“I feel like I would remember you.” Ben the bartender said, shining one of Kinderman’s finest glasses.
“I’m a time traveller Ben,” James replied, sticking a thumb towards himself. “I do the remembering, you do the forgetting. A whole circle of space-time confusion.”
Miranda grunted at the sight of her favourite bartender ignoring her, and James felt that age-old temptation at just how ridiculous he felt every time he came to the bar. The perfect mix of classy and casual and not even a ten-minute walk away from his favourite cafe. Maybe it was a convenience that had drawn him to Kinderman’s originally.
Maybe it was just curiosity.
James wasn’t sure why he’d come here for the first time, but he was sure that he’d kept coming for one reason.
Ben, who was the only person in the whole of Melbourne with just the right amount of belief and suspicion to make his stories sound not crazy. The young man was always happy to have another customer besides Miranda on a day where everyone wanted to be outside instead of inside. It was a pity James couldn’t stay for long.
The looper snatched his glass of Gin and sipped it down, keeping an eye on the fifteen-minute timer he’d set himself. Jake would be in Melbourne central in thirty minutes, as he’d agreed to make the date earlier much to Amy’s apparent annoyance. Normally if things went as they’d proceed before the Loop, the date would’ve started well past five.
But James didn’t have time for traffic, and going on the date would kill two bird with one stone. The first was picking up Jake so they could hightail it out of the city. The second was a lot more grim, but it needed to be done.
“Any plans today,” James asked, idly swiping on his phone and responding to his father about their travel plans. Having the Landcruiser altered his plans a little, but not in a way James couldn’t account for.
“Workin, I guess,” Ben said with a shrug. “You?”
“Escaping an Eldritch horror in a car I scammed off of it.”
The bartender tilted his head, squinting. He seemed to think what James said was a joke and was looking for something in James' expression to validate that belief. He would find none. Eventually Ben just awkwardly chuckled in the absence of further explanation, whispering something about the looper's imaginative explanation.
“You like jokes, don’t you,” Miranda said, in a kind voice tinged with all the spite she could get away with.
James clinked his glass against hers, grinning in a toothy smile. “Humour’s the spice of life. Age is the death of all pleasure, but humour lasts the longest.”
“You have a strange way of speaking for someone so young,” Miranda grunted.
“You’ll get it when you’re older,” James said, offering his worldly wisdom to the middle-aged woman.
Then the looper turned back to the bartender, shrugging off the scathing look Miranda was giving him. He checked his phone again and found his bank account had shrunk a fair amount from its bloated size earlier this morning, on account of him purchasing everything he needed that he didn’t already own. That was a lot of things, the most expensive of which being the generator that was strapped onto the tray of his Landcruiser.
James had expected guns to be the most expensive, but Archive and the system had kept true to their word. Everything he’d asked for was inside the Landcruiser's two massive metal toolboxes. Everything.
His eyes had been gleaming like a kid in a candy shop when he’d opened them up.
What did I even want from coming here?
Suddenly James became all too aware that he’d somehow wandered his way to the Kindermans in between tasks he’d set himself when he could be doing a thousand things that were a more efficient use of his time.
The looper wanted to excuse it as a simple routine but he knew that wasn’t the case.
“What do you want, Ben?” James asked, levelling his gaze at the bartender.
“I’m working a double shift while everyone else is out treating today like a holiday. I’m working three double shifts this week. The answer should be obvious.” The bartender met his stare. “Money.”
That was… fair. James couldn’t exactly fault Ben for wanting the one thing that equated to real power in the modern world. Everyone had in one way or another a desire to seek. To write themselves into the world and carve out a place for themselves. Ben just expressed such a desire through money, and he was more than willing to work for it.
“Look.” James started, leaning against the bar. “How much money would it take for you to leave the city for a day?”
Ben gave him a weird look. Not one of his ‘I don’t believe you but this sounds interesting’ looks. A hesitant look, like he already had a number cooked up in his head. He wants something. James realized. He needs an exact amount of money. As much as he chatted with Ben and shared his problems with him, the looper had never asked too much about Ben’s personal situation.
And whenever he had, it always felt like the young man gave deflecting answers.
“When would I need to leave?” Ben asked, entertaining the idea.
“Today.” James answered.
“Then I’d need 12,400. If you gave me 12,400 right now, I’d do it. I’d do anything you wanted.”
“Anything?”
“Within reason.” Ben clarified.
James grinned. “Is premeditated murder within reason.”
“Nope.”
It was worth a shot. He could use the extra hands, but settling for Ben’s escape was fine with him. The looper reached into his jacket’s pocket, of which it had many, and pulled out a large wad of green Australian notes. It was about twice as thick as his finger and drew a very, very surprised look from Ben and Miranda both.
James dropped it onto the counter between him and Ben.
The bartender kept looking between the money and the James but the looper said nothing. Because he knew the type of person Ben was. He’d believe something, but not without some kind of proof. The money wasn’t enough.
Slowly, Ben picked the stack up and inspected the money. First he slicked it apart, checking for any dye pouches between which would show it was stolen money. Then, he moved to taking the notes one by one and holding them up to a light. James knew what he was doing, since Australian notes had small imprints on the clear part of the plastic that shined in light.
James had come across enough counterfeit notes during the Loop to learn that little trick, and he was sure it was handy for anyone who wanted to take bartending seriously.
I wonder if he’ll go so far as to tear it?
He did. Once he’d checked almost half of the notes against a light, Ben moved to attempting to tear them lightly. The method was less reliable then his previous, but James couldn’t fault him for his natural suspicion. It wasn’t that genuine Australian notes couldn’t tear, it was just that it was far harder than most fake ones which were made of paper or something equally unsturdy.
“This is real?” Ben said slowly, words dripping with disbelief. He had a frown on his face like he didn’t want to believe it, but James knew a part of him did.
“It is.” James confirmed, standing up. It was a real wad of fifteen thousand Australian dollars.
“Why?” Ben asked, putting the money back down like it was cursed. Still, his hand never stopped holding onto it.
The looper shrugged, checking his watch and deciding that his little side adventure was over. He had to get back to work.
“Because you believed me, I guess.” James said, walking out and towards the bar’s big double doors, ready to get blasted by midafternoon sunlight.
“If I don’t leave, you wont send somebody to come look for your money will you?!” Ben shouted, grabbing the money and vaulting over his own bar. He looked stuck between wanting to chase James for answers and knowing he still had a shift to work.
Miranda was absolutely fuming, and it showed.
“There’s a good chance there won’t be anyone to find if you stay.” James said, turning back to give him a wave. “But feel free to do what you will.”
With that the looper departed from Kindermans, leaving a very confused Ben with a wad full of cash and vague warnings about impending doom. Some part of James knew that Ben would probably just take the money and stay, uncaring of his advice. But James was fine with that. If nothing else the money served as a thanks to one of the only people that made him feel sane in his darkest moments.
It will also serve as a good test. If Ben actually listened to him, and was smart about evacuating away from large communities and areas of people, then there might be some merit to keeping contact.
If that was even possible.
“So many what if’s.” James whispered to himself, weaving through the crowded streets and towards his car. “I just have to get the best possible scenario out of the parts I know, and prepare for the parts I don’t.”
A little golden icon floated in the top right of his vision, always there and always watching. Serving as a constant reminder that he had to get everything he could right.
He had to get everything right.
******************
[Zenith’s Calling]
[Description: Zenith beckons you forward, whether you will it or wish it. A Spark must heed the call, the only question is how you’ll answer it.]
[09:35:26]
James hands thrummed against the wheel of his car, reading over the details of his newest Invitation once again. He’d read them once when he got into the car for the first time, again while he was waiting for his generator to be put in the back of his car, and now once more while he waited for Jake, Amy and Jess to waltz into Melbourne Central looking for him.
He kept the cool air on, and the Landcruiser’s fans proved adept at bringing his body that constant chill that brought clarity to James’ mind. It was strange how the mind wandered when it didn’t want to address something that made it uncomfortable. The same way James kept fiddling with the degrees to avoid looking at the glaring timer that went down every second. Ticking away slowly to something.
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The looper had tried to ignore it the first he saw it. But he knew he couldn’t.
Still, his eyes never seemed to keep hold of the golden words. They drifted away to the people marching through to the shopping centre just a little ahead of him. The entrance he watched was the one closest to a tram station and it was a never ending stream of faces that James couldn’t hope to count. Young, old, new, familiar and everything in between marched into the shopping centre.
Some happy, some sad, some-
“Why is he taking so long.” James moaned, finding himself childish almost immediately for doing so. He knew Jake would be there at exactly two thirty on the dot. Which left him a little less than five minutes of waiting.
Minutes alone with such an ominous timer.
I shouldn’t have expected the system to play nice. In all honesty, he hadn’t. Even though the system had promised him the safety of Hugh, Michael and Jake, James still kept to his plans of keeping them all out of harm’s way. Because he didn’t trust the golden words for a second. He knew he’d have to be a fool if he did. Also, neither Archive nor the system specified exactly how they would be safe. It just said they would be and assumed James would trust it.
The best lesson the Loop taught me was knowing these words can be wrong. The system behind them can make mistakes.
He thought as much as he stared out his tinted windscreen, drumming his hands against his wheel and doing his best to ignore the timer.
[9:33:45]
The countdown ends at midnight.
Whatever Zenith’s Calling was would proceed from that point onwards. James wasn’t one for basing his important decisions off of guesses, but he had a pretty big gut feeling that when that timer hit zero, something big would happen. Bigger than the first Invitation? He didn’t know.
But being called to Zenith didn’t sound like something James wanted while trying to settle the best situation for himself and his family.
And considering it wasn’t an option didn’t make him feel any better. The system would force him to answer the call when the timer ended. There was no way James could spin that in his head that ended in a situation he found ideal.
Not to mention I can’t open my Status.
The notification saying his Status was ready remained broken, because every time he focused on it and tried to expand, the golden words fizzled out of existence then the notification in the top right hand of his vision popped back into existence. The whole thing was incredibly vexing, and for the most part James had already decided to keep the system out of mind.
But thinking and doing were very different things.
“Finally.” James mumbled, taking his hands off the wheel as Jake, Amy and Jess all came into view, chatting amicably.
Jake led the charge as he always tended to do while Amy clutched on his arm and Jess kept a comfortable distance away. Not too far to be awkward, but far enough to give the couple their own space. She’s quite adept at being the third wheel. James almost felt a pang of sympathy for her, considering all the times Jake had dragged him along to dates.
They didn’t idle and walked out of view and into the shopping center looking for the looper, but he didn’t exit the car. Because he wasn’t looking for them. He was looking for who was following behind.
Far enough away to escape their notice but not far enough away to ever lose sight of Jess.
“Come on Nic.” James mumbled, leaning forward and scanning the crowd for some sight of the psychopath. “Where are you?”
Countless waves of people pass by but the looper knew exactly what he was looking for. His eyes darted between women and men clothed in black, looking for one particular standout. Then he found him, walking at a measured pace towards the same entrance Jake and his entourage had entered. Nicholas wasn’t like the people around him.
To the casual observer it wouldn’t be obvious, but when you knew how to look for the signs like James did, it was clear the man dressed in all black was overly wary. His gaze watched and calculated everything around him, almost mechanically keeping tabs on what was ahead and behind. Whether it was sideward glances or craning his head around to check behind him any chance he got, Nicholas looked like he was paranoid people were looking at him.
A dead giveaway for someone who was about to do something they didn’t want anyone to see.
And that’s my cue.
James discreetly hoped out of his Land cruiser, careful to keep the chance of Nicholas noticing to a minimum. Some things in the Loop were easy to replicate, like betting, but other things were much harder. Like discreetly putting Nicholas six feet under. Sure James had done it a thousand times before in the same manner, but doing it and not getting caught was much harder.
The combinations of Nicholas unstable behaviour and the public environment he stuck to made a plethora of tiny micro decisions crucial at every step. James needed to approach him at the right time, say the right words and be as precise as he possibly could with the timing of events. All it took was one person who saw what he did to compromise the whole thing. The police would be on him within minutes. Making getting the day right infinitely harder.
But compared to letting Nicholas live, James was happy to accept the extra trouble.
The looper brushed past people, following after Nicholas in a practised fashion that he knew avoided the man's suspension. The act of looking like you were in a hurry and not actively following after someone was a skill James had sharpened for this very moment. With his plain creme polo, black denim jeans and a grey overcoat, James blended right in with the many hurrying street goers.
His look did the opposite of warranting a closer glance, to the point he could be called almost boring.
He approached Nicholas from behind carefully. Making sure never to close the distance between them too quickly or directly.
As he did, James could barely make out Jake, Amy and Jess wandering the food court. He saw his best friend hastily tapping away at his phone with a frustrated face. He’s texting me. He thinks I skipped out at the last minute. Unfortunately James would have to let the assumption linger a while longer.
Ever so quietly he evaded Nicholas attention while pursuing him, ending up just close enough to tap the man on the back. Nicholas spun in a moment hands at the ready for combat. James took didn’t take a step back in alarm, or push forward and grab him the neck like he wanted to.
He just uttered a single word. In Greek.
“Brother.”
Any sane person, especially one so paranoid could not be disarmed so easily. But Nicholas wasn’t a sane person. He wasn’t even close.
And just as he preyed on people weakness, James played on his.
Fanaticism.
His guard wasn’t lowered, but the man dressed in all black did ease at the mention of his cult.
“I do not recognise you.” Nicholas replied in his mother tongue. “Are you new blood? What business do you have with me that could not wait until my first hunt is complete.”
Nicholas seemed peeved more than suspicious. Out of all the tricks James had ever tried, this one by far worked the best. It had required a lot of research into the Brotherhood of Fall doomsday cult that Nicholas was a part of, but it showed stellar results. No other greeting would pacify Nicholas so simply.
“There has been a great revelation on that front.” James said, again in greek. “But I have been instructed not to speak of it here, among ears not worthy.”
He tried to add a sort of inner enthusiasm to his voice, fanatic in the same way Nicholas talked when he spoke of the Brotherhood. Mimicking the man felt like eating dirt, but anything to sell the act.
The big greek man fell into a silent contemplation. James had learned through much trial and error that interrupting him now was a mistake. Although he didn’t have a full grasp of the Brotherhood’s exact tenets, he knew Nicholas was a big shot. In their strange hierarchy, he was an Archon. At least, that was what James had gathered from his many curt chats with the lunatic. Archons were important to the Brotherhood for whatever reason, and the cult respected their own hierarchy with a religious vigour.
So he let the man think through his words, neither rushing him nor adding more context.
After a silent minute Nicholas spoke with a solemn nod. “Your instructions are correct. If it concerns my hunt, then it is not to be spoken of lightly. I know of a place more suitable, although going there will delay my hunt.”
The veiled threats are always nice. Good nostalgia.
James obeyed and did exactly what you were not meant to do with a deranged killer, following him down past the Melbourne Central escalators and towards one of the alleys far and away from the beaten path. Even in broad daylight the alley was tight and ended in a range of hard turns that would scare off the bravest souls.
The place Nicholas took them was about as dark and dingy as it could get. Not a soul in sight with constant flickering shadows even as the sun shined brightly above.
The big man turned and faced James, gesturing at him. Then he started, in Greek. “Get on with it then, my hunt remains.”
“You don’t have a care in the world, do you?” James asked, tilting his head to the side. Mockingly.
Nicholas frown twisted ever so slightly into a toothy smirk. His eyes narrowed on James in an instant.
“Do not address me with that pig speech.” He said in a low voice, speaking Greek as he always defaulted.
“No seriously.” James said, ignoring Nicholas' comment entirely. “You just walked into the only closest dark alley you could with a man you’ve never met. You did some dumb things Nic, but this one almost takes the cake. Right next to trapping me in hell.”
Nicholas snarled. “What are you-
He didn’t get the chance to finish. The moment he started speaking James lunged forward, pushing all his weight of his back leg and closing the short gap between them in an instant. In one moment, his hands were empty. In the next, they had a combat knife. The looper waited till he was at just the right distance.
Then titled his head out of the path of Nicholas' defensive elbow and slashed.
His knife cut deep into Nicholas' throat, causing the maniac's eyes to go wide. Before he could grab at the wound or James, the looper delivered a sharp kick to the side of his knee, crushing what little balance Nicholas had left.
Then a well placed right hook left him smashing to the ground.
And then it was over.
Violence was strange like that. Everyone like to describe sharp and quick things as violent, but James didn’t think that did the word justice. Violence was a chaotic shift that could take minutes or moments. Violence felt strange too.
To hurt another, one had to hurt themselves. At that moment, just seconds after Nicholas had come crashing down, James could feel the effects of violence already stirring. His hand stung with a numb pain after the blow on Nicholas' hard chin. His foot creaked in a way that felt uncomfortable after performing a kick it wasn’t used to. His heart was beating with fear and excitement, even though James felt neither.
His body thrummed with potential power, subconsciously readying to defend itself.
All of it felt deeply uncomfortable.
And yet somehow I revel in it.
James was sure he didn’t like violence. By his very nature, he wasn’t a fan of hurting others. But he did like hurting Nicholas. He liked hurting Nicholas so much he almost felt like mourning the fact that this would be the last time.
“You know Nic.” James started, squatting down to meet the man’s hateful gaze. “I’m going to miss this.”
He was twitching a growling between the constant coughing. Drowning on your own blood did that to you. James had done his best to avoid the jugular. He didn’t want Nicholas to pass out from blood, although he’d pass out from a lack of oxygen before he died anyway.
The looper had sorted through his mental list for the best way to kill Nicholas, and eventually just settled on watching him choke on his own blood.
The same way James had after he’d been stabbed in the abdomen by Nicholas.
An eye for an eye as they say.
“I suppose if there is anything I regret about leaving the Loop.” James said, a tint of sorrow on his voice that had reduced to a husk. “It’s that I only got to kill you one more time.”
The looper knew he wouldn’t see Nicholas again, so he took a moment to enjoy the Greek man’s struggle.
It was a nice view.
Then his phone’s alarm started buzzing. Time to catch up with Jake. Time to go.
“Well. That’s my cue to leave.” James said, plunging the knife into Nicholas' neck to make sure he was well and truly going to die. He tugged it out and blood began to pour much more violently from the wound.
Nicholas was still choking and grasping at his neck, but the efforts were weaker. Soon, they would cease completely.
“Hell’s hungry for you Nicholas.” James muttered, walking away and wiping the blood onto the inside of his overcoat. “Don’t keep the devil waiting.”
James walked down the alley, turned two corners and suddenly, he was among streams of people again. His bloodied knife bounced in the pocket of his overcoat with each step. Nicholas was dead. Really dead. Some part of him had been worried it would go wrong somehow.
But it hadn’t.
Everything had gone according to plan.
Exactly to plan.
Got to hope the rest of the day follows suit.
James joined the crowds of people and headed back towards Melbourne Central. The looper did his best to banish the thoughts of Nicholas. To leave his crimes and existence in the past like he’d left his body in the alley.
Yet, unconsciously, James couldn’t help but whistle a tune as he walked.
Today felt like it could be a good day.
A good enough day to whistle ‘The devil came down to georgia’.
I think I might be a little evil.
[9:23:15]