“TAXI!” I yelled out waving my good arm towards that old hunk of yellow painted metal. I had to wave and yell a couple more times to get their attention “hey it’s fine take all the time you want it’s not like I’m bleeding out here”. I impatiently tap my foot as eventually the taxi stops in front of me.

I immediately yanked open one of the doors and nearly flung myself into the back seat. I felt my whole body relax as the seat felt actually pretty comfortable, I had to resist falling asleep right there. “So uhm where are you goin…………is that blood?” I was too tired to explain anything right now “no it’s strawberry jam” but I could still be sarcastic.

“I don’t think this is something to joke about! you look like you're losing a lot of blood you need a doctor” I wasn’t even looking at him but I could tell he was young, probably around my age. “I don’t need a doctor, I'll live plus the doctors around here are either shit or too expensive”, He was right I was losing a lot of blood a lot of blood. “But” oh my god “just shut up and do your job please I don't need the wannabe hero act” he went quiet as it seemed my words worked on him.

He sighed “ok where are you going?” Oh yeah huh what was the address again?. I dug through my pockets until I pulled out that yellow piece of paper and handed it to my driver. I finally got a good look at them and yep they were young, probably eighteen Caucasian. He was pretty scrawny too with a thin build and probably stood around five-ten from what I could see. He had messy black hair and his eyes were pale yellow kinda like a wolf. Finally he was wearing a pair of old cargo pants a plain black shirt and a thin black jacket with a pair of still tipped boots

He didn’t look that bad, wasn't handsome but wasn't ugly but he definitely needed some better clothes. This guy definitely had a poor kid with a heart of gold vibes yeah he's definitely gonna die. “You're heading to a bar? Actually, I heard about this place. It's extremely high class. why are you going to a bar instead of a hospital?”.

“four words” I held up four of my fingers “none” I held one finger down “of” I held two fingers down “your” I held three fingers “business”. “Now start driving because I think we're gonna get shot at if you don’t” His eyes widen “what!? Explain”, “no just drive”.

He tried to protest but my very persuasive friend gun managed to convince him as we quickly started moving. I laid against the seat as I just stared at the window, “So uh what's with the mask?”. “I don’t know what masks are usually for?”. “Sorry I just wanted to have a bit of small talk. I don't like the silence” I could see visibly deflated.

Dammit now I feel like I kicked a puppy “it’s part of my job”. “Oh so you're some sort of assassin?”.

“Yeah actually thought you take you a bit to figure that out”

“Well the weapons, bullets wounds and the mask kinda made it easy to figure out plus you're not the first assassin I had to drive somewhere he was kinda like you” huh he’s sharper then he looks. He kinda needs to be as a taxi driver since there's a lot of dangerous people in this city and people being able to tell who is dangerous and who’s not is an amazing skill.

“Speaking of bullet wounds, how are you gonna take care of them?” oh yeah almost forgot about that. I quickly looked around and saw one of those built-in cigarette lighters, bingo. I unzipped my jacket and pulled out my knife “if you squeamish look away I don’t need you passing out while driving”.

I took a deep breath as I carefully placed the tip of the knife near the entrance of the bullet hole and with a wince I slowly pushed the knife inside. I grit my teeth as I dug around for several seconds trying to find the bullet. In the process of me digging out the bullet a lot of blood gushed from the bullet hole, “goddammit it’s gonna be a bitch to wash this out”. “Seriously, that's what you're worried about, not bleeding out?” with a tug I yank the bullet out and I quickly started the same process for my other injury “yes”.

I got the other bullet as I grabbed the cigarette lighter, turned it on and slowly placed it against my shoulder injury. “MOTHERFUCKER!” I grit my teeth so hard that I thought they would nearly crack. I felt my flesh sizzle and burn as the heat slowly burned the injury close. After a couple seconds I yanked it away from my shoulder and without giving myself a second to rest as I placed the lighter on my thigh.

The pain was horrible, I'd say that I’ve felt worse but the thing is pain is pain it sucks no matter what. When I was done I placed the lighter down as I took a couple seconds to take several deep breaths. “That was hardcore” I turned to my driver “thanks”. “So uhm we should be at your destination soon” I gave him a thumbs up as I laid against the seat and looked out the window.

I looked at passing by cars and different shops as I didn’t find anything of note. After a bit I noticed something there were three greenish black SUV’s keeping similar pace with. They didn’t try to move past us just staying close. I looked through one of the windows and saw a very familiar ugly mug of one of the scorpion's members.

“Of course they got cars, I'm not that lucky” I sighed as I unholstered my rifle off back and turned around. “Hey what’s going on?” I could feel the confusion and worry in my driver's voice “just keep driving and try not to get shot”, “WHAT!”.

I smash the rear window as I quickly set up my rifle and take aim, “MY WINDOW”. There are three SUVs with around six people in each one making a total of eighteen scorpians members and most of them probably have a gun. Bang! Well now there's seventeen scorpions as I put a nice hole into the head of one of the drivers. The car started to swerve as one of the other scorpions quickly took his place.

“Hey get ready to start swerving” I yell as two scorpions start to hang out of the windows “why?” as if they could hear his question the scorpions aimed their assault rifles at us and fired as I immediately dropped to the floor of the car. A hail of bullets flew towards the car, not all of them hit but a few did rip through the steel of the car. “Fuck!” I heard a yelp of pain from our driver as I could see part of his right ear was missing.

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“I I I’ve been shot fuck I’m bleeding” I could see him starting to shake “jeez relax it’s not even that bad but if you don’t start swerving you’ll get something to actually freak out about!”. I seemed to knock him out of his mini panic attack as he immediately got turning the wheel. As the car swerved to the right I felt myself move a bit with it as The car stopped being turned into swiss cheese.

I waited a couple more seconds as I immediately sat back up and aimed my rifle as I could see that the shooters were reloading due to firing like madmen and wasting all their ammo Bang bang!. let off two more shots as I painted the gray matter of one of their drivers across her friends face but sadly I was only able to grace the other due to the car swerving once again.

“Hey keep this thing” I stopped mid sentence as I was about to tell him to keep this thing steady but I did tell him to swerve. “What was that? my hearing is a bit messed up”. “Step on the gas like the speed limit was shot in an alley!” He nodded as we started speeding down the street. The scorpions finally started to fire again as I quickly duck down because even bad shots can get lucky.

I noticed their shots were no longer constantly more in burst “great they finally used their other brain cell”. A few more bullets flew through the car as my driver got grazed across the shoulder. “God dammit” I’m gonna need to watch after this guy too, yaaaaaay. I immediately sat up and let off several shots popping out a couple leaving twelve scorpions left and me three bullets.

I sighed “I can work with this” we made a hard right as we were now driving down an alleyway. The scorpions quickly had to drive one by one as one of them smashed their blinkers trying to make a quick turn, maybe they’ll get pulled over. As we drove down the alley way I realized something: the driver went down here on purpose.

The scorpions shoot at us due to the tight space and it makes it a lot easier for me to land a shot. Instead of aiming for one of the drivers I instead took aim for one of the tires. Bang! bang!, the front tires of the SUV popped open quickly making the car slow down and in process making the other two cars crash into each other.

I whistle “I have to admit that was actually pretty smart” I turned to the driver as I laid against the seat. “Th-thanks” he was shaking as I rolled my eyes “hey you were badass so stop shaking and be proud of yourself for your driving skills”. He took a shaky breath “y-yeah your right I was a badass”, “don’t get ahead of yourself” he visibly deflated as finally we got out of the alley way.

I laid back into the seat as I took a deep breath and finally started to relax “so do you have a radio”. “No can't afford one” I frowned “that sucks” he nodded as we sat in silence as we drove down a more populated street.

“Hey” I tap him on the shoulder “yeah?”, “what's your name?” He looked at me for a couple seconds. “Dude it’s not like I’m going to steal your soul if you tell me your name I just wanna actually know you by something besides driver”. “Oh well I’m Noah you?” I pat him on the shoulder “Cass” He gave a smile “well Nice to meet you Cass”. “Cool now that we're acquainted, get me to my destination” he gave me a thumbs up “gotcha boss”.

I looked out the window and just relaxed. I stared at the city, the bright lights nearly mesmerizing, the buildings each one more different from the last from the way they were built to how they were painted. Each person looked like shit but they seemed content and hopeful, motivated to live a good life no matter what.

This city was beautiful in its own way, I always remember that after I go through something shitty. Sadly my view of the city was blocked as a car drove to our side of us. The car weirdly didn’t pass us and instead went at the same pace. I was starting to get annoyed before I could move to the other side. I saw a familiar face. It was the scorpion who shot me earlier and he was grinning as he already pulled the trigger of the gun he held up.

I didn’t have any time to dodge so I fell back as the bullet smashed through the glass as the bullet impacted my forehead. Luckily my mask took the most of the force but sadly it shattered. I felt blood pour down my face as the bullet was lodged in my forehead. I held up my rifle and fired at my shooter. To my annoyance he Ducked as the bullet punched a hole through his two friends.

“Are you!?” I turned Noah shaking as when I fully turned his eyes widened in shock “y-your a rep” I glared at him “not fucking important ram them!”. I nearly growled out each word as Noah swerved to the left smashing into the scorpions, nearly knocking them off the road.

“Fuck fuck fuck what are we gonna do!?”, “I shoot them and you keep ramming into them, that's what we're gonna do”. I reached for my pistol but as I was about to grab it I felt something in my pocket. I pulled it out as it was gasp! The surprise tool aka the little vial knew this would come in handy.

“Change of plans, get far away from them” Leo turned to me and gave me a questioning look “won’t they just shoot us” I held up the vial “just do it”. Noah gave me a worried expression as he quickly swerved us away from the scorpions. When we were about ten feet away I could already see the raining scorpions getting ready to fire and my answer to that was throwing the vial. The scorpion who shot me for the third time gave me a confused look as he slowly looked at the vial flying mid air towards him then at the pistol I held up. His eyes widened in shock as he tried getting out of the car but it was too late as The vial went through the car's broken window and I took a deep breath lined up my shot and fired.

The bullet quickly reached the vial and as soon as the bullet hit the glass a white explosion of flames shot out engulfing the car. The scorpions didn’t even have to scream as the car quickly crashed into a dumpster. I turned away from the burning vehicle as I could see Noah breathing hard. “You ok?” I yank the bullet from my forehead “p-peachy”. “So are you gonna kill me?” I raised an eyebrow “no?” he sighed “oh because your a” he gestured to me at me “you know and I know what your are”.

“You really think I would do that?” He gave me a smirk “no I’m just messing with ya and don't worry I won’t tell a soul” I glared at him ”better not”. After that we drove for a bit mostly in silence except for a bit of small talk here and there mostly started by Noah. Eventually we got to the nicer parts of the city. It wasn't that hard to tell the buildings were all similar and made from nicer materials and the people were wearing less shitty clothing.

“Ok we should be at your destination about now” Noah said as I was finally at the finish line. The bar was around two storey stories and was made from a nice redbrick. There was a large wooden sign on the front of a sparrow in a suit holding a large emerald and the words emerald sparrow just below it.

“Thanks for the ride” I opened up the car door and stopped out. “Uhm your welcome it has been well down right terrifying”. I smirked as I pulled up my hood and holstered my rifle on my back “well that's an average day in this city for ya” I walked up to the oak door entrance and opened the door. “Wait a minute, hey you forgot to pay me!” I stepped inside and turned to Noah and gave him a wave “cya around Noah” and I closed the door, I guess I was wrong about him dying.

The interior of the bar had a very welcoming vibe. The floors were made from nice maple wood and surprisingly very clean, I swear they were shining. The lights in the room gave a kinda goldinish light something similar to a campfire, the room was not too bright but not too dark. The tables in seats all looked hand carved and the whole place just gave me peaceful vibes well except the people here theta all just gave ether looks of suspicion or flat out annoyance. I pulled my hood further down my face as I quickly walked over the bar.

I quickly sat down as the bartender walked over to me. He stood around six-two and it was pretty hard to tell his build due to his gray suit. Actually I couldn’t really get a good look at him due to his face being covered by a blank white mask. All I could tell was that he was white and had dark black hair.

“What will you be having tonight?” His voice was moth and had hints of some sort of accent. what was the code word again oh yeah “A scarlet crow” He stared at me for a couple seconds as if he was scanning me. “Ah you're the one Mr Oliver hired, well follow me he's waiting upstairs. The Bartender quickly left the bar area and went to the stars as I quickly followed him.

We quickly went up the stairs as he opened the door. Ok we're finally here let’s just get this over with and get the money and get home and I can have my well deserved rest. I took a deep breath as I walked through the door, let’s get this over with.