Memento Mori
'Remember that you have to die'
Chapter One
.DD.
"I happened across an old man in the street who'd dropped his groceries," Father Lantom leaned closer to catch the words of the man in front of him, fingers lightly gripping the edge of his latte. "He stopped me from helping him retrieve the fallen meats and vegetables, instead he picked all of his things up and asked me to walk him home."
The man paused to take a sip of his latte, cringing for a second at the bitterness, tongue darting out to catch the last stray drops collected on his lips. Father Lantom gestured for him to continue, leaning back a bit, intuition telling him this may be a long story.
"As we neared where he lived he stopped me from continuing and led us to a bench. He told me he was going to tell a story, and that I should listen closely because I looked like the kind of man who needed a good story." The man flashed his teeth, quickly, barely a smile and Father Lantom let out a soft chuckle. "I told him I agreed and he began the story. God sits in a coffee shop, sipping on a sweetened cup of tea another cup resting on the other side of the table, the Devil walks in and sits down across from God and retrieves his cup of tea, taking a sip. The owner glances over once a bit concerned, but barely spares the odd pair in the corner a second glance."
"When they are both done their tea, the Devil and God stand up linking arms and leave out the way they came. The owner thinks nothing of it, not being a very religious man himself, and continues with business until an old lady with weathered hands comes up to the counter and asks him who they were. He simply says 'the best of friends'." Looking up the man takes another sip of his latte and waits for Father Lantom's nod to tie it all together. "The old man then walked into his house, groceries in hand and I never saw him again."
Matthew Murdock stands up, adjusting the blacked out glasses perched on the bridge of his nose with a small smile and sets the now empty latte back on the table.
"Thank you for the latte Father, always appreciated, I'll be on my way now," says Murdock, a faint smile still on his lips as he walked out.
.DD.
Clad in red he walked on the edge of a building carelessly, head cocked towards the city below, wind whistling about him, ripping at his sides. The smells and scents and noises filling his very being as he filtered through them, a cat was meowing to be fed, a man was dying, a woman was just proposed to, and then…
And then…
A scream.
He started running.
.DD.
Matt knows things. He knows if someone's lying from the beat of his or her heart. He knows that the dog down the street only has one leg. He knows that a bird just landed on the roof of a nearby building. He knows that a little girl cries herself to sleep every night while her parents are yelling. He knows that a boy is limping home after an encounter that will forever change his life. He knows that a man in his apartment building is dying of lung cancer and he knows that same man stumbles outside every morning for a smoke. Matt knows things.
After nights where he crawls home, battered, bruised and bloody from protecting the city, he will lay awake and listen to the sirens. Listen to the slowing of a man's heart, till it reaches a full agonizing stop. Listen to the pipes groaning, creaking. He'll listen and he'll know and he'll lay awake until exhaustion forces him to sleep.
'You're going to get yourself killed if you keep this up.' And he knows Foggy's right. He knows that it's hopeless. Knows that he's doomed to die, alone and cold, just another blip in time. He knows that he can never stop everyone, he knows he's not enough, can never be enough... But he also knows that if he didn't drag himself out every night, didn't break the nose, the arm and the leg of the man who molested his daughters and just let it go on, knowing... He'd be just as bad as that man. Just as bad.
It could be an excuse to let out the devil. The devil that is always clawing, ripping, screaming to be free, to let it drink it's fill of violence, be satiated but in the end, that doesn't matter. Matt will continue to know. He will continue to listen to the cat pee in the alley, to the woman yelling into her phone angry because her husband cheated on her, to the cracking and shifting of bones in a body yards away. And maybe, just maybe, he'll make a difference along the way.
.DD.
Claire was something he didn't know, something he hadn't prepared for. She was like wild fire in a lake, impossible, impractical, but there. Her touch could feel like thousands of needles pricking him at once but it could also feel like the softest silk in the world. There was love between them but it was intangible. It wasn't real, could not be real, because of him, because of who he was, it could never actually be.
That's why he'll stumble in through her window at four in the morning, oozing blood out of a deep cut to his abdomen, countless other lesions littering his body. She'll ask no questions, simply pull out the medical kit and patch him up, soft touches, extra soft like she thinks he'll break if she's not careful, careful. And if he cries, if she holds him and strokes his hair as he lets out all the pain bottled up deep, deep inside, she'll never speak a word about it and neither will he.
.DD.
Chains rustle and clink, bruises blossoming on already bruised wrists. Heart thump, thump, thumping away like a metronome in a silent room, maybe not even there. There is no light; there is no dark, the pitter-pattering of rats crawling through the ceiling, the floor, the only companions in this nocturnal prison. Soft moans and whimpers escaped cracked, abused lips, powerful hands shaking and straining against the metal cuffs.
Loud clanging filled the dark room with a cacophony of sound. Widening eyes and raspy breathing, a tall figure bending down, gracefully, gracefully.
'There is no hope,' worlds only a whisper, a jab, a shard of glass piercing the soul over and over…
"You will always end up here."
When Matt wakes up, covered in sweat, heart thump, thumping, away, he doesn't get back to sleep.
.DD.
Fortitudine Vincimus
'By endurance we conquer'
A/N: So I decided I didn't like the first chapter much, mainly I didn't like the part with Foggy. This is my re-write, you may be seeing a lot of these revised chapters because I do not have a beta reader. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this version more, I certainly do.