Learning to Love Again

The Monster We Call Love

The rain wouldn't let up, it just got heavier the closer I got to the alleyway. But when I arrived I saw Agent Briggs standing in front of a roller door under the cover of the roof. He looked to me and his expression changed to one of resentment.

"You know what you're asking me to do could cost me AND you not only our jobs but our lives right?!" He yelled out to me over the pouring rain.

I walked up next to him and brushed some of my hair behind my ears so I could see better.

"You didn't have to come. You could've just had me arrested on the way here." I told him dryly.

"But that'd just be pointless. I know that unless you want to be arrested, there's no point in bringing handcuffs!" He yelled at me.

I looked up into the sky, the dark clouds hanging over us, like a warning of the bleak world I was about to allow to pull me back in.

"So did you get it?" I asked without looking at him.

He didn't say anything, just sighed as he stepped back and pressed a button next to the door and it began to rise up. He handed me a set of keys and I ran my thumb over the buttons on the remote.

"It's been a long time since I held these in my hand." 

I pressed the top button and the headlights of my charger blinked on and I was bathed in light. I pressed the middle button and the doors unlocked as I walked around the side and looked inside.

"It hasn't been touched since it was put in here four years ago." Agent Briggs told me.

"I can tell, even the fuel gauge is the same as it was when I left it." I noted.

I wasn't proud of what I had to do, but if it meant I can spare a life and pay for one that I took, then it was a price I would never regret. I took Audrey's pistol out of the back of my jeans and holstered it underneath the drivers seat.

"So you mind telling me what you're plan is exactly?" Agent Briggs asked me as he lit a cigarette.

"I'm going to kill them all. Then when she is safe, my life will be forfeit." I told him as I walked around to the back of the car and opened the boot.

"Funny, it sounds like you're gonna hand yourself over to the police when this is all done."

"That is my intention. Once this night is over, there will be no more pain or misery caused by me ever again."

Agent Briggs just stood there and looked at me as his cigarette dropped out of his mouth.

"So you're telling me that you ACTUALLY plan to surrender and forfeit your own life AND freedom for this girl?" He asked in disbelief.

"Correct, thus will end the bloodshed that has followed me for all my life." I answered him as I began to change into my old suit.

"What the fuck does she mean to you? And why the fuck do you feel so obligated to save her when she got herself in this mess in the first place!?"

"Redemption."

"And what the fuck do you need redemption for?"

"There was a woman who I loved before, she was the reason I am the man you see before you now. But as we were preparing to move away and carve out a life for ourselves..."

"...let me guess, your 'family' found out and killed her."

"I killed her."

That was when Agent Briggs went quiet and his demeanour changed with it.