Inferno

Chapter 5

 I look at the clock beside me, it reads 6:58 PM. I've been at the shooting range since 6 AM. I guess I should take a break and grab some food, I think to myself. I see the vending machine behind the third stall where I got a bag of pretzels for lunch and advance towards it. Maybe I'll get some Doritos, or even pocky. Hell, why not both. It is free after all. I press 12 and Doritos fall down, just when I'm about to grab them, a pale hand picks them up. Luhan. Grabbing the Doritos from him I ask,

"What do you want Luhan?" Making sure to add in a dirty look

"Did you forget already?" Luhan rolls his eyes as I show no effort to reply, "We have our mission now."

Hoping Luhan didn't catch the spark in my eyes, I reply,

"Did you want to watch me snipe? I haven't missed any since 1 PM." I say trying to contain my excitement

"I believe you. Don't let nerves get in your way during tonight." Luhan says casually, "Come on, let's quickly stop by Maggiano's Pasta Bar and grab you some proper food. Can't snipe on an empty stomach!" Luhan adds the last sentence in cutely, causing me to gag.

 We arrive at Maggiano's, the restaurant is set up to look exactly like Sicily, from what I assume Sicily looks like after watching The Godfather trilogy four times. Cutting off my thoughts, Luhan elbows me in my side,

"What do you want?" He asks as if he doesn't truly care

"Well... I don't know. I've never actually had pasta before." I admit embarrassingly, "Is it like ramen?"

"We'll have two seafood linguine's with white cooking whine, not red. To go." Luhan tells the waitress, ignoring my comment completely.

We sit down at the bar, watching two chefs cut pasta noodles. I think it is spaghetti, but they all look the same to me. One man throws the noodles in the air as the other slices them in half with an extremely sharp chefs knife. My mind wanders at the sight of the blade, I begin to imagine the man losing control of the razor-sharp knife and accidentally slitting the other mans throat. I visualize the blood shooting out of his internal jugular, spraying the man with the knife and their pile of pasta. I bring myself back to reality, watching the men boringly as they cut the pasta.

"So I read you're from Seoul" Luhan says in an attempt to make conversation

"Yeah." My mind flashes to my family and how worried they must be. I wish there was some way I could contact them, but even if I did, they wouldn't like to hear what I've become. How could I tell my own mother I had killed a man on my first day in New York? And now I'm training to be an assassin for the biggest mafia in North America. Yeah, as if that would go well. Luhan sees my distress, hoping to make me feel the slightest bit better he adds,

"I'm from Beijing. I know what you're going through, wishing you could see your mothers face one more time." Luhan orders a glass of expensive looking wine, taking a sip before he continues, "I wish I could tell you the pain weakens over time, but in all honesty, it doesn't. I think of my parents every morning. I think of my mother after every mission, how she would react if I told her how many people I just killed. I can never visualize what her reaction would be, if she would hate me or if her love for her only child would prevail."

Our conversation is cut off when a beautiful blonde waitress brings us our food,

"Have a good night, Phantom." She says while she checks him out from head to toe

Luhan simply ignores the waitresses comment and walks out the door. Once we are a fair distance from the restaurant, Luhan opens the bag of food and takes out a slip of paper, just as I begin to realize it has the waitresses number on it, he throws it in the garbage nonchalantly.