FanStory.com - His Nemesesby Bill Schott

They sat at the corner of 15th and Main Streets waiting for Connor's Bar to close. This was a poorly lit and untraveled part of town, where few souls walked the streets at night. The tavern was kitty-corner from where they sat. The two had been pulling from a half empty pint of bourbon and were full of courage and determination. Seymour wrung his hands while Ogden slipped on some tight leather gloves. Ogden had brought a nine millimeter Berretta with a full magazine of ammo loaded in it. There was another clip in his pocket. The plan was to wait for the bar to close and then commit the murder.

Ogden Perry and Seymour Tate had been friends since kindergarten. They often talked when they met on the playground. One day in the fifth grade, Ogden was being beaten up by Butch Bavendish outside the school in the parking lot. Seymour had run up to Butch and thrown dirt in the bully's face. This resulted in Seymour being beaten to unconsciousness. He had suffered broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and jaw, and a concussion. He missed the next three weeks of school recovering. Butch was collected by the state and sent off to an institution.

Ogden and Seymour played, worked, and did most everything together. They played opposite each other in the high school production of Othello. Ogden played the Moor and Seymour, Iago. They were each other's only challenge in debate team, and dual valedictorians. When they were freshmen in college, Ogden met Beatrice. They grew close quickly and, by graduation, were engaged to be married. Seymour and Beatrice seemed to get along, but were often telling Ogden, in confidence, that each didn't really like the other.

Ogden and Beatrice's wedding had been scheduled for the summer of this year, and all plans were aligned to that appointment. Ogden, who balanced litigating with his personal life, coordinated many of the plans. There was little help from Seymour, who seemed ambivalent about the wedding, and precious little input from Beatrice, who was on one business trip after another.

It was in the early spring that Butch Bavendish returned to town. He had spent much of his life incarcerated and was now employed at Connor's Bar as the bouncer. He had spied Beatrice and Ogden a couple of times on the street and had harassed them. He made lewd comments to Beatrice and threatened to have his way with her one day. Ogden had sought to have the man arrested, but found that he was protected by laws governing the mentally disturbed.

It had been two weeks prior to their sidewalk vigil that Ogden had told Seymour the news. Beatrice had been having an affair. Ogden said he was convinced that it was with Butch Bavendish, for whom he had suspected Beatrice merely feigned disgust. He had noted that they were often out of town at the same times. Ogden swore he would kill the man; Seymour suggested that they eliminate Butch immediately.

Ogden actually knew more about Beatrice's tryst than he'd let on. He had found a letter that she had written to her lover, going on about how she hated pretending not to love him to protect Ogden. She was promising to reveal her infidelity when they were next together.

The neon sign outside the bar went dark. Soon after, the front door opened and Butch Bavendish emerged. Ogden pulled out the gun and handed it to Seymour. He recognized the pistol as the one he'd given to Ogden as a graduation present from law school. He thought it ironic that Ogden would now own a purloined military weapon with an obscured serial number and untraceable origin. This was indeed perfect for the work at hand.

As Butch crossed the street, Seymour rose and went to meet him half way. Seymour raised the gun to Bavendish's chest and fired. He pulled the trigger three times. Butch looked down at his chest in shock; there were no wounds. Enraged, he attacked a bewildered Seymour, strangling him, as he simultaneously smashed his face. The gun dropped to the pavement.

Ogden stood up and walked to the gun. He could hear Seymour's bones snapping and the gurgling last gasps of his now, lifeless body. Butch held the dead attacker off the ground, staring at him with a still snarling grin. He was unaware of Ogden picking up the nine millimeter semi-automatic weapon, ejecting the magazine of blanks and reloading with real bullets. When Butch finally dropped Seymour's lifeless body to the ground, Ogden emptied the gun's twenty-round magazine into the unsuspecting hulk.

After placing the gun in Seymour's hand, Ogden left the scene of the horrible murder of his childhood nemesis, and the man who had been having an affair with his wife.