Disclaimer : I have no rights on HOLLYOAKS, nor on any of Hollyoak's characters used in this fanfic. This fic started as a Facebook challenge, and was originally in French to bring a French audience to that great british soap :) But as some of you sent me an email to get the english version, here it is ! ;-) Remember I'm a French-speaker. So there might be grammar and vocabulary mistakes in this text. If you don't understand something, don't hesitate to ask and I'll correct it ;-)

Note 1 : Even if the main character is Tony Hutchinson again, don't try to link this story to my other Hollyoaks fic : « Oriunde Ai Fi » (except for some psychological traits, maybe ^^; ).

Note 2 : Some times ago, I started giving the title of the musics I was listening while writing. Music can influence the mood and sometimes the actions. So in case you'd like to dive into the "atmosphere": « Fairytale Gone Bad » - Sunrise Avenue.

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WAKE UP, TONY !

Prolog : The point of No-Return.

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Tony Hutchinson felt like his world was dancing. He slammed his hand on the wall to keep his balance and to catch his breath. He did not just run a 600 foot race, but his nerves were leaving him in the same exhaustion state. Oh, it wasn't the first time tonight when he wished to be very VERY far and away! Coloured spots seemed to dance before his eyes, cut by some blinding flashlights, and he smelled an odour of blood from inside his nose. He kept his hand flat on the wall, recognising his symptoms for what they were. Stress had brought the Bill: he was right in the middle of a low blood pressure crisis.

He closed his eyes and started counting mentally backwards from 40 to zero. Something one of his ex taught him a long time ago, as a way to get back in his shoes. Speaking of which, he knew it was better for him not to try and walk for awhile, unless he wanted to fall head first among the confetti, gift wraps, beer cans, and any other objects typical of the surprise party his friends had organised for his 30s birthday.

('Go for a walk, and don't come back before 7… Take a book with you if you don't know what to do !)

This birthday party was turning into total chaos as more invitees were joining – some of them clearly unwanted. What could have been a funny gathering of ol'friends was now becoming in the background a place of fights, shouts and tears.

In the pitch black of this situation, Tony could at least see a small light of hope. It wasn't midnight yet, but he couldn't honestly imagine how the situation could become worse after the last shock he had just faced. As far as he was concerned, the party was over, but very few of his friends knew about his recent situation and he preferred to apply the "ignorance is a bliss" term, and let them have their fun. His life as he had known it was now over. The latest "surprise" he got was his point of no return. It was too late to turn back. Too late for a lot of things, in fact.

At that precise moment, he heard the doorbell ring over the high volume pop-music of the party.

"Now, WHAT?", he shouted, more for himself, his eyes still closed. What bad surprise was still waiting for him? Which remaining skeleton from the closet did he still have to discover behind that door?

He passed a hand through his dark and wet hair and opened his icy clear eyes. In his countdown, he had only reached '28'... He sighed and rubbed his forehead unconsciously. In moments like these, his old scar was always telling him 'Hello, dude! Missed me?'.

When he was sure he could walk without any risk, he slalomed through the invitees which were still able to stand upright. Some were of course using the help of the dancing pole his girlfriend (and – after tonight's events – probably his future ex-girlfriend, he thought bitterly) had installed in the middle of the living room.

'Angel is the word I'd use to describe her. An absolute angel.'

Those words about Jacquie, he had spoken them during this soft afternoon, but he had now the feeling it had been a few centuries in the past. Before leaving the living room, he casted a look around the invitees but couldn't see her. The contrary would really be surprising, he thought, biting unconsciously his lower lip. He resumed his walk and reached the entrance door. When he grabbed the handle, he felt some bolt of rage taking over him. He was suddenly ready to punch whoever was on the other side of the door if that person just looked to be the bearer of some new bad news. He opened the door almost savagely. "WHAT ?"

"Tony Hutchinson?"

The low and impersonated voice cooled him down immediately, and for a brief moment, he felt somehow reassured: this was not one of his many ex-girlfriends who was joining with a present in her hands
('But… I bought you a juicer!')
in order to spoil the party. He raised his eyes to the newcomer and noted his colossus looks, biker's dark cloth, hair cut in a military way, a square-shaped face, the outlines of which seemed to have been cut out with a butcher knife. And also dark sunglasses. Totally useless in the middle of the night. Tony felt a little bit uncomfortable with that detail, until he noticed another weird detail: the biker was holding a large bunch of red roses in his hand, and during a horrible moment, he wondered if in his youth, during some party where they was (way) too much beers and alcohol running, he hadn't done some gender mistake… He felt like his nerves were about to break. If he couldn't get a control on himself, he'd start soon to laugh madly in a hysterical way… and would scare all his friends in the process. He took a deep breath to calm down.

"Yup. It's me. What wrong did I do this time?"

As an answer, the colossus man let go the bunch of red roses on the pavement. Tony took a moment that seemed like a eternity to recognize what had been hidden inside the bunch. And it was clearly not the type of present one could wish for his birthday. Or for any other occasion, by the way.

His senses were suddenly in alert mode. He perceived the fall of the roses in slow motion, and their impact on the pavement seemed dull as they bounced softly with a silky sound he managed somehow to hear over the background music.

What had he said earlier during his birthday speech?

'When you're 30, you can't afford to get it wrong anymore. Time isn't on your side'

Unbeknown to him at that moment, he had said something perfectly true. Horribly true.

The man in front of him was raising a Desert Eagle with long gun, equipped with a laser aim and a silencer. Tony noted that the biker's face expression hadn't changed at all since the beginning. The man made a step towards him, and Tony heard the 'crok!' some rose did under his heavy boot. That sound only seemed to explode the deadly torpor he was paralysed in, and he stepped backwards. The weapon was raised at face level, and the biker was still expressionless. For a brief moment, Tony's left eye was blinded with the laser red point before it moved to the middle of his forehead. Tony made another step backwards and his calf ran up against some beer rack. Unbalanced, he fell backwards just as the gun fired. He barely heard the 'thudd' of the silencer, but felt as if something burning had flown very close to his scalp, and then a crystal-like sound behind him, coming from the glass cubes wall separating the entrance corridor from the living room.

Almost at the end of his fall, his shoulders and head hit the glassy wall, and he was briefing blind with pain; yet, he was somehow happy to be still able to feel that kind of pain. He wondered if the sound of the glassy cube that had exploded under the impact of the shot would drag his friends' attention. But with the unchanged party sounds and chatters, he realised the volume of the music was probably too high. People who might have heard it, were probably thinking it was another drinking glass which had accidently been flying downwards. There had been so many broken glasses this evening that this birthday party looked more and more like a Jewish wedding. "Mazel Tov !" BLINK !

No. No one was going to come and check the origin of this glassy sound. And somehow, deep inside, Tony was glad. Anybody walking into the corridor this time would probably get an unpleasant surprise. A quick surprise.

He raised his eyes to his attacker, trying to get clear from the mess on the floor, but the biker was already on him, his Desert Eagle aiming right at his face. Tony could barely see something else than the red blinding light from the laser aim. In a breath, he realised that he was going to die here alone, with his friends ironically just a few yards away, and he got a thought many have in similar situations:

'Why me?'

There was a second muffled gunshot, and everything became white.

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To be continued...

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All right, I hope you survived my terrible English. ;-)

The story is more advanced in the French version (for those of you who'd like to fry their brain on Molière's language ;-) ) as it was originally a facebook challenge to make French speaking people discover about Hollyoaks.

I did another Hollyoaks fanfic: "Oriunde Ai Fi" (romanian for "Wherever You are"), a dark fic centered on Tony and Jacquie. It was supposed to be a one-shot, but due to the nice comments I got on Hollyoaks official forum, I decided to develop it further. The continuation won't be published tomorrow, though… ;)

Hope you enjoyed this fic :-)

I wish you a great day ;-)

::Roselyne::