Arthur sat alone in his room. The mask with the glowing infinity symbols stared back at him from the table.
A strange whisper echoed inside his mind again.
"I felt a voice telling me to kill someone," Arthur muttered. "How dare my conscience order me. Or is it Satan? No. I do not believe in that nonsense. Back then I did not believe anything spiritual. But now it is happening."
He turned on his screen. News articles flashed. Christianity was spreading fast. A young boy had reached five billion followers worldwide. He lived simply. No luxury. No mansions. No scandals.
"Fascinating," Arthur said. "I will silence him."
From the unseen spiritual realm, Lucifer watched with interest. He smiled.
"Yes," Lucifer whispered. "Once he wants something done, it is done. And no one will ever know. Not even the best agents in the FBI."
Arthur put on his mask. The infinity eyes lit up. He walked into the night.
He arrived at a small, abandoned house on the edge of the city. This was the home of Jimmy, a psychopath known for murdering without pattern or emotion.
Arthur stepped inside. The room was dark. Blood stains covered the walls and floor. The air smelled of metal and decay.
Jimmy appeared silently behind him.
"Who are you?" Jimmy asked. "You have confidence to enter my house. Interesting."
Arthur did not move. He simply stared through the mask.
Jimmy tilted his head. "What does that mask represent? Infinite what?"
Arthur remained silent.
Jimmy laughed and grabbed a knife from a table covered in blood. "Time to die."
"Wait," Arthur said calmly. "I am the King of the Elites."
Jimmy froze. "That is a fictional story. A secret company that rules the world in the shadows. No one knows if it is true. Who are your members?"
Arthur laughed softly. "I am the Elites. I order powerful men to do my work. Then I kill them and make it look like an accident. Or I scientifically erase the event from their memories."
Jimmy laughed even harder. "Stop saying nonsense. Anything to avoid death."
Arthur stepped forward. "I need you to kill Ernest."
Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "And now you think you can order me around?"
He stabbed Arthur in the stomach.
Arthur collapsed to the floor. Jimmy ripped the mask off.
What he saw shocked him.
It was not Arthur at all. It was a dead girl. A microphone was placed in her mouth. Arthur had been speaking from a speaker inside the mask.
Jimmy tore her clothes open and saw a bomb strapped to her chest, connected by wires to a laptop on the floor.
Jimmy shouted, "Fine. I will do it. Do not press the button."
Arthur's voice came from the speaker. "Attach the timer bomb from the girl to the back of your neck. If you do anything foolish, you are finished."
Jimmy trembled but obeyed. He fixed the device to his skin.
The computer beeped. Arthur sent him a location.
It was Ernest.
At that moment, Ernest was standing on a sidewalk, arguing with a porn star and trying to convert her to Christianity. Crowds were recording the scene. Some laughed. Some mocked. Some listened.
Jimmy stared at the screen and slowly smiled.
"So he is really the King of Elites," Jimmy whispered. "A secret organisation made of only one man."
He walked into the night, the bomb on his neck glowing red.
And Arthur watched everything with cold, infinite eyes.
Ernest finished speaking with the woman he had just helped. She wiped tears from her eyes as he prayed for her.
When everything was done, he walked home quietly, unaware that someone was following him. The street was silent. The wind was calm.
Then a man stepped out from behind him and struck him hard on the head. Ernest fell instantly, and everything went dark.
When he woke up, he found himself lying on the floor of a room covered in blood. The walls were stained. The air smelled like iron and decay.
Ernest stood up in fear and ran out of the room. But outside, everything looked the same. Every hallway, every door, every floor tile. He was trapped inside a maze that made no sense.
Somewhere else in the same house, Arthur spoke calmly.
"Jimmy, give me ten seconds to explain why you did not tie him up."
Jimmy laughed a little. "That is what I always do. My victims never escape. My house is a maze. Every room is the same. It is like an endless square. They run but they never find the exit."
Arthur stared at him. "Just fail, and your life ends instantly, Mr. Demon."
Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "I should mention something. I am stuck too. The rooms are all the same. Normally I play hide and seek until I kill my victim, but I do not want to waste your time."
Arthur sighed. "Whatever. I already forced a tracker onto Ernest. Carry your tablet and watch him like a map."
Jimmy frowned. "His phone has full privacy. How did you get around that?"
Arthur answered coldly. "Humans lie to themselves to feel safe. Privacy is an illusion."
Ernest kept running, but every hallway led to another identical hallway. He passed blood pools, dead bodies, and a giant red symbol on the wall. He felt fear crawling up his spine.
He tried calling the police, but the signal was jammed. His phone fell to the floor. As he bent to grab it, he heard footsteps. He ran without looking back.
Jimmy found the phone and cursed.
Arthur said, "Give me thirty seconds to hear why I should not blow your head."
Jimmy raised his hands. "I will kill him. He will not escape. I guarantee it."
Ernest kept running, but the maze never ended. The house felt endless, even though he knew it had limits. He did not know that the only entrance was a hidden underground door in the center room.
After almost twenty minutes of running, Ernest found a girl tied to a chair. Her clothes were torn. She shook with fear.
"Please," she begged, "untie me. He kidnaps girls. He eats people. He raped me. He killed my friends. I am the only one who knows the escape."
Ernest froze. "So humans can be this evil. A cannibal. A rapist. How can humans be so far from God?"
She cried harder. "Do not try to forgive him. Do not ask for his life to change. You do not know what he did."
Ernest hugged her. "I am with you. We will escape. Just stay close."
They ran together. Suddenly Jimmy appeared with a bottle of acid. He threw it, but missed because the girl wrestled him to the ground.
Ernest froze. He had never fought anyone. Jimmy pulled a knife and aimed for her chest. She kneed him in the crotch, grabbed another knife from the floor, and stabbed him in the throat. She kept stabbing, again and again, filled with rage and trauma.
Jimmy collapsed, dead.
Ernest stepped back in horror. "Jesus would never want this. Only God gives life and takes life."
She laughed darkly. "This is revenge. And I am done being a victim."
She grabbed the bomb attached to her neck, tore it out, and threw it into the remaining acid. It dissolved instantly.
She and Ernest searched every room until they found the hidden underground exit. They crawled out, covered in sweat, fear, and relief.
She explained she had nowhere to go. Her old rental house was gone. Ernest said she could stay at his place for safety.
When they opened the door to his home, a gunshot fired. Both of them fell, shot in the legs.
Arthur stood in the doorway, calm, holding the smoking gun.
"I am always ready," Arthur said. He removed his mask.
Ernest screamed in shock. "Brother. I thought you died in that car accident."
Arthur stepped closer. "I faked it. That does not matter. I am your twin brother. I removed every tiny difference between us with surgery. I will use your face to build my new artificial intelligence and rule the world. I am perfect at copying emotions. People love you. They trust you. I will become you."
He continued speaking, calm and confident. "I will twist your words slowly. I will turn Christianity into my religion. People will think they are walking into Heaven, but they will be walking into Hell. I will erase the concept of good from humanity. I will force myself into your Bible. I read it. Lucifer is intelligent. He deceives and tricks. He failed. But I will succeed."
Ernest shouted, "Lucifer is defeated. And so are you."
Arthur smiled. "You still do not get it. Everyone will be like me. Being good will be a memory. I am worse than Satan."
Ernest yelled, "Then why are you not in the Bible?"
Arthur laughed. "Because I never do anything myself. People do everything for me. I am the ghost of evil. Unseen. Untouchable."
He pointed the gun at Ernest's forehead. "Goodbye, brother."
The gun fired. Ernest fell, bleeding out. As he drifted away, he whispered, "Thank you, Lord. For everything."
Arthur ordered his men to throw Ernest's body into a volcano.
Then he carried the girl to his secret lab, three hundred meters under Area 51. Only those with a diamond clearance card could enter.
The guards let him pass. He walked into the underground chamber. He looked at the girl and smiled.
"The real plan begins now. Things are about to get interesting."