Unknown Title

I woke to the sunlight bursting through the slightest sliver or my blinds. I got up with a groan and immediately put my hand to my head as a shoot of pain hit me, just below my temple. I thought about all the events that had transpired the night before. My bachelor party, the walk home, some people coming towards me, then…nothing. 1

Sitting up, I looked into the mirror that was conveniently placed right beside my bed, and looked at myself. Where had those scars come from? And why were my hands pulsing with pain?2

I lay back on my bed with my hands resting under my head, and turned to the girl laying beside me. She was the pinnacle of beauty. Her dark hair rippled down to her shoulders: shoulders attached to her perfect body. Delicate lashes rested against pale white cheeks, her eyes closed in a peaceful slumber. Perfect lips that seemed as though they would be softer than feathers to the touch parted slightly as she breathed slowly, her chest rising and falling as she dreamed. She looked at peace.3

To be honest, I didn’t know who she was. The idea that I had slept beside her was laughable. Me, the kid next door; Her, the angel to everyone’s prayers. My prayers. If there was a God, believe me, I was thanking Him. All I could do was gaze at her. 4

As my eyes rested once more on hers, they began to open. Jade irises focussed on my own grey orbs, and she spoke softly, for the first time.5

“Morning, baby.”6

I kissed her forehead and gazed into her now open eyes and replied, “Good morning, beautiful.”7

It was that memory which flashed before my eyes as the gun was pointed at my forehead. Funny how people say that their lives flash before their eyes before they die. All I had was that memory of the girl. My girl. My Rayne. It was the only thing that kept me entertained.8

My eyes focussed on my would-be shooter. A dishevelled man with a haggard beard and eyes that screamed insanity. I felt pity for him. All I saw coming his way was an untimely demise. 9

I had forsaken my powers to be with Rayne, but now that she lay on the ground with a bullet through her head, copious amounts of blood pouring on the ground between me and my captor, the powers were back. Whether they were fuelled by grief at my angels’ death, or rage at the man who had committed the act, I couldn’t say. I didn’t care.10

Before he could even comprehend what would happen, I moved the barrel of the gun with my two fingers, flicking it so that the momentum of the twisting metal broke his fingers. Just as he screamed, I darted towards him, clamped my hand over his mouth, picked up the fallen gun and shot him, right where ha had planned to shoot me. The scream died in his throat. It was his last sound. 11

I spat on him and walked towards my Rayne. She looked as peaceful as she had that morning, aside from the bullet hole and exit wound in her head. Now my angel really could be everyone’s.12

I turned away from that disgusting place with a look of contempt on my face. I know tis was the beginning of the end. I laughed at how clichéd that sounded. The sound of the sirens came and I jumped to the top of a building, looking down as the police came. Wondering what, if anything, they could have done to help rather than hinder my search. What I was searching for, I couldn’t say, but I knew it wouldn’t come back from it the same. 13

I somehow got home and lay on my bed. I looked the same as I had before: simple black hair, grey eyes, pale skin. People had told me that I looked like a devil, but I thought I was still just a nerd. Funny though, how I was feeling the same, but different. I felt stronger, even though I couldn’t recall having felt that before. Maybe losing someone gives you strength. I pondered that for a while.14

-15

I woke with a start, to hear someone scream. The sound was weird enough; then there was a constant ringing. These were the last things I remember before the blackness swamped over me.16

-17

My eyes eased open and an ugly mug met my eyes instead of my roof. 18

“Morning, sunshine.”19

I expected his voice to be cold and harsh. It turned out to be high pitched. So I did the only thing I could do: smile. 20

And reply, “Morning, cunt!”21

His eyes shot open at that, and a sneer broke over his face as he punched me square in the jaw. I looked at him again, his bulbous nose inches from mine. The last thing I recall was spitting my blood in his face.22

Then, again, nothing.23

-24

We stopped moving eventually, and my head smacked against the car window. My eyes shot open as I was wrenched out of the car. I looked up at the person who held me; he was different from the other guy. His hair was longer, shinier. The other guy had looked like a retarded wolf. The one who held me now looked like a weasel. Just looking at him sickened me, but I held his gaze until it wavered as he brought me to a steel door.25

I inspected the look of the place. Not unlike a castle, but nothing like a warehouse. It was an impressive sight nonetheless. 26

Weasel-man, as I had dubbed him, kept dragging me through the place until we reached the place we were meant to be going to. A short, stocky guy was there to meet us. His face displayed scars of battle and held a look that said he knew what he was about. He spoke with a gentle touch, like an adult would to a child just before it got beaten. 27

“You’ve given us some trouble,” I expected him to say, but instead he stared at me and said, “You needn’t worry. I just want you to talk.”28

He and I both knew that talking was far from what he actually wanted to do.29

He poured himself a drink, and his brown eyes pierced into mine, examining me as though I was a circus attraction. So, I thought I’d begin the talk. 30

“Normally, I don’t come back to the person’s house until the second date, but I see we’ve skipped all the niceties.” My smirk disappeared as I spoke next, “So I’ll cut it short. What do you want me for?”31

After that, he just kept staring at me. Seems that he didn’t want to talk, after all. Ironic. I pretended not to care. I shrugged apologetically to him: the gesture didn’t go un-noticed. 32

I stood up and turned my back on him. “When you want to talk,” I said, “I’ll be at my home. I assume that you know where that is, seeing as that’s how I’m here originally…Catch!”33

”You know that Rayne girl…right?” He finally said.34

I kept my back to him and grimaced. “Yeah.”35

“Funny how she died, eh?” he said.36

I turned to face him. His face was lit up with excitement. He had a manic glint in his eyes as he continued, “Squealed like a pig, I recall. Just before my man shot her, I recall.”37

I closed my eyes. Smiled. “He did the very same thing, I recall. As will you, when I’m finished!”38

His mouth broke into a cheesy smile. “I thought you’d say something like that.” His smile turned into a smug grin, “But you forget that there’s three of us. And one of you.” He laughed, “What do you expect to do? Now sit down before I make you.”39

“I’d like to see you try,” I said, my own smirk returning. 40

Continuing to stand, the man shrugged. He sighed, “So be it.” And shot me in the arm.41

I clutched it in pain, and his other men rushed me, punched me in the gut and in the face. But as the third guy went to kick my legs out from under me, I jumped and landed on his leg. As it shattered, I kicked straight up, into his nose. 42

“One down,” I said, as I broke out of my cuffs and punched one guy square in the jaw. 43

His eyes glossed over and I kicked him in the gut, sending his sprawling. The next man looked at me, then his boss, and just stared, dumbfounded. He collapsed to the ground, and as his body slumped to the floor, I spotted his boss’s gun, smoke pouring out from the end of the barrel. 44

“One of us now, aye kid.” His cheerful composure was gone, and cold eyes stared at me. 45

I picked the bullet out from my arm and flicked in at the chair. The bullet punched a hole into the wood. As his mouth dropped in astonishment, I spat my blood into it and closed the distance to him, kicking him in the head. Just as the kick was about to connect, however, he ducked and punched up into my leg. 46

I screamed out in pain, in rage and in grief, brought my leg up into the air and smashed it down to crack hard on the top of his head. As the blood poured down from the newly created wound and onto his face, he licked it.47

“I haven’t tasted that in so long,” his voice steady, his eyes matching it, “I’ll admit, you are good. But…”48

Standing up, he took a deep breath and jumped at me. I slid out of his way easily, but just barely avoided the punch he threw at my face with a block. But as I blocked it, he threw another. Every time I blocked, pain flooded through my arm. This was having a tax on my energy level and he knew it. 49

He laughed triumphantly, and something in me clicked. I looked up at him. Sweat broke out on his brow as soon as my eyes locked with his. I grabbed the arm that he last threw a punch with. I snapped it. With the crack came his scream, and just as I remembered doing with the first guy, I punched him, hearing the bones crack as he was flung across the room and into a wall. 50

He was slumped against the wall, his blood smearing it’s white sheen of paint when I walked away.51

-52

I was left alone with my thoughts once again, thinking about where to go now. I had just killed the one hope at finding the person who had, in the long run, organised the murder of Rayne. But I had a feeling that whoever it was, they would find me before I could gather enough information to find them.53

I hadn’t even left the building when there was an ear-piercing whistle. No quicker had it come than there was a shatter of debris all over the place. The dust created a blanket, smothering all the air out of me, and I felt a sharp stab, as though something had been flung at me. I looked down to see a hilt. I pulled it out, and blood poured out as I clutched the wound. The knife attached to the hilt was smothered in my blood.54

There was a cough. The sound was only slight, but I whipped my head around. As the dust settled, my foe was revealed. 55

“I said…there was one of us left…didn’t I?...I don’t die so easily.” The mob boss’s words were accompanied by a smirk, and blood seeped down him lip as he spoke.56

“Well.” I replied with a grimace, “That’s something new to me.”57

I hadn’t had time to recover yet, so I was still weak. I tried to bluff. “You know that you will die, right? You have next to no strength, and…here I am.”58

“Shut it.” He said, and he ran over to me, kicked me in the ribs. 59

My knees buckled, and he brought his knee to my face. Just as quick as he kicked me though, I went to push his knee away with my good hand. The other arm was useless. But I was covered in blood, and my hand slipped. The knee connected with such force that my sternum shattered, the breath was knocked out of me. Every breath I took after that was painful, and the pain increased each time I breathed. 60

I looked up to meet his eyes. Eyes that seethed with rage. Every single word he uttered, he delivered a kick with it, and each word he spat out at me held as much force behind it as the kicks did. 61