The neon lights of old neon signs shined through the fog, showing off the wealth of old.
A man wearing a coat as dark as the night, smokes a cigarette as he walks down one of the many alleys that make the city a maze for those who don’t know it.
The sounds of the bustling city muffled the noise that reached the ears of the man in black, the sound of beating, screams and laughter.
At the same time that the last ashes from his cigarette reached the ground, he reached the group of people. From where he stood, he could see where the commotion came from. A group of five young men were kicking and punching something in the ground.
From the screams and pleads to stop, the man in black could guess that that something was another man, and an old one at that.
He looked upon the scene with a certain disdain, as if the gruesome image didn’t bother him at all, but something made him move towards the group.
“You have 30 seconds to stop what you are doing and leave.” Said the man in black in a low voice.
The group of men, startled by the sudden appearance of a man they hadn’t noticed before, stopped what they were doing and looked back at him.
“Hey boss, look at this guy.” said one of the gangsters, mockingly.
“What a fool, what did you say little bitch? What are you, police or something?” Said a young man wearing a leather jacket. From his appearance and his demeanour one could infer he was the boss of the group.
Staring directly at the gang leader, the man in black lowered his voice even further, like bothered by their lack of intelligence and action, and said.
“20 seconds.”
The group, annoyed by this intruder, walked up to him, forgetting the one that had been their toy up until now, and surrounded the man in black.
“What’s your name little bitch?” Said the gang leader.
“10 seconds.” Repeated the man in black, reaching inside his pocket.
The gang stood still preparing to punch the living shit out of the man in black the moment he got a gun out of his coat but, to their surprise, his hand came back in sight holding something small, something roughly the size of a coin.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“5 seconds.” Said the man in black, throwing what he had taken from his pocket to the ground.
“A dice? What?” Said the gang leader, confused.
“Time’s out” Said the man in black looking at the dice in the ground. “You wanted to know my name? You Die” He said while taking his other hand from his pocket, this time porting a knife.
His hand moved with the striking speed of a lightning bolt towards the throat of the gang leader. The knife buried itself deep into the neck of the young man and blood started to quickly spill out to the ground.
Confused with what had just happened, the other four didn’t react in time as the man in black moved his free hand towards his other pocket, took another knife and, with a round motion, moved both his hands and cut the throat of two more men.
The last two, scared, run while screaming, leaving their old teammates to die in the cold ground.
Surrounded now by corpses, the man in black grabbed the dice that lied in the ground and put his knives back into his pockets.
He went over the bodies and moved towards the semi-conscious man in the floor and sat near him. He waited there until the man woke up.
Once the man was awake, the man in black let him drink a bit of water out of the bottle he carried inside his coat and explained what had happened to him.
The man in black extended his right arm towards the man to help the old man stand up.
The old man grabbed it and stood up while thanking the man in black for saving him, but when he wanted to let go and go back to his life, he noticed that the man in black wasn’t letting go of his arm.
“What happens? I swear I’m not saying anything and I’m sorry, but I can’t really pay you in money, I don’t have any. But if you come back to see me at my home someday, I’m sure my wife can cook you something nice.”
The man in black wasn’t listening as he moved his left hand back into his pocket and took out another dice.
“Let’s see what destiny has in store for you, say a number from 1 to 20.” said the man in black throwing the dice to the ground once again.
The old man looked to the dice as it fell. He understood that his saviour wasn’t right in the head.
“10.” He said quickly, trying to avoid any problem.
The dice stopped rolling and showed a 20.
“Wow, a perfect roll, you don’t see those very often, but I’m sorry, I really wanted you to live, but destiny is the one who chooses, not me, and this time, you lose.” Said the man in black taking out a gun from his breast pocket and pointing it to the old man’s head.
“No, please, I have a family.” said the old man, crying.
“I also used to have one, but as I said, destiny is the one who chooses, not me” replied the man in black as he pulled the trigger.
The sound of the gun died out beneath the overwhelming sound of the city and the old man fell once more to the ground, this time for good.
The man in black kneeled next to the body and, using the blood coming from what used to be the old man’s head, he wrote a bloody capital “U” next to the dice.
“I’m sorry, but you die.” Muttered the man in black, walking away from the massacre, out of the alley and back into the noise, towards the city that never sleeps.