11:45 AM June 28

       Looking down at his bandaged leg concerned Simon, it was stained with dried blood. Simon was afraid to see underneath the bandage, he did nonetheless. It wasn’t infected but it looked like hell. Simon tried to walk on it, he could but it hurt. Simon fought through the pain as he walked to the bathroom to shower and get more bandages. After patching up his wound Simon got dressed and popped two Vicodin. Simon looked around his suite, the tv was still on and there were messages on his phone. Simon played them, Mr.Banks’ voice came through.
“Simon Penelope has been freed, she is giving statements to the police. The press conference I have set up will be tomorrow at 12:30 at the police station, as her boyfriend I feel you should be there to support her.”
It was sent yesterday, FUCK Simon thought. As quickly as he could Simon rushed to his car, he forgot the interior was still covered in blood. Frantically trying to think through the haze of the Vicodin that was kicking in Simon remembered something. Simon walked over to a closed garage unit and entered in the code, the door opened to reveal a red motorcycle. Simon bought it right after college, his mother always said they were deathtraps, he never fully got the hang of riding, after his parents died he never brought it out again. Simon couldn’t find the helmet so he went without one, using the kickstart was murder on his leg. He made it to the press conference with five minutes to spare. Simon tried not to limp as Mr.Banks welcomed him. He sat Simon down right next to Penelope, Simon forgot how she reacted when he last saw her.
“Hey I got your note I am so sorry for that night, I shouldn’t have snapped at you, I’m lucky to have a girlfriend like you.”
Penelope was confused, didn’t he read the note? She was about to break the news to him but couldn’t bring herself to do it, that’s why she left the note. 
“It’s alright” was all she could say
Before Simon could respond Mr.Banks yelled to the crowd of journalists.
“Alright, let's get started”
The questions were mostly for the police chief and Penelope. Simon just let the painkillers kick in, he had to look like he wasn’t floating away internally though. Simon did catch one question directed to Penelope.
“Ms.Banks, did you have confidence in the police force to free you?”
“Absolutely, and they would have safely negotiated my release had that masked maniac not ruined those men’s life.”
“Do you think that maniac’s actions were justifiable?”
“There is no circumstance where vigilante justice is necessary, we have police for a reason.”
As if reading Simons facial expressions of disagreeance the reporter directed a question at Simon.
“Sir, do you agree with your significant other’s stance”
Everyone turned their attention to the high Simon.
“Uh, I 100% agree, whoever this maniac is needs to be hunted and imprisoned for disrespecting the law, the police force, and this fine city!” 
Simon’s fake passion seemed to pass the test. For the rest of the event Simon just let himself float away, he thought he saw something important but in his current state he could not put his finger on it. Maybe it was just the drugs but he swore there was something, maybe a few things that were important but his efforts gave way to the painkillers.

After the conference was over, Penelope went with Simon to her house, she still lived at home. The house was enormous, Penelope’s room in particular was huge. Mr.Banks was at work and Penelope’s mother was off screwing the pool boy in the maintenance shed, everyone knew but nobody cared enough to tell Mr.Banks but deep down he had a good idea of what was happening. Simon and Penelope talked like when they first met, it felt like something, it made both of them remember what they saw in each other. As the summer sun painted the sky orange and pink Simon and Penelope laid in her bed and slept, feeling good about the world.


12:00 PM July 1 

Simon was dressed in all black wearing sunglasses. The funeral music always made Simon think way too much about life. All of Eddie’s family was there, the Moretti’s were a tightly woven clan, SImon was surprised they let the cops handle the ceremony. The bar they went to after the ceremony was filled with people trading stories about Eddie. Simon Was in the back not talking to anyone in fear of being noticed. From afar Simon could make out a few of the important figures, there was Eddie’s mother, brother, and sister over in the corner still with tears in their eyes. Sitting at the bar was a line of cops, one of them was the detective who interviewed Mr.Banks. In another corner was a group of Eddie’s old girlfriends talking about how he brought all of them to the same crappy diner for their first date. Once Simon had felt that he had made his peace with the death he left, unfortunately the detective was also leaving at the same time, he opened the door for Simon. Praying that he would not be recognized Simon rushed out of the bar. The detective did recognize Simon but he didn’t care, he had something to do. Simon walked to his motorcycle, as he was about to start it up when a hand grabbed Simon. It was Eddie’s sister.
“Yeah?” Simon said 
“You didn’t think I saw you?”
“You’re his sister, right?”
“I am, it means so much that you came, I know about your partnership with my brother”
“He told you!” Simon said trying not to sound shocked
“Yes and I was wondering if I could get your phone number.”
“Look I have a girl-” Simon was cut off by her laughter
“I’m not asking like that, I have a friend who might need some help”
“Look...I’m sorry for your loss but I am not a gun for hire.”
“Shame... because I might be able to help you out”
“I don’t need anything”
“Really, not even the little pills you and my brother were so fond of”
Simon paused, he was starting to run low.
“I’m listening”
“I so happen to work at a pharmacy, and I know that I can sneak a number of pills to you every month.”
“I’m not some damn junkie”
“I never said you were, now that number please”
Simon gave her his number and sped off without realizing someone else was watching him.

Once home Simon got down to it and did some work, he took the duffel bags out of his car and got some stain remover on his car’s upholstery. It only kind of worked but at least people would not call the cops when they saw him driving. Once he got done with that he actually opened all of the duffel bags, Simon was surprised to see the brown powder in two of the bags, heroin? Really shitty cocaine? Simon couldn’t tell, good thing he knew a guy who would be able to tell what it was and how much it was worth.

Bobby spent the past couple days holed up in his apartment wired on the last of his kingpin supply. He always kept his gun pointed at the door, waiting for the cops to bust in, they never did. The kingpin did not help him think straight, he had hallucinations of Daniel withering away right in front of him, it was new for kingpin. He waited at the trash can for a couple hours, the messenger dropped off a suitcase full of cash, Bobby did not open it in fear of there being a dye pack in it. Bobby was almost to the warehouse when he saw that it pretty much became a police station, after that he just tried to disappear. He got a call from the morgue to identify Ken, he never showed up. After he felt like the cops or his PO would come looking for him passed, Bobby took some time to apply for jobs and visit Daniel in the hospital. Bobby was intent of turning his life around.

2:00 AM July 2

Simon pulled over on the side of the street, he was on the border of Chinatown. People just called it Chinatown, it was really made up Hmongs, the Chinese inhabitants had their own subsection of this place. Still everything had the authentic Chinese look, as Simon walked through the streets he remembered the gang wars between the Asian groups, it ultimately led to the killing of all the korean families in the area. The Chinese and Hmong then made a shaky alliance and learned to live next to each other. Simon came up to his destination, Wong’s Oriental Food, Simon entered. He walked up to the front desk, a slim old Asian man stood behind the desk.
“A table for how many?” the old man asked
“I’m here for the crispy duck”
“Ah, I see. This way.”
The old man led Simon through the restaurant, it looked exactly how every other Asian restaurant looked but something about this place felt a bit more real. The two ended up in in a back room with two doors leading to other rooms.
“Go through the door on the right” the old man instructed Simon
“Okay”
The old man walked back to his post. Simon walked through the left door, the right door led to a freezer. They always told Simon and anyone who asked for the “crispy duck” right away to go through the door on the right. They did that as to trap police informants who somehow knew what phrase to say at the right time. Opening the left door Simon saw his guy, Brian. Brian was a chinese guy who went to highschool with Simon, while Simon was in college Brian got into the drug hustling game. Upon seeing that it was Simon, Brian smiled.
“Hey white rice!”
“Hi Brian” Simon said laughing remembering his old nickname.
“What brings you to my palace today?”
“I’m not sure what this is” Simon pulled a small plastic bag of the brown powder onto the table Brian was sitting at. Brian opened up the bag, got a line of the powder out and snorted it. Brian’s eyes widened for split second.
“Yeah, yep, ahuh, yes, this is the new shit!” Brian exclaimed
“What exactly is it?”
“Kingpin, new designer shit”
“How much is it worth?”
“How much you got?”
“Two duffel bags worth”
“The most I can pay is 15,000 for it”
“That works, when and where should I drop it off”

September 15

The days went by, everything seemed to be smooth in the personal lives of everyone. Simon laid low and waited for the “masked maniac” manhunt blew over, some people stood up for the actions of the “city sentinel”, but most publicly condemned the actions. Simon took time to let his leg heal and to learn how to ride his motorcycle, he remembered why he wanted one in the first place. Boxes full of painkillers arrived on Simon’s doorstep monthly, it helped his supply. Penelope went back to her life after being taken. Her affair with Demarkus kept going, he seemed to get impatient with Penelope not leaving Simon by the day, didn’t stop him from having sex with her. Things were going good between her and Simon, certainly better than how things were before, he seemed motivated again. She noticed that he cleaned his apartment, he was clean shaven. Demarkus was still the one she loved though. Bobby got a job as a night janitor at a car dealership, he was giving it an honest go, whatever money he had left went to Daniel, but it still was not enough. Every time Bobby thought about pulling off a job he just thought back to how the last job got Daniel’s father killed. So for now, Bobby was just doing what he could.

The office was bustling with people talking and keyboards furiously typing. Interns were running around with trays of coffee, editors were chewing out columnists. In the middle of all the chaos was Kimer Mathis, a reporter for the Crestview Tribune. She always had an interest for truth, she developed almost a sixth sense when it came to lying, Kimber always seemed to know when someone was lying. Kimber entered an editor’s office, behind a desk sat a short Greek man, Mr.Ambrosia. 
“What have you got for me this time?” Mr.Ambrosia inquired
“I want to do a piece on the maniac murders”
Ambrosia laughed.
“That is the definition of old news, I won’t have it”
“There has been new evidence, witnesses have come forward linking the murderer to the death of Gregory Hicks.”
“So?”
“So, they never found him, if I were an average person I would want updates.”
“I still don’t like it, what insight can these new witnesses give you that the cops haven’t?”
“I’m planning on talking to Gerald Mcnamara, a victim of the maniac, he says he is ready to finally talk to the press, I’m sure the inquirer will send someone to talk to him.”
Ambrosia sighed.
“Fine, get outta here” 
Kimber let a smile grow on her face as she walked out of the office.


While Simon had generally cleaned himself up and laid low, he was still paranoid about being found out, he thought he kept seeing the same car parked outside the building for a couple days, one day it was just gone, Simon then figured it was nothing. He was also paranoid Penelope would find something in his apartment that would raise suspicions. He still spent his days watching TV, drinking beer, and working out. His leg was feeling better, he was able to run and put weight on it again. While Simon was hiding all of his gear, he also acquired some new stuff from Brian, a kevlar vest, incendiary rounds, and some grenades. Simon found that it was better to not ask where they got this stuff. Simon had been keeping himself busy, staying inside his building was maddening. Simon began taking short walks around the block, not too long in fear of being seen by a cop, Simon didn’t know how much info the cops had. After a good amount of time passed Simon felt safe to walk around town again. He started taking Penelope to nice restaurants, to the park, just out. Simon liked to think that she had changed after the kidnapping, but deep down he knew that he was the one who had changed. That thought scared him, he was better off not killing, maybe he wasn’t needed, was he ever needed? Simon tried not to answer those questions, there was one thing he couldn’t ignore, he was happy. 

Penelope adjusted back to life fairly well. Simon was acting different, maybe the feeling of not having her made him realize what she really meant to him. She got a few small time acting gigs since she got back, nothing significant but that didn’t stop Penelope from making Simon watch entire movies or shows to see her on-screen for a total of 15 seconds. He didn’t seem to mind, She felt like he was a different man, the sex still wasn’t so great. Everytime she felt unsatisfied she called Demarkus over to her work. He would always tell her his plans for taking her away, giving her the life she deserves, whatever that meant. Demarkus was a two bit gangster, selling cheap throwaway guns, cocaine, meth, you name it. He did a lot of business with off-duty cops, they were his gang’s main weapon against the “chinks” led by Brian. Decades ago when the rivalry started the blacks used the police to either crackdown illegally on the Asian gangs or look the other way when the blacks took swipe at Asian run businesses, a lot of people believe this is what opened the door to the degree of corruption they were at now. They had pushed Brian’s people into a corner and the two have just skirmished long before Brian or Demarkus were born. The nightclub Penelope worked at was a block away from Chinatown, it was not uncommon for Demarkus’ people to fight with Brian’s people outside. This feud ran deeper than anyone really saw at first glance. 

Kimber arrived at the county jail, the main room was filled with lawyers, cops, and convicts all running around and shouting at each other. Kimber made her way past security and took the elevator down to the visiting booths. At the third booth sat Gerald, he looked pretty bad, he had marks and bruises on his face. Kimber had to suppress the feeling of disgust she had. She sat down and picked up the phone and placed her notepad down on the table of the booth.
“Hello Mr.Vaneperen”
“I’m not here for pleasantries, I’m here to get people to see that I’m innocent”
“Alright, let’s get started. Can you describe what you were doing at the park so late on that night?”
“I was looking for my granddaughter”
“I thought she was with your wife”
“When I checked on her room that night I thought she was gone, I checked the park for her”
Kimber wasn’t buying this story but she had no need to press him about these lies, she really needed information about the vigilante but she couldn’t be to forward with her intentions.
“Didn’t they find a pack of condoms and a transcript of you speaking sexually to a minor, about your grandchildren’s age?”
Gerald slammed a hand on his side of the booth.
“That was planted on me, by that monster!”
There we go Kimber thought.
“This “monster”, what did he look like?”
“He was wearing pink shoes like my little Tina wears, probably to fool me. He also had this terrifying mask on, it made him look like a bird.”
“If you aren’t a pedophile, what motive do you think he had?”
“It was a mugging, he stole my wallet. He just tried to frame me so it would look like he was a hero.”
Kimber asked Gerald a few more questions, scribbled down all she needed to know on her notepad and left. Her next goal was to see if she could get an interview with the “masked maniac” himself.

Ashley was sitting in her car, waiting. No real activity for days, it was starting to annoy her. She looked up at the window that belonged to Simon, nothing. She never forgot the days of freshmen year when they dated, it was love in its most simple and pure form, or at least that’s how Ashley remembered it. Simon took her on a grand total of three dates and went to prom with her. She asked him to a Sadie Hawkins dance and Simon’s parent pretty much pushed him to ask her out. Their first date was at a shooting range, Simon was more interested in fixing his stance than her. She was actually terrified of guns, in her eyes they only killed people. But they technically were an item for a good year. After prom Simon felt like he had fulfilled his obligation, he broke up with her claiming that she was just a friend. Then he started to flirt with that slut who was into acting. She learned to deal with it and went on with her life, she focused on her music. That is until she saw the masked vigilante walk out of the house down the road from her, the build was the same, the walk was the same, and the car he got into was the same as Simon. From that point she rushed to her car and followed him back to this apartment complex, it had to be Simon. 

12:00 PM September 18

Simon was sitting on a bench downtown. He had been working out more and even started being able to sleep without the Vicodin. He was enjoying the golden autumn day, the air was crisp and the street was filled with people, just like the last couple of days he had been coming to this very bench. He had just got out of the cigar shop, he got a box full of the cheap ones, the kind Eddie used to smoke. Simon reached for the lighter in his pocket and lit up one of the cigars. As Simon sat there smoking, he asked himself something, was he really happy?

12:00 PM September 23

Simon sat at the same bench. He had done pretty much everything there was to do in town, except go shooting. Simon was still pretty paranoid about going to the range, he heard that undercover cops frequented that place and Simon didn’t want to get recognized, he didn’t even know if they had a profile of his face. All of Simon’s info died with Eddie. There was nothing to do. Sure he could hang out with Penelope but everything that could be said already had been, and Simon didn’t want to talk about current events after how it went last time. While thinking about how sex with Penelope was boring, something happened across the street. A man and a poorly dressed woman were walking down the other side of the street, all of the sudden the woman looked nervous. As a black man wearing a fur coat walking the opposite direction passed them did a double take Simon knew what was happening. A pimp just found out his whore had a boyfriend.  The man who was walking with the lady was punched in the back of the head. The boyfriend then pulled out a gun. Simon unholstered his baton and was running across the street, the pimp pulled a knife out and held it to the lady’s throat. It was a delicate standoff that Simon was just running into. The boyfriend who was so focused on the pimp that he didn’t see Simon running at full speed towards him. The baton came down on the hand holding the gun, in pain the boyfriend dropped the gun, Simon delivered two more strikes to the man’s legs in order to get him on the ground. Once the man was on the ground holding his shins, Simon looked at the pimp.
“You okay?” Simon asked
“Yeah man, I’m glad there's one cracker who can fight” 
The pimp lowered the knife from the girl’s neck and went to shake Simon’s hand. Simon hit him in the jaw. It dropped the pimp, Simon kept hitting him. The pimp’s face was covered in blood when the Whore tried to stop Simon. She pulled him off of her pimp. Simon felt alive, with every swing, hearing the crack of the baton. Simon whipped around and swung the baton at the whore, hitting her in the neck, she fell back. Looking at the scene he created, SImon picked up the boyfriend's gun and ran back to his car parked a few blocks away. Simon realized something as he was running, he wasn’t happy, he was bored and now he knew that doing this sort of thing made him feel alive. This is what made him happy.

September 27

“I don’t have time for this, I have to work” Penelope said over the loud music in the nightclub
“C’mon, I want you…” Demarkus begged
“Look, I can’t just drop everything to be with you”
“Why not? I’d do it for you, I want you to be my number one bitch”
“Things with Simon are getting better, I don’t think I’m going to leave him”
“Why! You were just bought to leave his ass but then you get kidnapped and all the sudden you all cool with him!”
“You know it’s more complicated than that”
Demarkus got up and stormed out of the club. As he was leaving he pulled out his cell phone, he had some important calls to make.

Detective Roberts sat at his desk pretending to do work, this city was beginning to be too much for him. This job had a way of changing people, he had seen rookies go in with the best intentions become hardened and withered by the things they saw in the line of duty. Just the other day some psycho had paralyzed a hooker with a baton and turned a pimps jaw into red mush. Roberts worked his way out of that, instead of being a uniform he upgraded and made the rank of detective. Now he got to talk to rape victims, lock up murderers, and bust the occasional drug ring. Of course he took monetary donations in order to look the other way, there was not many cops who didn’t. At the end of the day though, Roberts knew what was right and wrong. His shift was over, he logged off his computer and said goodbye to the night shift crew. He walked to his car, he shivered at the embrace of the cold autumn air. He started driving, he had a date tonight. Even though he was a cop, he still had to have fun every once in awhile. He stopped at a warehouse, turned off his car and got out. Roberts walked to his trunk, inside was a cloth bundle. He picked it up and went inside, walked up a flight op stairs and entered a freezer room. Hanging from the ceiling was the body of a girl, about 19 years old. Roberts found this girls body on the street one night, he could have called it in but instead brought her here. He opened the cloth bundle to reveal an assortment of knives. He proceeded to cut chunks of flesh off of her body. He had slit the throat and bled her dry earlier. As he removed the slabs of flesh from her body he put them in a plastic bag.
“God do I hate this” he said aloud to nobody.
Roberts stripped the girl clean, he had gotten good at doing this over the years. He untied the body and bagged it up, he threw it in the dumpster. Roberts took the bag of meat and placed it in another bag, no need to have blood all over his car. He got in his vehicle and drove. Going through the city to the far south side. This is where the most chaos occurred, not even crooked cops would do business here, well, except for Roberts but this wasn’t police business. Roberts drove to what seemed to be an abandoned shack. He took the bag of flesh and walked in. inside the shack was a door with a slot at eye level. Roberts knocked in a rhythmic way, the eye slot opened revealing two blue eyes.
“Password?” the voice pair of eyes said
“Hamburger”
The door opened. The pair of eyes belonged to a big muscular skinhead, he had a swastika tattooed on his right shoulder. The skinhead walked Roberts down a flight of stairs. Once all the way down, Roberts was met with a man in a wheelchair, he was a middle aged man. The man in the wheelchair noticed Roberts holding the bag of flesh and wheeled over to him.
“Ah, my favorite customer” the man said with a thick German accent
“Hello Adalbert, I got about 20 pounds”
“Only 20?”
“It’s all prime, lean, no fat”
“Ah, excellent, let me see!”
Roberts handed the bag to the man, Adalbert wheeled to a table to open the bag.
“I’ll give you 12000 credits for this” the man said, sifting through the bag.
“In that case, I’ll take one and take the rest in that new shit”
“Ah, delightful my friend, Travis? Would you mind getting the one our friend reserved?””
The skinhead nodded and left the room.
“Next time you should get some cranial tissue, I want to see how that tastes” 
“Alright, are you going to make a trip to the Reich soon?”
“Yes,yes, to see family and pick up some new tools.”
Roberts made small talk with Adalbert for awhile until the skinhead came back. He had a girl with him, she was about 22. Her eyes were dull, she did not move by herself and her hair was covering her face, she was a well built girl. 
“She...is beautiful”
“I hope you don’t cut her hair, I was a little too careless when patching her up, the scar is ugly” Adalbert said
“Here” The skinhead also produced  a brick of brown powder.
“Travis! Help the lady to his car!” Adalbert barked
The skinhead carried the girl up the stairs while Roberts just carried his kingpin. The skinhead put the girl in the passenger seat in the car.
“Thanks Travis, I’ll see you next month”
“It may not be that short, this one should survive a little over two months depending on how you treat her. Either way, see ya”
Roberts got back in his car and drove home. While driving he could not help but glance over at the girl next to him, she was just his type. She was blonde, well endowed, Roberts just wished that he knew her name. He drove up on his house, it was a small secluded place he got from his parents. He got out and moved the girl into the house. He opened the door to the basement, flipping the light switch the scene was revealed. A cement floor with a drain in the center of the room, shackles lined the walls. As he descended the stairs with the girl he saw his other lobotomized doll in the corner, her skin seemed withered, she was obviously malnourished. It was a shame, they never lasted long, once the sex started to not feel good or they started rotting he got rid of them. There was a small waterbed in the room, he placed his new doll onto it. Roberts walked over to a cupboard, opening it revealed a stereo system, Roberts plugged a cassette tape in. Come on Eileen started playing. Roberts danced over to the waterbed and fell on top of his new doll.
“I think I’ll call you Mallory, I love you”
He was met with only a blank stare from the girl. Roberts smirked , unzipped his pants and began to have fun.

October 31

“Surprise!” Penelope said exiting Simons bathroom. She was wearing a revealing lion costume.
“Are you a slutty cat?”
Penelope huffed in disdain
“I’m a lion, What are you even supposed to be?”
Simon was wearing 70’s suit.
“I’m Dirty Harry” Simon said in a gritty voice while squinting his eyes and pulling out a fake San Francisco cop badge.
“Nobody even knows who that is anymore, I only do since you made me watch those movies.”
Simon looked at his watch and informed Penelope they were going to be late. They got in Penelope’s car, she insisted on driving stating it was the modern thing to do. Simon didn’t mind, he just enjoyed the ride. They arrived at the restaurant, a fancy place that you don’t really go to for the food but to just say that you went there. They walked up to the host’s desk.
“Reservations?”
“Yeah under Banks!” Penelope chimed
The host led the two to their table and told them their server would be there shortly. As the waitress walked over she smiled.
“Ah, a lion” She looked at Simon
“A-and a banker?” the waitress guessed
“I’m Dirty Harry” Simon said as he flashed the badge.
“Ooohhh, my grandfather loved those movies”
The waitress to their drink orders and scurried away. Penelope looked Simon in the eye.
“I have to ask you something”
“Shoot”
“Why don’t you ask about my time as captive? I mean everyone else did”
“I just always thought it was a delicate subject, do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I just felt so disconnected from you before it happened. I just wanted to tell you, I fell so much closer to you now”
“I feel the same way, I love you.”
“I love you too. I see the man who saved me that night again?”
“I have wanted to know...how is what I did any different from what that maniac did when you were kidnapped?”
Penelope sighed, Simon could see the emotional gears in her head turning.
“He was going to do something terrible to me, the men who took me just wanted money to help a little boy with medical problems, also you didn’t kill the man, killing is never the answer.
Simon knew she was lying, he didn’t forget what he heard that day in the warehouse but revealing what he knew would give up his cover. He could run mental circles and make his case justifying the “maniac’s” actions but he knew it would only lead to a fight.
“I’m just glad I have you back.”
They both felt good spending time with each other. They had a wonderful time. They left the restaurant and went back to Penelope’s house. They had sex which was mediocre at best and Penelope dropped Simon off at his apartment.
“I’ll see ya later!” Penelope said from her car
“Yeah, see ya”
Penelope drove off. As Simon was about to walk into the building and pickup truck screeched around the corner. The bed was filled with black men all wearing green bandanas. They started to get out of the truck and walk towards Simon, the five of them were all wielding lead pipes or baseball bats. Simon was about to reach for the .38 bodyguard revolver he was concealing but he stopped, five dead gangsters right on his front doorstep would not look good. Simon ran and sure enough they followed. Simon ran around the corner trying to think about his next move. Under pursuit Simon ran as far as he could go pushing past the kids looking for candy that were still left at this hour of the night. Simon turned down an alley, a dead end, perfect. Simon took the revolver out of the inner pocket of his suit jacket, he aimed it at where the mob would be coming from. The first one to round the corner was hit directly in the abdomen, the others charged. Simon hit the next three with bullets, two were lethal shots to the throat or the head with one shot hitting the right shoulder, but missed his last shot. The gangster swung his pipe at Simon, it hit him in the ribs, Simon staggered but came right back with a whip with the backside of the revolver. Simon landed a hit on the man’s forehead, he dropped the pipe to hold his head. Simon picked up the pipe on the ground, by this time the gangster had recovered and threw a punch at Simon hitting him in the sternum. Simon fought through the shock to swing the pipe at the gangsters head, it hit. The man fell down but Simon kept swinging, he saw stopped by the man whose shoulder was hit. The two wrestled and Simon ended up on top, Simon threw punch after punch until the man was unconscious.
“Take that you fucking mooleys!”
Simon got up, dusted himself off and ran off, by this time Simon could hear police sirens closing in. 

Kimber got out of her car, she parked a block away from the scene. She passed the police barricade by flashing her press badge. It was gruesome, bodies everywhere, police scurrying around, paramedics doing what they could, and people trying to get a good photo. Kimber walked over to one of her sources, a cop named O’malley.
“What happened here?” Kimber said pulling out her notepad and pen
“The one survivor who can talk said he and his friends were walking down the street just dressed as gangsters and some lunatic comes in and pulls a gun on them. He says it was a hate crime, the assailant called him a “mooley”.”
“Mind if I talk to him?”
“I really shouldn’t…” O’malley said hesitantly
Kimber gave him a glare that said she meant business. O’malley agreed and Kimber walked over to a gurney waiting outside an ambulance that housed the surviving victim. His stomach was bandaged up but still bleeding, he had an oxygen mask on. Kimber approached him.
“Hello, I’m with the Crestview Tribune. Mind if I ask you some questions?”
The man took off his oxygen mask.
“Sure, am I going to get paid for this interview?”
“Uh..no”
“Fine go ahead anyway”
“So can you describe who attacked you?”
“Some cracker, a racist piece of shit!” Motherfucker shot me!”
The man coughed and held his abdomen.
“Racist? Do you think he attacked you simply because of your skin color?”
“For sure, we wasn’t doin nothing until his ass pulled a gun.”
“What about all of the blunt objects found in the alley?”
“Part of the costume, what are you dressed up as?” the man said with the slightest hint of flirting in his voice. Kimber didn’t get the joke, she was too busy trying to figure out what really happened at this scene.
“Uh….a journalist.”
“C’mon girl, what do you say to me hollering at you once I get all stitched up? Can I get your number?”
Kimber then realized that she wasn’t going to get the truth out of this guy. I’ll fuck with him Kimber thought. She tore out a piece of paper from her notepad and wrote down a number. She gave it to the man and walked back to her car. The man smiled took out his cell phone and called Demarkus.
“Hello?” a groggy Demarkus answered
“Hey, its Jerome. We was gonna pound that guy’s ass but he pulled and wasted everyone but me and Latrell.”
“You better be joking man!”
“I took a bullet in the gut, Letrell is unconcious. I'll get some real pipe-hittin niggas next time and well put that motherfucker on ice.”
“Once you get out of the hospital, see me immediately!”
Demarkus hung up.

November 1

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT Simon thought to himself. His right wrist had to be broken, sprained at least. He searched his apartment for his dad’s old wrist brace, he also downed a Vicodin to make the pain go away. Despite the damage to his wrist and the fear of being attacked by another mob, Simon felt good again. It was the same as it ever was. Simon found the wrist brace and applied it, it felt good. Simon got settled on the couch waiting for the painkiller to set in, but he started thinking. What if they saw Penelope drive off? What if they knew they were important to each other? Fear finally beat the thrill of violence. Simon rushed to his phone and called Brian. Simon got the restaurant clerk on the phone, without being asked he said “crispy duck” and he was transferred to Brian.
“What’s up White Rice? Got any more of that stuff?”
“No, Brian this is an emergency”
“Something wrong?”
“No, not yet atleast. I got jumped last night, I’m not sure if they might be going after Penelope.”
“You're still dating her?”
“Yeah, look...I need you to just send someone to follow her, make sure she’s alright”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll send a guy over. Although in my opinion she’s not worth it. She was a bitch in high school.”
Simon hung up as the painkillers hit. Damn I must have lost my tolerance Simon thought, just one hit him hard. He went to lay down on the couch, Simon felt himself lose connection and float away, he was still worried but the feeling gave way to sleep.


From his cold car Bobby could see the factory. He had managed to hold down not just a job there but also delivering mail during the day, it still wasn’t enough. He was late on rent and car payments, all his money was going to Daniel’s medical expenses. As his legal guardian, Bobby had to go into the hospital every week to meet with doctors and put everything in order. During one of his visits Bobby learned that they did some DNA tests on Daniel. Ken couldn’t be Daniel’s father, Bobby chose not to tell that to Daniel. Bobby got out of his car and walked in for his shift. He worked in the wing that bottled all of the Sweet Leaf tea. He got straight to work, Bobby found it was best to just kill his mind and do his job. Hours went by, Bobby stared at each bottle that went by, he memorized the label. He did a little mental math about how many hours he was working. With five minutes left in his shift Bobby heard a commotion coming from the office portion of the factory. It was his boss laughing with a younger woman. Bobby realized that the woman was his bosses daughter, Jillian. She was next in line to manage the lower half of the factory, a position her dad got her. He had never talked to her, that was until today. His boss and Jillian came down so she could meet the line workers. Bobby kept working, but almost as if she knew he was avoiding her she called out to him specifically.
“Hey sailor, over here!”
When Bobby turned to face her she could see Bobby’s eyepatch. To his surprise, she laughed at Bobby.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had the...uh...thing” She said still chuckling. Bobby wasn’t offended, he actually found it refreshing how people didn’t look at him like a train wreck. She stopped laughing and began to introduce herself, she went 10 minutes past their shift causing all the workers to be a little pissed. After it was over the workers dispersed and left, Bobby was walking to his car when he was stopped by his co-worker Kedds. Kedds was an idiot, but he was a nice kid which is why people put up with his stupidity.
“Yo, Bobby, I have to talk to you about something”
“Shoot”
“I’m not coming back tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“I’m making chump change here, I found a way to make real money but I need some advice from you.”
Bobby didn’t like where this was going.
“What are you talking about Kedds?”
Kedds pulled out a bag of brown powder.
“Selling that K”
Bobby sighed.
“Look, Kedds. I get that you want more money but you have to be unprecedented levels of retarded to get tangled up with kingpin”
“That’s my decision to make. So do you wanna buy some?”
“NO”
“C’mon man, first gram free?”
Bobby picked Kedds up by his neck.
“I said no!”
Bobby threw Kedds to the ground. Kedds just hobbled off swearing under his breath. Bobby was about to get in his car when he noticed the small plastic bag on the ground. He couldn’t get back on that stuff. He just stared at it for a while, Fuck, Bobby picked it up and drove home.

Ashley sat at the loud bar table with her friends. Around her were Jake, Norman, and Diane. Jake was a construction worker. Norman was fresh out of college, he was a banker, he was also dating Diane. Diane was an old friend of Ashley’s from high school. The music blared in the old Irish pub, they had drinks and laughed with each other. There was a television set in the corner of the room playing the news. In the middle of a conversation, Ashley shushed everyone at the table and pointed to the screen. The news anchor was talking about the attack on five men with gang ties.
“Oh, that. Fuckin’ brutal right?” Jake said
“Yeah, I heard it was racially motivated” Diane chimed in
“Do you think it was that maniac?” Norman said
“Nah, they would be talking about him then” Jake responded
“Speaking of the maniac….” Ashley said
“Not again Ash” Jake protested
“Cmon I think what he’s doing is good for the community, he’s cleaning up the streets”
The group went silent. Diane broke the silence.
“I kinda agree”
“What? Come on babe you can’t be serious” Norman protested
The boys looked at them like they were crazy. Ashley knew her plan was going to take some time.

Roberts walked into the station after his weekend breaking in his new doll. It was hard for him to focus on work, all he could think about is what part of her body he had yet to explore. As he gave casual head nods to other officers he couldn’t notice that his boss was waiting for him at his desk.
“You’re late”
“I am”
“This is the third week in a row that you seem to mentally gone, you can’t keep doing this”
“I kno-”
“That’s why I really need you to get your head in the game for this next job.”
Roberts boss called over a man in a suite”
“This is agent Mcbride, with the DEA”
The man extended a handshake to Roberts
“What’s going on that we need the DEA?”
“You must not know your city that well detective” Mcbride chuckled
“I work homicide not narcotics”
“Well for starters, you guys have that new designer shit going around. Also the deaths from prescription drugs here are unusually high in the area.”
“Why are you putting me on this job?” Roberts asked his boss
“Because half of narcotics is in the hospital after that botched raid in Chinatown”
Roberts let a slight scowl creep across his face.
“Fine, just don’t think this will be a buddy cop film”
“I think I’m gonna like working with you” Mcbride said with the same chuckle


Simon woke up with the same weakness that painkillers left him with, but this time it was a more potent feeling. Simon struggled to get up off the couch. He took a shower and got dressed, it seemed to help. Simon looked at his voicemail, no calls, no voicemails. Hopefully that meant Penelope was okay, Simon hated thinking about how she could have been in danger, she was starting to turn back into the girl he met in highschool. Simon walked outside his building, he wasn’t feeling strong enough to drive so he called a cab. A few minutes later a car pulled up in front of Simon. The window rolled down to reveal the cabbie.
“You the guy who needs a cab?”
“Yeah, I’m Simon”
Simon went to open the door only to hear the doors lock.
“Simon? I don’t take no jews”
“No, I’m not a kike. Simon was St.Peter’s real name. But if you don’t believe me I’ll eat some pork if you want”
The doors unlocked.
“Alright, sorry for the confusion, buddy”
The rest of the ride was normal. Finally the cab pulled up to its destination. Simon paid the man and got out. He looked up at the office tower, this was the headquarters of Pro-tect. Pro-tect was a body armor company that made good sales, especially in this city. Simon had a friend in the development department, Ben. Ben was a smart guy, equally good with his hands, he always loved manufacturing and engineering. He started working as a production line worker and worked his way up to drafting and testing new products. Simon talked to the cute receptionist, she let Ben know that he was there. A minute later Ben came down to get SImon, they walked up to the testing floor. 
“It’s good to see you Simon, but why did you come here?”
“I can’t see my old friend?”
“Simon...I know you want free shit”
“I wouldn’t put it so blatantly...But what are you working on?”
Ben sighed. They took the elevator to the 14th floor, where Ben worked. The was another door leading to the main room.
“Let me get the stuff”
Ben came back with several big black plastic cases. Simon had to carry one, his strength was returning. They took the elevator back down and loaded the cases into Ben’s truck through the loading dock part of the building meant for exporting products for sale. From there they drove out into the country. They finally arrived at the company testing grounds, the sun beat down on the grassy field. Ben opened the first case and pulled out multiple pieces of armor, a main plate and ones for legs and arms. They were surprisingly thin,they reflected the bright sun.
“Top of the line, I’ll put these on and you get the revolver under the driver's seat”
Ben put on the armor, Simon got the gun case from the truck, he opened it to find a Smith & Wesson model 29, it was loaded.
“Ben...Are you sure about this? They look a little thin to be able to take a .44 round.”
“Trust me, it will hold, aim for center mass”
Ben had the full suit on. Simon checked the chamber and took aim.
“Why do you have to wear the armor? I feel like there is a safer way of doing this”
“Just shoot!”
Simon took the shot and it hit Ben in the chestpiece. Ben flew back screaming.
“IT BROKE!, YOU SHOT ME!”
Simon panicked.
“We gotta get you to a hospital!”
Ben started laughing and got up.
“Gotcha”
“Fuck you man” Simon said chuckling out of relief.
Ben got up, took off the chestplate and rubbed his sternum.
“Still hurts though, and it won’t stop rifle rounds”
Ben walked to the second plastic case and produced a short black metal rod.
“You’re gonna like this” Ben said with a smile
He whipped the rod to extend it, the rest of the rod was silver.
“It’s like those batons you have, except this one has a current running through it”
Ben whipped the baton at Simon. It fucking hurt, Simon started twitching around from the shock.
“You fucking dick” Simon chuckled
Ben opened the next case to bring out a metal piece about the size of a 2x4. Ben pushed a mechanical button on the piece, it extended on both sides forming a small shield.
“This will stop pretty much all rifle rounds”
Despite it being unpractical, Simon found it to be pretty cool.
“How much for all of it?”
Ben looked surprised.
“I was just showing you, you want to buy these? I ca-”
Simon pulled out a thick stack of hundred dollar bills. Ben drove Simon back home, it took them a bit longer than they both expected. Protesters filled the streets and impeded traffic, they were all yelling about the killings of innocent black people. Simon tuned them out, he thought about all the fun times he had in high school with Ben and all of his friends, he missed hanging out with them. He really should make an effort to contact his friends. Simon’s thought was cut off by Ben.
“Damn racists”
Simon almost protested before he realized that the majority of people probably thought this was a hate crime rather than self defense. 
“Yeah, people can be pretty hateful these days”
They finally pulled up in front of Simon’s apartment. Ben just threw all the cases on the curb and drove off without a goodbye.

Bobby sat down and looked at the packet of kingpin. Every conscious part of his body was screaming at him to not do it. After a few minute Bobby was digging around his drawers for a syringe, he found one that was old and crusty. No time to wash it, he mixed the kingpin and melted it. He injected the mixture into his veins, he could tell it had been awhile since he had used. The small dose hit him almost instantly, same feeling as always. Bobby then experienced something strange, it was like his head was hazing up. Something was wrong, this must be a new formula. Bobby started to panic, he was feeling very odd. It couldn’t have been an overdose, he had handled doses 5 times the size of the one he just took, then again he had been on a long break, his tolerance could have dissolved. It felt like a nail was being hammered into every inch of his body. Bobby fell to the floor in agony, he tried to scream but nothing came out. The pain stopped, the feeling was replaced with the sensation that Bobby’s flesh was melting away. This time when Bobby tried to scream it came out as garbled noises. He hallucinated seeming his bones emerge from his fleeing skin. When all Bobby saw was his bones it got worse, in the socket that was missing an eye he felt something crawling inside his skull. Without warning spiders crawled out of his eye socket, hundreds of them. Bobby began to twitch and felt a feeling better than orgasming and passed out. In the morning Bobby woke up to find he had thrown up on his floor and ruined his pants. He had to get more.

1:00 AM November 4
 Brian sat at his desk. Across from him was his sister, Laura. She was helpful to Brian, she did good work for the gang and the businesses. Brian knew she wanted more though, she was not content with being a soldier. She wanted to be in Brian’s seat, he wanted to get rid of her but she was his sister after all.
“Did you check on that Penelope girl?”
“Yeah, I saw some shitty car that didn’t look like it belonged in that neighborhood across the street. So I sent Xoa to sit outside her house, follow her.”
“Thanks, I don’t care if she’s alright but if something is going on and I don’t tell Simon, he’s going to be pissed”
“Since when do you answer to Simon?”
“Laura, you can cut that out right now! You know he buys a lot of hardware from us, we need that money. Besides, he’s an old friend”
“He’s a junkie, and frankly unstable. I wouldn’t trust him”
“I’m in charge and if I say we trust him...guess what, we trust him. Look you’re getting me off-track, I want to talk about our growth”
“What growth, we’ve been pushed back by the niggers”
“They moved out of the abandoned apartments on 45th, I want you to go there and head an operation”
“What exactly do you want me to do?”
“Make kingpin. We gotta do it fast before the spics in the area use it to cook their shitty food.”
“How much do you think we’ll make if we cook there? I can’t imagine that part of town being able to afford kingpin”
“Not we, you. It will be yours”
This was Brian’s best solution, give Laura something of her own. Hopefully it would keep the target off his back. Laura looked skeptical, she was. For as long as she could remember they had been stuck in this little corner of the city. Breaking out was going to usher in a new era, and Laura would be the spearheading it. 

Ashley and the “gang” were all having drinks at Jake’s house. Norman and Jake were a little annoyed, for the past couple of days all Ashley and Diane had talked about was the masked maniac, not only was it old news but they were just tired of hearing it. They did bring up some good arguments justifying his actions. In the middle of a sentence Norman cut off Ashley.
“What do you want us to do Ash? Why do you keep talking about this lunatic?”
Ashley stared at Norman in disbelief, Diane stared in anger.
“I think we should pitch in and help clean up the city” Ashley said
“What does that mean? Do you want us to capes and those retarded animal masks?”
“It’s fucking autistic!” Jake added
“Sure the way he does it is a bit flashy but you can’t ignore his results, it’s not like there isn’t a problem!”
That statement stopped Jake and Norman from laughing. 
“We’re not saying we need to kill people, just start small to make life here better.” Diane said
“We already have a plan to do something, so you can just stop with your criticism.” Said Ashley
Norman sighed at how stupid this sounded.
“What are you going to do?” he asked
“We’re going to “talk” to that guy who always drives way too fast down the street, he’s nearly hit the Valerio girl on several occasions”
“So he deserves a beating?” Jake asked
“He needs to at least know how people feel”
“You can’t just tell the police to put a speed trap down?”
“SO he can just pay a ticket and do the same thing!”
This was getting too heated, the group stayed quit for a while to not go any further into the argument.

Roberts and Mcbride sat outside a brick building in a car, waiting.
“We got a couple minutes before my guy gets here” Roberts whispered
“This guy is low-level right?”
“Yeah, narcotics busted our man on possession, he chose to wear a wire and it led us to this guy, hopefully he has a connection to the people who cook kingpin”
“Tell me...You from around here?”
“Yeah, where are you from”
“I’m a proud son of Missoura”
The two made small talk until a lanky boy in a wife beater approached a door on the side of the building.
“Your “man” is a kid, what was his name again?” 
“Eugene, but he insists on being called Kedds, kids these fucking days”
“I don’t understan’ them”
A few minutes later Kedds walked out of the building and over to the car. Roberts rolled down the window.
“Ey, he has the K” Kedds said sheepishly
He pulled out a small plastic bag filled with brown powder.
“Get in” Roberts barked
He gave a nod to Mcbride. Roberts started the car and drove back to the station. Once right outside the station they all got out of the car. Mcbride turned to Kedds.
“So you have the bag and you’re sure it’s kingpin?”
“Yeah man! He had everything”
Kedds pulled out the bag.
“Alright” Roberts said pulling out a pair of handcuffs from his belt.
Kedds started to run but was tackled to the ground by Mcbride.
“But I wore a wire for you fucks, you can’t do this”
“You mean this?” Roberts dropped a cassette player on the ground and stomped on it.


November 6
Penelope was done with her shift, it had been a busy night and she was tired. Unfortunately she parked far away due to a lack of spaces. From a distance Xoa watched from his crotch rocket, he had been following Penelope for a few days, it had kept him from having to do some real work. It was almost like a paid vacation, he was being paid the same money for smoking cigarettes and staring at her ass as he would for moving product. It was boring as hell though, he should really start reading as a hobby if this was going to go on much longer. Penelope was thinking about dropping in on Simon. She had not seen a lot of him lately, and things were going well for them. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen or heard from Demarkus for a while either. She didn’t like thinking about the two at the same time, it made her feel guilty. As Penelope was about to round a corner, a pair of hands reached out and covered her mouth and dragged her into a car. She tried to scream, but the sound was muffled over the hand. The best Penelope could do was flail to get out, it didn’t work. Xoa saw the whole thing, he quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Brian.
“Xoa, what’s up? I gotta tell you about my pla-”
“No time boss, White rice’s girl just got taken! I’m gonna follow her”
“Shit…follow her but once they settle down at a place you call me, alright?”
“Yeah-bye”
Xoa sped off in pursuit of the car, through the back windshield Xoa could see Penelope kicking at two masked men.

Deacon sat behind the register of the small sandwich shop. Simon walked through the door and ordered, he sat in silence as Deacon made his sub. Simon’s phone rang, all Deacon could hear was Simon’s side of the dialogue as he finished up the sandwich.
“Hello?”
“Hey Brian”
“WHAT?”
“Alright, I’ll be there”
Simon hung up as Deacon was handing him the sandwich.
“Is something wrong sir?” Deacon asked
“My girlfriend got abducted again”
Simon snatched the sandwich and ran out the door.
“Again? This has happened before?” Deacon said to the empty shop.
Simon ran to his apartment, there was no time to waste. He grabbed the 4506, the bear mask, the electric baton and the body armor. He hauled all of the gear into the backseat of his car and sped off to chinatown. Simon entered the restaurant and stormed right past the elderly man behind the counter without saying the code word. Simon flung open the door leading to Brian, he was sitting behind his desk as always.
“Do you know where she is?”
“Not yet, I got a guy following her though. Listen, are you sure she’s worth it?”
“I don’t want to have this conversation right now”
“Look man, she is a bitch. She uses people”
Simon wound up for a punch but Brian interrupted by pulling a gun on Simon.
“Before you make a stupid decision, just let me tell you I will help you find her, but after that I expect to be done helping you.”
Simon relaxed.
“Fine, I just need to fin-”
Brian’s phone rang, he picked it up. Xoa was on the other end of the line.
“Boss, they didn’t bring her to some dump on the south side, it’s a fucking mansion”
“Where is it?”
“It’s on Cleft street, man I can see some serious hardware through the windows”
“How many people are inside?”
“I count 10, including the girl”
“Any security you can see”
“Yeah, it's on the north side, cameras, only on the exterior as far as I can see”
“Good work, get back here.”
Brian hung up and turned back to Simon and sighed.
“I’m not sure if you know the risk I’m taking by not only venturing out of this corner of town but also attacking the blacks. I can only give you three guys”
“Tell them to meet me there”

Penelope was thrown onto a bed, she had been gagged and blindfolded. She still struggled on the bed, suddenly the blindfold came off. Demarkus was standing over her with a smile.
“Hey girl”
He took the gag out.
“What the fuck?!”
Demarkus started to laugh
“Ya know, when you said you were going to leave that chump I was excited. But then you didn’t, you made me wait, Why? Because you got kidnapped and he was there for you. Well, now I’m here for you and he gets let down easy”
“You can’t be serious”
“Look around you, this is a nice place. You will never have unfulfilled needs, you are a queen here.”
Demarkus took Penelope for a short tour, he showed her the pool, the home theatre, his room. It was a nice house, it was beautiful in fact. Penelope fell for the magic of this place, she wasn’t a stranger to the finer things in life, in fact this house was almost trash compared to her house. It was the fact that Demarkus wanted to create their own life together, she thought it was romantic. A small part of her still was skeptical, a part of her still wondered how Simon would react to her disappearance. That part of her was drowned out by how Simon had reacted to her actually being kidnapped, and also because of the fantasy she was entrenched in. Demarkus poured the two glasses of champagne. They sipped on the booze and danced, he held her close.
“What is that?” Penelope asked
Demarkus pulled out an old revolver.
“Don’t worry, this is just what I carry. When I need to show a nigga I mean business, I flash this. Hold on!”
Demarkus ran to another room and Penelope heard him digging through drawers. He came back with a massive gun, it was gold-plated and engraved.
“This, is my desert eagle, I call it The Problem Solver”
“You carry guns around?”
“Yeah, I got important shit that puts me in some dangerous situations”
“Have you ever had to kill anyone?”
“...Yeah”
“Was it hard?”
“Yeah”
They talked about how things would be from now on, it was mostly daydreams. They were enough to convince Penelope to be on board with this life. After all, she was really in it for Demarkus, he was kind and strong. She began to reflect on how it was not fair to him that she was with Simon. While things were getting better with him she couldn’t get past the fact that he was going nowhere in life, he didn’t have a job, inheritance had to run out sometime. Demarkus had a job, he practically built an empire, sure he wasn’t the boss but he still had some weight. In the middle of the conversation she just blurted it out.
“I love you…”
“I love you too”
It may not have made sense to either of them, but in that moment they just held each other and let all their cares melt away.

Simon was parked a block away, he was eating his sandwich, his hunger was the only thing stopping him from going alone. Three motorcycles pulled up to his car and parked, as the drivers took off their helmets Simon could tell that they were Brian’s guys. The only thing that was weird was their age, they were kids, 15 at best. They introduced themselves as Troy, Woo, and Steven. They were all apendix carrying micro-uzis, Simon wasn’t going to judge. Troy, the youngest one unstrapped a long soft gun case from his motorcycle, he unzipped it revealing a double-barrel shotgun, he tossed it to Simon.
“Brian said not to let you go in with just that low-cap pistol”
“Thanks…” Simon replied unenthusiastically 
“Yo, whats with the armor and the mask?”
Simon didn’t respond, he just looked at the shotgun. He remembered how it felt to use one of these in the warehouse, it was kind of poetic how of course fate would give Simon this weapon to use in an almost identical situation. Simon checked the chamber, both barrels were loaded.
“Let’s go” Steven said
The other two gave out a sort of war cry and ran towards the house.
“No...it’s cool. We don’t have to talk about a plan or anything…”
Simon put on the mask and ran towards the building after them.

The intimate moment between Penelope and Demarkus flourished into a party, there were a few more guys in the house, loud music and the smell of alcohol flooded the air. Penelope was having a good time, she used the last of her purse stash of coke but Demarkus said he could get mountains of it for her. Her laughter turned to screaming in an instant when a hail of bullets came through the window killing one of the men in the house. Penelope and the rest of the people dove to the floor.
“I didn’t think the chinks had the balls to attack this place, fellas get your pieces out, ITS A REAL PARTY NOW”
While the rest of the men scrambled to find the source of the bullets, Demarkus walked over Penelope and gave her the old revolver.
“Get in that closet and don’t come out until I tell you too.”
“Is, everything going to be alright?”
Demarkus didn’t answer that, he just got his “problem solver” and ran along with the other men. Penelope went into the closet while more gunshots echoed in the background.

Simon couldn’t believe these guys, they just ran up and started shooting on the north side of town. The cops were going to be called any second if they hadn't been already. Simon entered the house, he saw the three kids just wildly firing their guns. Don’t spaz out like them. You will get through this by thinking and relying on good technique.  Around a corner Simon saw a glimpse of a man, he popped out holding a hi-point. Without flinching, Simon fired a blast at him, the buckshot hit the man’s head and sent him sprawled on the floor. Simon walked over to the corner, he was now in the kitchen. Out of nowhere another gangster stabbed Simon in the chest with a large kitchen knife, the armor stopped the blade. The two panicked internally, both were shocked. Simon took the butt of the gun and jammed it into the gangsters face, he fell back. Don’t panic, you can’t enjoy this too much. Simon reacted on reflex and aimed the shotgun at the staggered man, he pulled the trigger. The pieces of lead hit all over, it didn’t kill him though, the man just writhed in agony holding his crotch. That’s it, stay calm. Simon threw the empty shotgun to the floor and pulled out his 4506, he looked back at the three boys still just emptying their magazines. Woo, poked his head around the corner and Simon saw hit explode in a split second, his body slumped on the floor. Steven went to drag the body but almost as if they knew he would do that, the body was shot again, multiple times. Steven just broke down, he polished off the rest of his ammo and started to panic. He must have hit someone since the returning fire stopped. For a few moments, there was silence. Stay CALM, Simon was worried he had to keep saying that to himself. Steven tried to pick up his gun which had fallen out of his cover, his hand was there one second and gone the next. Steven started to scream, Troy blind fired down the hallway. Fuck it. Simon took a quick second to make sure the armor was secure, he ran into the open while Troy was firing. Simon saw that the kids had been a little more effective than he had expected, there were bodies strewn across the living room. He was surprised to see that nobody alive was in the hall, Steven’s screaming got Simon’s attention again.
“Troy get him out of here”
Troy ripped a part of his shirt off and used the cloth to wrap around Steven’s hand. The two walked back out the way they came. Simon looked back on the scene, he walked forward. Simon was tackled to the ground by another gangster, the man pinned Simon’s gun hand to the floor. They struggled with one another, the man kneed Simon in the groin. While he did have armor there, the force of his knee still stunned Simon. The man got up and drew his gun, another hi-point. Simon quickly rolled to the side of the hallway, and fired two shots in the gangsters general direction. Simon hear the man drop to the floor. Simon got up and emptied his magazine into the man. Simon’s ears hurt from all of the gunfire but he could hear what was said next.
“Yo nigga, you get those fools”
Can I come out now?”
“Not yet baby”
Simon recognized that as Penelope’s voice, it brought him back. Don’t let that happen again, stay calm. The 4506 was out, Simon holstered it, picked up the dead gangsters gun in his left hand, and drew the shock baton in his right. 

Demarkus stood in front of the closet door clutching his desert eagle. He could just barely see someone standing in the hallway adjacent from where he was, but he wasn’t sure if it was one of his guys.
“Yo, answer me!”
From the hallway a hand peeked around the corner and fired at Demarkus. He dodged the shot and returned fire. Demarkus could see that it was a guy in a bear mask, it was the maniac. The maniac fired again and ran out of the hallway and hid behind a couch. Demarkus scanned the room after the shots had stopped, he couldn’t see the maniac. More shots rang out from the maniacs gun, emptying the magazine. The maniac dropped the gangsters gun and took out the secondary magazine for the 4506, the slide clicked chambering a round. Demarkus flew around the corner sending .357 rounds all over the living room, 3..2..1..click. Demarkus reached for another magazine but the maniac sprung up and had his gun trained on him. There was a moment of awkward silence.
“Ya know what? No guns, let’s settle this like men” Demarkus said as he threw his gun to the ground. The maniac holstered his gun and unhooked the holster from his belt, tossing it to the ground, He still had the baton. The two ran at each other, the maniac took the first swing. Thinking he could just absorb the blow, Demarkus put his hand up to grasp the baton. The electricity ran through Demarkus, making him twitch and cringe. The maniac wound his arm up again and hit Demarkus, another painfully shocking hit. Demarkus kicked the maniacs knee, he came crashing down on top of Demarkus. Demarkus rolled over on top of the maniac, he started punching the masked face. Hit after hit, until the maniac jabbed Demarkus with the baton, the shock was just as bad. The maniac kept hitting Demarkus in the face with the baton, every hit made his muscles spasm and lock up. After the fifth hit Demarkus’ view began to go dark.

Simon kept hitting Demarkus, even after he knew he was dead. Simon stopped and took a few moments to breathe.
“Baby? Are you alright?”
Penelope’s voice was coming from the closet further up another hall. Simon got his gun and unholstered it, just in case there were more thugs. Simon slowly walked over to the closet where Penelope’s voice came from.

Penelope sat terrified in the dark closet, the revolver was pointed at the door. Demarkus hadn’t answered, but yet she heard footsteps. The gun was shaking in her hand, she was scared and tweaking on cocaine. The footsteps came closer to the door, she started to sweat and the trembling got worse. The footsteps stopped right outside the door, the doorknob turned. Penelope fired two shots.

As Simon was opening the door he was hit by two bullets, both hit him in the chestplate. Simons head flew back and hit the wall behind him. In an act of reflex, Simon fired once at the closet door. Slumped on the floor, Simon realized what he had done. He got back up and opened the closet door. Penelope had been hit in the chest by Simons bullet, she was wheezing and flailing. Simon ripped off the mask and knelt down by her.
“Oh my god, I’m so sor-” Simon was cut off by Penelope
“You’re the maniac?” Her breathing sounded deathly
“I-I’m sorry….”
“No...I’m sorry….sorry that I wasted my time with you, I could have been happy”
Penelope’s eyes stared into the distance as her body went limp. Simon just sat there sobbing, police sirens were in the distance and Simon knew he had to go. As the sirens got closer, Simon opened a window and ran back to his car as fast as he could. Once he was home Simon went to his suite to get the pill bottle on his nightstand. He went up to the store room above and took three pills. Simon laid down on the floor, closed his eyes, and let himself float away.

Kimber laid in bed, enjoying a restful sleep, that is until the phone next to her bed started ringing obnoxiously. She groaned as she fell out of her REM cycle, she picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, you might want to get down here…” It was O’Malley
“Why? And where is here?”
“ Cleft street, there was a shootout”
“Cleft? That’s the north side, shootouts don”t happen there”
“Well one did and you might wanna hurry, I see three other guys on their phones, no doubt calling other news sources”
“Alright, I’ll be right there”
The call ended. Kimber got out of bed, rubbing her eyes and got dressed. She grabbed her keys, camera, and her notepad and entered her car. Pulling up on the crime scene Kimber could see O’Malley waiting for her.
“There’s my favorite redhead! Want some coffee?”
“Sure”
O’Malley handed her a mug, she took a sip and had a hard time swallowing.
“It’s Irish!” O’Malley said reaching for a flask
“Thanks, I assume I’m going to need it”
“Yeah, it’s a gore fest in there, the rookie threw up” O’Malley pointed at a young officer dry heaving on the lawn of the house. The neighbors were all outside looking as the police lights, the officers inside could be seen through the windows.
“So, what exactly happened here?”
“From what I saw, there’s a house party. People are having a good time until five guys from chinatown bust in and start shooting.”
“So this is gang related?”
“Oh yeah, I guess the asians were out  we found casings from five guns that weren’t hi-points, which were what the people in the house used”
“Were the residents of the house affiliated?”
“Yeah, now I’m going to pretend like I don’t see you. Get some good pictures”
Kimber walked past him quickly and entered the house, there was blood splattered on the wall accompanied by bullet holes of varying sizes. Kimber got her pictures and quickly exited the house, after that she interviewed the neighbors, none of them had seen anything worth mentioning. She was going to have a lot of writing to do when she went into work the next day.

November 8
Simon woke up to a knocking on his door. He was so weak, he had burnt through a lot of his supply of painkillers. With feeble legs Simon answered the door, it was a detective.
“Hello, I’d like to ask you some questions about your girlfriend's death.”
“She’s not my girlfriend anymore, she left me for one of the guys found in the house” Simon said rubbing his eyes”
“Do you know anything about why violence erupted at that house?”
“Not really, I mean I heard it was gang violence”
“I can’t comment on that.You said she left you, was it messy?”
“No, why do you ask?”
Simon knew exactly why he was asking, but the less Simon said to this guy, the better.
“Uh-erm no reason”
“ technically she left me, but the whole ordeal was pretty mutual”
“Can you tell me anything about the man she was involved with before her death?”
“No, all I know is that the sex was better with him”
The detective looked shocked by Simon’s lax tone that accompanied that response. He asked Simon a couple more trivial questions and left. As soon as the door closed Simon heard a phone call, Simon walked to the phone and picked up, still feeling weak from the painkillers.
“Hello?”
“You fuck, you left a body!”
It was Brian.
“What?”
“You left a the body of one of my guys there, the cops are going to trace that back to me”
“It’s not like they don’t already have it out for you, besides, you sent me kids”
“That's all I could send, things aren't going well around here”
“Look you said after that night our partnership was done, goodbye”
Simon hung up, and took more pills to fall asleep.