Mafiosos: A Debt to Pay

Part 1: In The Beginning...

The sun had set, but the night was just beginning for most of the residents of New York. The night sky was a deep, dark orange and black color, reflecting the hellish glow of the city. Earth, once a land of green and life, was now a hellscape of fire and death. In 1917, during the Great War, the apocalypse had begun. Demons had come up from below, and scoured the Earth, laying waste to many cities and countries.

Humans, however, much like the cockroach, are extremely hard to kill, nearly impossible to wipe out. Out of the chaos rose a new way of life, one where the world was run by mobsters and gangs. Some of these gangs were only humans, some only demons, and some with a mix of the two. The two species learned to coexist, to benefit from each other, to advance each other's sinful desires and lusts. The most powerful gang was run by Lucifer himself, based in New York. It is also here in New York where Reggie Williams and Oscar Dunningham found themselves after a night of hard drinking and gambling.

Reggie and Oscar were thrown out of the bar they had been enjoying themselves in. They'd been planning on staying the night, but after some bad rounds of blackjack and a few rather poorly dealt hands of poker, their money was gone. The four-armed and hairy demon that had thrown the two outside straightened his overcoat walked back in. Reggie picked himself up and helped Oscar to his feet. They were both humans, with Reggie being the younger of the two.

Reggie was lanky with shaggy black hair, and was wearing a black suit with an overcoat draped around his shoulders. He looked to be about in his mid twenties. Oscar was slightly fat with neatly combed, short brown hair, and looked to be more in his thirties. He brushed off his brown suit and looked at Reggie.

"I reckon we'd be best served to go somewhere else for our liquor'n' gambling, eh Reggie?", Oscar said with a grin. "It's a shame, too. I was startin' to like that four armed fella."

"It's not my fault the dealer gave me a bad hand!", Reggie said defensively.

"Don't work yourself up, we kin find a better place then that," Oscar said as he walked towards their car.

"We might as well turn in, we've pressed our luck for the night," Reggie replied. 

The alley they had parked in was empty, aside from the passed out bar patron laying down a few steps away. Trash littered the alley, and the dim lights the streetlamps put off combined with the orange haze of the sky was enough to illuminate the entire area. It was like this most places, or either exactly the opposite. Some places would be empty and desolate, filled with reminders of the past Earth, or crowded and noisy, with the excitement, and sometimes horrors, of the new Earth.

Reggie drove the car out of the alley, and into one of New York's busy streets. Traffic laws were routinely ignored, however most drivers followed the basic rules of the road they had known before the apocalypse in order to keep the streets usable. The bigger New York gangs would often make sure some laws were followed, as long as they were laws they liked.

Quickly Reggie and Oscar came to the bustling heart of the city, where many demons and humans alike stayed. The area was quickly becoming overcrowded, and soon the city's borders would begin expanding, spreading the evils contained in it. Reggie turned into a small motel, overshadowed by the huge tower dominating the center of the city.

The tower was where Lucifer and his top men stayed, along with those forced to do his dirty work. Many of those who served Lucifer were those that lost gambles with him; he was a dealmaker and a gambler, the same as many other demons. When the end of the world began, many humans made dirty deals with these demons to stay alive, to avoid judgment for just a while longer. Only those who were unfortunate enough to have to face Lucifer made deals with him, and one by one, they paid the price.

The tower's shadow was a constant reminder to Reggie and Oscar that they had made a deal with the dark one, Lucifer himself. Both of them knew that one day he would come calling to collect on their debts. They just had to pray that it wasn't any day soon.

As the car parked in the decrepit lot, a flashing neon sign in the window of the motel read "MOTEL-HELL, THE BEST MOTEL AROUND". The cracked brick walls and dirty windows suggested otherwise, but a home was a home, no matter how many times the windows were shattered at night by stray bullets.

Reggie and Oscar got out of the car and walked to the front desk in the dim lobby. The figure behind the desk appeared to be a young human woman, except for the forked tongue that would occasionally dart out of her mouth and her thin, slit-like pupils, and the greenish tint to her long black hair and skin.

"Well, you two finally made it back. I don't sssupose you made any money from gambling to pay the rent," the woman said with a slight hiss.

"Don't worry, we didn't lose it all, Bonnie," Reggie said with a smile. He pulled a wad of dollar bills and some gold coins out of his pocket and tossed it towards the desk. Quicker than Reggie could react, Bonnie had shot out and snatched the money from the air.

"Hmm, there'sss some gold denaria in here," Bonnie said, examining the gold coins. "These will cover your rent for the next few weeks. I just hope you didn't kill too many people trying to get them."

"Why Bonnie, we would never steal!" Reggie replied mockingly.

"We just gave them there coins a better home, thas all," Oscar said innocently.

Reggie and Oscar walked out of the lobby and to their rooms. Oscar's room was right next to Reggie's, and they said their goodbyes as they parted ways for the remainder of what could be called night in the ever darkness of the world.

Reggie closed his room's door and walked over to his dresser. He pulled a faded picture out of the top drawer and stared at it longingly. In the picture, a younger Reggie by about five years could be seen hugging a pretty woman. They both were smiling and looked liked happy. Reggie remembered having the picture taken, a year before the apocalypse had begun.

"I wish we could have that moment back, Sylvia," Reggie murmured. He carefully slid the picture back into the top drawer and walked over to his bed. He kicked off his worn but clean shoes and laid down, hoping to dream of old times, before he had lost the love of his life.