Heart Of Protectors {#2}

Part 20

[Part 20]

The studio was silent and empty. Nothing disturbed his train of thoughts, as he stepped slowly, shifting his weight from left to right. Jean-Jacques’s eyes remained firmly on his target, at the single most important location on the straw dummy that had been staked on a firm pole. If his quarry had been a real life vampire, Jean-Jacques wouldn’t have been able to afford such slow luxury of movement.

Still, he was in the unpopulated relative safety of the silent studio. Jean-Jacques regulated his breathing and stepped fluidly towards the dummy. With a clean slice through the air, he stabbed his katana strongly into the dummy’s heart. Not missing a beat, he withdrew it again and made a slash through the air, decapitating the dummy. Spinning, he elbowed the dummy through the abdomen, before stabbing his sword behind him again. Without offering a look back, he drew the katana back out cleanly from the straw body, and guided the blade back into the sheath still in his other hand.

The clear ring of blade sliding back into its sheath was the only sound that rang through the entire studio. Moonlight filtered through a square window, illuminating his graceful form through the back, with his back facing the stabbed, headless dummy. If it had been a vampire, it would be dust behind him. If it had been a man, the body would be bleeding heavily on the floor.

“For you, Celine-Marie, I promised I would do anything.” Jean-Jacques pressed the handle of his katana against his forehead lightly, closing his eyes in prayer. “But Big Brother has to let go at some point of time in his life. I’m sorry that things turned out the way it did, and I know that I’ll never get to say sorry for my failure to you. I let you down, and I’ve tortured myself for years. I love you, Celine-Marie, but it’s time for me to let you go. I love you, but I need to protect everyone else around me. I need a reason to live, and I don’t want to be forever trying to atone for my mistake.”

In the darkness of the studio that was only lit by the tiny shaft of moonlight hitting on his figure and reflecting in the mirrors, Jean-Jacques put the mental image of his sister in his mind one more time. Her smile, the flower in her hair, her small hands in his.

When Celine-Marie had died all of a sudden, Jean-Jacques lost a part of himself. It had been like a part of him died along with his sister, and the Leconte family fell apart. His father could not deal with the pressures the town was putting on the death of Celine-Marie, and took to alcohol. His mother became withdrawn and a shell of the woman she had been. Jean-Jacques went out every day, combing the streets and doing everything necessary to get his hands on the information of the man who killed his sister.

When he finally found out who it was, his father had already snapped. That day, his father went to the town square and faced the angry mob who were dissatisfied at the politician who had failed as a father. Jean-Jacques had chased his sister’s killer through the streets, before finally catching up with the man in the crowd. By then, his father had already spoken the triggering words that led to the Riots of the Paris Square.

But it was like a stage had been set for them. Jean-Jacques had clear view of the killer, and had the musket in his hand. His killer had taunted him, and he –like his father –snapped. He pulled the trigger and watched the blood fly from his victim’s chest. In that one moment, his soul was both chained to hell and set free to join his sister at the same time. He didn’t last long with that feeling, for a few moments later, as Jean-Jacques stood over his dying victim, another gunshot rang through the air, and he felt extreme pain in his chest.

Jean-Jacques remembered stumbling with the momentum of the gunshot, clutching to his bleeding chest. He remembered thinking that it was revenge- divine vengeance for having taken a life. Humane instincts made him stumble mindlessly. His legs gave way after a few steps, but he somehow landed into a pair of hands. He was lowered to the ground and was turned around to see a pair of worried eyes, speaking to him.