RUSTY | frank castle

FORTY

"The monster's coming!" Luis laughed, his fingers imitating claws as he crouched and growled at the young girl dressed in old trainers, worn jeans and a colourful shirt. Her hair was long but was caught in a ponytail, and with the summer sun shining on it, it glimmered beautifully.

She grinned enormously, starting to run away when Luis started to run after her. Both of them laughed and their footsteps were silent in the busy park, the sounds muffled by the long grass.

"Luis!" She screamed, running to hide behind a tree. For an eleven year-old, she was fast. She wasn't skinny, but slim with powerful legs that allowed her to outrun most kids in school. But, Luis, being older than her by nearly seven years, could run faster.

"No!" She giggled. "Luis!"

The 18-year-old laughed as he played. His hair was short, the colour exactly the same as Rusty's. "I'm going to get you, little sister!"

She screamed, trying to run for cover but she was caught by her brother's arms. Luis picked the girl up, twirling them both in circles.

The young Rusty laughed, holding her brother's arms as they twirled in between the trees.

"Love you, Rusty."

"Love you, Luis!"

•••

Rusty felt another hard punch throttle into her cheekbone. More blood spluttered onto her clothing and the floor. She was grateful her dogs weren't here, she'd rather it be just her feeling the pain. She felt as if she deserved it - the torture.

Rawlins was going back and forth between the two, getting an equal amount of punches to the two. All three were panting, and Agent Orange was just getting started.

Billy sat on the plastic suitcase, watching his old friends get beaten by his new boss. The look of triumph quickly faded from his face as he sighed, looking at the floor before crossing his arms and looking back at the two ex-marines getting beaten as they were strapped to old office chairs by black plastic zip-wires. Russo was conflicted, not knowing whether to feel happy or troubled by the sight.

Frank got a hard hit to the mouth, his lip earning a cut - though it was not seen amongst the blood - and he started to mutter indistinctly as Rawlins inhaled with a smirk on his lips. The tang of the metallic blood was like song to his ears. He was that messed up.

Getting more punches than ever, Rusty's vision started to blur. Not like it would when she was having one of her panic attacks, but one caused by her body's complete exhaustion. It couldn't handle anymore pain - and the blood loss didn't really help - so she soon found herself soothing into the darkness and emptiness of just nothing. . .

•••

"You're a revenant." Russo said. "You're walking the earth, completely unaware that you're already dead."

There was a few seconds of silence, and Rusty realised she was hazing between being awake and unconscious. She wanted to, but she couldn't push herself to fully wake up. She hated the feeling.

Billy's voice appeared again. "I hate seeing you like this. It's sad."

The next few words, or sentences (Rusty didn't know) were inaudible to Rusty's ears and she was so disorientated that she didn't know if she was dying or just falling to a simple sleep.

•••

"Bill?" Frank mumbled so gently and innocently, you would think he was a child.

"Yeah? It's me. I'm here."

Frank sighed lightly, his eyes closed as he was barely able to form words. The vision in his head of him and Maria . . . it seemed intoxicating. Frank's head hung low as he spoke his next words: "I'm ready, Bill."

Billy Russo nodded lightly, almost questioning as he said, "Okay."

"It's gotta be you." Frank's body lulled into swinging a little. "It's gotta be you. Just don't let him take me, Bill. You gotta promise me that."

"I won't." Billy said, gently. "I promise."

"Bill--"

"Hey. Hey." Russo ushered Frank to glance at him. "I promise."

It seemed to be the most honest thing he had said to Frank Castle for years. A promise is a promise, and for Russo it was an easy thing to break. So this - the way he said it so genuinely - it prompted Frank to believe him. Yet what actually ran through Billy's mind, he didn't know. But. . . he believed him.

Frank mumbled an, "Okay," and hung his head low, wanting the pain to finally be over. Not just the pain he had from Rawlins's punches that day, but from the pain he had in his chest since his wife, and his children - all he had - had gone so horridly, so traumatically.

Frank Castle had had enough.

The broken man told his old friend what he needed to do. The retinal scan, the keystroke.

And Rusty wasn't even conscious to slap him into his right state of mind. A few drops of blood fell onto her shirt every once in a while as her head hung low, her hair messy and tangled atop her head. She was a bloody mess.

Two men came out of the shadows, unnoticed beforehand, and carried Frank together with his chair up and sat him in front of the computers.

Blackness seemed to fade like smoke in front of Rusty's eyes. The woman soon realised that she didn't feel the familiar feeling on her side - it was empty. Frank wasn't there, and that thought alone was enough to snap her into realisation. She lifted her head, the pain erupting quickly - albeit, it was ignored - and she looked around.

Rusty Mallard saw Frank type in a code, then lean in for the retinal scan. She hated that she wasn't awake to be included in the events beforehand, so she didn't know which plan was in play now. She only knew that Russo and Rawlins had possibly fell for their trick.

Frank leaned back. "That's it." He said as thousands of lines of code started to appear on the old white monitors. "It's done."

"You know, I'm actually a little disappointed in you, Castle." Rawlins spoke.

Rusty saw the slight move of Frank's hand under the desk. He reached for it, and that was enough to tell her a fight was about to break out, and she was metres away and tied to an office chair.