A four-foot long, two-foot wide cone of dead air in front of the hostage turned into a rainstorm of blood mist. The man reloading the crossbow was flecked with tiny, fine droplets of red, and felt a burning sensation in his chest. He felt weakly at his wet shirt and then realized, with the horror only a dying man can feel, that he was lungshot. His chest bubbled with warm, foaming blood, and his lungs fought for air against the blood and the cloth. He fell to his knees, and stared Church in his eyes as he severed his gutshot lover's carotid.
Church patted at his coat as the man fell, spraying and leaking blood, and extinguished the small fire he'd started in his clothes. He took in the scene around him. Two men were dead or dying in front of him. He turned about, getting back his breath. Sound came back.
"OH GODS!"
"He.. Killed them!"
The man he'd broken the ribs of was, slowly, inching across the floor like a centipede, yelling for help. Church pulled out his second pistol and shot him in the back of the head.
More screaming. Ears ringing.
The first assailant had fallen on his knife. He leaked blood from the mouth. Church crouched next to him on the blood-soaked hardwood.
"V-vive Mortani.. We will win.."
Church placed the tip of his knife at the nape of the man's neck and waited for him to finish his message. It was the least he could do.
He hushed quietly to the man as he forced the knife in. Devoid of his pistols, it was the most painless route he could take. The man seized a bit at first, and Church felt the bucking of muscles and flow of blood and spinal fluid through the knife's grip, and closed his eyes. It was quick, and would have felt like an innoculation.
Church rose, and turned about to the barkeep, who stood, mouth agape, still polishing a glass. He panted for a few seconds, then spoke, his voice scratchy.
"Call for the Guard. Tell them there's been an assault."
-E-
07-Nov-2015 05:15:19
- Last edited on
07-Nov-2015 06:21:23
by
Ben Aristad