Excorp

Looking into his eyes I realised that he had changed while he had been away, his brown eyes had once been caring and kind, at they watched my shallow breathing I noticed that my friends eyes had become dangerously cold and uncaring, watching me with no emotion, holding the gun so that it was directed straight at my heart.

He had always been a quiet boy, even when we were younger, I could remember the days when we were still children, although if anyone had asked up at that time we were all grown up, the pair of us had been brought together over a science project we had been set in class, we were both about twelve years old I suppose, he worked hard but was difficult to work with, he was set in his ways and no one was going to change him. I could picture the day clearly in my head that he finally opened up to me, we had been working together for about a week, I had made a joke, I couldn't even remember what it was, he sat there stone faced for a few seconds, then it happened. He laughed. A wide smile, full body laugh that shocked me. From that moment on we had become inseparable.

Everything we had changed when ExCorp came to our small town, my dearest friend became distant and cold, as he was when we had first met, he had become infatuated with the idea of joining them, to make something of himself. The day that everything fell apart, a note had been left for me on my locker asking me meet him in the centre of the wood at Firefly Lake.

"I'm leaving with ExCorp." He muttered, we were sat together, my head in his lap staring up at him into those beautiful eyes, his dark hair falling messily into his eyes, the same murderous eyes that were watching me now.

"I Love You Jay." I whispered, watching the fireflies dance across the lake, their golden glow in total harmony with the darkness reflecting silently off the perfectly still lake.

"I Love You Too Ash." He spoke the words softly, almost surprised that the words had come from him, we had never expressed any feelings for each other, other than friendship.

"Did you mean it?" I asked, my voice hoarse his control faltering slightly but like a true ExCorp solider he quickly regained his composure.

"I meant everything that I ever said to you."

"Thank you Jay, you can shoot me now." I tried to keep my voice steady wanting to be as brave as he was.

"I Love You Ash." He whispered, a single tear trickled down his heartless face, for a second I wondered when he had changed from the kind, gentle boy that I remember into the ruthless solider that stood in front of me today, but no matter who or what he had become he was my first and truly my only love, he was my soul mate.

I stood up from the bed and made my way towards him, raising my hand slowly in case he moved to shoot me, I stroked his face, as soft and smooth as it had been the day he left, he hadn't aged at all.

"Did you really come here to shoot me Jay?" I asked softly, in answer he raised the gun to my head.

"I thought that I did," He whispered, I could feel his breath warm on my face, "but now I don't know, since I left I've tried not to think about you, but it's been hard, really hard." The gun was still against my head, pulling slightly on my hair, the cool edge of the gun a serious warning, I knew he was capable of anything.

I was starting to get angry, if he was going to shoot me I wanted him to do it now, he was playing with my head, I was prepared to die when he first came here but now I was starting to doubt.

“If you’re going to do it then kill me now, just shoot me.” He pushed me away, the gun was no longer against my head, although I could still feel where it had been, reminding me of how close I had been to death.

“Fine if you think it’s that easy here.” He shoved the gun into my hands, shaking slightly I straightened my arm holding the gun so it was aimed straight at his heart. For a moment a whole host of feelings took over me, I knew that I would be able to kill him, in my head there was nothing stopping me at that moment. I had ultimate power over whether or not Jay lived or died, in that moment I could understand why people killed now, there was no fear in his eyes though, I think that was what snapped me out of it, the cold metal suddenly burned my hand it wasn’t controlling me anymore.

“I look into your eyes and I wonder if that was what I looked like the years that I was in Excorp, did I look so ruthless and unforgiving?” I dropped the gun to the floor for the moment it had been forgotten about there were more important things. One thing was for certain though, at least one of us was going to die tonight, in my grubby flat.

“Jay things have changed, you joined Excorp, I didn’t think you would ever do anything like that, I hated you so much for so long, I didn’t think I would ever be able to forgive you, but I’d moved on.”

“I can’t move on don’t you understand? I’ve thought about you every single moment since the day I left, that’s why I came here tonight I thought that by killing you I could finally get you out of my head, I would be able to move on.”

I didn’t know what to say, what could I say to that? In order for him to carry on with his live and be happy then I needed to die, in truth I had no idea why he had come here tonight with the gun, but never would I have guessed this was the reason.

“I came here to free myself.” The fire was back in his eyes, his Excorp training was starting to regain its control.

“I want you to be happy Jay, more thank anything. Just promise me one thing.” He nodded “Leave Excorp.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Well then leave my house.” I growled, angry that even my death would not part him from them

“You don’t understand, when I was there, they did things to me, if I leave then I die, they give me what I need, in return I’m their solider, I belong to them.” This saddened him, I realised that he wanted to leave, finally. I also realised that he wanted to come back to me, all those times he had been thinking about returning to me, since that was impossible he had decided between him and me, and it had been him.

“If your tie is that strong to them then I can free you.” His eyes lit up for a second, and then he realised, his eyes went flat, dead almost.

“Do it, free me, I hate being their slave, a slave to the dark matter.”

“What is dark matter?” I asked unable to stop my curiosity

“They forced it on us when we all got there, it was like a drug, but it wasn’t, it changed us, all of us noticed the difference. We were stronger, faster, they had these needles they used, long ones I was so sick for so long, it was horrible, I had nightmares, awful nightmares. At first I tried to resist, to prove to myself that whatever they had done to me was in my head, that just made me more and more ill, I nearly died. In the end I gave in I’m a coward, I let them have me. So please free me.”

I picked the gun up from where it had be discarded on the floor, and held it up, he truly wanted to die, I believe that was why he had come here tonight, not to kill me, but for me to murder him, he knew that I was the only one capable of doing it, the only person in the whole world who he would want to do it.

The gun was louder then I thought it would be, the shot was reverberating in my eyes, echoing in my head, his face etched in my mind, not scared but smiling, he looked almost peaceful lying on my floor, blood seeping from his wound on my carpet. The next thing I did was to turn the gun upon myself, I had killed my soul mate, at last we might finally be together.

Pulling the trigger was easy.