BABA YAGA AND ROSE RED

Mandy opened the door to the garage and flipped on the lights. The first thing she noticed was that one of the cars had a baseball bat smashed into the windshield and was left there. The second thing though...was that John's car, the good looking one, was gone.

She sighed deeply and cut off the lights, gently shutting the door behind her.

John had said only a few words to her the whole time and that was a bit frightening if Mandy didn't personally know this guy and how his mind worked. Anger. That wasn't even remotely close to what was swimming around his head right now. She was sure that the right word hasn't even been invented yet.

'Weareindeepshitrightnow' or 'Weareallgoingtohell'. There. those could be the words the describe the situation perfectly.

John was kneeled down on the ground, scrubbing up the blood from himself and his...newly adopted, dead puppy Daisy. He hung his head in silence and moved his arm back and forth with the brush when Mandy finally came back into the room.

Mandy was the first to speak. "They took your car too, by the looks of it." She said and leaned against the stairs, arms cross and looking a bit grim. "So...what do you wanna do?"

John stopped scrubbing and looked up at her. Rage, anger, and determination all being held back behind a thin wall of glass.

The New York City bus came to a stop right in town with John and Mandy coming out. They looked over their shoulder and began to head for a car dealer station were men were hard at work, all for one who as waiting for them with two glasses and a bottle of whiskey.

Aurelio's face twisted when he saw Mandy walking beside John. "Ah shit..." he turned around and grabbed an extra glass off the table and set it down beside the other two on the hood of a car. "Long time no see. If it ain't Mandy Rose."

Mandy cracked a grin and shook the man's hand. "Hey, Aurelio. Good to see you." She gave him a pat on the back.

"Not as much as I am to see you. I thought you were dead." He had to admit, seeing Mandy Rose walking around alive and smiling was comforting. He gestured to the seats beside the car before they all sat down.

"Is it here?" John asked.

Aurelio took a moment to fill the glasses up. "It was," he said and saw a dark shift in John's eyes. "Losef Tarasov nicked it."

Mandy's lips stretched out into a line. "Viggo's son." She mumbled.

"Yeah. So what are you gonna do?" He looked between him and Mandy. "Both of you."

After John and Mandy left, Aurelio was left alone in the shop after hours when the phone began to ring. He knew, he just knew who it was but didn't hesitate to pick it up.

"Aurelio speaking." He answered.

The voice on the other end was none other than Viggo Tarasov himself. "I heard you struck my son."

"Yes sir, I did."

"And may I ask why?"

"Yeah. Well...because he stole John Wick's car and, uh, killed his dog."

Viggo was silent for a long time but the threatening tone in his voice dropped. "Oh."

"And another thing, sir..." Aurelio paused for a moment to think of his next words and how to say them. "And it seems that Mandy Rose is back in town too...she knows."

"...Ah shit." Viggo hung up.

Viggo felt like the world began to shut down around him after hanging up the phone with Aurelio. He was moving stiffly and didn't hear a word Avi was saying when he was speaking to him.

"Sir?" Avi spoke when he realized that Viggo wasn't paying attention.

"Have you seen my son?" Viggo asked.

Losef walked in and saw his father, Viggo, and Avi by the bar pouring themselves a drink with crystal glasses.

"How was your trip, kid?" Avi asked.

"We won't be hearing from them anytime soon. Or ever." Losef said proudly

Viggo said nothing and casually walked over to his son and gave him a glass of expensive vodka that burned going down the throat. He grabbed the front of Losef's jacket and looked at it. "That's a nice jacket." He said robotically. "Yeah." Viggo suddenly railed back his arm and punched his son straight in the stomach. Hard. Losef crumbled to the ground and immediately started to vomit up the burning vodka that he only swallowed a moment ago. Viggo tossed a towel at him and spoke in Russian. "Clean that up."

"Should I go?" Avi asked, kinda hoping that Viggo would say yes. Viggo then began to speak in Russian to him. "Viggo, English, please."

"Stay, God dammit!" Viggo seethed and took his suit jacket off.

Losef felt his stomach burning and body shake as he tried to clean up his own bodily fluids from off the expensive hardwood floors. "What did I do?" He struggled to get out, much less breathe.

"You fucked up." Viggo rolled up his sleeves.

"We did what you asked," Losef spoke through his teeth. "No one saw shit."

Viggo grabbed Losef by his jacket and yanked him to his feet. "I'm not talking about Atlantic City." He said, right up in his face that twisted with anxiety and anger.

"What, then? So I stole a fucking car!" Losef shouted.

Viggo punched his son in the stomach once more and left him there on the ground, quivering in pain.

"Aw, fuck, Viggo!" Avi exclaimed and really just wanted to leave now.

Viggo went back behind the bar, pulled up a bottle and began to pour himself a drink. "It's not what you did, son, that angers me so. It's who you did it too." He said.

"Who? The fucking nobody!" Losef screeched and looked at his father like he was crazy.

"That fucking nobody...is John Wick." Viggo's voice dropped to a chilling undertone that reeked of dread. He took in a deep breath before burning his throat with his drink. "Tell me, son...Did you happen to run into a woman while you were away? She would be about 5'7, brown hair and eyes?"

Losef furrowed his brows. "Yeah? That fucking bitch threw her helmet at me, flipped me off, and drove away before I could put her six feet under."

Viggo scoffed at the accusation despite his obvious trembling now. "So that's why she knows..." He mumbled. "Not only did you run into him...but Mandy Rose too."

"Mandy who?" Losef questioned him.

Viggo took a breath. "John Wick...once was an associate of ours. They called him Baba Yaga."

"The Boogeyman?"

"Well, John wasn't exactly the Boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the fucking Boogeyman." He spat his venomous words out. "John is...a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will. Something you know very little about. I once saw him kill three men in a bar with a pencil...a fuckin' pencil." He cracked a grin because he found this whole situation insane and enough to laugh at. "But what made it so...detrimental, was when he worked with this woman. His partner. Her name was Mandy Rose, or more commonly known by us as Rose Red. John and Mandy were...nothing alike. They were as opposite as you could get, but for some reason...it's like they shared a single mind and body. When they moved...it was like they moved as one, communicate through eye contact and continue forwards because they knew...the they had each other's back." He took in a deep breath. "10 years ago though, something happened with Mandy and she went ballistic...absolutly fucking insane because of a disagreement we had. After killing at least 20 of my men single handily, she disappeared off the face of the planet and haven't been heard or seen since. Until now"

The color on Losef's face soon began to vanish when he remembers that woman's face.

Viggo continued. "A couple of years after Mandy disappeared, John suddenly asked to leave. It was over a woman, of course. So I gave him an impossible task. A job no one could have pulled off. The...bodies he buried that day laid the foundation of what we are now. And then, my son, a few days after his wife died, you steal his car and kill his dog...on the day Mandy Rose just so happen to be in the same fuckin' area too."

Losef began to understand the sudden tension that rose in the room that was enough to choke on. "Father, I can make this right."

"Oh?"

"By finishing what I started."

Viggo scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Did he hear a fucking word I said?" He looked back to Avi. "Losef! Losef! Listen!" He wrapped his arm around his son that he knew...would be the last time. "John and Mandy will come for you. And you will do nothing, because you can do nothing. So get the fuck out of my sight!" He hissed.

Viggo opened his safe up that was filled with gold coins, stacked of money, and a journal. He pulled the old journal out and dusted it off. He dialed a number that was writing inside and held the phone up to his ear, waiting as the other end rings for at least a couple seconds. There was a clear clicking noise on the other end but the line remained silent.

"Hello, John," Viggo answered. "I heard about your wife, and I'm sorry. My condolences. It seems to be fate, or happenstance or just bad fucking luck that caused our paths to cross once again." He spoke into the silent call. "John? Let us not resort to our baser instincts and handle this like civilized men, to move on..."

"I thought it was you, Viggo." The voice on the other end made his heart drop to the ground and shatter. It wasn't a males voice...it was a female. The call ended without another word and all Viggo heard now was the loud buzzing sound in his ear.

Viggo clenched his hand tightly and dropped the phone to the table. "Rose Red..." He mumbled as his blood grew cold.