Xerxes

(This has really become a Redeye Jack blog, hasn't it? Well, here's another installment.)


Jack glared into green eyes. The man who bore them held a knife lazily. He gazed at Jack with a smirk. Another cathedral. Always a cathedral. It was, in fact, the same cathedral as last time. The rosary window was still blown out, and most of the roof was missing. Snow was blowing into the burnt-up attic. Jack had just fought his way up three flights of stairs. He had watched the woman he loved get shot in the back. He had felt her die in his arms. He had heard her last words to him.

Jack's hand clenched on the handle of his revolver.
"One bullet left..." he said.

Xerxes' smirk turned into a grin. "One knife left."
The edge gleamed in the dawn sunlight peeking through the remains of the window.

Jack's glare intensified. "You ordered them to kill her, didn't you?"

Xerxes' grin only widened. "Both of you, actually. But I like that you survived. Makes the whole thing a bit more dramatic, does it not?"

"I hope you rot in hell." Jack growled.

"You can go ahead. I'll catch up later...but before I go, why did you leave us? Red Dragon, I mean?"

Jack spat. "Because I was sick of killing people. I was sick of it then, and I'm sick of it now. But I've got one last bullet, and I'm not gonna waste it."

"Very well then." Xerxes twitched.

a movement of muscle.
A glint of steel.
A flash of light.
Bang.
Blood and smoke.

Jack grunted as the knife cut his shoulder, deep into the muscular tissue. He was already beaten and bloodied, and this wasn't helping.

Xerxes was just grinning, a bullet hole in the wall next to his ear.
"You missed." He mocked.
"Oh, and Jack?"

Jack's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"I lied."

There was a whistle as a second knife sliced through the air. It buried itself in Jack's chest.

He collapsed and fell backward.

Xerxes stood over him as he struggled for breath, his vision blurring and doubling erraticaly.

Xerxes leaned down and grinned in his face. "So sorry, Jack. But business is business."

"It's alright, Xerxes...." Jack whispered.

"Really now?" Xerxes mused.

"Yeah....I lied, too."

Bang.