Max Payne: Inner Circle Ashes.
A Short Unofficial Sequel to 'The Fall of Max Payne'
By Michael Jones
Prologue
I woke up again to see a familiar sight, a fluorescent light glowing and sending white and blue streaks of light across the cream white ceiling, the hospital. A moment of confusion flushed through my mind like the brain pain of a slushy drink. Questions pushed against the fading sting of amnesia; and then it all came flooding back, Vladimir, Woden, the Inner Circle, Mona's blood soaked embrace, sirens and blinding blue and red flashes across the walls of the Woden mansion. I could still recall her warm breath on my ear as I clutched her dieing body. Mona didn't deserve to die, and it was a fact that I was partly to blame. She'd given up her life to save someone like me, Max Payne, someone who placed plan and execution far above life itself. Was my mission over? Was I still alive for a reason?
Chapter One
HIGH AND DRY
Three Weeks Later…
A glass of Jack twitched in my hand as I sat in my new and very dank apartment, a simple little loft with a very nice view of the decrepit porno theater across the road, coupled with the blinding flashes of Neon XXX, nice and wholesome. I still had the shakes, allot of advice had been thrown my way by my department, Leave the DEA, leave New York, leave the planet. Dieing seemed like good advice right now,
But something felt unresolved, I'd killed thousands of hoodlums, Valkeri dealers and government spooks and yet, regardless, it was only a portion of the monster that was New York's underworld. I looked at my tiny flickering television, the weather woman pointed at a giant cold front that was heading in from the east. Winter had returned. Like I had picked the words right out of Gods mouth, flakes of snow began to fall outside, sparkling in the pale streetlight. This winter was going to be colder than ever before. I took another sip of Jack, my head buzzing and my vision swirling as I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, self destruction seem the only logical thing left. I looked over at the liquor Cabinet and my empty packet of cigarettes; it was time for a walk.
I stumbled clumsily out of my apartment building, and out onto the eerie quiet of my remote Brooklyn address, my vision spun and the night was young, plans for filling my liquor cabinet had faded, I was looking for trouble now. I strolled up the street, on my way to Hammersmith Ave, a busy stretch. Occasionally I would look up and watch the otherwise invisible snow enter the beam of the streetlight, and it was beautiful, I found that every so often, such happy thoughts would stroll through my otherwise morose mind, they where good while they lasted, but all but disappeared when I saw what was under the next streetlight. A gangly hooker sat on her hip and looked my way. The street was more populated now, New York's lonely men where out fishing for the creatures of the night. The hooker threw me a false smile, her mascara was running, highlighting a large bruise on her left eye; it was obvious she had been crying not too long ago. "Hey Baby, wanna have some fun?" her thick Brooklyn drawl impossible to miss. I looked past her as I staggered by; across the street I could see a dark car and the glowing ember of a cigarette, her pimp. I would have taken her up on her offer if she where simply offering company and not her body. It seemed like every woman I saw now reminded me of Michelle, Mona, and Detective Winterson... women had a bad habit of dying around me. It would have seemed a good idea to get her away from that piece of scum for a few hours, but some things are best left alone. I could relate to her though, both our worlds where cruel, just in different ways. An idea struck me; my brain was on coffee break and my heart, a workaholic. I strolled across the street toward the darkened car. There was no going back now.
Chapter Two
SHADOWMAN
The air was getting cold, the snow crunched under my footsteps. It was fresh snow and yet already is seemed to be turning a deep coal pit grey. The figure in the car didn't seem to even flinch as I approached; the cigarette ember glowed, revealing, for a split second, a gaunt face with two cold, beady eyes. I pulled the burning cigarette from my lips and threw it on the bonnet of the car, smiling smugly. It was like I was trapped in my own body, observing my own stupidity, the smart thing to do would be to turn around and be on my way. I expected the figure to shift or move in some way or even better, give me an excuse to beat his ass, but he was unflinching, he just kept sucking on his cigarette, watching from the dark. I felt like a moron, Max Payne, the drunkard swaying savior of dried up, no hope hookers, some things would never change.
In the awkwardness of the moment, I began to shuffle away from the car, feeling foolish and useless. I looked over at the hooker who was watching from afar, her suggestive smile had turned into shocked bewilderment, I couldn't really blame her, I found most of my actions confusing too. I continued to walk up the street, my hands dived deep into my pockets, the cold was really starting to get to me now, I needed to get to the corner store.
I trudged back down the street carrying a paper bag of oddly sensible necessities, toothpaste, some fruit and some insensible ones like Cigarettes and liquor. Was I starting to care about myself a little bit again? Or was the Jack making me nostalgic? maybe I should drink a bit more. The snowfall was thick now, coming down in large flakes, there was already allot of snowfall back up on the street curb. Empty faces looked up as me as I walked by. Everyone I saw reminded me of the past, someone who had met a sticky end from the other side of my berretta. I had spent so much time in the snow last winter in my vendetta; it had almost become a friend in itself, the cold wind whispering the voices of the dead. I trudged passed a dark alleyway and my instincts flared, I had sobered up slightly on my walk. I heard a sound coming from the alley a faint and grieved voice.
My body was moving at command of my impelling heart again, logic would have to sit this one out and watch.
Chapter Three
INVISABLE EYES
The Alley way was a boring cliché of what an alley should look like in Brooklyn. Rubbish littered the ground, large metal dumper bins where lined up against a ragged and rusted metal fence, which beyond, extended to an overused asphalt basketball court, slash, car park. The whimpering came from a dark corner of the car park. I climbed through a hole in the fence and walked steadily through the area, the hair on the back of my neck was standing up, something was very wrong here, my instincts where reacting to something. I felt eyes watching me, voices whispering, the devils army was watching and waiting, and I wasn't armed.
I walked through the eerie basketball court, between some dividers and entered the car park. Around the corner I saw a dark car with its brake and head lights switched on shining against the far wall revealing a grisly sight. A body lay propped up against the wall, a victim of repeated gunshot wounds, whose familiarity was unmistakable. The hooker I had passed in the street, the gaunt brunette, with the black eye and running mascara. I grimace, why was always blessed with discovering the sowed seeds of greed. I looked in the driver's side of the cab, a rather fruitless attempt to discover answers to the question that where always asked at a homicide. As I reached into my pocket for my cell phone, I had a revelation as I looked at the car, how could I have not even considered it. A sharp pain covered the back of my head and I was leveled to my knees. I fell down on my face, flakes of broken asphalt cutting my face. A figure turned my body over to look at the grey winter hell of above, it was the figure from the car. His gaunt face stared at me, my vision a kaleidoscope from the head trauma, his face was uncharacteristically menacing. "Are you listening Payne" he said, "I speak for the new face of the Valkyr Empire, the new boss doesn't like you, he doesn't like what you have achieved, he doesn't like what you're capable of." His eyes shifted up to the corpse not far from us.
"But he is fair"… "My boss wants you to go along with the plans we have for you" his eyes gleamed back me… "However, some incentive has been requested at my boss's behest" he pulled out a large injecting gun and pressed it against my tensed neck, "Sweet, dreams former DEA Max Payne" The gun sparked, my body shook… and the pail face in front of me disappeared into the darkness. The nightmare of the Valkyr drug began to take hold as I rolled around on the ground struggling to fight it. It was useless, the hallucinations had started, and I was slipping into the darkness of my mind.
Chapter Four
THE RABBIT HOLE
Coming Soon
11/5/09