Revenge

“I’ve got a plan”.

She'd been so sure of herself back then. And it was the best thing that could have happened to her at that point in time:

She'd spent all her time on it and had come up with a perfect plan. If her plan worked, she could finally take her revenge against those who had destroyed everything. Who had destroyed everything that she loved? And then things would be all right again!

As she finished completing the last details of her blood-thirsty plan, she felt herself being carried forward into the darkness, into the deepest pit of her mind where no light had ever touched before.

But even that was better than letting herself be dragged down by a wave of self-pity. It was like being born all over again, and for a moment it gave her enough strength to keep going.

The first rays of light came creeping in from her computer screen; A single ray that pierced her heart. It wasn't real sunlight, but it was good enough to bring out the best of her in a way that even sunshine could not compete with. As she gazed at her glowing monitor she felt a sense of hope for the future. There were still good times ahead of her.

"You can do it," she said to herself. "I know you can."

And she was sure she could do it. She was confident. Her plan would work…and now it was ready

***

 The following day, she woke up early and immediately got straight into gear.

She knew there wouldn't be any problems today; She had worked hard yesterday, and it had taken almost half a year, but she felt as though she'd finally made up her mind. There was no longer a doubt in her mind. Everything would be perfect today. All the pieces fit together. The puzzle was complete.

"Time to get in action, Aria", she whispered to herself.

She quickly got dressed. It was important that she looked her best today, so she put on some makeup and brushed her hair. Then she took her weapons with her as well; Her gun and her stun baton.

After that, she put a coat on over her meager clothes and went out in direction of the city hall.

***

Aria's fingers danced across the keyboard, while she finished writing down the final details of her report. She was sitting in the office of the mayor of Therrian town, working at his desk. The dead body of the Mayor lying next to her, his blood spreading out all over the room. She was still shaking. The mayor was an old man, in his sixties, who'd been married once, had children and grandchildren, and lived to see them grow up. But he was also a monster, one of those guys who loved making life miserable for everyone around him. And the mayor had made himself rich by doing it. Aria had learned all of that at her own expense. Now she'd killed the bastard for what he'd done.

The whole thing hadn't been easy: The mayor had tried everything to defend himself. He had tried to control her. He had threatened her. He had tried to bribe her.

"You will be mine!"

Those words from the mayor still rang in her ears. He had tried to restrain her with those threats, and she had responded by killing him. It reminded her of the last time she'd last heard those words when he took her father away from her and achieved to take over the town. But she resisted, she held with all her strength to the hatred she felt toward him. Sometimes she was afraid that this could change her, but it was the only way she could have kept herself from breaking down.

And now, while she was sitting at his desk, she was rushing against the clock to finish her job. What was left was to destroy the mayor's empire and all its power. She had to make sure that all of his crimes would be exposed to the world, only at that exact moment her vendetta would be over.

And then it happened:

She pressed a key and her whole plan changed forever.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. The computer screen flashed blue for an instant, and Aria realized that something had gone terribly wrong with her plan. She had accidentally activated a firewall that blocked access to the mayor's computer.

"What the fuck?!" She yelled in frustration.

There was nothing but a blue screen for her. No message telling her what she was looking at. No way for her to fix it.

"Damn!" She cursed herself silently as she reached for the keyboard to try and press some other keys. "I must have done something stupid," she said aloud. "Something I should have seen coming."

But the only thing on her screen was blue…blue…blue…

"It's my fault…my damn fault!" Aria shook her head in frustration. "How can this possibly happen to me?" She threw her hands up into the air as tears of despair began to flow down her cheeks.

She'd come so close to getting everything right. But now it was all gone. And if she didn't do something quickly, there was no chance she would get it back again. Not in time…not before she was killed by her enemies…

But even as she thought about her death, Aria could not bring herself to admit that it would be anything but the greatest joy in her life.

And for the first time, she began to feel sorry for herself.

As she stared blankly at her computer screen, her eyes grew wider and her breathing got shorter. And then she knew that everything was lost. There was no choice for her, it was all or nothing now!

The door suddenly opened behind her. She jumped and turned around; She felt as though she was ready to jump out of her skin.

Standing there in the doorway was the person she needed most. The one person that could help her:

Her unique friend…

***

Kelsey had been waiting outside the door for an hour or so when she heard her friend's cries. When she went over to open the door, Aria stood there with tears running down her cheeks, next to the dead body of the Mayor.

Kelsey, took a breath of relief, seeing the corpse of that wicked man lying on the floor. Then she glanced at her friend who looked exhausted. She immediately noticed that something had gone horribly wrong.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Oh…Kelsey…" Aria replied with a sigh. "I need your help! Please come here! I need your help to end all of this! I want my vendetta. He has taken everything from me, and the rest of the world has to see who this bastard really was."

"We have no time for that," said Kelsey trying to convince her friend, "the Mayor is dead, he will not harm anyone else. That's what you need to think about. We need to get out of here, the guards will arrive soon. We have to go now!"

Aria looked at her friend in desperation. "But the report…!"

Kelsey grabbed Aria by the hand and pulled her out of the office as quickly as she could. But just as Aria began to leave, she stopped and turned back to look at the mayor's lifeless face. "He was such a horrible man," she said quietly. "So much power…and so much evil."

Kelsey could tell that Aria was deeply shocked by what she had done. Kelsey tried to comfort her, "You did the right thing. You saved all of us."

The two women walked into the night together in silence, the city light shining brightly around them, creating a ravishing mosaic of shadows and lights as if the world wanted to show them the beauty of its dark side, where they had just stepped in.

Aria eventually spoke. "I know…"

"What do you mean you know?"

"Kelsey," said Aria quietly, "I killed him! He had it coming. The world should be better off without him, but…"

"…but what?"

And Aria suddenly stopped talking and just looked at her friend with sadness. Kelsey saw something in Aria's eyes that was hard to define; There was regret for some reason.

She didn't have a clue what Aria might be feeling, but she did feel sorry for her. "Look, this is all very confusing for me too." She said with a sigh as she held Aria's hands in hers, trying to offer some comfort, "It's a big thing that just happened. And we're not sure of everything yet. You need to take time to process this. I'm not saying it's your fault that the Mayor died. But he deserved to die."

Aria finally gave a short sigh. "Yes. You're right. Thank you." She let go of her hand and looked up at the sky above them. They were standing in the shadow of an ancient skyscraper.

As she gazed up into space, Aria spoke with a voice filled with sorrow.

"You're the best friend anyone could ever ask for Kelsey. No matter what happens, I can always count on you. I don't know how I got so lucky, or why I am so blessed to have you in my life."

They stood there together in silence for a moment until Kelsey broke it.

"Well," she said smiling at her friend, "I've got a new plan. It's going to take us a while to finish our journey, but we will be all right, don't worry."

Aria smiled back at her friend, "I'm sure we will be. I trust you, Kelsey."

With that the two girls disappeared into the shadows, leaving only a shadow of themselves behind. It was the fifth of November, the world was changing…and so were they.

***