Fallen Ambitions

by Guy S. Stanton III

  *****

  Victor

  I’d lost it! I glanced around to see whether I had been transported out of my studio, but I hadn’t been.

  How was she standing here? She was dead. I’d shot her. I’d nearly blown her head from off her shoulders and yet she stood before me!

  It was a clone that was it!

  My eyes found the scar on her forehead and everything within me stopped including my heart. As if from a long way away I heard her voice, “Aren’t you going to answer me?”

  “What?” I breathed out with.

  “Ohhh I like your accent! Now are you going to tell me or what?”

  “Tell you what?” I asked completely dazed.

  “My eyes. Did I really look like this right before you shot me?”

  “Yes.” I said feeling the moment become more surreal by the second.

  She glanced back at the painting of herself for a moment before glancing back at me with a spark to her eyes that echoed of a fiery and very much alive spirit. Her lips moved as her eyes reflected intense curiosity, “Why did you paint me?”

  Stumbling for a lack of words to express myself I did then what I thought I had to. Stepping forward slightly I reached a finger out and pushed it against her shoulder. Solid flesh met my touch and I recoiled backwards from her again.

  I put a hand to my head and closed my eyes briefly. Opening them I was graced to see her still standing there with a look in her eyes that almost bordered on something akin to pity.

  “Why did you paint me?” She asked softly again.

  It was too much to keep looking into her direct stare upon me and looking away I said, “I …… try to put the pieces back together.”

  There was a moment of silence before she softly said, “I see.”

  Glancing to her I was in time to hear her say, “Only God can truly put the pieces back together. This is a good painting, but it can’t breathe. Tell me would you like to be put back together?”

  The utter sincerity of her gaze upon me had my eyes burning and in exasperation I shook my head back and forth, “I do not understand! I kill you and you now here.”

  She nodded, “Very scary I must appear to you I know. Here take this.”

  She took something from the pocket of her jeans and tossed it at me. I caught it and letting my eyes fall from her mesmerizing gaze I looked to the open palm of my hand.

  The smashed up hunk of copper I would have recognized from anywhere. I hand loaded my own shells and my bullets were unique. This was one of mine.

  I felt my eyes watering as I stared at the bullet. I glanced from the bullet to her forehead and then back to her eyes.

  Her eyes of all things held compassion in them for me! I looked away, only to have my eyes fall upon the bullet in my palm that seemed to weigh a ton.

  Finding it hard to speak I managed to say, “I am sorry.”

  “I believe you. But now the fact remains that I am without a bodyguard. Seeing as how you’ve already once taken my life I think it’s only a fair exchange that your life now be spent in the protection of the new life God has gifted me past the destructive power of your bullet. Well, what do you say?” She asked challengingly.

  I stared at her incredulously. Pointing at my chest I exclaimed, “Me! Your bodyguard?”

  She nodded, “You can’t name someone else more capable than yourself can you?”

  I just stared at her. This was all mixed up! I couldn’t think!

  Turning away I glanced out the window only to see a long line of cars approaching down the circuitous mountain road in the distance.

  “Oh no!” I said loudly and then I said, “They are coming for me and you are here!”

  “They, as in them that sent you to kill me?”

  I nodded vigorously, as I debated about what to do, even as I was not entirely sure that I was not still held up within some awful dream.

  “They’re trying to kill you because you refused to do the things that they wanted you to do to me before you killed me aren’t they?”

  I nodded.

  “Thank you for not listening. I very much appreciate it.” She said softly.

  I rubbed my hands into my eyes. No sense! Nothing made any sense!

  Pointing to the way she had come in here I said, “You must go! They be here soon to kill you again!”

  Smiling she shook her head and said, “I’m not going anywhere without you. As I said you’re my new bodyguard. The only thing that remains to be seen is what you’re going to do about it.”

  I stared at the woman in amazed frustration. Pointing at her I said, “You stubborn!

  Laughing slightly she affirmed to me by saying, “Very.”

  I turned away, as I grappled with the situation that I must protect the woman, who I had killed and yet was even now alive again. Going to the outdoor balcony off of the artist studio that overlooked the road that led to the Villa I verified for myself that they had not found everything.

  The situation was so unclear to me and yet there was a very clear and pressing need to protect what I had once destroyed. A second chance to do away with the deathknell of that fateful shot that had been driving me crazy.

  The woman came outside to lean up against the solid railing of the porch to gaze at me ponderingly, as I jumped up onto the top of the railing and reached up to grab a hold of a large wind chime that hung above the porch. The rope holding the chime snapped under my pressure upon it and I jumped down with its pieces clanging together noisily.

  Pointing to her I said, “You get down.”

  Surprisingly she complied and moved to sit down on the tile floor of the porch all the while watching me as if I was some kind of reoccurring surprise to her. I snapped the connecting wires of all five of the interlinking pieces of the wind chime apart until all five barrels were free.

  Wasting no time I assembled the five barrels together in a spaced out circular pattern by switching around the disc that they had all hung from until all five barrels clicked into it midway down their length. Reaching to the side I picked up a small table and tore off one section of the table’s leg apparatus, which in reality was a tripod that I had disguised by constructing it into the table.

  Taking the tripod I took the assembled barrel construct and fitted it down onto the clip-in module on the outside of the ball bearing like disk that all five barrels spun easily within. It clicked home and grabbing another small table I brought it up against the solid railing of the balcony.

  I set the assembled barrels and tripod onto the table. Turning I reached for a light sconce on the wall and tore it free. Electric sparks arced off from the torn away wires, as I took the sconce and reassembled it differently to form the triggering mechanism for the Gatling gun I was creating from real parts that I had disguised as to appear as something else.

  The triggering assembly affixed to the backend of the barrels I turned to the awning covering and with a sharp twist removed the windup crank handle. Going to the Gatling gun I snapped the hand crank handle into place on the triggering mechanism. The gun was ready.

  Glancing to the corner where the woman was I saw her sitting there with a hand half over her mouth as if to hold in laughter. She thought all this was funny!

  Did she not know how close to death she was at the hands of the men who would be here in the next few moments?

  ‘Why should she be?’ Came the reverse thought. I just didn’t know anything anymore. Nothing was as I had always assumed it to be, especially in regards to this woman.

  Picking up a table leg I smashed away at the solid top of the porch railing. The adobe surface of the railing began to crack away next to where the Gatling gun rested on the small table that I had placed it on.

  With the cemented veneer gone from the top of the railing I tore out the remaining chunks of mortar until the opening in the top of the railing was made clear. Reaching down into the interior of the wall I pulled up the end of a 50 caliber round cartridge belt studded with a continuous line of shells.


  Taking the end of the cartridge belt I snapped it into the sidemounted receiver and took up my position behind the gun. I’d forgotten something and cursing I turned back to the French doors behind me and ripped off the undersized door fob.

  Taking the fob I screwed it into place on the forward gun port frame. It was my front sight. How I had forgotten it in the assembly was beyond me other than to say that this woman had an effect of making me lose concentration by just being near me.

  I grasped the solitary handle with one hand and sighting down the length of the top barrel through the site I took aim at the lead car now pulling past the front gate of the Villa. My other hand formed over the crank handle, which I began to turn rapidly.

  The barrels of the Gatling gun spun as with each hammer fall of the cocking mechanism a 50 caliber bullet was sent off in a repeating staccato fashion to tear through metal and man alike. The assault on my home was thwarted before it had even begun as men bailed out of exploding cars and attempted to run for safety. I gunned every last one of them down unmercifully.

  Finally I left off cranking as there were simply no more targets of availability within the lineup of the five blazing cars located near the entrance. Imperceptibly I felt my gaze drawn to the woman on the floor.

  She was slowly shaking her head as she stared at me still smiling. She took her fingers from out of her ears and was on the verge of saying something, when I reached forward with abruptness and hauled her to her feet to then jump up onto the balcony railing and go over the side taking her with me.

  She screamed and then abruptly let out an ‘oomph!’ As with a splitting of fabric we tore through the seams of two canopies situated below the balcony and then with a resounding thud we hit the ground.

  She landed on top of me with enough force to half drive the air out of my body, but there was no time for regaining lost breath. Getting up I tugged her toward where a slit trench existed within the landscaping around the Villa. I only hoped that there were no snakes coiled up in it as I knew they liked to frequent the area.

  We were breathlessly half there when I saw the fire trail through the sky. Pulling her up to me I lifted her bodily and chucked her forward to land within the slit trench just as the world behind me exploded with fury.

  The explosions of the missiles lifted me off my feet and blew me the rest of the way there, almost. I slid into the trench on top of the woman as even more explosions rang out behind us in the direction of the Villa.

  Her body was soft beneath me and I did my best to not crush her while at the same time not physically appear above the top of the shallow trench that had been created with only one body in mind. Her hands came up around my waist and pulled me down against her even as I heard her words through the din of hell exploding topside, “I can take your weight.”

  I didn’t listen to her and stayed as I was. I really didn’t care if I got blown up or not. I’d been planning on it actually, now because of her that wasn’t happening.

  I’d given up on trying to think my way through the fast evolving situation that I’d somehow gotten caught up in. At last the explosions stopped and straightening upwards I looked around to see if the coast was clear.

  Glancing down to her I was in time to hear her say matter-of-factly, “I think you’re going to make quite the bodyguard after all.”

  I stared at her a moment before saying definitively, “You crazy!”

  She snorted in an unladylike fashion and said, “Hey I’m not the one trying to save the woman that you just killed yesterday. That bit of twisted up logic you own all by yourself big boy.”

  She was right and yet how on Earth was she right?

  People who were dead should stay dead and yet I was very grateful that she had not stayed dead. Pulling her up I led her over to a paver patio that was located nearby. Leaning down I ripped several pavers away to reveal a clasp. I gave it a good yank and with a hydraulic his of sound the center of the paver patio popped away as a large oblong box popped up through it sending pavers flying.

  She wore a bit of a dazed expression as I rushed to the sides of the box and began ripping them away to reveal a high-powered dirt bike, with the box cleared away I hopped onto the seat and kick started it alive.

  I glanced up to look for her, only to feel her slide onto the bike behind me. With her hands clasped around my middle I tore out across the grounds that reflected only the wreckage of something I had once held in high regard.