Murphy's Rule (complete)

Over the next few weeks I'm going to write a different kind of story for the SWMU. This tale is going to be about a villain who takes things too far. It's a dark tale of what can go wrong when power falls into the wrong hands. Feel free to offer ideas and suggestions!

Murphy's Rule
By Dru

Angela Murphy was not your typical little old lady. And everybody knew it, because she saw no need to hide the fact. She rather enjoyed being hated. Why shouldn't people hate her? She hated them, after all.
"Is that all today, Mrs Murphy?" the teller asked, dropping the cat food into the large paper bag.
"It's Miss, you little bastard," she spat venomously. "I never saw no need to look after no man, and I sure as shit never needed one to look after me!"
"Um...sorry. So that'll be 17.28."
Amanda reached into her bag and pulled out a small purse. Having known exactly how much it would cost already, she upended the purse scattering change everywhere. The line behind her groaned.
"It's all there, sonny. You gonna count it?"
The teller had dealt with Angela many times, and knew that unless something was on special or the price changed, the grouchy old woman always had exact change. But it was always change. He didn't know how she managed to get a hold of so many coins all the time. It was why he insisted on calling her Mrs at least once a month. He knew she hated it.
"That's fine, Miss Murphy. You go on now."
"Damn straight, I'll go on."
Angela took her bag of groceries and left the small supermarket. She didn't like Cape Hope. It was sunny today, but she didn't like that either. Angela Murphy didn't like much of anything. As she got home her two cats rubbed on leg. She didn't like that much either. But she did love her cats, as much as the embittered woman loved anything.
Her house was large. She had money. She had money because she didn't spend it. Her kids...all of them mistakes...would wait in the distance for her death before they saw a cent. And then they'd have to fight over her will, which left everything to the Catholic Church. She didn't go to church, and didn't really hold much stock in things that required faith, but she did hate her kids.
Stepping into her kitchen, Angela flicked on the light and groaned. The mould was back. She put the bag of shopping down on the counter and got out her mould killer. It was a new product she'd purchased a few weeks ago, and was proving effective. The mould seemed to stay away. But there it was, spreading from the light fixture again. Grabbing a few sheets of paper towel she propped her handy little step ladder under the light and got up to spray the chemical and wipe away the mould.
Her cats, impatient for the food they knew was soon coming, rubbed against the ladder. Unfortunately, they rubbed against the same side. The ladder rocked on the uneven floor and Angela lost her balance. She fell toward the counter, breaking the top off the mould killer and splattering the chemical all over the place. As she bounced onto the tiles she felt a sharp pain in her arm. She nearly lost consciousness when her head struck the tiles, and paper towel...drenched with chemicals and mould...fell across her mouth. Just before she totally passed out, making one last ditch effort before she blacked out, Angela reached into her pocket and punched the big button on her emergency pager. That done, she gave up to the darkness.

Neither paramedics nor the police who let them in understood what had happened to the cats. Laying near their master they looked like they had been dead for months, their limbs shrivelled. They pulled the dead animals away and knelt by the woman.
"I can feel a pulse," one of the paramedics reported, holding the woman's wrist.
"Hey...are you alright?"
The man holding the fallen woman's arm became the centre of attention as he turned pale and slumped. "No...I..."
In the space of a few heartbeats the young paramedic seemed to shrink inside his uniform, his face becoming gaunt as his hair faded to grey. The woman stirred.
"Mmmm...thank you...that feels good."
"Get her away from him!" a young constable ordered, stepping forward to separate the paramedic from the rousing woman. When he touched her her felt a wave of nausea hit him, and he felt dizzy. He tried to move away, but his strength waned too quickly and he swooned. His partner grabbed him and pulled him back, watching in horror as an almost invisible gaseous substance kept the cop joined to the old lady.
"What did you give me?" the woman asked, now fully awake and sitting up.
The cop was as thin as the paramedic now, his hair grey and his skin pock marked and dry. He sighed and collapsed completely, the strange connection withdrawing back into the woman's body.
"Help me up."
Unsure what was happening, the other paramedic reached out to help the woman to her feet. He watched in horror as her wrinkles vanished, and he found himself falling to his knees.
"What's...happening?"
"I don't know!" the woman told him, clearly telling the truth. "But it feels great!"

Angela was buzzing, and as the man shrank and collapsed she found rising to her feet much easier than it had been in a long time. The last of her rescuers stepped back and drew his revolver, holding it on her. With his other hand he pressed the button on the handset of his portable radio.
"Officer down! I need assistance at the scene of the Murphy call." He tried to sound calm, but the operator picked up on his fear anyway.
"Roger that, 36."
"Why are you pointing that damn thing at me?" Angela demanded, taking a step forward. Her head was spinning, but surprisingly clear. Why would a cop be shaking in fear in her kitchen, pointing a gun at her? Where were the pains from her arthritis?
"Just stay the fuck where you are!" the officer barked.
Angela shook her head in disgust. "What's with young people today? How dare you bark orders at me in my own kitchen! And such language!"
"I'm warning you! Don't you move a fucking inch!"
Angela was shocked. She could swear like a trooper herself, but didn't expect it from a man in uniform. She looked down at the three men, and... "My cats! What in the name Mary and Joseph did you do my cats!" She dropped down next to her favourite, a tear welling up in her eye.
"Nothing. They were already dead. Whatever you did to my partner just now, you did to them."
"What ARE you talking about? I didn't do anything!"
"When the paramedic took your pulse, you...you sucked the life out of him."
"What the hell?" Angela looked down at the five corpses in her kitchen. They were shrivelled and dry. She did feel good...in fact, she hadn't felt this good in thirty years. When that man had helped her up, she had felt herself grow stronger. Yes...when she thought about, she had actually felt her health and vitality increase. It wasn't the effect of some drug they had given her. It was something else...something she very much wanted to feel again.
"And when my partner tried to save him," the cop continued, almost as if putting together more for himself than for her, "you sucked the life out of him too. That last guy was silly enough to touch you after that, and I think you saw yourself what happened to him."
"You're being ridiculous!" Angela accused, even as the way she felt confirmed his story. "Put down that damn gun!" She had to know...she had to see if she could feel it again.
"No chance. You just stay right where you are."
Frowning, Angela stepped forward and reached out for him. She didn't believe he'd really shoot her, but she was wrong. He shot her right between the eyes, and the world went black.
As the woman fell forward into him, the young cop cried out in horror. He felt himself fade with frightening speed the moment her skin touched his, and though he was fast to shove her away the sensation, though slowed, continued to eat away at his life. As he fell to his knees he watched the wound in her forehead spit the bullet out and heal itself. Just before he blacked out, he saw the woman's eyes pop open.
There was no doubt now. Something very odd was happening to Angela Murphy. Something she liked very much. There were four people so far who most likely would argue that it wasn't all that wonderful for them, but Angela sat up with a smile on her face and stretched her arms.
"Oh my god!" she breathed. "I feel fantastic!"
Her cats forgotten, the four dead men who had come to her aid unimportant, Angela practically jumped to her feet, and for the first time in decades ran through her house. She opened the bathroom door and as it swung aside to reveal her reflection in the mirror across the room, a mirror she hated, her jaw dropped and her heart leapt out of her chest. A shock like that would have killed her yesterday. She was younger. Much younger. Her hair still had tinges of grey, but for the most part it had regained it's darkness. The lines on her face had not disappeared entirely, but had been dramatically reduced. Anyone who saw her now would think 86 year old Angela Murphy was only about 55.
"Oh my."
Approaching sirens brought her back to reality, and Angela smiled. She needed more. She had to see if she could continue to steal the youth of others, and regain the beauty days long passed. Thanks to the constable's call for back-up, she wouldn't even have to leave her house to find out if she could get even younger.

Two patrol cars pulled up outside her house, and silenced their peircing sirens. Four policemen, unaware of the situation other than an officer was down, pulled their guns and approached the door cautiously. This was a quiet neighbourhood, but they were cautious by nature, and by training. Angela opened the front door and waved to them.
"Hello!"
"Are you Angela Murphy?" one asked.
"I am." Angela knew now she could be shot with no long term consequences, but it hurt like hell to get shot, and she wanted to avoid that if possible. And so rather than rushing out to steal their life force, and she fully intended to do so, she opted for a more deceptive approach. "Your two friends are inside having a cup of coffee! Come on in and I'm sure they'll explain everything."
"Is that so?" the skeptical cop who had assumed the lead role inquired. None of them put their guns away. "You in there, Frank?" he called, shouting past Angela and into the house. No reply came. "Okay, Mrs Murphy, I'm gonna need you step down onto the lawn while I confirm the officers inside are okay."
Angela frowned. She wanted to do this, whatever it was, inside the house and away from prying eyes. But while they had their weapons out they had all the power...for now.
"If you insist. But this is really just a misunderstanding. Why don't we all go inside and talk this out over a cup of tea?"
"Outside, please. Now."
"Alright!"
Angela stepped down onto the lawn and stood in front of them, hoping they wouldn't touch her until the time was right.
"You stand right there while Officer Platt and I investigate. The other officers will keep an eye on you until we can assess the situation."
Angela frowned. This wasn't an ideal situation, but she would have to work with it. As soon as the bodies were found, things were going to get out of hand real fast. As the two cops with her eyed her suspiciously, the lead cop and female partner walked into the house and started searching, calling out for the missing patrolmen.
"You want to tell us anything before they find something? It could make this easier for everyone."
"Well, there is one thing." Angela looked around to see the street was mostly empty, but there were several nosey neighbour openly gawking at the scene. Noting which ones, and a little chuffed at how clearly she could see them, Angela decided to start her test. She had nothing to loose.
As the cop stepped closer, both of them having secured their sidearms, Angela jolted forward and grabbed a hold of both of them. They gasped in unison, and instantly Angela felt the rush. Greedily, and wanting this done before she was interrupted, she consciously sucked their life force out of their bodies faster. The result was very satisfying, as she felt a jolt of energy flood her system, making her dizzy as the police providing her intense invigoration fell at her feet.
Inside the house the four dead men were discovered, and the discovery was instantly relayed to despatch. The female officer stuck her head out the door to tell the other cops to cuff and arrest Angela, only to see them lying on the grass in a similar state to the men she had just seen in the kitchen.
"What the hell did you do to them!" Officer Platt demanded, swinging her gun and assuming a wide stance on the porch.
"What could I have done?" Angela asked, surprising herself with her unfamiliar voice.
"On your fucking knees! Hands behind your head!" Platt turned her head a little back to the house to address her partner. "Frank! Get out here!"
Frank bolted out of the house and his eyes widened at what he saw. He pulled out his cuffs.
"Keep the gun on her." He approached cautiously, his eyes darting from the two bodies and back to Angela. She had the nerve to smile at him, tempting him to knock her down. Was she younger? The woman looked like she'd lost a decade...
"Are you arresting me?" Angela asked, her tone mysterious.
Frank moved in behind her.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say may be..."
His words died suddenly as he grasped her wrist and prepared to close the cuff.
"Frank! What's going on?" Officer Platt was horrified to witness her partner's fast demise. As he whittled away, she shot the perp twice out of sheer self-preservation. Whatever was being done to this strange woman's victims was not going to happen to her.
Angela felt the bullets bury themselves in her chest and stomach. But rather then pain, she could feel the inflowing energy focus somehow on the wounds and almost instantly her flesh rejected the bullets and healed over, her blood soaking back into her skin.
With a sneer, Angela finished Frank off and made a quick run at Officer Platt, who shot three more times before her assailant leapt forward and grabbed her face. She screamed, but did not suffer long.
Angela moaned in pleasure as the three fresh bullet wounds disappeared. She could feel her skin moistening, her muscles thickening. The pleasure was incredibly intense. Not only did Angela now feel like she was thirty again, she felt she was a strong and incredibly healthy thirty. She somehow knew that she was taking more than just her victim's youth, but their strength and vitality as well. What she left behind, and somehow she was certain of this as well, was all of their weaknesses, all of their flaws. And she had just discovered something else. Taking the life force of another woman was much more effective for her, and devastating on the victim. It was as though taking from the same sex was much more efficient than stealing life force from a man. She was intrigued, and rushed to a window to see her reflection.
"Oh my!"
The woman looking back at Angela in the pane of glass could not possibly be a day older than 35. Angela also noted that she was standing tall and straight again, and that her boobs were standing proud in a way they hadn't for half a century.
"I'm beautiful again!"
But it wasn't enough. She wanted more, and looking across the street at her nosey neighbour, she knew right where to go. Without any hesitation, Angela strolled toward the street and the house opposite hers, where Mavis Maloney was standing with wide eyes and an open mouth. Without a word, Mavis bolted into her house.
Angela smiled, knowing Mavis would call more cops, but that Frank had most certainly already done so anyway. In fact she could already hear sirens. But she had plenty of time, so she strolled calmly to Mavis's door and rang the bell.
"Hello?" she called out, her tone dripping with obviously false friendship.
"GO AWAY!" Mavis yelled, her voice coming from deep in the house and far from the door. "I CALLED THE POLICE!"
"I'm coming in, Mavis. Open the door or I'll smash the window."
"GO AWAY!"
Angela smiled, picking up a rock. She gave the glass panel beside the doorknob an experimental tap, and shattered it first go.
"That was easy!" she marvelled, having used very little force. But then, she must surely be much stronger. She felt much stronger, and she had the life force of eight people energising her. Placing a hand on the door she gave it a shove. It held a moment, then the wood splintered and the door swung open as she applied all the force she could muster. With a satisfied smile, Angela stepped inside and looked about for Mavis.

Nice work, Dru! Definitely going in the right direction.....

ElF

<10 minutes ago>

Angela still wiped her feet before entering Mavis's house. Mavis was in the hall with a baseball bat held ready to swing.
"Get out!"
Angela smiled at her long time neighbour, but the smile offered no comfort. The two women had known each other ever since Angela had purchased the house in 1973. Mavis had been in her twenties then, and the house had been her now deceased parents. In all that time they had spoken on three occassions.
"I just want to talk, Mavis. You don't need that."
Mavis gave the bat a swing, to show she meant business. "Stay away from me!"
"We have to talk about what just happened on the lawn."
"I saw everything! I don't know how you did it, but you killed them! You killed those police!"
"And now I guess I'm going to have to kill you."
Angela took a step, and Mavis swang her timber bat down at her head. With reflexes so fast it surprised both women, Angela caught the bat in her hand. It stopped dead, and did not sting her very much. With a little effort, Angela held the bat completely still as Mavis wrestled to get it back.
"Wow! I'm really strong!"
Smiling as Mavis turned beet red with effort, Angela calmly laid a hand over Mavis's white knuckles. While it was not nearly so potent as the rush she had got from the fit policewoman, Mavis still provided Angela with a satisfying buzz as she decayed under her hand. Mavis released the bat and fell backward to slide down the wall. Angela moaned, letting go of the collapsed woman and hugging herself.
A police car pulled up outside her house, and Angela knew they would spot the broken door soon enough so she made her way to the back door. Even though she could easily unlock the door and open it, Angela was eager to try her slightly increased strength. She slammed her palm into the middle of the door. The timber splintered, and split right down the middle, her hand going right through.
Angela felt so alive! Not only was she young again, but she didn't remember ever feeling this good in her whole life. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. And she wanted more...so much more. The police would no doubt be on her tail soon, so Angela walked to the tall back fence and, with a certain relish, broke her way through the old palings.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Oh...um...there's termites or something in this wood!" Angela hadn't expected the big man over the back fence to be home. But then, she had absolutely no reason to think otherwise when she considered it. "Come here and have a look at this!"
The large man strode down the yard toward her, grumbling about how there weren't any damn termites he's ever of in Cape Hope that ate treated timber. Angela held out a piece of the fence, and when the man took it she reached out grasped his forearm. He didn't even scream or call out, he just fell forward into her, his dilating eyes attempting to fix on her face. He had no idea that he was giving her all his strength, all his vitality. His unfocused eyes did not see the age lines around her eyes fade a little more, because his eyes were growing cloudy, and everything went black.
"Mmmmm. You're a strong fella. I mean...you were."
Angela let go of his arm and stood up straight. Stepping over the body she strode toward the house. The door was unlocked, and Angela could hear the man's wife inside working with a vacuum cleaner. Her mind set upon her goal, Angela remorsely snuck into the bedroom the woman was cleaning a placed two fingers confidently on the back of her neck.
"Ahh!" She woman jumped. It was the last energetic thing she did. With an ease that surprised her, though she should have expected it, Angela moved the woman to the bed as the running vacuum cleaner fell onto the carpet. She laid the now deceased woman on top of the bedcovers and turned off the noisy appliance with her foot. Closing the door behind her she went to the front of the house, but before she went through the door she had a thought. Did her last victims have any children? Angela had to know, and so searched the whole house. There were two children's bedrooms, but the kids were (fortunately for the author, as I despise people harming children-even in fiction) at school. A little disapointed, Angela went back to the front door and discovered it was deadlocked.
"Good," she said, actually pleased to have an excuse to shatter another door. She stepped back, and with freedom of movement in the hips she hadn't possessed since childhood, thanks to her impossibly healthy muscles and ligaments, Angela gave the door a vicious kick which shattered it. She stepped out into the sun, which glared in her eyes. Picking a house on the street at random, Angela started walking towards her next victim...

I should explain to those following this thread that I've asked Castor for help with this one, as I need a few heroes for my evil Granny to encounter. Thank you Castor, for bringing your character, aka: The Star, into the story.

As Angela opened the gate she noticed a large brute of a dog sitting on the porch. It growled as she approached, but remembering her dead cats, Angela approached the dog. Sensing danger, the dog hopped up and barked at her. Angela had never been good with animals. She reached out to see if she could steal it's life force, and it bit her hand. The teeth failed to peirce her skin, and Angela found the pressure tolerable. The poor animal yelped, and Angela drank it's energy. It felt strange, different to the people. But while it felt different it was stil a buzz and she smiled. The dog fell away into nothing, and Angela heard someone opening the door.
"Hey! Get the hell away from her!"
"I think your dog is sick!" lied Angela, beckoning the smartly dressed housewife out.
"What do you mean?" The woman came out and stepped down to gasp at her dead dog.
Angela hid her smile, and offered comfort. "It's going to be alright," she offered, draping an arm over the woman in false assurance. Instantly the woman collapsed, and Angela could not hide the moan of pleasure as her body became yet stronger and healthier.
"I'm never to get tire of this!" She realised, eyeing off a lady down the steet watering her flowers. Angela needed more.

As bizarre as her morning had been so far, the last thing Angela expected to see was short woman in a garish outfit fall out ofthe sky into the yard. She didn't even get out a "What?" before the woman ripped up a tree and used it as giant bat to slam Angela across violently into the wall of the house.
Angela went from buzzing with fresh health to feeling several ribs, and the arm she tried to block the blow with, broken or shattered. She hit the brickwork, and fell badly bruised into a rose bush, the thorns from which tore at her clothes and skin. With tremendous effort, she got to her feet and regarded her attacker.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Angela demanded, holding her broken ribs with her good arm and wincing in pain. "That hurt!"

Angela slumped in defeat as the clearly much stronger woman used the tree like a giant mallet, bringing it down on top of her like she was a peg. Not that she couuld really see it, as for the moment the girl flashed her with the strange light, her world became a white hazy wall. Angela felt a small pang of regret...she had only just started. All her life she wanted power, all her life she wanted to teach the arrogant men she came across how to more productivey live use their lives. And when she finally had some power, and had regained her youth, and strength, some upstart had brought the whole thing crashing down. Before the pain took her, crumpled into the ground, Angela heard a new voice. Then she heaard nothing.

Officer Bowen was very angry. Six police officers were dead. The entirety of the Cape Hope Poilce Department was angry. A string of officers, all following the broken doors and bodies to track down their perp, came charging out onto the street. Considering the broken timbers, and seeing a girl holding a large tree like it was styrofoam, Bowen and his men leapt to a wrong conclusion.
"Hey! Put down the tree and get on your knees! Now"
Suddenly twelve guns were aimed at Rae, and with six cops down, they were itchy trigger fingers indeed.

While two cops took care of securing the strangely dressed girl with handcuffs, three approached the clearly dead body that had been dramatically smashed with a tree. Not trusting the frighteningly strong woman, the three got down and examined the body to make sure she was dead. The moment one of them touched the still warm skin, they realised their mistake.

Angela moaned, feeling her consciousness return as fresh life-force infused her body. Her bones quickly healed, and the dark bruises faded at her blood soaked back into skin. The other two were moving to grab their colleague, only to put themselves in comfortable reaching distance of Angels's hands. She took a hold of both of them and her healing was almost instantly compete. She felt stronger than before. Looking around, she saw a group of police with their guns on her, and the girl who had attacked her was cuffed on the ground.
"Thank you, officers," she told the three dead cops, pushing the suprisingly light corpses off her body and rising to her feet. Before a shot could be fired Angela bolted forward and grabbed the two nearby policemen and quickly took them. The rush was intense, and at that point all the cops opened fire. The bullets hit Angela's hardened body, tearing her old-lady clothes and drawing blood. But she did not fall, and she though painful she could tell the bullets didn't do in very deep, Her body was tougher now. As the energy she stole healed the wounds almost as fast they appeared, Angela ran out onto the road and started absorbing the rest of the cops, trusting that the cuffs would be enough restrain her young tree-surgeon friend.

As she took the seventh cop, Angela was struck hard by a trash can. Her now subtly muscular back shrugged off the sting of the impact and she turned to face the girl. Of course someone strong enough to tear up a tree could break cuffs. She frowned, and moved in on another two cops as they reloaded their guns.
"Hello boys! Come to Momma!" Angela could really feel the strength in her muscles now. Taking both men in her hands by the throat, she found lifting them into the air quite easy. She felt one of the bullet holes in her shirt rip open a little further as her new muscles flexed. She turned to face her real opponent with the men dangling helplessly from her grip. Somehow she held off draining them as she made sure the girl was paying attention.
"You think you're so strong!" She spat. "I'll just keep taking more until I'm strong enough to beat you, and then I'll have your life force too, Bitch."

"Damn it!" Angela blinked,waving her arms in the air and trying to get a hand on the girl as her world went white again. With a grunt she listened out for the sound of the girls feet hitting the road surface. Her racing mind processes the sound of the surviving cops spinning their revolvers and preparing to shoot again, and in the distance she heard a car start. As soon as she heard the girls feet land, her eyes no help for the moment, Angela lunged in that direction, waving her arms wide and hoping for contact.