With a sigh, I sat back in my driver's seat chair and stared down at my now bloody hands.
I didn't feel bad for killing Jared, nah this wasn't remorse, more like annoyance if anything.
Annoyed with how complicated shit was about to become now since his brother just happens to be someone I worked closely with.
Before anything else, I made sure to go ahead and head home so I could clean the Red residue off of me before heading over to Saduj.
Whatever he called for still needed to get taken care of, despite how complicated I had just made everything.
I was annoyed with all of it, myself—for blacking out like that, Jared—for being so annoying I felt obligated to kill him, but most importantly—I was annoyed with the person whose name I didn't even know yet, because for some reason I did it for him.
Just like when I killed those other two niggas that broke into his apartment on purge night, for some unknown reason, for some stupid reason—I felt like I had to.
If I didn't, they'd do what they attempted again, and he just refused to defend himself, he acted incapable of it.
I wasn't really sure how this situation was going to blow up when it came to Jermaine.
No matter how much he complained about his little brother, at the end of the day—they were still close, and when he eventually finds out the truth, his gonna be looking for his revenge.
That was expected, and it was fine, if the day came when I had to ultimately put him down—then I'd do that.
After I cleaned myself off, I grabbed a flask of alcohol that I had in my fridge so I'd have something to drink on during the ride.
When I did finally get on the road—it ended up taking me a good fifteen minutes, which meant I arrived at the meeting area just barely within the 30-minute window Saduj had given me.
I took a moment to park before taking one last swig from the flask. While the alcohol burned its way down, I threw the flask in the glove compartment and then reached for the door handle.
Slowly I made my way back outside to my truck, eyes low and hazy as I felt the effects of the alcohol take over.
Unfortunately, those effects weren't strong enough to make me completely forget about the complicated future ahead—but it at least calmed the noise for now.
I'm not even sure if I'll tell him I killed the people that tried to rob him, there's no point—he doesn't seem to understand shit like that.
Initially, I knocked them both out instead of killing them because I decided not to do that in front of him.
Not because I cared, but because it would make things way more complicated if he decided to have one of his dramatic crying moments.
That's why blacking out on Jared was so unexpected, because I really did intend on letting them live—which I'll admit, isn't like me.
But the more I thought on it, and the more I realized that Jared would keep testing me unless I taught him a lesson, I got angrier...and eventually, the anger won.
With heavy feet and heavier eyes, I stepped out of my truck and headed up to the door of Saduj's crib.
His house was pretty decent, I'm not gonna lie. It was a bit further uptown, so it was usually far enough away from any of the wild shit.
For the most part, he kept business away from his home—but there have been occasions where he's had us meet here.
The usually happened when something was important though, so there's no telling what today could be about.
The last time he had us meet here, he ended up letting me know that he'd gotten the local police department on his pay role.
I also met his wife that day, and she was an interesting lady, to say the least. Not much else I could use to describe her, she was just...interesting
The moment I approached the door, the guards he had posted up outside greeted me, but all of their words sort of sounded like weird mumbles, the kind that sound like words but it doesn't make sense when you try and piece it together.
Everything came out as a weird mumble really, the greetings I got when I walked in, Saduj's usual monologue, everything except for the sound of Jermaine entering the room.
I'm not even sure what I expected, I mean based just on the normalcy of his actions—I don't think he realized he was walking this earth with one less younger brother.
Or maybe he knew and he was just playing it cool, maybe he was just waiting until my guard was down—then he'd enact his revenge.
That's too bad, my guard was never down...ever. Sure, right now my balance was impaired and my reaction time was off due to the alcohol, but either way, I was good—if he thought he was about to catch me off guard he was in for a rude awakening.
"Wassup bro," he greeted, motioning his hand out for me to dap up.
I looked between it and him in silent contemplation for a moment. If I took too long it would be suspicious, if it was too quick, that would also be suspicious, people knew I didn't like being touched, not unless I was initiating it.
Eventually, I decided to just dap him up, just to gauge the amount of pressure he'd put into it—usually too much pressure meant hidden animosity. No pressure at all meant you were dealing with someone who was either clearly submitting to you or trying to misguide you into believing they were.
This was neither, it was just....normal.
That was when I decided to relax a little, it was more than likely that Jermaine didn't know his brother was dead yet, nor did he know I was the one that did it.
It wasn't like I was exactly scared of his reaction, I wasn't scared of anything on this earth nor beyond it. I just know that whenever he does find out, he's gonna wanna enact some sort of revenge.
—and again, that's cool, I get it, I'd just appreciate being ready for it.
Here I am already planning the next step in this man's grieving process when he didn't even realize he had someone to be grieving over.
I couldn't help it, I always had to be 2 steps ahead, always.
"So whatchu' call us up here for bossman, sounded important as hell over the phone?" Jermaine asked, taking a seat at the dining room table we were meeting at.
I took a comfortable stance leaning against the door frame. I didn't like to sit down when I was "on the clock".
Sitting down meant I was more vulnerable, and being vulnerable was never good.
"I have a job for you two," Saduj began.
That was a given, we wouldn't be here if he didn't.
See what I mean by, unnecessary words?
"So with the next purge weekend around the corner, we need to start prepping. I've been hearing that we're gonna be getting a lot of tourists this month—and y'all know what I always say, tourism means money, the wilder it gets the more crazy ass people wanna see it for themselves." He ranted.
"I say all that to explain this, I want to get rid of certain buildings in this city that's been costing me some money."
"Red—you remember that apartment complex I had you accompany me to a while back right?" He asked.
Immediately my breathing sped by what felt like a couple of seconds, but I nodded, maintaining my composure.
"It has to go." He stated, "and everyone in it."
That's when my composure cracked just for a moment, the words came emptying out of my mouth before I had time to think.
"Why?" I asked.
Everyone in the room looked caught off guard by that really, Jermaine even looked at me with an expression I'd never seen him wear before.
"I just told you, it's costing me money," Saduj responded, forcing a chuckle.
"I heard that, I'm confused on how though—it's damn near the worse building in the city, if anything it should be making you money, nobody lives there but addicts."
"Exactly." He nodded.
"If we're getting all this tourism, all these little rich kids looking for an escape, looking for a way to be the adrenaline junkies they desperately want to be—that means it's some powerful ass, rich ass people with their eyes on our little town." He smiled.
"Eventually, that tourism is gonna turn into residency, and that's where the real money lies." He nodded.
The way he was talking, it sounded more like this plan was already in action, and we were just step two.
"With all due respect boss, you don't think the city will step in at that point—especially with that amount of violence?" Jermaine finally asked.
Saduj sighed at that, and his silence was almost confusing up until he spoke again.
"What I'm about to say never needs to leave this room, am I understood?" Jermaine and the other two guards replied with respect, but I simply nodded.
"The powers at be who run this city, the mayor, the head of the police department—they're all in on it, this has been in motion for about the last month." He explained.
that should be shocking, but to me, it really wasn't, I learned a long time ago—never to put my trust in the people with power.
"Our city is poor, one of the poorest in the country, but recently some powerful people have been hearing about what we're doing on these weekends, and they want in." He continued.
"We need that residency, we need that money, because if we get it—we can turn this little hole in the wall—into a real kingdom."
"I see," Jermaine nodded, "so they have to go, everybody in the building really has to die?"
"Yes, this is something that can't be worked around, every question you wanna ask me, I've already asked," Saduj replied.
"—They have to die because if not, it could possibly all come back onto the higher class people who look to build over that space."
"I'm talking things like lawsuits." He added.
"you're worried about legality?" I asked.
In a city where everything we do is illegal, why is it now a concern?
"Not me, but the people looking to invest in our little city," Saduj explained.
"—Red I can see the apprehension in your eyes, but I can assure you, this is all good, it's money, and what we're making is nothing compared to what we'll be making if all these rich white men start trickling into our city." He smiled.
"don't you get it fellas, they want to turn our city into an industry!" He said added in excitement.
An industry, how is that good?
I'm aware that what we're doing on purge weekends isn't right, but the way he's talking makes it sound like these 'people' want to take it to a national level, and that's where I see problems.
A national level like the movies that inspired the town's name to begin with. Those movies were satire and horror for entertainment, sure, more money sounded good—but how far were they willing to take this shit.
It's not like any of my concerns were stemming from fear, again, it wasn't that, It just felt like Saduj had no idea what type of people he was dealing with.
I only nodded at his words, not because I agreed but because I wanted him to stop talking.
"Ok," Jermaine spoke, "so how do you want us to go about this?"
Saduj's face contorted into a devilish smile before he began speaking.
"One of you hand me that map, will you?" He instructed, speaking to one of the two guards in the room.
After retrieving what he asked for, he unraveled it to show us a blueprint of the building.
"The easiest way to go about this is to pump gas through the vents." He spoke, "something like carbon monoxide."
"We also need to start early, a little earlier than the purging usually starts, that's way we catch all the residents off guard, giving them no time to escape."
"The main thing we need to do is complete the task, and quickly, no survivors, no witnesses. However, Whichever way you all think we'll be able to do that the most efficiently, then that's how it'll be done. Either way, by the end of the night, that building needs to be a ghost town."
His rant again trailed off into a mumble.
The most important thing on my mind right now was the fact that I now had a decision to make, because I've been spending a lot of time at this same exact building lately.
I already knew that I shouldn't have been doing that, to begin with, but now I was stuck in a position I put myself in.
I really felt like I was at a crossroads, I could warn him—which would then probably mean I was a lot more invested than I wanted to let on.
Or I could just let it go, mind my business, and let whatever happens—happen.
Maybe that was the best option, I've been doing too much when it came to him, I mean just look at what I did today to Jermaine's brother.
That was already about to complicate shit, maybe this purge night plan was the way I could get rid of him without having to physically do it myself.
"Red?" A voice spoke, again breaking me from my thoughts.
I looked up and raised my eyebrows in question, staring ahead at Saduj who seemed to be asking me something.
"You good over there?" He questioned.
I nodded in response before he spoke again, "good—we'll meet at the building about fifteen minutes before Purge night officially starts."
"—I'm gonna call up the sheriff tomorrow so he can find a way to keep all the residents inside, maybe we'll have the police lie about maintenance or something."
"We need everybody in that building dead, so it's important all the residents are home when we drop the gas in." He spoke, holding at his chin in thought while he spoke.
I stayed silent of course, observing Jermaine who seemed to be typing away at his phone frantically.
"That's all for now though—you guys go ahead and try to get some sleep tonight, we got a busy day tomorrow fellas." Saduj smiled.
Just as we all turned around, the door of his office opened, revealing his wife.
Her eyes darted between us all before eventually landing on me.
"The sheriff's on the phone for you." She spoke, addressing her husband but still looking on at me.
I broke the eye contact, scrunching my eyebrows at her weird gaze before beginning to walk past her and out of the room.
Something was so off about that bitch, and whatever it was—I wanted no parts of it.
Slowly I made my way out of his house and toward my car where I took a moment to release a frustrated huff of air.
I had until the morning to make a decision when it came to whether or not I was gonna warn him.
This whole situation was so fucking annoying, the fact I even had to make this decision, the fact it was a decision at all and I was contemplating it when I knew what the right thing to do was.
The day I let him live, that's when all this shit started, and now I'm the one that's paying for it.
The entire drive back to my place, I basically drowned in my own thoughts—kicking myself for the situation I put myself in—And kicking myself for actively making it worse.
Now the noise wasn't just loud, the shit was deafening.
Silently, I parked my car and made my way inside my house. I thought taking a shower would help me relax a lil bit—it usually did after all.
Not this time though, all I could think about was the one person that caused all my problems to begin with.
With a groan, I laid myself down on my couch and threw my arm over my eyes in hopes of getting some sleep.
Eventually, I did drift off, albeit—after about an hour of twisting and turning.
Unfortunately, sleep for me never really meant rest, it hasn't for a while...
____________________
Omniscient
____________________
"Saint" a voice called out, causing the child to turn around.
Most, if not all of Saints' dreams put him back in his childhood, the place in his life where he was most vulnerable—and the place in his life where he learned to hate vulnerability the most.
The voice belonged to his dad, someone that Saint actually did feel comfortable with growing up.
"yes." He replied, looking up at his father who outstretched his hand to the child.
"It's time to go son," he said sympathetically, knowing this was the part his son tended to hate the most, leaving him and his brother.
"no," Saint replied instantly, face already contorting in fear and sadness at the thought of having to return to his mother.
"C'mon son—don't do this to me right now, you know you can't stay here forever, You gotta go home to your moms." His dad explained.
Of course, as a child, Saint didn't understand that.
Why couldn't he stay with his dad, why did he always have to go back home to the scary lady that was supposed to be his mom?
Moms aren't supposed to be scary, they aren't supposed to be mean, and they aren't supposed to do the things that she does to her son.
In reality, Saint's dad just didn't have custody of Saint, so he really couldn't keep the child forever.
He never knew the details of why Saint hated being with his mom so much, but he knew enough that should've made him fight for his son more.
The truth was that Saint's dad was a good father, but he wasn't the best, and he failed his son.
He failed to protect him, he failed to save him, and ultimately—he just failed to be the role model his son needed.
He could've fought harder to get custody of Saint, he just didn't, and the one that suffered the most from that was Saint himself.
Despite all that Saint's father was still one thousand times better than Saint's mother, who, in a sick and twisted way—created the monster her son turned out to be.
He went silent because of her, he suppressed his emotions because of her, he turned to crime because of her and he became heartless...because of her.
In a world where he walks around like he's fearless, careless, and completely unmovable.
In the back of his mind he's still running from his own boogeyman...his own mother.
So it's not that Saint just doesn't want to care, though that's what he tells himself, it's that he grew up being taught that caring was weak.
And if he was weak...then people would hurt him, just like the mean lady who was supposed to be his own mother...
☯︎ 𝖍𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 ☯︎