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He sat, leaned against the ladder, legs crossed at the knee, arms folded across his chest, watching and waiting for me to appear at the edge of the clearing. He was by him-self, his goggles pressed against his eyes, blocking out the eye color that still remained a mystery to me.
I saw a faint smile cross his thin lips as I stopped, breathing hard from my run. He stood up. �Ah, Burns, so nice of you to drop by. I was just looking for you, but you weren�t home, so I had to get rid of the unnecessary annoyances.� He laughed with a sigh.
�You son of a bitch!� the words echoed off the trees as I stood back up from lean-ing a bit forward. �Why? Why Joby? Why Dad?! Why? And why Blake?! What the fuck did you kill him for?!�
Slowly, he shook his head and sighed a second time. �Petri Burns, you were close to them weren�t you? Your father, I personally don�t know how one man could be so at-tached to another, but I don�t ever remember being close to any body.� He shrugged and pulled the pistol from his belt. He looked at it, then leveled it on me. �Do you want to join them Burns? Do you want to know their pain and know what I told Blake before he felt the hot metal of my bullet in his forehead? He made no choice to run. Those tears just ran down his face as he closed his eyes and tried to block out my voice�not that he could.� He took a deep breath and a halfway sigh. �Life can be short and sweet to the people who don�t know, but you do! I can tell by the look on your face you know the true horrors of life that lives in the minds of the searching! Now what, who knows? And the reason, you na�ve little boy, is because I let you live. I let you live so you could see the turmoil I brought when I was created. A scared six year old child, surrounded by a group of men you don�t know, scalpel in hand!� he paused and stood to his full height. Shoul-ders back, fist clenched. �I am their creation! A masterpiece in the form of a seventeen year old assassin killer! And now I will kill you. Now that I�ve let you see how horrible life can be, I have only one thing left to do�� I knew he had to of lowered his gaze into a deadly stare. ��that is, to kill you.�
I couldn�t think of anything to say. He knew! Jene knew! Was Jene really this mean if you put a gun in his hands?! I heard him cock the hammer back on the pistol, but my eyes never left him. I had never been scared of Bronze and even now, as I stood in the face of death, I wasn�t afraid of him. It was just him and me. Me and him. And we both knew only one would come out of this alive. I hard him laugh.
�Good bye Petri Burns.�
I slammed my eye shut and heard the click of the hammer as it snapped back. Did the damn thing misfire? Or was it empty? But he only fired six shots that I knew of. How many people had he killed?! And what about his other pistol?! Opening my eyes, I saw him still standing there, he never moved and his goggles were now on his forehead. The sun had gone away I realized.
�Scared ya didn�t I?� he let his grip on the pistol loosen and it swung on his fin-ger. �If I killed you like that you would never truly know or learn this lessen. To kill you straight out Burns would be too easy. Besides, that�s what you want now isn�t it? I can tell. You want to die, don�t you? To join the rest of them?!� his eyebrows lowered once more, closer to his eyes and he shut his mouth into a straight line.
I only saw him take one step to close the distance between us, but the next thing I knew I landed hard on my ass and my right shoulder was killing me from where he had just kicked me. For a fleeting moment I thought about when John shot me three years ago. He placed his foot back on the ground and looked down at me.
�You�re pathetic. A simple kick and it�s over. One simple kick. Did you even see me Burns? Come on,� he raised his voice to an almost yell. �Don�t you got any type of fighting spirit left or are you just content to die at my hands with out a bloody word of counter?! Huh?! Would you have been like this if they were still alive?! For some reason I don�t think so. I think, I really do, that if you had people to go back to, you�d have no problem getting to your feet and fighting me!�
I drew a blank. I honestly didn�t know how to react to that. He was right. The damn guy was right!
�Did I strike a nerve? Burns, I kicked you in the shoulder! Get up. This isn�t over yet!�
I shifted and got to one knee. �Seid�, if all you want to do is kill me, why don�t you? Why play?�
He grabbed my shirt collar and pulled me to my feet. His eyes were dark and cold, almost inhuman. �Because I like you. If I killed you the game would be over. And I want you to die like the true warrior you�ve become Petri Burns. I want you to die knowing you gave it all you had and you didn�t give up.�
He pushed me back and let go of my shirt. I stumbled back a few paces and once I caught myself, I snapped my head up to look at him. Did he mean the words he said or was he playing with me? My first plan just shot out the window like a rocket. I still planned to kill him, but now I wasn�t sure how I was going to do it.
Were all of them the same? Jene was the same way. He was completely focused on something, like Seid� on killing me, but like Jene, Bronze also took into consideration the limits of the other person around him. That�s what he had been doing! That had to be! He didn�t kill me when he first met me because he saw the determination in my eyes, so he set out to make sure I reached that point! Even if it meant killing every one I had grown to love before he killed me. That was his plan. For the last three years, he had been training me for this day. For the day we would finally have to fight each other.
�Tell me,� he cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms. �What�s running through your mind? Tell me why you don�t strike me when I know you want the sweet taste of revenge so badly. You�ve been bent on killing me for so long haven�t you? But why? Was it a form of protection? Or were you just playing big brother to Joby? I really hated to kill him, but I had to start somewhere.�
How much did he know? Every word, every phrase he spoke seemed to hit a nerve of some form of truth. I couldn�t believe he knew so much about me! But� �How?�
�What? How? I pulled the trigger. That�s how.� He paused. �Oh, you mean how I know so much about you? Ah,� he laughed. �I watched you Petri Burns. Since day one. I�ve been keeping an eye on you since I first saw you all that time ago when I killed those men at the school.�
My eyes widened. He spoke so calmly and he�d been watching me for three years. No wonder he knew so much! He�d been studying me for years!
�Don�t tell me you didn�t know that? I�ve given you too much credit then.� He sighed, rather annoyed. �Man,� he shook his head. �Forget it.� He turned and walked away, towards the woods.
�Hey! Where are you going?�
He looked over his shoulder at me. A smile crossing his lips. �Come find me when you�re ready to fight me Burns. Until then, I�ll be waiting.� He waved and walked into the woods to disappear.
I blinked. Me find him?! I fell to my knees again as I watched him walk deeper into the darkness. This guy was really starting to piss me off! Me find him?! Find him where?! He roamed about wherever he wanted and I had five bodies to bury. It was gonna be along afternoon I could see it.