The Life and Death of 008

By Clara Stilton

As the sun set on that fateful Autumn evening, the Claremont Program knew they needed to get their head off of things. The six teenagers: Olivia (19), Kiwi (19), Mary (18), Lee (18), Harold 17), and Jupiter (18) had decided to go on a hike through the beautiful Borkoshavski Academy forests, lush with trees, beautifully bizarre berries, and wondrous forest creatures. 

After a disastrous adventure down south, they were looking for a nice evening of whimsy and joy. 

Little did any of them know that this night would change their lives. 

As Mary and Olivia wandered off from the group, chitter chattering and pitter pattering back and forth about their favorite fictional superheroes, they realized, to their dismay, that they were lost. 

As they stumbled about the Borkoshavski Forests, and as the sun set, they’d see something amazing: A glistening golden light coming from a small window in Borkoshavski Manor. By all means, this was impossible! They had to have wandered so far off course to make such a discovery impossible, and yet… There it was. Young Icarus Borkoshavski’s room, a guardian angel up above them. 

As they wandered amongst the garden, Mary and Lee would discover something more than the shelter– The cadaver of one of the superhero world’s most notorious monsters, 008. 

Born as a woman, Chiara Gallo, he was raised within The Hospital in Italy by his Doctor parents. He wasn’t a patient, however. He was an observer. A watcher. After an experiment gone wrong (the details of which, unknown to this day), what was once a joyous young boy trapped within a woman’s body, was twisted and molded into the unfathomable. With a third eye said to be able to peer into the future, a forked tail, spikes, the boy was locked up and hidden away in the Attic of the House.

Isolated and locked away for years, 008 grew mad, only accompanied by visions of a horrific apocalypse. It was from here that 008’s views on human society would be reshaped by their misguided visions. 008 wrote of a fated apocalypse, of seven perfect beings at the gates of hell, holding back a serpentine beast. Chief among them, a flying man, wearing a cape and tights, with a star dashed across his chest. 

It was his fall, so 008 said, that would bring about the doom of this world.

After a fight with his father, Ala Borkoshavski (then, Ala Capulo) would find himself thrown into the same Attic. From there, Ala and the patient, who was now known exclusively as Patient 008, would develop a close friendship. The two, Ala once wrote, understood each other in a way no one else could. 

When Helena arrived at The Hospital, 008 caught a glimmer into the future. “Her face,” 008 wrote, “She had the face of someone who will destroy our universe.” So… 008 carefully waited. He plotted. After escaping the Hospital sometime in the late 80s, 008 would begin meticulously planning the ritualistic killing of Helena Borkoshavski in 1993.

I won’t delve into the details of Helena’s death. There’s countless articles, tabloids, and conspiracies all about the subject. And I think, given recent circumstances, the specifics of her death should be left to those. 

For the sake of this biography, however, I find it worth noting that on her back, a small incision was discovered. “1/7.” 

And so began 008’s killing spree. He would spend the next three years hitchhiking from Vermont to California, preaching the tales of “The Church of the Eight Pointed Star.” Though 008’s original apocalyptic beliefs are only held by a few, the cult persists to this day under the principles of the general meaninglessness of human life due to an eventual apocalypse, and a love of sexual deviance and twisted pleasure. 

008’s next victim would meet his fate in 1996, when 008 reached his final destination– Hollywood, where he would sabotage the jetpack of beloved actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Carved into one of Leonardo DiCaprio’ bits was the same phrase, this time noting that Leonardo was the second out of seven. 

008’s “final” victim lost their life in 2001. After publishing an interview detailing an encounter with the elusive cryptid, “The Rat King,” 008 would tragically take yet another life, dubbing her the third out of the seven. 

And finally, on October 10th, 2001, 008’s body was discovered by Marianna Cross and Olivia Finches within the garden of the Borkoshavski Manor. Though Mary, Olivia, and Ala were all investigated and considered suspects at one point or another, it was ultimately ruled as a suicide, due to 008’s consistent pattern of killing being found present across 008’s corpse: A large “4/7” carved into his neck.

Who were 008’s final three victims supposed to be? What common thread connects a superhero, an actor, and a teenage girl from ARKANSAS? Was 008 truly a mad man, or was there some truth to his horrific visions? It’s likely that we’ll never know for sure.