“Delete it,” Luca said.

Bruno nodded, pressing down on his phone screen with his massive thumb. “It’s gone. They ain’t gonna see it.”

Somehow, they ended up coming into the office again today. At home, Luca couldn’t focus. Too many distractions. Too much quiet. Too much time for his mind to start wandering on its own.

As for why the rest of them showed up, he couldn’t say.

“It’s trustworthy?” Marco asked. He sat on the couch, noisily shuffling a deck of cards. He had been at it for at least twenty minutes and he wasn’t getting any better at it.

“Probably not,” Luca sighed. He was just seconds away from getting up and slapping the cards right out of Marco’s hands. “But it’s a lot better than what we’ve heard so far.”

“Really specific,” Bruno added.

Bruno got a notification on his phone about the message at around 9:45 that morning. It was from a throw away account. ‘Anonymous’ with a bunch of numbers after it. No pictures, no posts. Likely, someone created it to send this message and this message alone.

“You may not believe this, but I have information concerning the person that committed the attack on April 2nd,” Bruno clumsily read aloud. “He is a Ca… Caucasian man, around 6 feet tall. During the attack, he was injured by an acquaintance of mine. He should have a fresh burn mark on one of his hands. Please, if possible, pass this information along to the police. Thank you.”

He had Bruno take a screenshot of it. Fortunately, they got to the message before anyone else. There was no way they were going to let it stay in the Clock Link page’s inbox for Liliana to see.

And they weren’t going to pass it along to the police either.

“A tall white guy with a burn isn’t much to go off of,” Marco fumbled with his hands, sending the deck of cards flying everywhere. “Fuck.”

“52 card pickup,” Bruno mumbled, seemingly to no one in particular.

“You really intend on going to the mall today?” Ferro’s voice echoed behind him.

“That’s right,” Luca turned his head. “Are you going to try and stop me again?”

“No,” Ferro looked back at him with his hawk-like eyes. “I was just curious about your intentions. What exactly is it that you think you’re going to accomplish?”

“This is just information gathering,” Luca said. “It’s as simple as finding mall employees that’re wearing watches.”

“And look out for burns while we’re at it,” Bruno said, his attention focused on the tiny screen in front of him.

“You’re not going to try and stop time and see who moves, are you?” Ferro set down the papers he was holding.

“Will you stop worrying already?” Luca reached into the pocket of his suit and pulled out his cigarette case. “This is just scouting work. No different than what you and Marco did. We’re not going to do anything stupid.”

Ferro leaned back in his computer chair and exhaled noisily from his nose.

“Besides, there’s no guarantee that they even work there,” Luca went on. “And even if they do, they might not be there today. I’m not expecting much, so you can rest easy.”

“With all due respect, you’d do best to learn from all those detective novels you read,” Ferro said. “You keep looking at this like you know everything there is to know to catch this guy.”

“What are you going on about now?”

“I’m saying that if there are watches that stop time, then you have no idea what else might be going on,” Ferro pointed at him. “The minute the watches were involved, the chances at this being fair-play were out the window.”

Luca bit his lip. He couldn’t deny that Ferro was right. There was no telling what information he was missing. After all, they didn’t even know where the watches came from in the first place.

It was like he was trying to put together a puzzle he only had half the pieces for.

“Alright, enough of all this bullshit,” Marco groaned. It seemed he had finished gathering together all the cards again and was lying back down. “Are you headed out soon?”

“’Round noon,” Bruno said. “Probably won’t leave for at least an hour.”

“In that case,” Marco got up from the couch. “Why don’t we play a game? For old times’ sake.” He held out the deck of cards.

“Poker?” Luca asked. “You’re no good. You always bet all your money on garbage hands.”

“What can I say?” Macro shrugged. “A man’s got to take chances if he wants to hit it big.”

“Casinos must love you,” Luca put his cigarette case back in his pocket. “Alright, I wouldn’t mind making your pockets a little lighter.”

“I’d rather play without cash involved,” Bruno said.

“No cash?” Marco laughed. “Tell you what, we’ll keep it at fifty per person.”

“I ain’t playin’ if there’s money involved,” Bruno repeated, much more seriously this time.

Great. Bruno was in one of his moods. He would insist on something for seemingly no reason at all, like a child throwing a tantrum. Of course, if the roles were reversed, he’d probably go on about how everyone should shut up and play the game like men.

Whatever. It’s not like Luca needed to be getting all buddy-buddy with them anyway.

“Well poker isn’t much fun if you’re not betting,” Marco said. “How about a different one?”

“If you really wanna play that bad,” Bruno grumbled.

“Let’s do ‘Capitalism’ then,” Marco grinned, pulling up a chair to the table that sat in the center of the room just behind the couches. “No money. Just the usual stuff.”

“Alright,” Bruno shut off his phone’s screen and joined him.

“Ferro, get over here,” Marco waved.

Ferro didn’t complain, getting up and walking over to them. Surprisingly, Ferro never turned down a game of cards.

Luca sighed. He didn’t really feel like playing a kid’s game but he didn’t really feel like hearing the two of them whine if he tried to back out either. It would only be for an hour. Best to just get it over with.

He sat down at the table with them. This would probably be the last time the four of them would do this together.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

He wasn’t going to miss it.

“Alright, alright,” Marco quickly divided the cards between them. “All house rules in effect. And I mean all of them.”

“I’m goin’ first then,” Bruno said. He placed down three 4’s.

“Starting things off with a bang, huh?” Marco laughed. He threw down three Kings almost immediately.

“You dumb ass,” Luca sighed. Like usual, Marco was wasting all his strong cards early on. He would end up with nothing but weak ones in the later rounds and be unable to play anything, and that usually coincided with bitching.

Ferro put down three aces in response. Another stupid move. Luca passed. Bruno and Marco did the same.

After that, it wasn’t a surprise that Ferro lost the first game. What was a surprise, however, was that Marco managed to make it out first.

“And now we get to see the American dream at work, boys,” Marco laughed, passing out the card again. “Hand over your two strongest cards, you poor ass piece of shit.”

Ferro did as he was told, but Luca could tell he didn’t appreciate the ‘fun’ attitude Marco took on every time he was the millionaire.

“Did’ya see this post going around?” Bruno asked him, laying down a pair of 7’s. “I saw John Doe share it.”

Marco passed, and Ferro played two 10’s.

“Of course I didn’t,” Luca said. “I can’t spend all day looking at that stupid thing like you.”

Bruno grunted. That was what he usually did when he decided that he was going to ignore what Luca said. “Well ya know how it’s April 4th today?”

“What about it?” Luca threw down two Jacks.

“Apparently, they think the number 4’s unlucky over’n Asia. Japan and China, I guess,” Bruno put down 2’s, clearing the board. “It’s April 4th, so that’s the… fourth day of the fourth month. Super unlucky.”

“Why’s that?” Luca asked, not particularly interested.

“Hmm,” Bruno played an 8 and then grabbed his phone. He flicked his finger upward on the screen while Marco and Ferro continued on. “Some people in the comments are sayin’ that it’s because the number 4 is pronounced the same way ‘death’ is.”

“Death day, huh?” Luca mumbled. “If we kill this guy today then I’ll believe it.”

“I never got why thirteen’s supposed to be so unlucky here,” Marco said.

“Fare tredici,” Bruno suddenly shouted, making all of them jump. “It’s lucky in Italy. Fuck the rest.”

“I’m out,” Luca placed down his last card, the 2 he had been saving.

“God damn it,” Marco practically threw his cards. “My reign is over already.”

Once again, the game ended with Ferro in last.

“Don’t worry about it,” Bruno reached across the table and gave Ferro a squeeze on his arm. “Once you’re poor, it’s tough ta get outta the hole.”

“Capitalism at its finest,” Marco passed out the cards again, even faster this time. “Hey poor man, why don’t you get us some drinks from the fridge?”

“Shut up Marco,” Luca sighed. “You aren’t the millionaire anymore. You don’t get to give the orders.”

Ferro picked out two cards from his hand and gave them to Luca. They were both 2’s, the strongest card in the game. With that, he had three out of the four in the deck. It wasn’t going to take long with a hand like this.

“Four 4’s,” Ferro said, placing them down on the table.

“Holy shit!” Marco cackled. “It’s a revolution. You’re fucked, Luca.”

Luca looked at Ferro dumbfounded. Playing four cards at once meant that the power structure of the entire game changed. 4 had suddenly become the second strongest card.

And 2’s became the weakest.

With passes all around, Ferro dominated the round. He went from rags to riches.

“Whattid I tell ya?” Bruno nodded to himself. “4’s unlucky today.”

“Unlucky, my ass. They worked just fine for Ferro,” Luca said. “Anyway, enough of this stupid game. Let’s get going.”

“There he goes,” Marco said. “Quitting as soon as he starts losing.”

“Shut it,” Luca said. “It’s a Sunday. It’s not going to be easy to get across town.”

“Sure,” Marco called after them. “Don’t have too much fun without us.”

He and Bruno left the office and descended the stairs of the building. Outside, it was overcast. They hurried to the car.

As they got in, Luca pulled a cigarette from his case and lit it with his lighter. “I’ve been dying for a smoke.”

“Dyin’ for a smoke?” Bruno frowned. “The only dyin’ you’re gonna do is when you get cancer. Those things’ll kill ya.”

“Give it a rest already,” he took a huge drag and exhaled the smoke. “If I can’t smoke, there’s no point in living anyway.”

“Suit yourself,” Bruno rolled down his window.

They got to the mall much faster than they anticipated. It was only 11:25. Pietro wouldn’t even be there for another half an hour.

They both decided to get started anyway. It’s not like Pietro being there was going to change things much.

“It’s packed,” Luca said as they walked through the front entrance. You would think an attempted murder would keep people away, but it did just the opposite. Disgusting.

“The time stops’ve beena pretty big topic on Clock Link,” Bruno looked down at his phone as he walked. With his wide shoulders and lack of attention on where he was going, people kept having to move to avoid crashing into him. “People’re interested.”

Just like he thought, the people here were like ants. No, they were like maggots drawn to a rotting corpse. He couldn’t wait to get out of here.

They went from store to store browsing. They walked by employees and tried to get a glimpse at their wrists. If they had a watch, Bruno took down notes in his phone about them.

“That’s the eighth one,” Bruno sighed.

“Yeah, and security is starting to take a… special interest in us,” he motioned behind them with a nod of his head. Two men like them walking to every shop without buying anything probably didn’t look so good. “We should probably take a break.”

“And people try’an say they don’t profile.”

They started walking again.

“Pietro should be here soon,” Luca said. “Let’s head to the food court and wait for him.”

“I’m starvin’,” Bruno yawned.

“Yeah…” Luca trailed off.

Bruno tapped away at a steady pace. “Somethin’ on your mind?”

“I’ve just been thinking,” Luca spoke in Italian. “And the more I think about it, the more it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Whaddya mean?” Bruno didn’t look up from his phone.

“If this guy wants to keep killing, he’s not exactly being careful,” Luca said. “Serial murderers don’t usual strike this close together.”

“That so?”

“They lay low,” he went on. “They wait until the spotlight has moved off them before they kill again.”

Bruno looked up at him. “You think it might be two different guys?”

“I doubt it,” Luca shook his head. “I’d like to think that even if there are other watches out there, there isn’t more than one of them running around killing people.”

“Ya never know,” Bruno said. “We ain’t saints, after all.”

“Well I’m going at it with the assumption that there’s only one guy,” Luca said. “And if that’s the case, then we’re dealing with someone even more dangerous than I thought.”

“Dangerous, huh?” Bruno seemed much more interested in his phone, which only served to piss Luca off. “Just sounds like they’re crazy to me.”

“Yeah, they’re crazy alright, because it means that they might not care if they’re caught,” Luca said. “If that’s the case, they could do anything. Logic won’t mean shit.”

“Hmm,” Bruno turned his attention back to his phone.

In reality, this was probably pointless. Even if the killer did work here, they might not even wear their watch. It was grasping at straws more than anything. The vain hope that some kind of clue would fall in their laps.

He thought about Cory. He wondered if there might be a change in his condition. Maybe he would go to the hospital with Pietro after they were finished up.

Luca was jarred back to his senses as he bumped into someone. “Oh, uh, sorry,” he mumbled.

He looked up. The man in front of him wasn’t moving.

No. It wasn’t just him.

No one was moving.

“Bruno!” Luca spun around. “Somebody used the watc…”

Bruno stood, eyes wide. He held his hands close to his neck.

There was blood. There was blood bubbling from between his fingers with every breath he took.

He didn’t have to say anything for Luca understand. He could see it in Bruno’s eyes. He could see it in the way his body shook. He had seen it before.

It was the look of someone as they slipped into death.

Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out his knife. He flipped out the blade, frantically turning his head in the hopes he would see someone in the crowd move.

No movement. No sound. They were already gone.

All he could hear was the sound of Bruno’s horrid attempts at breathing.

“Bruno, we have to get you to the hospital,” Luca yelled. He tried to grab Bruno around the waist with one arm.

Bruno tensed up and backed away.

“Bruno, come on, what the fuck are you doing?”

Bruno moved his hands and revealed what Luca already knew was there. As more and more blood poured out, Bruno reached down to his wrist and pulled off his watch. He held it out to him.

“We can worry about that later!”

Bruno forced the watch into Luca’s hands. Luca looked up at him. His eyes were glossy.

“Come on… We have to…”

Bruno’s knees buckled. He swayed for a moment, and then he fell face first onto the ground.

Then he was still.

No. This couldn’t be real. Luca must have dozed off in the office or something. He would be waking up any minute.

But he didn’t wake up.

He looked down at the watch in his hand. Thick blood was smeared all over the face of it.

He had to run. This was someone else’s stop. He had no way of knowing when things would start moving again. Even if he managed to press his watch just as things started again, everything would move for at least a split second. If he was caught on camera when that happened…

They would think that he killed Bruno.

“I’m sorry,” Luca looked down at his partner lying at his feet. “I have to leave you here.”

He took off, pushing through the crowd of people as quickly as he could. Every second that ticked by was like an eternity. It was like he was waiting for a bomb to go off.

He made it to the entrance and outside. The stop was much bigger than he thought. Everyone was frozen as far his eyes could see.

He took off running again, holding the watch tight in his hand.