I'm Not Special, I'm Just Unlucky

Chapter 10 - The Sicarii

Chris Pine as Tommy Smith

"...fakers gonna fake, fake, fake. Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake. Shake it off! Shake it off!"

I couldn't help but laugh at this moment. I could already imagine the headline on the front page for tomorrow's paper being, 'Taylor Swift's new replacement: Duke Hunter!'.

Blake scrunched his eyebrows and covered his face with his hands, "Hunter! Shut! The! Hell! Up! I swear, I will shove my hand down your throat and shove the other one up your ass. Then, I meet them in the middle and pump your heart like a fucking accordion!"

By now, everyone, except Blake, was drowning in laughter, especially Duke. "Come on man, lighten up!"

If it wasn't for Shen, Blake would've been charged for first degree murder. "Stop holding me back man!" Blake shouted trying to land a punch on Duke while Shen held our techie back.

Duke laughed, "Alright, I'll stop singing! But hey, you gotta admit, I sounded heavenly."

Blake sat back and straightened his black leather jacket, "There was nothing heavenly about that..."

"We're there!" Samantha shouted notifying all of us.

The laughter in the van immediately died down and seriousness took over. Halcyon City looked about the same as before; maybe a bit more pleasant judging by the fact that taller buildings filled the starry sky with bright lights, parks decorated with flowers and greenery attracted everyone's attention, and everything looked neat. However, as we ventured deeper into the city, the looks on the outside had deceived us.

"Jesus..." Eva muttered through her breath. The streets of once glamorous Halcyon City was now a junkyard. Trash littered the streets; street lamps were dimly lit; squads of policemen patrolled the street which was definitely saying something about the crime rate.

"What did you say the address was Shen?" Samantha asked eyeing every corner suspiciously.

"87 Grover Avenue."

Samantha nodded and continued driving. As we neared the location, there were less and less police patrolling. There were less and less people as well which could mean two things; they all went to sleep, or, we're in the bad part of town.

I growled at a preschool that we just drove by. The walls of the school were vandalized and decorated with profound words. Through the glass, I could see a woman giving a man a blowjob. The playground was rusty; the building was deteriorated; everything was lifeless. This wasn't just any preschool, it was my preschool. The one I attended when I was five. This city was lifeless. I scrunched my eyebrows in frustration. My city was lifeless. It was beautiful years ago. Now, it was a hellhole.

"This must be it." Samantha announced to everyone as she stopped the car. The first thing she did was turn off the headlights. Smart.

The streets were devoid of life. The only thing living was us. Even the light posts were blacked out. In front of us was a Romanesque-style church. The thick walls and buttresses exaggerated the intimidating dark and gloomy mood the church was designed to give off. The small windows made it look as if the whole church was a fortress. The fence which surround the church was torn down and the walls of the holy palace was scarred with graffiti. The whole building, just like this part of the city, was slowly rotting away. I squinted and focused my vision at the church's windows. Despite the darkness, I scouted some movement, "Movement on the top floor."

"I can't see anything." Duke complained.

Before I could respond, a bright beam of light blinded me. A loud rumble suddenly zoomed past the van followed by several Chevy sedans.