DISCLAIMER: See Disclaimer Page
AUTHOR'S NOTES:  This is for Spooky's Girl.  She insisted that I could write a Vignette.  I told her I thought she was nuts.  I guess this piece proved her right-again.

Thank you Dee, for everything.

As always, for NCL - My Eternal Inspiration

What the hell happened to me last night?  Alex Krycek wonders absently, as his mind fights the dark recesses of unconsciousness.

He knows something happened.  He understands by instinct that something is drastically wrong.  His only problem?

He can't remember what.

He wants desperately to fall back into the black abyss from which he has just risen, but for some elusive reason he finds himself unable to return to that sweet haven.

He rolls over onto his left side desiring only peace and, almost instantly, both his mind-and body-are filled with the memories of what took place, only a few short hours beforehand.

And as these realizations begin to take hold, he screams.

"Oh my God!  They cut off my arm!"

With his sudden awareness of the event that transpired the previous evening, he knows sleep will be a long time in returning.

He breaks down into uncontrollable sobs, as the painful reality of what has happened to him slowly, devastatingly, starts to sink into his tired brain.

They cut off my arm!  My fucking arm!  What sick game is this?  Why the fuck were they compelled to permanently maim me?  A complete stranger?  What did I ever do to them?  Why did they...

The sudden pain he feels is immense.  He has never, in all of his 32 years, felt something as Hellish as what overcomes his athletic body..

"Oh Jesus, why?!”  He yells toward the sky; his tears running down his face in hot rivlets, and his shoulder feeling like it is on fire.

A flock of birds takes flight from their nests high above him, but he takes no heed.

"Oh God, oh my God, oh my fucking God!  Why has this befallen me?  Have You turned away from me, too?  Can You not see, as he can't, that I am only here trying to help?  How can I possibly function now?  How can I do what must be done, without an arm?”  He openly cries out within the clearing of trees surrounding him.

After a few moments more, when he knows he will receive no answer, he becomes angry.

Then, without warning-or thought-a bitter smile creeps across his handsome face.

He stands as best he can; falling twice for his lack of balance, and after a brief pause, begins walking back toward civilization.

"I am Aleksei Nikolai Krycek.  No one can bring me down, and I will succeed!  For, if I quit now, They win."

~Fin~