3rd Shot: The Night After

3^rd Shot: The Night After

      Vincent rolls out of bed to the evil fiendish sound of his much dreaded alarm clock that set next to a picture of his mother, father, and himself from two years ago. Staying up all night collecting bounty and drinking jasmine tea with Shina drained him more than he thought it would. He looks to his left after slapping the insulting alarm clock to see a vacant space. Turns out he was too puckered out to return for Kelly.

            After finishing his morning commitments of showering and teeth brushing, Vincent retires to his kitchen to fill his gullet wearing a black beater and a pair of fatigue green jeans with his red chaps flung over his shoulder and steel toe boots gracing his feet. He claps his hands and automatic blinds the size of a country open revealing the exterior walls are of glass in front him. He takes a moment to enjoy his view of the desert. For a moment he spreads his arms and embraces the rays of light, and in the next he continues on to the kitchen for food. As he approaches a black marble tall seated table he hears a fawning outside, snapping his eyes to the left. He was so sleepy this morning that he had forgotten that he had bought Shiva from the stable.

            “Hey there girl. Good morning.” Vincent waves as Shiva kicks up from the other side of the glass walls and skips around in the frontward open space, never leaving Vincent’s sight.

            He walks over to the chrome finished refrigerator, and pulls out a cold beer and moves to the freezer to pull out a box of precooked chicken tenders. Of the many things Vincent had learned from Shina and his mother, cooking was not one of them. He pours the tenders onto a plate and throws them into a microwave oven for seven minutes.

            While waiting for his food to defrost and cook, Vincent walks to a short hallway opposite his glass walls. Its floors are a brown tile and there is a shotgun sitting beside an umbrella next to his front door. He opens the door to retrieve a folded newspaper that sat on a green welcome mat.   

Upon returning from the door the microwave sounds, signifying that his breakfast was now ready. He places the newspaper under his arm and uses red cooking mittens to remove the scorching plate of chicken tenders from the rotating plate and slides the plate onto the wooden top table behind him.

Vincent flops into a chair and propping his feet onto the table he begins to eat while he reads the bounty pages of his newspaper. The first article talks about a man who stole a famous painting of a beautiful woman, however the picture of said painting looked more like a man dressed like a woman posing for the painting.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” laughs Vincent while chewing a piece of the meat as he looked at the description of the thief. The article read:

Geller Ward

5:7

300Ibs

Green Eyed

Blonde

Last seen wearing a mask of one of the governor’s face, black turtle neck sweater, yellow utility belt, and a rubber chicken strapped to his waist.

: The words send Vincent into a wild laugh and he slaps his knee trying to catch his breath.

Further down another odd act of crime reads of a freakish cult roaming the outer cities wearing strange masks and white cloaks, and finally, a zip line to Shina’s words hit Vincent. A stunning red headed girl with a sword and her young dark skinned, white haired accomplice have been tracked to Neptuna city. The bounty for them is a half million each. Vincent takes a good long look at the girl’s eyes and sees the strength of at least ten men, and the boy looks like he came from wealth.

Vincent shoves his legs into his red chaps and connects them to his pants before flopping back down into his chair to finish murdering his food.

After finishing his last bite Vincent rises to his feet and walks to the front hallway of his home and goes into a secret door to the left.

Inside the room of the door Vincent is faced with twelve guns on a rack each with three clips and sets of bullets beside them. He picks up a silver and black semi-automatic pistol along with its gold and white twin, and the colt python revolver twins that he had the night before when he brought in the Styx members.

Vincent c***s the first semi-automatic and loads it into an opening on the side of the leg of his chaps and repeats for the other. On the side of the guns is a rack with a trench coat hanging on it. Vincent swings the coat over his back and slides his arms in with the ease and style of a corny action movie and heads out of his front door.

Exiting his house is a garage and Vincent mount’s his motorcycle after pressing a button on his wall. The garage door opens spilling light into the gray stone room of auto mechanic tools and gasoline smell and Vincent revs up his bike and speeds out like a cheetah chasing its prey. Another button pressed on the bike closes the garage and seals Vincent’s desert home. The heat from the sun feels great and the wind blowing past Vincent’s face is the exact reason why he never wears a helmet.

As Vincent zips in the dirt of the desert a vibration shivers in his pocket and calls his attention. Without slowing down a bit Vincent answers his phone to hear the voice of Kelly.

“Hey Vinnie, I thought you said you’d be back for a private lesson again?” she sighs on the other end. “I was considering making it a free visit.”

“Ha!” Vincent laughs making a turn in the road and heading toward mountains colored purple from the heat and farness. “When have you ever done anything for free?” Vincent jokes.

“Aw, you’re breaking a poor girl’s heart Vinnie, I can be quite generous.”

“…Yeah. You can be pretty generous with other men’s money. Why the call, what’s up?” chuckles Vincent.

“Your imp friend called and wanted to pass you a message. He says that Shina’s been calling him for you and she says to go straight to Neptuna, do not stop for anything, do not talk to anyone and most importantly do not slow down.” she says lazily obviously chewing gum and popping it without concern for anyone else’s eardrums.

“Thanks for the message Kelly take care.” Vincent says speeding onward to Neptuna City.