Role

Chapter 7

There is a penis on the floor of my apartment.

It lies there inert, like a hairless caterpillar bathing in scarlet. It's
there because its former owner expired before I could get around to feeding
it to him. Alas, Rage has not lent itself to good planning. Carnage, on the
other hand? My apartment will testify to its capacity for that.

Before me is an artists' work. A masterpiece of violence. A holy tribute to
the god of Rage. I slump into a chair, not caring about the squish of blood
and dead flesh as I do. It has been thirty-seven straight hours of mayhem
that only ended because the mortal coil of the three Crows, at last, gave in
to my savagery.

With their lives went the hottest flames of my fury, and now I feel weary to
the bone. And hungry. I pick up someone's thumb and gnaw on it, glad for the
readily available sustenance.

I'm going to have to move.

The entirety of the room is adorned with different hues of crimson. Some are
splattered, like when a fast-moving carriage splashes muddy water onto a
white-washed building. Some are in denser puddles, more like a spilled
bucket. Three days of three men's blood mingles on my floor, four walls, and
ceiling.

There are a variety of small body parts lying everywhere. Fingers, toes, the
crumpled glop that was someone's eyelid. A chunk of purple flesh that was a
lower lip. One man's dark gray hand and wrist is on the ground, its base
bound with one of my ropes. That I tightened again and again until the limb
died. Then I sawed it free.

Swallowing the last of my snack, I look at my houseguests, all swollen,
bloody, bound, and dead. Cuts mar each one from head to whatever toes remain.
Ligature marks snake their way around every limb and neck. I wish I knew a
healer that could have kept them alive longer so that I could multiply their
suffering over weeks instead of days.

I never realized just how much I was missing out on by hanging my victims -
what a waste. I could have had so much more fun! This has all been a somewhat
unexpected benefit to my newfound Rage.

And I have no intention of stopping here. All the world must know of my gift.
All must feel my Rage.