Poisonous Love

Story Prompt by: Dante101 – Cheers for the suggestion Dante. I hope this story is to your liking.

Shay grunted in pain as he felt Hope's poisonous dart pierce through his Templar robes, and his skin, leaving him with at first a strong stinging pain.

"Ugh, what is this?" he groaned, the pain that had just begun blooming in his chest was already getting to the point of agony. "Poison. It… slows my heart," he moaned. "I… have to move."

The Templar started running forward, and quickly the pain, which previously when he stood still had burnt like a raging fire, began to dissipate, and his heart began beating properly once again. "That's it," he muttered quickly. "Moving… keeps my heart beating."

He continued running and headed toward the back exit of Hope's mansion. He stealthily but quickly made is way across, dispatching the occasional assassin gaurd as he did so, and he soon spotted Hope near the exit.

"You never give up," she said, a small smirk on her face, "Do you Shay?" she asked him calmly.

Shay began to give chase, and Hope sprinted off. Shay veered slightly of course to climb some boxes and make it onto the canopy above her garden, as Hope had opted to drop various poisonous bombs up ahead, and the Assassin only knew that more poison couldn't end well for him.

That and the fact it was literally sending the guards of her mansion berserk. Berserk guards are never a good thing. He made his way across the canopy and jumped down, avoiding the now fullly berserk group of assassin guards, who were now all engaging in fights to the bitter end with each other.

He continued to chase Hope, wondering if she was already getting desperate if she was beginning to basically poison her own men in an attempt to evade him. Hope was now well ahead, and had already taken to the roof tops in her efforts to escape the Templar.

Shay sprinted on the ground, following her by the trail of smoke her poison gas bombs left behind. The Templar soon reached a dead end and opted to climb onto the roofs. His heart slowed again.

"Argh," Shay grunted. He struggled to keep his grip but persevered regardless and made it onto the roof. By this point his quarry was further away. Shay resumed his sprint, determined to chase Hope down.

"Im not finished yet Hope!" he called after her.

"Neither am I Templar!" she spat back. Shay was gaining ground and wasn't far behind. About two houses worth of distance separated them. Hope leapt over a gap between another set of houses, and continued her sprint. Shay followed suit.

Hope changed direction and suddenly turned right, jumping onto a zipline and crossing a street from above. Shay also copied her in doing so, but Hope had other plans for him. Like lightning she flung a knife at the zipline, cutting the rope and causing Shay too fall onto the street below.

Shay landed, and without preamble, continued to run.

"I have to admire your resilience and determination Shay," Hope called down to him. "We certainly trained you well," Hope paused for a moment, before saying "Traitor."

"You know me Hope, I was never one to give up," Shay called back.

"Too bad it shall be your end," Hope responded, increasing her speed. She leapt through some trees and quickly but with good balance expected of an assassin, ran along a branch before jumping across to another roof. Shay quickly climbed the tree and followed her route.

Hope looked behind her and saw Shay making it onto the roof. She flung another dart at him.

"Ahhh!" Shay cried out in pain. This dart was possibly worse than the last, causing even more pain than the previous. Or perhaps the pain was just compounding, what with two darts worth of poison now coursing through his body, causing pain that burned like wildfire.

Shay, however, remained undeterred. He kept on running, but this dart was making things more difficult. His stamina could only last for so long, coupled with the effects of the dart was weakening him greatly.

Hope had stopped at this point, approximately 4 houses away. She looked back at Shay, watching him now slowly move towards her, his feet dragging now. Hope took out her dagger, deciding to end this with a fight, rather than simply by trying to evade him and wait for the poison to finish him. She sensed that even in his weakened state he would still keep up.

Shay, noting Hope's unsheathed dagger pulled out his own parrying dagger. Hope rushed him, likely aiming to catch him of guard. Shay blocked her attacks, and returned with a swipe of his own.

"Ha!" he said. "I'll have you now Hope!" he said fiercely, savagely even.

"I don't think so traitor," Hope barked back at him, as he continued making swipes at her. "Don't forget that I taught you your assassin skills. Students don't defeat their teachers Shay," she mocked. "The poison will slowly weaken your body Shay. Don't forget I have that advantage as well."

Shay didn't respond and just kept up his flurry of vicious strikes against her, all of which were countered or dodged by Hope. Inconveniently for Hope, she was running out of room behind her, and thus was nearing the edge of the house they were duelling on. Shay meanwhile was beginning to grow weaker from the poison, just as Hope said he would. This was evidenced by his strikes, which were slowing just a tad.

Hope opted to make the jump across the gap in between the houses. As she did this, she pulled out her last gas bomb, and dropped it at the edge. She landed like a cat on the other side, silently and gracefully. She moved a few feet away from the edge, and turned around, expecting Shay to leap through the gas and across the edge, and continue his attempts to bring her down.

Shay's strength however was beginning to fail. The poison at this point was becoming to much of a hindrance. He rallied his remaining strength for a final endeavour, and charged straight into the gas, expecting to be slowed down at most, but otherwise make it through unscathed to leap to the other side.

Sadly for the Assassin-turned-Templar, fortune did not favour him. Shay accidentally took a breath of the gas, and within an instant slowed to a halt. Stumbling through the gas, his eyes streaming from the stinging, he neared the edge of the house, unaware of the danger right below him.

Shay was at the brink of the house, when the wooden frame that made up the edge snapped off slightly. Shay lost his balance at this point, fell forward, and went tumbling straight off the edge.

"Arghhhh!" he yelled. He landed flat on his back, his head accidentally whacking hard against the ground. Hope looked down from her perch on the roof and saw him there on the ground below. Within an instant she leapt down from the rooftop, and landed beside Shay.

"Shay, no!" she cried out, tears welling up in her eyes, as she knelt beside him. "I didn't want to do this. I didn't mean to," she said, cupping his face with one of her hands.

"Ugh… no…" Shay groaned. A small stream of red pooled on the ground beneath the back of his head. Shay was bleeding. Shay... was dying.

"Shay, please, stay with me," Hope pleaded with him. "Im sorry," Hope cried out tearfully. "Im so sorry Shay." Tears fell from her eyes, peppering Shay's uniform as she looked down upon the dying Templar on the ground. "Please forgive me," she begged.

Shay struggled to raise his head, as he said, "Im… sorry... as well," as he cupped one of her cheeks with his hand. Caressing it, ever so slightly so. With his final words, Shay's head dropped back to the floor. The bright spark, the life itself, finally leaving his eyes.

Hope was crying freely at this point, hands covering her face as she wept shamelessly. Tears continued to fall, until she could cry no more. There were no more tears. They were gone. Just like him.

Wiping her eyes, she took a look at the body in front of her.

"I love you Shay" she said, her lips brushing Shay's ever so slightly, before she stood up, and sadly walked away, in the direction of her mansion, the occasional tear falling as she walked, leaving his body behind.

Well that was depressing.

Once again, thanks to Dante101 for the prompt. Again I hope this was to your likings.

Thanks for reading everyone. I hope this didn't get ya day down though. That's the last thing I want.

Stay awesome everybody.