"Sometimes solutions aren't so simple;
Sometimes goodbye's the only way."
He closes his eyes and turns away, facing the wall instead of the window. He doesn't want to look at his watch anymore, the glowing dial reminding him that it's half-past one in the morning, that he should have been asleep long ago.
Everything is gone.
Everything.
And it's because of Batchelder. Batchelder and his obsession with his own little project.
Because of Batchelder, he's on the run now. He was hiding out while the others died. While they were executed by men who lined them up against concrete walls. While they were gassed to death. While they were hung. While they shot themselves to escape persecution.
He feels like Eichmann, Mengele; safe in hiding while his comrades are executed one by one.
And it's all because of Batchelder -- Batchelder and his petty obsessions -- because of him that everything is gone.
It took him almost a year to find out that Batchelder is dead. He was disappointed, a little, because it meant he couldn't personally throttle the man for causing the whole mess.
But mostly he was frightened. Because Batchelder had been in hiding too. Except Batchelder had been hiding out with a comrade of his, a man whose name was never mentioned in the articles.
The unnamed comrade shot himself before he could be executed.
He can't get that off his mind.
He sighs. It's funny. It's once he stopped working, once he stopped "committing atrocities", that he can't get to sleep at night.
It's all failed.
Because of Batchelder.
It's all Batchelder's fault.
And yet... ter Borcht can't bring himself to condemn Batchelder for it.
Even though it is his fault.
300 words exactly. Even though that includes the song lyrics, which I think is cheating.
Though this is a fine stand-alone, it's part one of a Jeb/ter Borcht twoshot that I figured I'd write just for the hell of it. (Part two is still in the works, and contains the title shout-out that everyone will expect from this.)
Song lyrics, incidentally, are from "Shadow of the Day" by Linkin Park. I'm not in the band. I don't own the lyrics.
