Promise me you’ll be there...
He had promised.
But he hadn’t been there. The event had never gone ahead.
As they were dead long before that.
Promise me you’ll try...
He had tried.
He had tried so damned hard.
Fingers dragging through filth and dust, broken brick and debris until he hit something vaguely human.
He found them eventually, as crushed and dead as the rest of the manor.
Then he’d given up everything he had left, to their memories, to their vengeance... To see their faces and hear their laughter again.
Promise me you’ll join us...
He had finished,
his mind and body were ready...
The loud clanging and explosions rebounded below, his doing. His task complete. Hopefully, the hypocrites would be dead or too injured before they even considered looking to find his body.
His bare fingers brushed against their wedding rings, his phone in one hand and gun in another.
He would listen to her soothing voice one last time before deleting it.
He cocked his gun, stared down the barrel, he was ready.
He would join them soon.
This was not Heaven, nor was it Hell, not that he believed in the ideals he was brought up with. He was not dead, there was no peace... His suffering was to continue in life, not death.
He wouldn’t see their faces. Not yet.
He roughly knew how he got here: the Black Panther. A scorned man, a Fatherless child. Forced to be a Leader now his King was gone.
Much like himself now, he supposed.
He was dragged into room after room, people questioned or they taunted, he was quiet. He was numb... He did not care. But slowly the items he had wanted on him in death were taken away. He was divested of his weapons first. An embossed blade from Oeznik found at his belt. His gun had been removed long before.
His pockets were overturned, the photo he always kept close to his heart was taken, the colours dulled and edges bent but it was still clear to him, the smiling face of his wife with their baby boy in her arms.
The small box with a lock of Carl’s hair was next, the dusty grey-blonde he had cut from his corpse... The guards eyed him suspiciously, mockingly.
He refused to show anything in his features, not the grief he felt as the items were stripped from him.
Next was his rings, first his Father’s signet ring, the styled Z inlaid with purple jewels. Always ostentatious, was Father...
It was removed and placed into a bag with many other of his belongings.
His wedding ring came next, worn gold and simplistic. Something he could wear under his gloves. Easily removable if needed for his time with EKO and the Military.
Then came hers... It had fit on his smallest finger so he had worn it since he found her... The gold and silver band was as luscious as the day he had given it to her. Perfectly kept, like she had been.
His clothes come next, though rough treatment was given as he wasn’t fast enough. Soon he was naked before them and then one guard pointed at his neck.
Oh... He had forgotten.
A pendent, fragile and light... A gift from her. It was rather feminine but she had said he needed something to soften the edges. To brighten his smile. He wore it when he could, it nearly always hidden beneath his clothes, as if it was one with his own skin.
It was the last thing he had left. Minus the memories...
Giving this up meant it was over and he would not seen them for a long time. They would take his last teether to the past.
He shook his head minutely, hand closing around the small charm. He couldn't-wouldn’t give this up.
The numbness and indifference from before had fled. Now his stubborn streak and even fear had taken root in their absence.
He refused and braced himself.
One man advanced on him, making to grab him.
He jumped out the way. Prepared for a fight.
They were saying something, shouting-commanding, but he heard no words and they were not his superiors. He listened not.
All he knew was his teether to them was going to be ripped from him. He was to be cut loose so he would drift alone... He would not let anyone take it from him.
A fight ensued, more guards were called. He fought, tooth and nail, blood stained his fingers and iron filled his mouth...
Yet, for all his training, he was overwhelmed, was pushed hard into the unforgiving floor.
A nameless, faceless man reached down, and pulled it from his neck, the chain broke and with it the illusion of ever seeing them again. Reality lay heavily upon him, as bruising as the knee pinning him to the ground, as secure as the solid hands wrenching his arms so he could not move. No escape, he could not be with them yet.
He had broken every promise.
The charm was shoved into the bag with his rings and the items were removed from sight. They had taken everything he had.
Everything but memories.
And one day they to would fade and be taken from him... The brain was as fallible as everything else. One day there would be nothing...
The tears that had fled from his eyes the day he found them threatened to return, but he stayed silent and willed the numbness to take him once again.
It did not...
That to was taken from him.
Promise me you’ll be there...
He could not.
He never could.