The Calm Before

THREE HOURS BEFORE - 00:00

Cash took a deep breath to feign nonchalance. "Shane?"

A man appeared then from the shadows. Dressed in inky black from neck to toe, the only thing Cash could see in the gloomy chill of the December night was the ghostly pale face of the man walking towards him.

"I honestly thought you'd skip out. Let everyone else die as long as you were spared," the mysterious man told him nastily.

"I'm not that shallow. Or cold-hearted," Cash answered.

The man smiled an evil smile. "Of course you are. Every human is. Anybody will kill anyone as long as their own life is spared."

"Let me ask you a question then, Shane. You say all humans are self-obsessed and uncaring. Now, never you mind my disagreement. What does it take to step over the line of narcissism into cruel and murderous territory in a single moment?"

Ignoring his question, the man asked instead, "What do you think humans are if not 'self-obsessed and uncaring'? They want everything for themselves! They'll kill anyone as long as they're allowed to live! What would you call that?"

"Self-preservation! In what you've encountered, in what you've caused, all those women, those girls this morning, they're scared—fearing for their life!"

"And that gives them the right to be callous, to be cold?!"

"More so than you. You act like you're God! One who can take any life you so choose and do with it what you will! You're not Him though. You're a sadist! A cold-blooded swine!"

"NO!" the man bellowed as he quickly swiped something sharp across Cash's left cheekbone before the latter could react, barely having visual of Pierce. Cash staggered back, clutching his face. A knife! he realized as he felt the liquid he recognized as blood touch his hand.

"You do not disrespect me!"

"Shane," Cash attempted, standing up straight, ignoring the gash on his face, and pretending to be brave. The goal was to distract him. "You never answered my question. What makes you so righteous to be able to strip people of their lives?"

"You mean Violet? Or maybe Madisyn?" he laughed maliciously.

"Among the others you killed last April, yeah," Cash told him.

"Why, I was putting them out of their misery!"

"How do you figure?"

"She was filled with greed and pride! Two of the seven! I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let that slide. She was a monster! She wanted everything and thought the world of herself. I saved her," he explained, in a low voice.

"Which one?" Cash asked, confused of the singular source of which the man standing in front of him was especially perturbed by.

"ADELIA!" he roared as if it were obvious.

Adelia? Adelia something. Someone from Pierce's background, Cash thought quickly. He remembered hearing the name 'Adelia' recently because it was an older, rarer name—not a name he was accustomed to hearing often. But, he couldn't recall where from.

"It's time for you to go now. You've upset me." And the man pulled out a gun from a hidden holster and aimed it at Cash's chest.

Cash said quickly, whilst raising both hands in surrender, "I'm sorry. Sorry, Shane. I lost my temper. I didn't mean to...I didn't mean to upset you. You don't wanna do this."

"Now you're my friend?!" the man shrieked. "You're wrong! I do want to do this! I've ached to do this! Since I failed in April."

"Shane, don't—!"

Cash dropped to the ground as Pierce fired. He pulled his own gun from his holster and fired from his position on the ground.

Two bullets, to be exact, each with a deafening BANG! They both struck Pierce; one in his right shoulder, the other in the left side of his chest. He fell to the ground. As the fast clicks of shoes hitting the pavement came closer to their location, Cash fired a third bullet at point blank range at Pierce's body. BANG! The body stilled.

Fox Hartley ran over to his partner's side, gun drawn, and gasped, "Oh God," as he vaguely saw the figure on the ground in the dark of the night. He slowly holstered his weapon as he pulled out his radio and spoke clearly into it, "I, uh, I think we're gonna need a bus."

"Roger that, Hartley," came the response. "What's your location?"

"M'kay," he muttered back distractedly, a bit overwhelmed. Then, shaking his head as he got his bearings, Fox cleared his throat and said clearly into the radio, "Uh, sorry. We're in Brickfield Park," before he dropped the radio to his feet in awe.

He swallowed before saying to his partner without looking up, "Your doing?"

"Mm-hmm," Cash nodded back.

"He dead?" Fox asked.

"I'd assume so. He's got bullet holes through his heart and brain. And his clavicle, but that's only because I was startled."

"He draw first?"

"Of course."

"Are you okay?"

"Well, I've got another knife wound to add to my collection, but overall, yeah, I'm okay."

"Great," Fox said, a bit sarcastically. Then, as he was suddenly filled with curiosity, he finally looked away from the body which still lay unmoving on the grass and looked at Cash as he asked, "He tell you anything?"

"Only a name. I know I've heard it, but I can't place it," Cash told him.

"Well, what's the name?"

"Fox!" he said all of a sudden.

"What?!" Fox said, in alarm, before spinning around towards Cash and unholstering his weapon again.

"Whoa! Fox, chill out. Are we a little excitable right now or what?"

"Sorry," Fox said, reholstering his weapon. "You scared me. Why'd you shout? And why are you so chill?"

"Because I have an answer. After all this time. It's his sister."

"What?" Fox asked, his brain still running on anxiety and adrenaline.

"They remind him of his sister. Adelia Pierce," Cash relayed, clearly having gotten the closure he needed.

"Didn't she commit suicide?" Fox recalled. Then, it dawned on him. "It wasn't a suicide, was it?"

"He thought he was saving her," Cash discerned.