MOSAIC

Chapter 11: Dogfight

The smooth, heavyset roll of the vehicle would have been relaxing had this been any other circumstance, but I found myself shifting uncomfortably in my seat, fingers fidgeting and eyes browsing. I had a decent view of the driver from my position in the vehicle, and I began analyzing him, purely out of uneasiness. The leather jacket he wore was very thin, and some kind of a dark, oaky brown. He was clean shaven, high cheek-boned, with a buzzcut, a few razor thin scars visible on his scalp. His features had an intensely magnetic charisma, rich with the piercing charm of a men's jeans model, or the antihero of an action movie. If I had to make a guess he was probably from somewhere like Brazil or Spain or something, and maybe the same age as me if not a year or two younger. I tried not to focus on him too much, but my mind nervously scanned and took account of every single thing around me. I jotted it off as a defense mechanism that I was subconsciously applying to keep myself occupied with simple thoughts and observations.

"We gotta stop by my place," said the other individual in the front passenger as he turned around to face me. "We're dropping me off first." His appearance was the opposite of his counterpart apart from the fact that they were both about the same age. His hair was long, jaw sharp and stained with stubble, features reminiscent of some kind of West Europe descent if I had to guess. Maybe German. I just jotted him down as unfriendly, long hair, German, and the driver as intimidating, buzzcut, Brazilian.

"No problem," I said with a nod, quickly glancing out the window, pretending I hadn't just been studying the two of them.

Eventually we had driven a decent distance away from the subway station I needed to be dropped off at, and I wanted to tell them that it would have made much more sense to just leave me at the subway rather than driving all this way first, but I kept silent. An unnatural and uneasy feeling was spreading through my body, and I battled against the scenarios that were forming in my mind.

"Kind of a rush to get me home first, got work in the morning," said the German as though he was reading my mind.

"Yeah, no worries," I replied, clinging onto his words and wrapping them tightly with as much truth and credibility for this man as I could muster up.

They pulled the car over to the side of the road on a dead section of street, only the lights from one small building dimly illuminating the sidewalk in front of it. Everything else was closed at this hour.

"Gonna grab some darts," said the German as he and his counterpart opened their doors.

"Should I just wait in the car?"

"Come," said the Brazilian as he stepped out into the street.

I popped open the door and exited the vehicle, clapping the door shut behind me. The neighbourhood we were in was dilapidated and quiet. No one around, just newspapers and trash blowing around like tumbleweeds, the nearby stench of piss ripe in the air.

We moved silently along the sidewalk towards the flickering buzz of light coming from the stained windows of a small convenience store. As we approached the front entrance of the store I could see the rustling leaves of trees from the nearby park. Most of the park's path lights were broken or barely working, giving off the illusion of a deep, murky forest. A cool, yawning breeze vented over from the trees, the draft rustling my hair lightly. The trees probably bordered a large body of water or something, but I wasn't certain. I didn't know this park.