Julio wanted to be invisible. In the beginning, he started with the motive to make objects disappear. Most magicians used a prop or elaborate stage mechanic but Julio turned to dark forbidden arts. His show partner Louisa never agreed to it.
Late nights of experiments in his basement lab always ended with sharp arguments. Once Julio made a greenish concoction and poured it on a rabbit. The rabbit disappeared for a split second then the flesh materialised. The flesh was bleeding and melting to the bone as the rabbit writhed in its death throes.
"Maybe it doesn't work on animals," Julio said sweeping the dead mess into a bag. "I got to try it on humans."
"Are you mad? You're obsessed with this stupid trick," Louisa said while tears wet her eyes. "If you're going to kill yourself, do it without me. I'm done."
"I need you," Julio said grabbing her thin arms. "We are so close to success. Didn't you see? The rabbit disappeared for a second." His wild eyes bore into her.
Louisa trembled. "Don't you understand? It's not possible to be invisible. God didn't intend it for us." Louisa shook him off, snatched her leather coat and wore it hastily.
"God, God?" Julio glared at her. "You don't get to play the god card on me." His voice raised steadily. "God abandoned me long ago when he took my wife away."
"Took away? No. She left for the same reason I'm leaving you," Louisa said, opening the heavy metal door. "God had nothing to do with it." She left, slamming the door and the room shuddered.
Julio grabbed a knife and imagined digging it into Louisa's face. He gutted a few dogs, cat and mice, hanging the disemboweled carcasses on meat hooks. The sounds of animal screams filled the room. One puppy whimpered in the corner.
"Come out little doggy, I don't wanna hurt you." Julio wiped the knife on his blood stained clothes. The puppy dashed out, hitting the table leg. The blood of the animals hanging overhead sloshed into the potion Julio prepared and it glowed brightly. Julio knew he had the solution. "The life is in the blood!"
He grabbed the puppy by its ears and pulled it in opposite directions till he ripped the dog's face in half. He threw the ears, skin and flesh in the pot. The dog was yelping, skin flayed. Julio gently cut off its paws and threw it into the pot too. Then he blended the entire dog with a hammer, pouring the blood into the bubbling pot. He then flung the remaining carcass into the incinerator with the rest of the animal corpses.
He had a circular saw on the table and he split a few more cats lengthwise, pulling their legs through each side of the saw. The blood spray was fantastic, even onto the ceiling and beams. He drank some of the blood that coated his own lips. He placed the halves into neat stacks then proceeded to scoop the boiling potion onto the pile of carcasses.
Slowly, the pile of cat carcasses disappeared, first the fur, then the skin, flesh, bones and internal organs. It worked. The invisible potion worked! He splashed some of it onto a live monkey in a cage.
The monkey howled in abject pain as the liquid caused its hair to singe, burn and set the entire fur on fire. The monkey thrashed violently in the cage, then it became a moving pile of flesh and bones, then its bloody organs were visible. Then it disappeared - all that remained was a small pile of black slush at the base of the cage.
"Fascinating. It works very specifically on those whose blood has been mixed," he wrote in his blood specked logbook. Now for the final test - himself.
He brewed a new potion and slid his wrist with a serrated blade, dripping his blood carefully into the bubbling concoction. Then he dipped his hand into the boiling potion. It was unbearably painful. He pulled it out. His fingers disappeared but he could still feel it. He picked up a knife with his missing hand and the knife seemed to float in the air.
Julio jumped for joy and he poured the potion above his head, soaking himself through. He went in front of a mirror and saw nothing. He was invisible. But there was still a shadow cast. That meant he had to move in the shadows from now on.
He stripped naked. To test the practicalities of the potion, he washed his hands in clean water. His hands became visible again, meaning water washed the coating of invisibility away. But as long as he didn't contact water, no one could see him. He laughed dryly to himself.
Having coated himself with the potion, he left the room, feeling immensely powerful. The streets were crowded but no one could see him. One guy banged into him and looked around in shock. Julio giggled and walked off.
Julio spoke into a lady's ear some naughty things and she turned around to slap a gentleman who was innocently standing in line behind. A fight ensued and Julio just enjoyed the show. Then he remembered Louisa and all the hurtful things she said. Yes, he would punish her.
He went to Louisa's house and climbed in through the window. She wasn't alone. Her friend Marge was consoling Louisa over her breakup with him. Julio didn't realise how affected she was.
"Forget about Julio, that two-faced lowlife," Marge said, one hand on Louisa's back. "He has descended into madness."
Julio never liked Marge. She never had a good word for him. He turned on the shower in the bathroom. The water was piping hot.
"Do you hear water?" Louisa said.
"I'll check it out," Marge said in her whiny voice. Seconds later, Marge entered and Julio shoved her into the hot tub. Then he locked the bathroom door from the inside and watched in ecstasy as Marge's skin was burning and peeling off as she struggled in the hot water. She screamed wildly and tumbled out of the bath, disfigured and bleeding. The water in the tub was swirling in red. The coppery smell was awful.
"Are you okay?" Louisa said, pounding the door. "Open up."
Marge struggled to her feet and opened the door. Julio was standing just two feet from her and was careful not to let water touch him lest he be seen.
"Goodness, what happened?" Louisa helped Marge out of the room and called the ambulance and police. Julio knew Marge would be dead by the time they arrived.
Louisa ran to her bedroom to get some antiseptic cream and bandages when she heard the door close behind her. She sensed something was here. A ghost perhaps. She grabbed a scissors from her drawer and cut the air.
She gasped when she saw blood streaming down in the air.
"How dare you cut me?" Julio's voice said. "I am invisible."
"Julio? It worked?" She realised what was happening and she swiped the scissors wildly. She felt it connect against a palpable object even though nothing was there. Blood flowed.
Then the scissors was pried out of her hand and she was hit hard in the gut. She dropped to her knees, gasping for air. "Julio, stop, stop this please."
Her head snapped back with a blow to her chin and she collapsed on her back. She tasted blood in her mouth, searing pain spreading along her jaw. Her blouse was ripped open by an imaginary force, exposing her soft breasts. Her arms and feet were pinned down heavily and she heard a breathing sound a few inches away from her.
Blood was streaming down Julio's immaterial form, and Louisa saw the shape of Julio's chest and arms. She jerked her head upwards and her forehead smashed into Julio, cracking some bones and cartilage with a sick squelch.
Blood flowed freely down Julio's face, his nose broken. "You bitch, I'll scar you worse than Marge." His mouth was twisted in a horrible red shape. Something caught her hair and she saw her blood-caked scissors floating above, ready to pierce between her eyes.
Louisa turned her body sideways and Julio lost his balance. She crawled over to her dresser and took a can of powder. Her hands shaking, she screwed open the cap and hurled the contents out in a white cloud.
Julio coughed and the powder coated him. She saw his form. It was now or never. She took the scissors from the ground and leapt forward, driving the sharp tip into his soft throat, twisting the handle as blood spurted out all over her. They both rolled on the ground.
Julio gurgled in agony and his naked body went into a fit. Then he went motionless. Julio died as the man he wanted to become at the cost of everything, Louisa thought as the police barged in.
The police were baffled by the powdered form lying in a pool of blood. Some parts of his body were seen. Soon the case was swept under the carpet as a misadventure.
The next day, Louisa entered Julio's lab. She alone knew of its existence. It reeked of death and carcasses. She saw his logbook, the last vestiges of Julio. She kept it in her bag and locked the place up one final time.136Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDofW3eP3FU
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