Obscure Blood

Chapter Nine

That night, Octa stood at the river park, watching the bushes and the birds. He then walked on the bike trails as he stared at the bright moon. As he veered into the corner of the street, he met a man face to face, who was holding a knife. He said, "I just gonna get a mini portion." His skin was dark, and he had broad shoulders.

The man ran toward Octa.

Blocking the knife with his forearm, Octa received a defensive wound.

Octa managed to take the knife from his attacker, and elbowed him twice in the face. Three men appeared from nowhere. Octa ran. In rapid succession, several gunshots echoed in the street. They ran after him as they continued shooting at him. He made a sharp right turn, jumped in his car and sped off.

He made it safely to II Gabbiano restaurant.

Panting, he got out of the car, then he stood against it to calm down. He got there at 11:05 p.m. for his appointment. He walked in, and the waitress highlighted his name on the list and directed him to the restroom.

He cleaned his wounds and wrapped them with a piece of cloth from the back of his undershirt. Then, he entered the last of the small toilet stalls to urinate. It was the handicap stall and was not locked. Just as he unzipped his pants, several men walked in talking in low voices. He held on to his urine. He recognized one of the voices. It was the security guard for the evidence room.

As he stood motionless, he overheard a startling conversation between the security guard and two other characters. "Don't worry," the guard said. "As soon as I hire a hit man to kill Octa, everything will be fine."

"Lower your voice," one of the other men said. "Someone might be listening." Then, one of the men bent down to scan beneath all three toilet stalls. He stood up when he realized all was good to go. They washed their hands, and walked out.

As soon as he heard the door closing, Octa, who had been kneeling on the boarder of the toilet, stepped down. He finished urinating, washed his hands, and, disturbed by the smell of cigarettes in the restroom, looked around for it. He found one in the trash can. It had an eagle sign at the end of it. He bagged it and put it in the inside coat pocket. The security guard never smokes this kind of cigarettes, he thought. It belonged to one of the unknown characters.

The restaurant had large, mullioned windows and the curtains were long and embroidered. The tables were dark brown. There were roses on each table, some were real and some were fake. The lounge contained an embellished couch, rectangular coffee tables, and shiny silver trays. The floor was made of flagstone tile.

As he stared across the dining room pretending to wait for the hostess, from a distance, he saw the security guard shaking the hand of two, old characters and then the two men left the restaurant. He quickly walked out to see their faces clearly. Presenting their backs to the building, they entered a waiting limousine. He ran toward the vehicle, saying, "Sir! Sir, you dropped your wallet."

The limousine stopped. The man inside rolled the window down. "Damn, who is this?" Octa murmured. He didn't recognize the face, but he knew he was a security as he took the wallet and handed it to the passenger next to him.

"This is not mine," the man said as the security took the wallet from him to hand it back to Octa.

Octa couldn't see his face. It was so dark inside.

"I apologize. I thought it was yours."

He saw the security take a cigarette out of his pocket to smoke, giving him a weird look. The cigarette had a 999 symbol on the filter which is 666 upside down.

Octa went back in and took a seat at the table with the rest of the crew waiting on the department boss, Scarlet Albany. He drank two cups of red wine and tasted a bread as an appetizer. Then, he pushed his chair away from the table and said, "I'm leaving." The security guard said, "You can't leave. This meeting was set up for the several police officers. Scarlet will be mad."

Octa said, "At least I will not be mad."

He stepped out onto the sidewalk, waiting on the parking valet to bring him his car. He had received a phone call from his boss telling him that she would not be able to make it, and he must inform the others. They can rot in there, he thought.