V glared down at the little red domino. One thing. Something was out of place. All of society was collapsing, one pinnacle after the other falling helping, in turn, to bring down the next. The domino, an excellent example, he had always though so, of the phases of a plan. A brilliant plan. But something… something small… just wasn't right. A solid domino right until the end. There are no coincidences. This had to mean something, something in the plan was awry, one domino was crooked. The masked man had spent the best part of an hour trying to figure out what it was. His mind festered.
Eventually he glanced up at the clock, it was almost eleven. He set down the domino on Evey's old bed side table and wandered out the door into the empty gallery. She hadn't come to visit him like she had said she would. Not in three months. V often wondered if she ever thought about him. Probably not. In the years after his escape he had forced himself out of thinking of his captures so he could aim his attentions towards survival. She wouldn't think of him, ever. Not if she wanted to live a normal life, the kind he knew she had always desired. A siren blared overhead, faint but just loud enough for him to hear. He found his eyes on the ceiling before the sound had even started to die away. Her, what if someone was coming after her? But he knew it was just his foolish fears. The first of his patrons, dressed in his clothes, hearts set on freedom would be filling the streets now. There would be many more sirens to come before midnight he knew, but eventually the police would yield. Midnight, he thought wandering into the cinema room, midnight would soon come.
In the absence of Evey some plans would need to be adjusted. He would have to leave later for his meeting so that he did not come back to Victoria station too early and set the train off before the right time. He wouldn't have much time when he got back. He was almost happy for that. Would she care if I died? he thought. Probably not. It might even bring her some joy, some sick consolation. With a start V realised that his vision was clouding with tears. He looked back up at the ceiling. It would be better for her this way. She would never have loved him as he loved her. Some things just weren't meant to be. V urged himself to get his mind off her, but failed.
He had sat in Evey's old room most of today, waiting for her. Feebly. It had once been his bedroom, a place where he would sit after long nights, letting himself be consumed in one novel after another. Now it wasn't his and in a way would never be his again. Her scent laced everything in the room: the chairs the drapes the pillows (especially the pillows). Even after being washed again and again the pillows carried her into his dreams. And when he woke, he would lay there long nights thinking about her. In November, in his last year, in his last moments, she was the most important thing in his life. She was all he could ever think about…Dong… On his final day, when everything was to fall into place, when everything was perfect, when his song reached its crescendo, …Dong…when his dominoes fell, when all that had ever been him, all that he had thought about, had schemed, had practiced, had breathed for twenty long years reached its divine ending… all there was, was her. Evey. Evey. In one year you have become my entire life, my world, my dream.
Dong
I love you.
Dong
I love you, Evey.
Dong
Every inch of you.
Dong
Every iota.
Dong
Oh God. On such a day that you should make me weak at the very thought of you, he thought, you torture me…Dong… V realised he was starting to sweat. He patiently listened for his heart and found that it was humming…Dong… the grandfather clock finally caught his attention
Dong
Dong
V grabbed his cape and hat and made for the door as the eleventh chime died away and stepped out into the abandoned tunnels. This was it, the finale at the end of his strange play. Tonight was indeed a night that would never be forgot.
