Meant to be read AFTER the story

Final Cut-Prologue

“Of all the stupid things I could be doing!” William tripped over the subway tracks in front of him, his fading light flickering on and off with every step he took. “I can’t believe Roy wanted this done.” Roy, the new leader of the Black Pueblo, had ordered William to go out on his own to try and scout his way down the tunnels until he could find where the Screamers lay, the Pueblo’s biggest enemy. William had been chosen because he had chickened out of the last fight, cowering in his room and pretending to be sick and so was being sent on this suicide mission with the goal of running as soon as he found anything.

He collapsed onto the closest wall, using it to catch both his breath and his balance. He started to move along it, holding his hand there to keep himself steady. His hand crossed over damp spots stuck to the wall and he shuddered at the ideas of what it was he was touching. And then the wall disappeared from under his hand and he toppled over through a hole, almost cracking his head against the ground and killing him instantly. “Some luck I have.” His knees had landed in a puddle of water and soaked his pants. “Of all the fucking...must be a leak up above.”

He returned to a standing position, wiping himself off as best he could. “Hmm must be where the Screamers come from. Or maybe the Hounds. Or, knowing me, something new. Yeah that’ll be it, I’ll be sent to find Screamers and will find giant, uhh, man-eating....spiders instead! Fuck this. Fuck you Roy.” William steadied his light at what was ahead, seeing almost the mirror of what was behind him. It was another subway line, this one running parallel to the one he lived along. Was he just stumbling around in an old maze of abandoned tunnels now? Perhaps best to turn back at this point then....

William spun around just as his light went out, leaving him completely in the dark while he waited for it to come back on. He heard some rustling nearby, something brushing up against something else, and he panicked, twisting around to find the source of the sound. His light flashed on for a moment and he thought he saw another something dart away, a black shadow vanishing under his light. Just a shadow?

He righted himself, getting his directions down after so much twisting and spinning and banged at the light on his head until it flickered back on completely. The light shone on darkness, on something black that absorbed the light into itself. Except for the top. There the light reflected off of a mask, an operatic one with a smile curved across its face and cracks running along it in a twisted pattern. The light caught on something else twinkling down near the figure’s sides, and William saw blades, knives, instead of fingers on the creature.

In shock he tried to punch at it, taking a swing but finding air as it arched its back so his arm went flying harmlessly overhead. He backed away from this twisted creature, turning to run and colliding with yet another. It wrapped its arm around him, bear-hugging him and keeping him rooted to the spot. And over its shoulder he saw more. They were slinking close to the ground or crawling along the ceiling and walls, their bladed fingers digging into the concrete.

The one behind William dug its fingers into his back, slicing through skin and muscle with ease and drawing across him like a painter’s canvas, smearing his blood across his own back and letting it dribble down his legs. He saw them all begin to crowd around him, each one with a smile painted across their mask, their heads twisting at eschewed angles to watch William in his suffering. The figure carving up William’s back stopped for a moment, withdrawing its knives from his skin before lashing out across his neck and plunging his fingers through his spine. With a final gasp William’s vision flooded and the pain faded away, leaving him with nothing but the comfort of darkness...