Guns and Roses

Roses

-Simon-

Jake followed me out of the building, trying to keep up with my pace as I balanced my briefcase and keys in my hands. I emailed Mr.Goodworth about my absence for the meeting this afternoon, but he wasn't too stressed about me going to the meeting. Jake and I were in the elevator descending to the bottom floor.

I kept opening and closing my palms, they were getting colder and I could feel some ice started to form on the tips of my fingers. I watched the numbers on the elevator continue to go down and I started to warm up my hands on my pants. I checked again and saw that the ice had melted right as the elevator doors opened up to the lobby.

Jake stayed silent behind me as we continued forward to the car. As we passed the front desk, one of the older ladies called out a goodbye, "Have a nice day, Mr.Bracker."

I didn't have time to respond back as I had too much on my mind to respond.  Jake whispered in my ear, "You're acting weird, Simon, tone it down a bit."

I glared back at Jake even though I knew he had a point. I called out before exiting the building, "Good day!" I sat for a moment at the door, Jake walking past me as I held the door open. I saw her acknowledge me and I continued forward, my entire mood changing back to what's at hand. "What's the address?" I asked Jake.

We walked through the cement parking garage, my anxiety able to be masked by the coldness. Jake spoke quietly, "Does your firm not know about you being a Special?"

"Shut up." I spat. Jake was having this streak of ignoring me today and it was getting on my nerves very quickly.

We walked all the way to the black suv that was parked parallel on the busy rush hour street before anyone had said something. I entered the drivers side of the car since it was mine to begin with. I tried to find some more patience with him, so I asked again, "What's the address?"

Jake didn't hesitate to tell me this time, "1721 Newark Dr." The suburbs. I started the car and started heading that way.

The ride was relatively quiet trying to maneuver through rush hour traffic. I don't know when we'd arrive at the address but we were making our way. I noticed how quiet Jake was from my outburst in the parking building and decided to give him a break. The compromise in the cartel began to stress me out and I blew up on him unfairly. As we came to a stoplight,  I answered his question, "No, the firm doesn't know I'm a Special. Only Mr.Goodworth."

Jake reanimated at the answer and asked a follow-up, "Why don't they know? They don't ever ask why It's sooo cold?" He exaggerated.

I shrugged as I hit the gas, "It's always cold in the office. No one really notices things like temperatures in different rooms." My phone buzzed in my pocket and I quickly glanced at the message. It was from Andy.

"Did Jake tell you what's going on?"

I quickly typed back.

" Yes. On the way to his 2nd hideout rn."

I came back to the conversation in the car since I had a few questions on my own. "Does your work know you're a Special?"

He shrugged, "I mean, not really. They just know I'm effective at my job." He sounded pretty sombre about it. No matter how often me and my brother would go at it, I could read him like a book. He always felt lonely about us being the only Specials we could find. But I couldn't blame them for blending into the crowd. Normal humans can be pretty abrasive towards us when they first find out. They see us as freaks of nature and inhuman, so it makes things a little distant relationship-wise with them.

I reached up and unhinged a fake top I installed as a compartment. I had to feel around for a little bit before I felt the casing and pulled it out of the ceiling and down in my brother's lap. He was a little startled by the sudden impact, ripped from his thoughts, but once he realized what it was, he started to help me get prepared too. We were about five minutes out from the address.

He pulled out the first gun, a .45 glock, his favorite. He checked the barrel and see if he had used all the bullets in the round, but I remember he reloaded last time we pulled them out last week. He placed it on his lap and handed me my personal favorites. Two .37's. He checked the first one and quickly clicked barrel back in place, handing it to me. We had finally broken from the city and we were on our way to a nearby neighborhood. I slipped the first .37 in a leg holster at the bottom of my calf I always wore. It fit perfectly and it was out of sight. The other gun, however, was placed in my hand, ready to use.

We pulled up to the house and parked on the side of the road. It was small and out of the way of everything, hidden from the sight of the rest of the spacious neighborhood. No one wealthy lived here. The lawn hadn't been mowed in a long while and the shutters on the house were starting to lean and threatening to fall. I didn't see any lights on. He might not even be here.

"You think he's even here?" I asked Jake who was admiring his glock again.

He shrugged, " It doesn't look like it but we can't take any chances. He's gotta go. You know that."

"Yea, I know that." We both sat looking at the house again, creating a plan to tackle this mission. We both seemed to synchronized our thinking and nodded at the same time. If I wasn't so focused, I could laugh at us. We'd be doing this for too long.

"Ready." We both said at the same time.

We got out the car and held our ammunition close to our persons, making sure no one was around and would be worried about calling the police on us. I silently nodded my head towards Jake and the back of the house. He acknowledged and started making his way to the back of the house. I slowly made my way to the front, paying close attention to any movement in the windows and anything else I can see. I made it to the front porch and placed my hand on the weathered down doorknob, trying it. It was locked, but not secure. Taking a deep breath, I threw all my weight towards the door and it gave in rather easily, splitting into two pieces. It was a flimsy door.

I quickly raised the .37 and swept the room, surveying the empty living room and open kitchen. There's was no one. I relaxed a little and observed the mess left on the coffee table in front of a static tv. The place was trashed and looked abandoned. He wasn't here.

A large shadow moved quickly across the doorway that led to the hallway and I reacted quickly, my hand raising up and aiming towards the doorway.

A gunshot rang out.