BLACK STORM: The Abandoned Son

Chapter 20: Deadman Walking

"Oh hey, Frederick.", he greets a man that walks past him.

The man walks into a back alley, with a gun on his waist. The man is hooded. But once he steps into a side entrance of a dilapidated skyscraper he unhoods himself. Revealing a man with brown skin and strange white patches scattered about it. We've met him before, he's the Gargoyle. Fredrick walks into the basement of the building. The room seems to be some sort of secret meeting area. It has a bar and a poker table, two things that have been illegal for decades. It's mostly devoid of people, the few there are focus their eyes on him as he walks into the room. They make no effort to hide their disgust of him, in fact, it's almost like they want him to notice. Fredrick doesn't even look back at them, he's unbothered. He walks up to the bar.

"Where's my payment?", he asks a bartender. 

It seems this bartender may be more than what meets the eye.

"Proof of capture?"

"Come on, you know that's just a formality. I've already talked to Henvry."

"It's not a formality when we're dealing with you."

He rolls his eyes and angrily dig in his coat pocket. He tosses some photographs on the bar counter. The bartender inspects the images. The pictures are grotesque. The mangled corpses of various people lie on a pool of blood. The bartender shrugs and reaches for something under his desk. 

He places a very large baffle bag on the counter. Fredrick looks confused. Fredrick looks inside and finds the bag filled with coins. The coins are square in shape. He recognizes them, they're Nordic half-Mark coins, the only square coin in the world. Paying someone in this particular manner is considered an act of great disrespect in the Nordic culture, and the bartender went out of his way to do this. Fredrick just zips the bag up and walks away with it.

"Don't bother returning the bag, by the way."

Fredrick scowls as he made that comment, but only because his back was turned. The other patrons at the bar laugh hysterically as he leaves. The man travels on foot to the other side of the city district. Taxis refuse to pick him up. But he finally arrives at his destination. An abandoned warehouse on the fringes of the district. 

He steps in and finds more people. People of every race and cultures. But they all have one thing in common. These weird white spots cover their skin in diverse locations. They've been cast away from society, so they have to stay together. 

As he walks in some of the Gargoyles greet him, but most of them are too mired in misery to even raise their heads. The warehouse is filled with old mattresses and makeshift shelters. It's wet and smelly. Its only redeeming quality as a place to live is that at least it's quite roomy. But that's kinda like saying, "I know I stepped in dogshit this morning but at least I stepped in a lot of it.". He walks up to a young girl; she looks no older than six. The young girl is sitting on a woman's lap. Perhaps she's the child's mother. 

"Hey, guys.", Fredrick walks up to them and kisses the girl's mother on the cheek.

"Fredrick, you're back!", the girl says excitedly.

"I'm not supposed to be back, but I came here to surprise you buddy.", he tussles the girl's hair.

"Surprise?"

"Aw! You figured it out, you're so smart.", he reaches into his coat and takes out a small stuffed animal, it's a teddy bear.

The girl's eyes fill with glee, she grabs it, "I love him.".