A humble street performer
The night is dark again. Brandon sits by the wall of a convenience store, the light from the fluorescent sight shining a bright colourful hue onto his droopy and gloomy face. He watches as people walk past him in droves, never bothering to even glance his way. This is how he spends every night, since he came back from Livaria. His memories of the war haunted him like ghosts coiling through every nook and cranny of his tortured mind.
He could still recall the faces of some of those whose lives he had taken, their screams of rage and anguish were only drowned out by the roaring gunfire of the dozens of rifles. The overwhelming concophonyb of noise being enough to even drive a monk into a maddened frenzy.
When he came back he was met with scorn and ridicule from those which he had believed he had been fighting for. They called him inhumane and that he had no business interfering in another countries issues, but what they all failed to realise is that he ultimately had no choice.
Before the war It had been a feverish passion of Brandons. He would sit at his computer typing away at his keyboard typing down several hundreds of lines of code and crafting quaint yet charming digital programs.
When he returned from the war he aimed to return to pursuing his passion. But since he had been drafted before he could possibly even dream of going to college, he was unable to get a job in the it field.
He did consider starting a company but he had suffered financially to such an extent that he had to sell all of his belongings in order to have enough money to survive.
In the present day, stricken with an addiction to alcohol. Performing acrobatic feats that the had learned during his time in the military bootcamp only to buy a nice loaf of bear and a refreshing can of cold bear.
On this night while sulking next to his coin filled plastic cup he is met by the curious stare of a young boy. The kid was relatively well dressed and had steak combed hair and looked to be about 8 or 9 years old.
"What kind of tricks can you do?" asked the boy, his eyes fixated on Brandon who groggily lifted his head to meet the boys gaze.
"I could do all kinds of tricks, how many I do solely depends on how much you pay me"
"okey" the kid said as he placed a $20 and $10 bills in Brandons plastic cup
Brandons eyes bulged out of his head as he watched the bills in disbelief
"can you do a handstand?"
"I sure can!" Brandon yelled happily as he placed his plans onto the ground and lifted his lower body into the air with his feet pointing upwards. His body was shaky but his hands were planted firm on the ground. He lowered his legs to the ground and stood up straight.
"what other tricks can you do?" the boy asked
Brandon thought about it for a moment but suddenly got struck with a brilliant idea.
He planted his palms on the ground beside him. and began to slowly move his legs like he was walking and rotated his body as if he was walking in a hamster wheel. He made a full rotation and flipped backwards and stood on his feet.
"that was good mister" the boy said watching in awe.
suddenly a deeper adult voice called out from the distance.
"oh that's my father, I have to go now. Bye sir" the boy gave Brandon a wave and ran off into the crowd of passing people.
Brandon bent over and grabbed is plastic cup, satisfied with the money he had made. He made his way to the bar on thew other side of the road to have a well deserved drink.
He walked into the establishment and plopped down onto a bar stool across from the bar tender who was at the time mixing a cocktail.
The bar was dingy and not too well kept. Only so few people sprinkled around a place that the bar could practically be considered empty. Beside Brandon sat an older man with his head down facing the wood floor. On the other end of the bar were sat a group of loot boys that might have been at most in their mid 20s. The nice of their constant chatter and loud conversation filled the bar almost entirely.
"Excuse me sir what can I get you" the bartender said as he set down the cocktail mixer.
"id like a nice full bodied stinger of a whisk" Brandon said smiling to himself.
"alright sir it'll be done in a minute" The bar tender said with a polite smile as he turned to prepare Brandons whisky.
The charter of the boys became louder till suddenly a voice called out.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" The old mans words were slurred but his tone was sharp.
"what are you gonna do about it bro?" one of the boys said in a derogatory tone, shooting up out of his chair with his chin up.
"yeah bro, whatcha gonna do" Another boy said as the three of them stood and surrounded the older ma.
"hay, look at this, he's one of this pigs who served in Livaria!" the third boy yelled with a smug look on his face.
"how many kids did you have to kill to get those stars?" one of the boys said aggressively, pointing at the stars (combat awards) on the uniform that the old man was wearing.
"live the guy alone" Brandon stood up and gave the boys a stern look.
"who the fuck is this homeless guy?" the boy said, giggling to himself. His friends laughed along with him.
The boy pushed Brandon and he stumbled backward.
"look kid you don't want this fight" Brandon said, getting back to his feet.
"oh i'm pretty sure I do" the boy said as he shoved Brandon again.
In a fit of anger Brandon hit the boy with a right hook that sent his face slamming down onto the hard wood table. The boys had bounced off the table and his body flopped down onto the floor.
As the boys two other boys backed away in fear the old man shot up out of his chair and kneed the closes one to him in the head.
The last boy dashed out of the entrance yelling in fear.
"holy, did you have to go that hard there you two, they're just kids." the bartender aid with a shy and kind of freaked out look on his face.
"if you saw what we saw in that damn country then would think that we went too easy on them, these kids these days need to be taught show a little respect." Brandon said through his gritted teeth.
"Do you guys still want the drinks?" the bartender said with a sheepish tone.
The men sat down and began to talk.
"so you served in Liberia?" the older man said inquisitively.
"Yeah, I was in the 12th brigade. How about you?" Brandon gulped down his pint of whisky after speaking.
"I served in the 4th" the old man said.
"oh wait where are my manners what's your name?" Brandon said
"oh i'm sam, and you?"
"Brandon"
Sam nodded and handed a card to Brandon before promptly leaving the establishment but not before leaving a $10 bill on the table.
Brandon looked at the card and his eyes widened in shock.
On the card it said,
Extermination.corp
Sam crawley. Retired assassin
lead recruiter
On the other side was a sticky note that had 'if your looking for a job' written on it.