The Sin Hunter: Double or Nothing

The Thing About Bullets

Everything had frozen in place. The bad guys, the good guys, those in between, nobody was still moving in the chaotic silence. Somebody screamed in the hallway, but it wasn't Jack. Jules stepped forward in a blinded, enraged surge of emotion, both of her revolvers drawn and the katana on her back jangling on its strap when smoke hissed from beneath the fedora of the taller, older Sin Hunter. Jules froze, watching with a panicked heartbeat and a crazed look in her eyes as Jack's left arm dragged against his trench coat, pushing the flap out of his face as a hand reached into his mouth.

Everybody froze, the good, the bad and the ugly when the Sin Hunter, neither and all of the above, removed a smoking, steaming shell of a bullet from his teeth, coated in saliva which fizzled on the scorching surface. Jack's eyes narrowed when he flicked the shell against the wall where it bounced off of a vase, ringing in the crowded hallway. "Ya see, the thing with bullets is kinda simple." Everything tensed when Jack spoke, his eyes darting with malicious haste across the room, inspecting the suits and Demons wearing them. "A bullet is fast. It's cheap, clean, and resourceful to the user. But even bullets gotta stop at some point."

Jack stepped forward, and it felt like shockwaves rippled in the pools of blood on the floor. "Let me clue you in on how things work in Hell, Heaven or otherwise," Jack whispered with a sly, cocky laugh. All of the Demons backed away from the very last, trembling Demon, the same who had put the barrel in front of Jules only minutes ago. It felt like decades since he had pulled the trigger now, sweat making the pistol slick and uncomfortable. "I've put bullets in my mouth before," the Sin Hunter whispered, "and if there's any damn one of you freaks who should know how to try that, it would be me."

The Demon who had pulled the trigger was frozen like a statue, eyes wavering in their quaking sockets with tears at the brims, glasses on a hooked angle as they failed to stare down true, blissful death. His pistol lowered to the floor, sliding out of his hand with an audible clicking as the glasses reflected a twisted, distorted shadow of a dream given form. "My god," he gasped, understanding why everything made so much sense. This was it. This was the end. The Demon closed his eyes, breathing a sweet gasp of relief before everything flashed into an explosion.

The Sin Hunter surged forward, his fist curled back before exploding through the back of the Demon's head, bits of tinted glass staining his gloves with the blood clots and pulp. Jack ripped his hand free, staring through the hole into his next attacker. A fairly bulkier Demon, a lady, he assumed, with a large knife. Jack gritted his teeth, eyes narrowed into slits in the void of his protected face when the knife soared overhead, down toward his face. Jack swerved around the attack, striking with a blow to the liver. The shot ruptured around the hallway, throwing everyone off guard as the bulky Demoness staggered backward, eyes bulging in unbearable agony.

Jack stormed forward, seizing the lady's hand with the knife still intact, raising the blade in front of her eyes. "Let's see this work, eh?" His throat growled, dragging the blade down against his chest. To everybody's shock and horror, the knife splintered and shattered against his chest, leaving only the handle left. The Demoness stepped away in terrified silence, her chest beating up and down, up and down in fear. In the light of the hallway, with shattered light fixtures and a damaged workspace, the Sin Hunter stood tall, surrounded by the slowly approaching members of his team. Their outlines graced the hallway with shadowed visage, as if telling the Demons, "Try that again, and you'll be like us."

In a panicked flurry of movement, all of the remaining attackers ran away, stumbling over one another and trampling their own to flee the scene. Jack felt his eyes widening slowly while he turned to face his team, breathing in and out slowly. Although Cynthia and Jules kept a respectable distance, the Stimpaking Trio stepped forward, patting Jack on his shoulders. The sparkle in Jack's eyes flashed, then dimmed, revealing the true man within when he turned around and faced his team. Crow's darkened, yet worn eyes nodded in appreciation for his friend's work.

"Nicely done, Jack. That'll give our enemies in Hell a real fine message now." Shrap and Deck both moved by with similar comments, with Shrap tossing in the "Welcome back, Jack," before shuffling to move the bodies out of the hallway. Jack turned around, removing his gloves and rolling up his sleeves before turning to face Jules and Cynthia, both gazing in fearful amazement. And then Jules broke away from her mother's arms and threw herself into her biological father's arms. Through a muffled face full of Kevlar and worn leather, Jules poked her head upward, a smile on her face and a redeemed sparkle in her deep, sea green eyes.

"Can you teach me how to break a knife against my chest?" She chuckled. Jack paused for a minute, then laughed and laughed, wrapping his partially bloodied arms around Jules as the Sin Hunters slumped to their knees in Demon guts and parts. Cynthia laughed as well, tying back her hair with deep crimson hands to the elbows, elegant red gloves encircling the team in laughter and some crying while Shrap, Crow and Deck finished hustling the bodies into a disposal chute.