Snow Flurry - 5 - Bad End

Part V – The keys for 'Master' are going to disintegrate by the time I've typed the rest of this fic.  Also David Tennant is now in the mafia.

Master cautiously opens the door and finds himself face-to-face with the intruder from your flat.  You'd almost forgotten entirely about the turn of events that brought you to this place, hard as that is for you to believe, thanks to Master's care and attention, but seeing him brings it all flooding back.  You instinctively jump down from the table and hide behind Master's legs despite the fact you know full well it won't do much to save you from armed gangsters.  The intruder lets himself in, shoving Master out of the way and you along with him.  He is followed by two other men, both armed with quite intimidating-looking rifles.

You hadn't really thought that he could get any uglier, but you have to admit the bandages across his face don't really add much to his looks.  You see him catch a nervous glance at Master as he walks past, despite his armed accomplices.

“Now, let's get one thing straight here.  I'd have just shot you straight up when I saw you in town earlier if I had the choice but forces outside my control want you both alive.”  He throws up his hands in the air and laughs.  You can actually hear the fear behind his display of bravado, and you sense that Master can as well as you can feel him chuckle inaudibly.  One of the accomplices takes a position in front of the hall leading back to the rest of the cabin while the other shuts the front door and stands guard there, effectively sealing off all routes of escape.  You just then realize that Dan is nowhere to be found, having slipped out of sight before Master opened the door.

It seems that this same fact dawns on the intruder simultaneously.  “Where's the other guy?”  He signals for the guy in the hallway to check the back rooms.

As soon as he turns around to check Dan's room he flies backward, a splatter of blood hitting the wall behind him.  Dan emerges from his room with a shotgun as the remaining two mobsters scramble to take cover behind the sofa.  Master grabs you and ducks into the kitchen for cover as the last remaining accomplice fires down the hall, his rounds hitting the walls behind Dan.  The intruder draws a pistol and begins firing it wildly in Dan's generally direction, his hand shaking terribly.  Both mobsters are  entirely occupied firing at Dan's position around the corner; neither of them notices Master slip back out from the kitchen behind them.  Master goes up behind the two, disarming the intruder and firing his pistol into his accomplice at point-blank range.  The intruder left alone and disarmed, Dan emerges and stands next to Master, the two of them exchanging a brief nod that communicates more than you can possibly imagine.  You wonder just how many times the two of them were in similar situations before.  You shudder at the thought of Master having been in so much danger.  You can't imagine what you would've done without him if he hadn't made it out intact.

The intruder has no backed into a corner and is now absolutely quaking in terror, looking almost as though he's having a seizure.

“Alright, what the fuck were you doing out here you son of a bitch?”  Dan's voice is absolutely seething.

“N-now, you don't wanna do nothing crazy.  I still got rights you know.  You c-can't just go an' off somebody without the cops comin' for you.”

“Oh, yeah, I can tell you're the kind of guy who gives a shit about that.  If the cops ever even find you out here they'll give me a fucking medal for getting rid of punks like you.”  Dan smashes the face of the intruder against the wall with the stock of his gun and you can hear the sound of bone breaking against wood.  You can't bear to look at the blood and curl up in the corner of the kitchen staring at a wall, but you can still hear Dan's interrogation continue.  “Now, care to tell me where your boss is hiding so I can have a word with him?”

“Unless you plan on hirin' a psychic for that, you ain't talkin' to the boss.  He's pushin' up daises ever since your friend over there did a number on him.”

“So, let me get this straight.  You just came out here from the hell of it.  No pay, no orders, just because you fucking felt like it.”

You get the feeling that Dan was preparing another strike with his shotgun from the abject terror in the voice of the intruder.  “L-look, the d-doctor told us he w-was gonna pay us if we b-brought you all back a-alive.  Big p-payday.  Last job w-we'd ever have to do.  Just b-bring them two back and then f-forget we ever saw 'em.”

“Who the fuck is the doctor?”

“I d-dunno.  Some old g-guy the boss hired.”

“Some old guy,” Dan parrots.  He smacks his shotgun on the couch.  “How about a name, bitch?”

“Uh,” the intruder's voice trails off aimlessly, “I t-think the boss s-said his n-name was Doctor Collins.”

- - -

You're not exactly sure how long its been since Master locked himself in his room.  Dan left awhile ago with the three gangsters in the back of his pickup.  You don't know exactly what he intends to do with them; you don't really want to either.

You haven't been able to hear anything through Master's door for the past half hour.  You're worried about him but its a welcome relief from the constant screaming at the walls that had kept you company throughout the earlier part of the evening.  You really wish he'd hurry up and open the door.  You want nothing more than to try comforting him, but there's very little you can do until he decides he's ready, so you keep waiting.  You lay your head down on your forelegs, your eyes drifting shut.

Suddenly the bedroom door swings open, nearly into your face.  You jump up and greet Master with the biggest smile you can manage.  He looks down at you and breaks into a pained half-smile.

“Oh, Snowy,” he trails off as he picks you up and hugs you tightly, pressing his face into your back.  He carries you into his room and sits down on the mattress, releasing you from his grip as he does.  You lay down at his feet and look up into his eyes.

He begins speaking, his voice breaking every few seconds, “I'm so sorry about all of this.  I'm so sorry, Snowy.”

You didn't have anything to do with it, Master.  Don't say you're sorry.”  You lean in to nuzzle his hand.

“No, stop it.”  He pushes you back.  You fall back on your hind legs in shock.  “I always knew that fucker was crazy.  I just never thought he could do something like this.  To innocent people.  To his own fucking son, almost.”

You get up and try to console him but he just continues talking, guessing at any possible avenues you may have taken to comfort him and shutting them down.  “No, trust me, I've thought of everything.  I mean, it's gotta be him.  Who the fuck else could it be?  I should've known, dammit.  I should've done something instead of just running away.  I always knew he would go off the fucking deep end.”

You lay your head across Master's lap, and he halfheartedly begins to stroke your mane.

“You didn't deserve any of this.  I don't know who you were before all this but nobody as nice as you deserves this shit.”

He leans down and looks you squarely in the eyes.  You can feel his hand running down your neck.

“And I sure as fuck don't deserve someone like you.  I'm sorry Snow, I just can't keep doing this in good faith anymore.  Not knowing what I know now.”

You can feel the collar around your neck unbuckled.  He lifts it away and shifts his gaze onto it.

“I just don't know what got into me.  I can't believe I did any of this to you.  I hope you can forgive me, but I won't blame you if you can't.”

He gets up, looking around the room contemplatively.  He tosses the collar on top of a shelf attached to the wall above the mattress.  By now, you're failing miserably at suppressing your tears over this whole turn of events.

You grip his leg as tightly as you can.  “No, y-you can't do t-this to me.  Not now.  Please, Master!”

He looks down at you and for a brief moment your eyes meet.  “I'm so sorry, Snow.  I'm no master.  I'm just a kid who runs like a bitch from his problems.”

You can hear the front door swing open and Dan walk back inside.

“You're free to do whatever you want.  This is something I need to do, Snowy.  I do sincerely hope that some day one of us can find a way to fix all this.”

He walks out the room with you close behind, tears trailing behind you as you go.

He looks over at Dan across the room.  “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Dan leaves out the open front door.  As Master exits, he turns and gives you a parting look.  “I don't know what's going to happen to us.  I'm sorry I couldn't fix this for you, Snow.  I'm so very sorry.  I don't know if we'll meet again.  I hope that some day we might.  Here's looking forward to that day.”  He gives you a weak salute and turns towards the truck.

You chase after him out the door.  “If you're leaving take me with you!”

“Where we're going is no place for somebody like you, Snow.  I don't know what's going to be waiting for us.  I can't bear the thought of you getting hurt.”

He opens the door of the pickup and slides inside the cab with Dan.  You can only sit and watch as it leaves down the dirt road.

You look up, tears still making their way down your cheeks, and ask the open air, “So, where to now?”  For a moment you were actually expecting a response.  It's been so long since you've been away from Master's side.

Try as you might, you can't come up with any place worth being but here, even if Master doesn't ever come back.  You trudge back inside, shutting the open door behind you as best you can with hooves, leaving it slightly ajar.  You sit just inside the entrance, trying to remember better times.

You notice the bed that Master bought for you leaning up against the couch, at some point knocked down in all the commotion.  You grab the edge in your mouth and drag it slowly down the hall to the foot of the mattress in the back room and curl up inside.