The Dying Rain | ✔

4.

"we all think we're heroes, trying to protect someone."

The storm never came.

It never rained. Alessandro Lykaios wanted to feel the same thunder he had felt 34 years ago, the same thunder which brought him the news of his dead father. Unfortunately, he wouldn't fall sick of pneumonia again or cry himself to sleep in a tiny cell anymore.

He had lived for so long feeding on emotions, craving for feelings. The numbness in his heart had become an acquaintance now. What does it feel like to lose? Something? Someone?

The only sense of family he ever had was the family of Melanthios Chaconas. The ugly stares, the baffled looks, that was his family now. The ones he served for, for over 30 years now.

He hadn't felt pain in so long, so he killed. He killed for the high, to eat on fear. 

Mankind is strange, they walk around this earth like its their birth right, like death would never touch them. However, when it does they plead for its mercy, for life, like they had done anything worthy with it in the first place.

A strange unsettled feeling slithered into Lykaios' heart, he ruffled the grass beside him as he sat at the end of the cliff with his legs hanging over the magnificent ocean, untouched by its waves. He turned his face towards the night sky and inhaled deeply. 

Maximus who was sitting at a safe distance from the cliff, rubbed his palms together to generate heat. "Look at the sky, it's so strange isn't it?"

Lykaios emerged from his thoughts and looked back. "What about it?"

Crouching on his feet, Maximus craned his neck skywards, as if he was looking at a giant mountain, "Like it's trying to say something, like it's in a hurry."

Lykaios followed his gaze towards a sky filled with glistening stars, "Indeed, he's trying to show off how high up he is above all of us," he shrugged.

"He? You think something so grand could be a he?" 

"Everything grand is a he."

Both of them grew quieter, Lykaios knew Maximus wouldn't argue back. He didn't like the topic of gender criticism. Pathetic.

Something about Vietnam was so unsettling that Lykaios had to stay another night. It would not be long after he's on his next victim, away from the city of his bad dreams. 

What is this strange warmth?  A fresh breeze caressed his face, threading through his long locks and his thin white t-shirt. 

The aura around him changed abruptly, he felt a strange type of connection deep within the arteries of his heart. 

Now, he had seen it. 

"Uh...Doc?" 

So, it's true then. Maximus has seen it too, why didn't he alert him before?

Lykaios slowly moved his right hand to reach for his spare gun, he always had it for close combat. He didn't move quickly, whoever had managed to come and sit beside him, he formulated, must be fast. 

He clutched the revolver in his pocket, patience Alessandro.

"You know, I always wanted to die in a red chiffon dress." a feminine voice, clearly young, broke the silence of that almost pleasant night at the cliff.

 Lykaios grew skeptical, who is she? did she follow me here?  But that was one of his least concerns. The lady must be quick, fast like a cheetah. How did Alessandro not notice?