From: Vesco Wednesday, February 20, 2008 9:12 AM
To: 'lynn wood'
Subject: The Life final prologue

The Life

I've re-vamped the ending- to make it more along the vibe I got from the SJB comeback that has ROCKED the Port Charles community as we know it! … Thanks Serendipity

Prologue

He tried to tell himself that he wasn't afraid. This was the life he had chosen and it was only natural for a guy like him to have his life end by a bullet. But as his pulse quickened and he began to sweat, he knew that he would be lying to himself if he said that he was prepared to die.

To die for what? That was the question. He was surely too young to have such vicious enemies. Too young to deserve to end up a corpse in an abandoned warehouse, a dark alley… where ever they got dumped in Port Charles.

The kicker was that he had stepped up to take control of his father's business and from that moment his dreams were full of explosions, gun shots and much worse the death of someone that he was fighting so hard to not care for.

Lulu… he thought of her golden hair and flashing eyes. Eyes that made a man want to do anything just to watch the different reactions that you could see in them. Geez, he was getting poetical in his last moments, which was something he never thought would happen to him.

The man behind him was silent as he escorted his captive into the dark warehouse, no surprise there, thought Johnny. The ironic part was that he kind of thought that this might have been one of his family's warehouses.

"So, who's orders are you following? Lansing? That French guy?" Johnny wished he could think of a way to escape. So far in the last two months alone he had managed to cheat death a handful of times.

He wasn't surprised that a shove from behind was the only response he got to his question. Why was he bothering to stall for time? Jason Morgan, the local super hero, wasn't going to pop out of nowhere and come to his aid as he had done on more than one occasion.

The cold air should have been refreshing, but all it did was make him realize just how alive he was at the moment and how dead he was going to be before too long.

"I guess you're the strong silent type, huh? Maybe you don't speak English? Par le vu Frenchie?" Johnny knew that he had slaughtered the French language, but who the hell cared, right?

The cold steel butt of a pistol knocking him upside his head was the reward he got for his efforts. The pain in his head sent him straight to his knees and it was all he could do to not lose his dignity… and lunch… from the dizziness that hit him.

"So funny, huh, you know the boss thinks that things like this should be done quick… neat and tidy and all that. But, when I grabbed you, you gave me a black eye… I'll admit you're a fast one… But now, I'm in charge and you are going to leave this earth a bit uglier than you came into it..." The thug laughed at his little joke as he placed a sharp kick to Johnny's ribs.

Johnny felt his breath whoosh out as he doubled over. Here it comes… the proverbial working over by a mob thug… It kind of depressed him that it was only going to take one man to send him to his maker.

The report of a pistol silencer filled the air as the thug standing over him dropped to the ground howling in pain.

Johnny squinted his eyes open enough to see the dirtball collapse next to him grabbing for his right knee cap, which now looked like it no longer existed.

"Touch him again and I'll aim a little to the left and make you a soprano…"

Even though he wasn't sure he recognized the threat itself was all Johnny needed to hear to know that the some form of the Calvary had definitely arrived.

"Please… don't tease me… Dead is dead no matter how broken the bones are…" He groaned as he pushed himself up and began to rise.

"Come on Johnny- is that anyway to great your big sister after all this time?"

Johnny took a closer look at the curvy brunette standing in front of him… from her designer suit to her red leather stilettos this woman looked nothing like the sister he vaguely remembered. But when his eyes met hers it was like staring into a mirror and he knew without a doubt that the "family business" was just about to get interesting.