Chapter 25

Dark foamy droplets of water jumped up from around Zach's firmly planted boot. They splashed with the fury of a blood spray, abruptly ending a battle charge cut short of its glory. Zach froze in place. His hard clenched snarl preserved his determination, but his body refused to take another step. Looking down for an answer, his eyes settled on his chest where several new holes had appeared. They grew quickly, darkening his already purple coat to blackish proportions.

Damn that checkered hat.

He couldn't let them get the best of him. Zach attempted to step forward, but he rocked backwards on his heels instead. A tremor started at his bad knee and spread up his leg. It grew stronger the higher it went until it finally rattled his balance out of place. He began to crumble and slowly collapsed as each muscle and joint gave out. Zach dropped down unevenly to his knees, slumping onto his legs with a shaking hand clutched to his chest.

The dirty trench coat buckled underneath him and his top heavy shoulders bent down to the ground. It was a painfully unnatural position that pinched his organs together. Zach rolled immediately onto his back to relieve the pressure. Pooling rainwater sloshed up against him. It restlessly rippled until the rain flattened them both against the street again. Zach laid there motionless in a maelstrom of stabbing, crushing, bleeding hurt that filled him from head to toe. Being riddled with bullet holes probably had something to do with it. The shock of his injuries finally hit his brain and short circuited the critical wiring within. He looked up at the sky in a glassy eyed stare that wasn't affected by the rain drops shattering against his face.

How did he get here again?

The disorientation faded quickly. Remnants of a grin twitched in the corner of Zach's bloody mouth. That's right. He killed people. Stalked and hunted them down one by one until they were dead. He murdered them without a second thought. The smile on Zach's lips slipped away. His pupils slowly widened as they tried to absorb the secrets swirling in the clouds above. His victims probably laid in a similar pose when he killed them, staring at his face instead of the sky with the same empty stare. He couldn't care less about them. Right now, the storm he saw was all that mattered. It bore witness to this grim noir from the very beginning. Surely, it could offer some insight to this twisted scene he found himself in. Rain continued to pepper Zach's face. Droplets ran down the creases sprouting from his eyes. It hadn't stopped raining since the night Annie died.

Zach understood the sentiment. He hadn't stopped crying since that night either. It was nice to know that the sky shed tears for them when no one else would. The city deserved to drown in them. It took four weeks of unending terror for the news reels and crime specials to even consider that MPD Officer Cofield was innocent of the slander defiling her grave.

More. He needed to kill more so that no one ever doubted her innocence again. He was the one to blame. He was the true killer. He'd give them no choice but to believe it with every new body he dropped on their doorstep. He'd clear Annie's name in blood, even if he had to sacrifice the whole city for it. No one would be safe.

A dark inky cloud of blood began to spread out and around Zach's chest. He weakly coughed into a groan as a deep dull pressure choked his body from the inside out. The sensation reminded him of how cruelly ironic this city could be. Still, this pain was probably nothing compared to what he put Baby through. What she endured every day in that shit hole of a precinct, protecting justice with every fiber of her being despite the criminals that spat in her face, the coworkers that despised her, and the civilians who condemned her. She was the only police officer more black and blue than blue and white.

Baby, Midtown's first and finest hero. He missed her. But at least he had the rain to remind him of her. The way she laughed. The way she cried. As long as he had the storm, he could never forget her. The street carried her scent even now. Copper and rain. It was what this city was made out of.

Zach winced as a wave of pain shuddered through him. His vision blurred and everything began to fade to black. The color deepened just like the water around him and a chill crept its way into his skin from those shadowy depths. It numbed the adrenaline withdrawals shivering through his muscles.

Up above, a flicker of lightning glowed within the overlapping clouds. Thunder quickly followed. It purred with a low rolling rumble that was miles in the making. Zach softly smiled as he remembered the way it used to rub into his hand. They were alike, Baby and Pantera. One brought out the best in him. The other, the worst. He could never tell which was which. They both told him to think things he shouldn't. To do things he normally wouldn't. The angel and the devil. One for each of his misshapen shoulders.

Would his life have been any better if he had never listened to them? If it wasn't for Pantera, he never would have met Baby. If he never met Baby, he never would have known love. And without love, he never would have hurt this much. To love and to lose, it was crueler than any beating.

Pokemon were the worst.

Zach grimaced through another surge of electrifying pain. This wave was stronger than the last. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when it eventually passed, his body relaxed in nothing less than exhaustion. The storm tried to comfort him in his agony. The gentle yet determined patter of rain and the fierce yet beautiful pales of thunder spoke to him in soft sweet voices. Together, they told him he was dying.

Zach felt it, but he didn't have the strength to stop it. The gutters would swallow him up just like everything else in these streets, but he wasn't afraid. This wasn't the end. The Midtown Murderer would never be forgotten. The legend would fill the whispers of every dark alley and tease the gossip of every stormy night. The Black Devil of Midtown would be immortalized in a myth so horrifying that neighboring regions would speak of it for generations to come.

The legacy he, Baby, and Pantera created would live forever.

Zach suddenly realized that he was very, very tired. His eyelids slowly began to fall. He welcomed the darkness. It was a lovely shade of pitch. A black suitable for a monster evil enough to make martyrs. Martyrs who would one day, because of him, become Midtown's greatest heroes. Annie would finally become the savior she always wanted to be. Her sacrifice would save this city. She was the one who taught him that everybody had a choice and he made his that night in the alley outside of the police station.

Zach closed his eyes. He didn't feel so cold anymore. The pain didn't hurt as much. And then, there was only black.

How did he get here again?

Oh, that's right. He made a choice. He wanted to be a hero like Baby, so he became the villain like Pantera and nobody, not even him, was safe.