XX Bonfire

"And here I thought that I would have to go and drag you out of your car myself, Crane Gotham."

Crane jolted. Hearing that devilish chuckle echo in his chest in the pin-drop silence. The beating in his heart was causing his mind to fog, there was no one there but him and whoever this voice belonged to, and a bunch of dead bodies lying around like insects.

"W-Who are you?" Crane managed to say. Not daring to turn around.

The chuckle rang again. "Someone you wanted to fit in your cult," said he.

Crane knew then who he was talking with. From the sickening environment, he actually came to forget the greatest threat to him at the moment. Who dared to launch an attack on the Gotham tower and get away with it? Well, Elfric Woods and oh yes, he was getting away with it.

"Elfric Woods…" Crane tested the name. "I thought that our deal was done. The Frankensteins are safely in the warmth of their hearth. Check for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Oh, I know that they are. You are a man of your words, Lord Crane," Elfric breathed out from the shadows. Crane was completely naked and ruined in front of him, a turn was the only thing that was between him and seeing his right-hand man drowning in his own blood. "I was going to let you go and all at first but…some of your men paid me a visit. I believe you got the body? Not to mention that your…knowledge is going to cause me unwanted trouble."

"What do you want?" Crane growled, his temper changing. The thought that all of this death and ruin was caused by none other than the boy who was trembling in his office the other day. He clenched his fists hard, turning halfway to peer into the darkness. His eyes already getting used to the darkness, able to make out the interior that was painted like one of those paintings from the museums. Dead men lying around, and the crimson color of their blood enhancing the experience further.

"From you?" Elfric questioned in complete innocence. "There isn't anything that I would need of you, Lord Crane…"

His voice disappeared as if it was cut off. Crane childishly wished that he was gone but, the rattling happening behind him proved otherwise. He felt a hand slide up his arm…just like that hand that his father placed on his now broken shoulder. What was this hand going to do to him?

"I can't let you go…not when you know me," Elfric whispered an inch away from Crane's ears. He could almost swear that he heard his rapid heartbeat but then again, who could be able to keep calm in a situation like this?

"W-What do you mean?" Crane uttered weakly.

Elfric hummed as he took a step to the back allowing Crane his final moments of privacy. "I think that you at least should know why," Elfric stated, convincing himself more than anything. "At first I had to reason to hide but now…I can't afford you to mess with what I want."

"And what is that?"

"Too bad…can't answer that. I guess that you will have to witness it from hell, Lord Crane,"

With a snap of Elfric's finger…he dropped dead in his own blood as if being blown from the inside. Elfric stood there with his black hood over his head covering most of his face, looking down upon the first casualty to his cause. Surprisingly, no sensations were eating at his insides.

"Feel…feel that same sensation of dying helplessly at the hand of the superior," Elfric's voice rang louder in his head than it did in the now-dead silent lobby – literally dead silent.

'Quite the show you made,'

"It was a must," Elfric protested. "This whole place has witnessed my existence. I can't afford to let it go on. Not when they know my secret now."

'Secret?'

"You. You are my secret now, Orathan," said he. "Your existence changed everything."

'I'm honored,' Orathan replied though the doubt could be heard in his invisible whisper. 'There is no turning back now.'

"There is no turning back," said Elfric. "Not after this." Elfric at least figured that much from this. There was no way that what happened here will escape tomorrow's headlines. Though they won't know what the cause was – what the real cause was.

'Are you doing the final phase?'

"It's the most important," Elfric grinned as he stepped out of the building and onto the empty street. He made sure to cut this part of the street off the rest of the world so that he could have his few moments alone with the Gothams.

"Set this place on fire," Elfric smirked through the flame that left his fingertips, setting the tower on fire faster than he blinked. Creating the biggest bonfire that Elfric has ever seen. "Now this is something worthy of the headlines tomorrow."

His chuckles were swallowed up by the sound of the flames. The steel skeleton of the tower not standing a chance against the flames of hell. The air was stuffed with the smell of melting metal and rotting bodies. A side of Elfric a week ago would have been completely against this…immoral thing.

But have anything that has been happening to him seem moral to anyone? The starvation and barely making it through when they are a family of three. There was no regret in his eyes, only determination. He couldn't do all of this while being decent.

Decent people end up on the streets or end up dead, there was no in-between. Just like his father, he lived decently, and now where was he? Dead. Working his ass off to feed his family only to die because of malpractice at the construction site.

"Get lost, we have got nothing to give you," said the worker to his mother who went to take his insurance money.

Elfric clenched his fists watching as the flames ate everything in their way. Resembling the flame that was in his heart. This discord and prejudice that he and many others had to go through. He started to believe that humans were just cruel but no…they were only desperate to live.

Living shouldn't be something that a person can be threatened with. It's a given.