A Story I Wrote

(Note: I Forgot to edit any dialogue or details about the setting so take that as you will)

A man sits on a stool in front of the bar drinking a sub-standard bottle of beer, so drunk to the point of him muttering nonsense under his breath about random people or things he sees and hears. He had droopy, exhausted eyes, and every time he would open his eyes, the dimmest lighting would blind him for a short moment. The bartender calls out to him “Walker, You gonna pay up the money you owe me on your tab!?” Walker looks at him almost without a care in his eyes and he tells him “ As soon as you get better at your damn job, which is getting me a decent drink instead of this cheap piss poor crap!” His words were slurred and almost quit talking mid-sentence. The Bartender’s face turns red “You keep paying for this ‘piss poor crap’ because that’s what you are and what you’ll always be, a cheap piece of piss poor crap! Now you either give me my money or I’ll have Big Donny throw you out into the street like the worthless asshole you are!” Walker looks behind him and sees a 6 ’2 man with huge arms, a black beater with navy blue jeans, black boots, and a very bald head. “ Hey, Donny! How’ve you been?” The huge man just stares at him with no sense of conversation in mind.

“Y’know.. word on the street is, you’re pretty small if you catch my drift” Walker started to laugh hysterically until Donny grabbed both of his shoulders and started to squeeze “Ow ow ow, hey watch the coat! This thing wasn’t cheap!” The Bartender looked him dead in the eyes and asked “So you gonna give me my money?” Walker smirked and said “ Yeah, as soon as Donny here grows some hair on his dry, wrinkled head” Minutes later Walker is thrown into a back alley. Donny shoves him against the wall, he falls into a pile of snow. He felt the cold reach to his side and stomach almost instantly.

The feeling of dozens of tiny cold snowflakes began to numb his face. “Come on man, I said watch the coat,” Walker said, his words slurred to where he didn’t know what he said. His brown stained long coat, which reached slightly below his knees, was soaked and smelled of alcohol. “This is what you deserve Walker” Donny smirked as he started to kick Walker in his side until he grabbed him by the collar of his coat, and slammed him against the wall.

He began to hit him in his stomach, face, and side repeatedly. This went on for what felt like an hour to Walker until he collapsed on the ground, leaning against the wall with blood dripping from his mouth and nose, his face was bruised, and his ribs felt like they were going to collapse. When Donny was done, he spits on his coat, left him out there in the cold, and went back inside the bar. The bartender peeked his head out of the door and yelled “We better not see your face again, or you won’t have a face left!” He slammed the door and Walker just sat there for about ten minutes. His blue jeans and worn-out brown boots were in even worse condition and he felt blood on the back of his head from being pushed into the alleyway wall. When he came to his senses, he started to walk deeper into the alley and started to turn and go toward different streets and neighborhoods to the point where he went further into the big city. At this point he had already wiped the blood off of his face, he was semi-sober and kept pushing through the cold. Eventually, he found an opening into the street. There were bright lights that didn’t blind him as much as they would’ve half an hour ago. People were singing, and holding decorative bags and boxes. There was a large variety of shops and restaurants all over the street. What the hell is all of this about? He thought to himself, that’s when he realized the decorations in the shops, the clothes people were wearing, and the songs people were singing. Oh yeah, it’s Christmas. The ‘the most wonderful time of the year.’ He sat against the alleyway wall again, getting him even more soaked, and just sat there. He felt the blood drip down his neck until he pulled out a dirty piece of cloth from the inside of his coat and started to wipe his face. When he was done he started to look at the people in shops, families, and even couples spending their time together.

Walker put his head against the wall and looked back, reflecting on what he had done in the past. The lies, the regret, the people he hurt, and the people that have died. He lost it all, he knew it was too late to take it all back. He looked into the night sky, all he could think about was the opportunities he had missed, the people he hurt, the people he lied to. Such as a woman he was in love with years ago.

He met this woman in a bar, the very same bar he’d be kicked out of. Her name was Laura, the night he saw her, she was wearing a black woolen coat with a black sweater, black pants, and boots. She had golden brown hair and blue eyes. Walker was wearing a blue coat with a plain white t-shirt and black jeans. He would go through trial and error just to try getting her number. She was impressed by his persistence and told him that if he wanted her number, he would have to let her ask three questions. Walker agreed. She asked him if he had ever stolen from people. He said no. Her second question was if he had ever hurt someone. He said yes, in third grade a kid tried to steal his sandwich so he knocked one of his teeth out. The third question was if he had ever met a woman that looked like her she wasn’t the self-conscious type. He paused for a moment and said “I’d never thought I would ever meet a woman like you.”

For the next 2 years, they were together, Walker had plans for her to move in with him in a new home, a house to be exact. “How are you able to afford this exactly?” she asked. Walker stated that he had taken out a loan and said he found a decent job to pay it off. She said she would move in and help pay the loan, but she was skeptical about whether or not he wasn’t telling her something she needed to know. “ Please don’t tell me you are starting to do your old ‘work’ again, you said you would quit things like that.” She said, with a concerned look, “Don’t worry, I’ll get the money by honest work, I promise, then we can get the house and live our best lives” He replied, with enough reassurance to convince her to believe that he has things under control. A week later on December 24, at 10:24 am Walker was driving home in a hurry and tried calling Laura, but she wouldn’t answer. Several minutes later he pulled up in front of the house they were staying in and found a note. Walker wasn’t exactly a clean person, he was a modern-day bank robber, blackmailer, and weapons dealer, and the loan he took out was from dangerous people. The note said that if he didn’t have the money they wanted, the only other way he could pay it off was with blood. At the very bottom of the note, it showed an address, Walker raced to the car and drove as fast as he could ignoring every stop sign. When he arrived at the address there was an abandoned building in a trainyard. Once he stepped out of the car he noticed a light in the building and ran towards it, but when he got there, he opened the door and was greeted by a man in a ski mask, with a red hoodie, black jeans, and dirty black shoes. The man hit him in the head with a bat causing him to be knocked out instantly.

His head was pounding, and all he could see was darkness until he realized he had a black bag over his head. He could barely see through the bag, what he saw was a bit of light, until he heard multiple footsteps surrounding him, and the light he saw was blocked when he heard someone walk in front of him. “Please don’t hurt her! I’ll pay double, triple even, just leave her alone!” Walker’s muffled cries echoed through the room. Suddenly there was a flash of light once the bag was ripped off. He could see about a dozen men armed with bats, and pipes, two of which had handguns as well. In the darkness he spotted a man with a dark blue suit, his hair was combed to the side, his tanned skin, and nothing but a smirk on his face. “Jonathon, Jonathan, Jonathan.” He walked even closer, dragged a foldable chair in front of him, and sat down. That was when Walker realized he was tied up on a wooden chair. “Listen... I’m sorry, I forgot the deadline was today! I’ll make it up to you I swear, just leave her out of this!” The man dismissed his plea and said “You know the way we do things, but all you cared about was the money, and even when we gave you a week’s notice after three months, you still didn’t have the money.” He paused, looked at one of his men, and signaled them to bring her out. “So now, there is only one way for your debt to be cleared, and that’s with blood.”

The man came back with him holding Laura’s arm and pushed her to the ground, she was able to stand back up even with her arms tied. “Got any last words for your girl?” The man said. “I’m gonna get us out of this I promise, it’s gonna be okay, I swear to you.” Walker looked at the man in the suit and said “Please there’s got to be another way!” The man pulled out what looked to be a Desert Eagle with a black handle with gold accents and said “There isn’t.” There was a loud bang, and all Walker could see was the blood seeping through her blue shirt from her chest and she collapsed to the floor. “Your debt is cleared and now I can go home and watch some Netflix! Let’s get outta here boys! Oh and cut him loose.” One of the men in a ski mask cut Walker loose and he crawled towards Laura.” I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen.” He held her in his arms holding back the tears. With her last breath, she asked “ Why did you lie?” He saw the life in her eyes fade away and heard the chimes of a distant clock tower. He hugged her close to him and felt a stream of tears rolling down his face. From that day forward, on every single Christmas, all he could think about was that the last thought she had, was that he lied to her. He looked out into the street, reached into his coat, pulled out a flask, and started to drink. All he could do was drink his problems away.

When he looked up he saw a silhouette of a woman, an old friend he used to work with. He didn’t recognize her until she spoke. “Are you still alive Jon?” She said, almost as if she thought she was being funny. “You still lookin fifty when you’re thirty?” He asked and started to chuckle.

“You look like crap, and smell like it too.” She replied, ignoring his insult.

“What do you want Dianne?” he asked, he wanted nothing to do with her at the moment.

“I want you to get better, you look like you haven’t eaten or slept in days and you look like you were living in a dumpster.”

“How’d you find me?”

“A very kind bartender said and I quote ’yeah there was a wise-ass homeless looking guy we threw out back, can’t be too far from here and it was easy to find you from there.”

“Heh, yeah Donny threw me out back but I gave him a good fight.”

“Yeah, not from where I’m standing” They both started to laugh, but Walker knew she didn’t just want to check up on him.

“ What do you really want?” He asked, his words still a bit slurred.

“Well, I and another friend of yours need help. You see, there’s this Job-”

“No. I can’t” he interrupted, he stood up, still leaning against the wall.

“Why can’t you?” she asked hesitantly.

“You know why. After what happened with Mark, I can’t go through that again.” He said as he looked down at the ground as if he were remembering what had happened.

“I understand Jon, I really do, but we need your help with something.” She paused for a moment “We are in trouble and we need all the help we can get”

“Who’s we?” Walker asked, still looking down at the ground.

“Reggie and a couple of new people. Look I don’t have time for this, I have people depending on me, you Have people depending on you!” She said. Walker could tell it was serious, usually, it would be a little job here and there she would need help with, but this time things seemed different.

He looked her in the eyes and asked “What kind of trouble?”