The Dead and the Damned

  Mashing her cigarette into the cheap plastic ashtray she’d stolen from Captain Jack’s pirate and punk bar, she shuttered as she exhaled, a ghost against the impassive moonlight. She leaned her head against the window, open just a crack to let the cigarette smoke out, and thought about the last few months, chuckling humorlessly about how quickly everything can go wrong. She stared out over the sprawling monster that was this city and imagined all the other souls wandering or sitting by themselves, feeling so alone that the ache in their souls bled into their hearts, making their chest constrict in a thousand little pinching pains that made them shudder with the detoxing spasms that is love leaving your life forever.           She wondered where Fox was drowning his haunted memories tonight, wondering if he still blamed himself. Of course he blamed himself, that’s just who he was. He felt it was his job to keep the people around hi...

  Conrad awoke to the walls shaking. Alarms came on immediately following. Hands instinctively grabbed pistol and bowie knife as he ran for the door to his cell. Emergency lights were on in the hallway. Power had gone out. Conrad hoped this was false alarm. No one attacks Tintagel. Then he heard the crash in the main room. He came running to the door. There was a blood smear on the security pad. He slipped on a glove and pressed in the code. He opened the door and stood to the side, pistol at the ready. He peered cautiously over the side and saw Paul wrestling with a man in all black. As he turned to head inside, he heard quiet footsteps rushing toward him. Conrad turned to see the black blur headed toward him. He lifted his knee into the man's chest and brought a bone shattering elbow across his jaw. A second elbow to the side of the head sent the man to the ground. The second assailant was immediately behind the first. A flying knee caught Conrad square in the chest. ...