Bloody intervention (AC entry challenge)

For the #SnowButcher challenge!!!

It was freezing outside, as an old man with a seemingly incurable disease like pneumonia shouldn't had been outside with a police officer by his side, but Jonah was a stubborn man that didnt cared too much about his lungs or physical condition. Every thought on his mind warned him of how crazy and stupid this decision was, how comfortable would all be if he sent Mr Williams and his whole police department to hell and went home...he could had been enjoying a nice cup of coffee and ing the old times with his family.

And yet there he was, in the middle of Eldertwood under a lamp post that was barely functioning with a young man smoking a cigarette.

"That is going to get you killed faster than a bullet, you should stop doing it" Jonah broke the silence, bored of feeling his hands freezing

"And you old man shouldn't be outside with this weather, but here you are and here am I smoking" The young lad glanced back with an raised eyebrow

"I'm just here to patrol for one day because your stupid guy of a boss doesn't have enough people to guard this almost ghost town at night" Jonah raised his finger pointing to the empty street

"Ghost town? You are joking with that right? There are plenty of taverns, you can play poker in almost any house around here, plenty hotels...normal regular people at this time of the day are drunk or in debt because of a card game, not in the middle of-"

"Yeah, yeah, alright fine I get your point...is just...I don't know is weird this so called Mr Williams is hiring people to do what police normally does"

"So you think this is just one night shift because of our incompetence?" The policeman held his laughter

"Yes...? That's what he told me when I went to his office, what's the deal with the laughter?"

"Oh nothing, just thinking about a joke I heard today" the man avoided eye and kept the cigarette in his mouth

Jonah grew suspicious of what was really going on in there, no regular town would hire mercenaries or desperate people in need of money just to watch over that seemingly peaceful place; the old man wondered if that excuse was made to just make fun of someone past their prime like Jonah from a window while betting how long would it take for the cold to kill him or was because of something more sinister...which it probably wasn't and it was just old stupid Jonah head overthinking stuff again.

Half an hour slowly ed by, the policeman still had that smile on his face but didn't wanted to talk anymore, making the shift for Jonah all that more painfully slow, he even at one point grabbed some snow and made it into a ball to throw just to see if he could get some enjoyment out of that boring and cold night. None of both men had any sort of coffee in their pockets and they couldn't return back to the station until the job was done, so the only thing that could warm their bodies was the constant movement and the cigarette that was almost completely gone. That was until the moon was very high on the sky, shinning more light in them than the lamp post could ever do, the houses around the two men were closing down their curtains and extinguishing any light sources; leaving only the moon high in the sky for any sort of light.

Jonah looked back at the young policeman, about to ask him if Jonah could had the last few inhalations of the cigarette until they heard a fainting scream in the distance.

"What the hell was that?!?!?!? Hey did you heard that scream?" Jonah grabbed the other man by his coat and shake him lightly

"No..no, no, no, no-noth-nothing. I heard nothing" The man face turned pale, replacing the smile for a face of complete fear

"It sounded like someone was getting robbed or something worse! Come on we gotta go!" Jonah walked a few footsteps until he noticed that the policeman wasn't moving "What are you waiting for?!?!?!"

"Look man it was nothing...just...just...ignore it, let's go back the night shift is over" The young man was now shaking

"You are going to do nothing-?" Just as he was going to end the phrase, another scream caught him off-guard "Fuck it, you can stay there and not do anything but I'm going there whether you like it or not!"

"You haven't heard shit about the snow butcher?!?!?! Don't go man is not worth it" despite all of his warnings, the old man was already running towards the sound "Well there goes another guy to die" he mumbled before running towards the police station, he surely wasn't going to die like that old man

Jonah ran towards the direction of the screaming, it echoed in his mind; a scream like that meant that something horrible was happening. Every door in the way, every window was closed tightly, nobody was even trying to help or to point Jonah the way to save that person; he was all alone.

That sent chills down his spine, the fact that such a terrible act of violence was being ignored, that nobody was going to help that poor soul that was screaming their heart out, nobody but a old, stupid, weak man like Jonah.

Finally after taking a turn in a street, Jonah met with the murder scene face to face: a shadowy figure with its face covered was standing on top of a barely breathing man. Jonah gasped, frozen in place.

"My God what in the-!" Was the only thing he could say

The stranger figure stood up quickly and started to run away, this made Jonah snap back to reality. His eyes could only focus on the dying man; he crouched right beside the poor soul; repeating over and over "It's okay...it's okay, you gonna be fine sir just hold on", with the little knowledge of medicine Jonah had from healing his wounds countless of times, his shaky hands tried to stop the bleeding, but it was futile: almost all of the limbs of that man were missing, even if Jonah could stop the bleeding in one part of his body, there were two more bleeding out.

With a heavy heart Jonah closed his eyes and pulled his own knife, if he couldn't heal that poor guy, at least Jonah could make his pain stop

"I'm sorry...I'll...all is going to end soon alright? Is okay...is okay..." Jonah kept his eyes closed as he mercy killed that poor man, feeling his breathing stopping. It was for the best, he wasn't feeling pain anymore.

Jonah opened his eyes and quickly searched for the footprints of the man or woman that had done this horrible act: his bloody footprints were everywhere in the snow, but some were more recent. Decided to avenge the death of the poor soul Jonah tried to save, the old man followed the footsteps while taking his LeMat out, trying to be as quiet as possible, a hard thing to do while moving in snow.

The old man was so focused on the trail that he didn't noticed he was walking right into a trap, as soon as he was about to turn a corner someone suddenly grabbed his jacket and tossed Jonah against a wall, the old man felt something in his back breaking as he grunted from the pain, then a boot met his face when trying to stand up, Jonah felt the cold snow in the back of his head and the blood on his nose instantly. He needed to do something or else he would be a pile of dead meat in no time. After receiving a punch in the gut Jonah saw his opportunity, grabbing and holding that hand as tight as his strength could do.

"You...killed someone...you coming with m-" Jonah mumbled as he received a headbutt from his attacker "I know now where you are, you bastard!"

With a bloody smile, the old man kicked the stranger on one of their legs, it seemed to just cause annoyance on the attacker so Jonah did it two more times before the stranger grunted, at least he was doing some damage now. When he tried to repeat the attack, the stranger with his free hand caught the leg of Jonah as they yelled while using their weight to toss the old man to the ground, Jonah didnt recover his balance in time and again found himself on the snow.

He received one punch in the face, then another, then a third one, his head slowly being more and more filled with blood. Jonah mumbled something and spit some blood to the attacker, their mask now having a few drops of the old man's blood; Jonah saw in the corner of his eye how the stranger was pulling a knife, as soon as their hand was in reach Jonah tried his hardest to take the knife from them, both got caught in a deadly struggle as the blade got closer to Jonah face.

"Dammit....you...are...very strong or I'm...terrible at...this kind of...thing" Jonah inhaled deeply and then used all the little strength he had at that moment.

It proved to be just enough to turn the tables in his favor, as Jonah heard the person yell in pain. Jonah screamed as well and kicked with both of his legs, finally getting the stranger off from him. Jonah gasped as he desperately crawled backwards to get as far away from the stranger as possible.

"You...are gonna pay...for that old man!!!" The stranger finally talked in a deep male voice, pulling the knife out of his stomach and walking towards Jonah

By some miracle, Jonah faintly heard the screams of people in the distance, not thinking about it twice the old man yelled as loudly as he could, now hearing the voices and footsteps getting louder.

"Approach this town again and you'll be nothing more than a pool of blood in the ground!" The stranger pointed the knife at Jonah before disappearing in the dark.

Jonah painfully laughed as he stopped crawling and stood there on the cold ground, looking at the moon high up on the sky. The voices finally surrounded him, the young policeman that cowardly ran away had come back with backup, Jonah had enough of that night already, closing his eyes the old man fainted, not caring at all about what would happen later.

He had enough action for one night, in the morning when he would wake up the first thing on his mind would be to get a drink. And that town could go to hell for all that he cares.