Payback

Welcome back. You've been by these dark roads before, haven't you ? You've been to Amberville once before. Well, it's been awhile, hasn't it ? And while your life has changed, so too has Amberville.. So welcome back to the land where everyone has a secret and someone's always waiting to get you....

I turned to Jimmy.

"You see, death really isn't an end. It's more like a pit stop in this never ending journey. In fact, some Indian religions really advocate this concept of reincarnation. I read in a book once that, as per their beliefs, after you die, you became all the animals you killed and ate and only after that, move forward to your next major human life. Can you imagine that ? It's so weird. It almost made me turn veggie, no seriously, man, it did... but then I figured, I'd eaten enough chickens and cows that it's gonna be an eternity before the Lord gets around to my next human life, so why bother ? You know ? Better to do good deeds in this life and pray he'll minus a few chicken lives from our register when we get to 'em gates of heaven. That's what I say anyway. That as long as you don't harm anyone unjustly, you're safe in God's books."

Jimmy didn't look good. He seemed pale, infact. I could see a few blood drops dripping of his head. I couldn't make out his expression though, what with him being upside down an' all. That's the problem with hanging people upside down of a rooftop.. you never know if he's smiling or it's an upside down frown.

He looked at me with his lesser swollen eye. " I hope they kill your bitch... I hope she dies writhing in pain ."

I smiled.

His leg loosened it's grip around my hand... or was it vice versa? His face registered shock for just a second as he fell. After that, the rain carried his scream down towards the pavement. It's raining bad out here in Amberville.

It's raining bodies.

I walk down the stairs calmly. By the time I reach the streets, I expect a crowd to be gathered around the body, expressing horror while memorising every gory detail to tell their loved ones the moment they get back home. I'm not disappointed. The crowd's building up as I walk amongst them, lost in the crowd, a fellow voyeur. I get a brief glimpse of Jimmy lying on the crimson stained sidewalk.

He's had better days. The fall's left him in an awkward pose. He looks like that road sign next to the traffic lights that says "Walk Now."

Heh.

Dead Man Walking.

I chuckle at that. It's the first time I've chuckled in days. And immediately, thoughts of Rhonda wash into my shores.

Rhonda. She's my gal. In this city of muck and grime, she's my angel. We'd crossed paths a few times before we first hooked up.. mostly outside Barney's bar where I'd go to spend the evenings and she'd be outside, waiting to pick up a friendly face... any friendly face... for the night. I guess she liked what she saw in me... God only knows what that was... but she came by one night when I was wasted and.. well, you know how the story goes. I took her over to my place, she stayed the night. I figured it was a pity thing, but turned out, like me, she too craved companionship. It actually worked out well for the two of us, despite our obvious differences. She didn't ask me where I was when I came home late, stinking of beer and skank or why I kept overdosing on my medications and I didn't ask her about her past and how many men she'd accompanied home before me. We just accepted each other.. two flawed creatures completing each other.

We were happy.

And then, last night, I came home to find the apartment door kicked in. The punks had torn down the place. The rooms were a mess like a tornado came by to take a whiz... the TV and my one good sofa were gone. And so was Rhonda. I'd like to imagine she put up a strong fight, but she really stood no chance. She's not built for this kind of thing. I don't know what horrors have befallen her in her past, but she turns foetal when confronted with danger or even a raised voice. And now she was in their hands. Whoever they were.

In the last 24 hours, I've been going over my list one by one. The guys most likely to do this to me. The guys with grudges against me. Big list. I've been paying them a visit. They weren't too pleased to see me. Naturally. We exchanged pleasantries. We exchanged words. We exchanged fists.

24 hours later, I'm still walking the streets, a step closer to finding my gal. Jimmy was very cooperative towards the end of our conversation. You know, right before he took flying lessons of the roof top. He gave me an address. Jimmy was a good guy. Who knows, if we'd been able to work out our differences, we could have actually been good friends.

As I head towards my final destination, I pass by the electronics shop... I catch snippets from the local news channel. "Suspect is reported to be an ex-policeman who was unceremoniously discharged following what officials described as 'bad conduct'. He is considered armed and mentally unstable. Anyone seeing this man should contact the police at this number immediately..."

I look at the screen.

I smile.

"Heh." I mumble to myself. "They got a pretty good pic of me."

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