Hands are red with your blame

Megaphone screaming my name

Whimpers someone I should've loved

Souls weeping above

Micro Cuts

Marc

Work had been tiring. There was a new saving deal on the market and everyone seemed to have rushed to get it - making my day hell. All I wanted to do was to get home, cuddle on the couch and watch a movie.

Walking up the stairs to our apartment had never seemed to take so long. I played with the keys on my right hand while my helmet hanged on the left one.

The house was dark and it smelled like baked cookies.

“Gui?” I asked, not knowing if I should be afraid or if I should expect some kind of surprise.

As my eyes adapted themselves to the low light I heard a relieve sigh. Gui was sitting on the couch, arms around his knees.

“What happened?” I turned the lights on, left the helmet and the keys on the table and sat next to him.

“I...” He seemed scared. What had happened? “I... Detective Angelic was here... And I was baking her some cookies.”

That would explain the smell.

“But I was in a hurry, and I got clumsy.” Don’t you always? “And I hit the cookie jar...”

He did what? “The cookie jar?” I got up and looked for it on the counter. It wasn’t there. “Fuck.”

“Marc?” Gui asked, his voice trembling.

“The cookie jar, what happened to it?” Fuck. Where was it? Fuck.

“It broke...” It what?! “And inside it..”

No need to say more. I knew what was inside it. Fuck.

I held his hands between mine, not able to look him in the eyes. I was so angry with myself. Why hadn’t I thought of this? Why? “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Marc!” He was too scared, I had to tell him something. I had to grow some nerve and tell him everything...

“I’m so sorry, Gui...”

“What? I broke the cookie jar... you couldn’t have known-”

“I should have known!” I should have known that taking that job was insane.

“You couldn’t have...” Gui seemed almost sorry for me.

“It’s all my fault, Guillaume...” I sighed. “We have to have a talk...”

His eyes seemed huge and questioning. Where should I start?

“My family... they didn’t get all their money from stock.” I took a deep breath. I could do this. “My great-grandfather was arrested by mistake when he was only twenty-five. He was in for twenty years. When he got out he wanted revenge. He had heard everything about killers, murderers, assassins. He knew who they were and what they did. He had also learned about all those crimes that everyone knew about but no one had taken the blame for it. He was going to take justice to his own hands.

“So he became an assassin. He killed only those who deserved it - and he did it in a fast and painless way. He was only making justice.”

Gui didn’t say anything. I looked into his eyes, trying to understand what was going on in his head, but how could I read him when he was probably just confused?

“So when my grandfather and his brothers were born, they were taught about justice and how to take matters to your own hands. But they were different from their father - they were smarter. They knew that they couldn’t find everyone who had escaped justice if they just sat around and waited. So they became professional assassins.

“They made a lot of money from it and swore never to let anyone outside the family know what they did. They’d never give themselves up and if they were caught they promised not to give anyone else up.”

“Is your father an assassin too?” Gui asked. He had understood.

“Yes. It has become a family tradition - we make justice.”

“So... Is your sister... And you...?”

I sighed heavily. “Yes.”

“You’re an assassin?”

“Yes...”

“You’re a murderer...?” His voice was low, there wasn’t anger in his voice, nor disgust, just disappointment.

“Yes...”

He looked up into my eyes. “Why?”

“I never knew different. It’s something normal for my family, we don’t even have to wonder about it. There is no choice.”

“And the knife?”

“I got a call a couple of weeks ago. From a lady whose name I didn’t want to get, but who held an old grudge against Florentin-Louis. They had been classmates in college, and the bastard almost killed her and her girlfriend because they were lesbians. The lady is in a wheelchair now. I had to do something about it.”

“The lady... The woman that came to give the evaluate Il était une fois... She was on a wheelchair. And she got really mad when she talked to Florentin-Louis.”

“That was the day I got the call” I agreed.

“I see.”

So he understood. I sighed.

“I’m sorry. It was foolish of me to take a job so close to you. I had been told, I had been taught, never to do anything stupid because, once you do, there is no way back.”

“What are we going to do now?”

Who-oo cares for the life we've earned?

Someone's saved all the truth you've earned

Remember when we used to shine?

And had no fear? Or sense of time?

(It creeps up on you)

You can't cry now

There's nothing to feel

No-one's noticed our loneliness

Remember when you used to tease?

And make us scream eternal joys

We believed that you'll always be here

'Cause once you promised a life with no fear

Please don't break my ideals

And say what's fake was always real

Hope was the one, now I'm gone

Take us back again.

“We?” I scoffed. Was he serious? “Gui...?”

“We’re married, remember? Together. Forever. No matter what. We vowed to that, and I’m going to stick to my vows.”

I gave him a faint smile.

“I screwed up, I have to clean up my own mess.”

“And how do you intend to do that?”

“I... I don’t know.” I took a long deep breath. “I think I have to give myself in.”

“You what?!” Gui’s eyes were wide opened, staring so deeply into me I had to look away. “You’re crazy if you think I’m letting you give yourself in!”

“But I’m the real murderer, remember? And they’re blaming you for it!” I started to think he was the crazy one. I had to give myself in to save him...

To save him.

To save him from what? From being arrested for a murderer he hadn’t committed? From me?

“Do you think my life would be any better here without you than in prison?” He reached for my face, making me look at him. “I need you.” I tried to look away again, but his grip got stronger. “I can’t live without you.”

“Of course you can...” I whispered. I knew I was lying. I knew we needed each other to survive. But what else could I say?

“I have no family, Marc. No family and little friends, who surely won’t stay when they learn who I am married to. Marc, you’re all that I have.”

And he was all that I had. Still, I had to do something. There really was only one way out. I put my arms around him, holding him close. I breathed in, trying to memorize exactly how he felt and smelled.

“Can we talk about this in the morning?” I asked before letting go. He nodded.

I let him fall asleep without making a sound. I just wanted to watch him.

The house was silent and dark, the only lights coming for the outside. Everything was so peaceful. I wish I could have stopped the time and live in that moment forever. Just the two of us in our peaceful and silent home.

I got up slowly and wrote him a short note. I couldn’t do anything else. He wouldn’t let me give myself in, and I wouldn’t let him take the blame for something I had done. He had to be safe. I had to protect him.

He moved as I sat back next to him. For a moment I let myself just stare at him, at the way the street lights reflected on his skin and hair, the way he cuddled to the teddy-bear I had given him. I hoped he knew how much it had hurt me, how much strength it had taken me to do it.

I kissed his parted lips softly.

“I love you.”

I left the house in the dark night and headed downtown.

A/N: One chapter left. Weee. I’ve been promising to finish this forever, but something always seems to get in the way. I warned everyone about the ending, so don’t try to kill me, please *-*

I’ll try to write the last chapter until the end of the month. No more promises.