He was there. Sitting on the second pew as he had for the last 12 months.
According to my Intel, every Sunday, he's there, just sitting. Sometimes even dozing there.
He looked old. At least old enough to not be outside in the winter cold of a December night.
His head snapped up as I walked towards him.
"You're here again." I say as I walked down the aisle, my previous plan of just observing him foiled due to the noise of my snowy boots on the dusty and dry wooden church boards.
"I am." He replied plainly, not taking the trouble to look at who was approaching.
As I walked towards him, I noticed that all of the church was dusty, some floorboards rotten, cobwebs on different corners. Indeed it looked abandoned, yet he didn't seem to mind, sitting on the dusty chair, in calm, with a thin smile on his face.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him, for the first time, I was curious about my mark.
"Nothing... Just waiting..." He answered calmly.
"Waiting for what?" I asked, confused at how calm he was in a creepy church.
"For the celebration. It is Christmas, no?" He replied back, finally turning towards me.
He wore shades, looked old enough to be blind and had a cane so I wasn't sure if he could truly see me, but I wasn't going to slip up on a job.
"It is Christmas, but it isn't celebrated here old timer." I said, chuckling at the confusion displayed on his face.
"What do you mean they don't celebrate it here? Isn't this a church?" He asked back and now it was my turn to be confused.
"Indeed it is a church but what of it?" I asked, suddenly feeling defensive.
"Christmas is celebrated in the club or with family or any other thing." I said explaining what I knew as the norm.
"Oooh." He said dejectedly.
"So that's what it has become now..."
He picked up his cane and tapped around suddenly hitting the pew in front of him.
He then adjusts his leg and lays it from the open back of the bench, using it as though it was a footstool.
"What are you doing?" I was confused by his reaction to what I had told him.
"Waiting..." He answered back
"For what?" I asked again.
"The end." He replied simply.
I walked towards him now so I can get a better look at him.
A black well built man in a reindeer cardigan and a wool head warmer which is tilted slightly to reveal his gray balding hair.
He brandished his cane fondly and it had enough marks to show that it wasn't used for just walking.
He looked like the kind of old-timer that could defend himself, surely I could take him out with the pull of a trigger but now more than ever I am curious of what he was thinking.
"You're still here?" He asked again.
"You're waiting for the end of what?" I asked
"My life or the world, whichever comes first."
"Why would either you or the world end and why would you wait for it?" I asked again, my confusion and curiosity increasing by the second.
"Why that's a very stupid question to ask youngun." He said laughing which showed his brown teeth.
"I don't have a lot of time left, neither does this world it seems." He says after he was through laughing.
"In my long life, I've heard a lot of things, but hearing that Christmas isn't celebrated in a church anymore really beats it all."
I bet you young one's don't even know the biblical story of Christmas.
I wanted to answer that I did, but I was pretty sure I was wrong.
My job as a hitman didn't leave quite a lot of opportunities for religion, especially not one as tight as Christianity.
"They say He'll come like a robber in the night and what's more robber-like than to strike when everyone has forgotten about you." He said, looking at me.
I was completely speechless at what was happening, the fact that I was getting a sermon in a church that had been abandoned for more than 20 years by someone who I should've killed a long time ago.
"Well I don't really have the strength nor ability to preach to you." He said, chuckling.
"I'm sure you have your own reasons why you're in a church on Christmas Eve when you could've been in a club."
"I'll just stay here and wait." He said then kept quiet.
"You really think the world is going to end?" I found myself asking him.
"Yes I do." He said in a heartbeat
"Although would I end before the world does? That's the question I don't know." He coughed into his sweater then.
"When you've become as old as me, waking up and going through everyday becomes a hassle. Your bones start aching, organs and your blood have beefs, your body is fighting with itself like 2 girls trying to impress one football quarterback."
I found myself smiling at the analogy, and he was too.
"The bottom line is with that much pain, one begins to wait for the cold relief of death, one begins to anticipate it."
I felt a cold draft blow through the hole in the church ceiling.
"So why not just kill yourself?" I asked him
"That's wrong kiddo." He said laughing.
"Even though it's painful you have to wait for the natural course."
"Have to go on as though everything is normal hoping that death visits you today.. and it seems I was lucky."
He said, smiling at me.
My eyes shone wide with realization. He knew I was here to kill him.
"When did you find out?" I asked, jumping back off in panic, eyes locked on his cane.
"Since you came close." He said simply.
"I could smell the gunpowder off you and here the quaint click of the metal with your keys when you moved."
"Although I don't know why you would want to assassinate an old man like me and to be frank, I don't care." He explained, smiling.
"You have my permission, please shoot. Breathing this cold air is crazy painful."
I looked at my mark as he stood upright, awaiting the cold touch of death.
"Aren't you going to shoot?" He asked.
"I would hate to be caught unaware."
It seemed crazy, it was crazy. He was literally begging to be shot.
I thought about it, killing him would riddle me with guilt, and the client didn't give a specific time limit on his head, plus there were still a lot of questions I needed to ask.
"Sadly I won't be killing you today." I announced my decision.
"Really?" He asked, I was amazed at the amount of sadness that was in that voice.
"Indeed it's a shame." I said
"Indeed it is." He replied back.
"Seems I'll have to wait for death some more." He said pulling his head warmer upright.
"Yes you would." I agreed with him.
As I walked out of the church, I looked back at what I had done.
A lot of bad records would be in my book, but at least I wasn't some jerk who killed a man before Christmas.
"Guess I'll anticipate a little less coal in my stockings from Santa tonight." I said laughing on the way home.
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