The book of Blood - Journal of Geist von Mitternacht

[kitteninablender]

So I killed a guy today. That's not all that unusual for me, but today was the first time I really felt like I made a difference in a very long time.

A lady approached me in the Friendly Arms Inn this morning, and introduced herself as "Anabelle." She sat 100 gold down on the table and said to me "I hear you are a man who can solve problems..."

"Lady for 100 gold coins it had better be solving how to fix a squeaky door, I'm a 'handyman', that's true enough, but I don't work cheap." I retorted.

"Please!" she begged. I wasnt used to hearing them beg. It was then I knew this was serious. "Please...he hurt my daughter again. She may never walk right again.."

It was then she started to tell me her story.

This guy had been beating up his wife and daughters pretty bad for almost as long as they had been married. He liked to drink, and it got the better of him. The last time he beat his little girl so bad that she broke her leg while running down the stairs to get away from him.

The females in this family had long suffered physical, mental, and sexual abuse. The wife and both of her daughters lived in constant fear of this man. She worked every day, earning only a few silvers every day, until she saved up the value of 100 gold coins.

She had worked so hard, and she was willing to give me her meager life's savings to be rid of this monster that had brought her such agony.

"Ma'am....this one I'm going to do for free."

I had never seen a woman smile so happily in her life. She leaned in and kissed my cheek. I went to my room and I gathered my tools. I knew it was going to be a long night.

She told me his name was Harkon. He was a regular at the Jovial Juggler. So I did what I did best: Went in and cased the joint. She had given me a good enough description that it shouldn't have been hard to pick him out in a small crowd. I didn't have to wait for long.

The man sat at the bar. He had a beer in one hand and a Barmaid in another. It was quite obvious that he and the bar wench were more than friends. She tended to sit on his knee, and gave him a drink "on the house" at least two or three times that I could notice.

This one was going to be pretty tough. The Barmaid was keeping her eyes on him all night. From the way that they were acting it was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to leave alone either. So I needed a way to separate the two long enough for me to do the deed.

So I got an idea. I left the bar for a minute and went into the back alley. I twisted my Ring of Wardrobes and switched my clothes to my Noble's Disguise. A bit of quick grooming and I re-entered the bar, now looking like a much more well-to-do gentleman. I sat at the bar, next to Hakon, and proceeded to throw a few platinum coins on the bar to "start a tab."

The Bar wench, of course, took notice. It wasn't long before I had her full attention. Heh. Girls are predictable. Throw enough money around and you become the center of their world.

It went just as I planned. Hakon didn't like it very well when I stole his "girlfriend." He reached over and grabbed me by the collar, threatening to "smash my face in" for putting the moves on his girl. There was a brief "Scuffle" and then he drug me outside to the back alley to teach me a lesson...

...exactly as I had planned.

He didn't even have time to scream before a quick dagger, concealed up my sleeve, pierced his throat right below his Adam's apple. The quick and sudden perforation of his esophagus made it impossible for him to scream...just a quick gurgling before he fell over. I shoved his body into the privy stall and made my way back to the Friendly Arms. Anabelle was, of course, waiting on the news.

When I told her it was if, simultaneously, a light had shone into her life that hadn't been there before, and as if a great weight was lifted from her shoulders. She knew I wasn't lying. She knew that Hakon was dead, and could never hurt her or her little girls anymore. She hugged me. Tight. Boy did she hold on for a long time. I could hear her crying. She buried her head into my shoulder, and her cries of "Thank you, dear Gods, Thank you.." began to echo in my mind.

I had always been paid promptly after a contract. I had always heard the occasional "Good Job." But never a genuine Thank you. Never before had I heard someone so RELIEVED to hear about the death of another.

Perhaps some good CAN be brought into this world by the death of another? Perhaps it is as I've always thought, that they are quite simply some people in the world who NEED to die to make it a better place?

Bhaal was served well today. But at the same time so was I. I have a feeling I'm going to sleep better tonight than I have in a very long time..