Chapter 4 - Guest

Whilst the old father mourned the loss of his beloved child, two shades were looking down at him from atop one of the first-floor windows back at the mansion.

Standing at the windowsill, Genna was looking at the man with an expression that would surely shock the old man. From it would have gone completely against the belief he had for this so-called 'loving' wife of his.

Looking at the sobbing, wretched husk of a man, the mature ebony beauty's face did not show any signs of any of that love or tender care she had shown through the years.

No, that marvel of a carved jade had a horrid, distasteful frown. A scoff pouted those luscious vermilion lips, her eyes showed nothing but the soul of a calculative, manipulating witch.

"Heh…" She scoffed, revealing the curves of a smirk. "…For a moment I feared that everything would be brought down by this disaster… It seems that in the end, everything played out perfectly after all…"

"What do you mean, mother?" A youthful somewhat higher-pitched voice of a boy came from beside her. Robert looked at her mother's figure as he asked meekly. "What happened? You still haven't told me anything!" He complained, looking spoiled.

"Idiot! If you wouldn't be so lost in your stupid games, you would have seen it yourself!" She lectured, shifting into a colder tone instantly, and raised her slender right threateningly.

Immediately, the boy shriveled under the clear threat, slouching his shoulders as he tried to protect the back of his head almost instinctively at this point. Yet, he still couldn't act fast enough, the chiding slap rang loudly in the silent room the next instant.

"Ouch! Moom…" Robert complained, quickly reaching for the burning area, his nape.

"What else? Your half-brother! Even the heavens above are fed up with that bastard and struck him down with the punishment! By now, he should be halfway to that whore in the afterlife!" She grinned, clearly enjoying the victory of this long-awaited moment.

Then, she turned away from the window, focusing her cold, stern gaze on her son instead. His grin vanished in an instant, giving way to the previously cold, vicious torturer instead.

"Now the plan I have taught you can finally begin. Don't fail me…. son." She spoke in a cold, emotionless manner as she addressed him.

Scared of this particular gaze more than anything else, Robert could only gulp to swallow all his childish fright and nod at her mother. Hesitantly, he turned his gaze towards the old man's silhouette, as it wept under the heavy rain, tightly clenching a torn, burnt piece of fabric in both his hands…

A small, soft sigh escaped through his lips as he recalled his final role in this drama more than 12 years in the making… Finally, they have arrived at the finale, only a few pages left before the tragedy can finally be completely revealed…

—

A few hours ago, in another place.

Far away from the events, in a large tower at the northern parts of the city, only a few security guards were stationed in the otherwise mostly empty office. If one would have cast a quick gaze, a sweeping glance, he or she would probably scoff at most at the sight of the completely original-looking office cubicle layout, the typical cage of those worker 'drones' drilling away their nine-to-fives for all their lives to serve some corporate overlords.

With the lights already dimmed, most of the staff have already left for the day. Yet, some sparsely spread sources of lights could still be seen from a few seemingly randomly paced cubicles; the most devoted, loyal agents were still clicking away on their keyboards.

Peggy Simmons was just an average low-level office drone in a boring, completely average-looking office in the Big City, New York. Yet at the same time, she just like every single being working or just 'residing' in this glass tower above or under had another much more important identity.

The truth was that Peggy wasn't just a simple officer worker. No, she was actually part of a highly trained secretive government agency, the Homeland Threat Intervention and Strategic Security Agency, or better known by its not so exact acronym the SSA. Though she had a very low clearance level despite her almost ten years tenure in service for a 'Better World', in all honesty, she didn't mind her lack of opportunities so far.

Being assigned to do the safest, easiest job of all she had a relatively easy life. She came to work, most of the time using the bus, or her bicycle, and like 90% of the adult Americans, she watched the monitor looking at satellite maps, and energy readings focused on the region.

Though it was mostly a boring, thankless job, with little to no chance of earning a higher clearance level, and with it, higher salary, she did not mind. She had a happy life with her husband, who, just like her, was employed by the same agency.

Albeit he, -as a renowned and respected scientist-, had a vastly different task. She didn't know what he was doing or even which floor he was staying at, as all of that was strictly confidential.

Still, she wasn't too bothered by it, they lived a life they both enjoyed. Had a stable source of income, living a modest life in one of the hardest and harshest environments in the world.

In fact, they have just recently bought a small house in the western suburban region, with some grand plans for the near future…

Normally, Peggy wouldn't be working at this time, but since they were planning to go on a little getaway next weekend, she promised her boss to do some extra hours, a night shift for a change as 'payment'.

Grumbling through, she accepted the trade-off, yawning in all her loneliness on the mostly deserted office floor, she was playing on her phone as she leaned against the back of her comfy chair.

As a loud fanfare hollered against the eerie silence, revealing her latest victory on her game, Peggy smiled contentedly at the screen.

"Meh… I guess that was enough for now…" She sighed, heaving a soft yawn as she began to stretch her arms and back before she leaned back comfortably in her seat once again.

As yet another, the third yawn escaped through her lips, Peggy's eyelids slowly began to feel heavier by the second.

"I guess… A little nap wouldn't hurt anybody…" She mused to herself. She leaned her head against the headrest, whilst she placed the phone on the desk. Her blinks gradually turned longer by each passing second, she was slowly drifting away to the land of dreams, ready to spend her hours left before morning the best way possible. Sleeping and getting paid at the same time!

Just then!

*ALERT!* *ALERT!* *ALERT!*

As she was about to douse off and ignore everything, a loud, blaring sound of a horn roared into the silence. Instantly, she shot up at attention, her eyes snapped wide open, she fixed her posture. Snorting unladylike for a bit, she turned her gaze towards her double monitors, only to go shocked and.. at the same time scared.

Upon her screen, all readings were off the charts… and a critical alert, a warning blinked in the middle of both of her screens…

—-

After a long, but ultimately fruitless search through the wreckage, the staff eventually managed to get the old man to stop his futile endeavor and walk him back to the Mansion.

Only after agreeing that they will resume their efforts in the morning, did the old man, Lord Raven acquiesce to his staff's pleas, and walked away from the scene. Still, he refused to let go and was holding onto with both hands to the small, torn piece of fabric, the only item resulting from their several hours of arduous effort.

He did not bother to speak, Lord Raven's eyes were hollow as he was led into the Mansion and escorted back into the main bedroom upstairs on the first floor. Madam Raven was already standing at the door, dressed in a dark violet satin nightgown that barely covered her bountiful delicates.

Her allure, her brazen beauty made the men grouped around Lord Raven lose themselves in her visual dessert for a moment, only waking up when the old butler leading the pack coughed loudly with an irate look on his wrinkled, silver-bearded face.

The men broke free from the charm of the seductress, gulping hard to swallow their rising primal lust, and force some clarity back to their minds.

"Please allow me to take over from here. You brave men can go, take a rest, you have earned it."

With a reassuring smile further increasing her already otherworldly charm, Genna warmly spoke as she reached for her husband. She did not wait for the old butler to agree to her offer though. Tenderly taking over, she smiled brightly, as she tenderly cared for the old man of the house, slowly walking, guiding him through the door to the bedroom.

As she went together with the old man, she still didn't forget to sway her wide hips enticingly, giving a bit more tease to the men. She chuckled inwardly as she heard the second round of gulps coming from behind as she closed the door with the back of her left foot.

…

As the sun slowly rose making way for the next morning, the Lord and Madam of the house were alerted by the sudden rousing exclamations and shouts coming from the outside.

Groaning at the headache, still feeling groggy due to the lack of her deserved beauty sleep, Genna was about to complain to the staff stationed outside their room. However, before she could do so, she was startled by the sudden rise of her husband from beside her.

Lord Raven's eyes snapped open as he heard the loud cries. Hearing that the source was coming from last night's wreckage's direction, the exhaustion he would otherwise feel was instantly replaced by a sudden surge of adrenalin. With his newly gained vigor, he didn't even waste the time to go look out the window to check the reason for the commotion but instead hurried towards the door.

Throwing it wide open, without giving a care if the staff could see his wife's bountiful curves, he scurried out of the bedroom. Another moment later, the pitter-patters turned more and more distant. By the time Genna rolled over to her husband's side of the bed and forced herself to walk growlingly to the window, Lord Raven was already outside in his pajamas and was just about to force himself through the steadily growing ring of the crowd.

Due to the commotion, Genna couldn't see what was the cause of all this ruckus, yet she instinctively knew it couldn't be any good. She frowned, lamenting what could have happened that made everyone so agitated. Walking over to her cabinet, she made her way to the wardrobe door that opened from the master bedroom.

Her initial, slow pace hastened with each passing step, the growing unease made her not want to waste too much time, and wanted to join the rest outside…

Pushing through the thick sea of people, old man Raven grumbled with a great deal of annoyance as he finally pushed himself through and made his way into the forefront, to the ruins of his believed to be deceased son's hut.

In the next instant, Lord Raven's eyes went wide with utter shock and disbelief. He stumbled back, he fell on his butt. A shocked, frozen, and disbelieving expression was plastered over his face… He couldn't utter a single word or formulate a sole thought at what greeted him.

"Father… are you there?" Suddenly, a youthful voice came from behind. A pudgy boy, Robert, his second son, wearing a satin golden threaded dark blue bathrobe walked through the crowd.

"Father, what is it, that you f-" His words froze in him as well as he raised his head and gazed at the shocking sight of scenery. His expression turned shocked, just like Lord Raven's. He too began to shiver with fright and stumble backward, only to fall on the ground as well. He, just like the old man, couldn't process what he was seeing.

Time kept passing, but for the people, as well as the old man and his supposed son, they were acting as if they were completely frozen. Eventually even the Madam, Genna had arrived at the scene, now dressed in a business dress with a short black skirt. Her presence was like an aura, a domain that forced a reaction out of the frozen, stiff crowd. They made way and parted, allowing the woman to easily walk through and glance at the shocking, perplexing scene that shocked both men of the family to their very core.

What was a small mound of ragged, destroyed rubble of the once-standing wooden cottage of the old man's firstborn son, Kai Raven… was only a charred empty crater. A single white rope of smoke slithered towards the skies, looking as if yet another natural disaster had silently struck the place whilst they were all asleep.

Still, whilst this was undoubtedly unexpected and would have indeed caused similar reactions, even some scare or fright of the uncanny event… in truth, this wasn't what froze everyone and made them unable to process what they were witnessing.

No, what made them react in such an outrageous manner was the dark silhouette lying at the center. The shape of a man, or perhaps some sort of man-like figure could be seen lying listlessly at the very center of the crater…

—

The figure was wearing a full suit of strange-looking body armor. The design looked rather futuristic, with rough dark purple lines and sharp edges adorned the strange, unfamiliar-looking, matte black material. A smooth faceless full-head mask hid the unknown figure's expression. A mysterious and similarly dark purple-tinted visor hid the figure's eyes.

As the crowd and the family looked closer at the man, they were shocked to notice no seams in the figure's attire at all. It was as if the whole suit and the helmet were one cohesive unit, holding their prisoner captive for all eternity. It seemed that the entire attire was like a second layer of skin to the figure rather than some protective sort of attire.

Not sure of what they should do, eventually the father -as he slowly regained his composure-, hollered the order to the guards to carry the unconscious man inside the mansion and place him over an empty bed at one of the closest guest rooms on the ground floor.

Hearing his stern words and strict, decisive order Genna and Robert, although they wanted to, dared not to show any words of complaint, even if their displeasure of frowns were visibly written over their faces. Seeing the decisiveness, the sudden zeal of the previously broken old man, even Genna was lost at what she should say or do at the moment.

For some unknown reason, Lord Raven felt something as he gazed at the mysterious armored figure. He wasn't sure of his feelings himself, but it was as if they had some sort of connection. He just felt that he should know this person, this… man.

Heck, they couldn't even be certain that this strange guest was even human?!

For all they knew, it could be some escaped experimental subject from some lab, or a convict… or someone… no. SOMETHING from another world…