A Pride That Blinds by Gavin Kent
from Seven Deadly Sins: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
The dirty pigeon hopped a couple of times, before finally deciding to fly out of Walker’s way.
He found the lawyer halfway down the alley. He was sitting in a fetid puddle and holding his leg where Walker had winged him.
“I told you not to try and step on me,” Walker said, reaching him.
“You dumb fuck,” the lawyer said through gritted teeth. “Killing me won’t get my boss off your back. You’ll do this job. One way or another.”
“Maybe,” Walker said, and raised his gun.
They were waiting for him at his apartment. Walker managed to plug one goon before another hit him in the stomach.
“Do you still refuse?” a cultivated voice said above him.
Parker spat at the man’s polished shoes as an answer.
“What is it for God’s sake? Your pride?”
Walker sneered. Of course it was his pride. Pride had sent him to juvie at fifteen. Pride had carried him through ever since.
“Fuck you,” he said.
The man shook his head sadly and nodded to the goon, who stepped forward holding a scalpel.
Walker sneered again.
Of course it was his pride. What else was there?
This story appears as part of Seven Deadly Sins, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series, originally published July 2025.
Bio
Gavin Kent is a writer of mystery fiction. He was born in the UK, but has spent much of his adult life in East Asia. He currently lives in South Korea with his wife and son and is working on a novel.
PUNK NOIR, the online literary and arts magazine that looks at the world at its most askew, casting a bloodshot eye over the written word, film, music, television and more.
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Good job! Very evocative. Maybe a man can be distilled down to one word, and how often it can be that one...
As they took his soul they stole his pride (Oasis, Cast No Shadow)