If looks could kill, the man across from them was attempting murder.

“Sebastian!” Bruno grinned. Inside the café, his huge body stood out more than ever. “Brew us up a couple of coffees will ya?”

“Iced for me,” Luca said, taking a look around. With the rain outside, the place was packed full of people. Too many.

“Don’t listen to him,” Bruno reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. “Make ‘em as hot as they come. I don’t want you holding back.”

Behind the counter, Sebastian didn’t budge.

“What? Is there something on my face?”

Sebastian’s glare grew in severity. “We don’t need your dirty money here.”

Bruno looked down at the bills in his hands, then over at Luca. “You think we made this money dirty?” he laughed. Taking a step forward, he slammed his hand on the counter, causing the glasses hanging from the bottom of the cupboards nearby to sway back and forth. “This stuff was filthy from the start. Always has been.”

“Gray suit guy,” Manami said, moving next to Sebastian. “I don’t need you trashing the place, got it?” She slammed her fist down next to Bruno’s, but only caused her pigtails to shake in doing so.

“And I don’t need you making a scene,” Luca said, grabbing Bruno by the arm.

“Ain’t my fault,” Bruno straightened himself back up, adjusting his suit jacket. “Sebastian’s always goin’ on about how more people need to drink coffee. Here I am orderin’ some and what do I get?”

“You don’t respect coffee,” Sebastian said. “I can smell it on you.”

“This is cuz of you, you know,” Bruno turned to Luca with a scowl. “Orderin’ ice coffee like that.”

“Am I supposed to apologize?” Luca sighed. “It’s on the menu, isn’t it?”

“Alright, hurry up,” Manami crossed her arms. “The line’s getting backed up.”

Luca looked behind them. Several young couples stood at a distance, staring back with uneasy eyes.

“You always bring trouble,” Sebastian said. “The coffee’s getting stressed out now. The flavor won’t be right.”

“Baka yarou, you’re the one always causing trouble,” Manami shot a fierce look in Sebastian’s direction. “Just get them what they ordered already.”

“Don’t complain when it tastes wrong. The smell’s already off.”

“I still want mine iced,” Luca said.

“Go sit down,” Sebastian grumbled.

Leaving the money on the counter, the two of them took a seat in one of the remaining booths. “Tell me again why we always come here,” Luca said.

Bruno pulled out his phone and started clumsily typing away. “Sebastian and Manami are good kids,” he said. “Coffee’s good too. Consistent.”

“When’s Marco getting here?” Luca asked.

“How the hell should I know?” Bruno’s eyes stayed fixed downwards.

“Because you’re the one that fucking called him,” Luca said.

“You know him,” Bruno mumbled. “He just said he would meet us here.”

“More importantly,” Luca lowered his voice, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward. “Marco’s a fucking idiot for wanting to meet downtown. We already dropped the bags at the office. I should be at home right now.”

“Calm down,” Bruno spoke in Italian. “Stop being so cautious. Ain’t nothing gonna happen,” he looked up with a confident smile.

“Being an idiot who never worries must be nice.”

“Sirs,” Minami appeared in front of their table carrying a tray. “Your order is ready,” she said in a soft voice. She set down two cups in front of them and left with a bow.

“What’s with the attitude change?” Luca said, but Manami had already made it out of earshot. He glanced down at the table. “And this isn’t iced.”

“Shut up,” Bruno said. “Drink your piping hot coffee like a man.”

Luca brought the cup to his eye level and looked at it intently. Honestly, he really wasn’t in the mood to eat or drink anything. The smell made him feel sick. Looking into the dark liquid, all he could see was the girl staring back at him. He didn’t even know her name or what she looked like, but the idea of her seemed to find its way into whatever he did.

His vision was pulled by the sound of laughter from a neighboring table. The kids sitting there were nothing but smiles, their cheeks still red from the chilled air outside. Luca wondered if the girl had come to places like this, sat down with friends, and laughed her troubles away.

Luca had killed before. He could still remember what it felt like when his knife entered the man’s chest. When they had loan sharked in California, he had gone to intimidate someone who was behind in paying. Somehow, it was the man that got ended up getting aggressive with him. Luca had held him down, fending off a flurry of punches, twisting the knife. He saw the man take his last breath.

Luca had made a decision, and the man’s demise had resulted directly from it. For the girl, his choice to use the watch had somehow resulted in her death. It was an unintended consequence of his actions. As much as he wanted that to alleviate him of responsibility, the fact made him just as responsible as one who murdered her. He should have never touched that fucking watch.

“Your coffee’s gonna get cold,” Bruno’s voice brought him back to the reality of the bustling café.

Luca sat back up in his seat and cleared his throat. “That’s how I wanted it in the first place.”

Bruno’s attention was still on the screen in his hand, and he had almost emptied his cup already. “The news is going crazy,” he said.

“Of course it is.”

“Ain’t been an official announcement by the cops. People are starting to say that it must’a been the KPW,” Bruno let out a booming laugh.

Perturbed with Bruno drawing attention, Luca switched to Italian. “That’s fine. Better that they believe nonsense.”

“Nonsense?” Bruno scowled. “The KPW is real, dumb ass.”

“They’re an urban legend, Bruno,” Luca said. “You trust everything you read online?”

Bruno looked up from his phone. “You picking a fight with me?”

“Are you trying to tell me you believe in some kind of secret club that works behind the scenes to ‘Keep Portland Weird’?” Luca gritted his teeth. “What the hell does that even mean?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Bruno coughed. “They protect people in danger and all that.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What?” Luca let out a mocking laugh. “Super heroes? Besides, how does protecting people keep the city weird, dumb ass?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Bruno wrinkled his brow. “But there are a ton of stories. Like, they say there’s one in a cloak who can take a hit like nobody’s business.”

“If someone was walking around the city in a cloak, they’d stand out,” Luca smiled. “Even here in this city.”

“They’re real,” A soothing voice spoke directly into Luca’s ear.

He didn’t even have to turn to know it was Marco. “It’s about time.”

Marco slid next to Luca, grabbing his coffee in one fluid motion. Although he wasn’t baby faced, he looked much more like a man in is early twenties than he did his thirties. He gulped the coffee down. “This is lukewarm.”

“Well it was supposed to be cold,” Luca said under his breath. “Anyway, are you really backing up Bruno on this?”

“Luca, my friend,” Marco threw his arm around his shoulder. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

There were a lot of things Marco claimed to have seen ‘with his own eyes’. He told so many bullshit stories, Luca wondered if he was a compulsive liar.

“A few months ago, I was out for a midnight stroll when I ran into some kids in a street fight,” Marco said. “I was going to get in on it when suddenly some guy in a cloak and mask came out of nowhere, like he dropped down from the sky.”

“See? What did I tell ya?” Bruno yelled.

“So he jumped from one of the buildings,” Luca said. “He’s just one of those guys who jumps all over the city.”

“Free runners,” Bruno said.

“Sure, but the buildings around had to be at least ten stories,” Marco said, squeezing Luca’s shoulder.

Luca sighed. There was no point in arguing with the details of one of Marco’s stories.

“Anyway, he jumped into the fray and one of the kids said something like ‘mind your own business’,” Marco always made sure to change his voice for lines like this. “Then he punched the cloaked guy in the stomach.”

“And?” Bruno seemed genuinely interested.

Marco grinned. He pulled Luca forward, so that the three of them were huddled over the table. “Instead of the cloak guy, the kid was the one that buckled over. He broke his fucking hand!” He held up his free hand, contorting it.

“Oh give me a break,” Luca broke out of Marco’s grasp and settled back into the seat.

“See?” Bruno said, returning his attention to his phone. “KPW is real.”

Marco laughed. “This city’s just too much.”

“Alright, story time’s over,” Luca said. “Why did you need to meet us here?”

“I wanted to treat my two favorite colleagues, of course,” Marco said.

“You’re too late to do that,” Bruno said, pointing at his empty cup.

Luca turned in the booth. “Well if that’s all, then I’m calling it a night.”

“I also wanted to talk to you in person about today,” Marco switched to Italian, and lowered his voice.

“This is really a talk we should be having at the office,” Luca clenched his fist.

“I’m sick of being cooped up there,” Marco said. “It feels like I never get out anymore.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Hey now, no one’s gonna hear us, let alone understand what we’re saying,” Marco smiled. “If you’re really worried about it…” he pulled up his sleeve. A silver watch gleamed in the bright lights of the café.

“Marco, don’t,” Luca said.

“Why don’t I reward you both?” he smiled. “You can have any woman you want in this place.”

“Knock it off,” beads of sweat formed on Luca’s forehead. He moved his hand under the table, placing it over his pants pocket. He glanced over at Bruno, who was fixated on his phone.

“Look over there,” Marco motioned.

Two young women were descending the stairs; one was tall with long blonde hair, the other was her opposite, short in both height and hair length.

“Cute, huh? Especially that blonde. What a knockout,” he hopped in his seat. “Why not have a go?”

Luca’s heart dropped. Everything in front of him went red, and he imagined the two of them splattered in blood, bent over like the corpse he and Bruno had left in the warehouse earlier that day. He reached into his pocket and grabbed something cold and metallic. His knife. He was seconds away from pulling it out.

“Calm down,” Marco’s hand hovered over the watch. “We can talk about whatever we want, and we can use these things whenever we want. There’s absolutely no way we can be caught while we have these so just lighten up a little.”

Bruno suddenly stood up, reaching across the table and grabbing Marco by the arm. He pulled upward and yanked him out of his seat, causing him to hit the table with his knees on the way up. The contents of the table bounced, clattering loudly.

“Quit fucking around!” Bruno yelled.

The whole place went silent.

Luca looked on with eyes wide. It took him a moment for him to realize that Marco hadn’t activated his watch. Everyone in the room had their attention fixed on the three of them. Sweat dripping down his face, he removed his hand from the knife in his pocket.

“That’s it!” Manami yelled, jumping over the front counter. “Get the hell out of here, now!”

Bruno didn’t waste a moment, pulling Marco out of the store and into the rain. He threw him to his knees onto the pavement and punched him across his right cheek.

Luca ran out after them. Now, not only were the people inside watching, a group of spectators had formed outside as well.

“What the fuck did I do?” Marco yelled. Bruno’s fist connected with his mouth this time, splitting open his lip.

“That’s enough,” Luca screamed in Italian. “Let’s get out of here before someone gets the cops!”

Bruno heaved Marco up, and the three of them took off down the street. Whether it was a security camera, or just someone’s cell phone, he was sure that their faces had been recorded.

As they pushed their way through crowds of people to reach the parking lot where they left their car, Luca could hear Marco laughing behind him. It grew in intensity, cutting through the night air like a siren.