March 26, 1994

Tyler also is thinking that it would be ridiculous to go out tomorrow. But in fact, Tyler hasn't been able to clear his mind from haunting thoughts without alcohol.

After the incident happened, he drowned himself in alcohol to forget everything, or at least, not to feel the pain anymore. That was bad, because he almost became addicted to the burning alcohol in his stomach. Since then, he hasn't been drinking at all.

So, you can't blame him for being afraid to drink ever again. It would also distract him from his prior mission.

He stands up and grabs the medallion and opens it. He looks at the picture and smiles lightly. He knows he is close.

He hears his phone ring.

He didn't have a phone at first, it was useless. He didn't like talking to a person without being able to see them.

His friend Sye, though, bought him one because he thought it would be 'handy' to 'keep his contacts'. The point is, Tyler doesn't have a lot of contacts. He tries to keep his 'friend circle' as small as possible. That way, he could focus more on his mission and wouldn't put himself or others in danger.

So far, the only contact on his phone is Sye.

He picks up his phone and accepts the call but doesn't speak. He always waits until Sye speaks, because you never know who would speak through Sye's phone.

He is a bit paranoid, but who wouldn't be in his situation? He can't take risks.

"Tyler?" Tyler heare Sye's voice through his phone.

"Yes?"

"Ah, it's you. Good. I've got a case for you to clean. You coming?"

"Okay," Tyler says and ends the call. He grabs his coat and necklace before walking out of his apartment and walking down the stairs.

Sye is like a person who appears to have a lighter when you try to smoke but you don't have a lighter yourself. He appears to be a very nice man, and makes you believe that he helps you out, while he actually is putting you into danger. That's actually exactly what Sye is like. But, unfortunately, Tyler doesn't know that. But we'll get to that later.

Tyler walks down the streets of little Italy, and finally arrives at a shady, but cozy looking bar.

"Tyler!" the man approaches him. He had brown eyes, long eyelashes and short, brown hair. He had a short beard. Tyler and Sye look a lot like eachother.

"Sye," Tyler responds.

"I've got a person you gotta clean. Don't worry about the money, though. Never trust the bank. I can be trusted. With me, the money is always safe," he says, like he always does.

"Who is it?" Tyler asks emotionlessly.

"Come in, I'll show you," Sye smirks and led Tyler around the bar, behind the counter, to a secret door. They approach a huge table with all kinds of documents placed on it.

Sye shows Tyler a picture.

"This is the guy. He's always with a couple of friends, you need to watch out for them. Always armed. He uses them as protectors, but the thing is, he'll come here tonight. They want him killed at the end of the day."

"Today? So I need to follow him to his apartment? That's too risky, people might catch me follow him," Tyler mumbles.

"Ah, but Tyler, you're the professional. If there would be one man who could do it, it would be you."

"How much?"

"Fifteen hundred dollars," Sye says with a sly smirk.

Tyler sighs and rubs his temples. "Alright."

➳➳➳

Joshua is sitting on the veranda, his feet dangling in the breezy summer air.

"Bye Abby! Don't screw this up!" he says one last time.

"I gotcha bub! Nothing gonna go wrong," she whispers. Josh smiles and starts climbing out of his window.

His heart is pounding against his rib cage. He feels like this is so wrong, but the adrenaline is totally worth it. It makes him feel free.

He unlocks his bicycle and cycles to the nearest bar. It has a cozy, but wild atmosphere. He smiles to himself, but the nerves are wrecking him. He locks his bike and enters the bar.

It's very hot in there, and pretty crowded. In the back of the bar are couches where rich-looking men are sitting with multiple women and Josh wonders if this was a good idea. He looks over at the bar itself, and the bartender offers him a friendly smile. He walks over to him.

"Hello! What should it be?" He asks. Josh looks around nervously. He never drank alcohol and was very conflicted, because he felt a kind of pressure to buy a drink while he didn't really want to.

"Oh, sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable. You must be new to all of this. I'm Sye," the bartender says with a smile.

"I'm Josh," he replies.

"Hey John! How are you doing?" Sye suddenly calls. Josh looks at him and sees he's already having another conversation.

"How's Maria? And your daughter? How old is the little princess now?" he asks. Josh looks at his right and sees a huge strong-looking man standing next to him, having a conversation with Sye. He turns around quickly and catches a gaze of someone on his left side. It's the guy from before.

"Hey! Haven't we met today?" he asks politely. The man quickly looks away and ignores Josh, but he doesn't give up.

"What's your name?"

"Don't talk to me," he says sternly. "Please," he adds quickly and looks around the bar and his eyes sparkle with something Josh has never seen before when the man catches a group of scary looking men enter the bar.

The man's hand twitched and he turned to the bartender again.

"Tequila," he says loudly. Sye immediately looks at the door and then at the man and then he nods quickly. He starts making a tequila rapidly and puts it on the table in front of the man.

Josh thinks there's obviously something going on, but thinks he should mind his own business. But observing is allowed, right?

He looks over at the door again, and one man walks over to the bar while the others continue walking to the back of the bar.

"Five shots. Keep them coming," he says, before walking away. Sye nods and starts making the drinks. Josh looks at his left again, and the man faced his tequila, but looked at the men from the corner of his eye.

"My name is Josh," Josh says to the man.

"I said don't talk to me."

"Why?"

"I'm busy. Trust me, don't talk to me. It's for your own good."

Tyler looks at the men from the corner of his eyes again. He keeps trying to focus on them, but Josh keeps distracting him.

"Why won't you tell me your name?"

"Shut up, kid. I don't have time for this."

Josh looks hurt, and faced a small glass filled with liquid looking like water.

"Take it, kid. It's from the house," the man behind the bar says. Josh smiles and takes a small sip of it.

"You're supposed to chug it," Tyler explains.

And so Josh did. He got two other ones and was already pretty drunk. Tyler just looked at him without showing any emotion. Then he looked at the group of men he needed to take care of.

"Hey, dude, you wanna hear something funny?" Josh slurs.

"Oh, God."

"So, actually, I'm not even allowed to be here! My parents suck, man. Also forbid me to listen to any non-christian music, they're too strict. Maybe I should just run away or something, then I can do whatever I want."

"Listen, kid, stay with your parents, please. And don't go out without permission. It's probably for a reason," Tyler tells him monotonously.

"No, but, like, you don't know shit about having shitty parents," Joshua says and rolls his eyes.

Tyler laughs.

"I'm pretty sure that I know how shitty parents are. Yours are just protective. Don't be such a brat. You could've got worse."

"Tyler!"

Tyler looks up and sees Sye wide his eyes at him, as if giving him a hint. He turns around and sees the group of men walk out of the bar.

He stands up and dusts off his long jacket and walks out of the bar.

"So your name is Tyler!" Josh yelled after him.

Tyler ignores him, and walks faster, focusing on the men in front of him now. They are 20 metres in front of him or so, and he breaths in the warm summer air.

He took slow, steady breaths, until he felt someone tap his shoulder.

He grabs his knife out of his pocket on instinct, and turns around in a swift motion to choke the stranger and hold the knife against their neck. He looks at the group of men, who didn't seem to notice anything, and dragged the stranger into a small, dark alley.

"Who are you?" he hisses.

"Cool move."

Then he notices the brown curls, the dark brown eyes and the goofy smile of the boy in his arms.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asks him. The boy coughs.

"Stop holding me like this, it hurts."

Tyler lets go and tells him to go home before running out of the alley, to the street. He saw the men walking in the distance, and quickened his pace.

"Tyler is a nice name!" he hears Josh call for him. One of the men turns around suspiciously and says something to the other men before they walk into another dark alley on the left.

"Fuck."

He puts his hand in the inside of his jacket and holds the gun tightly. He played several scenes in his head, all about what could happen.

He could just walk straight forward, and pass the guys, but he would risk his own life, because they could start shooting if he would.

If he would just run into the alley, well, it would be very messy.

He decides to just walk along the alley, and use Josh as a cover up. Not as a sacrifice, but as a part of his disguise.

"Oh, Josh, come here, let me take you home," he suddenly said to Josh and opens his arms for him. The boy smiles and stumbles to him.

"I'm so fucking drunk," he laughs, as if it's the funniest thing ever.

"I know," Tyler laughed and played along. They started walking forward.

"Alright, where do you live again?"

"I don't remember," Josh pouts. Tyler groans intently and smiles kindly at Josh.

"Well, I'm going to take you to my house then, and you'll be able to go home tomorrow morning."

"Sweet! I hope my parents won't mind."

They walk along the dark alley and Tyler keeps his gaze on the lanterns in front of him that light the street, still trying to keep a conversation with Josh.

When the alley was out of their sight, Tyler told Josh to keep talking and walk straight forward. Joshua asked why and Tyler shot him a warning look, before turning around and sneaking slowly to the entrance of the dark alley.

He was on the corner of the alley and took a deep breath before looking at his right - into the alley - and he caught the gaze of one of the men. He called for the others and they turned around, after Tyler turned away, to the street again.

Well, it's gonna be messy after all.

He loaded his gun and held it against his chest before turning to the alley again and shooting three guys in the chest. One man tries shooting him, but Tyler turns away swiftly again, and then turns to him to shoot him in his stomach. Then he shoots him in his back, through his ribs, through his heart. A puddle of blood forms.

Then he turns to the most important man.

"Ah, so you're Frank, right?" Tyler asks monotonously.

"Who do you work for?"

"None of your business."

Frank pulled a gun out of his jacket and almost shot Tyler, if it wasn't for Tyler's reflexes. Tyler shot him in his stomach after that.

"You're really fucking stupid."

And then he shot him in his neck.

He first makes a picture of the bleeding man with a small camera and then he turns around to walks into the street again, avoiding stepping into the blood puddles, so he won't leave tracks. When he turns to his left, he bumps into Josh.

"I told you to keep walking forward, let's go," Tyler says, hoping that he didn't notice anything because of the alcohol.

"G-get away from me! You murderer!"

Fuck.

"Shut up, please, just, go home."

"I don't know where my house is, but I'd rather stay here in the streets than with you!"

"You know that you'll probably get raped or shot or whatever, right?"

"And how do I know that you won't rape me or shoot me?" he asked.

"I'm not even gay- geez, you're being such a smartass. I'm surprised you can be, you're fucking wasted. Let's just get some sleep, okay? I'm sure you wont remember shit in the morning."

They hurriedly walk all the way to Tyler's apartment, and got Josh to sleep in the bed easily (since Josh was very exhausted), while Tyler sleeps on the couch. Sitting right up, eyes half open.

God, he hoped Josh wouldn't remember anything in the morning.

☾☾☾

A/N boi i love this plOt.