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Chapter 7: Forlorn Hope
Gunfire echoed up
the staircase as Calmar climbed, wondering for a moment if Clint would be all
right. As the sound faded into the distance he began to think about what awaited
on the roof, after all these years of running, it was finally coming to a close.
Would things turn out in his favor, or would Thomas get his revenge? Calmar
paused at the door leading to the rooftop, wondering if this was really
happening, and if it was worth it. He stepped through the door, the sun blinded
him a little and the wind blew back his hair. Thomas was standing on the other
side of the roof, his back to Calmar. Thomas glanced back at him, even at that
distance Calmar could see the rage in his eyes.
"It's about time you arrived, I was beginning to wonder
if you lost to my friends down there." Thomas said coldly.
"Nothing could stop me from getting here. This has to end
Thomas."
"It will, but what's your hurry? I've waited so long for
this, I'd rather take the time to enjoy it." Thomas said, looking back over
the edge "Unless you plan to shoot me in the back, like you did to my
brother."
"I tried to explain before, that was an accident Thomas!
I would never shoot someone with real ammo face to face, let alone in the
back!"
"You really expect me to believe that? You were once
considered a rising star in the world of Hunters, everyone knew you, the great
Calmar, climbing the ranks almost as fast as the legendary Vincent Centime. You
didn't like the thought of being second best, so you shot him to remove the
competition. Simple as that."
"You're wrong Thomas! I would never turn on a
friend!"
At this, Thomas spun around, aiming a pistol at Calmar.
"How dare you!" he shouted "How dare you call him your
friend!"
"We were friends Thomas, you of all people should know
that!"
"It was a lie! A lie to get close enough for him to trust
you! So you would get the chance to do what you were plotting all along!"
"Don't be stupid!"
"Shut up! Vincent wasn't able to see it, but I was, I
knew you were up to no good the moment we met! You set all that up!"
"Don't be so damn stupid Thomas! Why would I do that!? If
I was gonna kill him I wouldn't have-"
"Enough! Shut up and pay for what you did with your
life!" Thomas screamed, firing wildly at Calmar.
Calmar easily dodged his fire, Thomas was shaking from fury
and clearly not shooting accurately. Calmar drew his katana, deflecting what few
bullets came close to hitting him. Before long Thomas had emptied his gun and
was going for another clip. Calmar decided this was the only chance to attempt
to reason with Thomas before he was going to have to get serious.
"Thomas, you're not thinking clearly!" Calmar yelled
"Why would I? Tell me that!"
"It was a ruse! You hired those people, that way you
could do him in yourself whenever you felt like it!"
"You're blinded by hatred Thomas, it doesn't make any
sense, only an idiot would think such a thing!"
"You can't trick me like you did my brother, die!"
Thomas reloaded and began shooting again, this time it was more difficult for
Calmar to evade the bullets, a couple grazed him but he still came out of it
without a direct hit.
Thomas quickly reloaded, "Accept your fate Calmar,
embrace the reaper and be pulled into the depths of hell!"
It was clear there was no reasoning with him, Calmar knew what
he had to do. He ran at Thomas, swerving back and forth just enough to avoid the
bullets. A pink blur sped across his field of vision and sent Thomas's pistol
flying through the air. Calmar slowed to a stop, Amy was standing next to
Thomas, who was clearly in shock at her sudden appearance. She punched him in
the face and he fell to the ground with a thud.
"Damn it Amy!" Calmar said, walking up to her.
"This is between me and him, don't get in the way!"
Amy turned to Calmar, looked into his eyes and punched him in
hard the gut. Calmar dropped his katana and fell to his knees, clutching his
stomach.
"What... are you doing?" Calmar coughed
"Who is this psycho bi-" before Thomas could finish
his sentence Amy kicked him in the stomach.
"You're both such idiots!" Amy shouted, trying to
keep herself from beating them both up.
A laugh came from the doorway, "That's Amy for you, brute
force is her answer to everything." Clint was leaning against the wall by
the door, Maria and the two people he saw on the way up were there as well.
"I'm so glad we made it in time!" Maria exclaimed
"Me too, I was getting a little worried." Alan said
calmly
"Who's going to explain all this? I'm not very good at
that sort of thing." Ozzie said, removing his half broken helmet.
"What is going on?! Why are you siding with the
enemy?!" Thomas shouted at Alan and Ozzie, Amy glared down and him.
"The only enemy here was that scumbag Daniel, and he's
dead." Amy said
"D-Daniel? You killed my best friend now?! Damn
you!"
"Shut up and listen for a minute!" Amy shouted,
kicking him again. "That piece to trash was never your friend! He was the
cause of all this!"
"He would never do that, there would be no reason!"
"His twisted mind made one! He thought you hated your
brother anyway, that you were always overshadowed by him! He thought that by
getting rid of Vincent he was doing you a favor!"
"What are you talking about, Calmar is the one that shot
him!"
"He's right, I pulled the trigger... it was my mistake...
because of that one of my closest friends..." Calmar muttered
"Stop calling him your friend!" Thomas shouted.
"He was my friend! If I was planning to kill him anyway,
why bother saving his life?!"
"What? Save his life?" Amy stuttered for a moment,
but then remembered there were more important things to deal with. "Talk
about that later! Calmar, think back to what happened!"
"What's the point? It already..."
"Think you idiot! Didn't anything happen before you did
that?!"
"Before? I never really thought about it... all I could
remember was shooting whenever I thought about..."
"Well think hard, like a few minutes before it
happened!"
Calmar thought, he didn't really see a point, but it was
better than Amy hitting him again. It was a bit blurry, but he recalled a hard
strike to the back of his head... and blacking out. "Something... knocked
me out?"
"That was Daniel! While you were unconscious he put live
ammo in both of your guns! It wasn't your mistake, it was Daniel's
intention!"
"This... is insane! Daniel?! He wasn't like that
before..." Calmar said.
"My god... he was... that fool..." Thomas mumbled,
staring at the ground.
"Do you understand now?! There no reason for you two to
kill each other!"
"That fool actually did it? I thought he... he was just
kidding around... was Daniel really that stupid?" Thomas got up, clearly in
shock. He walked over to the edge of the building and leaned against the
railing, staring down. "Daniel always said things like 'Wouldn't it be
better if Vincent wasn't around? He always seems to get in the way...' I would
agree, but only because he ever asked me when I was angry with Vincent... but
for him to..."
"So all these years... all the crap I... we, went
through... it was because of..." Calmar was having a hard time accepting it
as well.
"He's gone, there's no more reason to fight... lets just
get on with our lives as best we can!" Maria spoke up.
"She's right... she seems to be right about a lot of
things." Alan said, glancing over at Maria.
"Not a reason in the world, unless you still plan to kill
me Ozzie?" Clint asked lazily, the battle and stairs had worn him out.
"You knew I'd never kill you Clint, we're friends, or was
it rivals? Either way, I like you too much to do something like that."
Ozzie chuckled.
"Yeah! So lets all go home, we can talk everything out
over dinner!" Amy said, hoping everything was resolved.
"Or drinks... I'm gonna need some booze after everything
that's happened." Calmar said, looking over at Thomas. "What do you
say Thomas? Isn't it time we put it all behind us? Now that we know the
truth..."
"Yeah... I guess..." Thomas looked back at them
"We can talk about it all... it is time tha-" Thomas's face turned
pale "Oh no.... time.... what time is it?!" he yelled in a panic
"Huh? Oh it's..." Amy checked her watch "Almost
six, why?"
"It's too late..." Thomas said shaking "We're
all going to die here..."
"What are you-" An explosion interrupted Calmar, and
the building began to shake. "What's going on?!"
"I planted a time bomb in the building in case things
went wrong... I never expected something like this!"
"What are we supposed to do now?!" Amy screamed as
the building trembled from more explosions.
"We have to-" there was another blast and Thomas
stumbled backwards, bumping into the railing. It snapped loose and Thomas began
to fall backwards.
"Thomas!" Calmar shouted, running over to grab him.
The section of roof he was on gave way, crumbling over the side.
"Calmar!" Amy screamed as she watched both him and
Thomas fall over the edge.
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