Drabble Series: Beneath the Surface (Ian, R)
Title: "Beneath the Surface" (4 drabbles)
Characters: Ian.
Word count: 4x100.
Rating: R.
Warnings: Violence.
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Only once a year, Ian leaves the sniper behind.
Betas: The wonderful fredbasset and the great lillyg.
Written for: numb3rs100, Rewind January 2009 - Bullet, Blood, Luck, Survival.
A/N: My first Rewind series ever.
Beneath the Surface
Bullet
Only once a year, Ian leaves the sniper behind. No work, no guns, no shots. For everyone’s safety, including his.
But today is the only exception, and he pays the consequences of breaking his endless habit.
At the hospital, he observes the doctor remove a bullet the enemy put into his arm.
It hurts, but he doesn’t complain. Stoically, he drowns in the feeling of every twitching fiber inside him.
The surface is tricky - no one knows what’s beneath.
Within his heart, his soul, there lies a secret.
Painfully, the bullet comes out. He deserves this one and more.
Blood
A home is supposed to bring peace to the heart - warmness, comfort, safety.
But not here, where the horrible nightmare of this date remains.
February 23rd, 1998. His biggest mistake.
The hole in that little boy’s head. His absent face, his undefined smile.
Rigor mortis brings a twisted appearance to an innocent child’s corpse.
It also forces darkness into the killer’s view of the world.
Blood on his hands. Ian’s hands.
It’s fair that he can’t wash it off.
The sin of crime is burnt onto his skin. No prayers, no deeds are good enough.
Redemption is the unreachable.
Luck
He’s invisible.
He moves in the shadows, tracking and firing, but he longs for a gentle hand that can pull the trigger for him.
Anonymity has a price - staying alive.
A mysterious force protects him, without asking first. He doesn’t want any favors. He wants justice to be done.
But he’s untouchable. Unstoppable. Damned.
He’s a non-believer.
He’s a man who wants to pay the debt.
A fellow sniper gets shot and goes down on his knees, begging for someone who can end his misery. Ian helps.
Fate is inexplicable.
Lucky is a man who can atone for his faults.
Survival
Sometimes he can’t stand what he is - a mix of murder skills and bad judgement. So, Ian does for himself what Fate refuses to do.
He lies on the bed and waits. The smell of gas starts to fill the room.
Yet a shock of self-preservation attacks, and he aborts the operation.
He stares at the open oven, closes the gas and hates himself.
He can’t do it. He’s tried so many times.
Maybe his punishment is living with regrets, and the lesson is surviving through the years.
He’ll keep going until his last day.
And then he’ll breathe.
The End.
Characters: Ian.
Word count: 4x100.
Rating: R.
Warnings: Violence.
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Only once a year, Ian leaves the sniper behind.
Betas: The wonderful fredbasset and the great lillyg.
Written for: numb3rs100, Rewind January 2009 - Bullet, Blood, Luck, Survival.
A/N: My first Rewind series ever.
Beneath the Surface
Bullet
Only once a year, Ian leaves the sniper behind. No work, no guns, no shots. For everyone’s safety, including his.
But today is the only exception, and he pays the consequences of breaking his endless habit.
At the hospital, he observes the doctor remove a bullet the enemy put into his arm.
It hurts, but he doesn’t complain. Stoically, he drowns in the feeling of every twitching fiber inside him.
The surface is tricky - no one knows what’s beneath.
Within his heart, his soul, there lies a secret.
Painfully, the bullet comes out. He deserves this one and more.
Blood
A home is supposed to bring peace to the heart - warmness, comfort, safety.
But not here, where the horrible nightmare of this date remains.
February 23rd, 1998. His biggest mistake.
The hole in that little boy’s head. His absent face, his undefined smile.
Rigor mortis brings a twisted appearance to an innocent child’s corpse.
It also forces darkness into the killer’s view of the world.
Blood on his hands. Ian’s hands.
It’s fair that he can’t wash it off.
The sin of crime is burnt onto his skin. No prayers, no deeds are good enough.
Redemption is the unreachable.
Luck
He’s invisible.
He moves in the shadows, tracking and firing, but he longs for a gentle hand that can pull the trigger for him.
Anonymity has a price - staying alive.
A mysterious force protects him, without asking first. He doesn’t want any favors. He wants justice to be done.
But he’s untouchable. Unstoppable. Damned.
He’s a non-believer.
He’s a man who wants to pay the debt.
A fellow sniper gets shot and goes down on his knees, begging for someone who can end his misery. Ian helps.
Fate is inexplicable.
Lucky is a man who can atone for his faults.
Survival
Sometimes he can’t stand what he is - a mix of murder skills and bad judgement. So, Ian does for himself what Fate refuses to do.
He lies on the bed and waits. The smell of gas starts to fill the room.
Yet a shock of self-preservation attacks, and he aborts the operation.
He stares at the open oven, closes the gas and hates himself.
He can’t do it. He’s tried so many times.
Maybe his punishment is living with regrets, and the lesson is surviving through the years.
He’ll keep going until his last day.
And then he’ll breathe.
The End.