Scars Ch. 11
#11 of Scars
Lucan was raised in a guild as an assassin at a young age along with his brother, Drake. After breaking one of the guild's laws, Lucan ran away and sought out by the guild's leader, Conway. After being saved from homelessness by a friendly Dingo named Chris. He tries to protect his new-found friends against his former family.
At the mercenary village, inside the main building, Conway sits in a chair against the wall. Two other mercenaries stand by his side. Standing in front of him, Victor cracks his neck as he stands in front of his boss. All the other mercenaries are crowed around the room, Tonya and Ollie are near the exit, Ollie looking more interested in what's happening than Tonya, who simply stares off into space.
Conway reclines in his chair as he glances at Victor who simply follows up with a glare. "I see you did not bring back Lucan as I commanded," Conway says. "I'm surprised Victor, you're one of my most trusted mercenaries and you couldn't bring back a run-a-way pup?"
"I was kinda ambushed in a way," Victor says. Many of the people in the crowd begin to whisper back and forth with each other. Ollie and Tonya exchange worried looks to each other and continue to watch the meeting.
"And you couldn't just kill them and get it over with?" Conway asks.
"This one was....special," Victor says. "If I had killed him, not just my ass, but yours as well would have been burnt. So in a way, I just saved you by not killing that guy."
Conway looks visibly insulted, but brushes it off and shifts in his chair. "Who was this man that was so special?" Conway asks.
Back in Chris and my apartment, Patrick lights a cigarette as he watches the local news on the television. The gang, Scars, hit another bank earlier today. An uneasy feeling comes over Patrick, but it fades as Chris comes out of his room.
"Hey, I'm going over to the hospital to bring Lucan back," Chris says. "You wanna come?"
"Nah, I'll stay here," Patrick says. To Patrick, coming out of the hospital to be greeted by the guy that put a gun to your head didn't really help with the healing process. "I'll see you guys when you come back. I'm actually gonna go head over to R.J's place."
With that, Chris left for the hospital where I was staying. Inside the hospital room, I sit by the side of the bed. My ribs are bandaged up from my fight with Victor, the pain is still there, but I can manage. My eyes simply stare at the floor, at the tiny bugs that are scattering around, but in my head I'm close to loosing it.
All I could think about was Drake, and what Victor said. Is Drake really my executioner? Did he accept that role, or did Conway force him? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the former, after what I did, I kind of deserve it. I betrayed everyone I knew....everyone I loved. Maybe I should just...
A knock on the door takes me out of my thoughts. The door opens and a nurse walks in, followed by Chris. "Hello Mr. Gates, if you follow me we can get you checked out and on your way home," the nurse says.
I stand up from the bed. "Hey, you feeling any better?" Chris asks. I nod and we head out of the room and after I signed myself out, we left back to Chris's place. When we got there, I went over to the couch and slowly laid down.
"Do you...still have my sword?" I asked. Chris went into his room and came out with the sword I used in my fight with Victor. Chris hands me the weapon, I stare at the blade for a moment before setting it at my side. "Have you had to use it?"
"No," Chris says. "Patrick patrolled the apartment, but Victor never showed up. What do you thinks gonna happen?"
"I don't know," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "Hey Chris, there's something I've been wanting to ask you."
"What is it?" Chris asks.
Back inside the main building of the mercenary village, every single person in the room is left stunned and confused by what Conway has ordered. Tonya grips her fists tightly as Ollie can only look on in shock. Victor slowly walks away, smiling, past the other mercenaries. Conway just stands where he is, looking on at the confused mercenaries in the room.
"Tonya," Ollie says to Tonya who can only continue to look at Conway. "You've been here longer than me, has this ever happened before?"
"No Ollie," Tonya responds. "I've been a mercenary for this organization for many years and I've never seen this happen." All the other mercenaries begin to talk to each other, but a swift hand from Conway silences them all.
"Do not misunderstand me and think this is an order to create chaos in the streets of the city of Midna, you're target is Lucan Gates and no one else, this Patrick person is Victor's kill only," Conway says. "Find Lucan, kill him, and bring his body back to me. From here on out, I'm personally putting a hit out for Lucan Gates for 1 million dollars, NOW GO!"
With those final words, the mercenaries leave the building, Tonya and Ollie exit the main building, watching only a handful actually leave the village. "Ha, guess since Lucan took on Victor all by himself everyone else is too chicken shit to fight him as well," Ollie laughs. He turns to Tonya who is deep in thought. "Hey, what's up? Don't tell me you're worried one of those wanna-be mercenaries might off Lucan, he can handle them."
"I'm not worried about them," Tonya says. "This meeting was for every single mercenary that's in the organization right?"
"Yeah," Ollie answers.
"Who was the one person you didn't see in there with everyone else?" Tonya asks. Ollie puts his paw to his chin as he ponders the question. Ollie's eyes open with shock with the sudden realization.
"Oh shit," Ollie says. "Drake is still in Midna!"
Patrick finally reached R.J's run-down house. He get's out of his car and walks up to the front porch, already smelling a heavy stench of weed just from outside, Patrick can tell R.J has some friends over, which can either go bad or good for Patrick depending on the friend.
As he gets closer to the house, he can hear voices talking to each other, putting a ear to the door, Patrick could clearly hear R.J speaking to someone.
"Hey man chill, he'll be here soon," R.J says. Patrick retracts his ear from the door and knocks on the door. After a minute, the lock on the door unlocks and R.J opens the door. Patrick walks into the house, followed by R.J closing and locking the door. Patrick scans the living room, an odor of weed and other drugs fill Patrick's nose.
"Make yourself at home," R.J says, crashing on the couch, flipping through channels on the TV.
"I swear I heard you talking to someone before I knocked," Patrick says.
"Eddie was here a while ago," R.J brushes it off.
"Cut the crap R.J!" Patrick says, angered. "The last few days have been pretty shitty, so I'd like it if you wouldn't fuck with me."
"That's pretty ironic," a voice behind Patrick says. "Because I'd rather not be fucked around with either right now." Patrick turns around, his jaw immediately dropping to the sudden appearance of a very muscular Jaguar in front of him.
Patrick turns to R.J furiously. "R.J you piece of shit!" Patrick yells.
"Hey man, he practically held me at gun point to get me to get you over here," R.J says.
"Don't lie you little bitch," the jaguar says. "You want him back as much as I do."
"The both of you can go eat a bullet," Patrick says. "I'm not involved in your shit anymore Keenen, the both of you need to get off my ass about this shit." Patrick tries to walk toward the door, but Keenen grabs Patrick by his shirt and slams him into the wall, Keenen puts his face right in front of Patrick and snarls.
"You want us to move apartments?! Chris asks with utter astonishment. "I barely had enough money to get this apartment, I can't afford to move anywhere else."
"I'm just saying," I say. "Victor knows we live here, so it's a matter of time before he comes back, we were lucky Patrick was able to save our asses last time."
"Lucan, I understand you're worried but we can't have our tails tucked behind our legs," Chris says. There's silence for a minute, I softly sigh and look at Chris, who simply stares back at me.
"You're right," I said. "I guess my last fight with Victor got me all shaken up. Besides a few other individuals, Victor's one of the most elite mercenaries in our group. I just wondering how I'm still alive right now."
"Maybe you're just a better mercenary than him," Chris says. I don't know why, but what Chris said right now made me smile, something I haven't actually done in awhile. The sudden smile began to cheer up Chris as well. Chris comes and sits on the couch next to me. "You know something I learned from my sister?" Chris asks. "Watching a movie always helps with anxiety."
"I never heard that one before," I said. The next few hours were spent with me and Chris as we just watched a simple movie I've never seen before, and for the most part, Chris was right. Just the simplicity of watching a movie with a friend seems to have given me a sense of peace, I enjoy every minute of it.
Back at R.J's place, Patrick opens the front door and slowly walks down toward the sidewalk. He gets into his car and drives off. Back inside, R.J is smoking a cigarette while watching the TV. Keenen takes a beer out of the fridge and goes and lays down on a chair.
"Don't worry man, he'll come around soon," R.J says.
"I ain't worried for shit," Keenen snaps. "That asshole got soft since I left. What the fuck happened to him?" Keenen's phone goes off, he picks it up and answers it. "Yo, what up, you got the money?"
"We got as much as we could," the man on the other line says. "Cops got here fucking quick. Hey, you talk to Patrick yet?"
"Yeah, bitch still said no," Keenen says. "He says he's got "other shit to deal with", I was about to beat the shit out of him." R.J points to a sign in red on the wall that reads "no fighting".
"What do we do now without Patrick?" the man asks. "All the guys wanna know what's fucking happening?
"I say, fuck Patrick" Keenen says.
"Come on dude," R.J tries to protest, but only gets an angry glare by Keenen.
"Tell the guys that Scars has a new leader, tell em Keenen's in charge now, and that Patrick is officially on Scar's "fucked" list." Keenen ends the call and puts it on the table. R.J finishes his cigarette and puts it in the ash tray. "I know you and Patrick have a lot of history R.J., but from here on out that dude is a fucking traitor to us. From here on out, I'll be calling the shots, I'm the new leader now. Starting today, Midna is my city!"