Justice(114)
His face contorts in bestial fury. He knocks me away onto my butt as he lunges at Alkaline. I barely see the blows, just the aftermath as Justin hits and hits, cracking his jaw, nose, teeth until he’s unrecognizable. Pulp. He’s going to kill him, no question. “Justin, stop!” He can’t hear me. I leap up and try to grab his arm, but he swats me away so hard I skid a few feet, the shotgun gliding away. I’m dazed again with the wind knocked out of me, and when I shake my head to recover Justin grabs Alkaline by the shirt, positioning him over the fence. The acid from Alkaline’s damaged wrist drips onto the metal. “No!” I shriek.
Justin’s gaze whips toward me, madness and rage filling those blue eyes. “What?”
“Justin, put him down.” I slowly find my feet. “Don’t do this.”
“Why? He killed them!” he roars, taking another step. “He killed them! He…burned her alive. He raped her!” He turns back to Alkaline, who hangs there like a rag doll with his eyes closed. “He ruined my life! He’s a monster!”
“He is, he is,” I say desperately as I take another step. “He will pay for his crimes. He will. We’ll make sure of it.”
“No,” Justin says, voice quaking. “He’ll just escape again. I know he will. I have to protect you. I have to protect everyone!” Alkaline’s now suspended only by Justin with nothing but the river thirty stories below. The fence barely supports them both, the metal bending and rippling with each movement.
“This is not the way to do it,” I say with another step. “Justin, look at me. Look at me!” His tear filled eyes meet mine. “I know what he’s taken from you. I do. But if you do this, that is cold blooded murder. You will be a murderer, Justin. Everything you have worked for, everything you stand for will be meaningless. It is not up to you to be judge, jury, and executioner. Justice isn’t about people killing the dregs that need killing. That’s why we have a system. Our society is based on laws and due process. It takes time, it isn’t perfect, but it’s better than every individual meting out whatever justice he feels is right. If Justice, Champion of Galilee, succumbs to the base instinct of vengeance by killing Alkaline, it would do more than just kill him. It would kill the trust in the system you and I have worked so hard to uphold. This is bigger than your hatred. Do this and you will lose your soul. Then where will the citizens of Galilee be?”
His arms quiver and he turns back to Alkaline’s lifeless, pathetic, broken body. He looks at him, emotions running the gamut from revulsion to hate and finally to shame. “Oh, God,” he says before tossing the body back on the roof. “Oh, God.”
I run over to him as he steps off the fence, throwing my arms around him, his blood soaking me. “It’s okay,” I whisper as I stroke his bloody hair. “It’s okay. It’s over. It’s over.”
I don’t know how long we stay locked in each other’s arms. He cups the back of my head, pulling me into him even closer and kissing the top of my head. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“You’d do the same for me. I—” His body grows tense. I look up at him, fear gripping me when I see the look of shock on his face.
It all happens so fast. I feel him spin me around just as the sound of the shotgun explodes through the air. Justin lurches as the pellets smash into him, and then him into me. Spots of blood bursts onto my face. We stumble back into the chain-link as another blast rocks us. Then another. We topple onto the metal, rolling. Justin releases me, and I only catch a glimpse of Alkaline holding the shotgun on us before I realize I’m right at the edge and can’t stop moving. I see the darkness below me and The Falls off in the distance before I roll once more onto nothing. I’m too shocked to scream.
My body is weightless for a moment, but then something warm grabs my wrist to stop my descent. My arm almost comes out of its socket, but I swing to the side. I grab the metal bar at the top of the fence and the hand releases me. I turn and see Justin dangling a few feet away. My shoes slip off and like an idiot I look down. I can make out the lights on the outdoor patio thirty stories down and the river beside it. My arms begin shaking from terror and weakness. “Hold on!” Justin says beside me.
The fence shakes and bends even further down. I barely hold on as we drop two feet, moving my hands to the rungs instead of the bar, curling my toes and fingers in them for dear life. I look up to my left. Alkaline smiles like a maniac above us, especially with his jaw out of whack. He cracks it back into place and walks closer, spilling his acid along the length of the fence where it meets the roof. It sizzles and twangs as it melts. “You know,” he says, sounding odd because of the injuries, “you used to be better at this, Justin. In the old days, you never would have let your guard down like that. Love and domesticity have made you complacent. I’m not having nearly as much fun as I thought I would.”