Once Upon A Midnight Dreary

• David Belcher, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2011

I peered my head around the corner and looked out at the empty city covered in a void of darkness. I strained my eyes to separate my target from the pitch of night and spotted a solitary figure slowing winding it's way though the metropolitan maze.
I held the rifle easily in my hands, I felt my own breathing as my chest butted up against the barrel. I pulled a small silencer out of my flat, army-issue backpack. Screwing it on without a sound I kept my eye on my target. When I was finished priming my weapon I snuck out like a wisp of smoke. I hid behind another building and continued the process of sneak and hide until I was close enough to take a shot. I aimed down my scope. I found my target and was loaded for a headshot.
My finger was pulling the trigger. I felt the recoil, amplified by the silencer, push my chest back. I recovered quickly and expected to see a body but instead saw my target standing there, hands raised, holding two pistols, one in each hand. Did I miss? I aimed perfectly. He couldn't have dodged, it could he? Maybe I underestimated my target. All this was going though my mind as I aimed for a second shot. At the body this time. No reason to take a chance.
Again I felt the recoil and again I saw that he was unscathed. I switched my weapon to fully automatic and frantically started to fire bullet after bullet at his large frame, I was sure that one would hit. The spray of lethal twisted metal was no more effective than the single shot. He still stood there wielding a pistol in each hand.
I started to run and I knew I was being following. I fired sporadically behind me, I knew It would not harm him but it might slow him down. I discarded my weapon when I was left dry and burst my way though an apartment block door. I bolted up the stairs and made my way through the residential labyrinth. I found my way to the roof.
I had slowed him down enough by the winding of the corridors to hide behind the door so I could surprise him when he came out. He kicked down the door and walked on the roof. I silently came up behind him, grabbed both of his pistols from his hands and used the butt of one on the back of his head. He barely reacted to the blow, sharply turned around to face me and raised his hands to fight.
His blows were fierce and painful to block. He didn't feign and he never faltered. I felt myself become weaker and weaker. I couldn't hold much longer, he was too strong. I knew I would either kill him now or lose my life forever. He used his left hand to aim for my exposed chest and in doing so he fell for my trap. I grabbed his arm with both my hands and hurled him sixteen stories to the ground. I was tired and I wanted to rest. The pain in my chest was unbearable but I knew I had to confirm the kill.
Picking up the two pistols dropped in the fight I descended to the ground floor and went out on the street to examine the body. When I found him I heard small breathing. I held one of the pistols to his head and fired. This time the bullet hit. The last whispers of air left his lungs and just as he died the whole world changed. The sky lit up like a sun breaking the dawn. The empty streets slowly filled with people and the dead trees on the walkways sprung into life. I looked around at this new world but only I got a glimpse before it began to fade. Darkness surrounded my vision and I drifted into a deep sleep. I woke with a start.
I was surround by doctors and a very happy patient. I knew few of the doctors but the patient I knew very well. I knew not how I came here or what I was being treated for so the doctors filled me in. As it turns out I was treating a patent, a friend. He had gone mad and I reached into the deep recesses of his mind and destroyed the other part of him. Another personality if you will. I was rather happy with my work and my dedication to my friend and I went home to rest. I fell on the bed on a daze and directly fell asleep.
I peered my head around the corner and looked out at the empty city covered in a void of darkness. I strained my eyes to separate my target from the pitch of night and spotted a figure slowing winding it's way though the metropolitan maze. I stopped. Somehow I felt incomplete. I felt like a failure. Like I was a experiment gone wrong. I knew there was something I was forgetting. I shook off those feelings and continued to hunt my prey, raising my rifle to fire.