MEMENTO

REGRET.

REGRET.

DAVID

.   .   .

MONDAY

  I am exhausted. I served my country, but this country has no place for the likes of me. I do not belong here. I feel unwanted. I work fifteen hours a day for $60. That's unbelievable. But do I have a choice? No. because this country made sure that we will never be happy, even after we finish serving.

  I left the site early to get some sandwiches and a cup of coffee from a nearby deli. I am paying the cashier, Chad. He has seen me coming here for a year now. Three years because that's how long it's been since I came back. I come here almost every day and Chad gives me some decent discounts. He feels the same way about our country rejecting us. He did not serve, but he still feels that way. Probably because I say it and he want to agree with everything I say. I have no idea if that is a good thing or not. I look out the window on my left and I see a man dressed in all black. Black suit, black tie and black shoes, staring at me. He smirks as he gets inside his car and drives away. Should I be worried of that? But why would someone like that ever approach me? I am a nobody. I grab my sandwich and coffee and I leave.

  I was spared and I have to go home early. My home is in a waste apartment building. Just a small room. I am heading back home, it is night and feels like it is going to pour soon. Luckily my room is just a few minutes away. A car with bright yellow lights is driving behind me, same speed as my walking pace. As soon as I stop, the car comes to a halt. I ignore it and keep walking home. The car is still behind me, it is following me. I stop and turn around. 'What do you want?' I yelled out. The car stops and a man walks out. The bright lights make it impossible to know who the man is. He walks closer and I recognize him as the man from earlier. The one standing and staring at me from outside the Deli. He takes off his pork pie hat 'Hello there, Mister Connors. how do you do?' he speaks.

'I'm sorry, do I know you?'

'Oh, sorry...I am Thomas. And no, you do not know me, yet.'

'Okay? What do you want?'

'I want a small thing from you, a service. let's talk in the car while I drop you at your destination.'

'Sure...' I say as I step inside his car. Am I making a mistake? Maybe but this could be my salvation. This could change my life. I am desperate. He beings to drive away, presumably to my home. 'So, what is it that you want?' I speak.

'Well, I have heard that you are quite the man back in the marines. Impressive record.'

'Yeah, look what it got me.'

'I see that you got screwed by the system, but I can change the for you.'

'How will you do that? Are you a magician?'

'No, of course not. I am just well connected. I need your expertise on the service. you have five hundred confirmed kills. Captain of fifteen covert operations and basically an assassin. That's exactly what I want from you!' he says. Is he asking me to go back to the life that I barely escaped? Going back to killing? Ruining lives? Ruining my own life? No, I will not be a part of this again. I have escaped this, and I am not going back there, no matter what he gives in return. 'Stop the car. Let me get out of here. I do not want to hear anything else you have to say.' I speak in a calm tone. He looks at me and takes a moment before talking. 'Listen to me, you only have to assassinate fifteen targets. They are all wanted criminals. It is not like we are asking you to eliminate normal, working citizens. And we will pay you five hundred thousand dollars with each kill.' I slowly look at him with shock on my face, not because of the amount of the money but because of what he is asking me to do. A persons life is only worth 500K?  unbelievable. 'Why don't you ask others to do your dirty work?'