Evil Intent part 25
The services had just begun and Chance checked his watch to make sure he had the right time. No one had shown up. He was tempted to get closer but didn't want to be recognized and instead pretended to be visiting another grave nearby, his hood up both because it cold and humid and because he didn't want to be recognized. Finally a man finally showed up dressed in a long purple trench coat with a light brown fedora on, covering his eyes.
He grimaced slightly and wondered briefly if the man were only there to mock her. He looked as if he were smiling under his hat and the colors he wore seemed more appropriate for a clown than for a man paying his respects at a funeral. Although to his credit the man's smile seemed to be forced and after a moment he reached into his jacket and withdrew a rose and threw it on top of the coffin before walking away and out of sight.
Chance half expected something to happen as he noticed a lock of green hair make its way out from under the man's fedora but nothing did and carefully he approached the coffin and looked at the rose with interest. A small message was tied to the stem reading: "For once I'm not smiling."
Chance stood there for a long time afterward and the preacher left after patting him on the shoulder consolingly.
Curiosity tilted her head slightly at the scene in front of her and crossed her arms before speaking.
"Expected this place to be empty. Have you come to gloat?" she asked and Chance whirled around to face her, nearly tripping over one of the chairs as he threw himself away from her, thinking he'd seen a ghost.
"You… you're dead." He stammered.
"This IS my funeral." She said casually, stepping up to the coffin and picking up the rose to examine it, quirking an eyebrow at the message before casting it aside.
"Only because you didn't finish the job." She muttered to herself before returning her attention to Chance.
"What's the matter? You look like you've just seen a ghost." She smirked, "I just stopped by to tell you that I'll be seeing you VERY soon." She smirked before striding up to him and pecking him on the lips, "See you around…" she laughed as she disappeared through the cemetery gates and into the fog, pulling her hood up so as to remain inconspicuous.
Chance reeled at this and touched his tingling lips in both amazement and horror.
"See you soon…" he breathed, realizing immediately what she meant by the haunting message.
In that moment he found himself chilled to the very pit of his soul. She was the only person who could ever turn his world upside down, forward, backward, and right side up again. No matter what reason brought them together she always managed to twist his every will around her. It was as if they were always playing a game of cat and mouse although he was never sure whether he was in fact the cat or if he was only a gullible mouse deceived into thinking that he was the cat by a far more devious cat. It made him sick to think about it. Even in death she held his fate and wrapped it around her little finger as she taunted him with it.
He touched his lips again and wondered how any of this was even remotely possible, such a carnal sensation as a kiss gently tracing his lips when the girl herself had perished days ago. It baffled him and left him cold inside. The kiss was nothing like the warm kissed they'd once shared years ago but rather the kiss of death he was sure.
He collapsed to the ground and thought over this for a long moment before spotting the rose beside him and gently picked it up before examining the message once more.
"For once I'm not smiling…" he read aloud and then remembered her words, "Only because you didn't finish the job."
A crease formed at his brow now as he acknowledged just who had laid the flower on her grave. No doubt the clown was angry with him for stealing his precious revenge.
His anger died quickly though and he thought upon the clown's reasoning for his revenge. Was it much different from his own? Would he not be angry with the clown if it was he who had exacted his revenge before him? How many enemies had she made? How many others had wanted her dead or worse? If they'd succeeded in their attempts would he have been angry with them as well? Vowed his revenge against them instead? It was all rather pointless. Directing a new vendetta against someone with your same goals and thinking in mind. It was sad. He supposed in a way he'd actually given her a less painful way to go than others might have. And though he hated her for what she'd done he took a little comfort in this fact. He had in fact loved her once. Foolish as it was he had loved her… he still loved her although that love was so polluted with betrayal and hurt he'd wanted nothing more than to exorcise the monstrosity he'd come to call his heart. He'd loved his father dearly but to say everything he'd done was in his name alone would be a lie that even he couldn't force himself into believing.
He'd thought that in killing her he could stop the ache in his chest but it didn't. If anything it only intensified it with grief. It changed nothing. The only thing he'd really accomplished was killing the one person he'd both truly loved and hated, two emotions so strong that without a direction in which to point them left him with no sense of purpose and a hollow hole in his chest for which it seemed nothing could ever fill.
But now, even despite the bitter warning of his impending fate he found himself feeling whole once more. Even if he was terrified and clueless and perhaps insane he in the very least knew she wasn't completely gone and that gave him hope.
It seemed as though he'd been there for hours when in fact he had probably laid there only a few minutes. Suddenly he shot up straight and bolted off in the direction she'd gone. Ghost or not, crazy or not, he was going to find her… even if he died trying.