Remember Who I Am

Chapter XVIII

December 23, 2023

5:31 AM

Manhattan, New York City, New York

Clover had 3 suitcases sitting beside her in the apartment she had rented. She planned to go to Tokyo, Japan for Christmas. She had to go quickly because they celebrated Christmas on the 24th, and acted like the 25th wasn't a thing. Xavier sat and watched on the couch as she stuffed the suitcase with clothes.

"You need that many clothes? You're only gonna be gone for about, I don't know... I'm guessing until Christmas Day." Xavier asked.

"Yeah." Clover said in a rush.

"Suit yourself."

Clover looked out the window. It was lightly snowing, but it would probably not delay the flight. She ran to and from her room at least 5 times before she finally finished packing her bags. Clover twisted the door knob.

"Bye, Clover." Xavier said.

"Bye." Clover said back.

She swiftly walked out of the room as Xavier sat alone in the living room. Xavier started to play the drums on the table. His phone then started to ring. He picked it up. It was Rich.

* * *

Clover walked down the steps of the plane. After the trip to India, Panama, and The Bahamas, she became used to planes. She could see the city lights from a distance, it was daytime, it was about 8 AM on the 24th in Japan's time zone. Tokyo. She was back after a few years, the last time she went was at least 2016. Her family visited her, after all, she used to live in Baja California, but due to constraints, they couldn't. She continued to walk.

* * *

Clover stood outside the apartment building that her family told her they resided in. She walked up the stairs and went to their room number. She opened the door slowly as people turned around. It was her family. Clover bowed.

"Kon'nichiwa!" Most of them said as they walked up to Clover to bow and hug her.

"Kon'nichiwa! Ā, nante kotoda, mō nagai koto attenai yo!" Clover said to them as she hugged all of them. It roughly translated to Hello! Oh, my god, I haven't seen you guys in a long time!

* * *

"Have you done all of your jobs?" Rich asked.

"Not the Dubai one." Xavier said.

They talked on the phone and it was about 4 PM EST.

"That's okay, we can handle that. I need you to do that prison job."

"What prison job?"

"Oh, I haven't told you? So... when I mentioned that my men got locked up, I need you to break them out. You'll be with Evan. I bet you'll be good as a duo."

"Okay. When?"

"Tomorrow, about 12 PM."

'"Where's the prison?"

"Albany, by Martha Washington Memorial Highway. Yes, Albany, New York."

"Okay, good."

"Yeah. Merry early Christmas, by the way."

"Yeah."

"I'll be celebrating when my men get back. I hope I can trust you, Ferdie."

"I hope I can trust myself, I haven't done much of this magnitude."

* * *

Dorian drove through the boroughs of New York as he attempted to drive through the traffic to get to Bushwhick, Brooklyn at about 7 PM. It was the 24th of December and he needed to get home for Christmas. Even with no other family, they were very festive about Christmas. Beside that, he had just gotten out of a major shootout, where he had seemingly met his target. As he made it through an intersection, he saw extremely bright red and blue lights flashing, which was a big contrast to the dark night sky.

"What the fuck?" Dorian asked himself.

Dorian initially mistook the lights for weird Christmas lights that were unusually bright, but it was actually multiple police cars circling around a Toyota Camry. The Camry's doors were flung open.

"What happened?" Dorian asked.

An officer turned around.

"No, sir. Leave the are--"

"Yeah, asshole, Detective Dorian Black. What the hell happened?"

"Sorry, Detective. The prison break earlier? This is a prisoner from there. Died after getting shot in the hip and bleedin' out. Landed out here. Be on the lookout for those prisoners. The Rogue Rescuer is not your case anymore." The officer, Blake Foss, spoke.

"You can't fucking say that! The chief can, not you."

"Well, the chief told us to tell you when we can."

Blake scratched his nose.

"Did you get a--"

"Yes, we got an ambulance on the way." Blake interrupted.

"Good."

Dorian looked over the car's hood and saw the dead prisoner.

"Alright, everyone clear the area. Clear it!" Dorian yelled, waving his hands; "Get some goddamned reinforcements out here, huh? Tell them that we need to block out this traffic! This is ri-fucking-diculous."