Last Call

[Johnny x F x]

cont'd from "Pacing"

The moment Johnny hit the street, a cigarette was between his lips and a match was struck. He pursed his lips and set off, his thoughts on dancing, couples, and dancing couples. Maybe one more for the road wasn't such a bad idea. He took the next right and headed towards a dive he knew around the way. His gait was casual, relaxed. Johnny didn't hurry, but he had long strides and walked with purpose. He glanced over his shoulder and jaywalked across, waving a thanks to a car that slowed for him...  

[Johnny x F x]

FLASHBACK - New York, 1978


Maria was beyond beautiful, with honey-colored skin, eyes like inky pools, and matching hair flowing to halfway down her back in loose ringlets and waves. Johnny leaned back against the bar and watched her dance alone and uncaring. As he took a sip of his whiskey, he saw one man break away from his comrades and start angling towards her on the dance floor. This should be amusing, he thought to himself as he finished his drink...  

[Johnny x F x]

He stepped off a busy corner without stopping. The cab that had nearly hit him laid on his horn, startling Johnny out of his reverie.

Stepping back onto the curb he searched for his cigarettes, impatiently waiting for the light to change. He found them just in time and lit one as he crossed (legally, this time), angling out of the crosswalk near the far side to aim for the convenience store on the corner.

He didn't notice the slight figure that had been tailing him step into a darkened doorway across the street.  

[xFTHMx]

With a fresh pack of smokes, Johnny resumed his trek. Moments later, his stalker emerged from her hiding place and made her way across the street. She followed along behind him, about 50 paces back, careful to match her pace to his without looking too hurried or obvious. Ahead, Johnny was still deep in thought, oblivious...

flashback

The stranger had succeeded in sidling up to Maria, and everything appeared to be alright at first. That is, until he started pawing at her, trying get as close to her as he could with their clothes still on, his body moving in a grotesquely suggestive perversion of dancing.

Having had enough, Maria stepped back and tried to push him away, but he grabbed ahold of her wrist and tried to pull her close again. It was at this moment that Johnny appeared at her side. His arrival was so swift, it was almost as if he had teleported himself there from the bar. With a grip like a vice, he grasped the man's wrist and squeezed. He let out a sharp cry and let go of Maria, who backed up several paces with fear in her eyes. This club was generally pretty mellow and she wasn't used to being accosted by strange men, not with Johnny around.

Letting go of the stranger's wrist, Johnny placed himself between the man and his girl, his eyes twinkling with fury. Lucky for him, all the flashing lights made it hard to discern.

"Man, " the stranger spat as he pushed a greasy forelock out of his face, "you don't know who you're messin' with! I'm tryin' t'have a dance with the broad, and you're in my way."

He made the mistake of reaching out to try and push Johnny out of the way. Quick as a snake and just as silently, Johnny diverted the man's reach and jammed a stone-hard palm into the man's solar plexus, sending him reeling into his buddies, who had stepped behind him in a show of force. The two men accompanying the stranger stepped around their winded friend and came at Johnny from two angles. Johnny stood his ground until the last instant, ducking under one man's wildly thrown punch and driving his head up into the man's nose. As blood immediately began gushing, he threw the injured man into his friend, who had held back at Johnny's sudden counterattack. The two tripped each other and fell, hard. As they scrambled to stand, the first assailant helped them to their feet as Johnny calmly stated, "I don't give a s**t who you are. You touch her again and the doctors will be unable to reassemble the bones in your hand."

The men were backing away towards the exit now, hurling insults and threats, swearing revenge. Johnny shrugged them off and merely stared at them icily until the doors swung shut behind them...

Glancing around, Johnny realized that all eyes were on him and the two bouncers finally making their way to the middle of the dance floor. One of them waved at the DJ, who didn't hesitate to get some Bay City Rollers playing over the sound system.

He spoke quietly to Johnny as the three of them escorted Maria to her normal booth near the bar.

"Man, he's right, you don't know who you're messing with, do you?"

"Why should I," Johnny asked, lighting a cigarette and nodding his thanks to the waitress who'd brought them over their usual drinks.

"Man, that's Bobby Patella, Roman Patella's youngest." At Johnny's non-reaction, he continued, "man, the Roman Patella? He's got 5th street locked down tighter than Sing-Sing, man. He's a big deal around here, and he ain't gonna like you roughing his baby boy up."

Johnny just shrugged and took a sip of whiskey. "Guess he shoulda taught his kid better manners."

/flashback

Johnny looked up and realized he was almost to his destination. A blinking neon Bud Light sign was the only indication that Dusty's was actually a bar (and it was actually open for business, unlike the vacant storefronts surrounding it on either side). Extinguishing his cigarette, Johnny stepped into the dingy, windowless establishment.  

[xFTHMx]

Caitlin Murphy faced a difficult decision as Johnny turned into the bar. This neighborhood was a little sketchy, but if she followed him into that bar, she would be noticed right away, and that was something she couldn't afford.

Slowing her pace, she glanced at her watch... One-thirty. Last call was quickly approaching, but this didn't look like the kinda place that paid too much attention to laws and regulations. She glanced around before crossing the street to take shelter under the awning of an abandoned hardware store. The bum who had taken residence there stirred fitfully, snorted, but didn't wake up.

She hoped she wouldn't be waiting long... this place gave her the creeps.  

[xFTHMx]

flashback


Johnny and Maria stepped out of the club and into the crisp winter air, still laughing at three A.M., but as they approached the parking garage, a black Lincoln sedan pulled up from behind. Johnny glanced over his shoulder and saw Bobby Patella at the wheel, windows rolling down and gun muzzles being stuck out of them...

The world seemed to slow for him as he wordlessly grabbed Maria and flung her flat on the sidewalk, throwing himself atop her as a barrage of lead chipped stone and cement, breaking glass, ricocheting off the parking meters and wrought iron bars on the windows of the businesses they passed.

Squealing tires and Johnny was on his feet again, barely noticing the bullet lodged in his spine or the two in his shoulder. He ran out into the street as the car fishtailed around a corner and roared off into the night. Swearing, Johnny spun around and stopped dead in his tracks as he saw his girlfriend lying motionless on the sidewalk, a thick, sticky puddle spreading over the sidewalk and curb and into the street... [/flashback]  

[Immortal Ghost]

"Ya know, you stick out a bit sweetness." The speaker was a woman, "Or was it something Murphy or something, eh, I don't pay much attention to be honest, other watchers bore me." Kalika put out her cig only to light another one, she blended in with the neighborhood they were in which was kinda scary given she hadn't tried to. "I'm really surprised he didn't notice you, must be in his own head."

 

[xFTHMx]

Startled, Caitlin looked up from where she sat with her elbows resting on her knees in front of her face. Had she been dozing? No, just zoning out, she told herself.

"Well," she replied, "i fit in about as well as he does. Besides, my choice was fit in at the bar he was at earlier, or fit in on the streets on his walk to and from. I figure on the walk it's a lot easier to just stay out of his sight... You're right though... I've been watching him for a week and he has an uncanny ability to apparently disappear at will... I've rounded corners moments after him and he hasn't been anywhere to be found."

Cait glanced at the snoring bum again and patted the cement next to her.

"Have a seat, if you want. He might be in there for a while. I'm Caitlin Murphy."  

[Immortal Ghost]

"I hope you realize that place has a well use back entrance/exit." She stated even as she sat down, eh, might as well for the moment, course she wasn't suppose to be here, hell she wasn't suppose to be near immortals. Eh, she never cared about that now, why start now, besides she hadn't killed anyone since moving here, and she had behaved, okay past randomly talking to that one immortal chick, which was against the rules. "Kalika, prefer Kali." She didn't give a last name just because she chose it, it wasn't a family name, but then that would have required having a family. "So you're a newbie hu?" Now there was a hint of bitterness in her voice, it wasn't bad enough her gray eyes were devoid of emotion. "May you have better luck then I did."

 

[xFTHMx]

"Back door, huh," she snorted. "It figures. No, I'm new to town, new to the job, new to a lot of things. How long have you been uhh, watching?"

Caitlin leaned over to look down the alley, hoping to catch a glimpse of Johnny if he left the back way.  

[Immortal Ghost]

"Was watching you mean, I'm to mentally unstable and simi-suicidal, I'm still trying to get cleared to get an assignment after my last went nutty and had to be contained." She lacking emotions, but a hand strayed to the scar around her neck, she had a hew scares from those happenings.

 

[xFTHMx]

At Kali's stoicism, Cait arched an eyebrow, but replied, "nutty? Like... nuts how? And isn't containment kinda against the rules?"  

[Immortal Ghost]

"Eh, I guess containment is the wrong word persee, erm, like I goddamn know, I was in the ******** hospital getting stitched up at the time and trying to not die." Kali paused when she realized she was getting upset and corrected the problem. "And the nutty problem has been worked on, now it's the mental instability that's a problem, oh and the whole I don't give I ********. Give me someone to watch and I'll follow the rules after last time, otherwise ******** the damned rules."

 

[xFTHMx]

"Woah, woah, woah.... relax... You'll blow my cover." Caitlin glanced up and down the street, checking to make sure no one was watching her now. "Sorry, I'm paranoid about messing this up. So little is known about this guy, and I want to be the one who cracks him, gets the inner workings of the man, y'know? He comes and goes without a trace or warning and appears years later on the other side of the world looking more and more secluded. We have yet to even figure out how he gets his money, much less spends his time. I've gotten glimpses through the shutters and he's almost always on the computer or reading and taking notes, but I can't figure out what he's working on for the life of me."  

[Immortal Ghost]

Kali gave a shrug, she didn't bother to understand them, or anyone anymore, it seemed rather pointless to her in the long run. "Uh, good luck with that then?" Another, "You do realize he's more than likely gonna outlive you right? So, it's kinda doubtful you learn s**t."