***Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star or the characters ... For the first time I have nothing to say ... Very surprising ... Well I hope you like this chapter and the story so far! Please Review!


Chapter Six

Gene stared at the figure.

"Don't gawk at me, Gene," the figure said. Once he stepped out of the darkness, Gene noticed the black cloak that covered his whole body and that the boots he wore were big and clunky. "It's not very polite to stare."

"Show yourself," Gene demanded, and backed up against Melfina's door, as if he was trying to protect her. "Show yourself, coward!"

"I'm not the coward, Gene," he said, and took off his hood, revealing his face. "You are."

Gene's eyes went wide in shock. It was Harry. He should've known it was him by the way his voice was filled with evil and the way he cackled wickedly.

"It's you." Gene's voice was filled with anger and irritation. "Why are you here? I hope not to see Melfina. She doesn't love you anymore."

"Melfina's confused, Gene, she doesn't know what she wants anymore," Harry said. "She loves me, and I love her. That's the way it will always be. It will never change."

"What would you know about love, Harry? You don't love, you obsess," Gene replied. "You don't love Melfina, you love the idea of her."

"Well, well, look who's telling me about love, the one who lost his only true love. What exactly happened to Hilda, Gene?" Harry asked. "Tell me the whole story, and not just the part when I shot that missile at her ship."

Gene's hands curled into fists, as his veins bulged through his skin. "Don't test me, Harry."

"Oh, yeah, didn't you know?" Harry said. "I was part of the Key Line pirates. But I left when I met Melfina. She changed my life"

"You're lying." Gene clenched his fists.

Harry walked closer to him and eyed him. "Am I?"

Gene got ready to punch him, when Harry slashed him in the stomach with a knife that he concealed in his hand. He fell to the ground, watching as blood gushed from his stomach.

"Bastard!" Gene shouted as he tried to apply pressure to the cut. "You're a damned bastard!"

Harry grinned and leaned over Gene. "Oh, and Gene, stay away from Melfina or else I will have to hurt the both of you. I always get what I want, just remember that."

He through the knife to the ground and walked away, fading into the darkness of the long hallway.

Gene looked down at his stomach. He uncovered the cut and stared.

Blood. Crimson.

"Is every part of me red?" he asked himself. "Impossible." He laughed to himself and tilted his head to the ceiling. Red was the color of passion-he thought he didn't have it-it was also the color of love-he definitely thought he didn't have any. So, how could he bleed the color of passion and love? If anything, he should bleed black, the color of emptiness and darkness.

Every part of his body grew numb and blood still rushed from his stomach. His body felt weightless and empty. "What a way to die," he thought. "Dying alone, by the person I have truly come to hate. By the man that killed my only true love." He closed his eyes and lost unconsciousness.

~*~*~*~

His eyes fluttered open.

He stared at a black ceiling with little white stars pasted to it. He looked down at his stomach and noticed that his shirt was off and a white bandage stretched around his stomach, covering his wound. It barely hurt anymore. It was as if it didn't really happen.

He sat up and stared at his bloodstained palms. "Am I alive? Am I really alive?" he asked himself. "Did I really survive?"

He looked around the room and realized it was totally barren, except for the bed and the card table. "Where the hell am I? Is this heaven? Is this hell?"

He walked toward the metal door and opened it. He was met with a large room filled with guns and ammo. "Maybe it is heaven," he said. "Heaven for an outlaw." He slowly sauntered to the middle of the large room and stared at the ceiling. It was mystifying. The ceiling was like giant swirls and the chandelier was in the center of the largest swirl. It reminded him of the top of a tornado.


"I see you're finally awake."

Gene stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. He came face to face with a tall man with a sly smile across his face. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Fred Lou," he replied, and wiggled his ear with his fingers. "I found you laying, unconsciousness in the hallway, so I though I should help you. I wasn't going to let you die there."

Gene was glad that someone had saved him, but for some reason, he wasn't happy about being saved by him. He didn't know why, but he felt some weird vibe coming off of him.

"I'm Gene. Gene Starwind," he replied, and casually stepped away from him. "Thank you for saving me, but I have to go."

"I'm sorry to hear that you can't stay," he said. "But if you ever need anything, please stop by."

"Yeah, all right," he said, and walked to the door and opened it.

He walked down the hallway and outside of the building.

His shirt was still off and white bandages, stained with blood, still covered his wounds. "Where am I going?" he asked himself. "What am I doing? I have to help her." He sighed and trudged back up the stairs. He stopped at her door and knocked on it. "Why do I even do this?"

The door opened and Melfina stood in the doorway, wearing a robe and her hair twisted up in a towel. Her eyes widened as she stared at him. He got her glancing at him and she quickly turned he head. She looked back, but only this time she noticed the bandage over his stomach.

"Gene, what happened?" she asked in a worried voice. "Did somebody hurt you?"

What could he say? He couldn't very well tell her that Harry did it, because that would frighten her.

"Uh … when I was leaving, I-I fell," he replied, stuttering. "Yeah, I fell down the stairs."

Melfina put her hands on her hips and nodded in disbelief. "Oh really? Then why is your shirt off and where did you get the bandages?"

"Um," he said, trying to remember the guy's name that saved him. "Fred. Fred Lou."

A sly grin grew across her face. "Fred. You got your bandages from Fred Lou?" she asked.

He nodded. "Why is that so funny?"

She shook her head and moved away from the door for him to come inside. "No reason, it was just very, very nice of him." She giggled a little, and then calmed down. "Why don't you come in?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and then walked in.

Her apartment was surprising barren. There was only a couch, a TV in the corner, chairs surrounding a wooden table, and ordinary kitchen appliances on the counters. There were only a few picture frames hanging on the wall and two red wooden doors in the back of the room. He wondered why she hardly had anything in there.

"I'm sorry about the mess," she said, and picked up clothes off the floor. "I never get to clean anymore."

He smirked and shrugged. "It's not as bad as my place."

She smiled. "Well, I guess you're right."

An Hour Later…

"Gene! You can't do that! That's cheating!" Melfina exclaimed, trying to take the cards off of him. "You're only supposed to trade when it's your turn!"

Gene grinned and kept the playing cards away from her. "No, Melfina, it's not cheating. Its called taking advantages."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't want to play if you're taking so-called 'advantages,'" she said, setting her cards down. "I have to remind myself to never play Go Fish with you ever again."

"Oh come on, Melfina," he said. "I won't cheat anymore."

She smiled and turned her back to him. "You lost your chance."

He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. "Melfina…" He couldn't speak. He just started into her eyes. They were like an endless void of emotions and memories that were too painful to show. Her eyes reminded him of Hilda's. Mysterious, secretive, intoxicating, beautiful.

She smiled and leaned in to kiss him, but he backed away, as if something was pushing him away.

"What's wrong, Gene?" she asked. "Don't you want to kiss me?"

Gene looked away. He wanted to kiss her, he really did. It's just that he kept thinking about Hilda. He couldn't tell her why he couldn't. It would hurt him too much.

"Is it Hilda?" she asked. "Is Hilda the one you love?"

He immediately looked at her. "Hilda?" he said. Her name was so foreign to his lips that he almost forgot what it felt like to say her name. "How do you know about Hilda?"

To Be Continued...

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