1 Chapter 1: The Breaks

"Man that's gross."

Another mouthful of blood left Eric Xing's lips as he supported himself on the brick wall of the nearest building. The fresh red bricks were rough and clean juxtaposing the slick and dirty alley floor. The opposite building was much older with weather worn stone covered in algae.

'Really screwed the pooch this time.'

Eric looked up at the clear midday sky as it slowly became covered by dark smoke clouds.

Everything hurt right now. His left arm hung uselessly against his side, mangled. His right shoulder was stiff, only functional through a rapidly fading adrenal supply...

His nose was bleeding endlessly. Ribs were definitely broken, might have even punctured a lung. Each ragged, painful, blessed oral inhalation of oxygen, between bouts of hemorrhagic vomiting, a reminder of Eric's remaining, yet quickly fading, vitality.

His left leg had a burning pain, that he couldn't move his rigid neck to see, but it still worked. For now. He hopped, ever so slowly while dragging a right leg that was, from a distance, visibly damaged.

His right sneaker was gone long ago and Eric couldn't bother to look at the condition of his foot, even if his neck allowed it.

No. He had a goal.

A target.

Someone who took someone extremely precious from him. Someone who should've already been dead long ago, but from the trail of blood, was obviously not quite expired.

'Hell, I'm quickly approaching my expiration date as well.'

Inner musings seemed to be Eric's only solace. The pain was dizzying and beyond unbearable, but the sheer amount seemed to have overloaded Eric's threshold and instead brought a few more minutes of clarity. The inner rants serving as a subconscious center while pure, mindless hatred forced his broken shell of a body forward.

Sirens sounded out from a few blocks away. He had to hurry. He couldn't allow himself to be stopped. Not when he was this close.

'Faster.'

His inner thoughts slowly focused more and more on his goal.

Ignoring the jarring pain to his damaged and punctured intestines that accompanied each rough hop, Eric kept his eyes forward, watching as the smeared line of blood from his prey thickened, showing both an increased loss of blood and a severe drop in speed.

Coming out of the other side of the alleyway brought him within spitting distance of the major river in the area. Fishing boats and trash barges made up the majority of the dock's residents. Many were currently clearing out in a hurry, the panic nearly palpable in their movements.

The normally busy boardwalk was silent aside from the rapidly fading cacophony of different marine motors.

'Don't tell me...'

A brief moment of panic broke its way into Eric's fragile consciousness. If that weasel managed to get on one of those boats, he'd die before he could conclude his revenge. His bloodshot eyes searched frantically behind ever swelling eyelids. His right eye was nearly blind, making the task just that much more difficult.

'Ah. Now that makes sense.'

Where else would a rodent think to hide? Eric made his way to a seemingly inconspicuous pile of garbage. The lack of the wall's support forced him to amble along while using a rusty pipe. The pipe was probably left from some long forgotten building project. All that mattered was that it was sturdy.

The dull sound of a sneaker hopping, the soft sound of a foot dragging and the loud, sharp clink of the metal pole made for a strange ensemble, no doubt alerting his quarry to his presence. It didn't matter though, it was already a miracle that this guy was able to make it this far, after what Eric had already done to him. The desperate need for survival had obviously propelled him to where he was.

"Here... already... Mr. Xing." A gasping voice came from the side of the pile. Eric gazed upon the object of his heartache, the searing hatred in his eyes almost tangible. "What's... *gasp*... wrong, Mr. Xing?' A pained groan escaped the man's lips. "Cat got... your tongue?" The words were practically gurgled due the the nonstop bleeding from his mouth.

The bastard still found a way to chuckle, though.

"Shut the hell up" Eric spoke through clenched teeth. His jaw was broken in a few places which made it hard to talk in the first place. That, coupled with this unprecedented level of anger within him, had Eric nearly inarticulate. How dare this flea bag try to be quippy at a time like this?

He moved closer, mindful of any possible tricks this slippery bastard might have up his sleeves. His caution proved unneeded however. He watched as the weasel choked on his own blood, his body violently writhing until it became still.

In a daze, Eric grabbed the sidearm from the man's inner jacket pocket of his designer suit, extended his arm while balancing on one leg, raised the gun until the barrel was directly in the face of the already dead man, and squeezed the trigger until the whole clip was empty.

He was done.

He was tired. He was dying. He was alone.

But he was done.

Sirens came closer to Eric's location, no doubt alerted by the gun fire. It didn't matter. he was beyond saving at this point.

He looked at the river. How the water glistened in the sunlight in certain spots, yet almost looked lifeless under the clouds of smoke.

Smoke.

He glanced down at his body. Fresh burns covered most of it. Black and charred skin accompanied his already dark skin.

It was almost fitting for him to die here, in the land of his mother. The shimmering city across the river shined as if leading him to his final resting place. He stumbled forward, approaching the edge of the pier.

Blood was running into his eyes now, he barely had the strength to stand, let alone find a way to wipe them clean.

The river slowly started resembling a river of blood, the sky scrapers dark spires in front of a now menacing Mt. Tai...

'No, something's wrong here.'

The last dregs of consciousness set off alarm bells in his head. He blinked hard at the waters and saw what resembled skeletons and ghosts floating beneath the surface. "What the... hell...?"

Not knowing when he had reached the edge of the pier, the world tilted as Eric fell head first into the blood red river, the last bit of control over his body now gone.

...

Police and medical services arrived upon the never-to-be-forgotten scene seconds later. Soon enough to see Eric's body fall into the water. However, when they searched, they discovered that his body had seemed to have vanished.