Over
In the desolation of the office, it finally catches up with him.
Nothing had ever stopped him before. Years of grinding through promotions, bullets, sleepless nights, and not a single wound on the fabric of his coat. Years of refueling his strength through denial — no way he was going to even consider it, baby, no waaay. No way he could ever stop.
In the end, he has spent five years running — aware that, as he chased his goal, he was also fleeing that looming possibility.
But now, in the cold arms of the chair, his limbs and his winning streak are broken, and the simple fact shines with the first rays of the dawn. In any sense, there is nowhere to run away to.
It grabs him, mercilessly, the idea that he might have to stop here.
And it hurts more than all of his bones combined.