Medusa's Eye

6:00 P.M.- September 13th, 2002- Las Vegas, Nevada

“Today, this afternoon, Maximus Sanders- one of the world’s famous mafia leader- was found dead in his office with a bullet through his stomach. In a few rooms away, his subordinates, Leonard Kosher and William Browns were also found dead. Police have stated that their deaths were caused by another mafia gang. Maximus’s son will be taking over the Sanders’ clan. He has decided to change the gang name to Avenged Sevenfold. Many companies around the world look forward to meeting this young new leader. Let’s hope that he will overcome grieve over his father’s death. Going on to the next...”

Liam Chase -known as Hercules for his strength- turned off the radio in his black Ford Mustang 2002 GT. “What luck,” he whistled as he glanced at the women sitting beside him in his passenger seat.

“I would call it skill,” Medusa retorted quietly as she stared out the window. M. Shadows, the name bothered Medusa. Medusa knew that the one who shot Maximus Sanders was his own son, Matthew Charles Sander. Before leaving the building, Medusa had witnessed a black van with the logo “Avenged Sevenfold” on it. She could still see the queer skull with bat wings on it.

“Ugh... what skills! Happy,” Hercules asked sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

“Very,” Medusa smirked, letting her bare hands run through her brown hair.

“But I wonder how he died,” she asked after a moment.

“Uh... didn’t you hear the radio? Bullet in stomach,” Hercules pointed out, trying to state the obvious. Medusa shook her head, chuckling to herself. Hercules glanced at her skeptically. “You know something... don’t you,” Hercules questioned.

“Possibly,” Medusa smirked.

“What is it?”

“Ah... well... remember the new poison Daedalus created,” Medusa started, a sinister smirk on plastered on her beautiful face.

“What? You used it on him,” Hercules joked with a goofy grin, but the grin faded as Medusa nodded. “What?! You did?”

“Relax. I just spilt some on my glove. And then I shook hands with him,” Medusa chuckled darkly.

“Did he bit his thumb or touch his mouth with his hand,” Hercules asked curiously.

“Hmm... probably. His thumbnail was jagged. A proof that he has a habit of biting his thumb,” Medusa stated.

“He doesn’t smoke... does he,” Hercules questioned. Medusa turned her head and stared at the twenty-two year old man who served as a driver for her. His light blue eyes were fixed on the road, but she could sense his curiosity and anxiety. He was probably dying to know the answer to his question.

PX360 was the name of the new liquid poison Daedalus had invented. Daedalus was the chemist who had been hired by Zeus to invent new poison and antidote. Each mafia member in Zeus’s clan had received a 1,500 ml bottle containing PX360. 1,500ml was enough to make a person in the mafia sick, but it was never lethal. But there was a chemical that could morph the poison to become deadly: nicotine.

“Ah... I wonder. He did have some ash trays in his office,” Medusa finally answered as she looked away from Hercules to stare at the city lights of Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Hmm... so he could have died because of that. And who was the one who bombarded into his office,” Hercules asked as he glanced at his mafia partner. Medusa had just returned to America from her visit to Germany, and Zeus had given Medusa a mission before returning home. Zeus’s order had been to see what Maximus Sanders had wanted, but instead, Medusa had plotted to kill Maximus. Hercules wondered if Medusa would have murdered Maximus if she hadn’t had interruptions.

“Who bombarded into Maximus Sanders’s office,” Medusa repeated aloud, talking more to herself than to her partner. If Medusa hadn’t mistaken, the intruder was Maximus’s own son.

“Karma,” she mused. Had the son, M. Shadows, found out about his father’s depraved past? The murder of Andrea Phyllis-Sanders had not been by an adversary of Maximus, but Maximus himself.

“Karma?” Hercules furrowed his eyebrows with a puzzled expression. Unlike Medusa who did her research before stepping into her mission, Hercules was just the man who took action on impulse. He didn’t know anything about the Sanders’ clan.

“Hmm... perhaps things would sound much simpler if I said the son.”

“You mean the son, M. Shadows, killed Maximus,” Hercules exclaimed.

“Maybe,” Medusa shrugged. But knowing that there was a possibility that Maximus might have met his son before his death disturbed Medusa. He might have realized Medusa’s intentions. He might have told his son. Medusa bit her lip nervously. “I just hope that man hasn’t said anything,” Medusa mumbled as she stared at the Vegas city lights. Possibly, that small group, Avenged Sevenfold, wouldn’t find her here in a city about 276 miles away from Huntington Beach, California.

6:00 P.M.- September 13th, 2002- Huntington Beach, California

Medusa. M. Shadows pursed his lips into a tight line as he stared at the yellow post-it left on his father’s wooden desk. Below the name was an invalid telephone number, which frustrated M. Shadows. What he had thought was luck now betrayed him. Since the camera’s had been turned off, there were no proof of a woman entering or exiting the building. Since both Maximus and his subordinates were dead, M. Shadows wasn’t sure if he should trust his father’s last words. What if Maximus had lied about hiring a woman to assassin him? But then once again, the name bothered him. Out of all the women names Maximus could have said, why did the name have to sound so atypical? Medusa wasn’t a name that would come out of your mouth near death. “But if this Medusa truly exists, who is she and where is she?” M. Shadows wondered to himself.

“Matt, look what we found,” Synyster Gates grinned as he, The Rev, and Vengeance brought in stacks of boxes. M. Shadows snapped out of his thoughts as he stared down at the contents of each box. One box was filled with several black video tapes, another one filled with sex toys, and another one filled with lingerie. M. Shadows grimaced as he looked away from the boxes to stare at his friends.

“Johnny, here, hacked into the security system of this building and opened that door we’ve always been dying to enter,” Synyster grinned as he grabbed Johnny Christ, who entered Maximus’s office -now M. Shadows’s office. Due to the successful usurpation, most of the Avenged Sevenfold members were blithe, except for M. Shadows who was still trying to figure his father’s last words.

“Just wondering... when you found the mistresses’ floor, did you let any mistress leave,” M. Shadows inquired nervously. For him, the only way a man could remember a complicated, unusual name was through moaning her name during sex. “Medusa must have been the name of one of his mistress,” M. Shadows guessed, knowing how his father made facetious nicknames for his mistresses.

“Nope, none. Besides, we all heard from Zacky. Maximus hired this woman to kill, right? Maria or something? Johnny changed the security code for the mistresses’ floor so there’s no way of escaping this building unless that woman’s willing to jump from the fifteenth floor. So now that everything is cleared, why don’t we celebrate tonight. We’ll start interrogating those women tomorrow. That slut is probably bound to show up with a few threats and what-not,” Synyster Gates grinned deviously. M. Shadows laughed, shaking his head. “What the hell was I even worrying about? Of course... no one can escape, us, the Avenged Sevenfold.” Believing that they would find the woman, Medusa, the next day, the Avenged Sevenfold celebrated their victory in overthrowing the vile mafia leader, Maximus Sanders.