CH. 2 - A New Life? Or More Danger?
Kevin sits at a bar, smoking his cigarette, looking obviously buzzed. He grabs the bottle in front of him and takes a heavy swig. He exhales happily and sets the bottle down.
"Hey Kevin, man. You gonna be alright?"
The Bartender asks slightly concerned as he wipes a glass. Kevin turns and looks at the door for a moment then turns back to the Bartender.
"Eh, who knows? Guess you'll find out if I show up tomorrow."
Kevin puts out his cigarette and pulls out a large bill of cash. The Bartender nods lightly and Kevin steps out the front door of the bar. It's raining heavily and dark out since it is so late.
"Ugh, rain..." He groans, looking up, annoyed by the rain. He then notices something and turns to the left to look at it. He sees someone standing in the rain with an umbrella. He squints a little as he notices a familiar face.
"Jazmine..." She stares at him intently from down the way.
The two of them go to a nearby cafe and get a small table. Jazmine looks annoyed as Kevin lights another cigarette before flagging down a waiter.
"Excuse me, can I get a coffee, please?"
"Of course." She gives him a smile and walks away.
"Can't you ever be serious?" Jazmine asks, annoyed.
"What do you mean? I'm always serious." He says with the cup of coffee in his face, taking a sip. She just continues.
"Look, I need your help."
"Isn't that obvious? Why else would we be here?"
Jazmine lowers her head a bit.
"It's about Michael." She says softly. Kevin’s eyes widen just a bit before he rolls his eyes.
"Of course it is. When is it not?"
Jazmine looks up at Kevin with a sharp gaze.
"I think someone is trying to kill him."
Kevin gets a mild surprised look before leaning back in his chair.
"*sigh* Alright. What's the plan?"
Somewhere else, a young man with dark blue hair walks alone in the rain to seemingly his apartment. As he walks, he is stopped by a bald man wearing sunglasses. He is dressed in clothes obviously suited for utility and movement.
"Hey! You're Michael, aren't you?" He asks aggressively. The blue haired man turns. It is Michael.
"Do I know you?" He asks with a bit of a smile on his face.
"No..." The stranger pulls out a machete from behind him. "But you will!"
The stranger lunges towards Michael with intent to stab him but Michael effortlessly dodges the slow attack. He then crouches under the stranger's arm right in front of him. The stranger gets a shocked look. Michael then palm strikes him on the chin, upwards but before the stranger can even regain consciousness from the fierce attack, Michael grabs him by the shirt collar and shoulder throws him into the ground, slamming his elbow into the stranger's chest. The stranger lies on the ground unconscious, the ground beneath him a little broken.
"If you attack someone, you better not miss." Michael says with a frustrated tone. He turns and continues walking. "You didn't have the strength to make me remember what I’m forgetting."
At the entrance of his small apartment. The door opens slowly and Michael steps through. He hangs his coat and rubs the back of his neck.
“Ugh, I’m beat.” He sits down on his small couch. “At least I have nothing to do for the rest of the night.” He sighs in relaxation and closes his eyes for just a moment before the doorbell rings. He gets up, frustrated.
“Ah! I just sat down!” He groans as he goes and answers the door. “What?” He answers with an attitude. He’s surprised for a moment before looking down to see Jade standing in front of him, soaked by the rain. She smiles timidly at him as he just looks at her for a second before walking away leaving her at the entrance of the open door. She looks embarrassed and sweats a bit.
“Come on. Close the door on the way in.” He says as she quickly takes the invitation, doing as she’s told. “Let me guess. He didn’t like it?”
“He said it was creepy…” She, embarrassed to admit why her boyfriend just broke up with her, takes her coat off and hangs it up next to Michael’s.
“*sigh* Of course he did. Well, I guess you can stay here as long as you need to.”
“Thank you, Michael.” She says softly, approaching him.
“Yeah, don’t mention it.” He says, now with a much warmer tone while he rubs the back of his neck shyly. Right outside of his floor level apartment’s window, Jazmine leans against the wall next to it.
“Anything for my bestfriend.” He says as Jazmine gets an irritated look on her face.
“I already told you! I can’t!”
A muffled voice says beyond a pair of swinging doors. Suddenly, a man comes flying through the doors and slams into a pillar. He yells in pain from the impact. He is a heftier man with a small beard and a scar going across his right cheek. He is wearing swim trunks and landed in an indoor pool room. He wipes some blood from the side of his mouth.
“You know, this isn’t how you interrogate people.”
He says with a grunt. Kevin comes through the door shaking a match out as the freshly lit cigarette sits in his lips. He looks a bit roughed up too but not nearly as much as Gene.
“Yeah well, you hit me first, so.”
Kevin leans over Gene who is trying to sit up, nervously.
“Now I’m going to ask you again. Who put a hit on Michael, Gene?”
“Okay, okay, look. All I know is it’s some big shot. Someone who can pull some strings. Someone we know!”
Kevin looks with narrow eyes, examining him carefully.
“But I don’t know how far up it goes, I swear!”
Gene puts his hands up nervously, afraid to be hit again. Kevin stands up and puts his hands on his hips with a smile.
“Alright. Thanks Gene. For always being the biggest rat I know.”
He says with a wink as Gene sighs.
Outside of the front entrance of a high end hotel. Kevin comes out and approaches a car with Jazmine leaning against it.
“Did you find something useful?”
He asks, walking around to the driver’s side.
“No, but now we’ve got another problem.”
They get in the car and put on their belts.
“What could possibly be worse than what’s happening now?”
He says with a frustrated grunt.
“Jade’s come back.”
She says with a narrow stare.
Back at Michael’s apartment. Jade sleeps comfortably in Michael’s bed snoring loudly. Michael sleeps on his couch with his arms behind his head. He is then disturbed by the doorbell. He gets up groggily as the doorbell continues to ring more and more.
“Ugh, again?”
He yawns as he reaches for the door handle but just before he can open the door, it clicks then explodes. Michael is sent flying as the door is obliterated. He slams into the wall behind him and coughs up blood from the force. He begins to fall forward losing consciousness but before he hits the floor, he sees a shadow of a large man standing in front of him. The large man then grabs Michael by the neck before he hits the ground. The man lifts him up, straight out in front of him.
“Michael! Can’t say it’s nice to see you.”
The man says with a vicious smirk.
“Francis.? What are you doing here?!”
Michael chokes out, grabbing onto Francis’ wrist tightly.
“I caught wind that someone here had a bounty on their head. A huge one! But I didn’t think it would be you.”
He smirks.
“So don’t take this too personally.”
As he says this, he hears steps coming towards him. He turns looking down the hall to see Jade, now all dressed and holding a large hammer made of jade rock, running towards him. She swings the hammer full force, slamming it directly into his side. There is a large crunch of his bones. He reacts harshly before being sent flying into and through the wall next to them. He drops Michael who starts coughing, rubbing his neck. Jade’s hammer disappears into fading light and she crouches down, concerned for Michael.
“Michael! Are you okay?!”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Neck’s just a bit sore. Francis doesn’t seem like he’s getting up anytime soon though.”
He looks at Francis in the hole in the wall, unconscious.
“Why did he come and attack you?”
Jade asks, helping Michael up.
“He said something about a bounty. All I know is…”
He rustles around the rubble a bit, collecting a few things.
“We can’t stay here.”
On the road, Jazmine and Kevin drive somewhere.
“Did you get Gene to tell you anything?”
“Yeah, I did. He said that the one who put the hit out on Michael is someone high up the chain.”
“How high?”
“I have no idea. But I know a guy who probably does.”
He says with a cocky smirk. They pull up to an underground bar named the ‘Rebound Ground’. They park outside and Kevin looks up happily.
“Yep. Just as good as I remember.”
Jazmine looks unamused. They walk down the steps to a large metal door in the dark alley.
“Just stick with me. I know this place like the back of my hand.”
Jazmine looks around intrigued, paying him little mind. Kevin taps on the door with his knuckle acting like he’s being watched and has to be secretive despite not needing to at all. The slider opens on the door and a man peeks through.
“What do you want?”
The bouncer asks with a deep scratchy voice.
“We’re here to see the big P…”
Kevin whispers behind his hand. Jazmine rolls her eyes at the silliness Kevin is performing right now. The Bouncer opens the door and steps to the side letting them in. They walk in and the Bouncer is much larger than Jazmine expected. He is roughly 229 centimeters tall and built like a mountain. Jazmine makes brief eye contact with him and notices he has a huge scar over the right side of his face removing his eye entirely.
“This place can be a bit much sometimes but don’t worry. We’re going straight to the back.”
They walk through some beads hanging down over a door frame into a large room with a bar in the center. There are not many people here currently. Jazmine looks surprised as she looks around.
“Interesting…”
She says softly. There is a man drunk at the bar, a couple having fun in a booth, eyeing her down as they walk by, and a large muscular woman staring her down as well. They walk through as Jazmine follows closely behind Kevin.
“Everyone kinda just minds their business here, huh?”
“Yeah, but not so much back here.”
Kevin says as he opens a door seemingly leading out back but it opens to an even larger warehouse room with people working all over the place from moving products to pushing information, etc. An older man approaches them.
“Kevin, my boy! How are you? What did I do to deserve such a visit?”
He hugs Kevin.
“Paulie, my friend! It is in fact good to see you. But we’ll have to catch up later. Right now I need your help.”
He pats Paulie on the shoulders and looks down a bit.
“There are some bad people after Michael and we’re not sure where to go next.”
Kevin says with an intense look.
“When is that boy not getting into some kind of trouble? Alright, come with me to my office. We’ll talk more there.” He says rubbing his chin.