Thanatos
Thanatos opened his eyes. He sat crosslegged, in the middle of his small, windowless, cell. He sat there, facing the door, and he waited.
The guard was approaching. Thanatos could sense it. Tom Reed was on the tenth floor and even now making his way towards the elevator. Thanatos could feel Tom's wish to visit Thanatos. It is what made Tom so perfect for Thanatos's purposes.
Had Tom come to pick Thanatos up for training, as was routine, then Thanatos would be expected. But since Tom had told no one he was about to visit, Thanatos's escape would not be quickly discovered and by then it would be too late.
Thanatos learned early he could "touch" minds with humans. He had touched every mind in the large, underground facility, which he had discovered he had been bred in. Through his link with the humans, he had lived their experiences and learned their knowledge. Language and numbers were picked up easily. Knowledge of the complex and his creation proved a more, creative, if not difficult task.
They called him an elf. Skotari elf to be precise. He had been bred by the human government as an agent of assassination and espionage. His deep, obsidian skin, made him a hard to see at night. His red eyes, which burned like coals, could see between normal vision and infrared, and were telescopic as well as microscopic. His pointed ears with hair tufts allowed for accurate and above human hearing. His silver, straight hair and silver ear tufts could pick up sound vibrations with an extraordinary sensitivity. And that was just to start.
He was part of Project Alpha, codenamed: Thanatos. He rather liked the implications of his name and resolved to keep his given name.
Tom was in the elevator and on his way down to the twenty first level of the facility, the lowest level. From what Thanatos had learned, he knew he was sitting on the bottom of a twenty one story, underground facility, nestled under the Rockies. A single hidden road, led in and out of the mountains and to a small bunker, the facility entrance. What none of the humans knew, and Thanatos did, was that there was also a web of caves and caverns not far below the facility itself. A perfect escape route.
Tom Reed was chosen for two reasons. First, Tom's interest in demons and other wicked beings helped Thanatos to mentally sow the seed of fascination within Tom to arrange this visit. Secondly, Thanatos had mentally witnessed every crime every person on the facility commited. Tom's was by far the worst.
Tom was a thirty-year old, tall but flabby, caucasion, human(Thanatos always threw that bit in) male with bad teeth and poor, blotchy skin. He had a wife and two daughters, and his only vice seemed alcohol. He had spent ten years in the military to get to this point and life for him seemed well.
None but a few, and Thanatos, knew that Tom Reed had kidnapped and killed a ten-year old dark skinned human boy fourteen years ago, or that he worshipped Satan.
Thinking about the murdered boy caused Thanatos to look at his own hands.
How is that Tom could have hated this boy and yet be so fascinated with me, whose skin was so many shades darker? No matter...., he thought
Tom is irrelevant, and he won't be around much longer. He smiled darkly.
Tom was just getting off the elevator and talking to Dawn Mitchell, the floor guard. Thanatos did not care enough to think of her details. Aside from the fact that she cheated many times on her husband, Dawn was harmless. Thanatos would spare her life but simply put her in a coma for a week. It seemed fitting. An electric lock on Thanatos's cell clicked open.
As Tom left Dawn and approached Thanatos's cell, Thanatos wished, and not for the first time, that Lilith and the others had joined him. Lilith and the others were also Skotari, like him. Thanatos had trained well with the other Skotari. The other Skotari could also touch minds, with humans and each other. He and Lilith had secretly communicated via their minds. Thanatos had told Lilith of his plans, but she refused, stating it was too risky. Though she communicated her plans to the others, she had sent other messages that Thanatos could not decipher. The others seemed to agree with Lilith.
So be it He thought.
They can die for all I care, so long as I escape. If they choose, in their idiocy, to remain, then that's their problem. With that he stood up as he watched with his infra-vision, Tom fumbling with the keys. The lock on Thanatos's cell door clicked, and the door slowly opened. Thanatos's eyes flared red, and he lifted off the ground.
Tom had peeked into the room. His proximity to Thanatos was close enough that Thanatos could practically play with Tom like a puppet. And he did.
Open up and stay calm, Tom Thanatos whispered soothingly in Tom's mind. Tom complied.
Come in Tom. Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you Thanatos held out his hand, tilted his head slightly, and smiled. It didn't bother Tom that Thanatos was three feet off the ground with red hot burning eyes glaring madly. Tom walked in smiling and reached out to Thanatos. As soon as Tom touched Thanatos all went silent.
Tom suddenly fell to the floor. He tried to scream out but no sound came. Thanatos had used another of his abilities. He created a field of silence. Sounds came in forms of waves and these he disrupted to nothingness. He also sent signals into Tom's pain receptors. These would cause Tom to feel like he was on fire. Thanatos ingrained these signals into Tom's subconscious. Tom would feel like he was on fire the rest of his days.
A fitting end.Thanatos thought. "Good bye, Tom Reed", Thanatos said aloud, in his high pitched but deep voice. A second voice seemed to accomapny it. The second voice seemed almost robotic and a screech. Thanatos floated passed by the writhing, silent Tom. For good measure he cut off Tom's vocal cords and restristed sense to make sounds. The field of Silence would not last forever after all.
Thanatos floated silently outside his cell and turned towards Dawn. He sent signals to Dawn that erased her memory of Tom even having visited. He also erased any knowledge that Thanatos even existed. She remained quiet at the end of the hall as he floated towards Lilith's cell.
"Are you sure you won't come?" He said aloud as well as in Lilith's mind.
You know I can't. Thanatos scowled.
Idiot. He thought, though he did not send that signal to Lilith. Many Skotari had been killed by these humans for any thing the humans deemed unfit. He had no doubt if the humans found out of his escape, they would surely kill all the rest of the Skotari and start anew. It had been done before for less.
Thanatos smiled but used a wistful voice when he last spoke to Lilith.
So be it. Farewell. With that he turned and floated towards the hallway out.
A parting gift as I depart. And with a thought he unlocked all the cell doors. He stopped in front of the oblivious Dawn. He had decided a coma would draw attention so he left her to her blindness.
Instead of turning left towards the elevator, he turned right, towards a small dusty broom closet. He opened the door with his mind and moved a mop bucket to one side. On the left side of the broom closet, pipes ran down the wall passed the floor. With his mind he tore out a chunk of the ground near those pipes. Thanatos would follow those pipes down to one of the nearest secret tunnels to the hidden caverns below. He was finally free. He leapt into the dark hole.
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Arachne
Lilith
Alucard
Banshee
Fool, Lilith thought as she watched Thanatos turn. This she imparted to the other Skotari in a snicker. Arachne giggled and Alucard physically shook his head while snickering at Thanatos's madness. Many others giggled assent. Banshee remained silent.
This they all kept from Thanatos.
Though Lilith thought him completely mad for want of freedom, she could not deny he was powerful, and if that power could make itself scarce all the more better for Lilith. After all, she could not stomach being
second. She was glad he was not well liked by the others as well.
She made herself weightless and red energy the color of blood formed at the bottom. Her clothes gave enough weight for her not to float off, striped rags with a number.
Let us begin She imparted to the others and she laughed in their mental connection. The others joined in and even Banshee could not keep herself from indulging in the plan they were about to commence.
Hades
Gaia
Loki
Prometheus
