The Immortal Monster

Marco crouched down on his wooden perch, balancing on the balls of his feet. He never really envisioned himself in this situation, never really thought that it could ever come to this. But here he was, hiding in the rafters, just waiting for the right person to walk through that door. Marco had nothing left after this. Everything else had been forcibly taken from him... *everyone* else had been taken from him. To reach the end after all this time, after all the years he had spent preparing for this moment, it was almost tragic.

Marco could hear footsteps in the hallway just outside the room and reached for a small knife which was fastened to the back of his belt. Marco turned the item in his hands. It was small but made with astonishingly intricate patterns. A carving of a snake's head adorned the pommel of the blade and grip had many different runes carved into it that he could not read. Marco pulled the small blade out of it's scabbard, relishing the raspy sound it made as the blade finally tasted the air. Now that he was looking at it, there was a certain greenish tint which Marco supposed was due to the magical enchantments that had been bestowed upon it.

The sound of footsteps drew closer to the door and Marco readied himself for what he was about to do. They slowed down as they approached the door before stopping completely outside of it. There was a moment of silence before the handle was pulled and the sound of the mechanism turning filled the room. Marco inhaled deeply and reminisced about his journey to this spot.

It was some time after Star had defeated the Immortal Monster, they all took him for dead. Why wouldn't you? Who could take a punishment that severe and still walk away from it? Apparently he could. Some time passed and Marco was happy. *Hap-py?* That was a concept Marco had lost his grasp on years ago.

Eventually the monster returned as he was always going to. He was clever and cunning, the first time they didn't even see him coming until it was too late. After her parents were murdered, Star was a broken shell of what she was before. Of course Marco would *try* to be there for her, to put his feelings to one side for the sake of his friend. There is only so much one person can do though. Some more time passed and they weren't happy but they lived on, continued fighting against the darkness, they couldn't let the monster beat them so easily.

The Immortal Monster, however, had other ideas. Marco never knew the monster's endgame, his master plan. Over the coming years he constantly asked himself what the point of it all was. Why did the monster do what he did? Why did he take Star away like that? Why did he leave him alive? Just to torture him? Well it worked. Marco continued to suffer alone for years after it happened. He never went back to Earth, just travelled around, looking for answers that he was never going to find. More years passed and Marco forgot who he was, what he stood for. He could only focus on one thing: The Monster and what he had done.

It became an obsession. Everything he did from that point onwards was to bring him closer to killing his target. He scoured the universe multiple times over, looking for a way to slay someone who is immortal, a weapon capable of bringing the monster to it's knees.

And now here he was, turning that very weapon slowly in his hand as he perched above the doorway the Immortal Monster was surely going to walk through. How long had it been? Marco didn't know. He'd stopped keeping track after she died. Everything seemed pointless after that happened... everything except the Monster's demise.

The large wooden door slowly creaked open beneath him and the object of his obsession entered the room. Marco's only purpose in life was to end that monster and now that the opportunity had presented itself, he was sure as hell going to grab it.

Marco dropped onto his prey, knife drawn and angled the blade towards the monster's back. The monster cried out in surprise, but buckled under the weight of Marco on his back. The knife embedded itself deeply and began to work it's magic, causing the monster to writhe in pain beneath Marco's hold.

Marco's only response was to twist the blade to make the pain even greater. Bluish-green ichor oozed from the wound on the monster's back and pooled on the floor next to him. Eventually, the monster stopped squirming and fell still and silent. Marco would have smiled at the defeat of his most hated enemy if he had any emotion left in his body. Instead, all he felt was emptiness. All he lived for was to see the monster dead, and now that he was, Marco had no reason to go on. He slid off of the corpse and landed on his back in the pool of blood the gruesome act had left behind. Marco stared at the ceiling above him and contemplated his own existence, having no reason to move ever again.

The Immortal Monster had succeeded.