Beware your enemy, but beware your friend a hundred-fold. Because if your friend becomes your enemy he can hurt you all the more, for he knows the tunnels to your heart.

The Quran.

She was everything to me. I gave her everything. She was my world. And he took her away. Why? Because he could. Anything he wanted he believed he could just take. Including her.
It hurt me immeasurably. I was crushed by pain and grief. As time passed by the pain did not subside. It transformed. It became anger, rage, and hatred. And the desire for vengeance. They threatened to overcome me, to consume me. I knew what I had to do.

Williams. Vaughn Williams. The name of the man who destroyed everything. In return I would destroy him. I seethed at the thoughts of what he had done. The memory of his arrogant eyes, and his 'I want, therefore I shall have' aura burned into my mind. Once I had called him my friend. No more.

I had not forgotten her in all of this. Nay, far from it. However my revenge on her would be much subtler. My weapons; conscience and emotion. Conscience. Should I die on my quest for revenge, I hoped that she would realise that the way she had treated me, had led to the desperate and final course of action I had taken, and the realisation would destroy her. If on the other hand, I lived, I hoped that the loss of Williams would crush her emotionally.

Day after passing day served only to increase my desire to revenge myself upon him. My nights were filled with visions of my vengeance. It took me a long time to find him, but find him I did. In Lippstadt, Germany.

Maggi's Place, Lippstadt.

I knew from the moment I entered the bar that he was in there. I could feel him. It was just a matter of locating him, of making sure he did not escape me. Not that I thought he would. I wanted him to know why I had come for him.

I saw him at the far end of the bar. Even though years had passed he had not changed. The arrogant stance was there, the air of superiority and contempt for those he considered beneath him all apparent. I yearned to kill him, but not yet. He had to know.

Something - Fear? Surprise? - flickered across his face as I approached. He set down his drink.
"I wondered when you'd show up."
"Guilty conscience?"
He smirked.
"No, this is you were talking about. The mighty VW. To you conscience is a condition that affects other people. You knew I'd come. You knew that one day I would come for you after what you did to me. She was my world."
"She made a choice. Me over you. You lost. I am the better man. Again."
He sipped his drink," It's in the past. Move on Alexius. I have."
He did not even bother to disguise the contempt in his voice.

There was a long silence before I answered. When I did I spoke slowly, deliberately, allowing every word to sink in.
"Get your head out of your arse. We both know, given the chance you would kill me the moment my back was turned. You should have taken my head before when you had the chance. No. It ends. Not here, not now. Tomorrow morning."
I paused then shuddered inwardly at the malevolence my next words. "One shall stand, one shall fall."

I looked at him. I had picked my ground, just like the duelling of old. A flooded gravel pit converted to an inland beach resort. The great depths of the lake would easily hide a body. Its isolated location ensured we would not be disturbed. "The Höxe-See. 5 am."

I spun on my heel and walked out.

The Höxe-See.

Nothing stirred in the early morning as we fought on the sand at the lake's edge. Steel rang on steel in the dawn air. Slowly he forced me backwards, toward the water, raining blow after blow on my blade. I broke away from the onslaught, still retreating. We entered the water together, swords held in guard positions. He attacked first. I parried and struck back at him. He parried too. The pattern was continued for some time. Stroke, block, counter-stroke.
Then he took a huge swing at me, knocking my sword clear of my hand, and spinning to the beach. I was unarmed. And vulnerable.

Out of desperation I grabbed his sword arm, with both of my hands. He responded with a two handed grip of his own, again forcing me down and back. The wet sand of the bottom offered little in the way of secure footing. I had one chance.
Keeping one hand on his sword arm I turned and drove the other elbow into his chest. As he doubled over I punched him in the face, and then shoved him back towards the shore. Off-balance he toppled over landing flat on the sand. His sword bounced harmlessly out of his grasp.
I looked for my blade.

The body-tackle caught me square in the midriff, and flung me into the water. Disoriented, I tried to stand, and wiped the water from my eyes. He did the same, and then glared at me.
Impassively I stared back, angry with myself. I had made a mistake by taking my eyes off him. Mistakes indicated sloppiness. Sloppiness could be fatal.

He charged me. The water slowed him down, and the punch went wide of the mark.
"Bring it on!" I called, by heart racing. We circled each other slowly, encumbered by the water, like two bare-knuckle prizefighters looking to deliver the knockout blow.
I don't know how it happened, but happen it did. A quick combination, right, left, right, and he was floating on his back, limp.

I dragged him from the water and dumped him on the sand. He was a dead weight. I raised him to a kneeling position, and then slapped his face to rouse him. As he began to stir I looked for my sword. My eyes fell upon his. I smiled at the irony of beheading him with his own sword. No, to complete my revenge, I must kill him with my blade.

I retrieved my sword and looked down at him. The same arrogance was in those eyes.

Anger. Rage. Hatred. Vengeance. They had threatened to overcome me, to consume me. No more. Here it would end. I would show him no mercy and yet a poem found its way to my lips.

There is no sweetness in revenge,
Only bitterness.
But even so,
It is preferable to the pain.

I raised my sword, and struck off his head.

Authors Note: The flooding of old gravel pits for recreational purposes is a common feature in Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany. In particular the Lippe-See in the village of Sande on which the Höxe-See is based, is a major tourist attraction in the area with a beach and watersports. Lippstadt exists, but so far as I can tell Maggi's Place is purely of my own invention. The English name may seem odd given the setting is in Germany but NR-WF still had a number of British Army bases at the original time of writing, and this type of naming scheme was commonplace. Like a lot of my work on here this is a polished-version of the original, with the mistakes removed.