Title: After
Author: Japanese and Chocolate
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: Not mine…yet…
Summary: For the Diehard Challenge: Worst Case Scenario and in response to a comment on the audio commentary for 'Sanctuary For All'. What happened to John immediately after he was shot?
Reviews: Would be very nice. For my survival.
In a dark alley, somewhere in London, a man materialised in the shadows. He appeared in the small space between two buildings, leaning heavily on one, as he tried to staunch the bleeding from his cheek. Men crawling away from drunken bar fights, nursing all manner of injuries, were not uncommon at this time of night. What was uncommon about this man was that the injury was not sustained in a brawl, by a knife or broken glass, but by a shot that had barely missed him. Also uncommon about him was the person who had done him such damage. It wasn't a burly dockworker or a miner, but a woman. A doctor with a slim body disguised under layers of cloth that society dictated she wear. Golden curls cascading down her back and startlingly blue eyes piercing into him, asking why?
For a moment John Druitt contemplated going to see the very woman who had just tried to kill him, wondering whether she would shoot him again, or tend his wounds. Something in him rejected the idea of seeking help from her, wanting instead to kill her as violently as possible, despising her for weakening him and providing him with connections to the world around him. He was not part of the world. He was never meant to grow old with a wife he loved and children to adore. No place should hold him so tightly he couldn't leave with but a thought.
Whatever he eventually decided on, remaining in the foul smelling alley would not accomplish it. He sought out his angel, his would be murderer. Following her through darkened alleys as she wandered with no apparent destination. She was apparently oblivious to the blood that stained the hem of her gown, or the small smear of red bellow her eye, as if she had wiped away tears. Part of him felt pity for her, wanting nothing more than to take her into his arms and comfort her. But something in his mind rebuked the notion, this was only just the beginning of her pain. He may never lay a hand on her, but she would never know peace from him and the crimes he committed around her, for her. Both forces, equal in power, remained unable to overwhelm the other. So they continued to follow her and struggle for supremacy.
As dawn shadowed the horizon, she took an unexpected turn, and led them to a place they had not expected her to travel in her musings. They found themselves standing before their best friend's townhouse, only able to guess what occurred inside. For once, the two forces inhabiting his body agreed that this was a betrayal. The man couldn't help but feel jealous that she had turned to…him for comfort. The monster saw the threat that discovery by Watson posed. So they left, appearing some place on the opposite side of the world. The man, overcome with emotions and sensations, the monster calculating in how he would find vengeance.
They would track her as they had for years, centuries, to come. Neither would find peace until they accomplished what their nature dictated they should. Neither allowed what they wanted by the other. They would find her again, and one would win. Or, they would continue to follow her forever. One seeking forgiveness, one to inflict suffering.
There was no greater torment.