Useless Notes: A little tribute for the mortal characters of Baccano! Chapter installments will be very slow, as I'm still re-watching the series. It's one of my favorite series of all time and why everyone else has hardly heard of it is beyond me.
Disclaimer: Even with an imagination as retarded as mine, I could never attempt to create half the universe Baccano! has.
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Father Time Runs Quick
1. Ladd Russo, former murderer, still dances in his cell despite his old limbs.
The year was 1983 and Ladd Russo was in his late seventies. He may be a rotting old man now, but he has not been forgiven of the numerous murders he committed in his youth, and so as such, he is still serving his time in Alcatraz. Despite his loneliness and boredom within the four walls of his cell, Ladd still remains cheery; the memories of his victims' faces are more than enough to bring a smile to his face anyway. And Lua.
Lua, that lovely, lovely woman, had died three years ago already and Ladd had been pleased she had not chosen to marry another while he was wasting away in Alcatraz. In fact, Lua, hobbling in her own old age, had made her way to his cell one evening, clearly on the verge of death. She brought a razor with her and dropped right in front of Ladd's cell, a knowing and expecting smile on her face. Ladd picked up the razor, saw how it gleamed in the moonlight, and smiled broadly at his lover. She had not forgotten their promise. That was good and how it made Ladd so happy!
The dead body discovered the next morning by his cell obviously did little to help public sympathy shift towards Ladd, but that was just fine. Lua had lived for so long without him and after all this time, she still kept the promise they made to each other in their wild youth- that he would save her for last and kill her to his heart's content. And by the time the deed was done, Ladd felt nothing in his heart but ecstasy, so much that nothing else mattered to him but the beautiful corpse laying in front of his cell.
His sentence was lengthened to life- which was what the courts should have done in the first place to save the trouble- and any chance of him ever getting out had shrunk down to zero. But the inmates and the guards had now become more scared of him and that was more than enough to satisfy him. And besides, he had his memories of Lua and his other victims to keep him entertained during those long nights, and so Ladd was never really alone.
His arm had been completely severed so many years ago and even if modern technology gave him the chance to get a new arm, Ladd had turned it down. It would feel unnatural, having an artificial arm, and no one knew better than Ladd that he was better off with no arm at all rather than with an artificial one. His only remaining hand fingered the little razor the idiot-police had failed to confiscate once they found bloody, lovely Lua by his cell. It was Lua's last gift to him, that razor, and Ladd knew he would do anything to have it near him at all times.
His hair had turned as white as his favorite suits of old, and his skin as wrinkled as his good, old, fat Uncle's chin. But deep within was still the Russo family hitman from before, from the crazed smile to the little spark his eyes would give off whenever he remembered taking people's innards out of their stomachs. His killing instinct had dulled over the years, but he was still as insane as ever, sometimes feeling the sudden urge to just pull someone's neck towards him and squeeze the life out of the poor bastard.
There was never a better lesson to teach than the lesson on mortality, and by God, was Ladd Russo a good teacher; the best one, in fact. Nobody else could snap your fantasies of immortality better than the man himself.
But that had been before, back when he was still young and when he could still hop and dance and sing and carry a shotgun without staggering. Back when he still had his boys and back when Uncle's stomach was still huge and back when he still had Lua.
Those were good times, Ladd always mused, and whenever his thoughts brought him back to the 1930's, he would remember the Flying Pussyfoot along with everything else. Everything was explosive then and the semi-retired murderer would sometimes feel disgusted with himself for feeling a bit of nostalgia whenever he would remember. But even if nostalgia was not a very becoming trait for a man like him, Ladd figured that it was all right. Because, while he would end up missing the old times, he found that he had little regrets from back then: one, that he hadn't killed as much people as he'd wanted to and two, that he hadn't taught that red-headed cocky bastard what it was like to fear death.
He grinned despite these and stared up at the ceiling of his dark, cold cell. Somewhere down the hall, an inmate was laughing manically and if he could, Ladd would join him. But he was old now, and with old age comes fewer reasons to just let loose and laugh.
Still fingering the razor he held in his fingers, Ladd spied a large black rat scurry across the floor. Stepping on its tail with his shoe, he picked it up in his still large hand- although age had wrinkled it already- and started to make light incisions on its stomach with his blade. The rat squirmed in pain and Ladd started shaking his head, making soft sounds of disappointment. It seemed even rats had to be taught a lesson on immortality.
Blood poured through his hand and Ladd felt that old, familiar feeling of satisfaction flow through his veins. His sadistic smile grew even broader as he gave the rat one final squeeze, literally crushing the life out of it.
He spun the razor between his fingers and let the small corpse drop to the floor. His eyes remained fixated on it; still morbidly fascinated and pleased with his handiwork. Ladd's eyes flared up and threw the razor straight through the dead rat.
He gave a low chuckle and started joining the laughing inmate from across the hall. Clearly, age had done little to diminish his passion for killing anything that crossed his way.
And so Ladd Russo, former hitman of the once-renowned, now-disgraced Russo family, threw his head back and laughed wildly, age and sanity be damned.
"Thank you, fuck you, the villain has arrived!"
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A/N: Ladd's chapter was supposed to be a stand-alone one-shot, but I figured I could put in a few more chapters for the other mortal characters of the series. And so, this is still ongoing.
Also, this was done in a bit of a rush, so it's still prone to some errors. I'm still satisfied with it though.