Prologue.

"Yo, where we headed?" Mikey asked as Jack zoomed down the expressway without a care in the world.

Jack smirked, "How will you get in my car without knowing where I'm going?"

Mikey shrugged, "All you said was that you had an opportunity for me. Who am I to question your generosity?"

Jack knew how suspicious he sounded but couldn't be too careless about such matters.

Jack laughed as he took his phone out of his pocket, quickly entered his passcode, and opened his messages.

He briefly looked up to check his position on the road.

Seeing that the expressway was relatively empty, Jack looked back at his phone and opened his messages with a girl he was talking to from his college.

He began to scroll through the messages until he reached the most relevant, then handed his phone to Mikey.

Mikey grabbed the phone and began to read the messages, his eyes slowly scanning the screen as a mischievous smirk crept onto his face.

"You set up a two-man job, nice!" Mikey exclaimed.

Jack nodded with a grin. "I couldn't have all the fun myself," he laughed.

However, Mikey's smile slowly faded as a notification popped on Jack's phone.

"Hey, it's your sister. She's asking where you are. Should I text her?"

Jack sighed as he switched lanes.

He felt his sister was too clingy; a man needs his space.

But he couldn't tell her that because he would lose access to her car.

"Tell her I'm heading to a friend's house for a few hours. That should hold her over until I get off the road."

Mikey nodded and began to text Jack's sister.

Jack then shifted his gaze towards the radio.

"Do you want to listen to some music?" he asked, reaching for the radio controls.

Mikey nodded, "Put something on that has a lot of base; I'm trying to bobble my head off!"

Jack grinned, "Hell yeah!"

He turned the radio up and switched the station to something good.

The rest of the ride was full of anticipation and excitement.

His mind began to fill with thoughts of the girl he was driving to see.

He was meeting with two girls from his finance class twins….

He's been eyeing the older sister for a while now.

She was 22 years old, with blonde hair, long legs, big breasts, everything that a man his age dreams of…

He eventually mustered up the courage to ask for her number, which she gave him almost immediately.

She'd been eyeing him for a while, too, but she was cautious of his sister, who was a bit eccentric.

Jack quickly cleared that little issue, but unfortunately, another one popped up almost immediately after.

You see, the girl's twin sister is a bit of an introvert and likes to spend most of her time with her sister, the identical sister Jack was trying to sleep with.

But Jack is a resourceful guy.

He told her he had a man just for her sister.

He claimed that his friend was a calm and cool guy, intelligent and caring, tall and handsome, and, best of all, an introvert.

And his name was Mikey.

"Hey, you're getting a phone call. Do you want me to put it on speaker?" Mikey asked, gesturing toward the radio.

Jack shifted his gaze towards Mikey and nodded.

Mikey answered the call, and it began to sound through the radio.

"Hello? Jack? We're still on for our double date?"

It was Fantasia, the girl Jack was driving to see.

"Yeah, I'm on my way with Mikey now; what's up?"

"Good. Can you stop and get some wine before you get here? It'll help set the mood for tonight."

Wine huh?

That's possible.

"Sure, anything else while I'm at it, or just the wine is fine?"

Fantasia paused for a second before answering.

"Some snacks would be fine too; I'd like some chocolate-covered walnuts or almonds."

She then paused again.

"My sister wants tea, a chocolate cake, oatmeal cake, or donuts."

Jack sighed.

"Alright, now get off my phone before you think of something else you want."

Fantasia giggled as she hung up the call.

Mikey placed Jack's phone in the cup holder in the middle of the car.

"Dude, are you going to buy all that stuff?"

Jack chuckled as he nodded his head.

"Unfortunately, we must do this to get a little something, if you catch my drift."

Mikey sighed as he looked out the window.

"This is too much; why can't they just let us smash?"

Jack grinned as he turned off the expressway, "Patience, my friend, thee who waits for the tail shall receive the head instead, while thee who pounces upon the tail shall receive nothing."

Mikey chuckled, "I like your funny words, magic man."

Eventually, Jack pulled up to a random grocery store and parked in one of the various empty spaces.

He grabbed his wallet and got out of the car.

"Don't drive off without me, or I'll hunt you forever," Jack said teasingly as he turned back to look at Mikey.

Mikey chuckled, "Whatever, just hurry up, bro!"

"Patience, my child…."

Mikey rolled his eyes as Jack closed the door.

Heading towards the store, Jack noticed two nuns sitting behind a desk.

They held a cash jar and a sign that read, "Support the Lord by helping children in need."

I hope someone helps those kids, but that's not what I'm here for.

Jack cracked a smile as he thought about his future "plans."

As he walked past the nuns, the older one began to speak to him.

"You seem to be in a good mood, sir. Would you like to spread that happiness to children in need?"

Jack's smile quickly faded, replaced by a heavy sigh.

I don't give a damn about those kids.

"Nah," Jack said as he waved the nun off.

The older nun sighed as she nodded her head in acceptance.

But her sister in Christ perked up.

"Sir, it'll only take a dollar!" she exclaimed, smiling as she pointed at the sign.

Ughhh.

"What the hell is one dollar going to do, buy a kid a sandwich?" Jack said sarcastically, carelessly throwing a hand into the air.

The younger nun shook her head, "No, it'll go to a larger fund; once it reaches a certain amount, it'll be donated!"

This woman.

Jack couldn't help but smile at her as he reached into his wallet, "Fine, but I still don't care about those kids; I'm only donating because you're forcing me to."

Jack pulled out a crisp fifty-dollar bill and handed it to the nun.

The nun giggled as she accepted the money, "then I'll be sure to force you to be a better person as well."

She smiled as she stuffed the fifty-dollar bill in the jar.

Jack chuckled as he headed into the store.

Jack began to look around for the wine and the snacks that the girls wanted.

Ultimately, he decided to get whatever he could find, reasoning that the snacks wouldn't matter much anyway.

Once he had all the items, he made his way to the cashier and began to place down all of his items.

The cashier was an older man with gray hair and wrinkled skin—the usual old-man look.

The man slowly began to scan Jack's items, and as time passed, Jack grew increasingly frustrated.

This guy is moving at the pace of a snail in molasses-like this dude is going comically slow.

"Come on, Gramps. I have stuff I need to do before the year three thousand."

The old man began to move slightly faster.

But the man behind Jack seemed to have a problem with Jack's language.

He tapped Jack's shoulder and began to whisper to him angrily.

"Do you speak to your mother with that mouth? That man is at least in his 80s, and you are sitting here making jokes."

Jack sighed.

"Well, maybe if he weren't moving like a damn sloth, I wouldn't have been here long enough to make that joke."

The man held back a laugh.

"Kids these days." He mused.

Jack rolled his eyes as the old man finally finished ringing him up.

"That'll total to $29.67. Will you be paying with cash or a card?"

Jack reached into his wallet and pulled out a ten and a twenty; he then handed them to the old man as he gathered his items.

The old man opened the register and began to place the money inside, but before he could start counting Jack's change, he was already leaving the store.

"Keep the change!" He yelled as he reached the exit.

As he exited the building, he noticed that the nuns from earlier times were arguing with a shady man dressed in black and with a ski mask.

Well, that can't be good.

"Look, just hand over the jar, you stupid bitch!"

The man pointed a pistol at the nun holding the jar, the same nun Jack had been talking to earlier.

Shit, this guy is serious.

Jack quickly dropped his items and rushed towards the man and the nuns.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the man's neck and placed his head into a headlock.

He then slammed the man towards the ground and began wrestling with him to take the gun out of his hand.

As they wrestled, Jack shouted towards the nuns.

"Get out of here, now!"

The nuns nodded and quickly ran into the store with the jar.

The man and Jack continued to struggle for the gun until the man began to fire wildly.

Jack lost control of the gun; the man quickly turned it onto him.

He then emptied the rest of the magazine.

7 shots in total.

Three of those bullets hit Jack directly in the chest.

Jack's trembling hands slowly rose to his chest as he hesitantly looked down.

This isn't good.

"Shit!" The gunman shouted as he ran off.

Jack dropped to his knees as the blood began to pour heavily from his chest and mouth.

He couldn't hear or feel anything.

Nothing but the cold, hard sidewalk.

His warm red blood pooled beneath him.

He tried to stand up, but his body refused to listen; the pain he felt was excruciating.

Yet he couldn't scream.

Jack's heartbeat grew slower and slower while his body grew colder.

His vision began to blur; things visible a mere minute ago were now nothing but random shapes and colors.

His thoughts began to slow, lingering on one question.

Is this how I die?

He began to hear voices and see vague shapes of people surrounding him and applying pressure to his wounds.

But it was useless; he could feel his consciousness slipping by the second.

The voices surrounding him became a jumble of sound and noise.

His eyelids began to grow weak as his breathing grew shallow.

This was the end.

As he took his final breath, an image of his sister popped into his head.

Her smiling face and warm embrace, the overbearing love that he always ran from…

Was the one thing he missed right now.

His heart stopped beating as his world faded to black.