[centre][h2][color=black]Anthony "Leo" Strayker[/color][/h2][/centre]

[centre][i][color=silver][color=silver][b]Disembodied voice[/b][/color] 
I've learned the lesson that when you're in the middle of something that seems overwhelming, or you're in a bad situation and it seems like it's the end of the world or whatever, then you learn that it's not. Everything I was afraid of when I was growing up, I've become. I've taken on my nightmares, like the devil and the end of the world, and I've become those things. When you think about it, the end of the world is a little bit like death: We all know it's going to come eventually, and as we get older, we feel we see the signs more and more distinctly. When death finally comes for you, will you fight the icy embrace or will you finally see that the end of our life is not impossible... but inevitable.[/color][/i][/centre]

[color=silver]Leo sat silently on that old tarnished bar stool, his eye's were set like stones, his elbows resting on that chipped wooden bar top. Around him the entire place was in a complete and utter shamble, tables were broken in half, chairs were strewn piece by piece, blood lined the walls like a bad paint job. One could imagine that once upon a time this bar was a nice little joint to come get a drink with friends, if you listened perhaps you could still hear laughing from drunken cheerful men as they drank away a long work day. It wasn't hard to imagine at all really, very much like those same men could have never guessed the next day their entire world could be turned completely upside down. Who could have guessed that the only remnants of this small tavern would be a broken glass sign that once upon a time must have light up vibrantly the words [i]"Jerrys bar and grill"[/i]. Leo lifted the shot glass from the bar in front of him, a bottle of scotch sat still next to his still arm. Raising the glass to his lips he took a sip from the cup before slowly placing it back down on the counter. Raising his eye's up from the counter he lay them on a young boy who was probably about the age of twelve, a handsome young man with short cut blonde hair now matted over with blood, bright blue eye's now hazy, teeth that were once as white as a crescent beach gleaming with traces of blood. 

Leo reached into his pocket removing a pack of crumpled cigarettes, looted from the floor of the bar when he first arrived, with a silver plated lighter which read [i]"Semper Fi"[/i] he lite the cigarette and took a drag off of it with a sudden cough. Normally the man on that old bar stool did not drink or smoke, considering the circumstances however, it seem sort of frivolous now. Taking another long drag from the cigarette he blew the smoke out of his mouth and nose looking at the young boy pinned between the toppled cabinet and the counter in front of him. The young man who once must have been vibrant now made sick scratchy noises as he clomped his teeth and reached his hand towards Leo who was just out of reach from the poor dead soul. His eye's trained on the young mans Leo spoke to him, his voice was deep and scratchy, lightly accented with Italian, a product of his upbringing:

[b]"You know as I sit here and look at you now, I can almost imagine you as the young man you were before all this began. I can imagine that you went to school, that you had a... nice family to go home too. You got fairly good grades perhaps even you were and overachiever with straight A's. I even wager that perhaps you could have had yourself a young love, a girl that you held hands with as you got red in the face when she kissed you on the cheek. Life in all its wonder was just beginning for you even if you didn't know it, and a glorious life I could have imagined it becoming. I guess I reflect upon what your life could have become because my life as a child wasn't exactly perfect or ideal."[/b]

Leo took another sip from the glass of scotch in front of him, he looked at the brown liquid swishing it around in the glass some before eventually setting it back down. Leo looked up at the wall of drinks that were actually still in tact as he could still hear the voices even today of his drunken old man.

[b]"Life has always been kind of a now you see it now you don't preposition, just like I see that I am going to have to kill you sooner or later. When I look at life I always saw the same thing, saw that their were two kinds of people, there were the people that were too scared to do what need to be done and the kind of people who did what no one else could do. Growing up under the fear that one day your own father would kill you in a drunken rage, you tend to see life differently then a person who grew up in a good home."[/b]

Leo diverted his eye's away from the wall of alcohol and sighed slightly as he finished what remained in the shot glass in front of him, moving his hand sideways he knocked the bottle of scotch off the counter and let it shatter onto the floor. Looking back at the young blonde haired boy his eye's just for the slightest second showed a rather deep sadness as the young man still tried weakly to reach him but ultimately could not.

[b]"It was because of my father that I became what I did, that I chose to help the people in this world instead of destroy them. It was people like him that made me see that there are bad people in the world, and only those who do what needs to be done can help those who can't do it themselves. To be sitting here now... seeing you the way you are is almost... surreal to me. I have never had a problem accepting things for what they were, denial only hastens your death if your unable to adjust to the situations you find yourself in. I was trained to deal with any situation on any kind of field, but this... isn't some field somewhere far away in a hostile country but is the home I protected with my life time and time again."[/b]

Leo felt the heat on his lips, the smoke in his mouth burning straight down to the filter that sat between his lips, removing the spent smoke he took it and smashed it on the counter and let it sizzle out. Watching the embers of burning paper and remaining tobacco simmer out into nothing for the briefest of seconds he could see memories from his past like pictures in a book. Leo slowly reached back and grabbed the Kukri from its sheath on his upper back, it zinged as metal edge meant metal before laying the sharpened blade on the counter in front of him. 

[b]"If anyone saw me now sitting here in front of you.. they would no doubt think I have lost my mind. As much as I would like to, no matter what I do, I could never deny the situation I find myself in, the situation our way of life finds itself in. In here is just a slight moment of peace, maybe even the last that I may ever see, for I can not avoid the hellish world out there much longer. Then again I have always lived in a world like this, because like I said before there are people who do what others can not so they can live an innocent and care free life. Kids like you who deserved to live a care free life of innocent and happiness, deserved to grow up and change the world frivolous old people like me have formed for you. To prove that there is a way beyond war and deception and death and the spilling of blood. But now... I feel the sun is finally setting on that dream... yep life is a now you see it now you don't sort of preposition.[/b]

Leo removed himself from the bar stool as he let his black scuffed boots hit the littered ground of broken wood, glass and spilled blood. Picking up the kukri he looked at the young boy who still even now tried desperately to reach him, to take a bite out of him if he could. Looking at the kukri the edge almost seemed to reflect the man who held it, always taking life so that others may give it. But that time was over, and reality was never kind. Looking at the young boy one last time, there was a quick slash of empty air before the blade found the young boys head, the boys eye's widened at the last second before his small hands fell limply to the counter and his body became still.

[b]"Possa la vostra anima yound trovare la pace in qualunque ci attende quando la vita finisce ... il mio giovane amico."
(May your young soul find peace in whatever awaits us all when life ends... my young friend.)[/b]

Leo pulled the blade from the boys head, wiping the small traces of blood from the blade with a piece of scattered cloth he replaced the blade in it sheath and walked towards the door to the bar that was still blocked by the heavy shelf he had heaved in front of it. Reachig the door the same thought ran through his head one last time before he removed the shelf and left:

~Now you see it, now you don't...~[/color]