The Jacket

Kieran stumbled backwards, his back hitting the wall of the warehouse, all he could hear was a ringing in his ears. His eyes were watering and he was constantly blinking as the man's blood dripped into his eyes.

The air felt like it was vibrating, he could barely pull in breath choking on air feeling as if he was swallowing blood.

His ears picked something up as everything went quiet, his instincts telling him to listen, he heard something. He stalked over towards the sounds and then stopped and heard a…ringing?

He continued trying to hear what was being rung and then heard whispering, he could make out some words 'gunshots, shouting, 8th Heywood, blood' his body clearly came to some kind of realisation before his mind did as he was already sprinting out of the door.

He was feeling the bone shards in his right shoe as he ran but didn't stop as his mind finally realised that it must have been the police on the phone, 'Shitshitshitshit'.

He continued to run ignoring the pain in his foot as he was twisting through New York alleyways making sure to avoid people as they never even noticed or heard him coming.

His speed was extraordinary to the average bystander as he was easily outrunning any traffic, he made sure to keep his hood up and try to keep his face hidden as he was panting, not from the running but from the panic.

30 minutes later

Kieran was sat down his head between his knees exhausted he had his back to a shipping container near some docks

His mind was racing, he had just killed someone. 'I murdered someone there was no justification for it either, it was my own stupidity and anger which caused it, why did i even get so angry!'.

'I've read dozens of stories where the main character would kill and have a breakdown and always scoffed at it and saw the main character as an idiot but being in this situation with the man's blood still on my body, it's different.'

Kieran was spiralling his thoughts just making it harder to get out of his own head. His mind clouded from the blood of the man and whenever he caught sight of the blood on his own body it would just restart.

Kieran realised in a moment of clarity he needed to clean himself and rid himself of this blood and so he took off his clothes leaving himself in his boxers and jumped into the ice cold water of the harbour.

The water shocked his system letting his thoughts drop on the man and his blood but on how to get away with murder.

He started to scrub at his skin with his hands just ridding himself of the blood. 'Once this is gone I need new clothes, the ones I was wearing need to be burned, I also need to destroy that phone and then I need to make sure to never get connected with this case'.

'I never realised I would be that fast but I guess I would have similar abilities to black panther and hopefully more.' He exited the water and stood in the freezing air and jumped around to warm back up.

He gathered all of his clothes and turned them inside out hiding the blood stains 'people won't even notice and if they do I just say it's a fashion trend, they should believe it' he thought to himself as he stood and started trying to find a thrift shop.

On his way he ended up finding a lighter just left dropped on the floor and picked it up putting it into his pocket.

He eventually had to ask a couple of people for directions to one and eventually got there and entered 'now I've never shoplifted before so this might not be so great but i reckon I've got a decent idea on what to do'.

He grabbed two pairs of t-shirts and hid one next to the changing rooms and then asked if he was allowed to try one on. He entered the changing room and pulled the one he hid in with him then put one on under his hoodie and then put the other back saying it didn't fit him and then did this with the rest of his outfit before just buying a very worn pair of plain black shoes for 89 cents leaving the store extremely hot in all these extra layers of clothes.

He waited until night and while he was extremely hungry and tired he knew getting rid of murder evidence is more important right now so he dropped his bloody clothes on the floor with his shoes underneath the pile and set it on fire, his eyes reflected the fire as he stared at the clothes burn. He waited for it all to burn leaving some nasty looking half burnt shoes left to which Kieran threw them as far as he could into the harbours water.

And as Kieran was sitting against the shipping container feeling worse than he ever had before in the cold night he closed his eyes and rested his head back and slept.

His eyes open groggily, he was in the middle of a forest and as he registered that he stood quickly and turned as he saw the Tiger God.

"Y-you! Why did you bring me here?" Fear evident in his voice but also being wary knowing this thing could just end him with a swipe of a paw.

'The tiger seemed to rumble, no not that, a..a chuckle this bastard was laughing' Kieran calmed himself making sure to not do as he did last time and be rash. "Why am I here Tiger"

"A reward. For the entertainment you've given me so far, seeing you scramble around New York like some stupid deer was truly funny ". Its voice seemed amused and its 2 eyes were focused on him, the third eye on its forehead closed.

"What's the reward?" Kieran asked now curious.

"Ah you'll find it when you wake it is to help you make it through tonight, after all you fell asleep in the open in New York you can freeze to death or get stabbed by some random junkie you never know" the tiger said lazily swinging its tail back and forth.

Kieran swallowed his pride "well I thank you tiger god, for the gracious gift and the advice" 'maybe it'll give me more if I am respectful' he thought to himself.

"What is your name Tiger God?" Kieran asked this time out of sheer curiosity after it didn't respond to his last response.

The tiger god perked up its third eye opening in interest "Bagheshwar" it stated simply its voice as commanding as any. "Mayhaps you can be respectful to your betters human, anyway scatter on now I only brought you here to remind you to be entertaining,"

"Oh one more thing don't go settling into a normal life now, after all if I wanted to watch a normal life I would just watch a sitcom"

As Kieran seemed to be fading away he heard a last sinister chuckle in his ears before he awoke to the sight of a man sat across from him in torn clothes 'he looks homeless' his mind returned to the crazy homeless woman who tried to stab him when he first got here and he tensed.

"Ya stupid or something kid" the older man with grey hair and a prominent gut said gruffly.

"W-what?" That caught Kieran off guard; he didn't expect that at all, maybe a knife or a gun but a random guy calling him stupid.

"I said are ya stupid punk? Cause your better be, sleeping out here in the rough with no roof in the cold and no protection or nothing" the old man chastised the 17 year old

"Well I was just tired I-I couldn't find a spot not taken already" Kieran tried to explain to the older man

"Listen kid, you're new here right? I can tell with the accent and just your attitude" and as the older man spoke Kieran nodded in confirmation

"Yeh I uh got sent here you know, no money nothing brand new start I guess everywhere i had was just left behind I guess I'm-I'm going to have to restart" he said with his shoulders dropping.

The older man groaned as he stood, his knees seemingly creaking as he stood "Listen kid think of the good in it, you're just looking at all the bad. Think of it as a new start where you can restart and build something stronger" the older man patted his shoulder and walked off "nice jacket by the way, my old friend Johnny used to have one just like it" he shouted back as he was walking away.

"Huh what jacket" Kieran looked down and saw he had a leather jacket on which was possibly the most comfortable thing he had ever had on his body before 'I never really liked leather but this is so comfortable it's amazing'.

He took it off and saw a stylised tiger face on the back "huh thanks tiger god" 'I already forgot his name damn' and then put it back on the bottom just reaching the top of his thigh, the jacket reminded him slightly off johnnys from Cyberpunk and wearing it suddenly felt 15x cooler.

"Tiger we got a city to burn" Kieran said out loud, 'huh that sounded 20x cooler in my head'