So. We Meet. Again.

I've been eagerly awaiting and dreading this meeting for a long time. I have met and fought this filth many times before, but never have I defeated him utterly. I have won some, but lost more in the past.

This time something is different than all the rest. I pat my coat pocket and smile, knowing that this time, this time, it will be different. I walk down a shadowy alley, peppered with old newspapers and other garbage. I stop before an unmarked door, lit by a feeble and yellow old bulb. I pat my jacket with a knowing smile and grab the knob.

As I step through the doorway I can feel his presence in my chest. It's a cold and tight feeling I know all too well. It fits me like a second skin. It is familiar to me. It feels like home. Simply knowing he is there can never hurt me. I have been here before.

I move towards a table set in the middle of the room. It is dimly lit by a desk lamp which does nothing to illuminate the smoky corners of the room. He is there. He offers me a chair with a nod of his head, never taking his eyes off of mine. I take the offered seat. We both know full well that I am here by my own wishes. There he is, sitting across from me, green eyes flaring with a smile spread across his bronze face. Our eyes lock, his Greeneyes and my green eyes. He crosses his legs and leans back, "A pleasure to see you again old friend". "The pleasure is all yours, old pal" I say, with scorn and derision in my voice.

I size him up. He's gotten bigger since our last meeting, yet the lines around his eyes and on his perfectly tanned face bespeak a weariness I have never seen in him before. He knows I am stronger now than any time we have ever met in the past. My scars are my armor and my wits are as swords If he thinks I will lose this time he is sadly mistaken. He may know I fight dirty, but I have one thing that he's never encountered in me before. I lean forward and open my jacket. He sees a light shining from the depths of the tan folds that drains the color from his face. He stammers "H-h-how d-did you get that?" I smile and reply "I found it, she helped me find it. It was in me and I gave it to her and now I have it." "You never had that any time we've met before" he says through a clenched jaw. I can tell that he's unsettled by what I have. It is his anathema and we both know it.

With a bestial snarl he leaps across the table, coattails flying behind him, knocking ashtrays and papers everywhere. As he lands upon me I grab him with one arm, pivot and slam him to the floor, sending splinters of wood rocketing upward. He vomits blood upon my coat as I grind him in to the floor. I grin at him as I feel his bones pulp between my fingers. The light from my jacket illuminates the room and the writhing forms beneath. Without warning the light flickers and streams of sickly green and red light began to leak forth. The strength began to ebb from my grip and he started to rise with my hand still deep inside his crumpled chest. I roar defiance at this most unfortunate turn of events. He lifts me high above his broken frame, both arms outstretched and head thrown back as if offering me up to the gods themselves.

He lets out a maniacal laugh through broken teeth and shattered jaw. As he hurls me to the ground, a beacon of diseased light in a miasma of blood and gore, the light suddenly explodes into blinding golden glory bathing the room with warmth that wracks him in agony. He screams. It is a low keening that rises in pitch until it becomes inaudible. The shaking of his body increases in intensity and he rises off of the floor to hang, convulsing in mid-air. With every twitch of his limbs a tearing sound can be heard until, finally, he explodes into a cloud of mist and small chunks. As the mist settles around my form, the golden light fades back to a small glow. I turn my head up and feel his blood rain down on my face and I laugh, deep and hearty. After all these years, it is I who beat HIM. I breathe a sigh of relief and turn to the door. As I walk towards the door a tiny streamer of red and green drifts out of my jacket and dissipates in the air. After the door closes the pieces of him start pulling themselves back together. I walk out the door whistling a happy tune, smiling all the time knowing that I saw the light flicker red and green and that he didn't see me see him start to pull himself back together again.  I beat him once, it will never be as difficult again as it was now.  I have his measure.

As I walk out into the new sunrise, she runs by and slits my throat with a knife. Who knew one I fought for was the one who'd do me in? I watch my life soak into the dirt on the pavement and see a pair of converse all-stars, skip away and I laugh, "In the end it was all for nothing, but at least we had the moment."