The shabby motel room had dingy yellow walls and cigarette burns in the sheets, but it was better than Starling City at the moment. Arnold wiped his sweaty palms on his knees and rose from the squeaky bed, hyperaware of the shadows that passed outside his window. The ceiling fan above him had a wobbly base, its lazy rotation accompanied by a rhythmic clicking. He occasionally glanced up, wondering if it would finally fall and decapitate him.

It sounded preferable, considering who was after him.

Arnold Sniegowski had no real proof that the Hood was out for his blood, but he had done something to piss him off and the vigilante had a hard-on for justice. But he wouldn't travel to Bludhaven to find a harmless little I.T. guy, would he? Surely the hooded archer had better things to do on a Saturday night. There had to be far more dangerous people to worry about.

A clatter outside caused him to nearly jump out of his skin. Frozen, he listened hard. Finally, he swallowed. Silly, really; it was three in the morning and it was probably just a cat or a drunken prostitute. Arnold gently ran his fingertips along gauze covering the scratch on his left cheek. That blonde chick had done enough. The vigilante wouldn't feel the need to add to his suffering. Right?

Arnold sighed. He really needed to get back to bed; he'd managed a decent sleep from eleven until about ten minutes ago, but a nightmare had woken him up. A nightmare involving sharp green arrows and an angry voice. Despite the chilly weather and the fan, he was still sweating in his wifebeater and boxer shorts. Stress, most likely. Stress and fear. But really, weren't the Sentinel guys bigger fish? They were probably the targets, if the archer had any.

As thin and holey as the blankets were, he wrapped himself in them after turning off the lamp on the bedside table. He drifted to sleep, planning in detail what he would do with all the money he'd gotten from selling that fascinating information…

"Wake. Up." a gruff voice demanded quietly.

Mr. Sniegowski's eyes shot open, and suddenly he could feel the cold metal of the arrow tip against his neck. His screams came out stunted and garbled, but he remained still. Then the Hood barked at him to shut up.

With a whimper, he obeyed.

"You nearly destroyed someone I'm responsible for." It was dark, but Arnold could sense the vigilante was glaring at him. And his jaw was tense, if his tone were any indication.

The arrow painfully dug into his double chin by a fraction of an inch, and he took it as a cue to respond. "I… I… nearly?"

"I already dealt with the Sentinel."

Sniegowski gulped, thankful for the darkness. "Sounds like… you've been busy."

"If you were trying to get away from me, you should've gone farther than the next city over." He could hear the faint sounds of the Hood tightening his grip on his bow. "I'm also wondering why you chose this motel, since the paper paid you for your contribution."

The I.T. guy gritted his teeth against the pain of the arrow. "I didn't want to waste any of it on my paranoia."

"I'm sure you realize now that you should've sprung for a plane ticket out of the country."

"The police would've released the information eventually." The line hadn't worked on the blonde, but maybe the Hood would understand. "It wasn't personal. And she's got all that Queen security now, right? And you. I mean, is anyone really going to go after the two newest Queens? Maybe people will just… be afraid of her. That could happen, right? Married to Oliver Queen and sidekick to the Hood. Yeah. No one will mess with her now, right? I bet I did her a favor."

The arrow had been pulled away during Arnold's little speech, but now it was back and threatening his Adam's apple.

"Or maybe you've given every criminal in town a way to get to me."

"M-maybe I'm not the one you should be blaming, huh?" Arnold was tearing up but stubbornly clinging to his innocence. "You're the one who put her in danger in the first place."

A long moment passed with the arrow at Arnold's throat. Then it was gone and he heard the bow's string relax.

"I had decided I would stop killing," the vigilante said in a calm voice, "because I no longer want to be a murderer." Arnold felt the point of an arrow at his throat again, this time on the far side, below his right ear. "This time," The deep voice was by his left ear. Arnold could even feel his breath. "I am willing to make an exception."

The I.T. guy shuddered, his eyes wide and watery. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"This is for nearly killing my wife and child." the vigilante's venomous voice was the second-to-last thing Arnold heard before he died. The last sound was of the arrow tip slicing his throat open and his blood spurting out.

His last thought, though, was not of remorse or his unspent money or even the revelation that Oliver Queen was the Starling City vigilante.

In his final moments, Arnold Sniegowski wondered if he should've told the Hood that he'd also taken the story to the Starling City Star.

"You Rascal You" by Hanni El Khatib

Yeah, I know it's short.

And I know I keep saying two or three more chapters, but at this point I'm not even sure anymore. But I do know it's getting towards the end.

I want to take this time to thank everyone who reads this story. I appreciate all of you and hope that when I finally publish the ending, no one will be disappointed.