The Ones Who See
The one, number one, began speaking in the ceremonial hall: “My brothers, it is a pleasure to see you back here again” he paused to hack out some more brown sludge onto the podium, he had been having this problem for weeks but found no answer. Hence why he founded the society, to cure what was wrong with him, “Brothers, do not forget why we are here, we must cure me. I had intended for the king to cure me but he was no help for me. Out of malice I had thrown him out of a window, but unfortunately I have had to send you out to do my bidding” he readjusted his cloak, it always seemed to be uncomfortable on his bloated neck fat, “we tried raiding the laboratories after one of my goo samples had been cross contaminated with one of the goo samples, but to no avail. We attempted to silence that dissenter in his window, but to no avail.” he coughed some more, the flecks of brown that were still in his throat got hacked out, “We are not a malicious group and I regret how we have conducted ourselves. But, we must commit one more act of indecency. THE COURIER!” he screamed, his voice echoing across the halls and around the heads of the black-cloaked members, “this courier has managed to thwart my every attempt to simply do what the doctors could not and cure me. It has been made clear it is either my life or his, and I think, brothers, that it’s best he goes down instead.
The members all began a low hum that was amplified by the stone walls of the refitted sewer. The low chant began and eventually morphed into a loud, pulsing bellow. They knew what their prerogative was: find the courier and kill him. The courier de-cloaked himself and emerged, jostling the crowd in front of him, “Yeah I know…” he began, “A tired trope, but hey, why fix what ain’t broke am I right?”
“Ah, Mr courier, good of you to drop in” the leader began, “I’m not letting you goad me into any kind of personal fight, everyone: kill him.”
All of the cloaked men jostled each other, jockeying for position to be the person to bring the death blow to the intruder, their mortal enemy. The leader and the courier were the only ones to notice the rope being lowered from the glass roof.
“Wait, everyone stop!” the leader shouted, “STOP HE HAS PLANNED SOMETHIN-” he bellowed, being interrupted by the rising of his foe to meet his eye level.
“No goading, I came up her to face you myself.” A boulder emerged, casting a shadow on the entire group of people “NOW!” He shouted down to the hooded figures, “I want you all to decide your fate: either try to exit this group, abandon your master and never come back. Or you can die and be squished by this boulder, the choice is yours.”