No one was moving. Some were in wheelchairs, others lying down in the gaps in the shrubbery. All were staring up into the sky with content expressions. It was as if a number of stationary mannequins had been dotted about the place as decoration.
Medium stayed in the thicket for a while, observing the stationary people, but then he revealed himself, walking toward them with rough, deliberate footfalls.
And yet no one seemed interested in either his gleaming red eyes or the blade in his hand. They didn’t even try and look at him.
Soon he was standing next to a woman with abnormally white skin. She was sitting in a wheelchair. He peered at her, stooping over her to take a sniff. He heard her breathing, faintly. The woman showed not the slightest movement. Medium rubbed the top of her head with his knife-wielding hand. He parted her hair, as if savoring the sensation, and noticed that there were surgery scars across the back of her scalp.
He brought his knife-wielding hand back to his own chin, deep in thought.
Then he took a step back to gauge his distance before kicking the wheelchair viciously.
“Hey, you fucking blow-up doll! What’s the matter? Look at me, why don’t you?” He kicked her repeatedly as he shouted.
The wheelchair trembled but absorbed most of the impacts, and when the woman looked as if she were about to topple over, a cushioned arm extended from the chair’s frame to catch her body, propping her up.
Medium snickered. “What a fetish someone must have. All these living sex dolls…”
He looked around with a fierce grin on his face. However much he shouted, the people just stayed absolutely still without lifting a finger, the gentle breeze blowing against their blue hospital robes.
Medium took the hair of the woman he had just kicked about and put it neatly back into place. He took her hand that was resting on the armrest and stared at it intently. He picked up the fingers and licked them. Then he placed her left hand onto the armrest, fixed it into position, and severed her hand with his knife.
The woman’s body stiffened in an instant.
The smell of burning flesh pierced his nose as the wound was instantly cauterized. There was no blood. Medium took the severed hand in his own, smiled a satisfied smile, and placed the hand on the woman’s lap with a polite gesture.
Then he fixed her other hand to the armrest. He took his knife to her pinky.
Her pinky fell to the ground, like an off-cut from a vegetable he was paring.
He proceeded to neatly snip off her middle finger and then her thumb, enjoying the uneven shapes that he was creating in the process. The fingers fell one by one to the side of the wheelchair. As he did so, tears started welling up in the woman’s eyes, eventually brimming over and rolling down her cheeks. Medium noticed this and brought his mouth to her face, sticking out his tongue so that it tapered at its point, and licked the tears as they flowed down.
As he did so, her last finger fell to the ground, and Medium laughed. “This is great! Why don’t I see if I can replace my fingers here? And then on to my little kitty. That’s it. There’s plenty of treasure here to enjoy. It’s all wonderful. Wonderful!”
Just then,
A sound reverberated around Medium’s head. “Wha—?”
Medium leapt up. He was so surprised that he flew through the air, and even as he landed he went bounding back for cover in the vegetation. Running away, he reached the shade of a tree and quickly scanned the area with his glittering eyes. His breathing was rough. His face was a mask of fear.
More interference waves hit Medium.
“Where the hell are you? You fucking hacker bastard! Fucker, you killed my friends! You killed all my friends!” Medium screamed. Knife firmly in hand, he jumped out of the shadows, looking from left to right.
Medium’s voice stopped.
A young man walked slowly and steadily into the clearing.
He had evidently seen Medium—noticed his knife, even—but showed no sign of wariness.
He stopped just a short way away from Medium.
“Me? Who am I, you ask? Right, I get it now!” Medium took his sunglasses off, staring at the youth. His bright red eyes were wide open.
“You did it. Them. My friends.
Tweedledee tilted his head to one side, staring at Medium as if he were trying to work something out.
