Note: I don't own anything
Prologue 7: Second
I was moving through the second-worst area of the city, the Merchants' part of the Docks. It was a cold night, and sometimes it was hard to see what was happening on the streets down below because of the broken, or barely functioning streetlights. It was even worse for the places where the light didn't reach at all. The place was full of abandoned buildings, shipping containers, and garbage. I came here for easy targets, Merchant gangbangers. It wasn't unusual for them to be high out of their mind all the time, so they probably wouldn't be as troublesome to deal with as ABB or E88. My main objective tonight? To get my hands on a phone with an internet connection. Getting it would make a lot of things so much easier, and it would give me access to all the information that I needed at the moment. I was hopping from one roof to the other across the street when I heard a gunshot to my right, as well as a man's screaming.
"A-ah! You stupid bitch!"
Looking down the alley to my right I could see two figures, one male and one female. A woman stood in the middle of the alley and was holding something in front of her with both hands, probably a gun. A man was holding the left side of his stomach with his hand and leaned on the wall with his right shoulder.
"Fuck! You shot me! You fucking shot me, you dumb cunt! Do you have any ide-"*bang!*"-aah!"
She shot him a second time, and for a second I could see both of them more clearly, as well as most of the alley. From what I've seen the woman was pretty young, maybe in her twenties, while the man looked like he was in his late thirties. The man collapsed on the ground and started wailing loudly while cursing every now and then. The woman just stood there, a gun pointed at him. This lasted for about 30 seconds until the woman finally snapped out of it.
"Gi-give me the drugs!" - she shouted, uncertainly.
The drug dealer ignored her, his wailing slowly turning into quiet sobbing. After another 10 seconds, the woman shouted again, now with more confidence.
"Give me the drugs, or I swear I'll shoot you again!"
"Fuck meee! There, now call me a fuckin' ambulance and fuck off!" - the drug dealer screamed.
A bag of something landed in front of the woman, and she rushed to pick it up so fast that she dropped her gun to the ground. After picking it up she stood there for a few seconds, looking at the drug dealer. Then she spoke.
"N-no..."
"What?!"
"I said NO! I- I want all the drugs you have on you! Give 'em to me, now!"
"Fucking hell! There, that's all I have on me! You're fucking dead meat anyway! Now call me a fuckin' ambulance! I'm bleeding out here!"
Another three bags landed in front of the woman as the drug dealer started cursing again, but this time more quietly, sounding tired and broken. After staring at the bags lying in front of her for a few seconds, the woman picked them up and started running away, forgetting to pick up her gun and ignoring her promise to the dying man.
"Wait! Come back here! You didn't... Ah, fuck."
The drug dealer's voice sounded even more tired than before, like he was giving up. When the woman finally ran out of the alley, I jumped down from the roof into the darkness below. I landed a few meters away from the drug dealer and started looking for the gun that she dropped, ignoring the drug dealer for now.
"Who-? Oh... Oh, shit."
Finally, I found the gun I was looking for. It was hard to see anything here. After I picked it up I didn't even need to give it a closer look to determine that the gun in my hands was a revolver. The iconic shape said it all. Turning to the slowly dying man, I started talking.
"Hello, Mr Drug Dealer, sir. It looks like you're in a pretty bad situation." - I said as I tried to sound calmer than I actually was.
"G-go fuck yourself, asswipe. Who-"*gasp*"-are you, anyway? Chicken-man?" - he said quietly after squinting his eyes and looking at my mask.
"I am someone who can possibly save your life." - I said as I came a few steps closer to him -"Or I could let you die."
"Wh-what do you want?" - he said, after looking at the gun in my hand.
"Money, obviously. I need your money and your phone. In return, I will stop your bleeding and call for an ambulance. I doubt that you can do that yourself right now. So, do we have a deal?"
"Ugh-"*gasp*"Fu-fine, its a deal, but stop the bleeding first."
"Sure."
I crouched near him and touched his first wound, the one on the left side of his stomach. I reached out and pulled at the soul in the blood that already came out, demanding it to close the wound and stop the bleeding. I didn't focus on the soul, but I could still feel how weird it was when compared to the souls of regular material objects. It was just as flat and simple, but it held energy that was very similar to my own. Reaching out for the soul of the drug dealer, I could feel it's energy leaving it. Leaving it be, for now, I touched his second wound on his right leg. It wasn't bleeding as much as the first one. I closed it too and felt for the drug dealer's soul again, now examining it a bit more closely. It was very similar to my own, although it was smaller in... size? No, that wasn't the right word, it was smaller it depth, and it was less colorful. The energy inside his soul wasn't bleeding out anymore, it was almost completely stagnant.
"Heh, the bleeding really stopped. Here, that's all the money I have on me, and here's the phone. I doubt that you'll find anything useful on it, so whatever. Now call for the goddamn ambulance already, it's fuckin' cold here."
It was a touchscreen, and not a pretty good one by my spoiled space-time traveller standards. It wasn't protected by a password or anything like that. There was a picture of a naked woman on the screen.
"Sure. Hey, does this thing have an internet connection?" - I tried to sound like I didn't care.
"Well, duh! Of course it has internet. Just make the call already!"
.
.
.
"I'm sorry." - I said while looking him in the eyes.
"Wha-? What do you mean, you're sorry? Just make the fucking call! We had a deal!"
I could hear the shock in his voice, then the anger and panic. He was tired and helpless, lying here, in this cold and dark alley. I really was sorry for what I was about to do, even if the person in front of me was a criminal that probably ruined the lives of many, many other people in this city. It wasn't completely his fault, and I certainly didn't blame him for everything that he might have done. I aimed the gun at his head and cocked the hammer.
"I'm so sorry, but I rea-"*bang!*
.
.
.
I shot him in the head while I was still talking. It was a small mercy, the only one that I could afford at the moment. I could've explained to him why I did it, but that would be cruel. He would be swallowed by despair and fear, right before his life would end. That was a lie that I chose to believe in. The truth is that I... am a coward and a hypocrite. I couldn't tell a dying, helpless man that I lied to him from the very start. That it was all a cruel act to make him give me everything I wanted. That his life would end because to me it was worth less than my goals.
"I'm sorry, I really am, but no one can know about me yet. Rest in peace."
It wasn't the first time I've taken a life. I did it once before, in self-defence. But this was different. The feelings of guilt and regret were slowly rising in my mind, so before I completely lost it, I jumped on the roof and started moving away from this part of the Docks.
I was lying on the roof, somewhere near the Broadwalk, and staring at the night sky above me. More than an hour must've passed already. The feelings of guilt and regret were slowly fading, as my mind was rationalizing the reasons behind my decision, trying to convince itself that what I did was right.
'That was evil, what you did there. '
"I know. Did you come to guilt-trip me?"
'No. After all, I was there, I could've tried to stop you. I don't really feel like you do in the first place, even though I was made of you.'
"So, why are you here then?"
'To remind you that we have other things to do. You can cry when we get ourselves a roof over our head.'
"Hey, I wasn't crying! My eyes were just getting dry from all the running and jumping over the roofs. It's a natural reaction to eye irritation!"
'Whatever you say. I'm leaving, for now."
"Okay, pull yourself together, Odis. This is not the time."
A few minutes later I felt, well, not better, but more determined.
"Let's see how much money I got from that guy."
I pulled out the see-through money bag, opened it, and examined its contents. Overall, there were four hundred and sixty-five dollars inside. This wasn't even close to enough to get me an apartment for the next month with no questions asked, so I had to rob an ATM tonight. Trying to get the money in any other way would be too risky. I put the money back into the bag and pulled out the gun. After pulling the trigger just once in that alley, I already knew that it was a double-action revolver. I wasn't a gun geek in my previous life, so I had no idea which model it was, or which manufacturer produced it. There were no markings on the gun to clue me in either. After examining the cylinder, I found out that it was an eight-shot.
'Five shots remaining. Hmm, is this .357 magnum? Ugh, whatever, I'll keep it for now.'
Throwing out three already used cartridges, I put the gun and ammo away. I pulled out the phone and checked it for any useful info, such as the locations of Merchants' labs and safehouses in the messages. There was nothing like that in there, but there were some messages from his... friends. Just some banter about nothing.
'At least there are no messages from family.'
There weren't even any family contacts...
.
.
.
Next, I opened the browser, checking if everything was working properly, and it was. A few quick searches later I already had an idea where I could get myself a relatively cheap apartment. There were a few places on the edge of the Downtown area, close to where the Palanquin was. I would probably have to pay extra though because I didn't need any questions.
"Okay, now all that is left for tonight is to get the money."
I started moving towards the Broadwalk.
Getting the money from an ATM was way easier than I originally thought it would be. At first, I thought that I would have to open the locked door on the side with my power, then pull out the case and open it with my power as well, so that the trap inside wouldn't ruin all the money. Well, as it turned out, I could just make it give me money the normal way, only without using the card. Getting into the store wasn't a problem at all as well. Either it didn't have a security system, or my power was just that good. The soul of an ATM felt weird. It was complex, but differently from a human soul. When I used my power on it, it felt like it understood what I wanted from it. After I was done I had more than ten thousand dollars on me. Next, I found the security room, disabled the cameras, and deleted all the footage. I didn't even have to do it manually, just like with an ATM, although the soul of a computer was way more structurally complex than ATM's. I wondered how the tinkertech would react to my power. I double-checked for a silent alarm and got nothing. Just a waste of time. Finally, I left the store and started moving towards Downtown. The few people on the street didn't even notice that a masked man entered and exited a closed store, because it wasn't a violent break-in and I didn't sit there, picking the lock. Tomorrow I will finally have a roof over my head. A place where I could safely sleep, think, and train. I will no longer have to make rash decisions on the fly, to improvise and compromise. Tomorrow will be the true beginning of my second life.
Prologue: END
Author's Note:
Finally... An Interlude or two are coming up next.
