Lesley Hall
So condescending unnecessarily critical
I have the tendency of getting very physical
So watch your step cause if I do you'll need a miracle
You drain me dry and make me wonder why I'm even here
This double vision I was seeing is finally clear
You want to stay but you know very well I want you gone
Not fit to funkin' tread the ground that I'm walking on
When it gets cold outside and you got nobody to love
You'll understand what I mean when I say
There's no way we're gonna give up
And like a little girl cries in the face of a monster that lives in her dreams
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
Is there anyone out there cause it's getting harder and harder to breathe
He watched the shifting waves distort the hauntingly white glow of the full moon
as it spread out over the black ocean in a kind of ethereal perpetuity. He didn't dare get
close to the ledge, his anxious body was still shaking violently.
"Are you sure he's dead?"
Her squeaky voice was almost inaudible as her head drooped between her knees
lifelessly. She didn't turn to look and he had to think a moment to make out what she'd
said.
"Yes, I'm sure." He said flatly, restricting any emotion. He was trying to slow the
adrenaline pulsating through his body, beating forcefully against his ear drums.
The city was eerily quiet. He checked his wristwatch, having to step out into the
moonlight from the shadows of the darkened tower to see. He didn't stay exposed for
long, and retreated oncemore into his haven. 3:10 a.m. Just enough time to do the dirty
work before sunrise.
"Are you gonna tell the police?"
He glanced at her long enough to debate her question. In the same numb, level tone, he
said, "I am the police."
"I....m...mean, will you turn us in?"
Her slight stuttering stung painfully in his ears. " There is no 'us'. I killed him, not you-"
"But out of self-defense..."
"-No, out of anger." He cut her off and she picked her legs up from their dangling hang
over the ledge and balled them against her chest, pressing them tightly across her body.
"I could have easily incapacitated him, knocked him unconscious. Easily. But I was angry. So angry. Angrier than I've ever been in my whole life..." he trailed off as he felt his heart
start racing again. Beads of perspiration dribbled from his brow, despite the chilly night
air.
"I know." She responded weakly. He watched the twinkling lights of the city a moment,
gazing across the rooftops and wondering why so much evil existed in one solitary place.
His eyes averted from her oncemore to the ocean as he stepped closer to the ledge.
Peering over, he could see the white caps of the tide crash against the supports of
Audobon Bay bridge. The sound was thundering. He didn't have to hear it to know it
was there.
He also realized that, if his and her world ended then, those waves would continue
undisturbed as long as there was a moon to pull them there. The moon appeared to be
going nowhere, and he decided he wouldn't, either.
Kneeling down to where she sat in a tight little ball, he looked at her a moment before
brushing back her long, deep red hair. Amongst her battered face, silent tears fell,
soaking the knees of her jeans. She needed him then, and he opened his arms for her. In
a choking cry, she flung herself against him and buried her head in his chest.
"Baby, no one's telling the cops. I'm not going anywhere, okay? You'll find me right here.
Right beside you." She wept openly against his dark purple vest, and he held her as
tightly as he could without hurting her. He would never hurt her. Never. In all the years
they had lived together, and out of all the times she enraged him, he never even thought
of laying a finger on her. He loved her more than anything on this earth, even himself.
He'd do anything for her. Climb the highest mountain, swim the deepest sea. He'd die for her.
He'd kill for her.
Like he did tonight.
It was supposed to be a special date. Their one-year anniversary. They were only nineteen, but swore on their graves it was true love. Dinner went well, but her spirit got the best of her and amidst a heated argument she got smart and he retaliated with a fierce slap. The slap must have felt good, because when she screamed at him to stop a punch followed. Punches galore. She had managed to lock herself in the bathroom of his house and dial the number. He picked up the phone, and was instanly bombarded with shreaks of help and a deep voice barking threats in the background.
"I'll fucking kill you! You sorry piece of shit!!"
"Dad, he beat me up! I think he's going to kill me!!"
His first thought was of her safety, and he immediently went to her. Yet in the heated
drive over to her boyfriend's house, his fear was replaced with anger and sheer hatred.
Hatred to the bone. The kind that sends needles radiating up your spine.
He didn't bother turning off the Tahoe he drove as he got up to his house, saw the door
was locked, and in a swift kick broke it at the dead-bolt. Her boyfriend was a good four
inches taller and outweighed him by a good sixty pounds, but the battle between arrant
infuriation and a father's indefaticable love for his daughter was a one-sided duel. Once
he'd heard the door explode open, he combed his sweaty dark hair back into place and
went to inspect. Her boyfriend was met head-on with a swift punch to the face. The
power behind that punch sent him flopping backwards. He was enraged, and shouted
through a mouthful of blood, "Drake Mallard. That was a mistake, you sonofabitch."
Drake snorted "You hurt my baby. That was a mistake. I'm about to split your head
open, you bastard." The words blew from his breath like hell-fire, and his baby blue
eyes were narrowed into venemous slits.
He got every punch and kick in, and Gosalyn cracked open the bathroom door just as
Drake had him on his stomach, pinned to the floor, smashing his head against the pale
kitchen linoleum over and over.
It was now her boyfriend's turn to scream.
Drake continued on, yanking his head up and shoving it to the floor so hard that the
sound a skull makes as its ripped violently open was like music to his ears.
He stopped only when the top half of his skull was in his hands, held into his marinated
clutches by the bloody, brain-matted hair that had one been his scalp.
Drake dropped the empty shell as reality hit him, and he stood unsteadily to his feet and
looked down. Brain matter oozed out from every opening in his head, but no orface
compared to the gaping hole in the top of his skull. He watched as the clumping pinkish
-gray ooze dribbled out like soft ice cream onto the floor, and it took every ounce of will
power not to pass out against the perverse scene.
He'd managed to get Gosalyn out of the house without ever looking at the body, but it was obvious he was dead. Drake had enough blood splattered across him to swim in, turning his feathers a tainted, ruddy color.
He was able to get the red out after almost two hours in the shower, in which time reality struck him so hard that he shrieked loud enough to shatter glass. He came out of the shower shaking. His blue eyes were so dull.
He'd finally calmed his daughter enough to assure her that everything would work out.
"B...but what if you go to jail?"
"I won't go to jail." He said with such assurance that it made her look up at him.
"How? I mean...the body..."
"A dash of V-C squared twelve. It's a new experiemental chemcial S.H.U.S.H invented.
It will evaporate the DNA out of anything. I'll burn the body, mix the ashes with the
chemical, and dissolve it to a fine liquid. He'll be flowing through the sewer pipes by
morning."
She looked ahead after he said that, watching a lone vehicle splash its yellow lights
across the bridge as it passed under them.
"And the house?"
Darkwing smirked at her inquisition. "I'll clean it and erase any and every clue. I know
every trick in the book, my dear. Every one."
After a moment, she gazed into his eyes against the fainting light of the evaporating
moon. He studied her a moment as she did this, noticing the poignant look she held as
she narrowed her now swollen features.. It was almost as if she was looking at a
stranger. Someone she didn't know at all.
"Gosalyn?" He could read her and knew what she was thinking. His concerned look shook her from her stare, and in an instant a gleam of fear flashed through her eyes. He saw it but it's quick passing only allowed an unconscious glance as she gave him only a
sigh before standing and walking towards the tower. He watched her disappear as the
suffocating darkness of the tower enveloped her. He turned back around.
A dim haze fell onto the surface of the black-iron ocean as rain fell steadily from the loud
clap of thunder. Darkwing looked up a the clouds, puzzled at their clandestine entrance
and their dominate over-taking of the moon, its reassuring glow no longer visible. The
rain fell against his head as he opened his shaky palms to the falling beads of liquid.
The rain wasn't washing the blood away.
Nothing will.
Copywright Lesley Hall February 25, 2004 Too-damn-late-at-night. Darkwing and Gosalyn both belong to Disney and I have no rights to them. Used strictly for entertainment and not for profit. Maroon 5's "Harder To Breath" also came in handy, but also non-profit and not mine. Good song, I suggest you listen to it. It reminds me of DW.