Free Payback by T. S. Worthington Page B

fact of it being good or bad was open to interpretation and it was open to the context. A lot of people went through extreme pain to just get to reach a certain goal or obtain something that they desired. The pain was worth the effort because the reward was great.
    There were other kinds of pain though. Like the pain he was experiencing right now. That sort of pain was purely physical and it was covered in rage and anger. Every time he hurt he got mad at that bitch who had not known her place and had in fact attacked him. She was working in self-defense and fear, but it pissed him off all the same. Did she not understand that she was interfering with his work and his mission?
    The need had risen exponentially since then which only added to his discomfort. He had to kill someone soon, but he was not going to be able to do so safely while he was injured. Luckily for him the girl’s aim had been bad and she had missed his heart by a few inches and the rubber of the suit he had been wearing did contribute to the blade not going in quite as directly as she had been aiming. Luck had worked out in his favor. He would never forget that and it only aided him in his reasoning that he had been chosen to do this work.
    He was not sure by whom or how it had happened, but he now understood why he had the need. He was not evil. He was not cursed. He had been given a gift and a mission. He had never believed in a God or a higher power of any sort, but he knew that the need had been given to him somehow. Whether you wanted to call that God or nature, or whatever—he didn’t really go into that sort of thing. He just knew what he needed to do and he had always done his best to serve his own needs. To a lot of people that meant that he was selfish, but why would you not be selfish? You had to love yourself more than your fellow man, even family was not as close to you as you were. He had never understood how people would constantly put others ahead of themselves. He had never been built that way and he never would be.
    He did not care about the lives he shattered because he was serving what was best for him. There were sheep and wolves in this world and his path had been decided at an early age. He did not realize it then, but he had been set on a distinct course in this world.
    Surviving this attack only added to this.
    He thought about the girl nonstop and had been thinking about her ever since this happened. Darla… she would need to pay, but he would not go for her now. It would be a long time coming and she would never see him coming after her. It might even be years from now when he was living somewhere else far away. He would never be able to continue his work in one spot for too long. The powers that be would try to catch him at every turn and eventually they would find some odd little thing that would trip him up.
    He stood up out of bed, wincing the whole time and made it to the bathroom. He turned on the shower nice and hot and let it run for a few moments, appreciating the steam that was coming out of the hot water. He could feel the infection trying to start in the wound. He would not allow that to happen. To think that all of his work and his mission could be foiled by a stupid chest wound infection. That would be hideous to go out that way. He would not allow that.
    When he had arrived back at his home he had carefully removed his clothes and hopped in the shower to wash the wound carefully with hot water and soap. Then he had applied alcohol. The burn had been insane and he had blacked out from it, falling in the bathroom and narrowly missing hitting his head on the corner of the sink. It had been almost an hour before he came to, his chest was still throbbing a hot pain that echoed throughout his body. He had lost a bit of blood and he was feeling dizzy but he had managed to get the bleeding under control.
    It had been two days since his encounter and the wound had not bled anymore and so far he showed no sign of infection,