Fire Meets Gasoline : After Ashes

Chapter Nine : The Start Of The Calamity

JOHN MCHALE. I never understood why Yujun was the one who walked up to me, he didn't know me and that was a fact, he had no business with me, he had no connections to me besides Mike, and maybe that was all that he needed to have the courage to talk to me. What he said would be eventually stuck into the back of my head for a long time, it was weird that Mike's boyfriend was coming forward with the fact I still liked Mike, but through his message it was clear he didn't care about that, he only cared for the well being of his boyfriend, something I for a bit doubted I could ever be like. There wasn't much to think about how I should've acted when I had Mike close to me, if anything that I could do was to look ahead.

After getting back to the table, I could see the confusion in everybody's eyes. I had left with such a rush I was sure they thought I went to vomit or something. Lin had been talking directly to Mike when I sat down, he turned his body to me and gave it a small and silent smile.

"So, are you better now?" He asked me shamelessly.

I nodded lightly and looked at the cloth that was up in the darkwood table.

"Do you know who this could've belonged to?" I tried to force my voice.

"I have a theory, but I can't know for sure!" He answered me back.

"He said the symbol is unknown..." Jennifer then added while eating a random hotdog.

"A symbol?" Yujun then came and sat close to Mike.

"Yeah look if you see-" Lin took the cloth and held it closely for us to see it better "-There's a very soothing difference in the texture of the cloth, it forms a symbol!"

We all shared a bit of unexpected yowzah although we barely knew what that meant.

"Is this all for a motorcycle club?" Jennifer then asked.

"That's the thing, I don't think it is for a motorcycle club!" Lin said .

"All this work for a club...it wouldn't just make any sense!" Mike finally spoke.

"So if it's not from a club, then where is it from?" I questioned Lin.

"Well, I don't know the answer to that" He continued "But I do know someone who might know..."

"Who?" Mike asked.

"Jordan's wife, Marta!" Lin answered as he smiled at Mike and I.

We started walking towards the entrance of the pier, hoping the car would still be at the same place we left it, and that Lin would show us the way to Marta. Apparently she owned a casino in the outskirts of Vegas, she had her own motorcycle club that would go around the town, I tried asking what was the purpose of it and Lin turned radio silent. While we walked down the small toy tents, I asked Lin where Jordan was. The fearless man that we knew during our adventure through the Arizona Desert was no longer the same, he returned to Las Vegas, tried to keep the piece within his club, but eventually decided to disband the entire thing and become a truck driver. It was a sudden change according to Lin, but he knew the slow signs of Jordan losing the interest in the whole motorcycle deal, so it wasn't as a surprise to him as for the other members.

As we reached the entrance, Mike took my hand as well as Yujun and walked a few inches back. He pointed with his head towards our front, when I turned my eyes, I saw two tall men, just like the one that I saw lying on the floor the night prior. This time our car wasn't close to us, our only choice was to run away. Jennifer quickly noticed the danger coming our way and immediately separated herself from us, one of the men flinched but then went back into my direction, M squeezed my hand as hard as he could and took a deep breath. Lin stepped forward in front of us and held his stand as he looked like he was ready to fight. The people around us looked unaware of the conflict of confusion that was bound to happen, it was not like it was obvious, but there was a clear tension that seemed to build up from under the pier.