Caliber

"Why's it so dark?!"  I yell into the darkness, no one answers.  "Where the hell am I?!"   My name is Caliber... I thought I was dead... killed by some ninja chick.  I like not being dead, but... why aren't I?  "Where the hell am I?!" I shout.

"Hell is exactly where you are Joseph Romita."  It looks like a plume of fire!  Rising out of the darkness, and taking shape... it's head!  A human head made out of fire!!!

"Are you the devil?"  I ask.

"Yes."

"Should I be scared?"

"Yes."  I gulp, I know what coming next.  It's what happens to all people that go to hell.  "So... what torture do I get?"

"No torture... yet.  Instead I have a deal.  You confess all your sins... and I give you life."  That's a easy question.

"Deal."

"That was quicker than the last one."

"What?"

"Don't you want more details?"  The devil sounds confused.

"No.  So all I have to do is tell you how I screwed up?"

"Correct."

"Shoot!  Where do I start?!"

"How about... Vietnam?"  How did he know that?  I didn't want to tell him that.

"Oh..." I say "You don't want to hear about that."

"But I do."

"...Okay"  It feels like I had sold my soul.  "You ever hear... about what war can do to a man's morals.  Make him... do things he wouldn't normally do?"

"I'm familiar with it."

"That's what happened to me."

"Continue..."

"I went into Vietnam, ready to do my country proud, and kick some @#$!  I was all gun-ho, but still hadn't seen combat.

  Eventually, I fell in love, with a nurse named Joyce Harpkins.  I loved her, every part of her.  How'd she listen and talk back.  She wasn't afraid to speak her mind, but was never harsh about it.  I swear that every boy in the army loved her, but I had won her.  We even made plans to marry once our tours were over.

  Then it all came apart.  One day, just one day... we were raided!  First time I killed, first time I was shot, but Joyce... she... she was..."

"Killed.  Killed in cold blood, and what did you do?"

"... I... I...  We were northern Vietnam, so I stole a jeep and drove to the nearest village.  Then I... killed them all!  And not just the men... the women.... and the children!  Innocents who didn't even know the raid happened much less have anything to do with it!"

"There are too many major sins to count."

"And I did it all for revenge!  I killed them in the same cold blood as Joyce!  I was... lost.  I didn't realize what I had just done, and I had no idea where to go from there.  So I ran.  There was a plane leaving that same day.  It was taking troops home who finished their tours... troops who had earned it.  I stowed away.  Trying to run from my past, but I couldn't

  When I had got back... I couldn't get a job.  I was afraid it'd show on my sheet that I was supposed to be in Vietnam.  That it would show I left my country.  I had run from my past, and it had followed.

That's when I made the decision... the decision to become a mercenary.  I don't remember my first assassination, all I remember is that life soon became a blur of bloodshed and money.  Though I do remember one thing... the night I died.

  I had been hired to kill a crime lord named Calvin Brown, and because of another merc he had flown the coop.  So I was just there to gather info, but the other merc was there.  A ninja chick.  I tried to kill her, it should have been easy.  I was a big man with a big gun, and she was a skinny woman with a sword.  I underestimated her.  I got cocky.  She killed me.  End of story."  The devil doesn't seem to notice how embarrassed I am.

"Bravo!  Bravo!  What a touching tale.  You are a walking tragedy."

"I kept my end of the deal."

"That you did.  Now hold still, the pain will be brief."

"Pain what pain!  ARGHHH!!!!"  I hear myself scream!  It feels like I'm being torn to pieces! Then it stops.  I look around.  The sun is bright.  I'm alive.