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The measly glow of my cigarette's burning end is the only light in the empty stairwell when I hear the footsteps. I don't even need to look up to know who it is.

"Hello, Brian."
"It's been a long time since I've gone by that name."
"So I've heard...What should I call you, then?"
"...To tell the truth, I'm not completely sure, myself."
The darkness rushes in to consume me as I drop my meager light and smolder the tip beneath my heel, wincing as he laughs. I hate his laugh...Hollow and dusty, like it hasn't been used in a while. I hate his laugh almost as much as I hate his eyes-beady, piercing black dots glimmering like hot coals, the only visible part of him in the gloom.
"Since I'm here, I'm sure you know what that means."
"Yeah.."
"It could have ended differently, you know, Brian...Nobody would've been hurt. Nobody would've died. Nobody would've gotten thrown in a ten-by-ten concrete room to live out the rest of their days in misery...But you had to accept it. You had to accept THE job."
"Would you have preferred it had been you who did it?"

I hear the cocking of a pistol in the void and smile. That pissed him off something fierce.
"I LOVED her, you animal!!" Enraged spittle flecks my face. He's close.
"Not enough to let her go when there was nothing left, it seems."
Cold fingers wrap tightly around my throat, squeezing hard. I don't need to be able to see to know that the business end of his weapon is, at most, an inch or two from the space between my eyes.
"I'm warning you right now...Don't make me any madder. Don't, or I'll do it-right here and now, I really will."
"I believe you'll try..."
"SHUT UP. We may have been brothers once, but I'll paint this stairwell red with your blood."
"You so much as twitch a finger, and I'll finally have an excuse to pull a trigger of my own...Take your pathetic excuse for a cock away from you."

Heavy footsteps away from where I stand sound in the dark. That scared him good for a bluff-my pistol's still in the holster at my hip. Only problem is, that fear'll be turning to rage any second.
"You...You think you're so goddamn superior, don't you?!" There it is. "You remember the pact we made? Huh? Sure you do...It's what got you started in the game!!"
As he rants my fingers snake down my side to the handle of my gun, the polished wood grip cool to the touch. Easy now...Go slow, or he might notice you.
"Three simple rules, man...We'd deal with each other if we ever talked, we'd split jobs and profits equally...And family was off-limits, no matter the job!"

I hear metal clinking, as if a pop can with a coin in it was being shaken. He's so mad he can't keep his hands from quaking...That's funny.
"You think you're such a big-shot, Brian...A cold, calculating hit man living without care off the money he's earned from ending lives...But you're nothing but a self-indulgent piece of shit if I've ever seen one!! I MADE you what you are today, and how am I repaid?! BY HAVING ASHLEY TAKEN FROM ME!!!"
"This is a dog-eat-dog world. Attachment means weakness...Alliances are only worthwhile if something's acquired from them."
He starts laughing again...I hate the sound. There's nothing I want more in that moment than to silence him with a bullet, the bastard. But not yet.
"So that's it? That's all everyone in your life has ever been, eh? Me, Ashley, anyone stupid enough to call you a friend...We've all just been tools? Resources for you to get ahead in life?"
I don't expect him to understand. I don't completely understand myself, so I stay silent, letting his words hang in the air. More chuckling-different in tone, but greater in volume. He's gonna act soon.
"You remember what I used to say about this life? Where it would get us?"
"Yep...Sure do."
There's no way he can react in time to stop me. All it takes is one bullet to bring him down. One shot, straight through the heart. The flash at the end of my silencer illuminates the dark stairwell for an instant, and in that moment I see a mix of surprise, sadness, and anger on his face.

He hits the ground with a loud thump, like a felled tree, and I walk to his side, kneeling next to the sound of ragged breathing in the black.
"S-so it ends like this, eh...? Not exactly...Ukk...What I had in mind, all those years ago..."
Loud coughing and a gagging sound, then warm liquid splashes across my suit jacket. He's hacking up blood, close to being gone, but I'm not going to let him slip away until he hears what I have to say.
"...When I found Ashley that night, out on the balcony...She wasn't at all like I'd remembered. Granted, it had been years since I'd seen her, and she'd grown up...But that wasn't what was different. The look in her eyes...I'll never forget it. It was sadness, and exhaustion, and guilt...It was the look of a person who'd lived a life of regrets. The girl I murdered that night...It wasn't Ashley. Not the one you, I, or anyone knew. She was a husk, a shell of herself, and in those last few moments that she was alive...She didn't seem happier than when I pulled the trigger and ended for her what she couldn't end herself. Not without causing you pain." I fish a fresh cigarette out of my pocket and raise my lighter's quivering flame to the tip. "So yeah, you did always say that one of us was going to end up dead because of this life...But you were wrong about who it was going to be, and forced me to shoot you out of necessity. All because you couldn't let Ashley go."

There's a slow exhale next to me, and I use my cigarette to locate his eyes and slide the lids shut. Only until I'm completely sure he's gone do I allow tears to reach my eyes. My oldest friend, dead by my own hand...Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I linger a moment longer, the flame working its way down the shaft as I take long, slow drags, and then I rise, stepping out the door, away from the corpse and into the rain.

FIN