best of friends through their lives. Melanie ended up completing her medical studies and started working as a nurse at the St. Alexius Medical center; she even got married to her college sweetheart, Daniel Blake. Her brother, however, wasn’t a man of commitment as he never was able to maintain a serious relationship for longer than a few months, that did not bother him however as he liked to believe that he was destined to be married to his job.

One evening, while Eddie was still at home, he received a phone call from the hospital his sister had worked in, and he was told that his sister was being hospitalized – that is all Eddie Wyatt had to hear, he ended the conversation then and there and made his way as quick as he could to the hospital. Once he reached the room Melanie was placed in, he had been greeted by her weak and dry voice, “Hey bro…”

Eddie grabbed her hand and asked worryingly, “What happened?”

Melanie forced a smile onto her face and said gently, “Nothing much, I was just mugged, I’m fine… for the most part…”

Eddie signed in clear relieve and then Daniel placed a hand on his shoulder saying, “You sure worry a lot about a girl you had raised to be really tough hah”

Eddie smiled at his brother and law and Daniel proceeded to say, “I’m sorry guys but I’ve to beat it out of here I’ve got a board meeting in fifteen… so sorry, hun, I’ll see you later, promise!” he kissed Melanie on lips as he began walking out of the room while yelling at her that he loves her.

Eddie turned around to look at his departing brother in law and joked, “Man, even when he does not seem to be trying to take care of you, he actually is! What a guy!”

Melanie replied weakly, “yeah…”

“What’s wrong, Mel? Are you hurting? Let me call the…” Eddie was cut short by Melanie’s crying.

“No…”

“What’s wrong, sis?”

“I…. I…. Gang rape…”

Upon hearing these two words Eddie’s world froze in time, it started losing its colors, everything simply went blank, and everything sank into some sort of void. It is as if his whole reality collapsed into the black. This was Edward Wyatt’s hell. Eddie was always a bit of a misanthrope, one of the reasons he decided to become a law enforcer was to make sure the scum of this world get what they deserve, but his sister, Melanie, she was always a beam of light for him in a world that’s colored black.

Eddie swung his arm with the intention to hit a wall but stopped himself about half an inch from making contact, and said gritting his teeth, “Whoever is responsible will pay, I swear to you Melanie, I will make them all pay… this has gotten personal.”

Melanie set up, started whipping away her tears and said, “Please, Edward, do not tell Dan, I don’t want him to worry any more than he already does, any more stress and he’ll probably suffer a heart attack… I think I have something that might help you, could you please open my purse.”

“Sure”

Eddie pulled out Melanie’s purse opened it up and he immediately noticed something unusual inside, there was a white piece of material inside that had looked like nothing Eddie had ever seen before. He pulled out the piece of material to realize it’s a blank rubber mask, the only visible features this mask has is two large eye holes…

You can see that, I’m sure

Well back to our little story, seeing the mask, Eddie yelled out, “You’re a genius, Mel!”

“I did not get to see his face, Eddie; he had a ski mask underneath this one…”

“Uhh… I did not expect this to be this easy, but don’t worry, sis, I’ll find the fuckers, they’ll pay.” Said Eddie as he leaned to kiss his sister goodbye on her cheek.

Once Eddie got home, he immediately began searching for the origin of the mask, but to no avail. No matter how hard Eddie looked, he could not find anything. Eddie’s personal hunt became an actual case once another woman complained about being sexually assaulted by men in odd masks. After four months of searching, there were no culprits found… Eddie was about to give up his search and live with the shame of being unable to take care of his sister properly.

During these four months, Melanie’s condition had gotten worse, while her physical wounds healed in a matter of weeks, the psychological trauma had gotten worse with time. It started with nightmares, turned into a full-blown depression and eventually became something reminiscent of PTSD. Apparently, rape victims tend to have some sort of mental issue that is a result of their experiences. In Melanie’s case, nothing really helped – nor the consolers neither the drugs. She had sunk to the point of needing constant supervision. Daniel and Edward made sure they’d take turns to make sure Melanie does not resort to the worst of all.

One afternoon, Edward was on his way to Melanie and Daniel’s apartment. He reached the building like usually and started climbing up the stairs with a bag of fruits in his hand. Soon enough he was standing in front of his sister’s door. He knocked on the door but it simply slid open slightly. His instincts alerted him something wasn’t right and the cop pulled out his trusty gun from its holster, he loaded the gun quietly and then pushed the door open gently. The apartment was dark inside, this prompted Eddie to search for the lights witch on the wall with his hand, once he found it, and he smashed it as hard as he could.

The sight that struck him forced him to drop the bag and the gun from his hands, Eddie Wyatt was in hell once again… His world froze in time, it started losing its colors, everything simply went blank, and everything sank into some sort of void. It is as if his whole reality collapsed into the black.

Melanie was suspended in the air, facing the balcony of the living room by a rope that was tied in a noose around her gentle neck, her body was swinging gently.

Eddie began walking towards the lifeless body of his sister, slowly, painfully, in what seemed like an eternity of its own. Eventually after what felt to him like an endless amount of time, Eddie reached his sister’s body, he hugged it tightly… but could not muster himself to cry. He could not muster any kind of emotion, as much as he wanted to Eddie did not feel any kind of feelings at all.

It’s like he was inside as his sister was outside – dead.

Once Eddie took Melanie’s body off the noose, he noticed something on the floor, written in her own blood, one word, a name; “Finch”.

“You’re a genius, Mel!” said Eddie as he placed his sister’s body on the couch, he then called the cops and waited for their arrival, upon the arrival of other policemen in Melanie’s apartment Eddie walked out of there, saying one thing, “She’s all yours… take good care of my sister.”

At that exact moment I was born, I suppose I should stop talking about myself in third person, after all I am not really a mad man. Oh, I suppose I should introduce myself, after all, what are humans without manners? My name is Mr. Nichtig. I am here to do what the law cannot… I am here to give the likes of you and Finch what they truly deserve.

Anyhow, back to our story, once I got back home that one afternoon I put on my black suit, a pair of black leather gloves because we don’t want to leave behind prints, do we? On top of the suit, I wore my light brown raincoat and trapped this white scarf around my neck. Seeing as how I needed a new face to distinguish myself from Eddie Wyatt I decided that the irony of me wearing Finch’s mask was appropriate enough for the occasion. Oh and the fedora, that’s just a personal touch.

By the widening of your eyes, I assume you’ve already figure out what I was about to do to Finch… Hm, smart aren’t we? Before I tell you about how I dealt with Finch and his associates, let me tell you who was Finch. Amadeus Finch, he was a neighbor and fellow police officer of Edward Wyatt. This is why we could not find anything about him; he was probably meddling with the investigation and this is why he knew it was best to wear a couple of masks doing the deed.

Anyways, I’ve broken into Finch’s place pretty easily, if you know how to pick a lock – not door is going to stay locked before you. He had a dog, but the dog knew me and did not even try to attack me, instead it was wiggle its tail and was generally happy to see me. I petted the animal and gave it a special candy – strong sedatives to keep it asleep while I take care of its owner. I left the lights off and closed the entrance door behind me, after that, I stood next to the wall inside the hall that leads to the bastard’s bedroom.

It didn’t have to wait long for Finch’s arrival, shortly after I broke into his apartment, I heard a key entering the keyhole of his entrance door, a second later I could hear the steps of a average-sized man inside the house. He turned on the lights and then I heard a certain sound that felt like music to my ears, a metallic object that had hit the couch. I heard him coming toward the hall I was hiding in, once I noticed his figure clearly I landed the first blow; a left hook to the side of his head. I followed by hook by a straight jab to his hooked nose, after the second blow he was losing his balance and so I kicked him hard in the chest making him fall onto the floor. While Finch was on the floor, I marched back into his living room where I grabbed a pair of scissors that were lying on a shed.

By the time I took the scissors, Finch was trying to get back up on his feet as he was uttering, “What the fuck, where did you get my mask?”

I came back to him and punch at the back of his head, Finch collapsed to the floor again, I grabbed him by the hair and pressed the scissors against his neck. He was cursing and screaming at me as I pulled him to the coffee table. I positioned the asshole on top of the coffee table and shouted at him, “Do you admit it?”

“Admit what, man? What the f…”

“Do you admit to raping these women?”

“What the hell are you on about, man?”

“You said the mask is yours, Finch, Melanie Blake, a victim of a group rape managed to take it off of one of her assailants, do… you… admit….”

Finch broke, he could not pretend anymore and he yelled, “Yes… yes… yes… we fucking fucked that bitch until we fucked her brains out and then we fucked her unconscious body some more”

I raised the scissors above my head and simply said, “Good”

“What are you going to do now? Call the cops? Go fucking ahead!” asked Finch

“No…”

Before Finch could utter another sound, I drove the scissors into his chest and he began screaming in pain as I etched the word “Guilty” into his body. By the time I was done Finch was a crying, bleeding, moaning mess and I leaned down to his face and whispered in his ear, “I am the law here…”

Finch began trashing and throwing his body around, trying to escape my grip and I let him, he fell onto the ground and began begging for me to let him go. I did not listen, instead I got out a set of handcuffs and locked one cuff to his arms and began pulling him from the other cuff toward the heater he had attached to the wall. Finch tried to escape my hold but to no avail – he was too tired and had probably lost too much blood to be much of fighter. I chained him up to his heater and went to his kitchen, there I found a few gallons of oil, so I took that oil and started pouring it down in straight line, all the way from the gas stove he had installed in his kitchen to his body. I sprayed a full bottle of oil on Finches body, he realized what I was about to do and began crying.

He wept and screamed at me, “Why… w… Wh…. Wh….Why are you doing this to me…”

I crouched down towards him and told him, “Oh it’s not me, Amadeus; it’s the late Miss Melanie Blake, she whispers in my ear…. Listen carefully….

“When it’s time to sleep

“Buried six feet deep

“And the weight of the world is through

“I wanna know you’ll be rotting next to me in a casket that’s built for two

“I want Finch to rot with me…”

Upon hearing me sing Finch began snapping at me and throwing his body from side to side calling me insane. I ignored him, and then I got up and went back into the kitchen, there I got a large cleaver and came back to Finch, I raised the cleaver and pretended to prepare to slash at Finch, only to ask him, “Who else was there with you?”

“Please… don’t hurt me anymore… I’ll tell you everything… I swear… please…”

I lowered the cleaver and Finch gave me a long list of names I had to deal with after him, after he was done talking, I placed the cleaver next to him and took a few steps back, I pulled out a key and placed it just out of Finch’s reach. After that I pulled out a box of matches and Finch who noticed the box began screaming worryingly, “What are you going to do… with these…?”

“We’re going to play a little game… you’ve two ways out, the key and well, leaving without a hand… the point is, you’ve a limited time to do that…” I answered as I pulled out a match from the box.

Finch began shrieking and begging again, “No… no… please… no… don’t do it… please… I gave up… you won… let me live…         Please…”

“Melanie Blake wanted to live a happy life too…”

“I’m sorry, I did not mean to kill her… I didn’t even know… I’m sorry… Fuck! Man! I just wanted to have some fucking fun! Fuck this shit! Fuck…” Finch began crying.

I did not care anymore, Amadeus Finch did not deserve to live after what he had done, and so I ignored all of his crying and lit the match in my hand, and threw it in the direction of the stove in his kitchen. I’ll tell you the truth, I never expected it to hit stove-top, but it did, and the thing blew up setting on fire the tray of oil I left earlier, I gave a whining Finch a fare well, picked up his sleeping dog and left his house.

I will admit I did not leave his property right away; I did sit in his back yard and listen to his screams and cries of agony. They stopped after only two minutes and forty-seven seconds, I expected him to last longer… Oh well. You know how they say that people who enjoy the suffering of others are monsters.

Well personally, speaking from experience, I think not feeling any kind of thing at all over causing someone to suffer, at all in the sense of actual nothing, not lack of care or that feeling of “Oh well…” but nothing, as if you haven’t even done anything… I think that’s the kind of people who are actually monstrous.

As for your unfortunate predicament, God did not kidnap a kid, destiny did not butcher him and fate did not feed it to you… you and only did all those things, and trust me, that is a crime no one should be able to forgive.

Now, now, I am not completely without mercy, so as long as you keep standing on that chair, the rope won’t be stretched and your neck will stay in one piece.

In other words, If you want to live…. Keep standing, Sawney!