A Fairy Tale Ending

         CHAPTER 1
“Dispatch to all available officers, we’ve got reports of an armed robbery at 143 Washington Avenue.”
“I guess our day has just begun”
“David, I know with Samantha leaving you and all, you’ve taken you’re job more serious than ever but we should probably wait for confirmation that we’re not gonna be the only cops that show up. This has the Sandman written all over it!”
“What makes you say the Sandman has anything to do with this?”
“143 Washington Avenue, that’s Ingrid militia territory! You know, the people the Sandman has been competing with in an arms race for like the past decade! You know, the one that’s made our jobs so damn difficult!”
“Jeremy, we've been best friends, for what, twenty some odd years, and I’ve never heard you talk to me like that. What’s gotten into you?”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that ever since the Sandman planted that bomb in the precinct that killed half the force, I’ve been a little on edge. I’m worried if one of these days something happens to me Melissa won’t be able to handle it and that little peter will grow up without a father.”
“I hate to say this but our duty is clear.”
“I know.”
We pull up to the address described in the dispatchers report yet something seems wrong there’s no vehicle parked anywhere in the vicinity.
“Jeremy, you’d think they would at least have an escape vehicle.”
“Maybe they've already left.”
“It’s a possibility.”
We get out of the car and head for the door of the house. We notice the door has been kicked in, there are still splinters of wood sticking out of the demolished door frame.  I step over the fallen door and I instantly see it.
“You see this?”
“Oh yeah.”
In front of us lie a half a dozen or so bodies sprawled across the floor. High powered firearms littering the floor as well. We maneuver our way to the living room where a surprise hits us right in the chest. The whole living room has been converted into a stockpile for guns. Fresh bullet holes cover the walls.
“Goddamn it! I knew the Sandman had to be involved. He probably sent his men to steal all this weaponry.”
I detect movement out of the corner of my eye.
“You see that?”
“Yeah it’s probably the Sandman’s men.”
  We ready our weapons. We head for the back door where I saw the movement. I slowly push the door open. Just then shots ring out. Part of the door explodes into a cloud of splinters. Then I see him make a run for it. He’s running across the street and I get a bead on him. I fire. The shot pegs him in the shoulder. A spurt of blood splashes the concrete. He falls. We confront him.
“I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the sandman! Just don’t kill me!”
I didn't expect him to surrender so easily.
My partner and I are standing above this man when out of nowhere a van swerves up to us and a series of shots strike Jeremy all over his torso. Of course, this is the escape vehicle. I fire two shots at the driver who had shot up Jeremy. Bits of the driver’s brain and skull splatters out the back of his head. Before I can turn two men hop out of the back of the van and I hear a another shot and I am knocked on my ass. I look down and touch my stomach. Blood drips from my hand. Shotgun wound straight to the gut. Just then a balding man with aviators on steps out of the van. He walks over to Jeremy and puts a bullet in his head. Jeremy goes limp. Tears form in my eyes as I watch my lifelong friend die. Then the balding man walks over to me and starts talking.
“You killed my driver without a hesitation. I respect that and because I respect that I will give you the courtesy of at least knowing the name of the man who is about to take your life. My name is Jonathan Baldwin. But you probably know me as the Sandman.”
I try to spit on him but as my energy eludes me I instead end up drooling on myself. He points his .44 magnum straight between my eyes.
“Goodnight.”
As I hear those words I close my eyes and accept my fate. I don’t even hear the gunshot as everything goes dark. 
                             CHAPTER 2
My eyes rip open. My body jerks to an upright position faster than a Lamborghini on the Autobahn. I see Commissioner Jackson slumped over in a chair. A crumpled bag of chips lies at his feet, Drool seeping from his gaping mouth. I attempt to crawl over the railing of what seems like a hospital bed. I manage to get over the railing yet I slump to the floor. I then feel a sharp pain as I realize I’ve had an I.V. in all along and it was just torn from my arm. Crimson blood seeps from the wound. I gasp. The commotion I had just caused must have woken Commissioner Jackson from his slumber because I’m staring into his perplexed face.
“David Wagner, I’ll be damned, you’re awake!”
“Commissioner Dale Jackson, what in all of god’s green earth owes me this…pleasure.”
“Damn it David, you've been out for seven years and you’re the same god forsaken ass hole.”
“Did you just say seven years?”
“Um…yeah. You should probably know you've been in a coma for the past seven years. So yeah…now that’s out in the open, how’ve y—“
“Is he dead.”
“Is who dead?”
“The Sandman…Is he dead?”
“Quite the contrary, he actually owns seventy percent of the city…I mean things have gone to shit around here, David!...so I would say no would be the answer to your question.”
“Then I have work to do!”
“okay, I know you want revenge and I’m not gonna stand in your way…but at least keep your voice down…the sandman has spies everywhere. You don’t want him knowing you’re gunning for him…plus you don’t even know his name!”
“See that’s where you’re wrong because I do.”

                             CHAPTER 3
                             4 months later…
*knock* *knock*…
I hear voices on the other side of the door. The door opens. Some white man with a swastika tattooed on his forehead appears in the doorway. His worm like lips start to move.
“Who the fuck are you?”
I give him a right hook to the jaw. Bits of tooth embeds itself in my knuckles. He falls on his ass. As he hits the ground I fire my shotgun at his pal who was charging me with a knife. His intestines spray out his back along with shards of spine. He flies back and crumbles into a pile of smoking flesh. Another one charges me from the kitchen firing a pistol at me. I get behind a table. I wait for him to reload then I see my chance. I pick the knife up from his fallen comrade and throw it. It plunges right into his throat. Arterial spray gives the nearby wall a fresh coat of red “paint”. Just then another one tries to get me in a chokehold. His greasy nails digging into my skin. I flip him over my shoulders and stomp on his face. I keep stomping on his face until I’m just stomping bits of brain and skull into the floor.  Then I turn to the whole reason I came here: The feeble man in the corner cowering like a little bitch. He is the Sandman’s right hand man and the one person who is always aware of the Sandman’s location. Plus he just happens to be the bastard who shot me in the gut with his shotgun. I’m gonna make him wish his boss would have finished the job.
“Where’s the sandman? You little prick, you are going to tell me whether you know it or not! So why not take the easy way out, huh?”
“I’m not telling you shit!”
“Do you like to go on an afternoon jog every now and then?”
“W-what?”
“No?...that’s what I thought you said because you’re missing a leg!”
I put the barrel of my shotgun against his kneecap and pull the trigger. His leg explodes into a pile of mush. He screams.
“Now are you going to tell me where your boss is or do I have to take an arm too?”
I’ll tell you everything! I promise!”
I jam my fingers into his stump of a leg as a bit of encouragement. His screams are amplified.
“We don’t got all day sugar puss.”
“he’s staying at the fire gate inn in a little town called Harissburg not far from here! He’s supposed to meet some low lives there for an arrangement!”
“Thanks pal, it’s been a blast!”
I then without hesitation pull out my colt .45 pistol and put a bullet between his eyes.

                             CHAPTER 4

I’m about ten minutes outside of Harissburg when I realize the day I’ve been dreaming of since the Sandman put a bullet in my friend’s brain is finally at hand. But then I start to think Jeremy wouldn’t want me doing this. Jeremy was a man of the law. And here I am, first quitting the force because they wouldn’t sanction my form of vengeance and then breaking just about every law for some godforsaken vendetta. Am I really doing good or have I gone mad with bloodlust! I can’t think of such things! Not now. Not when it’s all on the line. No distractions. I pull up to the inn. I ask the secretary if a Jonathan Baldwin has been here. I tell her he’s expecting me. She smells of pot and feces. I struggle to hold down the vomit that’s about to spew out my mouth. I head to room 2A, the room that stench riddled woman told me he’d be. Two bodyguards stand out front. I must take them out quick and quietly to ensure I get the drop on the sandman. I screw on the silencer to my pistol and take my aim. I fire twice. One shot hits the near guard in the head. Quick and quiet. The other pegs the other guard in the throat he gurgles for a brief second before I put another in his brain. My heart skips a beat for I fear something was heard. No I’m sure no one heard anything. I creep as silently as I can go till I’m at the door. I push the door open quickly and I start firing. The sandman falls to the ground but I see the most peculiar thing: a gun falls from his hand, smoke weaving its way out the barrel. Just then it hits me. I grasp my chest. blood drips from my hand. The bastard shot me three times in the chest. He must have hit my lungs for I suddenly find it hard to breathe. I collapse as my heart beat slowly slips away. I can’t think but one thing.
“I did it Jeremy. I did it for you.”
I smile as I slip into the everlasting night.