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Assassin Excellence

The elevator doors opened.
Before walking out, he looked at the three dead bodies that laid around him on the elevator floor. His mind’s eye traced back his trip from the basement to the terrace. He had already executed two crime lords, a psychopath who believed he was an archangel and more than a few thugs and lowlifes.
His eyes were still drowned in hate and lust for revenge. He could still hear his wife cry for help. He could still see the drops of blood coming from his newborn’s bed. They had both died in front of his very eyes a couple of years ago. They had pushed him too far when they should have known better.
He examined his weapons. He “cycled” through them to make sure they were ready for what was coming up next. Two Berettas, a Desert Eagle, a Tommy Gun, a Sniper Rifle, a Grenade launcher, a Flame Thrower, Smoke grenades, Pepper grenades and a Baseball Bat; just in case he’d run out of ammo.
He walked out of the elevator. All the commotion and the gunfire from the lower levels had already alerted the people he was coming for. Two gunshots, bullets flying past him, one drilling a hole into the wall; the other one hit the fire extinguisher that was hanging next to him. A thick white smoke consumed the room and hindered vision; his and theirs alike. He ducked and hid behind a couch. Took in a large gasp of air and shouted: “you want pain?”
He sprang from under the couch and stood up strong, still, immovable. It was as if time froze for a moment. He heard the sound of his own gunshots, as if they were coming from the bottom of a deep well. He was able to see the bullets flying in the air, spinning around an axis that ended deep in the skulls of the people who shot first and were still shooting at him.
With the corner of his eye, he caught some movement on his left. There were people coming; bearing M16s. He dived to his front, twisted his body to face these new targets and let his Eagle do the talking. Sparks came out of its barrel; bullets flew and sliced the air. The men with the M16s had no time to aim or duck. Headshots! One, two, three of them hit the ground while he was still airborne.
A strange noise greeted the ear. This was not a gunshot. This was a flapping of some kind. A helicopter? Could it really be that they were evading him?
He ran out and stepped into the terrace. Two henchmen took aim but received lead instead. He was not going to waste any more time. He ran to the metal door that prevented him from walking around the office and reaching the other side of the terrace.
“Fuck!!!” he uttered, without ever opening his mouth; his alter ego was talking. He could not accept it; the bitch he was after was escaping. He looked around. In the middle of the office’s roof there was a long, thick antenna of some kind. Heavy with satellite dishes and all kinds of technology invested in making sure no piece of information evaded it. He could see metal chords holding it in place. One of them ended on his own side of the terrace.
He walked over to that end of the chord and shot it with his Eagle. The metallic chord snapped and sliced through the air freely. A mild grin carved upon his lips. He “cycled” through his weapons again and took hold of his Sniper Rifle. He aimed and shot on the other side of the terrace, breaking one more chord. He quickly turned to his left. Aimed. Shot. One more chord happily flying around free.
Three chords done but the antenna was not moving. It never budged an inch. Even worse, he could hear the flapping of the helicopter on the other side getting louder. They would take off shortly, no doubt about that.

There was no time to think.
No time to waste.
No more promises to be broken.
No more guilt to evade.
No more favours to bestow.

He examined his weapons again and grabbed the Grenade launcher. He aimed at the root of the antenna and pulled the trigger. Once, twice. The grenades flew and reached the bottom of the antenna where they exploded. A metallic sound came to his ears as the foundation started falling; too slowly.
Behind the sinking antenna he noticed an airborne helicopter. They were painfully escaping Nemesis. He chose his Tommy Gun and unleashed its full hate. The empty shells fell to the ground like the drops of a furious waterfall. The bullets carved their way towards the chopper but they crashed against the falling antenna.
He started fearing they would escape, safe in the chopper. They started believing they would survive, safe in the chopper.
When the assortment of antennas crashed into the tail of the helicopter, sparks flew but the chopper did not. It sank 36 levels down the to the ground.
He witnessed the drop with a smirk of satisfaction. In the distance he could hear sirens. They were coming for him.

Snow was coming down. He hadn’t noticed earlier. He had just started feeling a part of the environment. He could hear cars pulling next to the building, sirens getting louder and a certain voice screaming in the distance behind him.
He couldn’t exactly make out what it was that the voice was saying. Until the door behind him opened, his mother walking inside.
What was his mother doing on top of the skyscraper, past the dead bodies?
“Did you finish your homework, mister?”
Crap. His parents had come back early. Well, at least he had managed to finish his favourite PC game. He was a hell of a Max Payne!

“Not yet mom. I’ll do my maths now and go to bed.”

  2009  /  Short Shories  /  Last Updated January 1, 2013 by Phlegyas  / 

31 Comments

  1. MAGOS says:

    Αυτά είναι…παλιές καλές γνώριμες στιγμές…τί μου θύμισες τώρα???!!!!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Να’σαι καλά ρε αγόρι Έτσι είναι … περάσαμε καταστάσεις ωραίες χεχεχε :Ρ

  2. Laura Eno says:

    Wonderful! I was wondering where this over-the-top super hero was going. 😀 Leave it to mom to walk past the dead bodies and not even notice them.
    Welcome to #fridayflash!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thanx for the comment girl Well it was a first attempt! Hope the 1K didnt prove a dreadful read hehe
      I can now sit here still, waiting for Chronos and Death … they’re a bit late for our appointment me thinks

      thanks again !!!

  3. Marisa Birns says:

    Terrific!

    So, no matter how much of a tough guy one is, no matter how many weapons one has to “cycle” through, moms always have the ultimate power, heh!

    Welcome to #fridayflash

    • Phlegyas says:

      HAHA! Hmmm … I dont think I like the way you’re twisting this HAHAHA … yeah okay we all bad MF’s have our mommies LMAO!

      Does the word “cycle” come out as not-fitting? It’s taken right off the games terminology. You “cycle” through your weapons and inventories in Shoot ‘Em Ups. I’d love some feedback on that point

  4. GP Ching says:

    Action packed and funny too! Welcome to Fridayflash. Great debut!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thanx so much!!! Oh today is a happy day for I love comments and I’m getting some (although my story is one of the longest on FridayFlash … it’s good to know people dont drop half way!)

      Thanx again GP!

  5. ganymeder says:

    I thought it was great. Mothers are so unobservant sometimes. I know mine never notices the bodies in the…oops, did I say too much? 😀

    Nicely ‘executed’ – pun intended. lol

    • Phlegyas says:

      HAHA! Yeah they can be party poopers too or some times, well some times they lead the way
      Thanx for reading and commenting

  6. Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by theMindjuggler: My “Assassin Excellence” #action #shortstory ‘s been #FridayFlash-ed to 1K & is dying for R&R http://bit.ly/9B9HcO #amwriting #writing…

  7. Nice twist! I think cycle works, I don’t think it needs quotes, either. Some foreshadowing when the truth is revealed. I was wondering how he wasn’t get hit by any of the bullets, so the ending explained that to. Well done & welcome!!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thanx so much for reading and commenting Actually thank you all for the warm welcome !!!
      I’ve noticed I must have written the longest FlashFriday with a total count of precisely 1K words so I’ll need to work on that. I can see how that may be a turn off for people used to reading shorter flashes.
      Thanx again and Shannon thank you for taking the time to answer me about the CYCLE word. I needed that. If you say that quotation marks are not needed either I’ll drop those too. I dont like them one bit HAHA

      Have a great Friday everybody and an awesome weekend!!!

  8. ANGEL says:

    Great stuff man…keep on killing! – and leave the maths for later…

    • Phlegyas says:

      HAHAHAHAHA! A boy needs maths before he can start killing. It’s a definite prerequisite me thinks!

  9. Diandra says:

    This one was easy, but I did like the description of the action, the story was almost as fast as the game.

    • Phlegyas says:

      I’m now trying to figure out what you meant. Did you mean that the game was easy? Did you mean that reading the story was easy? Or did you mean that writing the story was crap easy? I lost you there, but I do hope you could clarify for me. Maybe you expected something deeper for a #FlashFriday?

  10. Bill Dowis says:

    I was thinking that this story sounded too much like a video game. How could he carry all those weapons anyway, right? And in the end a video game is exactly what it was! Great debut story!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thanx for the comment my runner and writer friend
      Noticed your commitment to be a published writer by this time of the year, next year. Best wishes on that endeavour from me and well … maybe I can stick with you for advice hehe
      Thanx again for reading and commenting!!!

  11. heh, I did get a little suspicious at how he was able to carry such a large arsenal of weapons around with him!!

    Welcome to fridayflash, and yassou!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thank you so much for reading and commenting! I know it was a long 1K debut but hopefully it was not dreadful reading it though to the last line.
      I have to say that compared to your poetic posts mine sound like child stories but hey each to their craft.

      Γειά σου and thanx again!

      Phlegyas.

  12. Fun read. I was thinking it read like a video game–how he cycled through his weapons, and how if he really carried all of those, he’d never get anywhere very fast–and it paid off as that at the end. It’s so easy to get lost in the video game worlds that this worked great. Well done!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thank you so much for reading and commenting I know that for a friday flash my story is a bit on the long side! Thanks again and hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it (used to play max payne 1 like a maniac hehehe)

  13. Fun, action-packed debut.. the cycle description was perfect terminology…glad you’re having fun with the writing, and, like everyone else, I welcome you to fridayflash! Hope to see what you have in store next week.

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thank you so much for reading, commenting and welcoming me. I love writing indeed. Maybe I’m not really good at it but I love doing it anyways I’m currently working on a full length novel so I’m not entirely sure I’ll manage to deliver something on this friday as well. We’ll see though. You never know . Thanks again !!!

  14. peggy says:

    I was thinking action movie all along, waiting for the twist, and you delivered!

    BTW, one minor typo: sculls should be skulls. the first has something to do with boating–oars specifically, if my memory works.

    Welcome to #fridayflash!

    • Phlegyas says:

      Hey thanx for reading and commenting and also for picking that typo! I’ll go correct that of course !!!
      Thanx again and I’ll see you around

  15. Scath says:

    Nice! Loved the ending; it was a great twist.

  16. ellanbethia says:

    Great imagery! And I found the mention of the baseball bat a perfect ending to the, dare I say ‘ridiculously’?, long list of weaponry. Great Work! I am glad Jade “led” me to you.

    • Phlegyas says:

      Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my post!!!
      as far as the ridiculously long list of arsenal goes, well, that’s a shoot-em up for you!
      This story actually is a carbon copy of the game’s ending People who have played Max Payne know what I’m talking about!
      Thank you very much indeed for taking the time and hope to see you around again some time soon.

      Phlegyas.

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