Cavaliere del Giardino Overture

Chapter 7

The bartender stared at the ring for a while, Zito was his name. "You two killed a vampire?" He asked before lifting the ring and sniffing it.

"Technically I did," Sammy said walking to the bar. "Go mingle, Pilo," She said patting his shoulder. Pilo nodded going to sit down, sitting at the table with the Mantis.

"Well, a good thing," Angelos said looking at the ring. "Not anyone important to the mafia," He tossed the ring to Zito. "Merely a hitman, no capo and definitely not the boss or underboss," He said before yawning and standing. "The issue is you did kill a member which means your a target," He said. "It could be worse....You could have the attention of the boss," he continued before pouring Sammy a drink with a hum. Sammy looked in tilting her head. "Giants call it apple juice, snails enjoy it I heard,"

"Not wrong but not right," Sammy said drinking it before taking the seat. Pilo watched as Bria looked up from his book. Sammy looked at the ring. "A hitman? Are you saying someone was supposed to die in our garden," She asked softly. "Who?"

"Well, I'd assume the king of the Garden whoever that is," Zito said before drinking his own drink. "Gib! Gob! You two head on out, Goob," he looked to the last grasshopper. "Make sure no one follows those two!" The three grasshoppers lept to the ceiling climbing out of a trap-door.

Gib and Gob were dressed in bright green and red toy armor, with a sword attached to their hips. Gib was short and had an uppercase G on his armor, Gob, larger with a lowercase g on his helmet.

Angelos looked at them. "Now that those chucklefucks are gone," He said. "Who is your king?" He asked. "What garden are you each from?"

Sammy gulped. "We're from the Snail Garden, our king is Caro, the god eater," Angelos shrugged, Zito narrowed his eyes, but Bria smiled behind his book.

"Then that's exactly who they were going after?"

"Do you know something about this?" Pilo asked narrowing his eyes to the Mantis.

"Well, God eater, right," He asked. "Someone with power, Easy, someone put a hit on him," Bria said. "Someone possibly jealous, though now I'm thinking about it, It could be a Cult who did it...." He thought for a moment, tapping his fingers against his chin. "Cult of the Wurm makes sense but it can't be them, they're in the desert,"

"You know about them too!?" Pilo asked as Sammy chuckled. Pilo leaned back in the chair. "So, what?" He asked. "Caro is strong, and if they're only after him then we should be safe," he said. "Caro can kill them all without swinging his sword," Pilo said.

"That's a lot of faith in the old man," Sammy smirked.

"It's a lot deeper than just killing the one they attack they usually kill whole gardens. Drink the families of the deceased for fear of vengeance and if they're young, make them work for them as hitmen," They heard Bria say. "Not very good hitmen if you ask me," Bria continue with a small chuckle.

"Then what?" Sammy asked quietly. "What do we do?" She asked.

Angelos looked at her. "Well, if they'll keep coming after you guys then why not go to them?" He asked. "You've killed one," He said to the two. Bria turned to the three as Zito raised an eyebrow.

"That is a terrible idea, Angelos!" Bria said as Angelos spun in his seat. "They'll get the attention of the capos, or worse the underboss, or even worse the boss, then what!? It comes back to us!" His voice cracked and broke.

Pilo looked at him for a moment. "Hey man," Pilo said. "Calm down, it's clear you've been through some shit," He said grabbing his shoulder trying to ease him back to his seat.

Sammy narrowed her eyes before turning back to Angelos in her seat. "I'd rather not worry or get you guys in trouble," She said before thinking. "Surprised you're not hellbent on killin' them, Pilo!" She said before turning around.

"I am," He replied. "As much as I think Caro can handle it, the idea of them getting close enough to kill 'im makes me sick,"

"You two are insane!" Bria said as he looked to Angelos. "You too!" He frowned. "I can't believe this! When they kill you two they'll kill derp and Zito and-"

"Don't even say me," Angelos said before standing up. "If it helps do something positive for bugs, I don't mind losing my life for a decent cause," He said.

Zito stared before shrugging. "You three better have a goddamn good idea, no amount of my old magic will be enough to go into any house filled with vampires."

"That's a good point, what can you two do?" Angelos asked. "I don't have a useful spell, only being able to look through walls for four seconds at a time."

Pilo smiled. "Yo, Zito, put a bottle on the bar." Zito did as Pilo fired a bullet hearing the glass shatter. He held his hand and frowned. A piece of the glass hit his finger. He sat down and looked at Bria before giving a small smile.

In the grip of silent panic, wild eyes, pupils dilated, heart racing, brain on fire, brain synapses firing like a hyped-up internal aurora borealis, like a cluster bomb exploding in his brain, turned his brain to a mental soup of conflicting instructions, brain frozen, brain feeling like it's seized up, shrill scream, running aimlessly, frozen in panic, almost threw up, brain feeling like it's been pickled in brine, then he snapped out of it when Pilo spoke.

"Hey, uh, don't think I can use a page of your book to wrap this little cut, do you?"

"Absolutely not," He said before standing. "I can bandage you up, though, bee," he said. "Come with me," he started walking. Pilo followed humming.

"And you?" Angelos said.

Sammy shrugged. "Don't have a power, snails aren't usually graced with magic," She said shrugging and downing her apple juice. "Plus, if I did it'd probably be for dire moments."

Meanwhile in the snail garden.

Caro opened the door when he got a knock and saw a vampire looming over him. "Are you Caro Abila?" He heard them ask.

"I am," he said. "Who are you?"

"We will make this quite click," The vampire swung towards him only for him to duck and raise his hand, firing a blast that ripped through both vampires. The wind went still after the shot rang out. He walked over and grabbed a paper on one of the burning vampire's corpses. "Hmmm, let them come," Caro shrugged walking inside and shutting the door.