“Lisa Punchinello?” Despite the gun in my face I couldn’t help but stare at the woman. Lisa Punchinello was the Don’s wife.
“Mona Sax, Lisa’s evil twin.” She was deadpan.
I kept my gun leveled at her chest. “Your safety’s off, evil twin. You might hurt someone with that gun of yours.”
Mona laughed. “Lisa’s the damsel in distress.”
“What does that make you?” I was stalling.
“The professional. I’d blow you away without batting an eye.”
I swallowed. “Sure, and you can check my credentials splattered all over this joint.”
Mona’s gaze hardened. Her dark eyes flicked down to Lupino’s half-submerged corpse. “Jack couldn’t have framed you, not in the state he was in. We’re after the same slimebag. Angelo Punchinello’s the one who murdered your friend and framed you with it.”
My heart froze in my chest. Outside, the storm howled like the big bad wolf, beating harder against the old theatre as if trying to get inside. “You know this for a fact?”
Mona smiled. “I’ve got my sources.”
“Sources?” I laughed. “I don’t have a clue these days. I shoot them as they come. Seems rather personal to go after your brother-in-law, though. Who put a contract on the archfiend?”
Mona shook her pretty head. Her dark hair bounced around her pale shoulders. “This one’s mine. I hate the guts of that sadistic wife-beater.” She hesitated, her professional aura fading for a split second. “Say, why not pool our bullets for this one?”
I wanted to let out the breath I’d been holding. “I thought you’d never ask. My finger was starting to twitch.”
She lowered her gun and walked over to an oversized cabinet filled with every kind of poison invented by man. “How do you like your Whiskey?”
I let my own gun fall to the floor. It finally hit me just how dirt tired I was.
“I’m easy.” I took the amber filled tumbler and toasted Lupino’s dead body. “Here’s to fulfilled contracts.” I knocked back the drink. It was good stuff. Tasted sweet as honey going down.
“You’re a real angel, Max,” Mona breathed. And suddenly the pool of blood turned green, and the floor dissolved.
“Nothing personal,” the evil twin was saying from a million miles away, “but I can’t risk you going berserk and getting Lisa killed.”
#
The nightmare was always the same. Violent shapes moving in darkness, old and ugly. The killer's mad laughter was a riddle filled with wicked innuendo. Somewhere the baby was crying. A familiar voice screamed out from the darkness, splitting my skull. “Max, no! Please, Max. Why? I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry! Max!”
The world faded into existence, distorted, wrong. The house. Our house, filled with shattered dreams. I stumbled through the front door. “Michelle?”
The living room was quiet.
I walked to the mantlepiece in slow motion and picked up a picture of Alex and me outside a courthouse, arms raised in victory.
Alex...
We’d had a few moments of glory between us. Crime fighting comrades, the best NYPD-DEA collaborative team... Good-hearted macho bullshit like that. I would have given anything to have him here as my backup. No such luck. No luck at all.
I climbed the stairs to the top floor, one creaking step at a time. I felt as if I were moving in slow motion, everything cast in an eerie green glow. At the top of the landing I saw the door to the nursery open. My feet were on automatic. I didn’t want to go in there.
“No, no, please, God, no...”
It was my voice. The nursery was a tomb.
I was desperate to get out. I fell through the door to the office, stumbled to the bureau. Michelle’s diary lay on the table. I couldn’t stop my hand from reaching out and opening the blood stained pages. Michelle had been working part-time in the District Attorney’s office. I had opened the diary to today’s entry, her handwriting all pretty curves.
An army dossier found its way to my desk yesterday. Valhalla? Isn’t that a Norse myth? Something about Vikings. I tried to tell Max about it but he was busy. That cute frown on his brow. Guess it’s nothing, probably a mix-up at the courier service...
I swore, from now on I would always find time for her. It was a hollow promise. Too little, too late. Then the diary faded away and I was moving in slow motion again, this is your life in Hell. The bedroom door flew open and I was staring into a mirror. Myself staring back at me, accusingly.
“You killed her!” the mirror me screamed. “Murderer!”
Michelle lay on the bed, broken. I wanted to go to her.
“Murderer!” The mirror man said again. He raised his gun at my face. I begged him to pull the trigger.
YOU ARE READING
Max Payne
FanfictionMax Payne is a man with nothing to lose in the violent, cold urban night. A fugitive cop framed for murder, and now hunted by cops and the mob. Max is a man with his back against the wall, fighting a battle he cannot hope to win. Prepare for pain...
