Disclaimer: Me no own. You no sue.
Warning: People dying! I never thought I'd actually write a deathfic but the idea just popped into my head and I had to get it out, because I 'really' didn't like the picture in my head all the time.
Thanks to: Lora Helen (once again), for beta-ing this story. I don't know what I'd do without you, luv! Probably write stories with typos and grammatical errors in them... ^_~
Here goes! Enjoy!
- - - - -
Shinigami's Last
- - - - -
11:47 a.m.
Duo Maxwell shot the clock a second glance, just to make sure that he had read the time correctly, and leaned back in his office chair, sighing relieved. It was nearly noon, which meant that in only a few minutes Heero and Wufei would come through the door to his office. Together they would go eat lunch in a little bistro just across the street.
After spending the whole morning in his office, typing mission reports into the computer, Duo looked forward to lunch break even more than he usually did. But he would still have to go back to this boring task in the afternoon, he reminded himself, eyeing the pile of folders on his desk warily. There was no getting around it, no matter how much he despised paperwork; Une was ready to personally throttle him if he didn't get at least some of the reports done - he was about a month behind, maybe even two.
Deciding that he wouldn't start on a new folder before lunch, Duo raised his arms above his head to stretch his sore back muscles. Silently groaning he bent his head to the left, causing something in his neck to make sickening cracking sounds. That didn't bother Duo, though; it seemed to have been exactly what he had been aiming for since he now let his arms drop back down, a barely noticeable contented smile on his lips.
"That's so gross!"
The faintly disgusted sounding remark made Duo raise his eyes to the door to his office where a middle-aged woman with short blond hair stood, wearing the Preventer's uniform and a look on her face that matched the tone of her voice.
Duo's smile widened into a grin as he bent his head to the right, mirroring the action that had caused the woman's reaction and receiving the same result.
"What to you mean, Lisa?" he asked her innocently.
She wasn't fooled for a second and just ignored that he had said something as she continued talking herself.
"Why do you keep doing this? You are going to break your own neck someday with this gross... cracking thing. Don't expect me to drag your corpse out of your office after you died in here."
Duo grinned sweetly at her.
"Nah, there are a lot more creative and fun ways of killing yourself. Ask Heero," he pointed out, making Lisa shake her head at him.
"You're impossible, Duo. I don't get how Agent Yuy can put up with you as a partner."
"Force of habit."
That made Lisa smirk a little and Duo was contented for now.
"What came you here for, anyway?" he asked.
Lisa pulled out an envelope from her breast pocket and walked over from the door to Duo's desk, stopping in front of it and holding the envelope out.
"Mail for you. I had business on this floor so I brought it with me."
Duo eyed the envelope cautiously before he took it.
"That's not yet another thing that causes piles of paperwork for me, is it?" he asked.
Lisa laughed at the defeated expression on Duo's face.
"I have no idea. Open it and find out. I have to go. Bye!"
Waving her hand at Duo, Lisa was already out of his office as he replied with a distracted "Yeah, bye."
He had turned the envelope around in hope that the address of whomever had send the letter would be on it somewhere and give him a hint what was inside. He had no such luck but the small sign on the back of the envelope told him everything he had to know.
A quick look at the clock told him that it was 11:58; Heero and Wufei would be here soon but suddenly he wasn't so sure if he wanted to go eat lunch with them anymore.
As if on clue, Wufei walked through the door to Duo's office.
"Are you coming, Maxwell?"
Duo thought quick and decided that, no, he wasn't. Shooting Wufei an overly dramatic look he gestured towards the pile of folders on his desk.
"What does it look like to you? If I want to get done with that anytime this week I'll have to work through every lunch break and will pitifully starve to death in the middle of mountains of paperwork."
He sighted theatrically for good measure and let himself go boneless in his chair; the perfect image of misery, he was sure.
Wufei smirked at him and shrugged.
"Your own fault," he told Duo. "Do you want me to bring anything back for you?"
"Nah, I'll just take the chance to loose some weight." Duo grinned and sat back up in his chair. "But thanks, anyway. And tell Heero 'Hn.' from me."
Wufei laughed and turned to leave.
As soon as he was out of sight, Duo got up and moved around his desk to the door to close it firmly. Then he looked over to his desk where the letter was lying and sighed. For what purpose had he received a letter like this now?
A few months after the end of the second war he had already settled down on Earth. The Mad Five had been kind enough to think of any financial problems the pilots might come across if they actually survived the war, so he had had enough money to get himself a vast loft apartment and the furniture to go with it. The job with the Preventers had practically been thrown at him; since Heero joined, too, and they had been partners before, they got teamed up again and both of them didn't mind because it was a fact that they worked well together.
Everything was going really well and then Duo had one day had a sudden idea that caused him to write a letter to a certain institution. Just a few days later he got a reply and went to take care of everything that was needed to actually make his idea work.
The next few days he had been nearly frantic because he was hoping for some notification from the institution that they had been successful; but it never came. As weeks passed and eventually turned to months, Duo didn't forget about the whole thing but he gave up hope of ever hearing from the institution again. He wasn't even overly disappointed; just a tad more downhearted than usual.
But that passed by as well. And everything was back to normal again after half a year.
And now he got that letter.
Over seven years later.
Duo walked back around his desk and dropped down on his chair. He was just sitting, doing nothing but staring at the envelope that was lying so innocently on his desk but had caused a whole roller coaster of emotions inside of him.
After a good fifteen minutes or so, Duo settled for confused but curious and reached out to take the envelope into his hands. He stared at it some more, until he told himself to snap out of it before he started to act really idiotically.
He opened the letter.
There was just a single sheet of paper inside. He took it out and turned it until it wasn't upside down and wrong side up anymore and started to read what was written on it.
'Dear Mr. Maxwell,
The Project To Locate And Reunite Family Members Separated Through War is happy to inform you that a 99,8% match to your DNA has been found.
After detailed research we can be positive that we managed to find your sister.
Unfortunately we have to tell you that Miss Sarah Parker was a...'
Duo finished reading and soon his face was drained of every colour as he put the letter down again. He wasn't sure how much time had passed as he moved again, but honestly he didn't really care.
He grabbed the letter, shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans and stormed out of his office. Running down the corridor to where his boss Une had her office rooms he ignored the questioning looks he got from a few Preventers agents as he passed them. He threw the door to Une's office open without knocking but was greeted by an empty room.
Frowning the grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper from Une's desk, quickly scribbling a note and then he was out of the room again. The sound of the door he had slammed shut behind him reached him as he was already storming down the stairs; he didn't have the patience to wait for the elevator to arrive at the moment.
Taking the stairs two, sometimes even three at a time, he reached the parking lot in less then two minutes; a remarkable time if one took in account that his office was on the eighteenth floor, but Duo couldn't have cared less. All he was focused on right now was getting out of here. What he was going to do after that, he would deal with when it became important.
He jumped onto his motorcycle, not even bothering with the helmet and sped out of the parking lot, narrowly avoiding a collision with Heero and Wufei, who were coming back from lunch, and not even noticing the fact that they had been there.
As soon as he was out on the street he put all his driving skills to good use as he ignored all traffic regulations and speed limits as well as his common sense.
- - - - -
Chang Wufei was fuming.
"What does Maxwell think he is doing, racing around like the idiot he is?!? He nearly ran us over with that damn bike of his!!! He can't drive like this - he is endangering people!!! Has he gone completely nuts now?!?"
Heero merely shrugged and let him rant on without listening to what he was actually saying. Until they had entered the Preventers building he had his eyes on the street, where Duo and his bike had vanished from his sight as the braided man had taken a turn to the right; jerking the motorcycle around in the last moment and swerving into the oncoming traffic, barely avoiding being smashed to pieces by a truck. Not once had the motorcycle reduced its speed.
Frowning Heero walked up to the elevators, Wufei behind him and still rambling. Duo's driving style was reckless but never like that; it had seemed that he truly didn't care whether he got himself into an accident or not. Heero's frown deepened. Something was up.
The elevator arrived and the two ex-pilots were confronted with a furious Lady Une. The glare the woman directed at them was enough to make Wufei shut up and Heero to take a step back.
"Where is Maxwell?" she ground out between clenched teeth.
Heero shrugged, signalling that he had no clue and Wufei told her: "He just... left on his motorcycle. Why?"
Une ignored his question as she stepped out of the elevator and began pacing in front of the two men.
"If he thinks driving away will keep me from hunting him down, he can start to dig his own grave! Of all the stupid, moronic, idiotic, brainless, pointless-"
She would have gone on like that for quite some time if Heero hadn't interrupted her.
"What. Did. He. Do?"
Une whirled around and was in his face in a matter of seconds, causing him to blink at her.
"What he did do, you want to know? That's what he did!!!"
She shoved a piece of paper into Heero's hand and stormed of, positively fuming and most likely looking for someone to 'hunt down' Duo.
Wufei and Heero exchanged a confused look and Heero started to read the words written on the paper out loud.
"I quit. Have a hussy fit all you like but I won't finish the reports, either. Maxwell."
Wufei gasped.
"He didn't," he mumbled wide-eyed.
"Obviously he did," Heero retorted with a frown.
He had been right; something was up and he didn't like the way it was leading.
- - - - -
Wufei had returned to whatever it was he had to work on this afternoon and Heero had gone to search for Duo. The official version was that he was trying to locate his partner, which wasn't all that wrong, but he would have skipped work and searched the streets even if he had been ordered to 'not' do it.
He was concerned for Duo; it totally wasn't like him to quit his job with the Preventers without giving some logical reason and then leave the place like a devil on a motorbike. His driving style the last time Heero had seen him could only be described as a well formulated dead wish. Heero just hoped that Duo wasn't up to anything stupid; something that couldn't be reversed...
As Heero had started his search it had been around 01:30 p.m.; now dawn was already breaking and he still hadn't found a trace of Duo. He had been to all places he knew of that Duo vanished to if he wanted to be alone to think or just relax. Places like these were the park or more secluded areas outside of the city with either trees or a lake in the near vicinity. But this time he hadn't found Duo anywhere.
At some places he had noticed the imprint of motorcycle tire tracks in the soft ground of some street that had no concrete on it. The trace went in both directions, which told Heero that whoever had been here had already left again. The imprint of bike tires on the ground didn't have to mean anything though; Duo wasn't the only person driving around with a motorcycle.
Now Heero was bar hopping - but in a complete different meaning of the word. If Duo wasn't somewhere outside, he would have to be inside. He had checked Duo's loft every hour or so, without a positive result. That left the bars Duo frequented quite regularly; unfortunately for Heero there were plenty of them.
After what seemed like over hundred different pubs and bars and other locals of the kind, Heero had already developed a routine in checking for Duo. Go in, ask the barkeeper, receive a negative answer, leave and go on to the next bar. At least that was what he had been doing until now.
The pub he was currently in was no different from the dozens of others Heero had visited during the past hours and he was really getting tired of smoky, dimly lit rooms filled with people who were having fun; or drowning their sorrows in alcohol. He suspected he was looking for someone who did the latter.
He walked straight to the counter, not wasting more time than necessary with standing around. The first look he had gotten had already told him that Duo wasn't here at the moment either. Heero waited until the barkeeper noticed him, then he asked his usual questions; my age, a little taller than me, violet eyes, really long, chestnut braid.
With his mind already focused on trying to remember where his next destination was, Heero nearly missed the barkeeper's answer.
"Excuse me. What did you say?"
"I said a guy like you described him was here until about half an hour ago."
Now that the barkeeper had Heero's attention, nothing kept him from spilling every bit of information he had and Heero was very willing to listen.
"Man, but was he in a weird mood, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. He put away almost a whole bottle of vodka before I was able to talk him into leaving. And don't start with me on mood swings. One minute he was babbling away in the most cheerful manner you can imagine and the next he was all depressed and more holding onto the table than sitting in front of it. I asked him if he was here with anything that had a motor and he said, yes he was. I told him that I didn't think he should drive home, wasted like he was, he would probably kill himself. He started to laugh after I said this. No, not laugh, it was more like cackling. Then he agreed and shoved a key into my hand. Told me that it was the key to his bike and that he was giving it to me. The whole bike, not only the key. Was out of the door before I really could react, snickering to himself all the time, like he had heard some real good joke or something."
The barkeeper paused to get some air and Heero took the opportunity to ask a question.
"Did he tell you where he was going to go to? Did he want to go home or to another bar?"
The urgency in Heero's voice caused the barkeeper to frown.
"He didn't say where he'd go, no. But I told him to go home, so maybe..." he trailed off with a shrug. "You're his friend, aren't you?" he continued then, on a sudden idea. "Then I'll give you this, I don't really have any use for a bike. The machine's in the backyard; I took it off the street after he was gone."
He gave Heero the key to Duo's motorcycle and said his goodbyes; he had a job to do here after all. Heero called out a "Thank you." after the retreating barkeeper and received a wink for an answer; then he left the bar to check Duo's loft once again.
If the braided man had left the pub about half an hour ago then maybe he was back there by now; that was, if he really went back home in the first place. But Heero didn't want to waste the possibility of finally tracking down Duo; the behaviour he had shown at noon and what the barkeeper had told him, had served to get Heeros worries, worries that had slowly started to vanish during the afternoon, to come back full force again.
A drunk Duo was never up to anything good or even faintly intelligent but usually he at least kept it at a level where no permanent harm was done, only a few practical jokes or pranks. But what Duo would come up with when he was drunk and upset, which was obviously the case, Heero didn't want to find out.
Heero had just taken the bike's key with him, leaving the machine itself where it was and using his own car to get to where Duo was living. As he was parking the car in front of the building Duo's loft was in, he already noticed that the lights were on on the top floor; apparently Duo was actually at home.
After practically running up the stairs, Heero was standing in front of the door to Duo's apartment only a minute later, panting slightly and with a strange feeling in his stomach that told him, something wasn't right. He had always been one to listen to his gut feelings and immediately set to pick the lock on Duo's door, not even bothering with knocking first.
He got the door unlocked in a matter of seconds and pushed it open. Duo had never stuffed the loft full with furniture; this and the lack of walls let Heero register the situation immediately.
All lights in the apartment were on, illuminating the scene in front of him. Duo was sitting on the floor, leaning against the far off wall, directly in the field of vision of anyone who happened to open the door and enter the room. His eyes seemed to be staring unfocusedly at a piece of paper lying on the floor in front of him between his outstretched and slightly parted legs; his gun forgotten in his right hand, resting on the floor beside his tight.
The smell of blood dominated the room. Great splashes of fresh blood and tiny bits of greyish-white tissue clotted the wall behind Duo; it looked like a picture drawn by a crazy person. The surrealistic portrait of a man's face that was showing both despair and relieve; the violet eyes now dull and staring lifelessly ahead, the mouth hanging open as if caught in a yawn and half the head pulverized-
Heero collapsed down on his knees and threw up on the floor right there.
He had lost all sense of time the moment he had opened the door and he didn't know how much time had passed since then. He didn't even know how he had gotten through the room and in front of Duo but this was where he was now; kneeling in front of the corpse of his dead friend, not able to move his eyes from him and fighting both the urge to be sick again and the tears that were threatening to escape him.
After some time he reached for the piece of paper that was lying between Duo's legs, not really thinking about what he was doing but still reading the message that was written on it and finally giving in to the tears as he registered the meaning of the words.
'Dear Mr. Maxwell,
The Project To Locate And Reunite Family Members Separated Through War is happy to inform you that a 99,8% match to your DNA has been found.
After detailed research we can be positive that we managed to find your sister.
Unfortunately we have to tell you that Miss Sarah Parker was a Mobile Suit pilot for OZ in the war and got killed in a Gundam attack.
We are very sorry to deliver such bad news. You have our sympathy.'
And below that, in a handwriting that was shaky but still recognizable as Duo's:
'Shinigami's last blow'
- - - - -
End
- - - - -
Believe it or not, but this story was inspired by Stephen King's 'The Shining'. Don't ask me how that happened... ^_^"
Review, please! Thank you!
- Banshee
Warning: People dying! I never thought I'd actually write a deathfic but the idea just popped into my head and I had to get it out, because I 'really' didn't like the picture in my head all the time.
Thanks to: Lora Helen (once again), for beta-ing this story. I don't know what I'd do without you, luv! Probably write stories with typos and grammatical errors in them... ^_~
Here goes! Enjoy!
- - - - -
Shinigami's Last
- - - - -
11:47 a.m.
Duo Maxwell shot the clock a second glance, just to make sure that he had read the time correctly, and leaned back in his office chair, sighing relieved. It was nearly noon, which meant that in only a few minutes Heero and Wufei would come through the door to his office. Together they would go eat lunch in a little bistro just across the street.
After spending the whole morning in his office, typing mission reports into the computer, Duo looked forward to lunch break even more than he usually did. But he would still have to go back to this boring task in the afternoon, he reminded himself, eyeing the pile of folders on his desk warily. There was no getting around it, no matter how much he despised paperwork; Une was ready to personally throttle him if he didn't get at least some of the reports done - he was about a month behind, maybe even two.
Deciding that he wouldn't start on a new folder before lunch, Duo raised his arms above his head to stretch his sore back muscles. Silently groaning he bent his head to the left, causing something in his neck to make sickening cracking sounds. That didn't bother Duo, though; it seemed to have been exactly what he had been aiming for since he now let his arms drop back down, a barely noticeable contented smile on his lips.
"That's so gross!"
The faintly disgusted sounding remark made Duo raise his eyes to the door to his office where a middle-aged woman with short blond hair stood, wearing the Preventer's uniform and a look on her face that matched the tone of her voice.
Duo's smile widened into a grin as he bent his head to the right, mirroring the action that had caused the woman's reaction and receiving the same result.
"What to you mean, Lisa?" he asked her innocently.
She wasn't fooled for a second and just ignored that he had said something as she continued talking herself.
"Why do you keep doing this? You are going to break your own neck someday with this gross... cracking thing. Don't expect me to drag your corpse out of your office after you died in here."
Duo grinned sweetly at her.
"Nah, there are a lot more creative and fun ways of killing yourself. Ask Heero," he pointed out, making Lisa shake her head at him.
"You're impossible, Duo. I don't get how Agent Yuy can put up with you as a partner."
"Force of habit."
That made Lisa smirk a little and Duo was contented for now.
"What came you here for, anyway?" he asked.
Lisa pulled out an envelope from her breast pocket and walked over from the door to Duo's desk, stopping in front of it and holding the envelope out.
"Mail for you. I had business on this floor so I brought it with me."
Duo eyed the envelope cautiously before he took it.
"That's not yet another thing that causes piles of paperwork for me, is it?" he asked.
Lisa laughed at the defeated expression on Duo's face.
"I have no idea. Open it and find out. I have to go. Bye!"
Waving her hand at Duo, Lisa was already out of his office as he replied with a distracted "Yeah, bye."
He had turned the envelope around in hope that the address of whomever had send the letter would be on it somewhere and give him a hint what was inside. He had no such luck but the small sign on the back of the envelope told him everything he had to know.
A quick look at the clock told him that it was 11:58; Heero and Wufei would be here soon but suddenly he wasn't so sure if he wanted to go eat lunch with them anymore.
As if on clue, Wufei walked through the door to Duo's office.
"Are you coming, Maxwell?"
Duo thought quick and decided that, no, he wasn't. Shooting Wufei an overly dramatic look he gestured towards the pile of folders on his desk.
"What does it look like to you? If I want to get done with that anytime this week I'll have to work through every lunch break and will pitifully starve to death in the middle of mountains of paperwork."
He sighted theatrically for good measure and let himself go boneless in his chair; the perfect image of misery, he was sure.
Wufei smirked at him and shrugged.
"Your own fault," he told Duo. "Do you want me to bring anything back for you?"
"Nah, I'll just take the chance to loose some weight." Duo grinned and sat back up in his chair. "But thanks, anyway. And tell Heero 'Hn.' from me."
Wufei laughed and turned to leave.
As soon as he was out of sight, Duo got up and moved around his desk to the door to close it firmly. Then he looked over to his desk where the letter was lying and sighed. For what purpose had he received a letter like this now?
A few months after the end of the second war he had already settled down on Earth. The Mad Five had been kind enough to think of any financial problems the pilots might come across if they actually survived the war, so he had had enough money to get himself a vast loft apartment and the furniture to go with it. The job with the Preventers had practically been thrown at him; since Heero joined, too, and they had been partners before, they got teamed up again and both of them didn't mind because it was a fact that they worked well together.
Everything was going really well and then Duo had one day had a sudden idea that caused him to write a letter to a certain institution. Just a few days later he got a reply and went to take care of everything that was needed to actually make his idea work.
The next few days he had been nearly frantic because he was hoping for some notification from the institution that they had been successful; but it never came. As weeks passed and eventually turned to months, Duo didn't forget about the whole thing but he gave up hope of ever hearing from the institution again. He wasn't even overly disappointed; just a tad more downhearted than usual.
But that passed by as well. And everything was back to normal again after half a year.
And now he got that letter.
Over seven years later.
Duo walked back around his desk and dropped down on his chair. He was just sitting, doing nothing but staring at the envelope that was lying so innocently on his desk but had caused a whole roller coaster of emotions inside of him.
After a good fifteen minutes or so, Duo settled for confused but curious and reached out to take the envelope into his hands. He stared at it some more, until he told himself to snap out of it before he started to act really idiotically.
He opened the letter.
There was just a single sheet of paper inside. He took it out and turned it until it wasn't upside down and wrong side up anymore and started to read what was written on it.
'Dear Mr. Maxwell,
The Project To Locate And Reunite Family Members Separated Through War is happy to inform you that a 99,8% match to your DNA has been found.
After detailed research we can be positive that we managed to find your sister.
Unfortunately we have to tell you that Miss Sarah Parker was a...'
Duo finished reading and soon his face was drained of every colour as he put the letter down again. He wasn't sure how much time had passed as he moved again, but honestly he didn't really care.
He grabbed the letter, shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans and stormed out of his office. Running down the corridor to where his boss Une had her office rooms he ignored the questioning looks he got from a few Preventers agents as he passed them. He threw the door to Une's office open without knocking but was greeted by an empty room.
Frowning the grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper from Une's desk, quickly scribbling a note and then he was out of the room again. The sound of the door he had slammed shut behind him reached him as he was already storming down the stairs; he didn't have the patience to wait for the elevator to arrive at the moment.
Taking the stairs two, sometimes even three at a time, he reached the parking lot in less then two minutes; a remarkable time if one took in account that his office was on the eighteenth floor, but Duo couldn't have cared less. All he was focused on right now was getting out of here. What he was going to do after that, he would deal with when it became important.
He jumped onto his motorcycle, not even bothering with the helmet and sped out of the parking lot, narrowly avoiding a collision with Heero and Wufei, who were coming back from lunch, and not even noticing the fact that they had been there.
As soon as he was out on the street he put all his driving skills to good use as he ignored all traffic regulations and speed limits as well as his common sense.
- - - - -
Chang Wufei was fuming.
"What does Maxwell think he is doing, racing around like the idiot he is?!? He nearly ran us over with that damn bike of his!!! He can't drive like this - he is endangering people!!! Has he gone completely nuts now?!?"
Heero merely shrugged and let him rant on without listening to what he was actually saying. Until they had entered the Preventers building he had his eyes on the street, where Duo and his bike had vanished from his sight as the braided man had taken a turn to the right; jerking the motorcycle around in the last moment and swerving into the oncoming traffic, barely avoiding being smashed to pieces by a truck. Not once had the motorcycle reduced its speed.
Frowning Heero walked up to the elevators, Wufei behind him and still rambling. Duo's driving style was reckless but never like that; it had seemed that he truly didn't care whether he got himself into an accident or not. Heero's frown deepened. Something was up.
The elevator arrived and the two ex-pilots were confronted with a furious Lady Une. The glare the woman directed at them was enough to make Wufei shut up and Heero to take a step back.
"Where is Maxwell?" she ground out between clenched teeth.
Heero shrugged, signalling that he had no clue and Wufei told her: "He just... left on his motorcycle. Why?"
Une ignored his question as she stepped out of the elevator and began pacing in front of the two men.
"If he thinks driving away will keep me from hunting him down, he can start to dig his own grave! Of all the stupid, moronic, idiotic, brainless, pointless-"
She would have gone on like that for quite some time if Heero hadn't interrupted her.
"What. Did. He. Do?"
Une whirled around and was in his face in a matter of seconds, causing him to blink at her.
"What he did do, you want to know? That's what he did!!!"
She shoved a piece of paper into Heero's hand and stormed of, positively fuming and most likely looking for someone to 'hunt down' Duo.
Wufei and Heero exchanged a confused look and Heero started to read the words written on the paper out loud.
"I quit. Have a hussy fit all you like but I won't finish the reports, either. Maxwell."
Wufei gasped.
"He didn't," he mumbled wide-eyed.
"Obviously he did," Heero retorted with a frown.
He had been right; something was up and he didn't like the way it was leading.
- - - - -
Wufei had returned to whatever it was he had to work on this afternoon and Heero had gone to search for Duo. The official version was that he was trying to locate his partner, which wasn't all that wrong, but he would have skipped work and searched the streets even if he had been ordered to 'not' do it.
He was concerned for Duo; it totally wasn't like him to quit his job with the Preventers without giving some logical reason and then leave the place like a devil on a motorbike. His driving style the last time Heero had seen him could only be described as a well formulated dead wish. Heero just hoped that Duo wasn't up to anything stupid; something that couldn't be reversed...
As Heero had started his search it had been around 01:30 p.m.; now dawn was already breaking and he still hadn't found a trace of Duo. He had been to all places he knew of that Duo vanished to if he wanted to be alone to think or just relax. Places like these were the park or more secluded areas outside of the city with either trees or a lake in the near vicinity. But this time he hadn't found Duo anywhere.
At some places he had noticed the imprint of motorcycle tire tracks in the soft ground of some street that had no concrete on it. The trace went in both directions, which told Heero that whoever had been here had already left again. The imprint of bike tires on the ground didn't have to mean anything though; Duo wasn't the only person driving around with a motorcycle.
Now Heero was bar hopping - but in a complete different meaning of the word. If Duo wasn't somewhere outside, he would have to be inside. He had checked Duo's loft every hour or so, without a positive result. That left the bars Duo frequented quite regularly; unfortunately for Heero there were plenty of them.
After what seemed like over hundred different pubs and bars and other locals of the kind, Heero had already developed a routine in checking for Duo. Go in, ask the barkeeper, receive a negative answer, leave and go on to the next bar. At least that was what he had been doing until now.
The pub he was currently in was no different from the dozens of others Heero had visited during the past hours and he was really getting tired of smoky, dimly lit rooms filled with people who were having fun; or drowning their sorrows in alcohol. He suspected he was looking for someone who did the latter.
He walked straight to the counter, not wasting more time than necessary with standing around. The first look he had gotten had already told him that Duo wasn't here at the moment either. Heero waited until the barkeeper noticed him, then he asked his usual questions; my age, a little taller than me, violet eyes, really long, chestnut braid.
With his mind already focused on trying to remember where his next destination was, Heero nearly missed the barkeeper's answer.
"Excuse me. What did you say?"
"I said a guy like you described him was here until about half an hour ago."
Now that the barkeeper had Heero's attention, nothing kept him from spilling every bit of information he had and Heero was very willing to listen.
"Man, but was he in a weird mood, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. He put away almost a whole bottle of vodka before I was able to talk him into leaving. And don't start with me on mood swings. One minute he was babbling away in the most cheerful manner you can imagine and the next he was all depressed and more holding onto the table than sitting in front of it. I asked him if he was here with anything that had a motor and he said, yes he was. I told him that I didn't think he should drive home, wasted like he was, he would probably kill himself. He started to laugh after I said this. No, not laugh, it was more like cackling. Then he agreed and shoved a key into my hand. Told me that it was the key to his bike and that he was giving it to me. The whole bike, not only the key. Was out of the door before I really could react, snickering to himself all the time, like he had heard some real good joke or something."
The barkeeper paused to get some air and Heero took the opportunity to ask a question.
"Did he tell you where he was going to go to? Did he want to go home or to another bar?"
The urgency in Heero's voice caused the barkeeper to frown.
"He didn't say where he'd go, no. But I told him to go home, so maybe..." he trailed off with a shrug. "You're his friend, aren't you?" he continued then, on a sudden idea. "Then I'll give you this, I don't really have any use for a bike. The machine's in the backyard; I took it off the street after he was gone."
He gave Heero the key to Duo's motorcycle and said his goodbyes; he had a job to do here after all. Heero called out a "Thank you." after the retreating barkeeper and received a wink for an answer; then he left the bar to check Duo's loft once again.
If the braided man had left the pub about half an hour ago then maybe he was back there by now; that was, if he really went back home in the first place. But Heero didn't want to waste the possibility of finally tracking down Duo; the behaviour he had shown at noon and what the barkeeper had told him, had served to get Heeros worries, worries that had slowly started to vanish during the afternoon, to come back full force again.
A drunk Duo was never up to anything good or even faintly intelligent but usually he at least kept it at a level where no permanent harm was done, only a few practical jokes or pranks. But what Duo would come up with when he was drunk and upset, which was obviously the case, Heero didn't want to find out.
Heero had just taken the bike's key with him, leaving the machine itself where it was and using his own car to get to where Duo was living. As he was parking the car in front of the building Duo's loft was in, he already noticed that the lights were on on the top floor; apparently Duo was actually at home.
After practically running up the stairs, Heero was standing in front of the door to Duo's apartment only a minute later, panting slightly and with a strange feeling in his stomach that told him, something wasn't right. He had always been one to listen to his gut feelings and immediately set to pick the lock on Duo's door, not even bothering with knocking first.
He got the door unlocked in a matter of seconds and pushed it open. Duo had never stuffed the loft full with furniture; this and the lack of walls let Heero register the situation immediately.
All lights in the apartment were on, illuminating the scene in front of him. Duo was sitting on the floor, leaning against the far off wall, directly in the field of vision of anyone who happened to open the door and enter the room. His eyes seemed to be staring unfocusedly at a piece of paper lying on the floor in front of him between his outstretched and slightly parted legs; his gun forgotten in his right hand, resting on the floor beside his tight.
The smell of blood dominated the room. Great splashes of fresh blood and tiny bits of greyish-white tissue clotted the wall behind Duo; it looked like a picture drawn by a crazy person. The surrealistic portrait of a man's face that was showing both despair and relieve; the violet eyes now dull and staring lifelessly ahead, the mouth hanging open as if caught in a yawn and half the head pulverized-
Heero collapsed down on his knees and threw up on the floor right there.
He had lost all sense of time the moment he had opened the door and he didn't know how much time had passed since then. He didn't even know how he had gotten through the room and in front of Duo but this was where he was now; kneeling in front of the corpse of his dead friend, not able to move his eyes from him and fighting both the urge to be sick again and the tears that were threatening to escape him.
After some time he reached for the piece of paper that was lying between Duo's legs, not really thinking about what he was doing but still reading the message that was written on it and finally giving in to the tears as he registered the meaning of the words.
'Dear Mr. Maxwell,
The Project To Locate And Reunite Family Members Separated Through War is happy to inform you that a 99,8% match to your DNA has been found.
After detailed research we can be positive that we managed to find your sister.
Unfortunately we have to tell you that Miss Sarah Parker was a Mobile Suit pilot for OZ in the war and got killed in a Gundam attack.
We are very sorry to deliver such bad news. You have our sympathy.'
And below that, in a handwriting that was shaky but still recognizable as Duo's:
'Shinigami's last blow'
- - - - -
End
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Believe it or not, but this story was inspired by Stephen King's 'The Shining'. Don't ask me how that happened... ^_^"
Review, please! Thank you!
- Banshee