He could remember Blue Rome perfectly. The two had been inseparable, nearly since they were born. They had grown up together, playing games together, learning their magic tricks together. They had always competed.

He had memories, could imagine Blue vividly. The way he would sit up on his horse, the way his smile would twist ever so slightly when he challenged him to a race. The way his hood fell in front of his eyes, and his sword hung at his hip. The soft tenor of his voice, how it rolled in soothing waves over him. Everything.

He had to go and ruin it. He had to just go and fall in love. When he told Blue of what he felt, Blue had backed away, giving him a look. He had just stepped into dangerous ground. The next morning Blue Rome had disappeared.

For the past four years, he had searched for Blue. Their fame had faded into legend. It was a ghost of a memory.

The man sitting in front of him was a complete mess. And AIDS patient, he had volunteered to test countless medications. As a result, he could barely even raise a hand. He wondered whether is was worth it to waist a bullet on him.

“So you’re here to find the Blue Rome, eh?” the man said, in a wheezy voice. “I don’t know what makes you think I know anything.”

“You can blame your friend, Pana,” he said, leaning against a table and crossing his arms.

“Somebody saw you kill him, y’know,” the man said, smiling slightly. “This girl ran to the police about it.”

“I know.”

“You go to Venice, you’ll find him. Or rather, what’s left,” the man said. “His rotting body—with bugs crawling out of the holes where his eyes were. That’s all that’s wanted of him anyway.”

He pulled out his revolver in a flash, but hesitated when he heard the weak laughing.

“What’s wrong? Can’t do it? Has the Phantom lost his nerve, after all these years?”

He sneered behind his mask, as a string of drool dripped from the man’s mouth, while the wheezing continued. “Deciding whether it’s worth it to use my last bullet on a dead man.”

The man’s hand was moving, ever so slowly under the tartan blanket on the man’s lap. In a flash he had moved, smashing his cane into the back of the man’s neck, breaking it in an instant with a sickening crunch.

The lingering doubt hung in his mind. Blue had never seemed the kind to head to a place like Venice. With all its waterways and narrow sidewalks, it was very hard to ride a horse around. Let alone the fact that he had grown up on a horse-farm, and had continued to breed the animals even after they had left.

He sighed as he flipped through the bills he found in the man’s roll-top desk. There was nothing to do now, except make it look like a flubbed up robbery, and head toward Venice.

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Notes: Yay! A reveiw!! THANKIES!! I'm such a loser.....

This was a short chapter. I could have added on more, but I wanted to put Venice in a new chapter, and you'll have enough to swallow with that one.