4.

Time heals all wounds? Sometimes it does no such thing and only sets in motion what it is you had set out to change in the first place. Two men sit back-to-back gagged and chained in a large, darkened room of a rundown building. There are broken glass panels a plenty, through which a brisk cool breeze blows.

A young woman circles them taking slow, steady menacing steps.

'Three times ...' she says, 'three times we've tried this and you two have failed each time. Like how difficult can it be?'

One of the two men makes a murmuring sound, so she removes his gag.

'Maybe it's time itself Miss Hansen. It is against us and can't be changed no matter what we do. It's weird but it kinda fights back, if ya know what I mean?'

'I am time, you fool. No one knows time better than me ...'

She unhooks a leather whip from the side of her belt and lets it extend to the ground. Continuing to circle she lets the thought sink in with those she holds prisoner that she is about to use it upon them and there is nothing either of them can do about it.

'Useless ... utterly useless ...' her frustration clear in her voice and how she speaks, further enhanced by the crack of the weapon she now rarely is without.

'Please ...' speaks he who is ungagged in realization that he and his cohort are in serious danger.

'Please ... what ...?' she says having calmed her tone. This doesn't have to be a venting of anger; it can be a time of ... play, a pleasure releasing act of violence.

'We can try again' he says as she moves past him, on to face that cohort of his.

'Try again, huh? Ya know, they say three is the magic number and you two have had your three opportunities. There will be no more opportunities.'

'Please ... you don't have to do this ...'

'Oh, but I do ...' and for the first time on this occasion she uses that whip she is so fond of.

The sound the whip makes when it connects with its target is disturbing enough to the ungagged man but hearing his partner moan with the cotton gag preventing a scream ... well. Tears begin to well and a throat becomes lumpy. Another strike of the whip, then another ... what is worse ... dealing with the sounds and movement of a partner's struggle or knowing that you are next?

A whip unleashed again and again and again ... then a body goes limp ... he can feel the tug it has on the joint constraints. He begins to cry ... something he would never be caught doing under any other circumstance being the tough guy that he is. He turns his head in an attempt to see any sign that his partner is still alive though the sight of drops of blood hitting the floor one after another confirms the worst.

She lets that sink into him before moving into position. What she has come to do is only halfway done. He could try pleading some more but knows he would only be delaying the inevitable so he does the one thing that would end it quickly.

It builds within him; it entices it along then releases an anger upon her. 'Fuck you bitch ... do you hear me? ... I said F U C K Y OU ...'

Tears are in full flow. His eyes and his face have turned a sickening kind of red. His words have worked as intended and she wastes no time in dispensing of him. She whips him ... many times ... not taking time to savour it like she had with her prior victim. At that too, it backfires on him for his perception forces him to deal with it as if it were occurring in slow motion. She soon calms herself and circles her handiwork. Enough time has been wasted ... as if time for her could ever really be wasted.

A small oval object within her right hand is pressed and a large rectangular portal of white light opens up behind her. She walks through it and the light dims almost immediately after she has passed through it, and she is gone. She doesn't need a device like this, what she uses in this moment is just for show even though there is no one around capable of viewing anything she is doing. There are only those two others un the immediate vicinity and neither are still among the land of the living, still theatrics have become her thing.

The two men are found three days later by a homeless couple looking for somewhere to temporarily hold up and as soon as it can come through, DNA testing and the likes identifies the two men as being young boys who are very much alive and living not so very many miles away. Such findings can only baffle those in a position those in authority possessing such information.

5.

That kidnapping attempt of a fourteen-year-old boy was probably the worst thing to come round for Michael Reilly Junior. He has been set a task he does not want to perform and now it has been made all the more difficult as for interfering in that kidnapping attempt has given him reason to care about that fourteen-year-old boy and delaying performing his task until after a three week-long boxing tournament further extends the difficulty in having to perform that task set before him.

Throughout the weeks after the attempted kidnapping, Paul was shuttled to and from training but with training sessions increasing in preparation for the tournament, the shuttling became a difficulty until a point came after Michael having gotten to know Paul and his family all the better, a suggestion had been made that he could transport the boy whenever he needed transportation.

Michael had the staff in place in his beloved little corner of the world that wasn't actually his, including a young lady named Greta Turner, to cover shifts at that corner house pub while he was away so he indeed could spend some time away from business and be happy enough that life will go on and with ten percent of pub profit going to the boxing center, Michael had more than one vested interest in how things progressed.

The first journey from Paul's home to the boxing center hosted by Michael was a little awkward; Michael had no idea what to be saying to Paul. At fourteen, Paul is more than an average child, he is smart, intelligent and he definitely can handle himself, so it is not very long before the awkwardness becomes a lot less ... awkward.

There had been no plan for Michael to go to the boxing tournament itself though at some point during the day before the event was to begin Paul asked Michael to be in his corner and Michael agreed to do so without giving it a moment's thought. The van incident where Michael came to Paul's aid has Paul feeling all the better while being in Michael's company. He has no idea of a task demanded upon Michael by Darkness himself, how could he?

The first tournament battle for Paul would prove to be a difficult one. To get to a final Paul would have to do battle nine times over three weeks and then, all going well, take on the final itself. The tournament facility has ten rings with fights to occur continuously to take in different age range tournaments and weight classes. Fight one for Paul would include three rounds each to last three minutes.

This is the first time the young fellow had has entered a tournament and that first round indeed is a most difficult one, paying into his lack of experience. Right from the off he has an added battle. Head gear can only protect so much when a full-on punch to the face hits and for a second or two it takes his vision. He manages to take a step or two backwards to compose himself and with such action he avoids a second and third connection.

He sees out the round and is behind with only two rounds left to redeem himself. He has no time to waste if he is to proceed in the competition. Despite not being a trainer or an instructor, Michael is indeed in Paul's corner and he has a few words to offer to the boy before round two gets going.

'C'mon Paul, deep breaths, you have this. You have done the work in training and know what you need to do. You can really do this; I know you can. Go on young man, you've got it.'

Yeah, these words do instill a confidence in a young boxer, the next two rounds are tough though they do go Paul's way and Michael is filled with just as much joy as what Paul and his trainers have when the result reveals that it has gone his way, the way of this level's youngest competitor.

Paul goes the distance winning eight more times to get to the final, going on to find the final not to be as difficult as the first bout he took part in. In this he takes his very first boxing title and with how close he and Michael have unintentionally become, there is no way Michael can see out his own mission.

To add to this, Michael so happens to be in the vicinity when a second attempt is made to grab Paul. Not long after his victorious championship win Paul is getting changed and Michael is waiting close by the changing rooms. There is a scuffle within the changing room and Michaels does not hesitate in checking it out. Once again two men have made an attempt to grab the boy and they don't hang about when Michael intervenes. Paul is safe once again due to Michael's presence.

A third attempt is also to be foiled a few weeks after this day with Michael yet again being present, taking on the same duo as before. Yeah, they were waiting for him within his home when no one else was home. Michael, still shuttling Paul on occasion, feels something is not right and waits, to see in his vehicle's rear-view mirror, Paull being pulled inside his own home.

How could he perform the task asked of him after all this? It just can't be done.

September has come and the joys of a great tournament are now a memory. A long working day has come to an end where only Michael and Greta Turner are left in that public house which is not quite his. Darkness is with Michael and Darkness is not happy.

'You have not completed your mission ...' it says. 'I have given you time and lots of it and yet you have not even tried. Instead, you have become his friend.'

Michael listens as Darkness moves around him and fears what it may speak next.

'There are consequences for not listening to me ...'

An indication is made towards Greta and Michael knows all too well what this means.

'No, please don't ... just give me a little more time.'

'What's that?' asks Greta from across the floor but of course Michael had not been speaking to her.

'I was just about to ask you ...' he says thinking quickly, 'that if you hang on here a few minutes to lock up, I can give you a lift home.'

'Oh, that's alright ... I'll be fine. The walk will do me good ...'

Darkness being true to who and what it is carries out an unspoken threat and this is the night Greta Turner is attacked, an attack which sees her kill in self-defense and also become pregnant with a daughter with whom Darkness will go on and lay claim to. Michael begins to distance himself from Paul Malone and is not asked again to take the boy's life and his relationship with Darkness fades as does the relationship with Paul though he still does take joy and pride in the success that does come Paul's way.

Twenty-one years pass and Lexi Hansen has an odd request to demand of two men. She offers a compensation neither can refuse, compensation neither get to claim for in 1999 she takes their lives, leaving their remains in a time they do not belong ...