Chapter 76. King Shadow.

"A-are we going to be okay?" Tyler asked nervously as he followed closely behind Beverly and Marcis. "I really haven't got a single clue about what's happening here."

"My daughter has conscripted us to dispose of the murderer stalking her halls while she hides in safety," Marcis informed him. "Do try to keep up, lad."

"But why me? I'm useless!" Tyler whinged.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll find something for you to do," Bev said indifferently. "Just follow my dad! He seems like a slick one, right? My rule in life is to always follow the ones who seem calm. That's a strategy that can't possibly fail!"

"What if they've calmly accepted their fate?" Tyler asked her.

"Oh. Well, that wouldn't be good," Bev shrugged.

"Bev, you warm an old man's heart," Marcis said graciously. "But having said that, I have no idea what we should be doing next. I'm unfamiliar with this territory, and I'm afraid that Everly has so many enemies that I don't know where we should even begin."

"Aww, really?" Bev asked. "Shoot, this would be so much easier if I was using Lance."

"You refer to your alter ego?" asked Marcis. "How would that make this any easier?"

"Well, he's more powerful than I am," Bev replied. "When I use him, I have a stronger connection with the elementals. It really pumps me up, you know?"

"Really?" Marcis said curiously. "I had no idea you were weaker than Everly."

"It's a safeguard she put in, so we'd never turn on her," Bev said as she walked beside him. "We also have mental blocks preventing us from deliberately causing her any permanent damage."

"But it doesn't prevent you from attacking her completely?" Marcis puzzled aloud. "Why?"

"She likes it when we try to get the jump on her," Beverly giggled. "It keeps her on her toes! But it's not like we're allowed to to kill her or anything. Attempts on her life are a big no-no. Everybody who serves her has that command imprinted inside their noggin. Villains need to be cautious about potential Star Screams in their midst, right? No one wants to get stabbed in the back."

"Indeed," Marcis nodded. "But I don't quite understand what my girl was thinking. Why would she instill these safeguards in you and your sisters, but fail to do so for your Lance body?"

"What do you mean?" Beverly asked as she furrowed her brow.

"You said that using Lance made you more powerful than you usually are. Why would Everly allow such a thing? It seems like an obvious loophole to me."

"Oh, Everly didn't make Lance," laughed Beverly. "That's something I made on my own."

"You…created Lance on your own?" Marcis asked her with slowly growing alarm.

"Well, not entirely by myself," Bev admitted. "I had Titania make it for me from a drop of Everly's blood—"

"BEVERLY, where do you store Lance when you aren't using him?" Marcis suddenly asked her with unnerving intensity.

"I keep him in my room, why?" Bev asked. "I didn't do something wrong, did I?"

"Take us there, right NOW," Marcis urged her.

__

They soon arrived at Bev's room where the girl was surprised to discover that the body was missing. Marcis nodded to himself in grim satisfaction, pleased that his instincts seemed to have been proven correct. "Just as I suspected," he said.

"But why would anyone want to go after Lance?" Beverly asked in bewilderment. "He hasn't got a mind! It doesn't make any sense."

Marcis felt a slight bit of frustration at his daughter's duplicate's lack of ability to quickly process the facts, but he politely kept his feelings to himself. "No, dearest, the killer didn't target Lance. My theory is that the killer is somehow using Lance. Or perhaps is the creature himself."

"That makes no sense either!" Beverly insisted. "He still doesn't have a mind!"

"But he does have a brain!" Marcis said patiently. "Elsewise, how could you control the many neurological functions of his body? And you said yourself that Lance is also tied in directly to the elementals that you all share. It's the only thing that makes sense with the clues that we have."

"Wow," Beverly said. "You know when you put it like that, he sounds kind of like a zombie—"

"Graaah," grunted Tyler suddenly from behind them.

"Yeah, Tyler," Beverly nodded. "Exactly like that."

Tyler's head slowly rolled across the floor between them and came to a stop at the foot of the bed.

"I'm not a zombie," Lance said to them as he stepped into the room with bloodied fingers and closed the door behind himself.

__

As soon as Everly regained consciousness, she leapt to her feet with her hands up ready for a fight.

"Nice cheap shot, Nev!" she said with a bold smile. "But it doesn't look like you had what it takes to keep down for the count!"

To her surprise, instead of standing there ready to be engaged in a life-or-death struggle, Nev was instead seated at a table, where the large goon who'd spoken to her earlier was apparently dispensing medical treatment to her face.

"Okay, boss. At the count of three, I'm going to pop it back in," he said to Nev apologetically.

"Is it going to hurt?" she asked fearfully.

"Oh, gods yes, it's going to feel terrible. No avoiding it though if you don't want it to heal crooked."

"Damn it!" she swore.

"Okay, now, oooooone. Twoooo. Threeee," the goon then pushed forward with his hand against Nev's nose, which made a hideous popping sound as it was set back in place. Nev gave a small yelp of pain and jerked wildly, but then relaxed a moment later after the deed was done."

"Owww," she said miserably and tenderly rubbed her nose. "Okay, thanks, uh, Bill, was it?"

"Yes, Boss," Bill said with a nod.

"Thanks, Bill," Nev said. "You're a real lifesaver, big guy. Mostly your own, since now I'm not going to kill you and the boys for seeing something you shouldn't have, but that aside, I'm grateful."

Nev turned to the rest of her assembled gang who'd stood there nervously watching Bill helping with her nose, and said, "Okay guys. Just remember no repeating anything that you saw here today. I'm a genuine freak, I'll find you and kill you if you do. NOW GET THOSE DELIVERIES GOING!" she suddenly barked at them.

And like that, they were back to work. Nev turned and saw that Everly was back on her feet and frowned. "Don't hit my nose again. I'm serious. I will go mental on you."

"You held off on killing me so that you could get your nose fixed?" Everly asked her with a cocked eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?"

"Aren't you?" Nev countered. "I couldn't kill you if I wanted to, remember?" She tapped the side of her head and said, "You're the one who set it up that way."

"If that's the case then why did you hit me with a folding chair!" Everly asked her.

"Because you broke my nose!" Nev yelled at her. "Just because I can't turn on you doesn't mean I have to stand there and take your shit! That fucking hurt, you know!"

"I…suppose it did," Everly said.

"Well, thank you for supposing," Nev replied with thick sarcasm.

"So, you're really not the mastermind behind the plot to kill me?" Everly said in disappointment. "Shoot. I figured if it was anyone, it would be you. I mean, you are the smart one."

"I am, thank you for noticing," Nev nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to go kill Beverly, then," Everly said with a resigned sigh.

"Everly, stop. You can't seriously believe that Bev is the one responsible," the other girl snorted. "I love her to death, but my god, if brains were wind, she couldn't move a pinwheel to save her life."

"Yeah, she is pretty light on the gray matter," Everly agreed. "But who's left, then? Cleverly's already dead."

"Clearly faking it," Nev said.

"What? No! I saw the body myself," Everly said.

"Did you touch the corpse?" Nev asked.

"Gross, no, why would I do that?"

"Everly, if you don't confirm the kill personally, then there was no kill," Nev said. "Think about it! This is like the first Saw movie! She pretended to be a corpse to convince you she was out of the way, and now she's running things from behind the scenes!"

"Are you saying she Jigsaw'd me!" Everly asked in shock.

"Exactly! It's the only thing that makes sense," Nev nodded.

"Well, that sneaky cow," Everly growled. "Time to go teach her a lesson. You want in on this?"

"Why would I care what you do with Cleverly?" Nev smirked.

"She tried to sleep with Tyler to piss you off," Everly informed her.

"SHE DID WHAT?" Nev shouted. "Is that why she kept calling me?"

"You were ignoring her calls?"

"Of course, I was! I can't stand that little brat!" Nev said.

"Well, let's go stomp her head in. It'll feel good for us both," Everly said.

"Let's do it," Nev seethed.

__

"Oh, my god, Tyler!" Bev shouted in dismay. "He's leaking all over my floor! That's where I put my feet!"

"Not a very sentimental girl, are you?" Lance said as he stepped closer to his prey.

"Those of my line aren't known for dwelling long on the past," Marcis said casually as he drew his blade. "I'm sure Tyler was a fine fellow, but I had a feeling he wasn't going to last the night."

"An accurate one, it would appear," said the killer.

"Quite right," said Marcis. "By the way, you do realize you're outnumbered, don't you?"

"Is that how you see it? From my perspective, I don't believe the two of you are enough to threaten me."

"Overconfidence has killed better men than you," Marcis grinned.

"There are no better men than me!" countered Lance. "As you'll soon find out, old man!"

"Well, we'll have to see about that won't we—"

Bev stabbed Lance through the chest with her spear.

"Glurg," Lance said before dropping to his knees and falling over.

Dead.

"Sorry, Lance," Bev said to his body. "I couldn't spear what you were saying."

She turned to Marcis with a look of profound satisfaction on her face and gave him a thumbs up.

Marcis looked away, unable to meet her guileless eyes.

__

"Well, that was an absolute waste of time," Everly said later, as they sat gathered in the conference room.

"Was it, though? I got to kick Cleverly's corpse a few dozen times," Nev said. That's something, isn't it?"

"This makes me the hero, doesn't it?" Bev said happily. "I totally saved the day, didn't I?"

"The whole thing was your fault to begin with!" Everly said after giving Bev a dope smack across the back of her head. "Saving the day from your own mess doesn't count."

"Awww," Bev whined.

"Now, now, Everly," Marcis said. "Whoever this mysterious mastermind was, he seemed to be profoundly intelligent. I suspect he would have been able to find another chink in your armor if given enough time. His devious movements were patient and tactically sound. I would have enjoyed facing him in battle."

"You sound as though you admired him," Everly said.

"In a way, yes," Marcis admitted. "I sensed a kindred spirit in Lance. A fellow wolf that ferociously stood his ground before me. A nameless plunderer, committed to his merciless path. It's almost a shame that I can't allow his identity to remain a mystery."

Having said that, Marcis removed his glove and reached for Lance's body, preparing to use his gift to take the memories of the dead warrior for himself.

But just before his fingers made contact with Lance's forehead, Everly's hand stopped him. She gently grabbed Marcis' wrist and guided him away.

"Everly?" Marcis asked her in surprise.

"You're right, dad," Everly nodded. "I don't know who this guy was either, but he was good. A more formidable foe than Anne, even. He had me dancing in the palm of his hand without me even realizing it. He almost stole everything in one fell swoop."

Everly turned to Lance's body. Then she bowed before her deceased enemy.

"We don't need to know anything about this cunning bastard. Only that he was calculating and dangerous and worthy of our respect. Whoever he was, he taught me an important lesson about patience and playing the long game. Revealing his identity would just diminish the impact he had on my life. Burn the corpse and consign this nameless fiend to the shadows that spawned him."

"Everly, that's so fucking cool," Beverly gasped.

"King Shadow. That's what we'll call him," Nev said. "Our ultimate mystery opponent."

"I like that, Nev," Everly nodded. "King Shadow it is. I only wish we could have been on the same side."

"King Shadow," Marcis murmured. "An opponent that would truly have been worthy of me."

He drew his sword once more and touched the blade to his head in a sign of respect.

"But how exactly did he take over Lance's body?" Beverly wondered. "Do we have an explanation for that?"

"Oh, who cares? It's over," Everly said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Let's talk about killing Anne."

A moment later, the body was burned.