It wasn't always pleasant working in the city of Sin. In amongst the bright lights on the strip and the working girls on Block 16 you'd find just about anything to cater to any man or women's innate desires. Those passions that reached into the person and tugged at their conscience. And like an angel or demon dancing on either shoulder, sometimes it was all smiles and other times it was a gut wrenching and mind fucking experience.

Axel found this out the hard way, and it was always the hard way. You'd never learn anything deep and character defining otherwise. How could you? If your mind and morals weren't being pulled limb to limb then what really did test a man? Physical comforts? Nothing tore at the soul more than needing to decide if what you were doing was right in the greater scheme of things.

Still, the physical also tested a man and pushed him to that very brink of moral dilemma too. And this is where we find one such test. On one hand Axel was being tested morally, and on the other, his victim, physically.

Axel puffed on the cigarette as he sat in the chair in the cellar. A table lamp was all that held the shadows at bay in the rented warehouse outside of Vegas. As he sat there, with artificial light making sure his face was the only thing seen in that whole darkened corner of the world, the smoke from his lucky strikes cigarette trailed off into nothingness. And right now, that was what he felt, as he kept an eye on his men beating another senseless.

You see, Axel had already solved his moral dilemma days earlier. He'd already made the decision to be where he was and pulling the strings on what was taking place. You may even say he never had a choice in the matter. The moment someone stuck their grubby little hands into his pockets and took what he treasured most in the world, that decision was already made.

An eye for an eye. It was quite simple. Probably the simplest choice a man didn't have to make. You fuck with me, expect to be fucked with in return. And being the personality Axel had now grown into, it wasn't just returning the favour. If you kicked dirt on his shoes, expect yours to be ripped from your feet and smashed across your face.

Now sure, it does sound a little harsh on the surface. But it was also about the intent. Did he do it on purpose? Was it an accident? And what emotion was behind it all? Was it out of spite or anger? Or was it simply a mistake with a mouth spewing an apology? And this was where Axel's moral dilemma came into the current situation, as it did any other.

The kid probably never meant to truly steal his prized possession. He was probably just working for Kompton to help the family in these depressive times. And to be fare, Axel had snatched a pretty thing or two in his own way and on more than an occasion, more times than the kid had lived years. So the question begged, who was truly at fault here?

Sounds of begging were now drawing to a close. The body chained up against furnace pipes in the basement of the dwelling was at a point of not being able to plead for his own life, and forgiveness. And with that realisation, Axel stood up and made his way over to where his two men were.

"Alright, that'll do." Axel instructed in a cold and business like manner. His men stepped back and went about wiping their bloodied hands with rags, as Axel stepped forward and made his presence felt again.

"Had enough yet?" Axel queried rhetorically as he'd been doing all night. He was in charge, in control of the show, and when he spoke at intervals it was simply to prove a point rather than open a conversation. And definitely not to give the victim a chance to inject his opinion on being done receiving his punishment.

Axel grabbed at the hair of the body that hung chained at the forearms and wrists, almost lifeless, bloodied and severely bruised by the way of belting it with a leather strap and using it as a human punching bag. The fresh cuts and bruises on the shirtless torso showed just how much the man had been lashed. It wasn't pretty, but this work never was.

"You understand, yet?" He continued, almost indifferent to what he was actually asking, like he didn't care either way. A yes, or a no, it really didn't matter. His emotions had left him before he stepped down into the cellar hours earlier.

Axel looked at the face of the body that was chained up. Their eyes met, and he looked intently into them. The soul was very much ready for a break, maybe even a permanent vacation at this point. He was still conscious, yet barely. Axel let go of the hair and let the head return to drooping. He then nodded to one of his guys who tossed him a rag so he could clean his hands of the sweat and blood from gripping his victims hair.

"You see, in this world, we create our own experience." Axel said as he began his final speech whilst wiping his hands. It was as much done for the one hanging from the chains as it was for his men, as they'd need to understand what his philosophy was and the reasons for his actions if they were ever to step into their own at some point.

"We create our own karma. Directly and indirectly. We create all of it by the way we treat ourselves and others."

Axel paused, tossed the rag off to the side then removed a colt from his waistband. He let it hang at his right thigh, letting the weight of the handgun take its natural course.

"We even create it by the way we teach and inspire others. So when your son stole from me, and I met him and saw the soul of a kid not at all truly tarnished enough to commit the act of his own doing, it had me question whether in fact he really wanted to."

Axel crossed his arms in front of his chest, the gun resting on his opposite arm in the nook of his elbow.

"Or in fact, if he was actually being made to. No-one acts without a reason to. Usually it's the character that drives a man. But sometimes, it's outside forces. And you forcing your kid to steal for you, well, here we are."

Axel stepped to a good position in front of the man who was beyond begging, pleading, which he had done from the moment he was picked up outside his place of work. His apology started casual as he was asked politely to enter the waiting vehicle, then became more and more a man begging for his life as he was forced into the car and eventually taken here to be hung up and beaten.

Now, his only care ironically was that his son and wife weren't harmed. But he couldn't vocalize it, he didn't have it in him. All he could do was pray the lords prayer first silently then in a murmur as his broken jaw was beyond a point of allowing the father and husband of one to speak freely.

Axel raised the gun and pointed it at the forehead of John Andrews. A man who'd been laid off from his paycheck and had his son working the odd job to help pay the bills. A man who'd in desperate times, asked and taught that same youngster to pick pockets as a way to bring in a little extra to hopefully help them stay afloat. He was a church going and loving family man, yet not without his vices.

Axel learnt he also began to drink to drown his sorrows and then beat on his son. That time in The Tipsy Fool wasn't the first the kid had been slapped about and a belt taken to him. And as Axel, in his cold and soulless stare, looked at the body before him, he realised sometimes this life brought you situations that only you felt you truly understood.

Axel felt it was as if God was with him, peering down the barrel of the gun as he finally squeezed the trigger, three times. All three bullets found their way, their mark, and put the end to many a moral dilemma. Axel lowered the smoking gun, tossed it to one of his guys then made his leave.

As his men got to work post killing, Axel waited upstairs in the large warehouse. He took a seat on a chair, kicked his feet up on the desk before it and leaned back whilst pulling the fedora down to cover his eyes. Even though in his mind he'd done the world a service, even the kid who originally stole from him and who originally he wanted to beat senseless, Axel would once again find himself battling yet another demon on his shoulder. The nightmares never went away, even if the angels kept them at bay.. for the moment.