Last Words

(March 06: Shall Hate confound the wise? Doubt blind the brave?)

Why doesn't he understand?

This is what he wondered: Why doesn't he understand?

Was it that he didn't want to?

He was so smart. He knows how smart he was. He's seen it, time and time again. Mercury's intelligence, Hades' tongue. A mind that worked faster than his gun could shoot, a voice that sounded cold as stone.

And why couldn't he see that this woman he loved wasn't worth it? Why couldn't he see that she--

Her name was Lucrecia.

--wasn't worth--

I loved her.

--this pain--

If she was happy with him, I was happy.

--he felt?

Why did it have to come this far? Why? Why did he have to wear the face of a man and love that girl and and and and and--

her name was lucrecia i loved her if she was happy i was happy

He just wants to kick him. Again. He's dead, and he can still hear his broken whispers.

her name was lucrecia i loved her if she was happy i was-- i was-- i was--

He had knelt, at the end. Crumbled in on himself and yielded to oblivion. Thrust all three barrels of that ridiculous gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

her name was lucrecia i loved her if she was happy i-- i--- i-- i--

And in his mind, he rocked himself and whispered over and over and over. A mantra. A reassurance.

A source of indescribable irritation.

her name was lucrecia i loved her if she was happy-- if she was happy-- if she was happy--

Like a dying parrot. Like a dying dog.

Like the animal that Valentine was, he had died. He had given up.

And he had told himself, in the part that wasn't actively engaged in their little war, the voice that he will always hear, because he knows everything about Valentine, that he was saving the world.

her name was lucrecia i loved her if she was-- if she was-- if she was-- if she was-- if she was--

Valentine had always been a bit melodramatic. More than a bit blind. Emotional.

He called himself a monster who couldn't feel. A heartless demon.

Well, the demon part had been right.

But he has always known which buttons to push, how to poke and prod the fleshy inner core that turned Valentine into a whimpering simpering snivelling mess of a meatsack.

her name was lucrecia i loved her if she-- if she-- if she--

her name was lucrecia i loved her if-- if-- if-- if--

her name was lucrecia i loved her-- i loved her-- i loved...

her name was lucrecia i loved-- i loved-- i loved-- i--

her name was lucrecia i-- i-- i--

her name was lucrecia her name was-- her name was-- her name was--

her name was

i loved.

her name was

i loved.

her name

i loved!

her

i

BANG.