fff#50

and then, by god, i killed the son of a bitch. i killed him in cold blood. there was nothing romantic about it; nothing particularly memorable. it was just his time. he fucking deserved it anyway. you can’t treat people like that your whole life and expect to get away with it. eventually someone’s bound to push back, and when it came to pushing back, i was the one who applied the pressure. it was my job and i enjoyed it.

i didn’t always have to kill the mark – sometimes it was just about scaring the shit out of them or torturing them a bit for information. this one was different though; personal. i wasn’t collecting on a contract or reaping a reward – none but the gratification of knowing that he would no longer be breathing.

with the cold steel still smoking in my hand i stared into his eyes so he would know exactly who had betrayed him. slowly, his eyes began to dilate and i knew he was probably searching through the darkness for meaning, wondering how he found himself in such a predicament. i watched as his body quivered and his eyes raced behind closed eyelids. they flicked open again, searching his killers face for some sort of explanation.

i heard him coughing up the blood that then began to pool on the tiled floor beneath us: choking on your own blood is much like drowning in a glass of water you can’t stop drinking. he wanted answers that he knew wouldn’t come. he knew my style as well as i did, so he wasn’t surprised when i said nothing over the duration of the transaction. i never spoke to any mark and he had been in the room every time.

we had spent our lives together fucking people out of theirs and i guess it was only a matter of time before the money got in the way. finally the contracts out on our lives would pay off enough to make it worthwhile. he didn’t understand that, of course, and never would have, so i had to take the issue into my own hands. i half expected him to actually get it this time, but who was i kidding, he had always been a selfish prick. the contract would soon be fulfilled and the reward would be dropped off to her in the morning. finally she would have the life she deserved.

i waited while he became quiet and stiff before i stepped over his body to position myself to finish out the contract. i cocked back the hammer of the gun in preparation. looking up from his body i caught my own eye in the mirror, bit down on the barrel and pulled the trigger. i felt nothing but redemption.

i presumably collapsed to the floor alongside my brother. maybe this last good deed would cleanse my soul – i didn’t really care about his. her life would change dramatically tomorrow when she was presented with the 20 million and the exact instructions i left her on how to launder the money. the offshore account in the caymans was already active with the few extra million i had dropped in it waiting for her. her life would be better because of our deaths, something i could never accomplish while i was alive.

my last thought was simply that she could appreciate it and find happiness.