Arrow : Shado of the Past

Soldier of purgatory

It was quiet. I liked it.

Peace with a small chatter at various corners of the room like the wind I was bonded to. I may not be at peace, but it's all a start.

Ah, who am I kidding. I've lost my father. My lover. My friend and my sister. Peace isn't in my language anymore.

I keep myself focused on the whiskey in front of me as beer isn't getting me drunk fast enough. Vodka is my next thought. I rotate the miniature glass clockwise in my palm, passing it between my fingers carefully, all while trying to gift it my full attention. But nothing ever gets my full attention, not anymore. My thoughts are far from what I intend. I wish to focus on my drunk, enducing liquor, but fate draws me back to the night everything went wrong.

I just keep seeing his face. It's so warm and lifefull, then so cold and lifeless. I almost envy Slades fate. He gets to rest. He escaped. I'm not so fucking lucky.

I toy with my drink some more as various people come and go. I'm perceptive enough to analyse them, to know if they are foe or friend. But I don't. I just couldn't care less anymore. It's been months since I took care of saving my country for Waller. Keeping world peace and all that. Starling City, world of... my dead lover. He was the heir to this place, and I struggled to abandon it. I have left my father's hood in a box under my bed in an apartment complex. I squat in. I've left my carbon fibre ling bow in that same box. I've tried to leave my memories there, too...

They don't like that.

I down my whiskey impulsively and slam the glass back down to the hard oak bar.

"Vodka." I proudly announce.

"Didn't know you had a thing for Russian beverages." Beamed a voice beside me. Why man? In another bar, too.

"I'm not a part of ARGUS Waller. I stopped a war between you and China, which probably would have led to a world war."

"So?"

"So, fuck off."

"I need your... expertise."

"Tough luck. I got none."

"Thought you might say that. Hence why this is a one-sided deal."

I angrily grab a steak knife from the meal I had prior and stormed out of my seat to Amanda.

"You think you get to come in here and threaten me?" I annoyingly state.

"Yes, now you're getting it."

"No, I'm not doing this. I've gone straight."

"There is a fire inside you, Ms Gulong. I read Shrieves autopsy, you know. I knew you had a capacity for the unfathomable, but even this is something I didn't expect."

"So I'm crazy, nothing new."

"You seek to hide your violence, Gulong. You cloud yourself in mystery and hide your true nature. Don't. You have to let it out. I'm giving you an outlet."

"I'm not doing something for you ever aga -" A surge of pain flows through my body as I feel a hot, electrifying object impact my back. For the last time. I am nearly paralysed. Leave. The. Back. Alone!

I try and swing, but my arm doesn't budge. I become weight full and I go soaring toward the floor, hitting in with an audible and painful thud as the void encompasses me.

***

There was metal clunking and coughing as I tossed and turned on the cold floor. I moaned and growned, contouring my cheeks into various shapes in a feeble attempt to open my eyes. My fingers traced the smooth metal, minor bumps occasionally meeting me, as I searched for an idea of where I was.