KILLER CROSS OVER

Chapter 05

IT DIDN’T TAKE me much time to adjust to the normal life. I was a bit aggressive as a kid but the Catastrophe’s training, made me different. I was rational all the time. I dealt well with people around me and I found the normal life very interesting. Relax. That is something that I never felt in my life before. I didn’t even know what relaxation was, until that day I came out of Catastrophe. I loved my life out of the territory so much but also at the same time… I missed the adventure and the excitement I felt when I was there.

I missed the fights we had, the trainings I went through each and every day, the nights I spent guarding and defending the territory with Levine and yes… I missed the nights of little talks I had with my dad and my big brother. Then again… being a genius in adapting to the environment from the very beginning, I adapted to that life as well and adjusted to it and started loving it like nothing.

That life was normal and was not strange to me when it should have been. Soon, I started working in a cafeteria where I got paid well. That was enough for me to live a peaceful life. I rented a house where I could accommodate myself and I found my neighbours helpful and cool.

I never actually used the money dad had given to me. I could live a fairly good life with what I earned and what I wanted is that amazing normal life; a life that I lived with the money I earned and a life that I could go through the challenges that normal people faced. Most importantly… that money in the envelope was the only memory I had of them with me. So, actually I couldn’t make up my mind to use it. A deep stab went through me each and every time I looked at that envelope.

About a year passed. I turned 18 and by then, I was a quite normal citizen in the city but still I had a few traits with me which I bought from Catastrophe. I still wore clothes of only the three primary colours; black, midnight blue or white. When I worked in the café, I usually wore white because then I felt like Levine was by me. I was still quite observant. I understood and noticed even the slightest changes in the environment and people and that bought me extreme favours. I could tell the slightest behavioural changes of the people around me and that made it easy for me to understand them.

I can still feel the energy and happiness I gained by living a so normal life back then and… I can’t believe how it became so dark. I’m 44 now and I’m a person gone through a lot but still, at the age of 18, I was just a normal kid.

That day, I was on my way to throw away some garbage bags of the café. That path for the garbage bins was so lonely and trust me, no one dared to go through that once the dusk arrived. Not even me. It was that scary.

But that day, it was the damn noon with the sun shining on the top of the sky and I was whistling down the pathway with the two garbage bags in my two hands swinging all the way.

First. It was just the sound of two footsteps; my own, but then… It sounded like four. My footsteps stopped. The other two did too. I remember inclining my head unintentionally. I was so sure I heard the sound of four footsteps and what is meant by the stopping of those two with mine is, the owner of the other feet didn’t want me to know about him. I did not look back or did not show any difference. Just scratched my head and continued walking.

There it went again. The sound of four feet thudding the ground. I stopped again. Suddenly. They stopped too but… seconds later. Then I knew I was not daydreaming.

I looked back. Slowly. I wanted to give time for that person to hide. What I wanted was not him, but what I wanted was to look back and get to know by myself how many places were there for him to hide himself and how much time will it take for him from each position to reach for me so that later, I could get a calculation of his movements from the sound of the footsteps. I quickly calculated what I wanted. I turned front again and kept on walking. My next stop was near the garbage bins at the dead end of the path.

As I opened the garbage bins, I heard the footsteps again. Yes. He was coming. Closer and closer.

Just as I released the garbage bags from my hand, I felt a wind behind my head. As soon as the bags hit the bottom of the garbage bin, a gun, clicked behind my head. I didn’t move and acted like I didn’t feel anything at all.

“DON’T MOVE!”

said the voice.

That was enough for me to picture the location of the person in my mind and in a fraction of a second, my right hand ended up in the pulses of his wrist of the hand which he held the gun making the hand go numb and my left hand caught the gun falling off his hands. Just as I got it on my hands, I hit so hard on the stomach of the man to which his body drew away from me and when he went backwards, I punched his face and his stomach again and… he ended up lying with his palms on the ground as his only support.

Basics of self-defence.

He was looking straight at me while my gun was pointed at him. It was a police guard. A City Policeman; who was in charge for the duty of city violence and theft.

Then he laid on the ground, his eyes big and scared.

“What do you want? Why are you following me?”

I asked my voice steady and straight.

“You…you…”

he paused between his words and he looked like he was shocked to see me. I saw his hand slowly reaching his back pocket even though his eyes were widely fixed on me. I knew what was coming.

“That…”

he tried to say something but he didn’t complete, instead his hand took hold of another gun. At once, two guns clicked the bullets into place and milliseconds earlier than him, I pulled the trigger and the bullet pierced right through the larynx of his neck; piercing a hole.

His eyes stayed still, widely opened and dead shot and his fingers were still wrapped around the trigger ready to fire. But then… his hands fell to the ground and his fingers loosened up, no longer clutching the gun and in the next second, his head went thud on the ground. He… he laid dead; oozing blood out of his mouth.

I did that out of panic and yes, I regretted what happened as soon as I saw the man lying on the floor.

“Who’s there?”

I heard a deep male voice from the distant and I heard the sound of lot of footsteps running in our direction. For a second, I thought of running away and my mind quickly ran through the scenario again and confirmed to me that I didn’t actually touch that guy with my fingerprints and I knew pretty well even though the wall of the dead end is high I could still jump over it in seconds if I wanted to. But then again…. I felt like I shouldn’t.

I stood in front of the body. With the gun clenched in my hands. There was only one thing ringing on my mind at that moment. It was not whether I killed a person or whether I’m going to get caught and end up in the prison.

I broke it. The promise I gave to Levine.

City Police always go rounds in groups and that deep male voice belonged one of his men. Soon his group appeared and two of them tightly grabbed me and cuffed me without a second thought and I just stood letting them do that. I knew I would be treated exceptionally well at the Police and I was so sure that they were going make me regret my existence for killing one of their men and what was most interesting, I was caught red-handed.

But it felt good than running away.

All in all, I ended up in the prison cell, just as I turned 18.