Blurred Lines

Part One

Andy's POV

"I think you forget we're supposed to be the good guys", my mentor groaned, dragging a slightly mutilated corpse away from my feet.

I shifted, dragging my foot through a puddle of blood I had left. I debated a witty response, but realized I liked my ability to move after training, "I'm sorry. He was in my way."

I immediately regretted my excuse, "Andrew. Do I look like I care about him being 'in the way'?"

I shook my head, and started helping move the two bodies left. This was the third time this month things hadn't gone as planned. And we were only two weeks into the month. We lived in a crime infested city, where things got so bad, a vigilante was the same as a common crook. Which made our job a thousand times harder. It was the reason I was forced to be out here at four in the morning, sweeping up a mess made trying to stop these criminals. My mentor, Ash, as he had me call him, was determined on nightly patrols. If we didn't stop some crime every night, we were failing our 'job'. Although if this warehouse drug deal was any indication, we were having trouble. Not only was finding a crime hard, killing the people also happened too much. Murder wasn't too much of an issue for me, until the cops came and knew if we weren't the killers, we also weren't preventing it. I slumped against a box after we had gotten rid of what had happened here tonight. Ash was wandering the room checking his work. The furniture containers were intact. The concrete floors a dull gray, and could've been clean were it not for the dust and wood shavings. No bullet holes remained in the wall. Just sad dents, reminding the world of the building's age. No drug auctions were here tonight. No shouting and bullets ringing out in the night, no matter what nearby residents said. A bit of hair bleach and wall plaster would make this just another night.

Satisfied he stopped, and looked at me. I met his brown eyes, and in this light, an undertone of honey could almost be seen. But his eyes now were anything but sweet.He was hardly four years older than my nineteen, but he looked a thousand times more mature. He also looked like he wanted to kill me. I noticed a feral look in his eyes, and edged away from him, finding an object that could be used for sparring.

  He ran at me, and we began fighting. He swung a light metal rod at my head, and I barely ducked under it. He often got like this after I killed someone. He wanted to punish me. To prove a point. That it should never have gotten as easy as it was to take another's life. I would try to hold up against him, but after him going at me for so long, he'd overpower me, and I'd end up passing out. I swung at him, realizing all I had grabbed was a thick wooden plank and hitting Ash with it would cause more damage than what he would do to me.

   I purposely missed, so I could drop it and look for another thing to use against him. I felt a sharp sting, as he hit right under my ribs. I found another metal rod, near identical to the one he had, and raised it as he swung. The metal connected with a crack, and I stumbled back trying to gain more room. He was on me as soon as I thought I had gained more space. He swung repeatedly, and I barely was able to block his oncoming attacks.

  He seemed worse than usual. I debated giving in right now. Usually we fought a little lighter, he let me think there was some hope in winning before he crushed my dreams, or my nose. Today he was more intense. I pushed on, hoping to wear him out, but I found myself growing more and more tired, and felt the rod collide with various parts of my body, sending sparks of agony all around.

  After some time, he dropped the rod, and used his fists instead. Guess he didn't need to break anything too major. Ash already knew he had won, even after dropping the rod. He was faster, stronger, and more determined than I was. He kept throwing punches, and I couldn't keep up. I threw my hands up hoping he's accept my surrender. His fist connected with my jaw, and I felt the world fade out from me as I hit the ground.