#hands*

Vigilante scanned the warehouse with exhausted, burning eyes. His sword drooped to the floor and then clattered to the stone with a rolling echo. 

He’d found Villain. His stomach churned. 

It took a moment later for his clouded mind to register the glinting weapons. 

Warning signals went off in his mind. 

Its a trap. 

Trap. 

He ignored them all. 

He was already running to Villain, the world tilting underneath him. Tilting and spinning. 

Villain gave a muffled cry, the sound choked by the cloth gag. Chains were looped around his wrists and ankles, keeping him on his knees. 

Villain. 

Vigilante crashed into the stone beside him. There was brown-crimson blood matted into his hair and one eye swollen shut, tear tracks cutting through the dirt on his face. 

“Villain?” Vigilante’s hands were shaking as he grabbed his once-friend’s head, eyes catching on the gash in Villain’s forehead. With a sharp twist, he ripped the gag out of Villain’s mouth.

Villain groaned, trying and failing to get words to form properly, but before anything could be said, Vigilante pulled him close.

Villain stiffened– like the touch was a red-hot poker. Then he relaxed. The embrace was one that promised protection. Safety. An end to the nightmares.  A sob built up in his throat. 

Everything was going to be alright. And then Villain caught a glimpse of a shadow forming behind Vigilante. 

He cried out, panicked, and Vigilante whirled around in time to see the rise and fall of the blade. 

Vigilante crumpled.

The shadow shoved the blade in deeper. It had gone through Vigilante’s throat, blood spurting in violent directions. Most of it was on Villain. 

Villain didn’t scream. He paled to the color of bone, bending over Vigilante and whispering his name over and over again at a frantic, mind-numbing pace. 

The shadow crouched down. Smiled at Villain. With a corpse’s hand, they ripped the blade out of Vigilante’s throat. 

This time, when hot blood splashed Villain, he screamed. Again and again and again. With an open mouth and cracked lips, the screams bleeding out of him. 

Vigilante wheezed, crimson staining his teeth, and went limp. 

Villain stiffened. At first, there was denial. “No, no no no–” 

The shadow laughed. They walked behind Villain and bent over to study the body. With slow, exaggerated movements, they wiped the scarlet-dripping blade on Villain’s shirt collar. The red smeared. “He’s dead-dead. Say your goodbye.” 

A noise crawled out of Villain’s throat. A noise like that of a trapped animal. A creature, howling through the bars of its cage. Inhuman and raw. He doubled over his once-friend’s hollow body, pressing his forehead against Vigilante’s. 

“No, no, no, no–please no–”  

He sobbed. 

Denial first, now nothing.