"...to be a better man."

Johnny snarled blood through his teeth and it was met with a chuckle. "But you're 'Johnny fucking Carcharo'! Better is a long way away from where you're sitting, chum!"

He was right attitude and stupidity got him tied to a chair with his arms behind his back - though Johnny had a problem seeing it that way. Passion and balls was how he saw it and in the the right circumstances that was not to be taken lightly. Life had not been the easiest but fuck if he was going to complain about it. You made your bones in the gutters as far as he saw it and the deeper the gutter the stronger the man that crawled out of it.

He took another punch to the face and coated the shoes of the man next to him in blood. "You're done, Carcharo. No more of your jumped up bullshit and no more of your stupid fucking face."

Johnny nodded as he delayed some more - he flashed a smile through crimson wash. The shark tooth hidden in between his fingers cut through the last of the bonds 

Two men soon lay at his feet one was definately dead and the other probably unconcious. The third was crawling on his elbows with broken and limp fingers hanging helplessly from his wrists. Johnny stretched out his cracked ribs and spat the most recent mouthful of blood from his mouth.

"Yes I'm 'Johnny fucking Carcharo' and I'm not ashamed of that. Yes I have a temper and yes I do stupid shit sometimes. But that's all you've seen. All you've cared to look for."

A kneecap broke under foot and was met with a roar of agony from the man receiving it. "See I'm trying to be a good man. I looked to God."

A kick to the pelvis."You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up - then God will show mercy to you. Proverbs 28:13"

Johnny took the collar of the wretched man now desperate for clemency and secured the shark tooth between his fingers.

"Our Lord and saviour. I sought his teachings to better guide me. See I am who I am. I don't hide it and if you are able to see past that you'll see more." He allowed his voice to pulse with emotion. "Loyalty and commitment. Honesty and devotion. All yours. All of this. All that makes me who I am."

He roared the words and blood splattered from his lips and showered across the weeping man below.

"But you won't get to see that side of me, friend. I have forgiven you for that. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you."

The tooth tore through the side of the thugs face across his throat and back up to his eyes.

"Isaiah 44:22."