Masks
As I entered the bar, the first thing I saw was that every single person turned to look at me. Not one of the gazes here held malice towards me, and I proceeded from the door to the counter, the gazes never left me.
...I wanted to say that but there was nobody here.
Looking at the Barkeeper, he looked at me as I got closer.
A old man with a somewhat unkempt goatee, of average height and build. As I sat down, the man finished seizing me up.
"Whatll it be, sir?" in a polite tone he asked.
"The hideout of the Dogs of Hell. Or all of their hideouts if you have them." cutting to the chase, I asked.
"Well... Usually you should go underground to ask for these types of things, as its more secret... But there's nobody here today. That information will obviously cost you a pretty penny."
Putting the five thousand I brought with me in the counter, I continued "Every place. In addition, tell me if the Juarez Cartel has multiple locations as well, and I'll buy the info on those except the one on 47th Street... Since I know where it is you know?"
Pocketing the five thousand, the man replied with a smile. "Certainly. There's two places where the Dogs of Hell are known to be hiding."
Pulling out a notepad from behind the counter, he wrote down two addresses on the page.
"As for the Juarez Cartel, they only have that one hiding spot that I know of." he continued, ripping off the note with the two addresses and handing it to me.
665 Flatbush Avenue, X Addess
E 18th Street, Y address
Having gotten my two targets places, and knowing where the third one is as well, I was ready to stand up and run back home.
Suddenly, the bouncer from before limped through the door, covered in bruises and traces of blood.
"Jack... Jack is here, run..." saying that, he fell forward.
As the old barkeep ran forward towards him with concern in his eyes, a young voice was heard. Meanwhile I put the skull mask on my face, hiding my identity so it doesn't get annoying later.
"Alright! Listen up you old bastard. Your bouncer stopping me from entering ruined my mood, so I gave him a reminder of why not to fuck with me. There won't be a next time where I let him off lightly." A 20 something year old man walked through the door with 3 cronies behind him.
Ripped jeans, sports jacket... And a motorcycle helmet?
"Now, do you have the cash ready yet, or do I need to show you why you pay us a protection fee? I haven't gone wild in a long time yet, and I do feel like venting some steam."
As i watched the unfolding spectacle, still sitting down, one of the cronies turned towards me, "You as well, bastard."
Walking towards me, he tried to threaten me by pointing his iron pipe at my face. "Get to it and there will be no troubl-"
Pa!
Thud.
"What do yo-"
Pa!
Thud.
"This basta-"
Pa!
Thud.
With the last one, the boss of the group, now looking at me, who stood in front of him, and the three people that were on the floor, I kept approaching him.
Grabbing him by the neck, I lifted the man with ease of the floor.
PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA!
With a swollen and pig headed cretin falling to the floor, the last of the four to be specific, I left the bar. All four of them would have a very obvious palm print, or multiple of them, on their faces for a while.
As for why I didn't do something more drastic, simple reasoning. I have a mask on me so they're not retaliating unless the old barkeep is going to say anything. Obviously, he wouldn't do anything similar like that, and I didn't want to get this are investigated for murder.
Like that, I was about to head outside the bar, still wearing the skull mask to hide my identity... Somewhat.
Like that, I left the area and instead headed towards the costume shop where I originally bought the masks.
Having left that area I took off the masks, and went back to casually running towards Manhattan.
An odd 40 minutes later, I was once more slightly exhausted as I stood in front of the costume shop where I bought the original black skull mask.
Heading in, with the white skull mask in my pocket, I once again greeted the blue haired girl.
"Welcome! How may I help you today?" she smiled, greeting me like before.
"I'll take a look at the mask section." I replied.
Going to the full face mask section, I started looking at the masks lining the shelves once more.
Going mask by mask, I arrived at the animal mask section. And then, I saw the next mask I needed to get.
A rooster mask.
Besides the obvious reference to a certain game, I decided to get myself a red oni mask as well that covered the entirety of my face. Purely because my inner Edgelord was calling out to me.
Having bought both masks for a hundred bucks, I left the shop, changing my course.
Feeling that I had already recovered most of my stamina, I was contemplating running all the way back home from Manhattan. Finally, I decided to just call a taxi and go home, trying not to tire myself out too much.
Arriving home before 7am, I decided to just sleep in preparation of tonight's party crashing.