The rancid smell of death tears at his eyes, and he tightly clutches at the handkerchief, firmly pressing it against his nose and mouth.
A radio comes to life with a screech, “Bannister, answer me god damn it!”
He raises the mouthpiece to his dry, pale lips, “I found her.”
“You what?”
“I said I fucking found her,” he replies as he rushes out of the room and empties the contents of his stomach onto the floor.
“Is she?”
“Yeah, she’s dead, looks like she’s been like it for weeks, probably the whole time we’ve been looking for her.”
“Do you want to give us…..” the radio goes dead, he stares at it for a few moments, waiting for them to continue, but nothing.
“Sharon, everything okay?” he says into his mouthpiece, he waits for a reply, but it’s only silence that follows. “Sharon? what the fucks happening?”
“Hello Charles,” a voice says over the radio.
“Xander?”
“I’m touched you remember my voice, it’s been a while.”
“You’re the one behind all this?”
“You seem surprised, surly all the little clues I’d left for you were descriptive enough for you to know it was me. Or, did I expect too much?”
“I had an idea, but I was hoping it was wrong, you better not have hurt her!”
“Or what? You’ll make me pay? She’s alive, for now, but I don’t know how much loner that will last.”
“What do you want?”
“I want what everyone wants, I want to be loved, accepted, enjoyed, I want what you took from me all though years ago.”
“Debbie’s dead, she crossed the line, just like you did, it should’ve been you who ended up with a bullet in the head instead of her, I’ll give you that. But what you two did, there’s no going back from that!”
“Fuck you Charles, we were doing god’s work, we were making the city better for everyone. Until you stuck your fucking nose in it all.”
“You were killing innocent children Xander, kids! Innocent kids, you weren’t doing god’s work, you were losing your shit and someone had to stop you.”
“We were doing what god wanted.The population was growing too fast, someone needed to make the decisions for the betterment of all, and that decision was given to me and her, the new Adam and Eve, resetting the population, so it could begin again.”
“I’m going to find you and I’m going to do what I should’ve done all those years ago,” he feels something cold press against the back of his head.
“You’re a sinner, the lord has told me you must be cleansed from this world,” Xander says as he pushes the barrel of the gun into his head.
“You’re fucking crazy, can’t you see that, can’t you see what you’re doing is wrong?”
He leans in and whisperers in Charles ear, “I am he who has been chosen, I am the master of ceremony, I am the cleaner of souls, I am…..” a shot interrupts his speech, and he lets out a gasp of air, as his eyes stare forwards into nothingness, Charles forces him away, and spins around, they lock eyes for a few seconds, the blood soaks into Charles shirt as it escapes from the hole he shot into himself, to get to Xander.
“You’re not chosen,” he says as he unload the remainder of the clip into Xander’s head.
END
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