Drinking my self into oblivion

Felix sat down at the bar, his hand circled around his glass. Was he losing his edge? Was he really that weak? He couldn't believe himself.. out here.. in the open, with only a hood to hide his face, and he was getting drunk. No.. more then drunk, he was plastered now. The room was spinning, and he laid his head on the counter, half hoping he could drink himself into alcohol poisoning. Maybe then he could forget the fact that everyone in the world, except for his girlfriend, hated his guts. And even then.. Naomi had her pack.. she spent so much time with them, that he could have cried outright in frustration. Her pack was everything to her, and he... he was the soppy little house husband who cooked dinner, and made it nice and sparkly clean for her when she got home.

Even after their fight... when he had hurt her.. seeing her in pain like that.. it made him nearly sick.. and then just before that.. looking at Maggie.. seeing her hurt, it had killed him inside. He had thrown up, fallen to the floor, clutching his stomach as he heaved knowing what he was feeling, and to afraid of it to admit it. Felix stared into his glass, and saw his own reflection. His jaw was set, his hair was slightly damp with sweat, and he wanted nothing more then to throw his hood off and drink himself down into a hole, but he knew that to pull his hood off would be death. Who knew what kind of muggle and wizard police were after him... he had posters up everywhere.. he had a 10,000 Galleon price on his head.. he was wanted... and people wanted to find him, and either kill him, or send him straight back to the Dementors..

What really sucked about the whole situation was, he had had a chance to get better.. to live a life that came as close to normal as he could get. But before he could grasp the fact that he could have lived... he had been broken out of jail, and now he worked for Grindelwald, as the most feared torturer. So... where did the remorse come in? Was it thinking about that poor Chase girl he had tortured not long ago.. seeing her terrified sobbing eyes, staring up at him as he sliced into her skin with a razor blade, or was it the little fifteen year old he had now... chained to a wall, a stab wound in her stomach keeping her from having the will to escape. So why did he feel so lousy? He had his girlfriend. he had a plaything.. so why couldn't he be happy with that? It helped that he had no other friends, and his will to be bad lessened by the hour. So now.. he sat here, drinking his sorrow away, wondering what would happen if he just lost control and killed everyone in the bar, watching their faces die... lashing them to the walls, and hearing their screams, killing them all before the cops could come..

The seconds thoughts like these popped into his head though.. pain flung through his body, and he had to clutch at the counter, his wand clutched in his hand. At one point the bartender noticed, and came over worriedly. "You okay pal?" He growled, and suddenly saw Felix's face. "Confundo." he muttered and watched the bartender look at him, then walk away, going to another customer to fill up their glass.

Robert had had some intell cross his Ministry desk, and this was something he was very interested in. He rose from the desk at once and walked out without a word and went down the hall. He walked into Jen's office w/o invitation, closing the door. Jen always looked so pitifully bored with the paperwork.

"Send that up to Eve," he said to her, in a rather atypical commanding tone. "I want you with me. I have a wanted man to kill. Get your weapons. I want this done. I want his cold dead corpse in my autopsy room tonight." he went over to her weapons locker and opened it. He considered borrowing a muggle pistol and then decided against it. His wand would do more than enough.

"Let's be honest, shall we?" he said. "We both want Felix Barker dead, and I just happen to know where he is at this very moment. I am not missing this again. I suppose you could choose not to go, but I really don't think that's going to happen, is it?"

Another day, another serial murder to add to her collection. Oh wait no, no...it’s a serial suicide actually. Well, that had been the correction that stupid bloody secretary of Jen’s had given. Jen didn’t know how many times she actually had to spell it out for the morons that the serial suicides were serial murders and the guy doing them was actually a woman hell bent on taking out guys that were the spitting image, or there abouts, of her lover that died during the Second Wizarding War. She had piles surrounding her like a great big paper fortress. For the last few days she’d been profiling the female serial killer who didn’t use poison as her choice of weapon. She wasn’t an opportunist that was for sure. No murder was the same and so each ‘suicide’ was different yet they all bore a distinctive mark - the smell of pepper and goat’s cheese at the crime scene. Jen still had yet to make sense of that.

Jen recognised Robert’s knock and allowed him inside. She lifted her eyes off of Jane Doe and quirked an eyebrow at the Minister as he opened up the arms cabinet. Most of it wasn’t actually hers; pilfered instead from a South American jail that seemed to possess every arm known to man. She had an array though she didn’t quite have as many rocket launchers as they had. She rose from her chair, Jane Doe now no longer her interest for the day, and walked over to the arms cabinet. She took a holster off of the hook and tied it around her waist before slotting a few pistols into place. She picked up a few extra wands and slotted them into her boot. She lifted her head again when he spoke and a soft, yet seemingly deadly smile spread across her thin , scarlet lips.

“You’re giving me an opportunity to have Felix Barker at my mercy; and in turn at yours?” Jen asked carefully. “Well let’s not waste time. I don’t want to lose him and neither do you. Merlin knows this makes things a bit livelier around here. C’mon. Apparation or Floo? Which is quickest? In fact, just to add to the amount of questions I’m asking, where on earth did you find out where he was?”

"I thought we might take turns, my dear, followed by some celebratory vintage firewhiskey. Oh, that reminds me. Accio!" His leather messenger bag came on his command, and he shouldered it. "I do have a few new tricks. Apparating will be faster, but from what I understand he isn't going all that quickly. He's in a pub, utterly pissed. Personally, I'd like to see if he can take pain as well as he dishes it. And as for how I found out, you do not want to know. Shall we?" He offered her his arm. It wasnt the best neighorhood they were going to, but that wouldnt bother either of them. "Bring whatever little toys that might amuse you," he told her, a rare permiission for him to be granting. It was a good thing St, Jess wasn't here to see Robert's transgressions today. But when it came to Barker, Robert had issued a death warrant on him, after all, so it hardly mattered.

Jen looped her arm through Robert’s and smirked before allowing herself to fold into the suffocating tube that was Apparation. She sucked in her last breath and closed her eyes, waiting for the sickly sensation to pass. She blinked and shook her head when they landed and her eyes jumped around the bar, seeking out Felix until her eyes fell on a dark hooded figure. She took her wand from her pocket and flicked it at the hooded figure. The hood fell back and Jen flicked her wand again, sending a Crucio his way. She released Robert and took a few steps forward. She glanced around as people rapidly began to scramble out of their chairs. She observed them coolly and waited until the door had finally swung shut before smirking and releasing the spell. “Evening Mr. Barker.”

Felix knew immediately that someone who had a thing against him was in the room. He heard a pop, and he felt himself smiling. They had wands, and they had caught him with his guard down.. bravo.. couldn't even catch him when he was at least sober... at least he could get them when their guard was UP, instead they took him while he was down. He could hear the spell in the air before it hit him, like his every sense was ten times stronger then before. He let out a scream and fell off of his stool, landing hard on the floor. He heard a woman's voice, and heard people yelling and screaming, running out of the pub, the bartender had ducked behind the bar, and Felix could hear him shaking as he dialed his phone for the police.

Felix panted and slowly pulled himself up, using the stool. He slowly turned and looked at his attacker, a scowl written across his handsome, drunken face, his hood falling off, to reveal ruffled brown hair, and made his scowl look even more deadly. "Can't a man.... just sit here.. and enjoy a drink?" He slurred, his eyes finding the faces of his attackers finally. "Oh.. hey... Robert, Jen, my old buddies." He laughed and leaned against the bar, his hand finding his wand and gripping it loosely. "You got a problem with me?" he asked, his scowl replaced by an amused grin. He held out his arms to them and laughed, falling back against the counter again, gripping it, his wand pointed at them loosely, a goofy grin on his face. "Can't even take me sober? So you find me when I'm... I'm drunk." He laughed, and looked at the two, his grin fading. "You gonna kill me?" He asked, a frown replacing his laughter.

"Go ahead. Call the police. They'll have a lovely time trying to find us," Robert said. He flicked his wand and made the pub unplottable. "Kill you?" Robert laughed bitterly. "I haven't decided yet. I really do want to see, though if you can take pain or if you're just a one trick pony, Barker. Personally, I don't want to waste anymore of our valuable tax resources to house you and feed you in Azkaban, so I would gladly pay for a pauper's cremation of your corpse once you've gone across the veil. I just haven't decided how soon that will be. You were truly stupid if you thought you could just go out to any pub and not have me find you. You had to know we would look." He looked over at Jen. "Ladies first, my dear. He's all yours." He flicked his wand at the doors, securing them. "There. That's better. I do hate interruptions, don't you?"

Jen crossed the room and picked up one of the chairs that had been knocked the floor in the patrons’ haste to leave. She lifted it over to where Barker had fallen and put it down beside him. Jen took her cloak off and sat herself down easily. She kicked her leg out sharply, her foot connecting with Barker’s side. “It’s easier this way, for you and for us. Why should we have to work to get you when you’ve just been picking up your choice of victims quite easily. I hardly think you’d go without a fight, darling, so why should we pull resources just for you? You’re worth ten-thousand galleons -- did you hear about that? It’s impressive, isn’t it? Mmm...you’re not worth it though. No...you’re just an eyesore on the face of the earth; a scab that is not quite ready to be picked off and disposed of. But do you think you’re ready now? Not to die but to suffer the fate of knowing that you’ve got to live through every day knowing that your punishment is just and deserved? It’s not even a punishment though is it? It makes you sound like a naughty child. No, it’s a form of revenge. And you deserve it don’t you? Darling you are the worst excuse of a man I have ever seen. You’re weak, whether or not you like to think otherwise.”

Jen tapped his side with her shoe before shoving her foot against his ribs again. “Do you think Daddy loved you? Do you think he actually thought; ‘that’s my son, he’s going to be great’? Or do you think underneath the pretence of hatred he actually did in fact hate you and there was no pretence but raw, raw anger. It’s in your profile you know...daddy issues. You’re a poor little tortured soul. But so is Khaat Lupin. So is Elijah Krum. So Is Chase Moor.” And for every name, there was another kick to the ribs, followed swiftly by “Crucio!”

Felix just didn't have the strength to fight back. Did they not know this went through his head every day? That the spell she had thrown at him was nothing compared to the horrendous pain of remorse that had settled over his body like a veil, blocking his mind, and clouding his thoughts. He couldn't even get his enjoyment out of torturing like he used to, and at this point, he'd rather be left alone.. left in a shack in the middle of no where, with no way to get help.. he'd rather die there then see the pain in another person's eyes.. but of course, he had a contract with Grindelwald.. who could make him great, make him feel whole again, instead of this horrendous torture from inside.

He felt her foot connect with his side, and he grunted in pain, not moving from his spot. She spoke of his father, his father.. he had loved him.. Felix knew he did.. it was there inside of him. In the way he looked at him when Felix was on the ground, after he had just had the shit beaten out of him. He had seen it.. those rare occasions when he wasn't drunk.. his father loved him.. these people were just to stupid to see it. His mind was clouded and it wasn't until he received quite a few kicks, as well as a shouted name at him that he was brought back to his senses, only to be put under Crucio again. Screaming in the pain, that was intensified by the alcohol he had consumed, he fell to the ground again, out of reach of her boots, he lay gasping in pain for a moment, his whole body searing, his mind blanking, sweat beading on his forehead. He couldn't even bring himself to fight back, simply to find his hands on a stool again, and hoist himself to standing, his chin raised, his eyes not on Jen, but locked on Robert, the alcohol being burned away by the adrenaline rushing through his veins.

Robert flicked his finger to summon a whiskey glass to him. He opened the leather messenger bag he carried and pulled out a potions bottle. This one had taken months in development. Had required all his anger, all his rage, all his need to get back at the man who had nearly killed the one thing he cared about more than life itself. Every time he had reconsidered the potion, he remembered finding Khaat so close to death that her soul had been separated out of its body and had lingered out of her anguish for the boy she called her son. And every time the memory came back to Robert's mind, it set him working again.

And then he had locked it away where he had hoped he would forget about it and never use it, hoped he'd never want to use it. But when Grindlewald had blown a hole in Azkaban, he had done himself nor Barker any favors. Robert had gone and gotten the potion out of its hiding place.

"Have a drink, Barker," Robert said, hearing the ominous ring of doom within his own voice. If Barker resisted, he would merely use an imperious on him. That was simple enough. Either way, Barker would drink.