Existence Is My Woven Tapestry

"It would seem that you'll have to meet your sister before you exact your revenge Rafiq. I'm sure she'll understand that you gave it your best." The pair in torment cursed at their luck. Crimson yearned for death while the other yearned for revenge.

None of them would get it so easily it would seem. Solon picked up Rafiq's briefcase and inspected the ammunition for it. A single round, the magazine having five shots. It was satisfactory to him. He picked one of the compressionised bullets and twisted the head off it.

Like opening a cold bottle of beer on a Saturday night. His motions fluid and graceful. He made his way back to Rafiq who was in a half dead state. Blood and enamel flowed down his throat and out of his mouth, his femur was still exposed and bled marrow and blood alike.

Solon clutched his jaw once more, forcing Rafiq to look at him. Tears dangled on his eyes yet he refused to shed a tear. Solon tilted the end of the bullet right into Rafiq's mouth. The taste of sulphur and saltpeter abhorrent on this tongue however he had no choice.

Solon made sure that Rafiq didn't spit it out and just as he was on the last bullet, Rafiq stroke back biting his teeth hard onto Solon's fingers. However Solon didn't flinch at the slightest while Rafiq winced at the pain. His already jaggered teeth only intensified the pain that he felt as he bit into his fingers till they reached his bones.

Solon let out a light sigh. Not out of irritation but rather acceptance. As if an owner seeing his dog soil the carpet. "Aaarghh!!" With his two fingers, Solon slowly opened Rafiq's jaw. The process horrifying to Rafiq however Solon wore that unnerving smile on his face as Rafiq's mouth expanded wider till...

*Crack*

His mandibles broke from the extreme pressure leaving Rafiq not only in extreme agony but also unable to close his mouth shut. Solon lowered his fingers to Rafiq's neck not to choke him but pull the locket belonging to Farah. His eyes widened with fury and agony however he couldn't mutter a single coherent word thus he could only watch.

Solon made his way to the kitchen as he turned the stove on and suspended the amulet over the flame. "You know." He said conversationally. "They used to believe gunpowder cleansed the soul. That a mouth full of fire meant you had something to say worth dying for."

His back facing the pair. Crimson's vision was already hazy and blurry. In a few minutes she would lose her life to the hands of her torturer. A way she had never thought that she would go out. However the pain that coursed through her body made her yearn for death.

As for Rafiq, his body would gag and convulse, trying to expunge the gunpowder and poison however with his jaw now broken open. His body would make involuntary queases here and there, his eyes teary as he watched Solon's back that was all healed from the cuts and bruises from before.

"You'll ignite." He went on, now coming back to Rafiq and in his hand the pendant however it was red hot. He wasn't quick to claim his life. He circled him like a vulture sighting a dying creature crawling on the ground. He came right in front of Rafiq, his smile vanishing from his face.

"But not all at once. A slow burn. Internal combustion, a digestive explosion. Your body becomes a shrine to failure. When your organs collapse, your story ends in ash." Rafiq could feel the mixture ferment in his stomach as Solon dangled the pendant above his mouth.

He slowly lowered it and upon contact with his skin sizzled his flesh. His body jerked and thrashed as he felt a new kind of pain invade his body. However the gravity that pinned him down increased holding him in place.

"There's no need to worry, you'll be reunited with your sister soon." The red hot pendant landed on a trace of the gunpowder on his tongue. He knew that it was a matter of time before it sparked and he could only watch and be a testament to what unfolded.

*BAM*

Solon shut Rafiq's mouth in one swift motion. Bones that shouldn't be seen came into light as his jaw now bent sideways with the molten hot pendant embedded in his mouth like a flower in budding waiting to bloom. This time he didn't hold back any tears, his mind already accepting his fate at Solon's hands now eager to reunite with his sister.

'Farah... I tried...' His last thought before the overwhelming urge of inferno grew inside his body. His gullet acting as a fuse leading the spark in his mouth all the way to his stomach which was in pure agony trying to digest the enamel, poison and now the gunpowder.

"Aarhhh!!!!" His body twitched as inhumane screams evoked from his now scorched and worn-out throat. Sounds that felt too alien to come from the human body and yet Rafiq couldn't do anything but watch. His nose flared as smoke came out, his stomach lit ablaze burning him from the inside out and just like that, he met his demise.

A simple man who yearned to exact revenge on his sister's killer met his fate to extreme torture and internal combustion. Solon redacted the gravity that pinned him down to which his body slumped limply onto the cold hard floor. Crimson by now had already lost consciousness as her body now lay to the other two ladies from before.

In amidst the dense air packed with blood, regurgitation and sizzled flesh, Solon made his way to the bar and prepared himself another wine. The sounds of the bottle popping echoed through the penthouse before pouring himself a glass.

He glanced at the four, his earlier playthings dead thanks to Crimson who met her death shortly after and Rafiq whose body slumped on the cold hard floor. He didn't bother with them as he made his way to be balcony and watched the crack grow larger and larger.

His men barged in and picked up all the bodies and took their leave silently. "I hope that you don't bore me, Crimson." He lightly mused, taking a sip of his wine that dangled above the city. His body slumped on the railing with his back facing the suite.

***

Crimson's vision turned pitch black and her soul remained suspended in the black void, unmoving. 'Is this my retribution? My karma?' With all the lives she had claimed, she thought that this was her punishment. However much to her surprise, the blackness of the void shifted colors.

Cracks formed all over, the void bled and blood was it's replacement. However beneath the cracks that she saw, something more ominous lay beneath the void and it was then that she saw it. A body too huge for her to see fully but what she saw made her soul freeze.

A being constituted of nothing more than blood, it's crown was made of teeth and reality around it started to fracture like glass and break. Time felt nonexistent as the numerous eyes of the landed on her figure before she heard it, it's laugh. Spine chilling was an understatement to what she felt. It was then that she realized what true fear felt like.

"Gah!!" Isabella shot from her bed, clutching her chest in fear before looking around. She seemed puzzled as to how she was back in her own luxurious villa before the events from last night played in her mind.

"Didn't I die from my own poison so how am I alive?" She immediately darted to her arsenal but stepping out of her bed, a note could be seen on her table. Taking it, she quickly skimmed through the contents.

[{Last night was fun Crimson however since you broke my toys, you'll have to fill in that slot in the meanwhile. -Solon}]

Her body shuddered in fear of meeting Solon once more but realizing how powerful he was, she knew that it would be inevitable. Making her way to the bathroom, she looked at the mirror.

Her face was worn out from exhaustion, her demeanor frantic and shook as she had yet to fully recover what she had initially seen in her dreams. 'Was that even my dream or trauma from last night's unfolding.' She tried to ignore it and turned on the water to wash her face.

Looking at her reflection once more, it wasn't her figure that she saw but the being from beyond the void. The one that was draped in blood, crowned in teeth that threatened to bite through the fabric of reality and crimson eyes that darted all over the place.

This time it wasn't as huge as it took her exact figure. As of trying to mimick her body. "Ahhh!!" She darted back out of instinct and another look at the mirror, it was her own reflection. Her heart pounded vigorously in her chest, her breathes hitched and became irregular as she clutched her heart.

"What... what is that? What did you do to me Solon?" Her mind was tormented with antagonizing thoughts that refused to give her peace. She immediately made her way to her arsenal and drank the antidote for the poison she drank last night. Thinking that it was a side effect of it.

As if recalling something, her mind clicked and she immediately reached for her phone.

***

Steven made his way to the allotted place, a crummy and rundown restaurant that seemed fairly ordinary. The reason as to why he was even here was because Crimson phoned her. Something he thought would never happen. He parked his car, posh but not too eye catching out at the parking lot before looking at the sky.

The fracture from last night had now gotten bigger, with it stretching all the way from east to west covering the entire sky. The government was in a state of shock, unaware of how to deal with the matter. As for the Golden Lantern, their situation was worse.

Any mutant that was caught out in the open would have their entire bodies slowly succumb and decay to the fracture, it released a strange wisp of immaterial gas that drifted aimlessly all over, am inconvenience to .a normal human, a plague to a mutant.

Walking in, he saw crimson seated alone at the far end of the diner. He made his way over to her before taking a seat. His mind was filled with all kinds of questions however before he could voice them out, a waiter came to them and asked for their orders.