Dud

In Jinx, Promo by Jinx

[Static.] [A black screen takes over the airwaves. A green text cursor blinks ever so ominously in the top left hand corner.] [terminal]// video_play= “True”

  > Intializing…[/terminal] [The video fades in. The playful laugh of Fatal Error herself as she holds before her a large black box full of fireworks.]

[terminal]“Packs an incredible punch..”

“Brilliant colors. Guaranteed to light up the sky.”

“The best boom for your credits!”[/terminal]

[Jinx sits the box down beside her with another giggle. She opens the box and pulls a mortar shell from it’s contents.]

“Harold Attano, you were the most promising of fireworks.”

“A man fresh off Death Row, a once helpless life form given a new meaning. A fresh new outlook on life.”

“You had all the right weapons at your disposal.” 

[By now, Jinx has unraveled the wick of the firework and set the mortar down into its firing tube.]

“I know who you are. I know what you’ve done and what you’re capable of. And I thought that if I gave you enough motivation, perhaps maybe if I could light your fuse.”

[Click. The sound of a zippo lighter opening could be heard. Moments later, a flame appears near the end of the wick and lits it ablaze.]

“I thought that if I gave you the fuel that you needed and pointed you in the right direction, that you would light up the sky. You would blast into the air without looking back and explode into a ball of beautiful color.”

[The fuse disappears, burning down the firing tube towards the mortar shell.]

“But I was wrong.”

[Jinx covers her ears as if the firework was about to fire, but nothing happens. Instead, a small cloud of smoke emits from the tube. Jinx giggles.]

“Despite all the promise on the package, you were nothing short of a disappointment. Despite all the stories that litter you past of a hard-nosed well-oiled assassin, you proved to be nothing more than a dud.”

“At Double Tap, I gave you the chance to redeem yourself. I took a man fresh off of DeathRow and I gave him the opportunity of a life time. The opportunity to show the Pantheon your worth. A chance to show the rest of Arcadia that you aren’t just some scum off the prison block, but a man to be reckoned with.”

“I gave you a window for success, but you failed to detonate.”

[Jinx takes a second mortar out of the box. She unravels the fuse and sits it down into a second tube before lighting the wick.]

“But me?”

“My future is bright. I will not be weighed down by some old man who’s clinging onto a former life as if he can still perform like that silent assassin that he used to be.”

“This week at Thunder, it’s my time to pop.”

[Once again, Jinx puts her index fingers in her ears. This time, right on cue, the firework shoots from the tube and explodes into a ball of beautiful colors.]

“And I will light up the sky like you should have at Double Tap.”

“Because you’re playing a game that you’ve already lost.”

[Cut.]