Today is all about the final part of the Bleeding Hearts short story...Though it clearly should have been part 2 of 3 looking at its length! Yeah, might have gone overboard slightly on it. Nevermind eh? Speaking of short stories though, I have settled on what I'm going to be doing with Short Diversions moving onwards, but that is really more of a next week thing.
For now, let's go and see what's happening with that guy and the rat...Shakespeare fans, don't kill me.
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
Never let Riz touch Shakespeare's work again, though A Midsummers Night Dream might be more his thing. Was torn between King Richard the Third and Macbeth for the last panel but I thought that the "a horse" line would have more impact. Riz does alter it slightly in repeating the first bit.
Not a particularly exciting issue this one but it does the job.
Short Diversions: Bleeding Hearts Part 2
Where we last left off, Gabriel had agreed to do a job for a young woman named Cynthia. While he couldn't do the job himself, he decides to send Venus, one of his capable Shadows to do the deed...
Part 2
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2.
Venus cheerfully walked up to the front of the massive house, enjoying her brief moment in the blazing sun. Her manner of work took her all over, and operated at all hours. She did appreciate it though when the stars aligned and she got to spend time in the sun, the like that American summers provided. It was more the reason that she was thrilled when Gabriel told her that he’d had a few people that wanted his services in Miami of all places. She couldn’t resist tagging along whenever she wasn’t knee deep in someone else’s blood. She lent on the gate that led to the property itself, counting all the security guards that were present. She counted six just wandering around with guard dogs, which told her a lot about the targets. Gabriel had explained to her before he had to run to his own meeting that the family that the client had wanting dealt with were a known quantity in the organised crime scene, having built up their reputation and wealth over a span of decades and successive heads. What they did with this money, Venus didn’t really care. It wasn’t going to make any difference to what was about to happen. In fact she wished they’d been even more cautious. She spotted the first of the guards nearing the gate, and she strove to get his attention. With a thought, her clothing was altered, making it appear to the naked eye that was wearing a skin tight bikini, leaving nothing to the imagination.
“You hoo!” She called out, getting that guard's instant attention the moment he set eyes on her. She fluttered her eyes at the man, who had rushed over, his tongue practically hanging out of his mouth.
“Oh dear,” She said dramatically, "I seem to have sprained my ankle. Would you be a dear and let me in so someone could take a look at it. I’d be so ever grateful.” She’d put on her best American accent to blend in. Most sensible people should have been suspicious of the entire setup, and known better then to let in a stranger to the house they were being paid a handsome sum to protect. The guard was not a sensible person, instead being an obvious weak link. Before Venus had even finished her request, he’d already unlocked the gate for her, opened it up for her, and beckoned her to come through, a kind of look in his eyes that was only ever going to lead to one thing, well, one thing if he was going to get more than a few seconds to live.
“Such a cute boy,” she said leaning into the guy’s face, allowing him a good look at her body, one that he was never going to touch. “Do you want a reward?” She asked him, and predictably, he started nodding.
“Oh, my! In that case then, close your eyes…” Venus giggled, and as he complied, she struck with a black dagger that formed from out of her own hand. The blade dug deep of the man's jugular, before tearing itself free. The man let out a surprised gargle of blood before he collapsed. Venus never gave him a second look as she stomped down on his head as she passed over him, already looking for the next kill. The dog went to bark, but she glared at it, and it laid down, becoming submissive in her presence.
“Good doggy,” She said smiling. She got nothing from killing animals, plus Lyren, her fellow Shadow, would only attack her over it. She had no time for drama like that, so she made good policy to just cow the animals into submission. The added benefit here was that sometimes they ate the evidence for her. A win-win really.
With the first dead body on the ground, Venus weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of the method of entry she’d chosen compared to what she normally did, where she just appeared inside their building without warning, and killed every one without even disturbing a settled layer of dust Given that it was Valentines Day on a sunny day in Florida, she felt like going wild, it was all for love in the end. Throwing caution to the wind, and knowing that she was still faster than the guards could react, she danced to the next target, who was just rounding the corner, and hadn’t even laid eyes on the body.
In the space of a breath, Venus was in the man’s face, spooking him, and causing him to take a step back, giving her the opportunity to stick her daggers in, he never breathed again. The rest of the guards in the garden fell quickly after, all within the space of a few minutes. All the guard dogs were little more than puppies before her, not even letting out the smallest of barks in defiance. She glanced up to the cameras that had been overlooking everything, knowing full well that they wouldn’t have seen anything other than static. After carefully making sure that there was no one left, and that now alarm had been raised, Venus ventured into the house.
The bottom floor was open plan in design, but decorated garishly for her tastes, too much an attempt to look upper class with no unifying style. She stopped to admire herself in the mirror, wiping away some of the blood that had been splattered onto her face from a severed artery. Then she noticed in the mirror that a guard had turned the corner, gun already drawn, behind him were two others, also training their weapons on her.
“You guys sure are happy to see me…” Venus said, turning with a smile. “Do you want my hands behind my back, or behind my waist?” She asked flirtatiously.
“GET ON THE GROUND NOW!” the one in the front barked. It was clear to Venus that they weren’t in a mood to play, which was a shame.
“All work and no play make for a dull day,” she giggled.
“GET ON THE GROUND, OR WE WILL SHOOT!” The lead one repeated the order, adding in the threat, not that Venus appeared bothered by it.
“Shoot? Oh, honey, go right ahead and shoot me with your little gun,” she purred. She purposely took a few steps towards them.
“I SAID GET ON THE GROUND-D!” There was a crack in his voice, and even the guards behind him looked unnerved.
Venus was standing so close to them, that she was able to put the barrel of the gun to her forehead, rubbing her fingers along it as she did.
“Go on, pul the trigger, get that release…”
The guard started shaking, and under the pressure that was bearing down on him, he pulled the trigger, and Venus, playing along, threw her head back in time with the force of the impact. She staggered back as the guards looked on in shock.
“Got you!” Her head snapped down, revealing the bullet hole that was almost fully healed already.
One of the other guards broke completely at this point, and emptied the full clip from his gun, every shot hitting Venus, several of them were head shots. However, like before, there was a momentary shudder, but she was unharmed, and loving every second of what was going on.
“That’s the spirit! My turn now though!” Venus pulled out her daggers and threw them at the guard closest guard, the blades sticking into his head and neck, taking him down instantly. His fall allowed Venus to get in the midst of the other two guards. The one who had just fired at her was reacting too slowly to do anything to prevent her from kicking him into the wall, breaking several of his bones in the impact and taking the wind out of him. The other was faster on the uptake and pulled out a combat knife. He started swinging with short slashes, trying to keep his own defence up. This approach might have worked if he’d been fighting a normal human, Venus dodged the blows without even trying, and trapped his arm with hers and reached her leg up, and pushed her foot against his head, breaking his neck. The guard she’d kicked was groaning in pain, and feeling generous, Venus decided that she’d got all the fun of watching him suffer, and that time was getting away from her. She knelt down beside him, and summoned her daggers to her, the weapons ripping themselves out of the corpse, and into her hand. She then stuck the tip into the guard's neck, and then pulled down, which did the trick. She’d now killed nine guards, but she theorised that there would be at least two more lurking upstairs.
“You’ll probably find the family hiding in the panic room once you start taking out the cannon fodder,” Venus recalled Gabriel’s words. “They’ll also keep a couple of guards, maybe even heavier armed for protection. It’ll be awfully nice of them to gather themselves up like that for you.” Gabriel had flashed her that smile of his, and it’d melted her like butter. Her knees felt weak just remembering it.
“Upstairs I go then!”
Upstairs was the same as downstairs in terms of style and presentation, there was more structure up here though, as rooms were properly divided off. As soon as she stepped foot on the landing, there was the sound of ferocious gunfire as bullets tore towards her from the central hallway. She sidestepped them gracefully. She wasn’t in any danger from the attacks but tanking them would only cost more time than it was worth, and she knew her main prey was really close now. Taking stock of the situation, Venus realised that the last two guards, had placed themselves at the end of a corridor, and had set up large machine guns, weapons that would have been considered overkill even if the targets were ordinary humans. Ostensibly, she believed that the act was to put enough distance between her and her prey, in the hopes of either driving her off, or putting her down through extreme firepower. None of that was going to work out for them. Looking at the various options at her disposal, Venus looked to the floor itself, and namely the luxurious rug that had been placed there for decoration.She quickly ran to it and picked up the end of it with ease, all under the hail of gunfire, then she slammed it back down again, creating a wave motion that tore the rug up from the floor, the heavy nails sometimes taking the floor boards with it. She hid behind the rug in the split seconds it took for the wave to meet where the guards had formed their little emplacement. They had been firing all the time of course, the bullets tearing the rug apart, but its thickness took the brunt of all the damage, leaving Venus to make a stylish entrance as she tore what remained of the rug apart herself, throwing her daggers into the necks of the two guards who gargled out a bloody scream as they fell. Venus stopped for a second, listening to her surroundings keenly. To her satisfaction, she heard nothing, no sounds of sirens, no sounds of anyone coming to stop her fun. With a spring in her step, she skipped to where she guessed the panic room was located, she did love her work.
Meanwhile, outside, Cynthia cautiously made her way into the garden, avoiding the guard dogs that looked crestfallen, laying on the grass not far from where their owners had been slaughtered. They only lifted their heads slightly to recognise the girl’s presence. Cynthia, herself, was strangely calm when looking over the bodies of all the guards that Venus had put down. None of the blood or gore gave her much pause. This was a fact that hadn’t escaped Gabriel’s attention. His meeting had ended sooner than he had anticipated. He decided to use his newfound time to check in on Venus’s job, give her an on site work evaluation, he liked being a hands-on boss. Seeing Cynthia ahead of him though, he knew there was fun to be had here, especially with what he knew.
“Oh, Cynthia my dear, couldn’t you wait till I gave you the all clear?” He said, making her almost jump out of her skin.
“Gabriel?” She said, turning around in shock.”W-Why are you here? I t-thought you c-couldn’t make it?”
“Plans change I guess, but looking around…” Gabriel spied all the bodies that Venus had left. “I would say that Venus is almost done, so I guess we’ve both got good timing eh? Shall we go and see the final result, maybe you can even go and comfort that boy you did all this for.” He walked forward and beckoned her to follow him, which she reluctantly did.
Back inside, Venus had penetrated the panic room’s defences easily, the space was of moderate size, with the whole family, two parents and three boys backed into a corner. The men had, bravely or foolishly, Venus hadn’t quite decided which, placed themselves between the Shadow and their mother. She figured there must have been an honour thing going on, as it made no difference to her, and with a flourish, she carried out her deed. The only time she stopped in the slaughter was to make sure she hadn’t killed the wrong guy, but Cynthia had been a good drawer, so it was easy to pick out the one who wasn’t supposed to die. He had made things difficult though, trying to put himself in the way of her multiple times, till it became easier to pin him to the wall with a dagger while finishing off the others. The panic room’s walls had been white when she entered, now, they were blood soaked and the dead practically unrecognisable. Venus knew it wasn’t her finest work, but they’d been so desperate to save each other that none of them had kept still, making her precision cuts that much harder to pull off. Still the deed was done, and she took a step back to admire her work. The survivor was in pieces, metaphorically speaking, he hadn’t understood anything since it began, not least the reason why his family, and all their security, had to die. He wanted to ask, but the amount of questions he had didn’t let a single one take precedence.
Venus started walking towards him, swaying her hips, and reached up for the dagger that was pinning him to the wall, and then removed it, letting him fall to the blood smeared floor.
“Thank you for your co-operation,” she said mockingly, leaning in close.
It was at that point that Gabriel and Cynthia arrived on the scene. Neither had said a word to each other as they made their way through the house, with Gabriel taking a twisted pride in seeing his Shadow’s handiwork up close. Cynthia on the other hand, wanted to rush to the panic room where she knew he’d be. This was the culmination of her dreams, and of the creation of her future life. She had to see him. So it was, when she first walked into the room of death, the moment she looked into his tear stricken eyes, she let herself cry.
“Andreas!” she shouted as she ran to him, slipping over in the blood of his family, getting it over her hands as she picked herself up, before smearing it over him as she hugged him. He was still too shell-shocked for words at first, but as the embrace lasted, he eventually found something to say.
“C-Cynthia?”
“Andreas! W-we’ve d-done it! We’re f-finally free!” Cynthia cried out.
“Aww, isn’t that romantic?” Venus mocked. “Who says romance is dead?” She looked over to Gabriel, who was also enjoying how it was all playing out.
“Young love, there’s nothing like it,” he chuckled.
“Cythina, W-what’s going on? W-why?” Andreas spluttered out. He broke the hug off and looked down at his own hands, and at the state of the room, almost throwing up when the full weight of the event hit him.
“Why what?” Cynthia asked earnestly. “Don’t you get it? We’re free now!” She went to hug him again but he put his back fully against the wall to avoid her.
“F-free? I don’t understand? Who is…Who is that monster?” he pointed at Venus who was admiring her nails, till she realised he was looking at her.
“Me? Oh, I’m just the help, and let me tell you, I was more than happy to help out with this special job! From one romanticist to another, this was certainly a gift from the heart!” Venus explained with a flourish.
“As for me? I’m just a dealer, I make everyone’s dreams come true,” Gabriel added. “Though last time I saw you kiddo, you were just way high,” he used his hand to illustrate that Andreas had only been a child when Gabriel helped his family.
“B-but why? W-why did you kill them? Cynthia, I don’t understand!”
“I told you, already, so that we can be free!” A degree of softness was lost from Cynthia’s voice, as a little frustration set in instead.
“F-free?”
“If I may interject here, what the lady is trying to say…” Gabriel started explaining. “Is that now both your families are dead, you’re free to live your lives as you see fit, and together, as I’m guessing your little romance wasn’t looked at fondly.”
Venus handed Gabriel back the drawing that Cynthia had made, and he revealed it to Andreas, who looked absolutely horrified by it. He saw himself, trapped in a cartoonish heart while his family members, and various bodyguards had their faces scratched out, with bodies that were bleeding. The intent was clear.
“Don’t you see? Now we can be together! Without anyone stopping us! I l-love you Andreas,” Cynthia said blushing. “All this is for you!”
“As a special Valentine's present!” Venus chimed in.
“T-this is insane! You’re all insane!” Andreas screamed.
“I know this is a shock, but I’m here for you,” Cynthia said, wanting to draw close again.
“No! I barely even know you! We only met a few months ago!”
“Yes, and you said we couldn’t be together because of our warning families, so that’s why I solved it all! No more silly gang fights, we can be together!”
“Oh…Is that why you accepted the job?” Venus asked, turning to Gabriel.
“Partly, I knew what this girl had done to her own family, as it was clear as day, no doubt the police will figure it out soon as well. Once they see past her attempts to frame it all like a crime family feud,” he replied causally, which shocked Cynthia once she heard him.
“W-what? No! It doesn’t matter! Come on Andreas! We can still get away from all of this! I know we have a connection! The way you looked at me when we first met! You’re the only one who can understand the type of life I’ve had! We’ve been nothing but pawns in the adult’s games. Pieces they could move around the board to secure their own power just because of their surnames…Please, Andreas! We can make this work, just me and you, no baggage, a new life awaits!”
Andreas fell silent as the full picture dawned on him, a random gesture of kindness that he gave to the daughter of his family's enemies had led to all this .In a very real way, what he did, led to his tragedy. He slid to the floor, his head hanging low.
Seeing him in this state, Gabriel spied an opportunity, and carefully went over to him, taking care as to not step on the bodies. He bent down, and started whispering in the boy’s ear.
Cynthia tried to lean in to hear what they were saying, but couldn’t make anything out.
“Andreas?” She asked, before trying again, in a more forceful tone. “Andreas!” She went to move closer, but Venus was faster, dragging her away, giving Gabriel and his new client space.
“Ssshh,” Venus said, putting a finger delicately on Cynthia’s lips. “Let the man do his thing!”
“Oh, are you sure that’s what you want, right now?” Gabriel asked. Andreas, who didn’t look at him, but nodded.
Holding his hand up, Gabriel formed a handgun and handed it to him, which made Cynthia cry out all the more.
“W-what are you going to do with that! Andreas! Talk to me!”
Andreas said nothing, he simply put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, his body going limp as the gun rattled out of his hand.
“That was a freebie by the way,” Gabriel pointed out to Venus. “No one can say I’m not charitable!”
“ANDREAS!” Cythnia screamed, showing more reaction to what he’d done than anything else that day. She broke down in tears, collapsing to her knees. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! It was supposed to be me and you, forever and ever! With no parents to stop us, and no drama to tie us down! I loved you and I know you loved me!” she sounded more delusional now, and sensing that this escapade was drawing to a close, Gabriel removed the barrier that had blocked everything inside from affecting the outside and vice versa. All the security systems flared into life, alerting everyone to the intrusion at the property.
“Well, miss Cynthia, it is time for us to part, you had better get out of here yourself, otherwise you’re going to rack up quite the impressive police record,” Gabriel pointed this out, knowing full well that she now had nothing left.
She didn’t say anything, she just picked up the handgun that Andreas had used and cradled it for a moment. She then cuddled into him, forcing his limp arm around her, then she pulled the trigger as well.
“That just happened,” Venus said surprised. “Did you know that was going to happen?” she asked Gabriel.
“What? That faced with a harsh truth she’d choose to absolve herself of all responsibility and seek oblivion with the man she thought loved her? It was never going to end the way she wanted. She’d burned all her bridges by killing her own family, and because she was too impulsive, made sure he realised that she caused the death of the young man’s family. Had she held back and called on him later, coming to his aid once people had called out for help, then he might have been more receptive…If she had escaped capture herself.” Gabriel’s explanation was thorough, but he wasn’t finished. “Of course, the best thing here is that we got what we wanted.”
“How do we benefit from this?” Venus said, cosying up to him further.
“These two families actually help fund Majestic by funneling money through black market schemes, very similar to what the CIA dabbled in. What we’ve done here is take out two more of Majestic’s holdings. Giving me an opening to put forward two of my own.”
“So, her killing her family provided you with a lucky break?”
Gabriel turned to Venus with a smirk.
“Is that what you think happened? A lucky break, my dear, I never leave anything to chance…”
The pair laughed as they made their own escape, leaving the police to find the crime scene and all the horror it contained….
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That's all for this week!
Join me next week for another Short Diversions, though this is going to be a special one.
Till then...
Keep on writing!
Peter James Martin
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