A Little Death

XXXV

'You may be wondering why I have gathered you all here today.' I say, in the mic. There's a bunch of losers, hardly paying attention to anything I'm saying. The hard part wasn't sneaking out of bed without getting a very light sleeper to notice, even though I had to leave a hug with the most beautiful woman I know a few days ago. It's getting these fools to listen to me. It doesn't matter in the end, no one's making it out of this room. 

It took a lot of time to get a fake ID, convince everyone I'm friends with the head of their little wannabe mafia. I got the ID in about a days time, if I had made up my mind that I'd take care of all of this myself earlier, I would've been home right now. But it's okay.

I know Skyler is probably gonna get really mad, I know the REAL mafia is probably looking for me.  

I sigh. There's no point in stalling. Right under this podium, I have all I need to get rid of these people. There were about a hundred people in this room, but some didn't show up. I'm guessing there are about seventy or eighty of the original people invited.

I take out the machine gun, most of them still aren't paying attention. A few of them look shocked. Key word: few.

'This is the latest machine gun.' I load it. 'This.' I take off the safety.  'Is a field testing.' Some people finally look towards me. I fire. In a few minutes and a lot of loading and firing later, about three quarters of the people in this room are either dead, or dying. For the other quarter, I can finally have fun. I get off the stage, ripping my fake ID off. 

I didn't get any weapons except the gun. I pick up a broken piece of glass from the table of refreshments. I run at a man and stab him in the stomach with it, he falls to the ground.

A woman runs at me, baton in her hand. I dodge and kick her in the face. She ducks, but not in time to make me miss her nose. Blood streams out, another man attacks me while she gets back up. I grab a crowbar from the floor. I shove it into his back and take it back out, while he collapses. Then, I plunge it into the woman's stomach.

A few people run at me all together. I slide in their direction to the floor, landing behind them. I attack them from the back. A few of them try to punch me. I move away from them, grabbing a gun from the ground and shoot them. About ten people are huddled in the corner, talking worriedly, looking at what is taking place behind them.

They catch me looking at them. I smile and they make for the door. 'Good choice!' I shout at them. I check my watch. 

Skyler's POV

He's been gone for about three days now. I woke up, hugging a bunch of pillows. It's almost 10 fucking PM. The little shitstorm organization never attacked. Is this his doing? Of course, he did something stupid when I told him not to do something stupid. Allon and a bunch of his colleagues, working at his level are looking for him.

Dad told me there was a forged ID issued for a 'Joshua'. It's definitely him. He's doing whatever is holding them back. Hopefully he hasn't hurt himself or anything.

The man didn't even care to tell me where he was going or what he was going to do. 

He sneaked out in the middle of the night like a fucking child. Like I would stop him.

I mean, I would. If I knew he was potentially walking into a death trap, I would stop him. It's not like he'd give a shit about what I'd think anyway, but this stupid ass man decided to not even consider it. How am I living with him?

I've gone back to our old apartment, we didn't take too much stuff with us when we got attacked, so it wasn't much of a hassle. It wasn't important.

I had no option but to leave. Clarisse was trying to comfort me. The only thing she did was push me closer to crying. She was acting like she had been during my entire childhood, like she cared. Like she genuinely loved me. To know someone I considered my mother figure was plotting some sort of scheme against me was sickening. I kept trying to avoid her and I figured the only way to do it was to go back home. It didn't have the same sense of safety and comfort without Joshua here. 

When will he be back?

The door handle creaks. A blood covered Joshua walks in.

'Hey!'Is the first thing he says. I stare at him. 'What?' He asks, annoyed. He's wearing a black suit. Under it is a shirt which I probably assume was white before. It's almost completely red now.

I walk to him, helping him take off his suit. 'This isn't your blood.'

'That would be true.'

'Are you hurt? At all?'

'I'm hurt you didn't offer yourself up for sex after seeing me in a suit- God, I look hot in this.'

'...'

'I'm not hurt, Skye.' I unbutton his t-shirt, which is still a little wet from the blood. He stretches his arms out to remove the sleeves. 'You're a little piece of shit, you know?' He nods. 'This "little piece of shit" is the reason you didn't get attacked by a bunch of people role-playing the mafia to pass their time. Be grateful.'

'I would rather be ambushed again than you having even a cut on you.'

'Too bad. Plus, I don't have a cut on me. Don't you believe in me?'

'Not even a little bit.'

'Yeah, sure you don't.' He walks to the bathroom to wash off the blood. I walk in behind him. I help him rinse off the blood in the sink. We step out, the power goes off. 

'They put up a notice telling the residents power will be out 10 to 12. Nothing abnormal about that...' There's the faint music of a piano in the background. 

'I've heard this piece somewhere.' I look up, trying to hear the notes better, walking towards the sound source. 

'Mariage d'Amour.' Joshua speaks from behind me, his hand stretched towards me. 'Jordan used to be into classical music as a kid. Care for a dance, m'lady?' He bows dramatically. I play along. 

'Of course!' I give him my hand and he jerks me forward. He places his hand on my waist, I place my hand a little below his shoulders. We join one hand, locking fingers. He moves his foot to the right and to the left. I stay still for a while, then try to follow along, letting the sweet notes hitting my ears take control of me.

I can't properly tell since I don't know how to ballroom dance myself, but I'm pretty sure Joshua's moves are perfect.

'You know how to waltz?' He turns me around and sways gently. 'I used to watch all the music CDs my mother had. One of them had a man and a woman waltzing, I started practicing with my pillow, thinking I'd do this someday. I guess it was a good decision, huh?'

'That's so sexy.' He dips me. 'I know.' He turns me around again, I trip on my new heels. He laughs at me, then picks me up, taking my heels off. I stand up, feet naked against the cold floor. I put both my hands on his shoulder, he puts his on my hips. We sway slowly to the consistent music.

I place my head against him. He calmly continues moving, holding me gently. 'What were you doing when you were gone?'

'I killed them Skye, all seventy three of them that showed up. Yes, I counted.' Seventy three? That's more than I can imagine. 

'You're lying.' He smiles, looking at his shirt on the floor. 

'Are you sure about that?'

'You didn't have to, you shouldn't have. It was too much. I can't imagine if you didn't-' I inhale, looking down 'if you didn't return.'

'And yet I have not a scratch on me, I guess I'm just better than everyone.' He twirls me around. I keep a tear from falling from my eye, but I can't do anything about my shaky voice.

'Fuck you.' He plants a kiss on my lips. 'I love you too.'