Title : Fracture
Word Count : 251
Rating : K
Disclaimer : I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the plot.
I just got back from seeing Max Payne. Majorly disappointed about the non-real valkyries. Ah, well. We can't have everything, can we? His state of mind at the end, after he takes the drug piqued my interest. And I always love doing character studies. Mild, with not even real violence or cursing. Amazing.
His mind is blank as he swallows, hoping for the strength to—
Everything fractures.
The city burns in the background of valkyries swooping and calling to him. His body freezes in the same instant, trembling against his will. Everything is in pieces, similar to shards of glass, and his mind, oh, his mind—
His scream holds everything he feels, or felt, or—
The pieces crash back together, edges fitting but not melting together. Cracks still run through his vision, reminding him of his life. The gentle falling of bits of burning ash is comforting, a sign of the destruction he will wreak—
He is losing control. Each fire of his gun is a blow to his own sanity, and the pieces slip away again—
They are coming for him, they are impatient with his revenge, they will take him now—
He screams at them, for them, for himself and his dead wife and his dead baby and partner and the woman he didn't really know, but who died with his wallet next to her anyway, and the betrayal—
It is enough. They are driven away while his strength remains. She whispers to him, pushes something into his hands—
He remembers being shot as a surge in his senses, nothing more. The cracks are spider-webbing now, and time itself seems to shatter—
He sees them, them them them, but—
The cracks are gone. His strength is spent, torn apart by angry valkyries who rescind their gift, their offer. He is—
Just is.