The wizard looked down at the pool of bodies, half conscious, but injured, and half dead. He saw the bullet holes on the walls, a waste of valuable ammunition, in his estimation. He noted the blood that had been spilled in the goal of weakening Freddy Benson and his team. Although it didn’t seem to do much damage to them, the wizard made one positive observation.
“The ape man is knocked out” he thought to himself, with a crooked smile on his face “and Sofya’s powers have been drained significantly as a result of this battle. Even though the mayor’s army made some foolish mistakes along the way, they did their jobs valiantly. I will take it from here.”
The wizard levitated up into the air and made his way down to his daughter Sofya. The mayor looked on in horror at the blood that had been spilt in this battle.
“Holy fuck!!!!!!!!!” the mayor screeched, as he ran down the stairs to the warehouse floor below.
Marley, who had been frozen in fear, snapped out of his paralysis and followed his boss down the steps of the riser. On the floor below them, Sofya used her magic to wake Chris up. Michael smiled brightly when Chris began tenderly rubbing the back of his head.
“Chris!!!!” Michael exclaimed. “You’re ok!!!!”
Buddy barked happily, as he licked Chris’ face with his long, slobbery tongue.
“I wouldn’t say I’m great” Chris replied with a groan “but I’m alive. That’s what counts.”
When he sat up, Michael gave him a big hug. Chris, in response, hugged him back tightly, trying to be mindful not to choke his boss’ husband with his embrace. Buddy nuzzled up to his chest, before Chris let a hand off of Michael’s back to rub the dog’s furry body. Buddy panted happily at the strong feel of Chris’ gorilla hand stroking him gently.
“He’s alive” Freddy thought to himself. “Chris is ok.”
Surveying the warehouse floor, Sofya noted all the bodies lying on the floor. Half of the room was dead, as the concrete floor was soaked in their blood. The other half were either moaning in pain, unconscious or nearing their inevitable deaths. The battle was hard fought, but her team were victorious in the end. Despite this victory, though, the toughest battle was yet to come.
Landing on the ground quietly, the wizard decided to walk through the bodies to reach his daughter Sofya on the other side of the floor. He saw the men who were still alive crying out in agony.
“I need an ambulance” one officer cried out through tears.
“I didn’t sign up for this shit” another other complained while groaning.
“Pathetic” the wizard snorted to himself, as he continued to survey the bodies on the floor.
Running after him from the riser, the mayor and Marley caught up to his side.
“Stay back” the wizard ordered. “You don’t want to get too close to them yet.”
The mayor and Marley stood in place, as the wizard continued to approach his daughter. Sofya glared at him angrily, as he made his way over to wear she knelt.
“Well done, my love” the wizard said, as he gave her a genuine round of applause.
“Fuck you!” Sofya spat out in reply.
“I wasn’t being sarcastic, in case that’s what you were thinking. I am genuinely, with absolute sincerity, impressed with how easily you took out this army like it was nothing.”
Buddy growled in his direction, as Michael held him tightly and Chris started to stand up.
“Sit down, you dirty ape” the wizard spat out, as he forced Chris back onto the floor.
Buddy continued to bare his fangs, while Tom slowly scooted himself to the entrance of the warehouse.
“You’re not going anywhere, Tom” the wizard said, as he locked the door and forced Tom back onto the floor.
Tom was flung across the room by the wizard's magic, forced to crash into Michael, Buddy and Chris.
"Ow" Michael groaned in pain, as Tom slowly sat himself back up.
Buddy whimpered in pain, as Chris sat him back up and rubbed him gently on his back.
“That was a great disguise, Sofya. I was really impressed with how good of a job you did back at the mayor’s house. You really had that pathetic man fooled. You almost had me convinced as well.”
“What?!?!” the mayor spat out. “Are you fucking—“
The wizard used his magic to seal up the lips of the mayor and Marley. They grabbed onto their mouths, trying to break the zippers off, to no avail.
“Useless mortals. Anyways, Sofya, as I was saying, had I not been the highly powered wizard that I am, I admit that I would have fallen for your ruse too. Unfortunately for you, you know that your tricks would never work on me.”
“Fuck you!” Sofya spat out again.
“Is that how you were raised to speak to your father? I know I raised you with better manners then that.”
“You raised me to be your slave! That’s only the start of the abuse you gave me throughout my centuries of life!”
Sofya stood up and walked closer to her father. Michael held onto Buddy, who started to shake in fear.
“It’s ok, Freddy” Michael whispered into Buddy’s ear, hoping to calm him down.
Chris continued to stroke Buddy’s back, while Tom tried to inch himself away again, hoping to reach the exit.
“You weren’t my slave” the wizard said defensively. “You were my daughter and I raised you from the time you were born to—“
“You kept me in your control for centuries!” Sofya interrupted. “You erased nearly every memory I’ve ever had! You murdered innocent children, hundreds or maybe even thousands of them, to perform those evil rituals on me! You lied to me about my past! You keep my age frozen in time! You never allowed me to grow up! You never allowed me to grow old! You never gave me the right to become an adult and live my own life! You are not worthy enough of calling yourself my father!!!!!”
“Sofya, please. I think you should hear things from my perspective.”
“No!!!!! I have nothing further to say to you and I don’t want to hear what your excuses are either!!!!!”
Sofya tried to point her finger at him to cast a spell, but was jolted by the wizard’s own defense spell. She fell onto the floor, but quickly got herself back up again.
“You should hear me out” the wizard said calmly “before you so reflexively reject my olive branch to you.”
“Olive branch?!” Sofya asked with a sneer. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”
“You owe it to me—“
“I don’t owe you shit!!!!!”
“You should at least hear what I have to say.”
“I’m not interested in hearing anything that comes out of your wicked mouth!!!! We’re here to get that ring and—“
Sofya was jolted again, though this time it took her longer to get up. She let out a pained moan, as Chris helped her stand up this time.
“You’ll never defeat me in battle” the wizard said nonchalantly. “Even though your magical abilities have significantly improved, I have centuries, even a millennium, of experience, training and power on you. Plus, I am at least half wizard, whereas you are only a quarter witch at best. The power disparity between us strongly rules in my favor. It’s not even close.”
Sofya growled angrily, as she felt a strong pain in her ribs.
“Plus” he continued “you had to take on an almost two hundred men army just now, including some very well trained assassins. They were never going to be able to defeat you, but they didn’t have to. They did the jobs they were sent out to do so valiantly. Your energy level is depleted and now you’re running on fumes. If you tried to charge at me now, you’d die in an instant.”
Sofya panted heavily, as she continued to feel a pain growing inside of her.
“Allow me to explain to you why I did what I did” he went on. “Sofya, you were born in an age where witches like you were persecuted in Europe. If I hadn’t frozen your age and had allowed you to grow into adulthood, then you wouldn’t even be standing here in this room right now. The world is a cruel place now and it was an even crueler place back then. With your magical abilities, it was bound to get the attention of the wrong individuals. You’d pay for the ‘crime’ of your genetics with your life.
“Sofya, they would have accused you of witchcraft centuries ago and sent you to your death. I didn’t want to see you go in such a horrific way. I wanted you to be around and to be able to live a life that wasn’t full of persecution and threats of an early death. By keeping you in my protection and freezing your age, I was able to allow you to live a life, by protecting you from this cruel, sick world of Earth. Look at the sniveling cowards like the man who gathered this army here tonight.”
The mayor continued to struggle with removing the zipper, but could not take it off of his mouth.
“This man is a monster” the wizard pressed on, while pointing in the mayor’s direction. “The type of cowardly fool who would send others to their deaths in order to do his dirty work. If he was a man of any honor at all, he would have killed Freddy Benson himself. These were the types of people you were bound to run into in the mid century Europe, Sofya. They would have killed you, like how so many of our kind perished at their hands, and you’d be nothing but a footnote in history.
“I gave you a life. I gave you your safety. I gave you the ability to thrive, free of the threats that this evil world places onto people like us. I gave you my love. I gave you a happy home. You were never for want or need. I always gave you a roof over your head. I always kept you fed. I gave you the clothes you wore on your back. I gave you love. Wasn’t that enough?”
“Some form of love that was!” Sofya spat out in response.
“Sofya, my love, don’t you understand? I did what was best to protect you and keep you safe.”
“That wasn’t your choice to make!!!!!!!!”
Sofya trembled in anger, as she pointed an accusatory finger in her father’s direction.
“You denied me my right to grow up! You denied me my right to make friends! You denied me my right to know my past! You denied me the right to choose the life I wanted for myself!”
“If I had let you go all those centuries ago, Sofya, then you wouldn’t have lived much of a life on your own for very long.”
“That wasn’t your choice to make! You denied me the right to choose for myself what I wanted to do with my life!”
“Well, you’ve chosen your life path now, so how did it turn out for you?”
Sofya stood silently for a moment, as she placed her hand back to her side. The wizard looked at her curiously, anxiously awaiting her answer.
“It’s hard to say” she replied honestly. “When I finally got you sent away to prison, it was the first time in my life that I had freedom. The freedom to choose. The freedom to decide. The freedom to make mistakes. The freedom to grow. The freedom to learn. The freedom to love. I had control over my destiny, but admittedly, it was a mixed bag. I had a lot of fun, but found, over time, that it was an empty existence. I had a lot of lovers, until I found one who satisfied me the most.”
“He cheated on you!” the wizard spat out.
“Shut the fuck up!!!!!!!”
“You were so blinded by love, that you didn’t see what any half way intelligent wizard could see!”
“Love can blind people to do things that are mistakes! You should know this better than anyone!”
The wizard wouldn’t show it on his face, but he admitted to himself that she made a great point.
“Otherwise” he thought to himself “I would have just killed Freddy Benson and his cohorts already.”
“I admit that I was blind to who Roberto really was” she continued “but when this is over, I plan to file for divorce from him and start a new life again.”
“Wasn’t your whole point in leaving me to settle down and not to keep running around to start new lives? How is that working out for you, my dear?”
“Shut the fuck up!!!!!”
“It’s just an observation, Sofya. No need to get so angry.”
“Save your false show of concern!!!!! One good thing that came out of my marriage was my son, Nikolas! My son is the love of my life!”
Chris began to tear up, as he worried for Sofya in that moment. He remembered that they had made love just hours ago, without the use of protection. A part of him thought that maybe she was carrying his own offspring and worried for her safety and that of their unborn child.
“A grandson?” the wizard asked with a hint of emotion in his voice. “I have a grandson?”
“Your offspring had a child, but you do not get the right to call him grandpa or Nikolas your grandson!”
“Sofya, please.”
“No! He’s the only reason I feel I can go on in this life. I don’t have a lot of friends! I don’t have a job! I don’t have a happy marriage anymore! All I have is my son, but even that has been hard for me to maintain! He doesn’t always connect with me, but I know deep down that he loves me!
“It’s hard to keep living, even with Nikolas around! I don’t belong in this century, dad! I don’t belong in this millennium even!!!! You denied me my right to die when it was my time to go! You have prolonged my life longer than it should have gone on for!!!!!!”
“I wanted you to be around, Sofya. I didn’t want to spend all those centuries alone. I have a longer lifespan than almost all living creatures. I couldn’t bear to spend the last six centuries alone without you by my side. I want you to come back to me with Nikolas.”
“Never!!!!!!!!”
“Sofya, please. I love you. I’m sorry for what I did to you in the past, but I was trying to protect you and keep you alive. I want to make things right with you and I want to see my grandson. Please, let’s find a way to move on from the past and work towards a future together. As father and daughter, with Nikolas by our side, we can be a happy family again.”
Sofya spat in his face, which landed with an acidic splat. The wizard did not touch it, as it fell down his cheek onto his clothes.
“Never!!!!!!!” she repeated in anger. “What we had could never be considered a family!!!!!!! You were a monster who enslaved his own daughter against her free will!!!!!! You should have stayed in prison where you belong!!!!!”
“I will never go back to that dreaded place!!!!!”
“You’ve hurt so many people, Victor! You’ve murdered tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people! Your actions have gotten tens of millions of people killed throughout the centuries! You are an evil monster! Villains like you deserve to stay behind bars for all of eternity!”
“Is that how you see your father, Sofya?!?! The man who raised you from birth and loved you for all these centuries?!?!?! As some sort of cartoonish villain?!?!?!”
“You are an evil man and you must pay the price for your crimes!!!! You will never have a relationship with me and you will never see my son!!!!!!!!!!!”
“You will never send me back to that place!!!!! It was bad enough that your betrayal of your own father landed me in that god forsaken place to begin with!!!!! If you won’t reconcile with me and let me see my grandson, then I have no choice, but to finish what I tried to do two decades ago!!!!!”
The wizard put up a defense shield, as Sofya tried to penetrate it with her magic. The remaining people in the room looked on in shock, as Sofya tried, but failed, to penetrate her father’s shield. Exhausted of her magic and all of her strength, the wizard let down his shield and looked at her with an angry expression on his face.
“You should have agreed to reconcile with me!” he spat out. “You just made a big mistake! Your son will resent you for all of eternity!!!!!!”
Buddy looked up at the wizard and barked loudly in anger. Baring his teeth, he charged at him with the intention to stop his attack.
“Freddy!!!!!!!!” Michael called out to him, with tears flooding from his eyes. “Don’t do it!!!!!!! Get back here right now!!!!!!!!!”
Buddy jumped up to attack the wizard, but was hit with a powerful bolt of lightning. Whimpering in pain, he fell to the floor and landed on the concrete with a loud thud.
“No!!!!!!!!!!!” Michael yelled, as he got up and ran towards Buddy’s canine body.
“Michael!!!!!!!!” Chris called out, as he tried, but failed, to grip onto his leg, as he ran towards his husband.
“Wow” the wizard said with a satisfied smirk on his face, as Michael covered Buddy and tried to rouse him awake. “That was even easier than I thought it would be. He just let me kill him. One down and now four more to go.”
Tom, in a panic, got up and ran over to the entrance, trying desperately to open up the door. It would not budge, so he could not escape the horrors happening in the warehouse at that very moment.
“Help!!!!!!!” he yelled, while banging the door. “Somebody help us!!!!!!!! Somebody get us out of here!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The wizard chucked to himself, as he pointed his finger at Sofya. Before she could gather the strength to stop him, he let out another bolt of lightning. It landed sharply in her chest, causing her body to convulse. Sofya cried out in agony, as she was jolted to death. Her eyes closed shut and she collapsed onto the floor. Victor had done what he couldn't do in the cabin two decades earlier. The wizard successfully killed his own flesh and blood.
“Sofya!!!!!!” Chris called out to her, as he got up, ran over to her body and covered her with his hulking frame.
Michael’s tears rolled down from his eyes, as he saw the unconscious body of his husband, as a dog, on the floor in his hands.
“Freddy!!!!!!” he called out. “Freddy, wake up!!!!!! Please wake up!!!!!! Please don’t leave me like this!!!!!!”
Michael continued to shake at Buddy, but found there was no pulse, breath or sign of left. Freddy was dead, killed by the wizard.
“No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he boomed out loudly in pain.
Chris tried to shake Sofya awake, but couldn’t arouse her.
“Sofya!” he cried out, fearful that she had no pulse or sign of life left in her. “Sofya! Please wake up!”
The wizard let out a chuckle, as he walked over to where Michael hovered over Buddy’s dead body. The mayor and Marley’s muzzles were removed, causing them to feel their faces in joy. The mayor, seeing the dead corpse of his political rival in Michael’s arms, let out a maniacal laugh.
“Hahahahahahaha” the mayor cried out in triumph. “He did it! Victor did it! He killed off my commie rival! Freddy Benson is no more! Soon, I’ll be president of this whole damn fucking country! All those useless advisors who thought I was crazy will have to watch from hell as I rule all of the United States!”
Marley gulped nervously, fearful at this show of insanity by his boss. He turned his head to the wizard, as he approached Michael with a mischievous smirk on his face.
“You monster!!!!!!!” Michael yelled, as he looked up at the wizard in anger.
Michael’s face was red as a tomato. His nose was runny and his face was full of tears.
“You killed him!!!!!!!!!” he shouted in anger.
“Don’t worry yourself so much about that” the wizard replied with a chuckle. “You two won’t be apart for very long. He’s not the only one I intended to kill tonight.”
The wizard pointed his finger at Michael, with the intention of sending off another deadly bolt of lightning. Michael started to panic, as his life flashed before his eyes. He saw that Chris was hovering over Sofya a little further away, freaking out as his limbs began to change.
“Fuck!” Chris exclaimed, as he watched his arms and legs shrink and return to their normal state. “No! Not now! I still needed to use those!”
Chris let out a frustrated groan, as his limbs got less hairy and the color of his hands and feet returned to normal. His muscle shrunk and his leotard disappeared. Standing over Sofya, naked as the day he was born, he let out a gasp, while he tried to cover his exposed penis.
Michael continued to panic, as the wizard hovered over him. He had a dark rage in his eyes, as his finger began to charge up. Michael was worried about what he was leaving behind if he died in this moment, at the hands of the evil wizard.
“My son” he thought to himself. “My mother. My future. The protection of Earth. All of that is gone. Once he kills me, then he’ll kill Chris, Tom and anyone else who stands in his way. If he kills me right now, then humanity’s chances of salvation are over.”
Michael had another thought, one that he felt guilty about feeling.
“At least I’ll be reunited with Freddy now. I won’t have to worry about living without him.”
The wizard was about to shoot his bolt of lightning, when Michael let out a screech of fear.
“This is it. This is goodbye.”
In that moment……