characteresque

character :: Liam Sounders

The world was a sinful place, full of debauchery and hedonism, wicked people who wanted nothing more than bring pleasure to themselves and pain to others. Crime was rampant and religion had faded in the background of everyday living but there were a few smart, good men who managed to get the world in order. And it was from this old world that the new world with birthed, a glorious place free of crime, sin and indecency - at least, that was the idea anyway.

In Dallas, Texas, Liam Sounders is a miserable middle school teacher who had settled into a life of monotony following his marriage and the birth of his two children, Ronald and Abigail. In his earlier years, he had been an officer, proudly protecting the fine people of Dallas each night for fifteen glorious years and then, at the request of his pesky wife, he was asked to retire and Liam saw no other choice but to comply. Now, life is predictable but there is one place that Liam is getting this thrills lately: not from church, as most of the bible-thumping holy rollers do but through the nightly newscast featuring the latest breaking news of car accidents or roberries. As he watches it play out on the screen before him, Liam smiles wickedly; crime is beginning again.

It's this realization that causes him to break the cycle of sameness and give his students a new assignment, slipped as a bonus question into one of their quizzes so subtly that most of the dense ones wouldn't even think twice about:
How should we handle the rise in crime and what should we do about the criminals involved?

The answers, as Liam expects, are ignorant and half-assed, at best and there is hardly any worth noting...except one from a bright young pupil that Liam had his eye on: Sinclair Parker. He was a new child, a transfer from somewhere in the Midwest and it was his answer that got Liam to thinking...what if they were to change things? It took days of planning, months of presenting and years of training the silent killing machine Sinclair, molding him into a prototype of what this group could be. Meeting with government officials and pushing the idea through to the courts was the final step, yielding exactly what Liam was hoping for: his brain child, the Soldiers of the Lord, an answer to the criminals.

They would act as a specialized task force of officers, swooping in and taking the heathens out of polite society in the dead of the night - no trial, no jury, no evidence that they had even been there. They are an overwhelming success; crime begins to go down, those that are innocent feel safe and the everyday person is terrified of mistepping so much so that they provide them with their own name, whispers under their breath: the Nightmares. Liam enjoys the attention and even embraces the name 'Nightmares' and under his control, the group grows, prowling the streets at night for their next kill. All seems to be going well and Liam feels all powerful until Sinclair turns the tables on him.

Under the cover of darkness, Sinclair disappears practically overnight and within days, Nightmares are found dead with calling cards of Sinclair's left around the body like a hurricane of evidence. The government is threatening to pull the plug on the group and Liam is beyond furious - he is insane with rage and his new mission is clear: find Sinclair, kill him and any of his associates in order to get his vision of a perfect, God-fearing society back on track.

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