To /k/atch a Predator (full version)

	12:22AM June 15

The clock struck 12:22 in Geralds car, He was right on time. He had to be, he was watching his grandkids and needed to get back soon or else his wife would know he wasn’t getting distilled water for his CPAP machine. One would argue that he shouldn’t be there at all, but hey you have to indulge yourself every once in awhile. Gerald exited his car and headed towards the small pavilion in the desolate park. He had done this sort of thing many times, each encounter was smooth but that didn’t stop him from always being ready for “complications”. He reached the door to the bathroom, Geralds heart couldn’t stop beating.
“This is it” Gerald thought to himself as he opened the heavy metal door.
He quickly scanned the seemingly empty bathroom. Gerald then found the sign that everything was alright, a pink backpack.
“Morgan?” Gerald said to the cold room
“In here” replied a timid female voice
Gerald then saw the fuzzy image of a teenage girl’s shoes peeking out from under a stall. Especially in his old age, Gerald had a hard time seeing after going from pitch black to a bright fluorescent light. He pulled the condoms out of his pocket and slowly walked over to the stall where the girl was waiting.
“Let’s get this done quickly. You gonna let me in sugar?”
“It’s not locked, I’m all your’s.”
Gerald opened the door to see a man wearing a pigeon mask  and pink sneakers waiting on the other side of the stall door. Gerald pulled the knife off of his belt. After all, he was always prepared for “complications”. Before it was all the way out the man kicked the stall door, effectively crippling Geralds arms. Gerald fell to the dirty floor in pain. The man was standing over him now.
“Wow! I can’t believe you bought my voice, I thought it was a bit too squeaky but I guess old-timers like you don’t have the best ears.” The maniac said
“Please...I-I’ll go home and you won’t ever see me again…” Gerald pleaded
“It’s a little too late for that.”
The last thing Gerald saw before blacking out was the pink shoe collide with his face.


Gerald woke up and only saw black. There was an immense pain in his arms.
“Sorry if the mask startled you, but we can’t have you giving a profile to the cops.”
“I won’t talk to the cops, just let me go.”
“Ooh, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“What do you want from me? And what did you do to me”
“Well, I want scum like you off the streets, you’re doing hard time. I have the transcripts, phrases like: My dick is as wide as a coke can, I’d like to lick you all over, I want to feel your insides.”
“What did you do to me?”
“Don’t you have a family? You shouldn’t be saying things like this man!”
“You fucking maniac!”
“Well, I should go. I’m just going to leave this transcript right here.”
As Gerald screamed and cussed, the man just walked away. The only thing the man could think of was how excited he was.


After last night’s events, Simon was exhausted. He just sat on the couch watching TV. With a sharp ring Simon’s phone alerted him.The text said “I’m here”, it was from Penelope. Simon lazily walked to the door of his apartment and opened the door. Her blonde hair was always the first thing he noticed.
“What took you so long?” She inquired with a bitchy tone
“I just got out of bed.”
That was a lie but Simon had come to learn that it was easier to lie than to tell her he just didn’t want to see her. How he stayed with Penelope was a mystery in the first place, and so was how their relationship soured in the first place. They met in high school. She truly was beautiful and captured Simon’s attention from day one, he couldn’t believe that he captured hers. College separated them before anything real could materialize between them. She went on to get small acting roles in local indie films, he went on to get his law degree only to stay in his small apartment. As they moved to the couch Simon could tell she was there to nag him into getting a job.
“You have your degree, why don’t you look for something? Call my uncle if you need to?”
“Don’t worry, I have enough to afford this place, food, and anything I need. I also have the house.”
“You can’t live on your inheritance forever.”
“Says who?”
“Says math! Simon, you can’t do this.”
Simon got up from the couch. He couldn’t take this much longer. She got up to get some water, as she moved towards the kitchen Simon got wide eyes. She didn’t notice as she opened the cupboard to get a glass.
“Don’t open tha-” Simon protested
She opened to cupboard, reached above her head and retrieved a glass.
“What? I can’t have any water?” Penelope replied in her classic tone
Simon regained his composure.
“Oh nothing, I just thought you wouldn’t like how dingey the glasses are, the dishwasher has been  acting weird.”
“You’re here all day and you can’t bother to fix it?”
The short lecture on laziness that followed was a small price to pay. If Penelope had reached to the left or right of that glass she would have found the knife from last night and Geralds wallet along with other wallets from previous encounters. She got her water and the rest of the visit went normal for them, she nagged and they had flat boring sex. It was already dark outside. They were both sitting on the couch when she pulled out a small bag of cocaine.
“Want some?” she said while making a line on the coffee table
“No thanks, you’re back on that?”
She gave Simon a look that made him instantly regret using his tone. She snorted her line and fell back on the couch jittering. Simon could only sit back and watch as Penelope got up to leave. As she waved goodbye there was a drop of blood running down her nose.


If cities were living organisms,  Crestview was a corpse feeding parasites. Once a home to all, the crime problem rose and now the decent folks were almost all gone. For a while Crestview was the kidnapping capital of the United States. With that title the city spent a lot more on the police force. With their new toys the cops started to think they were exempt from their own law. After a few PR incidents their prestige melted away, then the bribes started to roll in. Once cops were paid to turn a blind eye the crime only spiked. Shopkeepers had to put bars on their windows, even that didn’t help much. Simon recalled a pretzel shop being robbed twice in one night, the second guy was surprised to see that the police were around the corner responding to the overnight security system, This guy was not rich enough to bribe the cops and ended up getting three revolver rounds to the chest. He arrived just as the cops were about to leave. Luck is funny that way. Some of the decent people too stubborn, poor or stupid to leave moved into a little neighborhood on the North side of town. Heavy security from a private company. That still was not enough to deter all the crack addicts who needed something to sell to get their fix. But with the people who had the money to bribe the cops usually moved there too. They kept their activity low in the neighborhood, only doing anything worth hiding in their slum buildings on the other side of town.The North side of town was also home to the factory, the place for honest work. It bottled up soda,water, and tea for outside companies. Simon worked in the office there during college, he didn’t want to work at his parents company, he thought it was “too easy” on him. He regretted that decision once his parents died. They had a jewelry shop on the southeast side of town, a tweaked out meth user came in with a gun. Everyone in the store was killed except one man who sustained enough trauma to put him into a coma. The guy made it out with three duffel bags of diamonds, his mistake was that most of the were not made for jewelry and had certificates of authenticity that he didn’t get. When he tried to sell them he got caught, the cops came and he put up a fight, that one of the first cases of “police brutality” that came about. The guy bit an officer and got beat so hard he became brain-dead. Simon went to the hospital he was at once, they said it would help him get closure. It didn’t. After that Simon sold the business and invested it in various commodities, used his inheritance to get a small apartment building all to himself, at first. He began renting the rooms out to people he deemed good that were too poor to afford a place in the deep north. This area was right on the border. Owning this place is what started his relationship with Penelope.

	Penelope was back from school. Only coming back for Christmas for six years really made her realize how much the city had changed. Her parents owned a lot of it, They had cashed in and bought a nice estate outside of town. She was bar hopping on account of it being the first month of being 21. Her friends were trashed by the first stop, she took a little longer. By the end of the night her friends and her were flirting with the bartenders to get free drinks. This led to attention from the wrong people, She tried to get her friends to leave. One thing led to another and they ended up being chased by unfriendly patrons of the last bar they were at. As they ran to the car only Penelope and one other made it. She drunkenly tried to drive away. Simon was walking back to his house when he saw a car swerve into a fire hydrant and stop, it took him a couple seconds to realize Penelope from high school. He helped her out just in time to see the pickup truck swerve onto the street and stop blocking all traffic. The man that came out started shouting at Simon to let her go and that it was his “tasty treat”. Normally Simon would have been too apathetic to confront this man but tonight was different. The place Simon was coming back from was the hospital where the man who robbed the business was. Tonight this guy represented every evil in the city to Simon, something snapped. He took the telescopic baton out of it's’ holster for the first time. While doing this he just dropped Penelope but she had passed out by that point. The man was shocked by the baton but still looked like he was ready for a fight. The man landed the first blow, and the second one, Simon only got one good swing in the confrontation. The end of the baton landed right on the side of his eye. He held his bloodied eye and ran off shouting obscenities. Simon got Penelope back inside, he laid her down on his couch. When he returned to get her friend out of the car he found that she was gone. There was no point in calling the cops, there was no evidence of where she went and the police force was not known to be great at solving cases like this. In the morning Penelope woke up and recalled the events of the previous night, left for home. She stopped by the apartment complex a few weeks to thank Simon, they hit it off reminiscing about high school, from there they started a relationship. When she wasn’t working on her two-bit acting career, she worked at a local nightclub. You would think that her encounter that one night would make her more cautious of that sort of scene. The nightclub rode the line between the respectable part of town and the hood. It became a portal so both sides could see how the other lived, where they co-mingled. If Simon ever stopped by there he would probably see Penelope lead a young man wearing a bandana into the bathroom, not to come out for a while.




Simon walked into the small coffee shop, he hated the smell but he had to meet someone. He ignored the young lady at the counter who asked what she could get him. He took a seat and waited for his guy. A few minutes later a short, husky officer walked into the coffee shop. He placed an order and walked over to Simon.
“How have you been Simon?” the officer said
“Cmon Eddie, I gotta go soon”
Eddie sat down on the other side of the table with a frown. Eddie has greasy hair and smelled like cheap cigars and shitty body spray.
“So business as usual?” Eddie said with his usual monotone voice
“Yeah, is the deal still on?”
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t”
“Alright then, here”
Simon pulled a small gift box from his pocket and slid it over to Eddie.
“How many are in here?”
“The standard 100”
“Alright, I should get the delivery to you tomorrow night, I got some that I think you will like.”
“Thanks, those are getting harder to find by the way, are you sure you don’t want anything else?”
“Nope, I only enjoy these.”
“Junkie”
“Don’t you only do these”
Simon sat silent.
“That’s what I thought” Eddie laughed
“If you say so, and next time...Don’t wear your uniform”
With that Simon walked out the door. A few minutes later, when Eddie was done with his coffee he walked out as well with the box.

The smell of the hospital had become almost nothing to Ken anymore. The smell nearly made him sick the first couple of visits here. He sat in the hallway waiting for the doctor to come out and give him the damage report. Minutes turned into hours, finally the door opened and the woman in the bloody scrubs came out with an apologetic look. She tried to put her hand on his shoulder but he just pushed it away.
“I’m sorry” She said in a weak voice
“You said she was stable” Ken stammered
“She was...I don’t know what happened. If I may ask...where is your son?”
“In the children’s wing, I...I told him his mom would be better”
“I know this is a bad time but we’ll need you to visit the service desk to talk about the payment”
“PAYMENT”
Ken took a swing at the doctor. His fist hit her square in the eye, she fell to the ground letting out a whimper. Ken just walked away and nurses and patients in the hallway stared in shock. Ken got in his car and drove home to get drunk.

A bottle and a half into his old friend Jack, Ken got a phone call. The phone said it was Bobby, Ken answered.
“He-hello?” Ken drunkenly muttered
“Ken, I am so sorry about Marge, man”
“Don’t, fucking worry about it man”
“Ken...don’t do this…”
That is when Ken started to break down and cry.
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay for his treatment Bob. I sold the boat just to pay for Marge’s FUCKING TREATMENT...”
“Ken, take a deep breathe and listen, I might be able to help you out…”

11:15 June 18

The buzzer in Simon’s suite let out its loud shriek. He walked over and and pressed the button.
“It’s me, you ready?” Eddie's voice came through over the crackly speaker.
“Why don’t you come up this time?”
“Isn’t Penelope here?”
“No she’s working tonight”
“Good! I got a great haul for you tonight, this bag is weighing down on me!”
Simon buzzed Eddie in and told him to take the elevator to the top floor. Simon led Eddie to a black door that did not seem to be one belonging to an apartment suite. Simon retrieved a key from his pocket and opened the door. Eddie was shocked to see a room bathed in red florescent lights. The walls were lined with weapons, guns, knives, blunt objects.
“So this is where all of the shit I give you goes”
“Some of it was mine from before”
“Well prepare to make some room on your walls! I swiped a lot of stuff I was supposed to incinerate”
Eddie opened up the duffel bag he brought with him. The first thing he pulled out was a snub nose Smith & Wesson Bodyguard.
“Your standard .38 snub nose, easy to conceal, 5 shots”
The next thing he pulled out was a smaller bag, Eddie spilled it out onto a nearby counter. A myriad of Glock 19 pieces, firing pins, extractors, barrels.
“I know you have a 19 and if you use it this way you can swap out the parts so ballistics won’t link you to crime scenes”
“Nice touch man!”
“We’re not even halfway done!”
Eddie reached into the bag another time and produced a fire axe.
“Holy...fucking...shit…” Simon said slackjawed
“We pulled it from a domestic violence case, fireman brought this home and tried to kill his wife. The guys who responded to it took it away and let him just beat the shi-” Eddie could see the look on Simon’s face.
“Anyways, I think your going to like this next one”
He pulled out a micro uzi with a silencer.
“We got this from one of the gangs in Chinatown, be careful it jams ALOT”
“It’s still cool!” Simon realized he sounded like a kid seeing a toy he wanted.
“And the cherry on top!”
Eddie pulled out a Smith & Wesson Model 4506. Simon could not believe it, the pistol his parents had in the shop they owned. The police had taken it as evidence in their murder and nobody in the police department cared enough to contact Simon.
“Eddie...You have no idea how much this means to me!”
Simon took the gun into his hands and inspected it, this was the gun he learned how to shoot with. All the same scratches on the grips and frame were there.
“That’s not all” Eddie said grabbing an envelope from his pocket
“What’s this?”
“A list of people, we got complaints of a few of them hanging around parks, staring at kids. Some are suspects link to a few disappearances around the area. Just tell me when you are planning on doing it once you have the proper evidence so I can get the arrests.”
“Alright, I’ll probably get to work in a week. Thanks Eddie...this means a lot to me”
“Don’t worry about it, I got what I needed” Eddie held up a small white pill.
“I’m not sure how many more of those I can get, painkillers are being bumped up on the tier list”
“ Whatever happens, you got me some good arrests, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in without these deals.”
“You’re a good guy Eddie, thanks for the pieces.”
“No prob, I guess I’ll head out” Eddie pulled a cigar out from his jacket pocket and lit it up as he turned and walked out the door. Simon just sat there staring at the 4506.

Bobby couldn’t hold down a job to save his life. As a kid his mom died early and his dad dealt with that fact by drinking and smacking Bobby and his siblings. Right out of High school, Bobby started doing small jobs, a month here, a month there. He then got into petty theft, breaking into construction sites to steal and sell raw materials to another company. He made a living off of that until he ran out of people to steal from. Then he moved on to drug trafficking, he thought his life was turning around with how much he was taking in. That was until he got busted after one of his guys, a kid, got busted himself and made a deal to wear a wire. After 10 years in the joint Bobby thought he was going to turn over a new leaf, that did not happen. He got a job from his PO at a supermarket, Bobby hated every second of it. Before he knew it he was running with the same people he was before prison but this time he had acquired a taste for guns instead of drugs. If any two-bit gangster was planning on knocking off a liquor store or a Walgreens, they went to see Bobby first for their throw-away gun. After he got some cash after a few years of that he got bored, with drugs he could always just take some and have fun. He knew he could not go back to selling drugs so he looked to his current customers, he started to think about robbery. He hit his first store soon after, not a ton of money but it kept him entertained. He sold guns as his “day job” and hit stores when he could. He found that he was quite good at robbing places, wear a mask, make whatever teen assistant-manager had the authority to open the safe. He started collaborating with his customers, more people, more possibilities. With help he started knocking off bigger stores, he even got away with a good chunk of money from a credit union. He met Ken when his little sister invited him to their wedding, he was shocked at how well she had done and how beautiful his sister looked, Ken was a stand up guy. After the wedding him and Ken had grown close, he went from never seeing his sister to seeing her and ken whenever they needed a babysitter. He loved his nephew Daniel and he knew that if he let Marge and Ken in on what he did for a living they wouldn’t let him see Daniel anymore. It broke his heart when they found out Marge has health complications, the doctors said it started after years of being borderline malnourished and beat when she was a kid. He blamed himself, he should have done more to help her back then. He dealt with it by drinking, it made things easier to ignore for a while, but it did get him into some predicaments. One night he ran into one of his old junkie customers, apparently he was out of the game for too long, his old customer was kind enough to share his supply of the new designer drug, kingpin. This shit took aspects of the major names, coke, meth, heroin. Bobby was never one for needles but once he got some kingpin in his veins, he felt invincible but made his memory really hazy. One thing led to another and Bobby ended up beating the shit out of a guy, in the morning Bobby woke up to find that his eye socket was caved in, the guy must’ve done more damage than he thought, it must have been the kingpin. They had to remove his eye, it was just damaged too much, the doctors said it had to have been hit with a metal pipe or hard blunt object. That was almost a year ago, he had adjusted to living life with one eye, Daniel though it was cool how he looked. When Daniel got sick Bobby damn near lost it. Multiple sclerosis on top of some genetic problems, Bobby watched as Daniel went from running around in the yard to using leg braces to being confined to a wheelchair and finally being stuck in a hospital bed. What Bobby did not spend on kingpin, he spent on gifts for Daniel, anything to see Daniel’s eyes light up because he forgot he was going to die. After Marge died, Bobby finally broke. It wasn’t fair, she hadn’t hurt a soul, Daniel didn’t deserve it. He was determined he was gonna help Ken give Daniel the best care and the best life he possibly could have, he just needed the money first and he knew just the place to get it.

Simon woke up to his alarm clock screaming at him, 2:30, the prime time. Simon lazily got out of bed and walked over to his computer. He started it up, logged onto the chat room his target was using. He called the guy’s internet provider pretending to be his wife who was suspicious of adultery, when the operator asked what the password was for their account simon just said “HE PUT A PASSWORD ON THE ACCOUNT! HE MUST BE CHEATING” in his best angry wife voice and the operator listed the sites that have been visited, Simon only cared about the two chat rooms that were visited. Simon created an account for both and started doing the usual routine. He pretended to be a lonely pre-teen girl. He usually just started out by writing  a fake diary in the room and waited to see who bit.
Lonelygurl66: I wish I had someone to love….
Puppiescuppake: Hold on, you’ll find someone :)
Shit like this was said for a good amount of time until.
Freebird_7300: I can be someone to love.
Lonelygurl66: you would love me?
Freebird_7300: I think ur cute ;)
Simon sent this guy a friend request. He accepted, opening this up for a private message.
Lonelygurl66: Hi!
Freebird_7300: hey, how u doin beuatiful
Lonelygurl66: haha, good! I’m Clara
Freebird_7300: My name is Jean, and I think you aren’t the only one who’s lonely.
That name was not on the list the Eddie gave him but it was common for these guys to give fake names.
Lonelygurl66: Maybe we could be lonely together lol
Freebird_7300:That would be nice, how old r u?
Lonelygurl66:11 u?
Freebird_7300:19
Lonelygurl66: ooh, I bet u are strong
Freebird_7300: I am, I bet you are smokin hot ;0
Simon did not know what to say next. But luckily he didn’t have to think of anything because Jean just sent him a photo.


The clubs music drowned out any means of speaking. The rhythmic thumping of the speakers pierced the air. Penelope would usually walk around making sure all the guests were having a good time and had full glasses, and then bitching out the wait staff if they didn’t. Tonight was special, a certain guest was on his way. As she walked out onto the balcony  her work friend Jenna turned and smiled at Penelope.
“Hey girl!” Jenna said just hinting at the fact she was high
“What did I tell you about using at work Jenna?”
“Oh, sorry want some?” Jenna pulled a small plastic bag filled with white powder. Penelope grabbed the bag and scooped out a little bit of powder with her nail and snorted it. Penelope jittered a bit and went back to talking to Jenna.
“Where do you get so much?”
“Your guy friend”
Penelope was shocked.
“Simon sells you this?”
“No, your other guy friend”
“Oh, Demarkus”
“Yeah, is he coming tonight?”
“He should be here in a few minutes”
“Ask him if he has any of that new shit, kingpin”
“Will do” Penelope said rolling her eyes, and went back to work.
About an hour later a young black man entered the club and discreetly made his way over to Penelope. He moved up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“Ey girl”
“Demarkus, I’m glad you came”
“You know om not gonna miss mah favorite girl now, right?”
Penelope giggled like a little girl, something about Demarkus just sent her back to a younger, happier state. No one from her work seemed to notice as she disappeared with him for a while. They made their way to the Women’s bathroom. When they had sex, Penelope felt something, the fact that she was having sex in a dirty nightclub bathroom melted away into the passion that she was given with Demarkus.
“When you gonna leave that loser you be actin like you wiff”
“He’s a decent guy, he just…”
“Is his dick better than mine” Demarkus said angrily.
“Oh god no, he’s so small” Penelope said laughing
“Then why aint cho leavin his ass”
“I...it’s complicated, I feel like I owe him for saving me”
“You don’t owe the craka sheet”
“You don’t understand you weren’t there”
“Bu-”
“I’m done talking about this, I gotta get back to work”
Penelope briskly walked out of the bathroom and got back to work.


Ken knocked on the door to Bobby’s apartment, it was in a shit neighborhood, a guy was passed out in the hallway. Bobby opened the door and let Ken in.
“Ken, I want you to meet some people”
In the middle of the room was a couch. On the couch were two guys.
“The one on the right is Alvin”
Alvin waved his hand silently in recognition.
“The fat one is Jeffrey”
“How ya doin?” Jeffrey said
Bobby and Ken both sat down at a table opposite the couch. Bobby started talking.
“Alright guys, as you know we need money for our boy Daniel. He is sick and we gotta get some cash to make sure he has the best damn care possible. I know a place that hasn’t been hit since it opened up, the Tasteful is what it’s called.”
Jeffrey piped up.
“What kinda cash we looking at, ya know our cut?”
“If the safe is full and we get wallet money plus drug supply, which is all yours. You both are looking at walking away with 10,000.”
“That’s still the biggest pay your gonna get without robbing a bank”
“Still a lot of work for not a lot of reward”
That is when Ken got angry.
“ARE YOU GONNA HELP MY SO-”
Alvin pulled out a butterfly knife and was at Ken’s throat in a matter of milliseconds.
“Everybody chill the fuck out” Bobby said making sure he said it very calmly
Alvin slowly backed away but was still giving Ken a look of pure insanity and hatred only a sociopath was capable of.
“I guess we’ll take it” Jeffrey said with a twinge of disappointment
“Well...let’s get planning then!”

5:00 AM June 24

Simon woke up to the same nagging of his alarm clock. He had chatted long enough with Jean, he invited Clara over to his house in two days. Simon needed those two days to scope out just where Jean was and what the situation would be, he got Jeans IP address from the messages and traced it to an exact location. Simon walked down the flights of stairs all the way down to the parking area of the complex. It had been a couple days since Simon had been outside, he realized he might have spent too much time getting a stranger to send him pictures of their penis. “All in due time” Simon thought. He finally reached his space, there was his car, a 1982 Celica. His dad used to own the car as a side project, he bought it in a terrible condition and hunted pieces and parts to fix it up. Simon got in and started the car. After a few minutes of driving he came up on the address. 5213 was the house number, it was a small house, but it was nice. Simon noticed that there were two cars in the driveway. After about three hours of waiting he saw a very attractive woman walk out, get in a car and drive off. The other half of the day was painfully boring, nothing happened. This guy just sat at home all day, probably chatting with actual girls instead of Simon. Around 6pm the wife came home, she did not go inside right away though. She sat on the front step and lit a cigarette. After a few drags the front door opened, it was Jean. The two had an argument, Simon could only assume it was because of the cigarette. It ended with the wife leaving in an angry hurry. Simon took this as a good sign and went home. After getting back to his suite on the top floor, Simon looked at his computer. He had a message on the chat board he was using as Clara.
Freebird_7300: Everything is set! I can’t wait to see you, hold you in real life. But most of all, I can’t wait to taste how sweet you are.
Jean also sent a picture of himself holding his penis. Simon was disgusted, he damn near threw up. A few hours later Simon was loading magazines for the 4506, he got hollow points in .45 just for this gun. He heard the door open, Penelope voice called out to him.
“Simon? Where are you?”
“I’m in here” Simon said while furiously trying to hide the gun and magazines.
Simon ran out of his room to meet penelope in the doorway, she was close to seeing the assortment of bullets.
“Simon, I need to talk to you”
“About what?”
Penelope paused, she wasn’t sure she could do this.
“Holy shit! They got him” Simon exclaimed pointing at the TV in the living room. Like a kid he ran past Penelope over to the TV set. On the screen was Gerald, but Penelope didn’t know that.
“Who is that?”
“The kid diddler they caught in the park, he got 10 years!”
“Didn’t he get caught through illegal means”
“What?”
“Yeah didn’t the cops show up to him already tied up?”
“They still got him, there was evidence right next to him”
“It could have been faked, he shouldn’t be in jail”
“WHAT?”
“Yeah, I actually think pedophillia is just a sexual preference just like being gay”
“Are you kidding me!”
A big fight ensued. Arguments were lobbed back and forth with dramatic gestures to go along with them. It ended with Simon going to his room and Penelope leaving the apartment an hour later.


6:00 AM June 25

Simon woke up to his alarm blaring at him. Remembering what happened walked out into the kitchen to find a plate of cookies and a folded note. The note read: I’m sorry. Simon assumed Penelope felt bad about the fight and wanted to extend the olive branch. Simon ate a cookie and went up to the weapons room. Today was the day. Had Simon read the inside of the note he would have seen the part where Penelope ended things.

Once in the weapons room Simon was confronted by a myriad of choices. The mask, the guns, and the gear. He looked at the lineup of masks under the glow of the red neon lights. He could go with the pigeon mask he used in his last, nah, he didn’t want to use the same one. He looked through the options, wolf no, monkey no, frog no, bear okay. Alright, now that the mask was settled what guns were going to be used. Simon’s gaze fell upon the silenced micro uzi he got a couple nights before. He only had one magazine for it but it was perfect for this particular job. As for gear, He had to go with his favorite, the telescopic baton, even though he desperately wanted to use the fire axe but Simon knew it wasn’t practical for this situation. Other than those choices it was the usual zipties and a copy of the online transcripts, pictures included. Showtime.
Simon parked a block away, it was almost the time Jean told Clara to show up. Simon got out with all the gear on, even the mask. He walked in broad daylight to Jean’s house, The driveway did not have the wife’s car, Simon took that as a good sign. He just walked up to the front door and knocked just as Jean’s invitation had told him. In a matter of seconds Simon heard footsteps coming to the door, they stopped at the door as it opened.
“I have the booze but I could not find condoms so we might have to try ana-”
Simon bodychecked the door, Jean came tumbling over. Simon quick closed the door and extended his baton. Jean tried to get back on his feet but was hit in the face with the baton. Jean screamed and kicked at Simons legs, he got lucky. Simon lost his footing and fell over giving Jean enough time to get up and run. Simon dropped the baton and got back up, Jean was almost across the room before Simon full on tackled him. Jean was still screaming when Simon delivered one good punch to the side of his head for the knockout. Simon quickly zip tied Jean to a kitchen chair and dug through his wallet. Jean’s real name was Gregory Hicks, Simon also took the hundred dollar bill from his wallet. Gregory regained consciousness and started the usual routine
“Who are you?”
“Let me go”
“I won’t do it again”
“You monster!”
Simon put down the printed packet of transcripts, walked into another room and called Eddie.
“Yo, Eddie I have one Gregory Hicks here, wanna come pick him up?”
“Who?”
“Gregory Hicks, he’s on the list right?”
“I looking at it now, there’s no one by that name on the list”
“So I got a random fucker tied up right now?”
“You got  the wrong guy!”
“Well I mean...He was going to have sex with a 12 year old so he’s not really the wrong guy, do you want to still pick him up?” Simon was now looking through the fridge, he saw a bottle of Sweet Leaf tea, the kind the factory bottled. Simon opened it and took a swig.
“No! Without the prior suspicion it looks to obvious that I’m working with you”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do with him?”
“I don’t fucking know, look I’m busy right now. I have to go, just don’t make too big of a mess” Eddie hung up.
Simon put the phone in his pocket and walked back to Gregory, his pants were wet with piss.
“C,mon man that’s gross, the people who find you are gonna have to deal with that man”
“Please let me go!”
“Wish I could but you turned out to be a completely different guy than I was looking for” Simon took another swig of tea and took the micro uzi from his inner jacket pocket and put two rounds in the man’s skull. The shots were louder than he expected, he knew someone heard those. Simon ran out of the house, to his car, he took off the mask and sped off.


Bobby, Ken, Alvin, and Jeffrey were piled in a van across from a warehouse. Bobby gave them the rundown.
“Alright guys, this is where we will bring the money, divide it up, and lay low for a while. Got it?”
The others grunted in affirmation.
“Good, everyone know what their jobs are?”
The others gave the same response they did before.
“Alright, sun is coming down, let’s get ready to blow this motherfucker”

Eddie was sitting in his squad car, he was a bit pissed at Simon for fucking up but he figured there are a lot of kid fuckers on the internet, how was Simon supposed to get the exact one. Eddie decided to drive around, it was getting to the end of his shift and he wanted to make O’Malley fill up the car. The night was in full swing now, this is when all the animals came out. As he was driving down the street he passed the Tasteful nightclub, Eddie tried to remember if Penelope was working tonight when he saw four men walking towards the entrance. He recognized one of them as Ken Miller, there was a warrant on him for assaulting a doctor. Eddie pulled over, got out of the car, and started to approach the group.
“Excuse me, are you Ken Miller, I have a warrant for your arrest”
Ken looked surprised and scared. Eddie didn’t have time to say anything else. Bobby pulled a .44 revolver from his waist and fired a shot at Eddie. The round hit him in the head and Eddie was instantly killed. The four men ran into the club, also shooting the bouncer. A chunk of Eddie’s skull was missing as the contents of his head spilled in the middle of the street.


Simon returned to his suite, cracked open a beer, sat on his couch and watched some tv. Halfway through an episode Seinfeld Simon realized he was still wearing the mask, he found it weird the smell of latex didn’t bother him earlier. As he was taking off his mask Simon got a phone call, the ringing was coming from the home phone. Simon walked to the kitchen counter to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Simon, right?”
It was Penelope’s dad
“Mr. Banks?”
“Yes, there has been an incident”


“Fuck man! We just killed a cop!” screamed Ken
“I did, just don’t worry about it! Focus on the job”
The four men were now in the nightclub. Alvin and Bobby were on crowd control while Jeffrey and Ken were going to get the manager to open the safe. The patrons of the club had already heard the shot from outside and most of them were shaken up, the DJ had turned off the music after hearing the shot.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you could just all slowly make your way to the ground, take out your wallets and wait. We will not hurt you unless we have a good reason to” Yelled Bobby
The people did what Bobby said to do. Him and Alvin started to collect the wallets that were now on the ground. Meanwhile, Ken and Jeffrey ran for the back room, they found the manager trying to stuff himself through the window. They grabbed him and Jeffrey pistol whipped him, his nose made a sickening cracking noise before spurting with blood.
“We don’t have time for games, take us to the safe” Jeffrey barked
“Alright, alright…” the manager said in a defeated infliction
The manager got up and led them up a flight of stairs into an attic space. There it was, the safe. Jeffrey was about to yell at the manager to open it up but it he didn’t need to. The manager immediately started to open the safe. Inside was a shelf for money and a shelf full of bricks made up of a brown powder. Jeffrey smiled, he knew what the powder was, it was raw kingpin. Ken bagged the money and Jeffrey bagged up the kingpin. Before they headed back down the stairs, Jeffrey shot the manager.

Penelope was on the ground, the men were nearing her area of the club she was in. One-by-one they took people’s wallets. It finally got to the man laying between her and the men collecting the wallets. She noticed he did not have his wallet out and had a look of defiance on his face.
“Where’s your wallet buddy?” Bobby asked
“Here’s your wallet fucker!” The man pulled out a switchblade and tried to get up. Before he could Alvin was on top of him. Penelope could not believe how fast he moved, it was almost instantaneous. Alvin started to stomp on the man’s wrist until he dropped the blade.
“This is what happens when we get a fucking hero”
Alvin started to stomp on the man’s head. Over and over. People in the crowd screamed, some just averted their eyes. Alvin finish and to everyone’s surprise the man was still alive and conscious.
“Well holy shit, we got a fucking tank here!, I got this Al” Bobby moved Alvin away from the man and bent down to meet his bloodied face.
“Anything you wanna say to the folks before you go under?” Bobby asked
The man noticed Bobby only having one eye and made his last statement through a swollen face and a broken jaw about that.
“That eye sockets empty.... Does your boyfriend over there ever get freaky with it?”
Bobby just laughed as he delivered the final stomp onto the man’s head, finally crushing the front of his skull. It was at this point that Ken and Jeffrey entered the main room with two duffel bags each.
“What the fuck happened?” Ken yelled at Bobby who still had his foot in the man’s head
“Just got a little wild here, we still gotta collect the rest of the wallets”
“Whoa, you know who that is? That’s the Bank’s daughter” Jeffrey exclaimed as he pointed at Penelope.
“So fucking what?” Bobby said
“Her parents are loaded, I say we take her for ransom!”
“NO, robbery is one thing kidnapping is another” Ken said
“Think about Daniel, you knew this job was not enough to get dick for treatment. It’s this or nothing”
“Fine just take her and lets go”
Penelope was picked by Bobby. She screamed and struggled but not as hard as she could after seeing the last person to stand up to the robbers die.

Simon’s celica screeched around the street before parking in the middle of it. The police barricades and flashing lights certainly knew how to draw a crowd. Simon got out of his car and practically ran to the line of cops telling everyone to get back. Simon saw Mr.Banks talking to a detective. Simon waited for someone in the crowd to lean a little too much on the barricade. The officer watching the crowd pushed him back behind the barricade, the crowd pushed back. Simon took advantage of this chaos to slip through a few feet away from the commotion. As Simon walked towards the detective, two gurneys were rolled past Simon into ambulances. Simon did not pay that any mind, he was too busy eavesdropping on Mr.Banks’ discussion with the detective.
“Do you know anyone who has a motive to do this to you or daughter?” the detective said in a gritty voice.
“No, I am loved within all of my spheres of influence”
Penelope’s dad was always kind of a...Well some would call him a bit egotistical at best, the term that circled around the most was “Jackass”.
“Do you know where they took her?”
“I can assure you, if I did know where they were...let’s just say I wouldn’t need your help. Hehe”
“Well, I guess that is all I need from you now, you know where the ransom drop off point will be. They said the trash can on 34th and Oak.”
“Heh, I suppose I will get the funds there. I just don’t like dealing with terrorists, it’s not like the amount will put a dent in my account. Hehe”
Oh fuck you Simon thought to himself. The detective had the same look on his face.
“Alright Mr.Banks...I’ll keep you updates as the situation progresses”
The detective walked away leaving Mr.Banks to notice that Simon was standing there in the middle of a crime scene. Mr.Banks waved to Simon.
“Simon my boy, how are you?” He said almost as if he didn’t notice his daughter was being held for ransom.
“Uh...good, I guess”
“I just want to let you know, don’t think that this was your fault.”
“I didn’t think it was my fau-”
“I have the funds to get her back and don’t worry, I know my Penelope and she’ll be alright. Listen, I want you to be there when she is released, make a speech about how the law enforcement in this town is top notch.”
“Uhh, okay.” With that Simon walked back to his car and went home, he had some work to do.

The van pulled up to the warehouse. Everyone piled out and entered, Ken was the one carrying Penelope. They used an old rag they found in the van to gag her. Once all inside they dropped the duffel bags of loot on the ground and Bobby started giving orders again.
“Ken take her to the locker”
Alvin spoke for once.
“Ey Bob, can I have a few minutes alone with her?”
Penelope’s eyes widened, it kind of turned Alvin on. Bobby was about to say sure when Ken responded.
“No, out of the question.”
“Why is that?” Alvin said in a slightly sexual tone.
“We don’t need you spraying DNA evidence all up in her”
“I’ll use a rubber”
“Still, no. This was supposed to be a robbery, that turned into a kidnapping, I’m not letting it become a rape”
“You don’t call the shots, Bob does”
Bobby responded with a no. This caused Alvin to draw his double barreled shotgun and pointed it at Ken.
“Don’t make me do this”
Bobby threw a fist at Alvin, it dropped him, his shotgun clattered to the floor.
“Now listen Al, you’re going to drive me to the pickup spot where I am going to wait for the money. Let’s all cool down and when you get back we can talk about the girl okay?”
Alvin didn’t speak, he just got up, took the keys to the van and walked out the door with Bobby. Ken and Jeffrey were left in an awkward silence. Ken finally walked Penelope over to a metal door, it led to a cold room containing one chair in the center. Ken sat penelope down and ungaged her, he then used some extra rags to tie her to the chair. Even without being gagged Penelope said nothing, she just looked at Ken. She knew he wasn’t like the others, he didn’t seem like a criminal and besides he even saved her. That was a turn on for Penelope.

Simon raced home, hopefully he could stake out the drop off point and see who took Penelope. Simon was in a rush, he sprinted up the stairs to the weapons room. He grabbed the first things he found, a ka-bar, the 4506, and the bear mask. He made one last stop in his suite, he realized he had not eaten anything since one of Penelope’s cookies. Simon quick opened his cabinet in the kitchen, he reached in and grabbed a box of Mike & Ikes and ran out the door. Simon finally got to the trash can where the deal was supposed to go down, he could see an undercover cop car in a nearby alley. Simon was eating his snack in his car, for the moment it seemed like he was more committed to the candy than to the stakeout. Hours went by, it gave Simon a long time to think. Were his actions okay? What made him judge, jury, and executioner? The thought that really scared him was How long will he continue to be lucky? His thoughts were cut short when his cell phone rang. Simon picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, may I ask who I am speaking to?” A female voice said, it almost sounded like she was sniffling
“May I ask who is asking?”
“Look Jackass! I’m calling from Eddie’s phone, this is the last number he called”
Simon did feel like a jackass, his blood ran cold. Simon’s mind jumped to the worst case conclusion.
“Is something wrong?”
“E-Eddie died today-”
“WHAT!”
The woman let out a small whimper and which only served to make Simon feel worse.
“I just wanted to call if you were a friend of his and tell you the funeral is next Tuesday.”
Simon saw a brown beat up van pull over about a block away and let out a chubby looking man in a wife beater. Simon grabbed a pair of binoculars, he swore he saw the man before. Simon watched as the van turned around and started to drive away. Maybe Simon was just not thinking straight, maybe he was just trying to ignore the woman on the phone telling him about Eddie’s death, maybe it was a combination of both.
“I’ll be there, bye” Simon hung up, put the car in drive and followed the van.

Simon tailed the van to a rundown building. He waited for the driver of the van to get out, Simon watched as the man looked around as he opened a side door and smile to himself. Simon pulled over and got out of his car, he wasn’t being governed by reason or logic at this point, only by a lot of anger and not a whole lot to let it out on. A part of him didn’t even care if they were the people he was looking for, he just saw that guy as scum that needed to be gone. He put on the mask and unsheathed the ka-bar. Simon reached the door he had seen the man go through moments earlier, he just whipped it open just in time to hear Alvin call out.
“I want a go with that bitch we got”
The door closed and the noise got alvin to turn around to see the masked man standing in the doorway.
“Ah fuck” Alvin muttered as he charged Simon.
Simon tried to take a stab at Alvin but he moved too fast, the two were now on the ground. Alvin somehow wrestled the knife out of Simon’s hands in a matter of seconds. Thinking he was about to turn the tables on the masked maniac, Alvin was abruptly kicked off. Simon drew the 4506 from its shoulder holster and fired at Alvin. The .45 round hit Alvin square in the shoulder. Alvin tumbled back, dropping the knife. The sound from the shot was deafening, so loud Simon was too disoriented to see Jeffrey run to the other side of the room to get the shotgun that Alvin had dropped earlier. Jeffrey shouldered the gun and fired 12 gauge buckshot at Simon. Only a few pellets hit Simon’s leg but it still hurt, Simon returned fire at Jeffrey. Simon emptied the magazine into Jeffrey, Simon quickly turned his focus on Alvin who was attempting to get up off the floor. The knife was in reach, Simon dragged himself to the knife and slashed at Alvin’s ankle. Alvin fell to the floor again, Simon then resorted to stabbing Alvin, stab after stab. Simon didn't stop until blood was pooling on the floor. The rage was gone for a moment. Simon just layed there for a while, the blood was soaking his clothes. Finally he got the strength to stand up, it didn’t seem so bad anymore, Simon had gotten so caught up in that encounter he almost forgot what he was there for in the first place. The anger came back, Simon walked over to Jeffrey’s corpse and took the shotgun, checked the chamber to remove the spent shell, he still had one shot. Simon saw the heavy metal door leading to the locker. Simon hobbled as fast as he could over to the door, he really didn’t care what was on the other side, he just wouldn’t admit that to himself.

Ken was sobbing, he felt safe to do so in front of her, also the room was soundproof so the other guys wouldn’t hear it. He explained his predicament to the girl. He apologized saying he only did it for his son, that he would take all of this back if he could. She just sat there with admiring eyes, looking at her blonde hair Ken could not help but let an impure thought or two cross his mind, he swatted those away instantly since they made him feel like he was no better than Alvin or Jeffrey, or Bobby for that matter. This was not who he was. Penelope sat in silence watching this man cry, she didn’t consider it stockholm syndrome, he saved her after all. His son needed the money, it’s not like her parents couldn’t afford to be robbed, it would be like nothing changed for them and it would make a world of difference for his little boy. If she wasn’t tied up she probably would have tried to seduce him, Demarkus didn’t have to know. For a while Ken stopped crying, he got a hold of himself. Ken’s phone rang.
“He-snf-Hello?”
“Yes, this is doctor Singh, this is about your son.”
“Oh god is he getting worse?”
“No, not as of yet but we did run some tests, when can you come to my office ?”
Ken didn’t have a chance to respond. The door behind him was flung open, expecting to Bobby or one of the gang he turned around. Ken dropped the phone when he found himself face to face with a blood soaked man in a bear mask wielding a shotgun. The shotgun was casually aimed at Ken’s stomach. Simon pulled the trigger, Ken was tossed to the ground from the force of the shot. Everyone in the room was disgusted with the result of that shot, Ken’s abdomen was the consistency of gel, large intestine trailing out of his body, in his last moments of life Ken threw up at the sight of his own mutilated body.

Simon felt good inside in a sick way, he did it, he saved the day, he tossed the shotgun to the ground. Then he looked at Penelope’s face, it was splattered with small dots of intestine and blood. She screamed in fear.
“Who the fuck are you!”
Take a wild fucking guess Simon thought
“You fucking mainiac! He was just doing it so he could help his kid get treatment!”
Simon remained silent, partly because he didn’t want penelope to hear his voice, partly because he was disgusted with himself. The two plunged themselves into silence, for a long time. They both just stared at each other. Finally Simon hobbled towards Penelope, she looked scared and even let out a whimper at first. She had a defeated look in her eye, she thought it was over for her. Simon noticed parts of her blonde, silky hair were stained red by viscera, it made Simon a little angry that it just played out like this. Penelope was surprised when she felt her hands and legs untied from the chair. She quickly got up and faced Simon.
“You’re still a monster! Just because you did this doesn’t make you the hero!”
Penelope ran out of the building gasping as she past the bodies. Simon limped out of the room, picked up his knife and the 4506,and hopped towards the exit, he almost left. The four duffel bags caught his eye, he walked over to them and opened on, full of cash. Assuming they all were filled with money Simon strapped them on, it was hell for his leg, the pain was getting stronger. At a snail’s pace Simon made it to the celica, he loaded in all of the bags and drove home.

Simon pulled into his parking space, took of his mask and covered up his car with a tarp since the interior was blood soaked like him. Once inside the apartment building Simon knocked on the first door to the left. This was home to a nice latino family, they were quiet and paid rent on time, the man offered Simon to have dinner with his family a couple times but Simon always politely declined. The door opened up, it was Mr.Valerio.
“Mr.Valerio, is your wife home?”
“Ye-yeah, what happened?”
“I got jumped, guys had a gun”
Simon could tell he wasn’t buying the story but he let Simon in and called his wife over. His Wife was a nurse at the local hospital. She came around a corner and saw Simon leg and immediately went to retrieve their first-aid kit. Simon took of his clothes, except for his boxers and laid down on  the floor.
“Thank you” he said to the man. The wife came back with the kit, she opened it to get some very large and scary looking tweezers. After an hour the wife had gotten all of the shot out of Simon’s leg, disinfected it and bandaged it. Blood was all over their kitchen floor. Simon helped clean up the blood but they protested and told him to get some rest.
“Don’t bother paying rent for the next couple months, it’s on the house”
“Thank you sir”
Simon took his bloodied clothes and walked as fast as he could, which was still pretty slow, up to his suite. He tossed his clothes into the hamper and laid down on his bed, he reached into the nightstand to produce three white pills. Vicodin was going to help him through this just like always, Simon swallowed the pills and floated away.

Simon was sitting at a dinner table with his parents, he couldn’t see their faces though.
“This is not what we wanted, he has become a monster” his father muttered
“He can’t help it, I think he’s sick”
“I don’t care, we can’t let this go on. This is not what we raised him to be”
“It doesn't matter what we raised him to be, he can’t control his mind”
When Simon tried to defend himself they just ignored it, that made Simon feel small. All of the sudden his chair melted into the floor, so did he. Simon was now looking at a hospital bed with a little boy in it crying and eventually falling limp. Simon then found himself lying in the middle of a city street, it was pitch black, the only light came from the streetlamps. Simon got up and saw a figure at the end of the street. It looked like a female, Simon could only see bright red hair, almost like fire. Something sparked in Simon, he was entranced. She walked around a corner, Simon ran to follow her but no matter how hard he tried he did not get anywhere.
“You know your story doesn’t end with a happily ever after, right?”
The voice came from behind him. Simon turned around to see only firey orange hair and the barrel of the 4506 pointed at Simon, the gun went off. Simon woke in a cold sweat, everything was normal. His leg was still messed up, the bandage looked dingy and it was stained with blood, did he bleed that much overnight? Simon looked at the alarm clock, he had slept for two days.

11:45 AM June 28

       Looking down at his bandaged leg concerned Simon, it was stained with dried blood. Simon was afraid to see underneath the bandage, he did nonetheless. It wasn’t infected but it looked like hell. Simon tried to walk on it, he could but it hurt. Simon fought through the pain as he walked to the bathroom to shower and get more bandages. After patching up his wound Simon got dressed and popped two Vicodin. Simon looked around his suite, the tv was still on and there were messages on his phone. Simon played them, Mr.Banks’ voice came through.
“Simon Penelope has been freed, she is giving statements to the police. The press conference I have set up will be tomorrow at 12:30 at the police station, as her boyfriend I feel you should be there to support her.”
It was sent yesterday, FUCK Simon thought. As quickly as he could Simon rushed to his car, he forgot the interior was still covered in blood. Frantically trying to think through the haze of the Vicodin that was kicking in Simon remembered something. Simon walked over to a closed garage unit and entered in the code, the door opened to reveal a red motorcycle. Simon bought it right after college, his mother always said they were deathtraps, he never fully got the hang of riding, after his parents died he never brought it out again. Simon couldn’t find the helmet so he went without one, using the kickstart was murder on his leg. He made it to the press conference with five minutes to spare. Simon tried not to limp as Mr.Banks welcomed him. He sat Simon down right next to Penelope, Simon forgot how she reacted when he last saw her.
“Hey I got your note I am so sorry for that night, I shouldn’t have snapped at you, I’m lucky to have a girlfriend like you.”
Penelope was confused, didn’t he read the note? She was about to break the news to him but couldn’t bring herself to do it, that’s why she left the note.
“It’s alright” was all she could say
Before Simon could respond Mr.Banks yelled to the crowd of journalists.
“Alright, let's get started”
The questions were mostly for the police chief and Penelope. Simon just let the painkillers kick in, he had to look like he wasn’t floating away internally though. Simon did catch one question directed to Penelope.
“Ms.Banks, did you have confidence in the police force to free you?”
“Absolutely, and they would have safely negotiated my release had that masked maniac not ruined those men’s life.”
“Do you think that maniac’s actions were justifiable?”
“There is no circumstance where vigilante justice is necessary, we have police for a reason.”
As if reading Simons facial expressions of disagreeance the reporter directed a question at Simon.
“Sir, do you agree with your significant other’s stance”
Everyone turned their attention to the high Simon.
“Uh, I 100% agree, whoever this maniac is needs to be hunted and imprisoned for disrespecting the law, the police force, and this fine city!”
Simon’s fake passion seemed to pass the test. For the rest of the event Simon just let himself float away, he thought he saw something important but in his current state he could not put his finger on it. Maybe it was just the drugs but he swore there was something, maybe a few things that were important but his efforts gave way to the painkillers.

After the conference was over, Penelope went with Simon to her house, she still lived at home. The house was enormous, Penelope’s room in particular was huge. Mr.Banks was at work and Penelope’s mother was off screwing the pool boy in the maintenance shed, everyone knew but nobody cared enough to tell Mr.Banks but deep down he had a good idea of what was happening. Simon and Penelope talked like when they first met, it felt like something, it made both of them remember what they saw in each other. As the summer sun painted the sky orange and pink Simon and Penelope laid in her bed and slept, feeling good about the world.


12:00 PM July 1

Simon was dressed in all black wearing sunglasses. The funeral music always made Simon think way too much about life. All of Eddie’s family was there, the Moretti’s were a tightly woven clan, SImon was surprised they let the cops handle the ceremony. The bar they went to after the ceremony was filled with people trading stories about Eddie. Simon Was in the back not talking to anyone in fear of being noticed. From afar Simon could make out a few of the important figures, there was Eddie’s mother, brother, and sister over in the corner still with tears in their eyes. Sitting at the bar was a line of cops, one of them was the detective who interviewed Mr.Banks. In another corner was a group of Eddie’s old girlfriends talking about how he brought all of them to the same crappy diner for their first date. Once Simon had felt that he had made his peace with the death he left, unfortunately the detective was also leaving at the same time, he opened the door for Simon. Praying that he would not be recognized Simon rushed out of the bar. The detective did recognize Simon but he didn’t care, he had something to do. Simon walked to his motorcycle, as he was about to start it up when a hand grabbed Simon. It was Eddie’s sister.
“Yeah?” Simon said
“You didn’t think I saw you?”
“You’re his sister, right?”
“I am, it means so much that you came, I know about your partnership with my brother”
“He told you!” Simon said trying not to sound shocked
“Yes and I was wondering if I could get your phone number.”
“Look I have a girl-” Simon was cut off by her laughter
“I’m not asking like that, I have a friend who might need some help”
“Look...I’m sorry for your loss but I am not a gun for hire.”
“Shame... because I might be able to help you out”
“I don’t need anything”
“Really, not even the little pills you and my brother were so fond of”
Simon paused, he was starting to run low.
“I’m listening”
“I so happen to work at a pharmacy, and I know that I can sneak a number of pills to you every month.”
“I’m not some damn junkie”
“I never said you were, now that number please”
Simon gave her his number and sped off without realizing someone else was watching him.

Once home Simon got down to it and did some work, he took the duffel bags out of his car and got some stain remover on his car’s upholstery. It only kind of worked but at least people would not call the cops when they saw him driving. Once he got done with that he actually opened all of the duffel bags, Simon was surprised to see the brown powder in two of the bags, heroin? Really shitty cocaine? Simon couldn’t tell, good thing he knew a guy who would be able to tell what it was and how much it was worth.

Bobby spent the past couple days holed up in his apartment wired on the last of his kingpin supply. He always kept his gun pointed at the door, waiting for the cops to bust in, they never did. The kingpin did not help him think straight, he had hallucinations of Daniel withering away right in front of him, it was new for kingpin. He waited at the trash can for a couple hours, the messenger dropped off a suitcase full of cash, Bobby did not open it in fear of there being a dye pack in it. Bobby was almost to the warehouse when he saw that it pretty much became a police station, after that he just tried to disappear. He got a call from the morgue to identify Ken, he never showed up. After he felt like the cops or his PO would come looking for him passed, Bobby took some time to apply for jobs and visit Daniel in the hospital. Bobby was intent of turning his life around.

2:00 AM July 2

Simon pulled over on the side of the street, he was on the border of Chinatown. People just called it Chinatown, it was really made up Hmongs, the Chinese inhabitants had their own subsection of this place. Still everything had the authentic Chinese look, as Simon walked through the streets he remembered the gang wars between the Asian groups, it ultimately led to the killing of all the korean families in the area. The Chinese and Hmong then made a shaky alliance and learned to live next to each other. Simon came up to his destination, Wong’s Oriental Food, Simon entered. He walked up to the front desk, a slim old Asian man stood behind the desk.
“A table for how many?” the old man asked
“I’m here for the crispy duck”
“Ah, I see. This way.”
The old man led Simon through the restaurant, it looked exactly how every other Asian restaurant looked but something about this place felt a bit more real. The two ended up in in a back room with two doors leading to other rooms.
“Go through the door on the right” the old man instructed Simon
“Okay”
The old man walked back to his post. Simon walked through the left door, the right door led to a freezer. They always told Simon and anyone who asked for the “crispy duck” right away to go through the door on the right. They did that as to trap police informants who somehow knew what phrase to say at the right time. Opening the left door Simon saw his guy, Brian. Brian was a chinese guy who went to highschool with Simon, while Simon was in college Brian got into the drug hustling game. Upon seeing that it was Simon, Brian smiled.
“Hey white rice!”
“Hi Brian” Simon said laughing remembering his old nickname.
“What brings you to my palace today?”
“I’m not sure what this is” Simon pulled a small plastic bag of the brown powder onto the table Brian was sitting at. Brian opened up the bag, got a line of the powder out and snorted it. Brian’s eyes widened for split second.
“Yeah, yep, ahuh, yes, this is the new shit!” Brian exclaimed
“What exactly is it?”
“Kingpin, new designer shit”
“How much is it worth?”
“How much you got?”
“Two duffel bags worth”
“The most I can pay is 15,000 for it”
“That works, when and where should I drop it off”

September 15

The days went by, everything seemed to be smooth in the personal lives of everyone. Simon laid low and waited for the “masked maniac” manhunt blew over, some people stood up for the actions of the “city sentinel”, but most publicly condemned the actions. Simon took time to let his leg heal and to learn how to ride his motorcycle, he remembered why he wanted one in the first place. Boxes full of painkillers arrived on Simon’s doorstep monthly, it helped his supply. Penelope went back to her life after being taken. Her affair with Demarkus kept going, he seemed to get impatient with Penelope not leaving Simon by the day, didn’t stop him from having sex with her. Things were going good between her and Simon, certainly better than how things were before, he seemed motivated again. She noticed that he cleaned his apartment, he was clean shaven. Demarkus was still the one she loved though. Bobby got a job as a night janitor at a car dealership, he was giving it an honest go, whatever money he had left went to Daniel, but it still was not enough. Every time Bobby thought about pulling off a job he just thought back to how the last job got Daniel’s father killed. So for now, Bobby was just doing what he could.

The office was bustling with people talking and keyboards furiously typing. Interns were running around with trays of coffee, editors were chewing out columnists. In the middle of all the chaos was Kimer Mathis, a reporter for the Crestview Tribune. She always had an interest for truth, she developed almost a sixth sense when it came to lying, Kimber always seemed to know when someone was lying. Kimber entered an editor’s office, behind a desk sat a short Greek man, Mr.Ambrosia.
“What have you got for me this time?” Mr.Ambrosia inquired
“I want to do a piece on the maniac murders”
Ambrosia laughed.
“That is the definition of old news, I won’t have it”
“There has been new evidence, witnesses have come forward linking the murderer to the death of Gregory Hicks.”
“So?”
“So, they never found him, if I were an average person I would want updates.”
“I still don’t like it, what insight can these new witnesses give you that the cops haven’t?”
“I’m planning on talking to Gerald Mcnamara, a victim of the maniac, he says he is ready to finally talk to the press, I’m sure the inquirer will send someone to talk to him.”
Ambrosia sighed.
“Fine, get outta here”
Kimber let a smile grow on her face as she walked out of the office.


While Simon had generally cleaned himself up and laid low, he was still paranoid about being found out, he thought he kept seeing the same car parked outside the building for a couple days, one day it was just gone, Simon then figured it was nothing. He was also paranoid Penelope would find something in his apartment that would raise suspicions. He still spent his days watching TV, drinking beer, and working out. His leg was feeling better, he was able to run and put weight on it again. While Simon was hiding all of his gear, he also acquired some new stuff from Brian, a kevlar vest, incendiary rounds, and some grenades. Simon found that it was better to not ask where they got this stuff. Simon had been keeping himself busy, staying inside his building was maddening. Simon began taking short walks around the block, not too long in fear of being seen by a cop, Simon didn’t know how much info the cops had. After a good amount of time passed Simon felt safe to walk around town again. He started taking Penelope to nice restaurants, to the park, just out. Simon liked to think that she had changed after the kidnapping, but deep down he knew that he was the one who had changed. That thought scared him, he was better off not killing, maybe he wasn’t needed, was he ever needed? Simon tried not to answer those questions, there was one thing he couldn’t ignore, he was happy.

Penelope adjusted back to life fairly well. Simon was acting different, maybe the feeling of not having her made him realize what she really meant to him. She got a few small time acting gigs since she got back, nothing significant but that didn’t stop Penelope from making Simon watch entire movies or shows to see her on-screen for a total of 15 seconds. He didn’t seem to mind, She felt like he was a different man, the sex still wasn’t so great. Everytime she felt unsatisfied she called Demarkus over to her work. He would always tell her his plans for taking her away, giving her the life she deserves, whatever that meant. Demarkus was a two bit gangster, selling cheap throwaway guns, cocaine, meth, you name it. He did a lot of business with off-duty cops, they were his gang’s main weapon against the “chinks” led by Brian. Decades ago when the rivalry started the blacks used the police to either crackdown illegally on the Asian gangs or look the other way when the blacks took swipe at Asian run businesses, a lot of people believe this is what opened the door to the degree of corruption they were at now. They had pushed Brian’s people into a corner and the two have just skirmished long before Brian or Demarkus were born. The nightclub Penelope worked at was a block away from Chinatown, it was not uncommon for Demarkus’ people to fight with Brian’s people outside. This feud ran deeper than anyone really saw at first glance.

Kimber arrived at the county jail, the main room was filled with lawyers, cops, and convicts all running around and shouting at each other. Kimber made her way past security and took the elevator down to the visiting booths. At the third booth sat Gerald, he looked pretty bad, he had marks and bruises on his face. Kimber had to suppress the feeling of disgust she had. She sat down and picked up the phone and placed her notepad down on the table of the booth.
“Hello Mr.Vaneperen”
“I’m not here for pleasantries, I’m here to get people to see that I’m innocent”
“Alright, let’s get started. Can you describe what you were doing at the park so late on that night?”
“I was looking for my granddaughter”
“I thought she was with your wife”
“When I checked on her room that night I thought she was gone, I checked the park for her”
Kimber wasn’t buying this story but she had no need to press him about these lies, she really needed information about the vigilante but she couldn’t be to forward with her intentions.
“Didn’t they find a pack of condoms and a transcript of you speaking sexually to a minor, about your grandchildren’s age?”
Gerald slammed a hand on his side of the booth.
“That was planted on me, by that monster!”
There we go Kimber thought.
“This “monster”, what did he look like?”
“He was wearing pink shoes like my little Tina wears, probably to fool me. He also had this terrifying mask on, it made him look like a bird.”
“If you aren’t a pedophile, what motive do you think he had?”
“It was a mugging, he stole my wallet. He just tried to frame me so it would look like he was a hero.”
Kimber asked Gerald a few more questions, scribbled down all she needed to know on her notepad and left. Her next goal was to see if she could get an interview with the “masked maniac” himself.

Ashley was sitting in her car, waiting. No real activity for days, it was starting to annoy her. She looked up at the window that belonged to Simon, nothing. She never forgot the days of freshmen year when they dated, it was love in its most simple and pure form, or at least that’s how Ashley remembered it. Simon took her on a grand total of three dates and went to prom with her. She asked him to a Sadie Hawkins dance and Simon’s parent pretty much pushed him to ask her out. Their first date was at a shooting range, Simon was more interested in fixing his stance than her. She was actually terrified of guns, in her eyes they only killed people. But they technically were an item for a good year. After prom Simon felt like he had fulfilled his obligation, he broke up with her claiming that she was just a friend. Then he started to flirt with that slut who was into acting. She learned to deal with it and went on with her life, she focused on her music. That is until she saw the masked vigilante walk out of the house down the road from her, the build was the same, the walk was the same, and the car he got into was the same as Simon. From that point she rushed to her car and followed him back to this apartment complex, it had to be Simon.

12:00 PM September 18

Simon was sitting on a bench downtown. He had been working out more and even started being able to sleep without the Vicodin. He was enjoying the golden autumn day, the air was crisp and the street was filled with people, just like the last couple of days he had been coming to this very bench. He had just got out of the cigar shop, he got a box full of the cheap ones, the kind Eddie used to smoke. Simon reached for the lighter in his pocket and lit up one of the cigars. As Simon sat there smoking, he asked himself something, was he really happy?

12:00 PM September 23

Simon sat at the same bench. He had done pretty much everything there was to do in town, except go shooting. Simon was still pretty paranoid about going to the range, he heard that undercover cops frequented that place and Simon didn’t want to get recognized, he didn’t even know if they had a profile of his face. All of Simon’s info died with Eddie. There was nothing to do. Sure he could hang out with Penelope but everything that could be said already had been, and Simon didn’t want to talk about current events after how it went last time. While thinking about how sex with Penelope was boring, something happened across the street. A man and a poorly dressed woman were walking down the other side of the street, all of the sudden the woman looked nervous. As a black man wearing a fur coat walking the opposite direction passed them did a double take Simon knew what was happening. A pimp just found out his whore had a boyfriend.  The man who was walking with the lady was punched in the back of the head. The boyfriend then pulled out a gun. Simon unholstered his baton and was running across the street, the pimp pulled a knife out and held it to the lady’s throat. It was a delicate standoff that Simon was just running into. The boyfriend who was so focused on the pimp that he didn’t see Simon running at full speed towards him. The baton came down on the hand holding the gun, in pain the boyfriend dropped the gun, Simon delivered two more strikes to the man’s legs in order to get him on the ground. Once the man was on the ground holding his shins, Simon looked at the pimp.
“You okay?” Simon asked
“Yeah man, I’m glad there's one cracker who can fight”
The pimp lowered the knife from the girl’s neck and went to shake Simon’s hand. Simon hit him in the jaw. It dropped the pimp, Simon kept hitting him. The pimp’s face was covered in blood when the Whore tried to stop Simon. She pulled him off of her pimp. Simon felt alive, with every swing, hearing the crack of the baton. Simon whipped around and swung the baton at the whore, hitting her in the neck, she fell back. Looking at the scene he created, SImon picked up the boyfriend's gun and ran back to his car parked a few blocks away. Simon realized something as he was running, he wasn’t happy, he was bored and now he knew that doing this sort of thing made him feel alive. This is what made him happy.

September 27

“I don’t have time for this, I have to work” Penelope said over the loud music in the nightclub
“C’mon, I want you…” Demarkus begged
“Look, I can’t just drop everything to be with you”
“Why not? I’d do it for you, I want you to be my number one bitch”
“Things with Simon are getting better, I don’t think I’m going to leave him”
“Why! You were just bought to leave his ass but then you get kidnapped and all the sudden you all cool with him!”
“You know it’s more complicated than that”
Demarkus got up and stormed out of the club. As he was leaving he pulled out his cell phone, he had some important calls to make.

Detective Roberts sat at his desk pretending to do work, this city was beginning to be too much for him. This job had a way of changing people, he had seen rookies go in with the best intentions become hardened and withered by the things they saw in the line of duty. Just the other day some psycho had paralyzed a hooker with a baton and turned a pimps jaw into red mush. Roberts worked his way out of that, instead of being a uniform he upgraded and made the rank of detective. Now he got to talk to rape victims, lock up murderers, and bust the occasional drug ring. Of course he took monetary donations in order to look the other way, there was not many cops who didn’t. At the end of the day though, Roberts knew what was right and wrong. His shift was over, he logged off his computer and said goodbye to the night shift crew. He walked to his car, he shivered at the embrace of the cold autumn air. He started driving, he had a date tonight. Even though he was a cop, he still had to have fun every once in awhile. He stopped at a warehouse, turned off his car and got out. Roberts walked to his trunk, inside was a cloth bundle. He picked it up and went inside, walked up a flight op stairs and entered a freezer room. Hanging from the ceiling was the body of a girl, about 19 years old. Roberts found this girls body on the street one night, he could have called it in but instead brought her here. He opened the cloth bundle to reveal an assortment of knives. He proceeded to cut chunks of flesh off of her body. He had slit the throat and bled her dry earlier. As he removed the slabs of flesh from her body he put them in a plastic bag.
“God do I hate this” he said aloud to nobody.
Roberts stripped the girl clean, he had gotten good at doing this over the years. He untied the body and bagged it up, he threw it in the dumpster. Roberts took the bag of meat and placed it in another bag, no need to have blood all over his car. He got in his vehicle and drove. Going through the city to the far south side. This is where the most chaos occurred, not even crooked cops would do business here, well, except for Roberts but this wasn’t police business. Roberts drove to what seemed to be an abandoned shack. He took the bag of flesh and walked in. inside the shack was a door with a slot at eye level. Roberts knocked in a rhythmic way, the eye slot opened revealing two blue eyes.
“Password?” the voice pair of eyes said
“Hamburger”
The door opened. The pair of eyes belonged to a big muscular skinhead, he had a swastika tattooed on his right shoulder. The skinhead walked Roberts down a flight of stairs. Once all the way down, Roberts was met with a man in a wheelchair, he was a middle aged man. The man in the wheelchair noticed Roberts holding the bag of flesh and wheeled over to him.
“Ah, my favorite customer” the man said with a thick German accent
“Hello Adalbert, I got about 20 pounds”
“Only 20?”
“It’s all prime, lean, no fat”
“Ah, excellent, let me see!”
Roberts handed the bag to the man, Adalbert wheeled to a table to open the bag.
“I’ll give you 12000 credits for this” the man said, sifting through the bag.
“In that case, I’ll take one and take the rest in that new shit”
“Ah, delightful my friend, Travis? Would you mind getting the one our friend reserved?””
The skinhead nodded and left the room.
“Next time you should get some cranial tissue, I want to see how that tastes”
“Alright, are you going to make a trip to the Reich soon?”
“Yes,yes, to see family and pick up some new tools.”
Roberts made small talk with Adalbert for awhile until the skinhead came back. He had a girl with him, she was about 22. Her eyes were dull, she did not move by herself and her hair was covering her face, she was a well built girl.
“She...is beautiful”
“I hope you don’t cut her hair, I was a little too careless when patching her up, the scar is ugly” Adalbert said
“Here” The skinhead also produced  a brick of brown powder.
“Travis! Help the lady to his car!” Adalbert barked
The skinhead carried the girl up the stairs while Roberts just carried his kingpin. The skinhead put the girl in the passenger seat in the car.
“Thanks Travis, I’ll see you next month”
“It may not be that short, this one should survive a little over two months depending on how you treat her. Either way, see ya”
Roberts got back in his car and drove home. While driving he could not help but glance over at the girl next to him, she was just his type. She was blonde, well endowed, Roberts just wished that he knew her name. He drove up on his house, it was a small secluded place he got from his parents. He got out and moved the girl into the house. He opened the door to the basement, flipping the light switch the scene was revealed. A cement floor with a drain in the center of the room, shackles lined the walls. As he descended the stairs with the girl he saw his other lobotomized doll in the corner, her skin seemed withered, she was obviously malnourished. It was a shame, they never lasted long, once the sex started to not feel good or they started rotting he got rid of them. There was a small waterbed in the room, he placed his new doll onto it. Roberts walked over to a cupboard, opening it revealed a stereo system, Roberts plugged a cassette tape in. Come on Eileen started playing. Roberts danced over to the waterbed and fell on top of his new doll.
“I think I’ll call you Mallory, I love you”
He was met with only a blank stare from the girl. Roberts smirked , unzipped his pants and began to have fun.

October 31

“Surprise!” Penelope said exiting Simons bathroom. She was wearing a revealing lion costume.
“Are you a slutty cat?”
Penelope huffed in disdain
“I’m a lion, What are you even supposed to be?”
Simon was wearing 70’s suit.
“I’m Dirty Harry” Simon said in a gritty voice while squinting his eyes and pulling out a fake San Francisco cop badge.
“Nobody even knows who that is anymore, I only do since you made me watch those movies.”
Simon looked at his watch and informed Penelope they were going to be late. They got in Penelope’s car, she insisted on driving stating it was the modern thing to do. Simon didn’t mind, he just enjoyed the ride. They arrived at the restaurant, a fancy place that you don’t really go to for the food but to just say that you went there. They walked up to the host’s desk.
“Reservations?”
“Yeah under Banks!” Penelope chimed
The host led the two to their table and told them their server would be there shortly. As the waitress walked over she smiled.
“Ah, a lion” She looked at Simon
“A-and a banker?” the waitress guessed
“I’m Dirty Harry” Simon said as he flashed the badge.
“Ooohhh, my grandfather loved those movies”
The waitress to their drink orders and scurried away. Penelope looked Simon in the eye.
“I have to ask you something”
“Shoot”
“Why don’t you ask about my time as captive? I mean everyone else did”
“I just always thought it was a delicate subject, do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I just felt so disconnected from you before it happened. I just wanted to tell you, I fell so much closer to you now”
“I feel the same way, I love you.”
“I love you too. I see the man who saved me that night again?”
“I have wanted to know...how is what I did any different from what that maniac did when you were kidnapped?”
Penelope sighed, Simon could see the emotional gears in her head turning.
“He was going to do something terrible to me, the men who took me just wanted money to help a little boy with medical problems, also you didn’t kill the man, killing is never the answer.
Simon knew she was lying, he didn’t forget what he heard that day in the warehouse but revealing what he knew would give up his cover. He could run mental circles and make his case justifying the “maniac’s” actions but he knew it would only lead to a fight.
“I’m just glad I have you back.”
They both felt good spending time with each other. They had a wonderful time. They left the restaurant and went back to Penelope’s house. They had sex which was mediocre at best and Penelope dropped Simon off at his apartment.
“I’ll see ya later!” Penelope said from her car
“Yeah, see ya”
Penelope drove off. As Simon was about to walk into the building and pickup truck screeched around the corner. The bed was filled with black men all wearing green bandanas. They started to get out of the truck and walk towards Simon, the five of them were all wielding lead pipes or baseball bats. Simon was about to reach for the .38 bodyguard revolver he was concealing but he stopped, five dead gangsters right on his front doorstep would not look good. Simon ran and sure enough they followed. Simon ran around the corner trying to think about his next move. Under pursuit Simon ran as far as he could go pushing past the kids looking for candy that were still left at this hour of the night. Simon turned down an alley, a dead end, perfect. Simon took the revolver out of the inner pocket of his suit jacket, he aimed it at where the mob would be coming from. The first one to round the corner was hit directly in the abdomen, the others charged. Simon hit the next three with bullets, two were lethal shots to the throat or the head with one shot hitting the right shoulder, but missed his last shot. The gangster swung his pipe at Simon, it hit him in the ribs, Simon staggered but came right back with a whip with the backside of the revolver. Simon landed a hit on the man’s forehead, he dropped the pipe to hold his head. Simon picked up the pipe on the ground, by this time the gangster had recovered and threw a punch at Simon hitting him in the sternum. Simon fought through the shock to swing the pipe at the gangsters head, it hit. The man fell down but Simon kept swinging, he saw stopped by the man whose shoulder was hit. The two wrestled and Simon ended up on top, Simon threw punch after punch until the man was unconscious.
“Take that you fucking mooleys!”
Simon got up, dusted himself off and ran off, by this time Simon could hear police sirens closing in.

Kimber got out of her car, she parked a block away from the scene. She passed the police barricade by flashing her press badge. It was gruesome, bodies everywhere, police scurrying around, paramedics doing what they could, and people trying to get a good photo. Kimber walked over to one of her sources, a cop named O’malley.
“What happened here?” Kimber said pulling out her notepad and pen
“The one survivor who can talk said he and his friends were walking down the street just dressed as gangsters and some lunatic comes in and pulls a gun on them. He says it was a hate crime, the assailant called him a “mooley”.”
“Mind if I talk to him?”
“I really shouldn’t…” O’malley said hesitantly
Kimber gave him a glare that said she meant business. O’malley agreed and Kimber walked over to a gurney waiting outside an ambulance that housed the surviving victim. His stomach was bandaged up but still bleeding, he had an oxygen mask on. Kimber approached him.
“Hello, I’m with the Crestview Tribune. Mind if I ask you some questions?”
The man took off his oxygen mask.
“Sure, am I going to get paid for this interview?”
“Uh..no”
“Fine go ahead anyway”
“So can you describe who attacked you?”
“Some cracker, a racist piece of shit!” Motherfucker shot me!”
The man coughed and held his abdomen.
“Racist? Do you think he attacked you simply because of your skin color?”
“For sure, we wasn’t doin nothing until his ass pulled a gun.”
“What about all of the blunt objects found in the alley?”
“Part of the costume, what are you dressed up as?” the man said with the slightest hint of flirting in his voice. Kimber didn’t get the joke, she was too busy trying to figure out what really happened at this scene.
“Uh….a journalist.”
“C’mon girl, what do you say to me hollering at you once I get all stitched up? Can I get your number?”
Kimber then realized that she wasn’t going to get the truth out of this guy. I’ll fuck with him Kimber thought. She tore out a piece of paper from her notepad and wrote down a number. She gave it to the man and walked back to her car. The man smiled took out his cell phone and called Demarkus.
“Hello?” a groggy Demarkus answered
“Hey, its Jerome. We was gonna pound that guy’s ass but he pulled and wasted everyone but me and Latrell.”
“You better be joking man!”
“I took a bullet in the gut, Letrell is unconcious. I'll get some real pipe-hittin niggas next time and well put that motherfucker on ice.”
“Once you get out of the hospital, see me immediately!”
Demarkus hung up.

November 1

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT Simon thought to himself. His right wrist had to be broken, sprained at least. He searched his apartment for his dad’s old wrist brace, he also downed a Vicodin to make the pain go away. Despite the damage to his wrist and the fear of being attacked by another mob, Simon felt good again. It was the same as it ever was. Simon found the wrist brace and applied it, it felt good. Simon got settled on the couch waiting for the painkiller to set in, but he started thinking. What if they saw Penelope drive off? What if they knew they were important to each other? Fear finally beat the thrill of violence. Simon rushed to his phone and called Brian. Simon got the restaurant clerk on the phone, without being asked he said “crispy duck” and he was transferred to Brian.
“What’s up White Rice? Got any more of that stuff?”
“No, Brian this is an emergency”
“Something wrong?”
“No, not yet atleast. I got jumped last night, I’m not sure if they might be going after Penelope.”
“You're still dating her?”
“Yeah, look...I need you to just send someone to follow her, make sure she’s alright”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll send a guy over. Although in my opinion she’s not worth it. She was a bitch in high school.”
Simon hung up as the painkillers hit. Damn I must have lost my tolerance Simon thought, just one hit him hard. He went to lay down on the couch, Simon felt himself lose connection and float away, he was still worried but the feeling gave way to sleep.


From his cold car Bobby could see the factory. He had managed to hold down not just a job there but also delivering mail during the day, it still wasn’t enough. He was late on rent and car payments, all his money was going to Daniel’s medical expenses. As his legal guardian, Bobby had to go into the hospital every week to meet with doctors and put everything in order. During one of his visits Bobby learned that they did some DNA tests on Daniel. Ken couldn’t be Daniel’s father, Bobby chose not to tell that to Daniel. Bobby got out of his car and walked in for his shift. He worked in the wing that bottled all of the Sweet Leaf tea. He got straight to work, Bobby found it was best to just kill his mind and do his job. Hours went by, Bobby stared at each bottle that went by, he memorized the label. He did a little mental math about how many hours he was working. With five minutes left in his shift Bobby heard a commotion coming from the office portion of the factory. It was his boss laughing with a younger woman. Bobby realized that the woman was his bosses daughter, Jillian. She was next in line to manage the lower half of the factory, a position her dad got her. He had never talked to her, that was until today. His boss and Jillian came down so she could meet the line workers. Bobby kept working, but almost as if she knew he was avoiding her she called out to him specifically.
“Hey sailor, over here!”
When Bobby turned to face her she could see Bobby’s eyepatch. To his surprise, she laughed at Bobby.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had the...uh...thing” She said still chuckling. Bobby wasn’t offended, he actually found it refreshing how people didn’t look at him like a train wreck. She stopped laughing and began to introduce herself, she went 10 minutes past their shift causing all the workers to be a little pissed. After it was over the workers dispersed and left, Bobby was walking to his car when he was stopped by his co-worker Kedds. Kedds was an idiot, but he was a nice kid which is why people put up with his stupidity.
“Yo, Bobby, I have to talk to you about something”
“Shoot”
“I’m not coming back tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“I’m making chump change here, I found a way to make real money but I need some advice from you.”
Bobby didn’t like where this was going.
“What are you talking about Kedds?”
Kedds pulled out a bag of brown powder.
“Selling that K”
Bobby sighed.
“Look, Kedds. I get that you want more money but you have to be unprecedented levels of retarded to get tangled up with kingpin”
“That’s my decision to make. So do you wanna buy some?”
“NO”
“C’mon man, first gram free?”
Bobby picked Kedds up by his neck.
“I said no!”
Bobby threw Kedds to the ground. Kedds just hobbled off swearing under his breath. Bobby was about to get in his car when he noticed the small plastic bag on the ground. He couldn’t get back on that stuff. He just stared at it for a while, Fuck, Bobby picked it up and drove home.

Ashley sat at the loud bar table with her friends. Around her were Jake, Norman, and Diane. Jake was a construction worker. Norman was fresh out of college, he was a banker, he was also dating Diane. Diane was an old friend of Ashley’s from high school. The music blared in the old Irish pub, they had drinks and laughed with each other. There was a television set in the corner of the room playing the news. In the middle of a conversation, Ashley shushed everyone at the table and pointed to the screen. The news anchor was talking about the attack on five men with gang ties.
“Oh, that. Fuckin’ brutal right?” Jake said
“Yeah, I heard it was racially motivated” Diane chimed in
“Do you think it was that maniac?” Norman said
“Nah, they would be talking about him then” Jake responded
“Speaking of the maniac….” Ashley said
“Not again Ash” Jake protested
“Cmon I think what he’s doing is good for the community, he’s cleaning up the streets”
The group went silent. Diane broke the silence.
“I kinda agree”
“What? Come on babe you can’t be serious” Norman protested
The boys looked at them like they were crazy. Ashley knew her plan was going to take some time.

Roberts walked into the station after his weekend breaking in his new doll. It was hard for him to focus on work, all he could think about is what part of her body he had yet to explore. As he gave casual head nods to other officers he couldn’t notice that his boss was waiting for him at his desk.
“You’re late”
“I am”
“This is the third week in a row that you seem to mentally gone, you can’t keep doing this”
“I kno-”
“That’s why I really need you to get your head in the game for this next job.”
Roberts boss called over a man in a suite”
“This is agent Mcbride, with the DEA”
The man extended a handshake to Roberts
“What’s going on that we need the DEA?”
“You must not know your city that well detective” Mcbride chuckled
“I work homicide not narcotics”
“Well for starters, you guys have that new designer shit going around. Also the deaths from prescription drugs here are unusually high in the area.”
“Why are you putting me on this job?” Roberts asked his boss
“Because half of narcotics is in the hospital after that botched raid in Chinatown”
Roberts let a slight scowl creep across his face.
“Fine, just don’t think this will be a buddy cop film”
“I think I’m gonna like working with you” Mcbride said with the same chuckle


Simon woke up with the same weakness that painkillers left him with, but this time it was a more potent feeling. Simon struggled to get up off the couch. He took a shower and got dressed, it seemed to help. Simon looked at his voicemail, no calls, no voicemails. Hopefully that meant Penelope was okay, Simon hated thinking about how she could have been in danger, she was starting to turn back into the girl he met in highschool. Simon walked outside his building, he wasn’t feeling strong enough to drive so he called a cab. A few minutes later a car pulled up in front of Simon. The window rolled down to reveal the cabbie.
“You the guy who needs a cab?”
“Yeah, I’m Simon”
Simon went to open the door only to hear the doors lock.
“Simon? I don’t take no jews”
“No, I’m not a kike. Simon was St.Peter’s real name. But if you don’t believe me I’ll eat some pork if you want”
The doors unlocked.
“Alright, sorry for the confusion, buddy”
The rest of the ride was normal. Finally the cab pulled up to its destination. Simon paid the man and got out. He looked up at the office tower, this was the headquarters of Pro-tect. Pro-tect was a body armor company that made good sales, especially in this city. Simon had a friend in the development department, Ben. Ben was a smart guy, equally good with his hands, he always loved manufacturing and engineering. He started working as a production line worker and worked his way up to drafting and testing new products. Simon talked to the cute receptionist, she let Ben know that he was there. A minute later Ben came down to get SImon, they walked up to the testing floor.
“It’s good to see you Simon, but why did you come here?”
“I can’t see my old friend?”
“Simon...I know you want free shit”
“I wouldn’t put it so blatantly...But what are you working on?”
Ben sighed. They took the elevator to the 14th floor, where Ben worked. The was another door leading to the main room.
“Let me get the stuff”
Ben came back with several big black plastic cases. Simon had to carry one, his strength was returning. They took the elevator back down and loaded the cases into Ben’s truck through the loading dock part of the building meant for exporting products for sale. From there they drove out into the country. They finally arrived at the company testing grounds, the sun beat down on the grassy field. Ben opened the first case and pulled out multiple pieces of armor, a main plate and ones for legs and arms. They were surprisingly thin,they reflected the bright sun.
“Top of the line, I’ll put these on and you get the revolver under the driver's seat”
Ben put on the armor, Simon got the gun case from the truck, he opened it to find a Smith & Wesson model 29, it was loaded.
“Ben...Are you sure about this? They look a little thin to be able to take a .44 round.”
“Trust me, it will hold, aim for center mass”
Ben had the full suit on. Simon checked the chamber and took aim.
“Why do you have to wear the armor? I feel like there is a safer way of doing this”
“Just shoot!”
Simon took the shot and it hit Ben in the chestpiece. Ben flew back screaming.
“IT BROKE!, YOU SHOT ME!”
Simon panicked.
“We gotta get you to a hospital!”
Ben started laughing and got up.
“Gotcha”
“Fuck you man” Simon said chuckling out of relief.
Ben got up, took off the chestplate and rubbed his sternum.
“Still hurts though, and it won’t stop rifle rounds”
Ben walked to the second plastic case and produced a short black metal rod.
“You’re gonna like this” Ben said with a smile
He whipped the rod to extend it, the rest of the rod was silver.
“It’s like those batons you have, except this one has a current running through it”
Ben whipped the baton at Simon. It fucking hurt, Simon started twitching around from the shock.
“You fucking dick” Simon chuckled
Ben opened the next case to bring out a metal piece about the size of a 2x4. Ben pushed a mechanical button on the piece, it extended on both sides forming a small shield.
“This will stop pretty much all rifle rounds”
Despite it being unpractical, Simon found it to be pretty cool.
“How much for all of it?”
Ben looked surprised.
“I was just showing you, you want to buy these? I ca-”
Simon pulled out a thick stack of hundred dollar bills. Ben drove Simon back home, it took them a bit longer than they both expected. Protesters filled the streets and impeded traffic, they were all yelling about the killings of innocent black people. Simon tuned them out, he thought about all the fun times he had in high school with Ben and all of his friends, he missed hanging out with them. He really should make an effort to contact his friends. Simon’s thought was cut off by Ben.
“Damn racists”
Simon almost protested before he realized that the majority of people probably thought this was a hate crime rather than self defense.
“Yeah, people can be pretty hateful these days”
They finally pulled up in front of Simon’s apartment. Ben just threw all the cases on the curb and drove off without a goodbye.

Bobby sat down and looked at the packet of kingpin. Every conscious part of his body was screaming at him to not do it. After a few minute Bobby was digging around his drawers for a syringe, he found one that was old and crusty. No time to wash it, he mixed the kingpin and melted it. He injected the mixture into his veins, he could tell it had been awhile since he had used. The small dose hit him almost instantly, same feeling as always. Bobby then experienced something strange, it was like his head was hazing up. Something was wrong, this must be a new formula. Bobby started to panic, he was feeling very odd. It couldn’t have been an overdose, he had handled doses 5 times the size of the one he just took, then again he had been on a long break, his tolerance could have dissolved. It felt like a nail was being hammered into every inch of his body. Bobby fell to the floor in agony, he tried to scream but nothing came out. The pain stopped, the feeling was replaced with the sensation that Bobby’s flesh was melting away. This time when Bobby tried to scream it came out as garbled noises. He hallucinated seeming his bones emerge from his fleeing skin. When all Bobby saw was his bones it got worse, in the socket that was missing an eye he felt something crawling inside his skull. Without warning spiders crawled out of his eye socket, hundreds of them. Bobby began to twitch and felt a feeling better than orgasming and passed out. In the morning Bobby woke up to find he had thrown up on his floor and ruined his pants. He had to get more.

1:00 AM November 4
 Brian sat at his desk. Across from him was his sister, Laura. She was helpful to Brian, she did good work for the gang and the businesses. Brian knew she wanted more though, she was not content with being a soldier. She wanted to be in Brian’s seat, he wanted to get rid of her but she was his sister after all.
“Did you check on that Penelope girl?”
“Yeah, I saw some shitty car that didn’t look like it belonged in that neighborhood across the street. So I sent Xoa to sit outside her house, follow her.”
“Thanks, I don’t care if she’s alright but if something is going on and I don’t tell Simon, he’s going to be pissed”
“Since when do you answer to Simon?”
“Laura, you can cut that out right now! You know he buys a lot of hardware from us, we need that money. Besides, he’s an old friend”
“He’s a junkie, and frankly unstable. I wouldn’t trust him”
“I’m in charge and if I say we trust him...guess what, we trust him. Look you’re getting me off-track, I want to talk about our growth”
“What growth, we’ve been pushed back by the niggers”
“They moved out of the abandoned apartments on 45th, I want you to go there and head an operation”
“What exactly do you want me to do?”
“Make kingpin. We gotta do it fast before the spics in the area use it to cook their shitty food.”
“How much do you think we’ll make if we cook there? I can’t imagine that part of town being able to afford kingpin”
“Not we, you. It will be yours”
This was Brian’s best solution, give Laura something of her own. Hopefully it would keep the target off his back. Laura looked skeptical, she was. For as long as she could remember they had been stuck in this little corner of the city. Breaking out was going to usher in a new era, and Laura would be the spearheading it.

Ashley and the “gang” were all having drinks at Jake’s house. Norman and Jake were a little annoyed, for the past couple of days all Ashley and Diane had talked about was the masked maniac, not only was it old news but they were just tired of hearing it. They did bring up some good arguments justifying his actions. In the middle of a sentence Norman cut off Ashley.
“What do you want us to do Ash? Why do you keep talking about this lunatic?”
Ashley stared at Norman in disbelief, Diane stared in anger.
“I think we should pitch in and help clean up the city” Ashley said
“What does that mean? Do you want us to capes and those retarded animal masks?”
“It’s fucking autistic!” Jake added
“Sure the way he does it is a bit flashy but you can’t ignore his results, it’s not like there isn’t a problem!”
That statement stopped Jake and Norman from laughing.
“We’re not saying we need to kill people, just start small to make life here better.” Diane said
“We already have a plan to do something, so you can just stop with your criticism.” Said Ashley
Norman sighed at how stupid this sounded.
“What are you going to do?” he asked
“We’re going to “talk” to that guy who always drives way too fast down the street, he’s nearly hit the Valerio girl on several occasions”
“So he deserves a beating?” Jake asked
“He needs to at least know how people feel”
“You can’t just tell the police to put a speed trap down?”
“SO he can just pay a ticket and do the same thing!”
This was getting too heated, the group stayed quit for a while to not go any further into the argument.

Roberts and Mcbride sat outside a brick building in a car, waiting.
“We got a couple minutes before my guy gets here” Roberts whispered
“This guy is low-level right?”
“Yeah, narcotics busted our man on possession, he chose to wear a wire and it led us to this guy, hopefully he has a connection to the people who cook kingpin”
“Tell me...You from around here?”
“Yeah, where are you from”
“I’m a proud son of Missoura”
The two made small talk until a lanky boy in a wife beater approached a door on the side of the building.
“Your “man” is a kid, what was his name again?”
“Eugene, but he insists on being called Kedds, kids these fucking days”
“I don’t understan’ them”
A few minutes later Kedds walked out of the building and over to the car. Roberts rolled down the window.
“Ey, he has the K” Kedds said sheepishly
He pulled out a small plastic bag filled with brown powder.
“Get in” Roberts barked
He gave a nod to Mcbride. Roberts started the car and drove back to the station. Once right outside the station they all got out of the car. Mcbride turned to Kedds.
“So you have the bag and you’re sure it’s kingpin?”
“Yeah man! He had everything”
Kedds pulled out the bag.
“Alright” Roberts said pulling out a pair of handcuffs from his belt.
Kedds started to run but was tackled to the ground by Mcbride.
“But I wore a wire for you fucks, you can’t do this”
“You mean this?” Roberts dropped a cassette player on the ground and stomped on it.


November 6
Penelope was done with her shift, it had been a busy night and she was tired. Unfortunately she parked far away due to a lack of spaces. From a distance Xoa watched from his crotch rocket, he had been following Penelope for a few days, it had kept him from having to do some real work. It was almost like a paid vacation, he was being paid the same money for smoking cigarettes and staring at her ass as he would for moving product. It was boring as hell though, he should really start reading as a hobby if this was going to go on much longer. Penelope was thinking about dropping in on Simon. She had not seen a lot of him lately, and things were going well for them. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen or heard from Demarkus for a while either. She didn’t like thinking about the two at the same time, it made her feel guilty. As Penelope was about to round a corner, a pair of hands reached out and covered her mouth and dragged her into a car. She tried to scream, but the sound was muffled over the hand. The best Penelope could do was flail to get out, it didn’t work. Xoa saw the whole thing, he quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Brian.
“Xoa, what’s up? I gotta tell you about my pla-”
“No time boss, White rice’s girl just got taken! I’m gonna follow her”
“Shit…follow her but once they settle down at a place you call me, alright?”
“Yeah-bye”
Xoa sped off in pursuit of the car, through the back windshield Xoa could see Penelope kicking at two masked men.

Deacon sat behind the register of the small sandwich shop. Simon walked through the door and ordered, he sat in silence as Deacon made his sub. Simon’s phone rang, all Deacon could hear was Simon’s side of the dialogue as he finished up the sandwich.
“Hello?”
“Hey Brian”
“WHAT?”
“Alright, I’ll be there”
Simon hung up as Deacon was handing him the sandwich.
“Is something wrong sir?” Deacon asked
“My girlfriend got abducted again”
Simon snatched the sandwich and ran out the door.
“Again? This has happened before?” Deacon said to the empty shop.
Simon ran to his apartment, there was no time to waste. He grabbed the 4506, the bear mask, the electric baton and the body armor. He hauled all of the gear into the backseat of his car and sped off to chinatown. Simon entered the restaurant and stormed right past the elderly man behind the counter without saying the code word. Simon flung open the door leading to Brian, he was sitting behind his desk as always.
“Do you know where she is?”
“Not yet, I got a guy following her though. Listen, are you sure she’s worth it?”
“I don’t want to have this conversation right now”
“Look man, she is a bitch. She uses people”
Simon wound up for a punch but Brian interrupted by pulling a gun on Simon.
“Before you make a stupid decision, just let me tell you I will help you find her, but after that I expect to be done helping you.”
Simon relaxed.
“Fine, I just need to fin-”
Brian’s phone rang, he picked it up. Xoa was on the other end of the line.
“Boss, they didn’t bring her to some dump on the south side, it’s a fucking mansion”
“Where is it?”
“It’s on Cleft street, man I can see some serious hardware through the windows”
“How many people are inside?”
“I count 10, including the girl”
“Any security you can see”
“Yeah, it's on the north side, cameras, only on the exterior as far as I can see”
“Good work, get back here.”
Brian hung up and turned back to Simon and sighed.
“I’m not sure if you know the risk I’m taking by not only venturing out of this corner of town but also attacking the blacks. I can only give you three guys”
“Tell them to meet me there”

Penelope was thrown onto a bed, she had been gagged and blindfolded. She still struggled on the bed, suddenly the blindfold came off. Demarkus was standing over her with a smile.
“Hey girl”
He took the gag out.
“What the fuck?!”
Demarkus started to laugh
“Ya know, when you said you were going to leave that chump I was excited. But then you didn’t, you made me wait, Why? Because you got kidnapped and he was there for you. Well, now I’m here for you and he gets let down easy”
“You can’t be serious”
“Look around you, this is a nice place. You will never have unfulfilled needs, you are a queen here.”
Demarkus took Penelope for a short tour, he showed her the pool, the home theatre, his room. It was a nice house, it was beautiful in fact. Penelope fell for the magic of this place, she wasn’t a stranger to the finer things in life, in fact this house was almost trash compared to her house. It was the fact that Demarkus wanted to create their own life together, she thought it was romantic. A small part of her still was skeptical, a part of her still wondered how Simon would react to her disappearance. That part of her was drowned out by how Simon had reacted to her actually being kidnapped, and also because of the fantasy she was entrenched in. Demarkus poured the two glasses of champagne. They sipped on the booze and danced, he held her close.
“What is that?” Penelope asked
Demarkus pulled out an old revolver.
“Don’t worry, this is just what I carry. When I need to show a nigga I mean business, I flash this. Hold on!”
Demarkus ran to another room and Penelope heard him digging through drawers. He came back with a massive gun, it was gold-plated and engraved.
“This, is my desert eagle, I call it The Problem Solver”
“You carry guns around?”
“Yeah, I got important shit that puts me in some dangerous situations”
“Have you ever had to kill anyone?”
“...Yeah”
“Was it hard?”
“Yeah”
They talked about how things would be from now on, it was mostly daydreams. They were enough to convince Penelope to be on board with this life. After all, she was really in it for Demarkus, he was kind and strong. She began to reflect on how it was not fair to him that she was with Simon. While things were getting better with him she couldn’t get past the fact that he was going nowhere in life, he didn’t have a job, inheritance had to run out sometime. Demarkus had a job, he practically built an empire, sure he wasn’t the boss but he still had some weight. In the middle of the conversation she just blurted it out.
“I love you…”
“I love you too”
It may not have made sense to either of them, but in that moment they just held each other and let all their cares melt away.

Simon was parked a block away, he was eating his sandwich, his hunger was the only thing stopping him from going alone. Three motorcycles pulled up to his car and parked, as the drivers took off their helmets Simon could tell that they were Brian’s guys. The only thing that was weird was their age, they were kids, 15 at best. They introduced themselves as Troy, Woo, and Steven. They were all apendix carrying micro-uzis, Simon wasn’t going to judge. Troy, the youngest one unstrapped a long soft gun case from his motorcycle, he unzipped it revealing a double-barrel shotgun, he tossed it to Simon.
“Brian said not to let you go in with just that low-cap pistol”
“Thanks…” Simon replied unenthusiastically
“Yo, whats with the armor and the mask?”
Simon didn’t respond, he just looked at the shotgun. He remembered how it felt to use one of these in the warehouse, it was kind of poetic how of course fate would give Simon this weapon to use in an almost identical situation. Simon checked the chamber, both barrels were loaded.
“Let’s go” Steven said
The other two gave out a sort of war cry and ran towards the house.
“No...it’s cool. We don’t have to talk about a plan or anything…”
Simon put on the mask and ran towards the building after them.

The intimate moment between Penelope and Demarkus flourished into a party, there were a few more guys in the house, loud music and the smell of alcohol flooded the air. Penelope was having a good time, she used the last of her purse stash of coke but Demarkus said he could get mountains of it for her. Her laughter turned to screaming in an instant when a hail of bullets came through the window killing one of the men in the house. Penelope and the rest of the people dove to the floor.
“I didn’t think the chinks had the balls to attack this place, fellas get your pieces out, ITS A REAL PARTY NOW”
While the rest of the men scrambled to find the source of the bullets, Demarkus walked over Penelope and gave her the old revolver.
“Get in that closet and don’t come out until I tell you too.”
“Is, everything going to be alright?”
Demarkus didn’t answer that, he just got his “problem solver” and ran along with the other men. Penelope went into the closet while more gunshots echoed in the background.

Simon couldn’t believe these guys, they just ran up and started shooting on the north side of town. The cops were going to be called any second if they hadn't been already. Simon entered the house, he saw the three kids just wildly firing their guns. Don’t spaz out like them. You will get through this by thinking and relying on good technique.  Around a corner Simon saw a glimpse of a man, he popped out holding a hi-point. Without flinching, Simon fired a blast at him, the buckshot hit the man’s head and sent him sprawled on the floor. Simon walked over to the corner, he was now in the kitchen. Out of nowhere another gangster stabbed Simon in the chest with a large kitchen knife, the armor stopped the blade. The two panicked internally, both were shocked. Simon took the butt of the gun and jammed it into the gangsters face, he fell back. Don’t panic, you can’t enjoy this too much. Simon reacted on reflex and aimed the shotgun at the staggered man, he pulled the trigger. The pieces of lead hit all over, it didn’t kill him though, the man just writhed in agony holding his crotch. That’s it, stay calm. Simon threw the empty shotgun to the floor and pulled out his 4506, he looked back at the three boys still just emptying their magazines. Woo, poked his head around the corner and Simon saw hit explode in a split second, his body slumped on the floor. Steven went to drag the body but almost as if they knew he would do that, the body was shot again, multiple times. Steven just broke down, he polished off the rest of his ammo and started to panic. He must have hit someone since the returning fire stopped. For a few moments, there was silence. Stay CALM, Simon was worried he had to keep saying that to himself. Steven tried to pick up his gun which had fallen out of his cover, his hand was there one second and gone the next. Steven started to scream, Troy blind fired down the hallway. Fuck it. Simon took a quick second to make sure the armor was secure, he ran into the open while Troy was firing. Simon saw that the kids had been a little more effective than he had expected, there were bodies strewn across the living room. He was surprised to see that nobody alive was in the hall, Steven’s screaming got Simon’s attention again.
“Troy get him out of here”
Troy ripped a part of his shirt off and used the cloth to wrap around Steven’s hand. The two walked back out the way they came. Simon looked back on the scene, he walked forward. Simon was tackled to the ground by another gangster, the man pinned Simon’s gun hand to the floor. They struggled with one another, the man kneed Simon in the groin. While he did have armor there, the force of his knee still stunned Simon. The man got up and drew his gun, another hi-point. Simon quickly rolled to the side of the hallway, and fired two shots in the gangsters general direction. Simon hear the man drop to the floor. Simon got up and emptied his magazine into the man. Simon’s ears hurt from all of the gunfire but he could hear what was said next.
“Yo nigga, you get those fools”
Can I come out now?”
“Not yet baby”
Simon recognized that as Penelope’s voice, it brought him back. Don’t let that happen again, stay calm. The 4506 was out, Simon holstered it, picked up the dead gangsters gun in his left hand, and drew the shock baton in his right.

Demarkus stood in front of the closet door clutching his desert eagle. He could just barely see someone standing in the hallway adjacent from where he was, but he wasn’t sure if it was one of his guys.
“Yo, answer me!”
From the hallway a hand peeked around the corner and fired at Demarkus. He dodged the shot and returned fire. Demarkus could see that it was a guy in a bear mask, it was the maniac. The maniac fired again and ran out of the hallway and hid behind a couch. Demarkus scanned the room after the shots had stopped, he couldn’t see the maniac. More shots rang out from the maniacs gun, emptying the magazine. The maniac dropped the gangsters gun and took out the secondary magazine for the 4506, the slide clicked chambering a round. Demarkus flew around the corner sending .357 rounds all over the living room, 3..2..1..click. Demarkus reached for another magazine but the maniac sprung up and had his gun trained on him. There was a moment of awkward silence.
“Ya know what? No guns, let’s settle this like men” Demarkus said as he threw his gun to the ground. The maniac holstered his gun and unhooked the holster from his belt, tossing it to the ground, He still had the baton. The two ran at each other, the maniac took the first swing. Thinking he could just absorb the blow, Demarkus put his hand up to grasp the baton. The electricity ran through Demarkus, making him twitch and cringe. The maniac wound his arm up again and hit Demarkus, another painfully shocking hit. Demarkus kicked the maniacs knee, he came crashing down on top of Demarkus. Demarkus rolled over on top of the maniac, he started punching the masked face. Hit after hit, until the maniac jabbed Demarkus with the baton, the shock was just as bad. The maniac kept hitting Demarkus in the face with the baton, every hit made his muscles spasm and lock up. After the fifth hit Demarkus’ view began to go dark.

Simon kept hitting Demarkus, even after he knew he was dead. Simon stopped and took a few moments to breathe.
“Baby? Are you alright?”
Penelope’s voice was coming from the closet further up another hall. Simon got his gun and unholstered it, just in case there were more thugs. Simon slowly walked over to the closet where Penelope’s voice came from.

Penelope sat terrified in the dark closet, the revolver was pointed at the door. Demarkus hadn’t answered, but yet she heard footsteps. The gun was shaking in her hand, she was scared and tweaking on cocaine. The footsteps came closer to the door, she started to sweat and the trembling got worse. The footsteps stopped right outside the door, the doorknob turned. Penelope fired two shots.

As Simon was opening the door he was hit by two bullets, both hit him in the chestplate. Simons head flew back and hit the wall behind him. In an act of reflex, Simon fired once at the closet door. Slumped on the floor, Simon realized what he had done. He got back up and opened the closet door. Penelope had been hit in the chest by Simons bullet, she was wheezing and flailing. Simon ripped off the mask and knelt down by her.
“Oh my god, I’m so sor-” Simon was cut off by Penelope
“You’re the maniac?” Her breathing sounded deathly
“I-I’m sorry….”
“No...I’m sorry….sorry that I wasted my time with you, I could have been happy”
Penelope’s eyes stared into the distance as her body went limp. Simon just sat there sobbing, police sirens were in the distance and Simon knew he had to go. As the sirens got closer, Simon opened a window and ran back to his car as fast as he could. Once he was home Simon went to his suite to get the pill bottle on his nightstand. He went up to the store room above and took three pills. Simon laid down on the floor, closed his eyes, and let himself float away.


Kimber laid in bed, enjoying a restful sleep, that is until the phone next to her bed started ringing obnoxiously. She groaned as she fell out of her REM cycle, she picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, you might want to get down here…” It was O’Malley
“Why? And where is here?”
“ Cleft street, there was a shootout”
“Cleft? That’s the north side, shootouts don”t happen there”
“Well one did and you might wanna hurry, I see three other guys on their phones, no doubt calling other news sources”
“Alright, I’ll be right there”
The call ended. Kimber got out of bed, rubbing her eyes and got dressed. She grabbed her keys, camera, and her notepad and entered her car. Pulling up on the crime scene Kimber could see O’Malley waiting for her.
“There’s my favorite redhead! Want some coffee?”
“Sure”
O’Malley handed her a mug, she took a sip and had a hard time swallowing.
“It’s Irish!” O’Malley said reaching for a flask
“Thanks, I assume I’m going to need it”
“Yeah, it’s a gore fest in there, the rookie threw up” O’Malley pointed at a young officer dry heaving on the lawn of the house. The neighbors were all outside looking as the police lights, the officers inside could be seen through the windows.
“So, what exactly happened here?”
“From what I saw, there’s a house party. People are having a good time until five guys from chinatown bust in and start shooting.”
“So this is gang related?”
“Oh yeah, I guess the asians were out  we found casings from five guns that weren’t hi-points, which were what the people in the house used”
“Were the residents of the house affiliated?”
“Yeah, now I’m going to pretend like I don’t see you. Get some good pictures”
Kimber walked past him quickly and entered the house, there was blood splattered on the wall accompanied by bullet holes of varying sizes. Kimber got her pictures and quickly exited the house, after that she interviewed the neighbors, none of them had seen anything worth mentioning. She was going to have a lot of writing to do when she went into work the next day.

November 8
Simon woke up to a knocking on his door. He was so weak, he had burnt through a lot of his supply of painkillers. With feeble legs Simon answered the door, it was a detective.
“Hello, I’d like to ask you some questions about your girlfriend's death.”
“She’s not my girlfriend anymore, she left me for one of the guys found in the house” Simon said rubbing his eyes”
“Do you know anything about why violence erupted at that house?”
“Not really, I mean I heard it was gang violence”
“I can’t comment on that.You said she left you, was it messy?”
“No, why do you ask?”
Simon knew exactly why he was asking, but the less Simon said to this guy, the better.
“Uh-erm no reason”
“ technically she left me, but the whole ordeal was pretty mutual”
“Can you tell me anything about the man she was involved with before her death?”
“No, all I know is that the sex was better with him”
The detective looked shocked by Simon’s lax tone that accompanied that response. He asked Simon a couple more trivial questions and left. As soon as the door closed Simon heard a phone call, Simon walked to the phone and picked up, still feeling weak from the painkillers.
“Hello?”
“You fuck, you left a body!”
It was Brian.
“What?”
“You left a the body of one of my guys there, the cops are going to trace that back to me”
“It’s not like they don’t already have it out for you, besides, you sent me kids”
“That's all I could send, things aren't going well around here”
“Look you said after that night our partnership was done, goodbye”
Simon hung up, and took more pills to fall asleep.

April 13

Things died down for everyone. Simon stayed in his apartment doing Vicodin, he would wake up with only enough strength to barely open up the pill bottle to take more in order to float way. His stash was running low, he had built up a tolerance to the drug, it took more and more to float away. He rarely left his room, only on seldom occasions to get food or empty the mailbox. Anyone who knew Simon before that night wouldn't recognize him if they saw him now, his hair had grown long and the was a short but scruffy beard on his face. The police went over the security feed on the cameras from the house, they released a grainy low-quality image of a man running from the scene. People argued on whether it was the elusive “masked maniac” or just another gang member. Kimber wrote about the masked maniac, the piece was mostly about how his victims were criminals in some way or another. Her article didn’t get much attention, it was drowned out by the television headlines of the north side being subject to crime, after her big article being a flop she went back to her hometown in Missouri for a month, she came back ready to write again. Mcbride and Roberts continued to make small time drug busts but never got too far up the ladder without hitting a brick wall. Roberts continued to buy lobotomized girls, his doll were important to him, Adalbert got new tools from his homeland and they worked wonders, sometimes Roberts couldn’t even find the incision he made. Ashley and Diane planned their big “activism” event, they got matching kitten masks, pink pepper spray canisters, and Ashley even bought a gun, a kel-tec PF-9. It was just a matter of time now before they acted. Bobby fell deeper into his addiction much like Simon did, he lost both of his jobs, his apartment soon after. Before long Bobby was in a homeless shelter, he lost his status of legal guardian to Daniel. This lull in the chaos was going to end.

Laura sat in the office in the abandoned warehouse, she had finally moved all of the necessary equipment into the place and had already started production. It had not been an easy winter, but this was something laura could call her own. Brian was kind enough to give some people to her, she had her own happy little work force. It was like she was starting her own gang, even though this technically was a branch of Brian’s. Her second-in-command was Xao, he was a good guy, loyal. She watched him scurry around the floor, making sure everyone was in the right place and doing the right job. Kingpin, much like meth, is a volatile substance, you mix it wrong and you have an explosion on your hands. Laura just sat at her desk, daydreaming about the money, the power, the respect she was in for. Her resentment for her brother had turned into an admiration. While he gave her this little chunk, she planned on expanding soon. Her head filled with thoughts of her outgrowing her brother’s shadow, becoming an asian female scarface. In the middle of her daydreams, Laura didn’t see the movement outside of the windows. Outside the warehouse was a team of SWATs and Mcbride and Roberts wearing vests. They had been briefed on the mission, this was where the majority of the kingpin in this area was being manufactured at this warehouse. Everyone on the SWAT team was a bit nervous, they had a rookie on the team, O’Malley. He had taken the position after Kimber left, he really only stayed as a uniform because of her. All the time she was away went by so slow for him, her absence had taken the best part of his job away. When he heard she was back he tried to call her, tell her about his feelings, how she was one of the only people that he liked talking to, he got the answering machine everytime. O’Malley snapped back from thoughts of her, the fed and the detective were talking about something. Inside Laura was thinking about what she would like to be referred as when she was the boss, too busy thinking to notice one of the doors crack just a little bit. Everyone on the assembly floor looked around confused when they heard metallic clanking on the floor, some of the men were lucky enough to see the flashbang and take cover.
“Police get down!” Roberts shouted as him and the SWATs stormed the building.
Xao was the first to start firing, the rest of the men unaffected by the flash followed, some men were so lucky to run to cover in a blinded state. The commotion grasped Laura’s attention, she pulled a mac-10 out from under her desk. She ran out of the office and started to fire at the cops, it didn’t seem to matter, her wildly placed shots only managed to hit one cop, but in the vest. In the middle of firing, Laura got hit in the shoulder and fell to the ground. The same fate befell most of the men, they were either all dead or in cuffs. Roberts ran to the downed Mcbride.
“Get some medical assistance over here!”
“I’m alright, got my vest” Mcbride said coughing
“Good, the last thing I need is you dying on me and making me work this alone”
Roberts helped Mcbride up and took him to one of the squad cars that had now arrived.
Looking around the scene O’Malley could not help but feel like a badass, this was like something straight out of the movies. Teammates were saying things like “nice job, rookie” and “You did good” it meant a lot to him. He would be on top of the world, if only he could show Kimber what he had done, where he was now. O’malley started to get distracted by the thought of her, he didn’t notice that Laura wasn’t dead, or that she still was grasping her weapon. Laura pointed her gun at him and emptied the last of her bullets into O’malley. 3 out of the 5 shots hit the helmet or the vest, but two managed to grave his inner left thigh. O’malley dropped to the ground, Laura was hit by another bullet, this time in the abdomen. O’malley was dragged out of the warehouse and rushed to a hospital.

“Goddamn, I’ve gotten shot multiple times, but you never get used to the feeling of the vest” Mcbride laughed
“There is a certain discomfort when you think you should be dead, but you aren’t”
“We should call your guy, give him a thanks for the tip”
“Good call”
Roberts stepped away from the squad car and pulled out his phone. He dialed his contact.
“Detective, did it go well?”
“It was touch and go for a moment”
“I hope we can both benefit from this”
“Yeah, I will honor our deal. You give up your sister and the lab, we stop hassling you people”
“I want you to know that this wasn’t an easy decision”
“It’s been made...pleasure doing business with you”

April 14

The doctor was explaining the situation to Kimber, when she finally got around to returning O’Malley’s call she was informed that he was in the hospital after a raid. The doctor was rattling off medical terms, just as they arrived outside O’Malley’s room the doctor stopped her from going in.
“He lost a lot of blood, it’s a miracle he survived at all. Unfortunately he went into shock, and then into a full coma”
“Oh my god, do you know if he’ll wake up”
“I’m sorry but no, you can see him though”
Kimber walked into the room and winced. Her friend sat in a hospital bed, hooked up to various machines and monitors. Without the heart beat monitor telling her that he was still technically alive, she would have assumed him to be dead. She sat down on a chair next to his pale body and just stared at him. She remembered how he would drop everything to help her, whether it was looking the other way when she needed to enter a crime scene or just being somebody to talk to when the images of those crime scenes got to be too much.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t call you sooner....I’ve been busy trying to get back into the swing of things ever since I got home. You wouldn’t believe what happened over the winter”
No response from the comatose man, the longer she looked at him the worse she felt. Kimber began to tear up, she managed to keep herself from full on crying. Just before she broke down she ran out of the room and went home.

Eddie’s sister, Violet knew she was about to get an important phone call. She just waited by the phone, waiting for the call. The second the ring reached her ear she grabbed the phone and picked up in an instant.
“Karen...please tell me it went well”
The other end was silent
“Karen?”
A sobbing voice finally responded
“The verdict was not guilty” Karen broke down immediately after uttering those words
“I’m so sorry, how’s he holding up”
“He’s doing worse than I am”
“Alright, are you sure you want me to make the call?”
“Yes”
“Alright...I just want you to know you can’t go ba-”
“Just call him!” Karen shouted
Violet hung up, she sighed because she really hoped she wouldn’t have to do this. She walked over to a drawer, phone in hand. After rummaging around through miscellaneous items she finally found a little slip of paper with a number on it, Simon’s number. Punching the numbers on the dialpad Violet was thinking about if she really needed to do this. She hit the call button, the phone rang, she was met with Simon’s voice.
“What?” Simon said, he sounded terrible
“It’s me, Eddie’s sister, the one sending you the pills”
“Yeah, what up?”
“I need you to meet me at my house”
“Fuck you”
“Fine, I guess I’ll just stop sending the packages. I mean less risk for me”
“Look lady, I never asked you to send those. Also, anyone willing to risk the penalty of sending such items isn’t doing this out of the kindness of their heart. Whatever half-baked plan or job you have for me isn’t worth it.”
“Fine I’ll let you run out, have fun with withdrawal”
Simon looked around, he realized that he only had 3 pills left.
“Fine...where do you live?”
Violet gave him the address, and hung up.

Simon struggled to get out of bed, he was so weak. He got dressed and grabbed his car keys. As he walked to his car Simon questioned why he was doing this, it helped to distract from the weakness. He started baiting out pedophiles to get them arrested, then he started killing, was that where it all went wrong. He had become a monster, an addict, and something everyone was afraid of. From time to time he saw headlines about the “masked maniac”. Was it really him when he put on the mask? Or was Simon just trying to pass of the guilt and responsibility for what he had done to another persona. Simon reached his car and got in, he decided to stop thinking while driving, mostly because he was afraid of getting answers, he could deal with the weakness for a while. He parked across the street from the address. He got out and shambled to the house, he knocked on the door. The same young woman that caught Simon after Eddie’s funeral opened the door. She looked shocked at Simon’s appearance.
“Oh...god, I thought you were just feeling sick on the phone. Come inside quickly, I don’t need the neighbors seeing a homeless guy outside my house”
“You look good too” Simon said with sarcasm as he walked inside the house.
Violet frowned
“I have a job for you and you show up like this, how unprofessional”
“Would you like me to put on a suit?”
“Listen, there is someone I want you to meet, but you can’t look like that”
“Then I guess this isn’t happening then? Sorry to disappoint”
“Wait, I can fix you”
“I don’t like the sound of that”
Violet directed Simon to the bathroom, there she rummaged through the cabinets to produce a pair of scissors and a razor. She proceeded to restore Simon’s appearance to when she first met him. Simon was shocked, he barely recognized himself in the mirror. While he was trying to get acquainted with his reflection, Violet doused him with her perfume.
“You smelled like shit”
“Thanks…”
“Come on now, We have to go meet him”
Violet escorted Simon to her car, an old cadillac. Simon sat silent in the passenger seat, he was slumped over. Violet was worried about his health, he looked like he was going to die.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeaah” Simon breathed
They drove for awhile until Violet pulled up to a nice looking house. Simon could immediately tell that this was a family house, there was a big wheel on the lawn and Simon could see a slew of toys from the windows.
“Come one, lets go” Violet said getting out of the car.
Simon groaned a little bit and mustered up the strength to lift himself out of the car. The two walked up to the front door. Violet knocked, a few moments later a teary woman answered the door, Violet introduced her as Karen. Karen welcomed them in, Simon could hear footsteps coming from the second floor, they were quiet. Violet and Simon sat down in the living room  while Karen brought out tea from the kitchen. They sat and drank tea in awkward silence for awhile.
“So do you know why you’re here?” Karen asked
“No”
“Follow me”
Simon got up with difficulty and followed Karen upstairs. They came to a door with stickers on it, Karen cracked the door enough to stick her head in.
“Hey, your new friend is here” She said in a sympathetic voice
Karen got no response but Simon could hear sniffling from the other side of the door. Karen turned to Simon and ushered him in, the child’s room. At a small plastic desk sat a boy, couldn’t have been more than 8. Simon was feeling weak again so he sat down next to the kid on a small plastic chair.
“Hi” The boy said too busy to look at Simon because he was coloring
“Hey, what’s your name?”
It took the boy awhile to respond.
“James, but my friends call me Jimmy”
“Nice to meet you Jimmy, what are you drawing?”
“The room”
“Uh, what room?”
“The one the man took me to, my my told me you wanted to see it”
Simon’s jaw hung open with a mix of shock and confusion, the situation was coming clear to Simon.
“I’ll uh...I’ll be right back Jimmy”
Simon got up and tried to make himself look as strong and angry as possible. He walked down the stairs into the living room ready to yell at Karen, he was greeted by the sight of her crying. She looked up at him, tears still streaming down her face.
“You wanna tell me what happened?” Simon said not in the angry voice he first intended to but in a soft tone
Karen told Simon about how Jimmy was walking home from school he was taken by a man, the police finally found Jimmy and the man. When Jimmy had told the cops what the man had done, they searched his home, they ended up charging him but even with the indictment they were grasping at straws. She told Simon that he was found not guilty through a bullshit technicality. Simon asked if she knew exactly what it was that got the not guilty verdict, she responded by pretty much saying he wouldn’t understand the legal “mumbo-jumbo”, this struck Simon as odd, he would understand, he went through law school. Simon didn’t call karen out on it, he wanted to see where this was going.
“So you want me to deal with him?” Simon said, cutting off Karen in the middle of a sentence
“Y-yes, he lives with his mom now after all the bad press he got”
“Shit, all you had to do was tell me that in the first place” Simon looked at Violet
“I am getting my packages after I do this right?”
“Yes”
“Well then there’s not left to say, let me get home so I can get ready”
Karen wrote down the address and gave it to Simon as him and Violet left. The whole way back to her place Violet just kept saying how what Simon was doing was heroic, Simon didn't believe she meant any of it. In fact, Simon felt off about this, but what choice did he have. He was running out of pills, unless he wanted to buy from either the blacks: who Simon had killed a number of or the Asians: who cut all ties with him. Violet got back to her house, she thanked Simon again and they both went their separate ways.

10:30 PM April 15

Ashley and Diane were packing up their gear, this was the night, they were finally going to do it. It was their time to be on the news, their time to make a difference. For weeks they had tracked down the guy who had been driving too fast in a neighborhood filled with kids. This guy had a nice car, rich people thought the law didn’t apply to them. Diane had a small backpack with all of the gear, they both put on masks and drove to the man’s house. On the way there Diane was thinking, did she really want to do this? She was fidgeting with her hands during the drive.
“Are you sure about this?” Diane asked
“Yes...are you?”
“Yeah...yeah”
“Because if you aren’t I can do this alone”
“You know I can’t let you do that”
“Trust me, we’re making a difference”
Diane doubted that, she was beginning to have second thoughts. When Diane was young, she dreamed of being a politician, changing the world for the better. After she met Ashley her plans pretty much just melded with hers. Ashley wanted to be an engineer, Diane just sort of fell in line with that. Sometimes she thought about going back to school or running for office for a small position, but every time she brought it up Ashley found a way to make it sound stupid. Diane was a born follower. As the drive to the man’s house progressed, Diane tossed and turned more and more. They finally arrived at the man’s house, they saw the silver audi in the driveway. Ashley parked right across the country road, it was a bit far from anywhere.
“Ash...I’m not too sure about this…”
“I knew it! You’re pussing out on me!”
“No it’s not like that it’s jus-”
“It's just what Diane, are you finally thinking for yourself?”
Diane just glared at Ashley.
“Fine I’ll go by myself..” Ashley huffed
Ashley got out of the car, put her mask on and walked towards the house. In the seconds before Ashley reached the door of the house, Diane had to think. Ashley was a good friend, she always looked out for her, and Diane could not just sit back and let Ashley possibly get hurt. Diane got out of the car and ran to catch up with Ashley.
“I’m glad you changed your mind”
The two opened the door.

Roberts got home, he had a long day doing the paperwork that accompanied a police raid. He was pained to see all the kingpin be stowed away in an evidence locker. But for now he had to pretend that he was on the right side of the law on this subject. As long as Mcbride was running an investigation here, Roberts had to play ball. Mcbride was one step closer to leaving thanks to the asian kid. The only thing left was to do a check on the pharmaceutical system, make crack down on that. The thing Mcbride didn’t know, and that Roberts never really told him is that by siphoning off the money coming in from the drug trade, it forces the gangs to resort to selling guns in greater quantities. So while Roberts was helping solve a problem that should be narcotics’ he was creating a problem for him later, who knew, maybe an ATF agent would show up next. Roberts shuddered from the thought, he hated being supervised. He sat down at his kitchen table to enjoy his microwave dinner, he tried to not reflect on the crippling loneliness that came with the meal. Halfway through the meal the thought rushed into his head, He stopped chewing and just stared at his empty house, his microwave dinner, his basement full of dolls. In a moment of clarity, Roberts realized the atrocity that was his basement, he felt disgusted with himself. All of the sudden his front door slammed open. Two figures in cat masks ran into his house, one punched Roberts in the face, while the punch wasn’t forceful Roberts was caught off guard by the autism he was seeing. The other whipped out a security baton, Roberts sprung into action, he threw a punch at the cat closest to him. The punch landed square in the face, cracking the mask. The other one charged at him, Roberts grabbed her head and slammed it into the fridge. The blow seemed to knock out one of the cats, the other was on the floor holding her face, he walked over to the fallen intruder.
“Fuck you!” Ashley screamed at Roberts
“No fuck you, I was in the middle of a deep thought” Roberts said  as he kicked Ashley in the head slinging her into unconsciousness.

April 16

Simon woke up feeling stronger but not by much, he had taken a pill before going to sleep, he was down to two pills to stave off withdrawal. Simon looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, he felt a little more grounded, in touch with reality by seeing himself as how he remembered. Simon’s head still wasn’t feeling right though, it was like there was a haze surrounding his brain, he couldn’t think too hard for too long. Simon showered and dressed in his regular t-shirt and jeans, walking out of the bathroom he looked at his suite. It was a mess, the TV was still on and playing an old episode of Malcolm in the middle, there were dirty clothes and pizza boxes strewn over the furniture.
“I gotta clean this up sometime” Simon said aloud
Simon grabbed a light jacket, his mask, and his car keys. In his jacket there was a lighter, the .38 bodyguard, and a folding knife. He walked down to the parking slot where the celica was, he started the car and started driving. All the way to the address Simon couldn’t shake the feeling that Karen was leaving something up, not to mention this address was in one of the largest apartment complexes on the south side of the city. This meant he had to keep it as quiet as possible, Simon checked his watch, 10:00AM, the guy’s mom should be at work. He arrived at the apartment complex, it looked like shit, the entire south side did. He tucked the mask under his jacket and walked in. Looking around the lobby, Simon saw an elevator, he took it to the fourth floor. Looking around, he found the right room, apartment 4F. Simon just stood outside the door, it was time to put on the mask. He just stared into the eyeholes of the latex bear mask, he didn’t want to put it on, he was afraid to lose control. As much as he didn’t want to, he had to do this, he wasn’t going to ween himself off painkillers with only two left. Simon stretched the mask over his head. Keep calm, stay in control. Simon knocked on the door, after a few moments of footsteps it opened. Simon threw a punch at whoever was behind the door the second it opened. The person fell back allowing Simon to walk in, looking at the fallen figure Simon figured out what Karen had not told him. There on the ground was a man with Down’s Syndrome, the man let out a wail. Simon was almost immediately tackled by the man, they both fell to the ground. Simon recieved punch after punch, the man wildly swung his massive fists at him. Simon tried to struggle but he was still weak, he tried to fight back. The man grabbed the bear mask with his giant hand and tore it off Simon’s face, the mask itself ripped. After a couple of punches the .38 snub nose slid out of Simon’s pocket, using all of his strength in a last-ditch effort to fight back Simon grabbed the steel frame of the gun and swung it with all his might at the man’s temple. It was a good, solid hit which sent the man into an unconscious state. Simon put the mask back on, the snout of the bear hung slightly astray on account of the rip. The man was slumped on top of Simon, after regaining his strength and mental composure Simon flopped the man off himself. Simon’s head hurt, he couldn't think straight. He quickly checked the man’s pulse. Simon couldn’t believe what happened, this was a hate crime at best. The man had seen his face, a bloodied version of Simon’s face. Simon walked to the bathroom to wash the blood from his face. He was pissed that Karen would leave something like this out, of course he was found not guilty, he was probably ruled incompetent to stand trial. Sometimes the District Attorneys would get crooked medical examiners to do “favors” for them. Once the blood was washed off his face, Simon poured bleach down the drain and on the rag he used to dry his face, no point in leaving DNA behind. Exploring the apartment more, Simon came across a door labeled “My room” on a colored piece of paper, there was a large amount of paint and glitter on it. Simon opened the door to reveal a child’s room, there were toys scattered all over the floor, there was also a small TV set that was set on the Disney Channel. Simon looked around, he saw a small cardboard box on the ground next to the TV. Something was telling Simon to open it, it almost sounded like a voice. He opened up the box to reveal a polaroid camera and six photos. The first five were of Jimmy, all shots were taken from afar, Jimmy seemed unaware that they were being taken, the sixth one sent a chill down Simon’s spine. The photo depicted a tied up, naked Jimmy. The situation become a little clearer to Simon, the man had abducted Jimmy, raped him, ditching the camera and evidence at his mother’s home. That way the authorities didn’t find anything placing this man and Jimmy in the same place other than Jimmy’s testimony, once he got charged, the man’s lawyer probably got him deemed incompetent to hold trail and was released into the protective custody of his mother.
“The motherfucker did do it” Simon said aloud
Simon was filled with rage, this guy slipped through the cracks, something had to be done. Simon rummaged around the kitchen drawers, while searching through the household items a wicked idea popped into Simon’s head. He walked over to the unconscious man, with a new rage-fueled strength Simon dragged him into the tub in the bathroom. Using duct tape he found in a closet, SImon bound the man and taped over his mouth. Simon brought a chair from the dining room into the bathroom to wait until the man was conscious, after a few minute the man came to and tried to scream. Simon let the man calm down, he posed no threat, the screams were muffled by tape. The man finally calmed down and looked Simon in the eyes, Simon just stared back.
“You got away with raping a little boy, I bet you thought you were in the clear didn’t you?” Simon said a monotoned serious voice.
The man shook his head violently and tried to say something but it all came out as muffled ramblings.
“I’ll be right back” Simon said with a unusually playful voice.
Simon exited the room and walked to the kitchen, he saw a cabinet with one of those plastic child-proof locks. Simon unhooked it and opened the cabinet to reveal an assortment of liquor.
“Mom’s been hitting the sauce!” Simon said to nobody.
He grabbed a bottle of vodka and the bottle of bleach from the bathroom. He returned to the man who was still struggling against the massive amount of tape restraining him. Simon wore a big grin on his face while he hummed “Stuck in the Middle with You”, Simon unfolded his pocket knife. This action threw the man into an even bigger frenzy, still very little sound came out from under the tape.
“You thought you were free? Can’t have that, I’m gonna make you hurt, and it’s not going to be quick.” Simon said with a deadly serious face.
Simons straight face instantly sprung into a smile as he started to do a little dance with the knife in his hand. The man’s eyes conveyed confusion as he watched Simon do his little jig, his confusion turned into terror and Simon got close to his head. Simon proceeded to cut off the man’s ear, he squealed like a slaughtered pig and squirmed around, which frankly made it worse on himself. Simon made one last cut, fully severing the ear.
“Huh...it looked easier in the movie. Well, time for the fun part!”
Simon began pouring the bleach and vodka on the man, it got in his eyes and he began screaming again, once all of it was poured on the man, Simon got out his lighter. He was about to set fire to the man when there was a knock on the door.
“One sec!” Simon said to the man
He got up from the chair and walked to the entrance door.
“Eugene?! Are you alright?” A female voice said from behind the door.
Simon put on his best voice but he had only heard this guy scream.
“Uh-huh” Simon said in his best imitation
“Are you sure, did you have another accident...?”
“Uh-Uh”
“Alright, I know you have been going through a tough time...You can talk to to me if you need to…”
“Oh-tay”
The woman behind the door walked away. Once he was in the clear, Simon walked back to bathroom. Apparently the vodka had caused the tape to loosen a little, the man was almost free.
“Oh shit!”
Simon ignited his lighter and pushed the flame into the man, he burst into flames. His screams were now loud enough to pierce the tape. Simon knew it was time to leave, he started running as smoke and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. As he ran out of the apartment, he saw the door next to it open, the woman from before got a glimpse of him.
“STOP!” She shouted
Simon just kept running, smoke detectors from all over were going off. Simon took the stairs down, he heard people behind him. Simon was running in the opposite direction of his car, but he just needed to run. He took off his mask and turned around to look at the building, smoke was spewing out of a fourth floor window. A flaming body jumped out the window landing on another resident running from the fire. Simon watched only a second of the tragedy and kept running, his plan was to do a big circle to his car. When he was rounding a corner he ran into a person, they both tumbled to the ground and Simon dropped the mask. They both regained composure quickly, the lady he ran into was Kimber, she was about to yell at the hurried stranger until she saw what he was doing. Simon scrambled to pick up the mask, after he stuffed it under his jacket and spurted out a quick “Sorry are you okay?” before running off.
“Hey! Come back!” Kimber yelled but Simon was already running away.

Ashley woke up chained to the wall of Robert’s basement, it was cold and wet. A few feet away from her Diane was also chained up, she was already awake and once she saw that Ashley was conscious she whispered to her.
“Don’t make any sound, he’ll know we’re awake”
On the other side of the room was another girl, she was not chained up but she was not moving. Something was off about her eyes, they were glazed over, devoid of any thought. Ashley started thinking about the predicament they were in,they picked the wrong house. That is when the panic started to set in, it felt like there was a ton of bricks pushing down on her lungs, it was hard to breathe. Diane saw the look in Ashley’s eyes, Diane shook her head, she knew what was about to happen.
“HELP! HELP!” Ashley shouted
“No, you idiot!” Diane managed to squeak out before they heard footsteps above them.
Ashley’s panicked shouting stopped when she heard the door leading down to the room open, Roberts slowly closed the door behind him, he walked down the stairs.
“Ah, did you guys sleep well?” Roberts said while opening up a cupboard.
“Let us go you fucking psycho!” Ashley screamed
“Oh...alright, as long as you asked that nicely”
“Fuck you!”
“No fuck you!” Roberts said with a devilish smile.
In the cupboard was a stereo and a bag of kingpin. He took out a knife and cut open the bag, he put some of the powder on the edge of the knife and snorted it. Roberts threw his head back and started twitching a little bit.He turned on the stereo and popped in the old cassette, he spun around to face the girls as the music started to play.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to have you! No offense to Jenny over there but it’s like humping a mattress. Now let’s have some fun!”

April 17

Simon woke up in a cold sweat, everything hurt. He couldn’t stop shivering, he was about to throw up. After running to the bathroom to vomit, Simon was sure that he was going through withdrawal, he just had to not choke on his own bile long enough for it to pass. He walked to the freezer and got some ice packs to put on his head, it felt like it was being split by an axe. Simone laid down on his couch with the ice pack, his TV was still on. Simon listened to the news anchor talk about the masked maniac carrying out random acts of violence towards the disabled, it made Simon think. He really just burnt a man with down syndrome alive, even if he was a pedophile society would say it was too extreme of a punishment. He lost control, it was as simple as that. Simon felt like a monster, he probably was. Deep down inside Simon was scared, whenever he put the mask on he always felt a little part of him disappear, replaced by something more sinister. Simon thought about the innocent person running from the burning building crushed by the man, he felt responsible for that. His actions cost a lot of people their homes, his thoughts were interrupted by the new anchor talking with two people about the incident. One was the lady he saw in the apartments, the one who had seen part of his face. The other was a large man with a shirt that read “I want to believe”. The lady was saying all the same things the news anchor was, the man was actually defending the maniac.
“If you look at all of the people he has come after, they all were scumbags in one way or another, it’s just unlike the guy to go after someone who is innocent.”
The man’s argument was drowned out by both the news anchor and the lady rambling, using words like evil, reckless, deranged. The program ended with them just calling him stupid. As much as Simon would have liked to believe that he was not in the wrong, but if that was true he wouldn’t be feeling like he was. Simon changed the channel before throwing up all over himself.

Roberts and Mcbride sat in an unmarked car, both were silent. Roberts first thought about if the location he hid Ashley’s car would suffice. Then he thought about his new partner and how to get rid of him. They still had an investigation open to find out where all of these prescription drugs were coming from, this was going to be harder to fake than the kingpin issue. The sooner the DEA got out of Crestview, the better. In front of the car was a drive-thru lane of a Walgreen’s pharmacy. The two watched as cars drove in and out of the tiny lane, every car getting a white paper bag containing their laxatives or anti-rash ointment. They just waited and observed.
“Do you think it’s the pharmacies that are releasing the drugs or the people with a little extra from their prescriptions?” Roberts muttered
“When people like me are called in...It’s usually not some rinky-dink white boy selling his mom’s codeine”
“Do you think any of this makes a difference?”
“If I save one person, yes...Do you think you make a difference?”
“Not really, every other week I see people dead, no matter how many psycho killers I put away there always seems to me 20 more coming out from the walls”
The two took a long moment to reflect on their respective jobs, they both just wanted to get out.

Kimber sat at her desk with an enormous grin on her face, she had seen the masked maniac! Looking at her computer, kimber found a webpage about the masked maniac. It was dedicated to compiling evidence, on the page were various pictures from security cameras to police sketches of the mask. She looked through every page on the website, kimber was impressed with the level of dedication the author put into this compilation. Kimber found the author’s email address and asked if she could meet to discuss the maniac. Her first article about the masked maniac did not get the attention it deserved, it just was not the right time to release it. Now that the maniac had gotten everyone's attention again, maybe this time she could get more than three people to read her piece. Kimber then thought about how she actually saw the maniac the other day, she desperately wanted an interview with him, that would really draw readers to her expose on the almost mythical figure of the rampant psycho.

April 20

Jake and Norman were frantically calling everybody Ashley and Diane knew, the two hadn't heard anything from them since they went on that “crusade of justice”. Jake and Norman knew something was wrong they could feel it in their bones, they tried calling the police but the cops just told them not to worry. Their words didn’t hold much weight, the thought of anything bad happening to those girls terrified Jake and Norman.
“Fuck this man, I can’t just wait for them to turn up. Where did they say they were going?” Jake said
“Calm down, you’re not going to get anything down by spazzing out. They said they were going to nail that guy who sped near those kids”
“Then let's just go ask the guy if they were there, it couldn’t hurt”
The two got into Jake’s truck and headed to the street they first saw the speeding car. They drove down the same road for awhile and saw the nice silver car parked in Roberts’ driveway. Jake lept out of the truck and almost ran to the front door, he practically slammed on the door. While Norman was catching up to Jake, the door opened. Roberts stood in the door wearing a wifebeater and boxers.
“Yeah?” Roberts said with a groggy tone
“Have you seen any girls around here!” Jake asked angrily
“Um, what?”
Jake looked furious.
“Their names are Ashley and Diane, did you see them or not?”
“Oh…those girls…”
“So you have seen them!”
“Let me get dressed and I’ll tell you”
“Why don’t you just tell us now, please” Norman calmly chimed
“I’ll be right back” Roberts said closing the door
Jake kept on pounding on the door until Roberts came back wearing normal clothes, baggy enough to conceal the model 19 revolver tucked into his waistband.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM!” Jake yelled
“I want you to listen carefully...They came her, tried to hurt me, now I have them in my basement where I have been acting out all my perverted sexual fantasies on them” Roberts said in a monotone dead voice.
Jake swung at Roberts, Roberts dodged and ran into his house, Jake and Norman followed him. They were met with him holding them at gunpoint, they froze.
“Ooh, tough break guys” Roberts said as he shot the two.

The police car’s lights outside Roberts’ house were blinding in the night. Cops and CSU were investigating his kitchen, looking at the two dead bodies.
“They knocked, when I opened the door they just charged in. I was able to make it to my gun and sop them” Roberts told the cop
Of course that statement was a lie, Roberts went through a lot of work before calling the police. He arranged the bodies into more aggressive stances, he even put ski masks on the two boys. The entire time the cops were at his house Roberts was trying not to sweat bullets, the basement was soundproofed but all it would take was one rookie who didn’t know what he was doing to open the basement door. The police finished up and got the bodies out, Roberts was able to keep the dead smile on his face as they left. He watched as the ambulances and the squad cars drove off, as soon as they were out of sight Roberts broke down and began to cry. He didn’t like this feeling, the near heart-attack he just had over possibly getting caught effectively catalyzed his remorse. Thoughts were racing around his head, it was a storm of pain and turmoil. Roberts knew what he had to do, his conscience finally woke up. Clutching his aching head, Roberts went to his bedroom and got some kingpin and an old revolver since the cops took the model 19 as evidence. He walked down into the basement, waking up the girls. They made a couple of whimpers as he approached. Roberts snorted half of the kingpin. The drug hit him like a sack of bricks, his already chaos-filled mind was thrown even deeper into the abyss.
“Girls...good news….I’ve changed, seen the error in my ways. I can’t keep you here.”
“Bullshit!” Ashley yelled
“No, it’s true. But only one of you can leave here”
Roberts loaded one bullet into the cylinder of the revolver and spun it. The cylinder was snapped into the frame of the gun. Roberts walked over to Diane and pressed the barrel of the gun to her head. The gun just clicked, Diane gave out a yelp and started crying. Roberts pulled the gun back and spun the revolver again and this time held the gun to Ashley’s head. Ashley just looked at Roberts with a glance of pure disgust and defiance, she had accepted her fate. The gun clicked. Diane was now full on crying. Roberts repeated the process, the gun was pressed to Diane’s temple.
“He’s just screwing with us Diane, I don’t even think he loaded a re-”
The gun fired, the upper half of Diane’s head was gone. The sound was deafening, the splatter from the blood reached every corner of the room. Roberts was holding his ears, all he could hear was ringing. Ashley could not do the same because her hands were chained to the wall. Recovering from the sound, Roberts stumbled to the table and the kingpin, he pulled out a lighter and a spoon.
“THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD DO IT, IT’S SO MUCH BETTER THIS WAY” Roberts said thinking it was in a normal volume
“WHAT?” Ashley yelled, all she saw was his mouth move.
Roberts mixed the kingpin and melted it on the spoon, using the syringe he sucked up all of the liquid. He walked over to Ashley, she tried to avoid the needle’s point, the kingpin was injected into her. Robert’s was smart, he didn’t want to just let her walk out, there was a good chance this does would kill her. Even if she did live, her testimony alone was not enough to get a warrant to search his house. But just in case, he was shooting her up, nobody was going to believe a junkie. Once the drug had kicked in, Roberts unchained her and dropped her in the woods behind his house. On the walk back from the woods Roberts thought about his life, he decided he was going to turn over a new leaf. No more of this demented act, he was going to try and become a person like everybody else. Roberts smiled, he felt healthy again.

April 21

Violet went to work, today was a special day. She had a meeting with a new customer, some southern guy. She was worried he was going to ask for more than she could supply. The first part of the day was normal, she put up with old ladies getting their prescriptions filled and junkies trying to get more refills but were too broke to attempt to buy more pills. The other pharmacist working with her was Chris, he knew about the exchanges that went on, he just didn’t seem to care. The only time he talked about it to Violet was to say he wanted no part in it, he just didn’t want to go down for something he wasn’t a part of. Other than that he was a nice kid, he just talked about new music and movies, Violet found it boring. At 4:00 the man came in, Violet told Chris he could go for a smoke break. As Chris left the man walked up to the desk.
“Hey there, I have a big prescription to fill?”
“What do you want?”
“I want some morphine, you got any of that?”
“No, I’m sorry that is hospital grade. I can get you codine”
“That works”
“Where do you want me to send it?”
“The police station! DEA don’t move!”
Mcbride pulled out his badge and reached for the pair of handcuffs he had tucked in his waistband. Everything moved in slow motion for Violet, it was all over. Violet began to run, she exited the second door leading outside, Mcbride followed. Outside a confused Chris looked at Violet running away from a man, he thought he was trying to hurt her. Mcbride tackled Violet, she was struggling pretty hard. Chris got out his pocket knife, it wasn’t a large blade but he still had the element of surprise. Chris ran at Mcbride, he stuck the blade into his throat and pulled it out, blood started spurting out of Mcbride’s neck. Mcbride pulled his gun, and shot Chris. The bullet hit Chris in the chest, it sent him to the ground. Roberts heard the shot and came running around the building from the parking lot with his gun drawn. He arrived just in time to see Mcbride pass out from blood loss, Violet went for his gun.
“Freeze bitch!” Roberts shouted
“Don’t shoot, this is police brutality!”
“Shut up! You just killed a federal agent you’re going away”
“I didn’t kill him, besides I have information. I know who the maniac is!”
Roberts just pulled the trigger, it hit Violet just above her left eye. Roberts checked Mcbride’s pulse, it was still there but weak. He then called an ambulance, he gave the address and told them an officer had been stabbed.
“We’re on our way”
“Hurry he’s bleeding out!” Roberts said as he applied pressure to Mcbride’s neck.

Simon tried taking a walk, the fresh air helped but didn’t help him feel any better. The package of Vicodin arrived the day after but Simon just flushed the pills, taking more wasn’t going to help, he needed to go through this. Simon just wandered around the south side of the city, seeing what it had become. Despite everything he had done it was still all shit, Simon threw up all over the sidewalk, nobody seemed to care. He walked into a small gas station, he needed something to drink. While looking at the glass doors that had all the various drinks behind them a man burst into the convenience store, he had a knife. He didn’t seem to notice Simon, he just went for the cashier. The kid behind the counter cringed as the man started to shout orders at him. The kid began to fill a plastic bag with the money from the register. Simon just stood and watched, he wanted to help but he was too weak. Would it even make a difference if he did stop this robbery, there would be another one to take its place. For a brief second the kid behind the counter glanced at Simon with a look of pure desperation. It took all Simon had to ignore the robbery, he just grabbed a bottle Sweet Leaf tea and walked out. The door chime rang alerting the robber of Simon’s presence.
“Hey get back here!” The robber said shocked at Simon’s attitude in this situation
Simon said nothing in response and kept walking. The sad, defeated, decaying image of this side of town added to Simon’s depression. Once he was feeling tired, Simon walked home to sleep, it seemed like that is all he did these days. He just slept and walked, there was nothing he looked forward to anymore, life was tasteless. He got home and went to sleep.

Ashley woke up feeling cold, wet, and weak. She feebly picked herself up off of the ground, she looked at her surroundings, woods all around. She started walking, hopefully she could reach some sort of civilization before sunset. After a half hour of walking Ashley began to stumble, her strength was fading. Before she quit altogether something caught her eye, it was her car. The car was unlocked, Ashley got in to find the keys were still in the ignition. She started the car and proceeded to drive out of the woods, she had some business to finish. Ashley drove home, bills and other pieces of mail were scattered all over her front porch, also a newspaper. The paper caught her attention. The headline was “Brave Cop Defends his Home” Ashley looked in horror as she noticed the two pictures on the front page, they were of Norman and Jake. Ashley began to cry, she ran into her basement and retrieved a glass bottle, it was a bottle of vodka. She was not a drinker, she hated alcohol. She got the bottle from Simon back in high school, on a date Simon drove them to a point overlooking the entire city. She thought he was going to go all the way with her, he just got out the bottle and started taking swigs. She took it away from him, then lectured him on how he was never going to get anywhere in life. He took her home after that, a week later he ended things. She kept the bottle as a reminder of how he was going to end up as a nobody, a reminder of how cruel he was to break up with her. She poured herself a drink, then another, and another. Soon enough she was obliterated, she fell out of her chair because of how drunk she was. In a moment of clarity, Ashley realized who was really responsible for what happened to her and friends.

April 25

Kimber finally got an email back from the owner of the website dedicated to the maniac. The email expressed interest in writing another piece on the masked maniac. The owner had read Kimber’s last article, it gave her a good feeling to know that at least someone had read it. The owner even gave their number, Kimber sent a text to it confirming she got the email. It was 5:00 and the sun was starting to set, Kimber had a night out planned. She was going to go to try and break out of her shell, after O’Malley was injured Kimber found herself with no real friends, just co workers. It bothered her, she wasn’t a shy person, but not outgoing. Her social life had stagnated, the loneliness had built up over the months, for a split second she unironically considered calling the black guy who survived the alley attack months before. She packed up her things and turned off her office light, she left the building and went home. She opened the door to her apartment and took some time to decompress from a at work. After relaxing for a little bit, Kimber went to her closet. She needed something nice, but not too flashy. She ended up finding a satin ruby dress, it’s color complimented her light orange hair. She put on the dress and headed out to hit the town. Her apartment was on the Northwest side of town, she got a cab to take her down to the nightclub. It was about 7:30 now and it was getting dark, her cab arrived at the club and Kimber went in with no real expectations, she just wanted to get to know more people.

Simon walked the streets, he was feeling a lot better, still not how he was feeling but he didn’t throw up anymore. Simon lit a cigar, smoking was one of the only things that helped calm him down. With no job or purpose, Simon had a lot of time to think, he always did but now he actually started looking through the cracks. He saw the city for what it was, a gutter. He wanted to just give everything he had up and go down to Florida, live on the beach, forget this town. Something kept him from actually doing that even though he could. Simon’s train of thought was interrupted as he walked past an electronics store, a wall of television sets were displayed. They were all broadcasting the news, an attractive woman was talking about current events.
“After the vote last month denied the Reich from joining the United Nations, tensions have been growing between them and Russia, who cast the deciding vote” The woman said
Simon turned his head away and kept walking, eventually Simon came across a movie theatre. The sign advertised all of the new movies that were showing, it had been a while since Simon had gone to see a movie. He walked in and bought a ticket and a slushie, and if only for the short duration of the movie, Simon forgot about the problems weighing on his mind.

Roberts left the station, it had been a hectic few days. Mcbride survived the stab wound, he got sent back to where he came from. It took some explaining and Roberts was expecting the worst, but by some miracle the feds were satisfied. Roberts had also been thinking about Ashley, had she survived the dose of kingpin? He was paranoid, he dreamt she came to the station and accused him in front of everyone, he tried to strangle her. That dream scared Roberts, he figured he just needed to feel good about himself, try to forget everything he had done. Roberts chose charity as the answer, he was on his way to volunteer at a homeless shelter. He didn’t expect to feel better right away but he had to start somewhere. Roberts arrived at the shelter and was greeted by a young girl.
“Are you the new volunteer?” She said eagerly
“Uh, yeah, thats me”
Roberts was distracted, the girl was about the age of the women he kept in his basement. He fought against the thoughts of what he did down in his basement. Roberts displayed a blank stare as the girl showed him around. He probably should have listened to what she was saying, it was probably important.
“...And this is where you will be working!” the girl said pointing at a line of trays, each containing a different food.
She handed him and apron and a hairnet, Roberts put it on and started serving food to the residents of the shelter. He served only the mashed potatoes, there were people next to him giving out the other types of food. They were nice, they seemed excited that he was there, Roberts switched between having small talk with the other volunteers and the residents. Bobby was in the line, but he didn’t say anything. Even the people living in the shelter knew not to talk to Bobby, he would just scream and cry whenever anybody approached him. After his time was up, Roberts left the shelter feeling good, he planned on volunteering more. The entire time he was there he felt like he had found something that actually helped the city. Walking to his car, Roberts saw a scene.

Kimber was unsuccessful in her efforts to meet new people, there weren’t a lot of people there, most regulars stopped going after the robbery in the past year. She just sat down at the bar and ordered drinks. The only real conversation she had was with the bartender who talked about how the club was on the verge of going out of business. By the end of her time at the club, Kimber found herself a bit too inebriated. She paid her tab and stumbled out of the bar, as she was trying to get a taxi a group of boys approached her. They started to surround her and Kimber could hear them mumble amongst themselves, she started to worry and the distance between them and her. Just as they were getting close Roberts came out of nowhere, flashing his badge and yelling at the kids. The boys ran away even though they clearly outnumbered Roberts.
“Damn, kids...They think they run the streets. But it doesn’t take much to show them who’s in charge.”
Kimber looked at Roberts with a drunk stare, still trying to process what happened.
“Oh-oh my god thank you!”
“It was nothing, just the right place at the right time”
Roberts looked around, the streets were empty, he could take this girl right now and nobody would notice. He stomped on those thoughts, he was a real person who didn’t have to resort to that.
“Uh, hey...would you want to go get a coffee sometime?” Roberts asked
“Oh-uh….ummm” was all Kimber could spit out
“What?! Am I not good enough for you!” Roberts was beginning to get angry, all of the “new leaf” thoughts went right out the window.
Kimber looked around, trying to think of something, there was nobody on the street. All of the sudden a group of people came out of a nearby theatre.
“It-it’s not you...just I have a boyfriend already, that’s him” Kimber said pointing at an unaware Simon still drinking a slushie.
Simon saw a redheaded, clearly drunk woman point at Simon.
“Huh?” Simon uttered
“Hey babe, I don’t know why you like to watch until after the credits.”
Simon wasn’t sure what was going on but he decided to play along.
“Well...I pay to see a movie and by God I’m going to get my moneys worth”
There was a moment of awkward silence before Kimber and Simon started laughing.
“Oh...sorry to bother you...I guess I’ll just get going” Roberts said
Roberts walked off to his car. Kimber and Simon just stood there in silence, Kimber was the one to break it.
“OH MY GOD, YOU’RE THE MANIAC” She said a little too loud
“Shhhhhhhh!.....I-I uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“No, nooo, You know exactly what I’m talking about” Kimber said drunkenly giggling.
“You’re pretty drunk, let’s get you a cab”
“You ran into me when you set that guy on fire”
“Taxi!” Simon shouted at a car down the street
The yellow cab pulled up right in front of the two, Simon handed the driver a 50 dollar bill and told him to take her wherever she needed to go. Simon opened the back door for Kimber, she sat down and pulled SImon in. Before he knew it the cab was in motion, Kimber rambled on about something, her speech was pretty slurred. While Simon could not understand a word she was saying he found her amusing, he pretended to listen. The cab arrived at Kimber’s apartment complex.
“Can We do an interview sometime?” Kimber asked
“Uh, what?”
“I’m a journalist, I want to do a piece on your work”
“I don’t think that’s a good ide-”
“COME OnN”
“Lets just get you insi-”
“COME ON!”
Simon sighed, this interaction was tiring to say the least.
“Are you guys going to get out?” the cab driver asked from the front seat
“Uh yeah, sorry” Simon said getting out
He helped Kimber out of the cab and closed the door. While walking up to the main door of the apartment Kimber asked Simon for his contact information again. Even though Simon’s brain was telling him it was a stupid decision, something about this girl made Simon happy. Simon wrote down his number and gave it to her. She thanked him and stumbled into the building, after she was gone Simon just sighed and walked home.
===============================================================================================
April 26

Simon woke up the next morning to feel regret, he shouldn’t have given that girl from last night. She said she was a reporter but there was no way to prove that, for all Simon knew he gave his number to a complete stranger who just wanted to turn him in. Simon became paranoid, he was pacing his room. He just wasn’t going to answer the phone, yeah that was it! If he just didn’t talk, he would be in the clear. Even if she did call the cops and they somehow decided to show up, there was no evidence, they needed a warrant which they couldn’t get that fast. Simon spent the whole day making sure that there was no incriminating evidence in his apartment. The panic subsided but Simon still kicked himself, he couldn’t make stupid mistakes like the one he did last night. Simon tried to put the whole thing behind him and not worry about it, he sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. As the day went on Simon began to get bored, he was no longer distracted by how sick he felt from withdrawal. Simon got up and checked the cupboards for food, nothing. Simon decided to go for a walk, but even those were getting old fast. Simon got outside and lit a cigar, walking he seemed to see the world in a different light. The sun was shining, colors seemed more vibrant, it was like being in the eye of a hurricane. Simon walked to a park, he just sat and experienced this moment of serenity. After a few hours of smoking Simon wanted to go get some tea, he walked to a nearby coffee shop. He hadn’t been to the shop since his last meeting with Eddie, it had been a while since he had thought about him. Simon missed having someone to talk to, even when Penelope was alive he just didn’t connect with her. Simon ordered a cup of tea and sat down, he watched people in the shop talk and laugh, it was something he did not notice very much these days. Looking around the shop Simon saw the girl from last night, she was drinking coffee and clutching her head. The panic from before struck Simon, he slammed his tea and got up to leave. As he was halfway to the door, she noticed him.
“Hey!” She said
Simon tried to pretend he didn’t hear her. She kept talking to him, he kept moving. Simon exited the shop thinking that was the end of the encounter, it wasn’t. She ran outside still clutching her head, with her other hand she grabbed Simon’s shoulder.
“Wait, I need to ask you some questions”
Simon sighed
“Fine...you got me”
They walked back inside and Simon ordered another cup of tea. He sat down across from Kimber, her excitement was apparently helping her hangover. She pulled a notepad from her purse and started to jot down the date and time.
“I have so many questions...I don’t know where to begin”
Simon just sipped his tea.
“I guess my first question would be: What made you decide to do what you do?”
Simon was expecting these sorts of questions.
“Uh, I guess I was just thrown into a situation where I had a choice, either let something bad happen or do something…”
Kimber was staring at Simon as if she was expecting more from his response.
“Um, care to elaborate?”
“No” Simon said with a stern face.
“Okay...Why do you wear the mask?”
“Pretty obvious isn’t it? I don’t want people to know who I am. If you haven’t noticed, I am not a very well liked man”
“Why do you do this?”
“To be honest...I am trying to figure that out myself”
“Can you explain?”
“I used to think it was because I was doing something good, now I’m not so sure of that anymore. I’m sorry but that is the best answer I have.”
Kimber continued to ask questions, Simon began to warm up to them, but mostly to Kimber. He felt like a celebrity, it was odd but fun. Soon the questions faded into casual conversation, they both laughed and talked. The odd feeling from being interviewed melted away, for the first time in a long while, Simon felt at ease. The odd feeling came back when Kimber asked another question.
“If you could say one thing to the public, what would it be?”
The question caught Simon off guard.
“I would say that I wish I was doing this for them...But I think I did all of those things for me.”
“Do you regret your actions?”
“I regret how some things ended up, but I don’t regret the fact that pieces of shit get me knocking on their door instead of actual kids”
“Alright…those are all my questions, I should get going”
Simon and Kimber both got out of the booth and headed for the door. Once they were both outside and about to walk their separate ways Kimber spoke up.
“Hey...thanks for last night”
“Oh, no problem. It was nothing”
The two turned to walk their own ways again but this time Simon talked.
“Wait…”
Kimber turned around.
“I was uh...wondering if you wanted to do this again sometime?”
“Like an interview?”
Simon looked down at the ground and started to blush
“Um, no...like, just talking over coffee”
“So a date?”
“Ah, yeah some people would call it a da- yeah, a date”
Kimber laughed at how nervous he looked
“I would love to”
Simon looked surprised by her answer
“Oh great! Well...You have my number so….”
“I’ll be sure to call you”
“Great, uh...bye”

April 27

Diego sat in his small apartment, the stove was on and dinner was cooking. He walked out of his kitchen/dining room and went to his bedroom. The flag of Spain was pinned up on his wall, he had left his home a long time ago. He ended up in Britain, then made his way to the states. He was naturalized, unfortunately he just didn’t know what to do in life. He bounced from job to job, it never lasted. Life was just bland, it had no flavor, Diego was indifferent to everything. That was until he found his passion, bounty hunting. Something he was always really good at, tracking people down, the force used to catch them was just icing on the cake. While he was technically a citizen of the states, he kept his heritage close. It made law enforcement a bit nervous to work with him, but they knew he was good at what he did. Looking at his room he looked upon his arsenal, weapons of all types. Handguns, knives, tasers, it made Diego proud to look at his collection. On the wall were posters of his past bounties, some were pictures of hardened criminals issued by the police, others were pictures of people who pissed off their spouses a little too much. His “private” contracts usually ended in death, but not always, sometimes all that was needed was the illusion of danger. Diego had smashed windshields, one time he intentionally missed a shot to make it seem like a sniper was trained on this woman who was cheating. The bounty sheet he was looking at now was different, it was just a sketch drawing of a man in a bear mask. He met with a representative of the police force days earlier, behind closed doors obviously. The representative said that after the slow kid got torched the city could not tolerate this vagrant, the man hinted that the target did not have to be caught, just “gone”. They were willing to pay a good amount of money for his services. The maniac wasn’t like a normal bounty for Diego, he didn’t have a name. The name of the target was what he usually went off of, this still wasn’t impossible. It was the motive of the maniac that made Diego uneasy, this guy went after criminals, even if the cops didn’t see it that way. For all he knew, Diego could be next on the maniac’s list, that was unlikely though. Diego was snapped out of his thoughts about the maniac by the loud scream of his smoke detector. He cussed as he ran back into the kitchen to see that his dinner was burning. After the smoke had subsided, Diego ate partially burned noodles and went back to thinking about his new bounty.

April 30

Simon sat a the bar of the restaurant, it was a normal dinner rush. Simon checked his watch and waited. Kimber had called him a couple days ago, they agreed to meet here. Simon was trying not to sweat bullets, he had realized how long it was since he was on a date. Even with Penelope, he usually just sat and let her talk, he actually had to seem interesting, alive. He was trying to calm his nerves with alcohol, he was getting to be comfortably buzzed. A few minutes later Kimber walked through the doors, she was wearing the same dress she was when they first met. Simon wasn’t sure if this was intentional, he waved her over.
“Hi” she chimed
“Hey!”
Simon looked alert, snapping his shoulders back. They got a table and sat down, drinks came and they started talking. The conversation was more natural than Simon expected, it felt real. Kimber talked about her article, she said it was getting a lot of attention. They sat at their table and had a nice evening.

Ashley paced her room, it was all crumbling. She was hellbent on revenge, no matter the cost. Of course not going to work because you are too busy planning a scheme did have its disadvantages. Her power and water were shut off, she had spent all of her remaining money on kingpin. Ever since Roberts shot her up she couldn’t get enough of the drug. She had been trying everything her dealer recommended to her, uppers, downers, the works. With every hit her mind got more and more warped, someone who knew her previously wouldn’t recognize her. As she paced the dark room her phone chimed, she had been charging it a local gas station. She pulled it out and looked at the screen, the dim glow of the phone only illuminated a small portion of the room but it almost blinded Ashley. It was a text an unknown number, it was just a link to a web page. Ashley’s phone couldn’t open it up, but something told her it was worth checking out.


May 2


Roberts just got done from a shift at the homeless shelter, he started up his car and turned on his scanner. The dispatcher requested assistance at a nearby convenience store, Roberts shouldn’t have responded but it was only a couple blocks away. He opened the glovebox of his car, pulled out his model 19 and sped off. Roberts parked his car in the middle of the road, he got out and drew his gun. He ran towards the store, a stupid move in hindsight but Roberts wasn’t exactly thinking about the smartest approach to this problem. The sliding doors opened and Roberts saw an empty store, he rapidly looked through the aisles to find the robbers. He found nothing,Roberts waited, he heard something. There was a door behind the counter, he could hear voices behind it. Roberts walked over and put  his ear to the door, he heard shouting. Roberts flung the door open with his gun pointed at eye level. There were two men, one was holding a pistol grip shotgun to the cashier’s head while he opened the safe at the back of the room. The other was holding a duffel bag open as the cashier was throwing stacks of cash and rolls of coins in. All three people in that room stopped what they were doing and looked at Roberts, the man holding the duffel bag dropped it and reach in his waistband for a gun. Roberts fire two shots hitting the man in the abdomen mid-reach. The man with the shotgun aimed and fired at Roberts, he cringed expecting to feel the sting of metal pellets, they never hit him. Roberts opened his eyes to see the cashier struggling with the man, Roberts thought the kid just knocked the barrel of the gun out of the way, until he saw the holes peppering the walls around him. Roberts snapped out of his thought when the robber used the shotgun to whack the cashier in the face. Roberts quickly drew his gun and put the remaining bullets into the robber. The cashier and Roberts were both deaf, but there was a moment of pure silence, they relished that moment.
“THANKS!” the kids shouted
“SHUT UP I’M THINKING!” Roberts yelled
He should have been hit, he was inches away from being shot and killed. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to Roberts, he was always in danger but this time he was bothered more by the possibility of his death. Over the ringing in his ears he could hear police sirens outside. Roberts turned and  walked out of the little room, officers had their guns trained on Roberts as he exited.
“I got here a little early” Roberts said, trying to speak in a normal voice
“You can’t just show up and start shooting!” One of the officers said
“It’s alright, I’m a cop” Roberts said flashing his badge
The other cops just looked at him and went on to examine the scene.

May 3

Ashley sat in the public library, it was a run down building. She was at the only computer terminal that actually worked, she was typing the link from her phone into the web browser. She was trying to do it fast, there were less than trustworthy people in the library, mostly drug dealers but there were people from all branches of crime here. She probably would have been mugged already if she had not looked and smelled how she did. Ashley put in the link and pressed enter, the browser struggled to load, but when it did the news put Ashley in shock. It was Kimber’s interview with the masked maniac, it painted him in a slightly heroic light, that made Ashley livid. Her philosophy on Simon’s vigilantism had done a 180 since her experience trying it. Why did he get all the recognition, nobody cared about Diane, Jake, and Norman’s disappearances. Her rage almost made her go straight to the police to report what happened to her right then and there, but after a moment she decided her plan was much more satisfying. She was hellbent on revenge, and nothing was going to stop her.

Diego sat in an apartment that wasn’t his, sipping on lukewarm coffee and reading the newspaper. He checked his watch periodically, it wasn’t the right time yet. His eyes landed on an article that caught his attention, it was about one of his bounties, the maniac. This was all valuable info on they guy, hell, it gave Diego all he needed. He paid close attention to the author's name, Kimber Mathis, it also gave Diego the maniac’s motivations. Diego thought his responses were a bit cliche, the maniac seemed to think of himself as an anti-hero. Diego was filled with disdain for this character, there was no system, no rules. At least with Diego and people of the same profession there was a general principle, money buys lives. With the maniac it was all over the place, this guy killed whoever he deemed to be “evil, it was too subjective. The only reason he had people who supported this crap was because so far the maniac had lined up with the public’s values. The coffee had become stone cold by now, Diego panicked. He frantically checked his watch, he was just in time. He grabbed the bolt-action rifle propped up next to him and walked closer to the window. Diego was overlooking a local park, from the window he could see kids playing, people walking dogs, and his target. Looking through the scope gave a better picture, the was a bench in the middle of the park, a man in a trench coat was sitting on it with a briefcase. The time was 8:30, and like clockwork, the target walked up to the bench with a brown paper bag. The man in the trench coat didn’t look at the target, he just left the case and took the brown bag. Just as the target was about to grab the briefcase, Diego took the shot. It was a clean hit, the bullet hit a little lower than Diego was expecting though, the shot still killed the target. People in the park screamed and ran, creating a big scene, brimming with confusion and fear.  While this was happening Diego started to disassemble the rifle, putting all of the pieces into a black duffel bag. Once he had made sure that he cleaned up well enough, he left and didn’t think twice.

May 4

Simon exited the cigar shop, he felt like the luckiest man in the world. His time with Kimber made him feel great, she was all he could think about. They hadn’t talked about the vigilantism either, it felt like a normal relationship. He unpackaged a cigar and lit it up, walking down the streets he saw the world in a different light, things were perfect in SImon’s tiny world. He passed a bum sitting on the curb, Simon felt bad for him and handed the guy a cigar. The homeless man looked at Simon and stopped, so did Simon. They both looked familiar to each other but neither could put their finger on it. The man grabbed the cigar and Simon thought that was the end of it, he turned away from the homeless man. Bobby had other plans, he put the cigar in his pocket and pulled out an old toothbrush that was sharpened to a point. He plunged the shiv into Simon’s left shoulder, Simon fell to the ground shouting.
“What the hell man!”
Simon felt the shiv pulled out, the man was going for another stab. Simon rolled over and put his hand up, the shiv stabbed right through his left arm, the image shocked both of them. Bobby just turned and ran, Simon was on the ground bleeding, he got up and ran to his car. He drove to the hospital, running most red lights, once he was at the hospital he just parked his car in the front and ran into the emergency room. Entering the front lobby of the hospital Simon threw his car keys at a nurse and told him not to scratch his car, he was dripping blood all over the floor. He was escorted by other nurses to a room.

May 8

Simon sat in a hospital bed in pain. He had asked the doctor not to give painkillers, he regretted that. A thin curtain divide the room, another patient was in the room, he only heard small peeps from them. A tray of food sat on the table next to him, it all tasted like plastic to Simon. According to the doctor Simon would have to wait another day before he could be released. This gave Simon a lot of time to think, who was that guy? It took some time, but Simon finally remembered that guy, he was the guy he fought way back when he first started dating Penelope. The thought of Penelope was disturbing to Simon, he was suddenly filled with regret. Even though she did some terrible things, she didn’t deserve to die. Simon struggled with the memories of that night until a nurse came in to change his bandages. Something about having a nurse disinfect stab wounds inflicted by a toothbrush just made Simon laugh.

Ashley came out of the women’s bathroom, the man she had sex with followed. He handed her $50 and left, this was the money she needed to get her revenge, good thing everything she needed to buy was already there.

May 9

Simon was released from the hospital at noon, the first thing he did was go to a restaurant to get some real food. Then he found a payphone and told Kimber why he hadn’t called her in a while, they made plans to meet at Simon’s place that night for a quiet date. He spent the rest of the day going to different gun stores and trying to figure out his next purchase. It was about 5:00 now and Simon was returning home. He opened the door and walked up the many flights of stairs. Simon was surprised to see something in front of his door, it was a bottle of SweetLeaf tea. Simon picked up the bottle and examined it, who put this here? Simon figured it was the nice mexican family that lived on the floor below. He drank some of the tea and went into his apartment, he had left the TV on. He started to clean all of the clutter in his apartment for when Kimber arrived. He was just doing normal things to make him seem like less of a slob. Simon felt pretty tired, he just figured it was drained from being stabbed. Simon collapsed on the floor. When he came to, Simon found himself tied to his bed, naked. At first he thought Kimber was into the sort of kinky stuff, until he saw Ashley. She was a disheveled twisted version of the Ashley he remembered.
“Oh my god” was all Simon could utter
Ashley seem irate
“Is that all you have...Do you have any idea what I went through because of you?”
“What? We haven't talked in a long time, what happened?” Simon said sympathetically
Ashley began to yell at Simon, explaining what happened. She told him about how she knew he was the masked maniac, about how she tried to do what he did, how it all went wrong. Simon would have tried to explain how that was pretty much all her fault but Ashley didn’t look too willing to listen to reason at this time.
“So what's the point of having me here? What’s your plan?”
Ashley just smiled devilishly
“Wouldn’t you like to know…” she said pulling out a knife
“Look...revenge isn’t going to make you feel better, it just eats you up” Simon said
He didn’t really believe that but he had to try it to appeal to her emotional side. Ashley just scoffed and started to berate Simon on how poorly he treated her. While she was talking, Simon remembered Kimber was coming over. Simon could only think about her getting hurt. Ashley took the knife and started moving it down towards Simon’s penis, he tried not to seem worried because he knew it would just give her a sense of satisfaction, but goddam he was sweating bullets. Just as the blade was about to make contact, there was a knock at the door.
“I’ll go get that!” Ashley said in a chipper voice
Simon used the few seconds to struggle against his restraints, he focused of freeing his right hand since his left side was still in enormous pain. Despite his struggling he couldn’t break free, he had to either break or dislocate something to get free. Simon heard the doorknob turn and his mind was made up. He snapped his right side and felt tremendous pain, but he was able to get his right arm free.
“KIMBER RUN” he yelled as he heard the door oped.
Using his free hand, he reached into his nightstand to get his knife. He heard struggling outside in the hall as he cut himself free. He ran to the hallway and tackled Ashley, knife in had. Kimber didn’t know what to make of the picture, a naked Simon wrestling a homeless woman, it was odd to say the least. Simon put Ashley in a weak headlock, it was all he could do with his injuries, it would have been so easy to end the conflict with the knife. But he didn’t, for some reason he just couldn’t do it. With all of his strength Simon choked Ashley out, once she was out cold he released his grip exhausted. Kimber just stood there, still confused. Simon finally caught his breath and looked at Kimber.
“Exes...what are ya gonna do?”
She laughed
Simon got up and went back into the apartment to get dressed, then he dragged Ashley’s unconscious body into the apartment.
“Wanna explain what happened here?” Kimber asked
“I honestly have no clue”
That answer didn’t satisfy Kimber.
“So she dated you?”
“Yeah, in high school, I wouldn’t say it ended on bad terms. I have no idea why she was here” Simon said struggling with her body.
“Does this happen with all the girls that date you?” Kimber asked jokingly
Simon missed the joking tone, and in a moment of autism said
“Well I did end up killing my last girlfriend…”
He realized what he said a little too late, but to his surprise she responded with a guilty look
“I shot my last boyfriend”
“Wait….Really?”
“It’s a long story” she said
Simon decided to just forget that, he mustered up his strength and picked up Ashley. His arm was in an excruciating amount of pain.
“Since I left her alive, I’m going to have to disappear for a while”
“What! Why?”
“When she wakes up she might go to the cops. I can’t be around”
“Won’t running make you look guilty”
“Not if my girlfriend tells them I had been away on business since yesterday”
Kimber got the picture, she watched as Simon walked down stairs. Due to him being a weak and a bit careless, Simon accidentally hit Ashley’s head on walls and doors. Kimber helped Simon get Ashley into his car.
“Where are you taking her?”
“To her parents place, after that I’m just going to drive. I’ll call you when I get to wherever I’m going. If you can check up on her every once in awhile when I’m gone, just drive by her house?”
“Uh...sure”
Simon shut the Ashley’s door, told her the address, kissed Kimber and left. As the car sped off Kimber just stood there with a smile on her face looking at the last seconds of the sunset.

Simon pulled up to Ashley’s parents home, he was reminiscing about the time he spent with her back in the day. When the car came to a stop Simon couldn’t help but let the idea of carefully carrying her to the front door cross his mind. Simon settled for just opening her door and pushing her out of the car onto the pavement,  after all she did just try to cut off his penis. Simon closed the door and sped off into the summer night, not knowing where he was headed.
==========================================================================================================================
 May 20

Simon stood at a payphone outside the sleazy motel he was staying at, the neon lights of the city illuminated the night. Simon had gone on quite the trip, he was exhausted from all of the traveling. The little vacation had been nice though, he had been to LA, Houston, and Chicago. He punched in Kimber’s number, the phone rang, on the third one she answered.
“Simon?”
“It’s me”
“You doing alright?”
“Yeah, just tired. I’ve been all over the map”
“Where are you now?”
“Florida”
“Ooh! Hitting Miami?
“No, I’m in Tampa”
“When do you think you’ll be back”
“Depends, have you heard any buzz about me?”
“Nope but then again I lost most of my contacts on the force”
“Alright, have you been checking up on Ashley?”
“Yeah she’s alright. As good as a psycho can be”
Simon chuckled.
“Cool, I’ll probably head back in the next few days. I’m loving this Florida weather”
They continued with small talk until Simon hung up, Simon turned around and went back to his motel room, he tried not to think about how clean the sheets were too hard. He fell asleep watching a horror movie marathon.

May 21

Kimber had her car parked outside Ashley’s parent’s home, it was small but nice. Through the window Kimber could see Ashley, she looked a lot better. Ashley never went to the police, she was too high to. Her parents had taken her in, they even called down her sister to look after her while they were at work. Kimber wished she had this kind of family. Her parents were both politicians, they never had dinner as a family like Ashley’s family did. Kimber would always imagine that her parents were at the dinner table instead of the maids and butlers. In the beginning it was her father that was gone, he was a senator, but when he died her mom took his place. Kimber paused to think about her mother, she hadn't spoken with her in a long time, not since she went back to Missouri for Christmas. Once Kimber saw that Ashley was alright, she left to go back home. What Kimber didn’t know was that she was being followed.

Diego had tailed Kimber from her work, after reading her article about the maniac he figured she could lead him right to the maniac. For the past few days she had occasionally stopped by this house, Diego knew this was tied to the maniac somehow. He just didn’t know how yet, it looked like a normal family. He found it odd that the two daughters rarely left the house, the one was never alone. That fact was curious, were they protecting her? If they were, from what? It was strange, but he didn’t have nearly enough information to do anything. He would have to swing by at a later date, he was unusually busy with contracts lately. He turned his car on drove back into town, he was on his way to collect some bounties. He returned to the buildings he had become familiar with, this was his home away from home. Ever since his family fled from his country he always felt homesick for a home that he didn’t remember, it was a matter that kept him up at night. He was entering the worst part of the city, the worst of the worst resided here. It was getting dark and Diego could see people huddled around fires in trash cans, gang symbols spray-painted on buildings, and thugs getting into scuffles in the street. He parked next to his destination, a club called Dixie’s. Getting out of his car Diego heard snippets of the lives of the residents of the area.
“I don’t need ya bitch! I’ll let the welfare feed ya, you know what I’m sayin!” A pimp yelled
“Was that needle clean?” a teenage girl asked a junkie, he just responded with a shrug
“Man I miss laura, Brian’s a dick” an Asian guy said to another
Diego walked into the bar, the bouncer just nodded to him, he was kind of a legend around here. Diego took the stairs to the top floor, there he saw the seedy image that he always saw when picking up payment. While it was the top floor, it looked like a basement, there were mattresses sprawled out on the bare concrete floor, the lights were either flickering or out completely. Each “bed” had its’ own junkie to keep it warm, Diego didn't mind this room but the further you went the more demented it got. Diego kept walking, he went through a door to reveal the next circle of this building. All through this room were sickly prostitutes ranging from all ages, some were being used and others just sat there throwing up or shooting up. Diego didn’t mind the sight of girls as young as 13 having sex with an obese 45 year old, he could have cared less. He entered the next room room, this one was where people with his job came to get contracts and payment for their jobs. Diego was one of the more “upstanding” people in his field, some of the others that came here were real nut cases. He saw one of the more eccentric people talking to the payment worker. Her name was Esmeralda, and she was weird. The story was that she started off as a prostitute that got beat a little too hard by her pimp, she ended up biting his throat and bleeding him dry. She got a rush from killing that went well with her taste for expensive things, now she killed for money. Once she had all of the shiny things she could buy, she started getting exotic. Attached to her belt was a chain, the chain was connected to a man on all fours. He was wearing a full S&M gear and behaved much like a dog, as she was talking to the man giving her the payment on the contract she petted his leather covered head. Once she got her money, she turned around to see Diego.
“Oh hey there stud….” she said
Just the way she said it made Diego want to throw up, but he couldn’t give even the slightest hint that she made his uncomfortable, it was a sign of weakness.
“Hey…” is all he gave in response
“Is business treating you well?”
“Yeah, you could say that”
She looked disappointed
“Oh shoot. I was hoping you were having bad enough luck to where I could get this guy another brother” She gestured to her man-pet.
Diego didn’t even know how to respond, he just focused on appearing calm.
“Well, things are going good…” is all he could say
“Darn, I wanted to add a latin to my collection” She chuckled
Diego was about to make an expression of disgust breaking his poker face but her pet interrupted. He whimpered through his zipped leather mask and began to piss himself, yellow liquid dripped on the floor. Esmiralda just smiled at him and said in a very calm but unsettling voice.
“I told you this couldn’t happen anymore”
The pet was trembling in the pool of his own piss, he was terrified. She pulled on the chain leash so hard the pet gave out a yelp and was now off of his hands and knees and on his back. She began to kick him and shouted at him. Diego just walked to the desk where he got paid, the man sitting behind the desk was staring in horror at the scene he was looking at. Diego got his payment and left.

May 30

Simon had almost fully recovered from his wounds, his left arm was still weak. His car was a mess after the extended road trip he had taken, he was heading home. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest knowing that Ashley had not gone to the police. He was still a bit bitter about her drugging him, but he knew she had gone through a lot. He looked back at this mini vacation as a blessing, he got a chance to get away from it all, even Kimber. Truth be told, things were still a mystery between him and Kimber, there was still too much he didn’t know about her yet she knew one of his closest secrets. Also, things seemed to be going too well. There wasn’t that underlying tension that there was with Penelope, but then again that wasn’t the healthiest relationship in the world. Kimber seemed too good to be true, he was afraid that by finding out more about Kimber would break that. He walked into the office of the motel, the Florida heat was a humid, brutal one. The man behind the desk was wearing a wifebeater and reading a porn magazine, he didn’t even act surprised when Simon entered.
“Did you have a nice stay?” he said in a raspy voice
“Uh..yeah, it was great” Simon tried to say convincingly
Simon handed back the keys and walked out of the office, he went to his car and headed home.
The heart monitor gave a slow and steady reading, the hospital room was silent besides the rhythmic. O’Malley was laying in the hospital bend with multiple tubes and machines connected to him, he suddenly shot up out of his coma. The monitors and machines went into a symphony of furious beeping as he gasped for air, almost choking on the tubes in his mouth. A panicked nurse ran into his room and assisted O’Malley with getting all of the life support machines out of their invasive spots.
“What th-Where am I?” He said trying not to throw up
“You’ve been in a coma” She tried to say as sympathetically as possible
O’Malley looked like he had just been hit in the stomach with a hammer, this was a shock to him. For the past couple months he had been in a dream, a dream that he was angry he had to wake up from. For the duration of his stay in the hospital so far, he didn’t even know he was there. O’Malley was in a coma dream that he thought was real, it wasn’t so crazy to believe either. In his dream he never got shot during the raid, he went back to his life and told Kimber about his feelings, he spent years with her and even got married. O’Malley could recall every detail of the years he spent in his dream, waking up to the harsh reality was taxing to say the least. He tried to get up from the bed while the nurse was busy looking at his chart. His knees buckled as his feet hit the ground, the nurse finally looked up and tried to stop him.
“Sir you can-” she tried to get out
O’Malley just pushed her down, he was only fueled by the rage of having his perfect world shattered. O’Malley stumbled out into the hallway, determined to recreate this world to fit his.

Roberts sat in his boss's office, he was getting chewed out for being late all of the time. His boss’s words were drowned out by a daydream, Roberts couldn’t have known what was coming next.
“I need your badge and gun” the Chief said
These words snapped Roberts back to reality.
“Wait….what?”
“You heard me, get out of here”
Roberts couldn’t believe it, but at the same time it wasn’t impossible for him to see how things got here. Roberts should have been angry but for some reason it felt like he was freed, released.
“I understand” Roberts said turning over his badge and gun
“I’m sorry things turned out this way, you were a fine detective”
Roberts just walked out of the station without packing his things, there was nothing worth going back for anyway. The outside air had a whole new crisp feeling to it, Roberts took a deep breath of relief and went home. On the drive to his house Roberts thought of all the things he could do with his life, he had more time to volunteer, more time to find a decent job . Things were looking up, getting fired was the best thing to happen to him. As he pulled into his driveway the feeling of freedom and hope turned to dread. Sitting on his front porch was Travis, the assistant smoking a cigarette. Roberts got out of the car and greeted the man.
“We haven't seen you in a while…”
“Iv’e been busy”
“Doc’s been getting worried…”
“Really, I’ve been meaning to swing by but pickings have been slim lately”
“There are just as many runaways and whores as ever. We’re beginning to think you are ducking us”
“I’m no-”
“We’re starting to get nervous, and when we get nervous we tend to do things that hurt…”
“I promise I’ll stop by soon”
Travis pulled out a hi-power engraved with swastikas and other nazi carvings.
“Why don’t we go right now?”
“Alright, alright. No need to do that. Let’s go”

Simon finally got home after multiple hours on the road, Simon took a long moment to stretch his legs. Simon entered his suite to find everything was right where it belonged, he left the TV on, it was playing a rerun of “Two and a half men”. Simon walked to the fridge to get a beer and just sat and watched the show. He missed Kimber over his break, he wanted to call her but something kept bothering him. He didn’t really know anything about her other than that fact that she was a journalist, on dates she usually distracted him with questions about himself or other dimb topics like the weather. Looking back at it all she actually seemed evasive or vague when Simon asked questions about her. It was troubling but there was a good possibility that Simon was just overthinking this whole thing. He didn’t know what was going on with Kimber at that very moment.

O’Malley knocked on Kimber’s apartment door, still in his hospital gown. She opened to be shocked to see him.
“Tyler...You’re alright”
“I am and I came to tell you something...can I come in?”
“Uh, sure yeah”
Tyler and Kimber sat down in her apartment, she was shocked to see him like this.
“Sooo, you came here straight from the hospital?” Kimber asked with concern
“Yeah”
“What was it you needed to tell me?”
Tyler sighed and looked into Kimber’s eyes with a mix of passion and sadness.
“When I was in my coma...I had a dream-but it wasn’t really a dream. It was something more than that, the best I can describe it as a vision or some sort of reality.”
Kimber was visibly confused and shaken by this, Tyler continued…
“In this whatever-you-call-it, we were together. We were married, we were happy, we had a kid for christ’s sake! I can remember all these small insignificant things, every birthday party every day at work. It was a perfect life and I can’t just accept the fact that it’s all gone now I-I just can’t…”
Tyler got down on one knee and looked up at Kimber.
“I love you Kimber...I always have, even before my injury. I know I have to make up for a lot of lost time...But I’m ready to spend the rest of my life with you”
Kimber honestly did not know what to say, she had no idea that he had these feelings for her. She didn’t want to crush Tyler but she had just never thought about him like that.
“I’m sorry Tyler, this isn’t going to be easy to hear…”
O’Malley tried to protest what Kimber was about to say
“Kimber...Please don’t do this to me” He said with tears in his eyes
Kimber powered through the guilt
“I just don’t see you in that way, besides I’m kind of dating someone right now”
“Oh don’t give me that shit Kimber!”
“Please don’t be mad”
“How the fuck am I supposed to react to this? I felt every moment of it! What I experienced was real!”
Tyler was all but bawling at this point.
“I’m sorry...And I appreciate the sentiment,but I’m afraid it’s nothing more than a daydream…” Kimber said with tears welling up in her eyes.
Tyler the rest of the way to the ground and began to sob, his cries were sharp and filled with sorrow. Kimber tried to console him but as soon as she place her hand on Tyler’s shoulder he pulled away and stood up.
“To hell with you! You could have had a great life with me, I would have given you everything you ever wanted.”
“Tyler I’m so-”
“Fuck you whore!” Tyler shouted as he stormed off.
Kimber just sat there trying to hold back tears, that hadn’t been easy to her. O’Malley had been her friend, it was a shame he was never more than that. Kimber considered calling Simon about this situation but she elected not to in the end since she didn’t want to just drop this on him. They weren’t super serious in their relationship yet and something like this would probably be seen as unnecessary baggage. Kimber just sat at her table and cried as quietly as she could.
=====================================================================
June 2

Ashley woke up in a bright room with floral patterns painted on the wall, it was her old room. Ever since she was a little girl she lived here, when she moved out she almost forgot about it, but now it was home again. Her sister knocked on the door and entered the room, Ellis was the only one Ashley had told what happened to her.
“I made eggs!” Ellis said with a smile on her face
Deep down Ellis was frail and shocked after hearing what happened to Ashley, but she knew she had to put on a happy facade to support Ashley. Ashley groggily got up from her bed and reached for the plate of eggs Ellis was extending.
“Thanks, I needed this” Ashley said meekly
There was an awkward silence between the two, one that was as uncomfortable as it was long. Ellis really didn’t have anything to say but didn't want to leave Ashley alone either, between Ellis and her parents Ashley had not been alone for quite some time. Out of all of her new caretakers Ashley’s dad had been affected the worst, he was more focused on getting revenge rather than helping Ashley. While Ellis was thinking about this she didn’t notice the anger crawling on Ashley’s face while she was eating the eggs. Ashley slammed the fork on her plate.
“I don’t need you looming over me 24/7 you know!” Ashley exclaimed
“Ashley, don’t do this”
“No! I’m fucking done being on suicide watch!”
Ellis didn’t want to yell back but the reflex took her by surprise
“You can’t blame us, when you came back here Mom and Dad said you were covered in filth and smelled like shit and you had cuts on your wrists! What the fuck are we supposed to do!”
“You’re supposed to help me! Not treat me like a fucking vegetable!”
“Tell me what you want then!”
“I want to leave…”
Another silent period washed over the two.
“....Where would you go?”
“I’m not sure but I just hate see you and Mom and Dad like this...I just want to leave”
“Do you know how much tha will hurt all of us, you can't just cut and run”
“Please….I need to….”
Ashley stared at Ellis with a sadness that easily broke Ellis’ guard.
“Fine, pack a bag and I’ll get you some keys for Mom’s car. Just….Just don’t make me regret this”
The two went to finish their tasks and within a few minutes Ashley was gone.

Simon and Kimber sat at the little coffee shop from where they first really met. Kimber was keeping her encounter with O’Malley a secret, Simon didn’t need to know about it, not yet at least. Simon was telling her about some prank that was pulled in his highschool, something about the principal’s car being put on the roof of the school. She found it cute how he talked with his hands, every word made his hands dance. She smiled and giggled even though she wasn’t really listening to him. Simon wasn’t being real with her either, he knew she wasn’t listening so he was just telling a fake story to fill the silence. The date ended and the two went their separate ways, both parties harboring a mix of sympathy and anger towards one another. Neither of them noticed Diego sitting behind them in the coffee shop, watching them. As Simon walked home his mind was on Kimber and not on the man following him. Diego got closer and closer to Simon, once he was close enough he pulled out the automatic knife in his pocket. Simon was deep in thought about Kimber, he hated being like this, not knowing where he stood with her. As he pulled out his phone to call her he fumbled with it and the phone fell to the ground. Diego swung the knife at Simon but right as he did Simon kneeled down to get his phone. Simon finally realized the man with a knife behind him, both were shock and shared a moment of awkwardly looking at each other. The two got over the embarrassment of the failed attempt and in a blink of the eye they both sprung into action. Simon had no weapons on him at the time so all he could do was run, Diego was carrying a gun but he didn’t want the unnecessary noise. The two sprinted, Simon was just trying to lose the man chasing him. Simon turned left at an intersection and Diego followed, As simon was looking back to check if he was putting distance between himself and Diego he ran into a group of men. He turned his collision into a stumble and ended up facing the men he had crashed into as well as the gaining Diego. One thing stuck out about the men, they were all gang members telling from the tattoos they had as well as the colored bandanas they had on them. One of the gang members who did not get knocked down by Simon pulled an old pistol from his waistband, it looked like it could barely function. Diego rushed past the man with the gun a second before he fired. The man with the gun did not hit Simon or Diego, the barrel looked crooked but it made Diego dive to the ground when he heard the gun go off. Diego moved so fluid it was almost unnatural, he somehow closed the gap between him and the gangbanger from the ground and managed to slice the man’s leg open down the thigh. By this time Simon and the rest of the five man gang group were up now, they had pulled out their weapons now. Simon decided to take this opportunity to run but he had to just take a peek at what was happening behind him. Diego was still moving as fluid as water and using the knife way more effectively than the gang members but to be fair one of them looked like they were using a black powder revolver. Diego yanked his knife out of the last one to see that Simon had escaped, he swore in spanish fled the scene himself.