Chapter 8

A/N: Okay long time since I updated but I do get an occasional reviewer who begs for an update so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the darkness.

The last man on my list is a corrupt lawyer who is now whimpering like a little girl with a skinned knee. He keeps pulling the trigger of his empty pistol only for the hollow clicking noise to come out. I don't blame him for being scared especially when all of his friends are ripped to shreds all around him. I would pity him, but he did sell a lot of our boys down the river for some ass wipe money. I press the barrel of my berretta to his skull and pull the trigger watching his brains splatter all over the wall.

I quickly get the hell out of there, after stealing the money from their wallets and any other hidden stashes, and make my way back to Aunt Sarah's apartment through the subway. All the while I have been wasting people my darkness powers have been feeling a little funny. Almost as if they were afraid. I didn't notice it when I was in battle but whenever I am alone I just feel like it's in a tug of war with something.

Before I know it a train whips right past me and nearly takes my face off. I didn't even know I was standing so close. The front car pulls up in front of me and opens up their doors. Funny, the engineer doesn't get off here. I am then knocked down on the ground and land in a puddle, which I hope to god isn't urine, and look up to cuss the bastard out.

"Hey asshole, what the hell is your problem?" I asked when I actually saw the man. He was exactly as I remember him. I couldn't believe he was standing in front on me after what I had witnessed all those nights ago. I'm so stunned I can barely whisper his name. "Jackie?"

"J-Jayden?" Jackie stuttered back.

I wrapped my arms around his neck to make sure I wasn't totally going crazy and after squeezing him so hard I am certain that he is real, he was alive.

"Jackie you stupid son of a bitch I could kiss you!" I exclaimed not caring that other people were staring and making snide comments about us. Jackie quickly pushed me off and stood to his feet.

"Jayden, Jesus I thought I'd never see you again." He exclaimed. He did look a little pale and skinny too and damn he smelled like a rotting corpses left out in the desert.

"Wait, you're surprised to see me?" I snapped causing him to jump back. In an instant my fist collided with his cheek and knocked him on his ass. "You blew a fucking hole in your head and left me all alone you asshole!"

Jackie looked guilty for a moment before looking back up at me.

"Sorry man." Jackie muttered.

"Whatever, let's just get to Aunt Sarah's place. I'm freaking starving." I grunted before I stormed off to another train. Jackie soon followed and we both boarded and took our seats. As we sat there in silence I looked over to see that Jackie is more mopey than usual and I can imagine why. "Hey, I'm really sorry about Jenny."

"Yeah…"

"We'll get them for this Jackie." I snarled. "Paulie and Shrote are going to wish they had never been born."

"I know, they have no idea what I am going to do to them." Jackie warned. "I'm gonna tear Paulie's fat fucking face off and feed it to the rats. He screwed himself the minute he laid his hands on her."

"We'll take care of him Jackie, for Jenny." I promised.

"For Jenny."

(!)

Jackie and I devour our spaghetti in our Aunt Sarah's kitchen. She practically served it to us at the door. She was the best at both looking out after the business and for us. She consoled Jackie for a minute before serving us dinner. I had nothing but burgers and pizzas for the past couple of days so I savored every bite.

After we ate Aunt Sarah gave us our mission.

"Now, I know what we are asking is big, but I have faith in you boys." Aunt Sarah said with sincerity. "Your first move is to take out Paulie's protection Shrote. If you take him out Paulie will lose a lot of protection and a lot of his inside contacts."

"Course, Paulie doesn't have any real money since Jackie burned it last time." I stated. "Even if Paulie does manage to get that much cash together he won't be able to pay off any of Shrote's contacts."

"Eddie said it himself, he is the NYPD. He's the only one who knows who to keep quiet and who to bride. It's the only reason Paulie can't kill him." Jackie explained.

"Exactly, take him out and Paulie will have no one covering his ass. He'll be broke and helpless. He'll be seen as a liability and the commission will want nothing more to do with him."

"Making it perfect to waste him." Jackie said menacingly. I got to my feet.

"We should go and pay Shrote a visit." I quickly made my way outside with Jackie soon following.

Another subway ride and cutting across alleyways later we finally find ourselves standing in front of Shrote's door. The hallway lights in the apartment slowly dim down allowing the darkness to consume our bodies. I kicked the door down only to be fired upon by Shrote himself.

"I see you, ya little prick!" Shrote shouted. Jackie and I drew our guns as both of our eyes glowed yellow.

"Run all you want Shrote we'll get you and Paulie's next!" I shouted.

Jackie and I ran after Shrote all the while he was shooting at us. Shrote is more resilient than we thought as he rushed through his apartment and up to the second floor.

"If you two hadn't acted so stupid maybe Jenny would still be alive!"

"Don't ever say her name!" Jackie shouted.

When we made our way to the top floor I started to hear what sounded like a helicopter. I started to panic as the humming of the propellers grew louder and louder.

"Here come my boys Jackie who's got your back?" Shrote asked.

"Me you little bastard, and you and the rest of your boys are going to die!" I shouted. I felt the murderous intent burning through my soul. The divine urge to send evil to hell by slaughtering him like the pig he is. I hated this feeling.

But I also welcomed it.

We followed Shrote to the exit of his fire escape but before we could follow him we were attacked by the helicopter. Jackie pushed me out of the way before the missile struck the side of the building. My ears were ringing painfully for a minute before the darkness repaired the damage.

Jackie and I quickly got to our feet and went after Shrote. We climbed through the now destroyed wall and up the fire escape to follow Shrote.

"You two are pathetic, no wonder Jenny's dead."

"She's dead, Jenny, Jenny, Jenny…" The darkness chuckled.

"Shut up!" We both shouted.

We eventually cornered Shrote on top of a rooftop but he quickly ran into the helicopter and flew off. Jackie and I emptied our guns into his helicopter but we had little success of bringing it down. Our powers were also useless since the damn thing shined a flood light on us causing us to cringe in pain.

I felt something grab me by the collar of my coat and drag me over to the edge of the rooftop. My vision came back to see Jackie throw me over the edge of the building. Jackie and I both crashed down on a nearby fire escape bringing the whole damn thing down before we both landed back down on the ground.

Jackie helped me to my feet as the helicopter flew over us, we could both practically imagine the smirk on Shrote's face. That smug son of a bitch got one over on us and we were now left with our dicks in our hands.

"God dammit!" Jackie shouted, kicking a nearby garbage can down. He ran a hand through his long black hair and looked over at me. "Well, there goes our only chance to get Paulie."

"Not quite." I still had another trick up my sleeve.

"What, you know something?" Jackie snapped.

"Yes, the Turkish Baths." I said. "It's where Shrote keeps his choice stuff." A look of realization came across Jackie's face as he knew where I was getting at.

"Okay I get it, we get his most prized package, lure him out and grill that fuck for all the info he has on Paulie."

"That's our plan in a nutshell."

We quickly made our way back to the City Hall subway station and ran to the bathroom. Jimmy the Grape and I have been organizing this while Jackie was in disposed. We are going to flush that little bastard out if it's the last thing we ever do.

I walked into the bathroom and over to the stall with the 'out of order' sign taped on it. I lightly pushed the door open and looked behind the toilet, tapped behind the tank was the key to the underground entrance of the Turkish Baths.

"Thank you Jimmy and Aunt Sarah." I chuckled.

"We ready?" Jackie asked.

"Yeah, let's go."

We quickly made our way over to the end of the station and to the locked gate and unlocked it with the key. They looked back to make sure no one saw or that they weren't being followed before walking down the dark abandoned tunnels.

Even with everything the two had gone through just to get here, these tunnels made them feel like they were crawling through hell. This was the place people tried to ignore and pretend that never existed.

This is where the real evil lies.

Along the way we encountered a few homeless and drifters who looked like they would eat us after killing us. As we got closer to the Turkish baths we started seeing satanic glyphs painted on the walls.

"Jackie, this place is making my flesh crawl." I said, tightening my coat around my shoulders.

"Yeah, me too. The darkness loves all of this though." He snickered bitterly. Of course it does, it's feeding off of all the dark essence in this god forsaken place. There is no hope for Jackie and I we were doomed to the darkness forever.

We walked into another room, but Jackie quickly pushed me out of the way of a nearby explosive. My ears were ringing from the explosive, but I could hear some maniacal laughter from nearby. In the center of the room a filthy deranged bum was hidden behind a bullet proof wall and dropping explosives through the vents.

I pulled out my handguns and opened fired at the bastard, but it didn't do much good. I activated my armor to protect myself from the blast. Jackie activated his powers and summoned a black hole. The man started screaming in horror and as he was pulled into the dark void, in a flash blood splattered all over the place clearing a way to the Baths.

"What the hell was that?" I snapped.

"Something evil Jayden something evil."

"Let's just get to the Turkish baths and get that fucking case."

It took some sleuthing but we finally managed to make it to the abandoned hotel. Sure enough there were Shrote's flunkies crawling all over the place, but also plenty of dark corners for Jackie and me. I looked over at Jackie and saw that he had the same fire in his eyes as mine.

"You ready Jackie?" I asked.

"Yeah, let's tear the fuckers a new one, huh?" He grinned. The demon heads hovered over both of his shoulders and his tentacles draped down his back.

I activated my armor and brandished the razor sharp claws on my hands. I leaned back and jumped through a nearby wall and sliced two guards in half. Another guard appeared out of the door way and aimed a shotgun at my head, but Jackie snatched the weapon with his left demon head and allowed the right one to tear his heart out.

Soon a whole horde of crooked cops came in guns blazing and Jackie unloaded his newly acquired shotgun into each one of them. I quickly grabbed a couple of discarded handguns and fired back at the guards.

They were all weak before us they didn't have a chance in hell of stopping us. A crash was heard above the main lobby as troops dropped down from the glass roof of the hotel and landed on the main floor. They were all armed with carbine rifles and body armor and they were all ready to get some killing done.

They aimed their weapons at us and opened fired on us. Jackie ripped an old metal door off its hinges and used it as a shield, but I was still out in the open. Their bullets struck me hard and the impact was enough to knock me back, but I wasn't too badly injured.

Just then a small black ball of energy appeared in the center of the group of officers before expanding into a black hole and sucking them all in. They all screamed in pain and agony before the hole dispersed leaving bloody chunks and severed limbs behind.

We both looked around to see that we were in the clear, but we both knew that this was far from over. Jackie and I heard groaning coming from a nearby corner and we quickly rushed over to see one of Shrote's men.

A bullet had grazed his left side as long as he kept pressure on it he would live. Jackie and I couldn't help but laugh as he started freaking out when we approached him. Jackie, being the smooth talker he is, calmly approached him.

"Hey, it's okay." He held his hands out and dismissed his darkness. He glanced at my direction suggesting I do the same. I did as he did and let him continue with his conversation. "Look, Shrote came here earlier with a package of important goodies. We need to know where they are so we can get out of here. Can you tell us where they are?"

The man was hesitant and who could blame him. Jackie and I looked like the damn devil when we used the Darkness. This poor bastard was as threatening to us as a mouse was to a tiger, not at all. I collected a few handguns and clips from the previous owners as he continued.

"I-It's up on the third floor." He panicked. He raised his shaky hand and pointed up. "In a janitors closet we use it for an armory as well. You can take the back entrance out of here, that's all I know okay?" Jackie let out a chuckle.

"Okay, now get out of-What the fuck, what are you doing!"

My head snaps back over to Jackie and my eyes widened when the demon heads are gripping both ends of the cops body. In one quick tug the man was now in two and discarded like a rag doll. Jackie and I stood there in shock and horror while a dark voice chuckled around us.

"What the fuck, I said I would let him live!" Jackie shouted.

"He was worthless, we needed to feed." Its voice slithered through my ears sending chills down my spine.

"You really have no principals do you?" I growled as we both stormed out of the run down hotel.

"You love the blood, don't deny it." It snickered. It knew my deepest darkest desires and lying would not do me any good.

"Fuck you!"

"Jayden, relax we'll get through this." Jackie said as we made our way into an old abandoned subway platform.

I was losing my nerves badly. I didn't know what I was doing anymore. Jackie and I started this whole quest for vengeance to put the wrong things right with Paulie and Shrote, but know I realize that we are both becoming more vicious than either of them.

"Jackie, I don't think we should use the Darkness anymore." I said. Jackie turned to me and he had the same look I had.

"I know, but-"

Flood lights shined all around us. Not only did it blind us it neutralized our powers as well. I shielded my eyes from the light with my hands and caught the sight of a whole team of Shrote's SWAT teams.

They aimed their weapons at Jackie and I knew without his powers he would be killed again. I quickly grabbed him by the collar of his coat and threw him down a dark stairway as the bullets ripped through my flesh and knocked me onto the ground. The last thing I saw before fading to the darkness was Jackie tearing them all of the cops apart.