King of the Shadows

“Even shadows die sometime”, Gabe thought, “when the sky is moonless, void of light - they die”. He snuffed out his cigarette and then chided himself for indulging in his apparent desire to be a 16 yr old goth kid. There was a task at hand, and this was no time for philosophizing, - if you could call it that. Or was it? Death had always brought out his inner Socrates, Kant or Nietzsche.

He hefted the gun in his hand, relishing the weight, the power inherent within. How many times had he used this thing? “Maybe we become the shadows when we die.” If that was so, it wasn’t much of a change of existence for the people he had “taken care of”. People living on the edge of true existence - they were there, visible, but were rarely noticed until night came, and were suddenly transformed into instruments of fear, making their true forms known and causing havoc with others. During daytime they retreated to dark crevices, or were largely ignored by the population, used to seeing them day in and day out.

If that were true, what would happen to him when he died? If he became a shadow too, these people, monsters, could torture him for making them that way. Or he could be relegated to king, out of gratitude for liberating them, freeing them from the shackles of a corporeal body. King of the Shadows. He knew about enslavement himself, but that would all change in a matter of moments. Tonight he was freeing himself from his damned life.

Gabe put his gun against the right temple. The sensation took him back to the beginning of this whole - mess. The flood of emotions - the fear, the hatred, the overwhelming melancholy - made his hand shake, and he lowered the gun, afraid if he took a shot now, he’d miss, and damn himself further.

He took a breath, and resumed the gun’s position. He had to take control of his life now, and this was the only way he saw possible.


He closed his eyes, and braced himself as he pulled the trigger.



The light was blinding, but as Gabe wiped the blood from his hands, he felt he was finally free from his life as a hit man, and free from living in the dark, the world of shadows - for now.

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Ok - sorry if this was a bad and self-indulgent post - it's just the only thing I could think of. I'm not going to be back on a regular schedule until next week, and hopefully then they'll be better. At least I posted on the day I was supposed to this time.