The Final Battle

by Anna Wu

  Chapter 48: Shootout

  Once Jimmy's voice had gone hoarse from screaming at the long-gone Eustace, Jimmy had resigned himself to staring down at the floor beneath him, crying. "Stupid, stupid!" he moaned while the tears flowed down his face, his hands unable to wipe them away. "He's right. He's right," he moaned while sobbing uncontrollably and trembling.

  He continued this pathetic display for another minute or so, and then finally clenched his hands into fists so tight that they drew blood from his hands. "It's not my fault," he moaned while struggling against the ropes and chains once more. "I'll kill you, Eustace!" he screamed while thrashing around. Once he finally realized that the ropes were still going to hold, he started to look around the room.

  Focus. Escape. Cut the ropes and chains. How? his mind quickly asked. He looked around the room, desperately searching for any sort of tool. His eyes gazed past the towel that Eustace had wiped his hands on, the broken shards of the glass that he had tossed over his shoulder, the gas mask that he had used while on the ship, and various other items. Jimmy let out a deep sigh and stared back down at the ground. "I might be able to make something, but I can't even reach any of them."

  He continued to stare down at the ground, completely and utterly stumped. His sadness returned as he realized that Cindy was almost certainly dead by now. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe deeply, but he started to cry once more. "I'm so sorry," he apologized. "I'm so sorry. I love you," he whispered as he heard footsteps come down the hall.

  Jimmy continued staring down at the ground as Eustace walked back into the room, a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. He walked like a zombie, his eyes glazed over and his face oozing confusion. He stared down at the gun in his hands, stared back at the hallway behind him, and shook his head in disbelief.

  "Did you do it?" Jimmy asked, still looking down, not seeing Eustace's strange appearance.

  "Huh?" Eustace asked.

  Jimmy glanced up, saw the knife and gun in his enemy's hands, and stared back down at the floor. "Did you kill her?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

  Eustace managed to smile slightly and regain his composure. "Oh yes, Jimmy," he began in his villainous voice, "yes I did. Thought I'd run right back and tell you. Do you want to know how I did it?"

  Jimmy started to cry once more, tried to hide this from Eustace, and then realized that that was pointless. "No," he whispered.

  Eustace sat back down on his chair, chewed on his bottom lip for a second, and then continued his speech. "She's a beautiful girl, James. Well, was a beautiful girl. But I'm afraid that that's changed," he said while giving Jimmy a devilish grin. "I doubt even her mother could recognize her now."

  Jimmy decided that he would at least try to go out with some dignity. He knew that no amount of crying could save himself or Cindy, so he met Eustace's stare. "You son of a bitch!" he shouted while lunging forward.

  "Uh, uh, uh," Eustace taunted while placing his knife against Jimmy's throat. "Or I'll do to you what I did to her. I got caught up in the moment, I'm afraid. I shot her, I sliced her, hell, I even diced her," he said while chuckling. "I knelt down next to her body and sliced her guts." He leaned his face as close to Jimmy as he dared. "I'm a sick bastard, ain't I?" he whispered.

  Jimmy exhaled slightly as he felt the cold metal of the knife's blade press against his Adam's apple. His eyes burrowed to the bottom of his sockets and stared down at it. The silver, polished, shiny steel glimmered back up at him, desperately shouting for him to make up for missing all of the clues back on Earth. Finally, Jimmy's eyes widened.

  Jimmy thought of Cindy dying, trying to making himself cry. It wasn't too hard. Go for the bait, Eustace. "You, you cut her?" he moaned, looking up at Eustace with watery eyes.

  Eustace smiled. "Went deeper inside her than you ever would have."

  It took all of Jimmy's self-restraint to not try to strike Eustace just then, but he needed to play this right. "And then you, you," he whimpered while pausing to bite his trembling lower lip, "you came here to tell me? Why? Why would you do that?"

  Eustace leaned back in his seat and began twirling the knife in his left hand. "To torture you one last time before I do this," he said while standing up and slamming the barrel of his revolver into Jimmy's temple. "Any last questions, comments, thoughts?" he insanely asked.

  "Just one," Jimmy sadly said, though he smiled while looking down at the ground. "How come there's no blood on that knife?" he triumphantly asked while looking up and meeting Eustace's eyes.

  Eustace immediately stopped twirling the knife. It took him a moment to realize that Jimmy had caught him in a lie. "What are you talking about?" he asked while cocking the revolver.

  "You said you sliced and diced her, that you cut up her innards. So why is that knife sparkling clean? Where's her blood?" Jimmy demanded.

  Eustace scowled at Jimmy and backed up a step. "I washed it off."

  "You just said you came right here to tell me," Jimmy shouted. "You said you came right here, not that you stopped to wash off her blood and then came here. Where's her blood?" he screamed.

  Suddenly, a thumping was heard on the ceiling above them. Eustace instinctively pointed his gun away from Jimmy up at the ceiling. "Who's up there?" Jimmy asked, his voice growing more and more hopeful. "She's alive, isn't she?"

  Eustace tossed the knife on the ground and steadied his revolver with both hands. He aimed it back at Jimmy's face. "You shut the hell up."

  Jimmy leaned his head back and laughed in relief. "She's alive," he said both to comfort himself and taunt Eustace. "She escaped."

  Eustace slammed the gun into Jimmy's injured jaw, but he was too relieved to feel the pain. "She's going to kill you," Jimmy told him.

  Eustace rapidly changed tactics and backed away from Jimmy once more. "She's smarter than you," he quickly told Jimmy. "She escaped when you didn't. All these years you thought you were the genius, but it's really her!"

  Jimmy happily stared at Eustace and smiled. "You lost, Eustace. You sadistic fool. You lost."

  "I still have the gun!" Eustace reminded Jimmy. "I'm in charge here, I'm in control. Not you, and certainly not your blonde pussy of a girlfriend!"

  "If you're so in charge then why have you resorted to mind games?" Jimmy asked.

  "Shut up or I'll shoot you right now!" Eustace warned while waving the revolver in Jimmy's face.

  "Go ahead," Jimmy dared. "Go ahead and kill me. But you won't. You know that right now, this very minute, Cynthia Aurora 'god bless her soul' Vortex is coming to kill you. You know that she's smart, cunning, and deadly." Eustace's face paled as he listened to Jimmy's words.

  "And you know," he continued, "that if she comes here and finds me dead that she'll kill you a thousand times worse. So go ahead, Beaver boy. Pull the damn trigger. It'd be worth it to for me to know that Cindy will kill you." He gazed confidently into Eustace's eyes. "Do it."

  Eustace met his gaze for several seconds, but then faltered and looked away. "Son of a bitch damn it!" he shouted while pacing around. There was another crashing sound upstairs, and the two boys looked up at the ceiling.

  "Amor Vincit Omnia, eh Eustace?" Jimmy teased while smirking at Eustace.

  Eustace ignored Jimmy's taunting and closed his eyes. What to do, what to do. He aimed his gun at Jimmy once more, saw his enemy's confident smirk, and decided that it might be worth it. "Fuck you, Jimmy," he seethed while taking a step closer and steadying his shaking hands. He aimed the gun at Jimmy's temple and gave a small smile as he saw Jimmy's confident smirk falter.

  The sound of footsteps in the hallway distracted Eustace and he spun around. He aimed his gun at the door just as Cindy slid to a stop in front of it, her gun held out in front of her. "Eustace?" she asked in disbelief. She hesitated for less than a second, completely taken aback by seeing her old enemy, and then raised her gun at him once she saw the tied up Jimmy behind Eustace.

  That second of hesitation was just enough for Eustace to fire his tr
igger. "No!" Jimmy shouted as time seemed to slow down around him. The bullet leaped out of the smoking revolver and shot straight towards Cindy. Cindy had her pistol trained on Eustace and began to pull the trigger.

  The bullet hit Cindy before she could fire her gun. Her eyes widened in shock and pain as blood erupted from the hole in her waist. She stumbled and tripped over her feet, firing her gun well over Eustace's shoulder into the ceiling. She fell backwards farther out into the hallway and slammed into the wall behind her. She tried to scream, but no sound came out of her pursed mouth. She dropped her gun and clutched both hands to the wound in her side. Her eyes drooped closed as she slid down the wall and fell into a crumpled heap on the floor. Eustace and Jimmy stared in disbelief as Cindy's hair fell down over her face, like a coroner's bed sheet.

  Jimmy shook his head, refusing to believe what had just happened. No, no. No, no, no, no, no! She can't be dead. This isn't real. This isn't happening. But as he watched the red stain on her shirt slowly grow, he was forced to face the truth. "You killed her," he whispered. He suddenly realized that tears were streaming down his cheeks and that he was audibly crying. He took his gaze off of his fallen love and glared at Eustace. Suddenly, the tears stopped flowing and he stopped moaning. He had never hated anyone or anything more in his life. "You killed her!" he shouted in anger.

  Eustace's hands were shaking. He looked from Cindy to the gun in his hands. He was surprised to feel a pang of regret. He shoved it aside and faced Jimmy. "Alright, James, where's your clever words now? Where's that fucking smirk? I thought she was going to save you!" he shouted. Jimmy thrashed around in his restraints with new excitement, but they still didn't give.

  "I've had enough of this!" Eustace shouted while strolling over to Jimmy and punching him hard in the nose. A torrent of blood flowed from both nostrils. He slammed his fist into Jimmy several more times, soaking up his pain. He then grabbed Jimmy's shirt and stared into his face as Jimmy's head hung limply from his neck. "Pathetic!" Eustace screeched while tossing his away. Jimmy's head slammed into the pillar that he was tied to, and he nearly passed out.

  "Say goodnight, Neutron," he whispered while placing his revolver against Jimmy's temple. "It's been a wild ride."

  Jimmy, barely conscious, knew that he could fight no longer. He simply closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He made no pleas of mercy, no shouts of anger, as the bang of a gunshot pierced his ears.