Shotaro was standing on an overpass above a busy highway. Coming down both sides of the street on the overpass were a bunch of men wearing black suits. He knew it was now or never. If he didn’t jump now, he was done for. He’s seen it done so many times in the movies but now that he is face to face with certain death he hesitated.272Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2AUXivnnEr
A voice called out, “Mr. Okazaki! If you come down now and give us back what you stole nobody else will have to get hurt.” A man in black reached out his hand to Shotaro in attempt to help him down from the ledge.
Shotaro turned to the man in black and said, “You hurt Mia, why would I ever trust you?”
The man in black replied, “She’s not dead. Her injury wasn’t life threatening. Please stop this. We’re on your side.” Shotaro looked down at his hands. In his left hand was a small revolver. In his other hand was a small USB flash drive. He didn’t know what was on the flash drive, but he knew Mia was fighting to keep it safe and he had to protect it with his life.
While the man in black began to talk again, Shotaro had a feeling that this was the right moment to jump. He turned and sprang off of the ledge. As he was falling closer to the ground a giant transport truck drove underneath him and broke his fall at the perfect moment. To his surprise, bullets started ricocheting off of the roof of the truck as the men were firing the guns from the bridge at him. He laid flat on the roof and slowly crawled backwards. Eventually they highway veered to the right and the men were out of sight. Shotaro sighed and took a deep breath. He thought to himself: that was intense. Never in his life did he think that he would have to do what he just did. The thought of Mia getting hurt tore him apart.
The last thing he could remember before the chase was how Mia was screaming out to him and threw the USB drive at him and told him to run. He never looked back; he just took off running. As soon as he ran out of the room, it exploded behind him. Those were the earliest events he could remember for some reason. He was pretty sure Mia had a large hunting knife sticking out of her when she tossed him the USB. Could she live through that? he thought to himself. He looked over from on top of the truck he was laying on and a school bus was driving down the highway next to him. As the bus passed the truck, kids were inside starting out at him in amazement and he laid on top the truck. Some how he needed to find Mia and find out what was going on. He needed to know what was on the USB drive, why were those guys after her, and if she’s okay. As the wind blew past him, he saw out of the corner of his eye a man hanging off the side of a truck that was now next to him with a grenade launcher. He froze in horror and the man smiled at him as he repeatedly squeezed the trigger. What looked like hot balls of fire came pouring out of the gun, one by one, and exploded in sequence causing the truck to spin out of control and explode. Car’s started running into each other trying to avoid the wreckage and the chaos erupted into more explosions. Car alarms were sounding off in the distance as a low roar of fire and flame basked everything in sight.
Shotaro slowly came too and was laying on the ground in the wreckage. Something didn’t feel right. He couldn’t feel most of his body. While struggling to move, he was able to look down at himself on the ground, he noticed most of his legs were missing and his arm from the elbow down was gone. He could only open one eye and he started to scream out into the hellscape. A man in black, slowly walked towards him and all Shotaro could see was the man approaching him from the knees down. As the man drew closer to Shotaro he started to say, “There’s no starts in the sky today for you Okazaki. You had a chance to put this behind you, but you fucked it all up and for what? A girl? A lot of people just ate shit for you.” Shotaro tried to move but couldn’t. The man pulled out a sleek black silenced pistol and knelt down and took his sunglasses off. He looked Shotaro right in the eyes and pressed the suppressor of his gun against Sho’s head. Everything was hazy and Shotaro couldn’t see too well but he recognized the mans face. It was his best friend, Okumura. After a quick chuckle, he squeezed the trigger twice.
Shotaro shot straight up out of his sleep. He was gasping for air. He was frantically feeling for his legs and his arm. At the other end of the couch, there had been just enough space to sit for Mia, who was quietly watching a movie and holding Rupert. She had instantly looked over when Shotaro sprang up from his dream with a concerned expression. Shotaro saw Mia and jumped towards her and started grabbing her and even started lifting up her sweatshirt to see if there was a knife wound in her abdomen.
She shouted, “No Taro no! I’m not ready for this! You didn’t even buy me dinner first!” She tried to jump off the couch but when Taro noticed there was no wound on her, he started crying and hugged her tightly.
Mia was blushing and asked, “What in the world got into you? Are you okay Taro?”
Trying to find words to say, Shotaro kept sobbing and hugging Mia. “It felt so real,” Sho cried. “The highway, the explosions, you were hurt, and I ran away.” He hugged Mia for a little longer and then let go in embarrassment. She was still somehow holding Rupert, who was smashed in between them. After the rush of Shotaro’s dream began to subside, Mia put Rupert down and looked at Shotaro puzzled.
“What just happened? One second you were dead asleep and the next you were screaming bloody murder!” Mia reached over and grabbed a bottle of water of the coffee table and handed it to Shotaro and said, “Here, drink this potion and you’ll be okay again. It was just a nightmare and now you’re awake so you’re safe again.” Rupert looked up at Shotaro and let out a concerned meow.
Shotaro grabbed his head and sat back down on the couch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out like that. It’s just my dream felt so real. The pain I felt, felt real. One of my old friends was there too and he wasn’t himself.” He looked back down at his hands and then looked forward at the television. Mia had been watching Indiana Jones. The lights were dimmed, and it was almost eight o’clock pm. He reached out and took the water from Mia and took a drink. The water felt like icicles trickling down his throat and he began to choke and cough. Outside a storm was raging harder than the storm the night before. Rain was beating up against the windows and the wind was almost shaking the apartment building. They sat there on the couch for a minute and watched Indiana Jones.
Mia, asked, “Are you going to be okay now?”
Shotaro replied weakly, “Yeah, I think so. It was just a dream right, so I guess I was just freaking out there for a second. I didn’t mean to get all grabby either. He looked down at the floor and kept rubbing his eyes. Even though he must have slept all day, he still felt extremely exhausted. He leaned his head back sitting up on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Mia sprang up with a smile on her face. She did a magnificent twirl and bowed towards Shotaro when she came to a stop.
Rupert and I went out today and got you a present. Since you bought me one and gave it to me before my birthday we went and got you one too. Now were even! After you were sleeping for like a million years, I tried to wake you up. I held your nose, shook you real hard, and Rupey sat on your face and you still wouldn’t wake up. So, I sat here waiting to give it to you.” She bent down and reached behind the couch were Shotaro couldn’t see and pulled out a box the size of a shoe box. She stood up and handed it to him. “Now open it,” she cheered. Shotaro took the top of the box and in it were 6 individual credit card size wrapped presents. They were perfectly wrapped unlike the one Shotaro had gotten her. He opened all the presents and revealed six key chains with a credit card size plastic window slot and each slot had a picture in it. Each picture was different, but they all were pictures of Mia, Rupert, and a sleeping Shotaro. Each picture was taken from a different position and Sho could tell she had cut them out to fit in the picture slots. Even though he could tell they were all taken today, Mia was wearing a different outfit in each picture. Mia said nervously,” I thought that maybe since you got me a key chain as a present because you thought of me, that Rupey and me would get you a keychain so when you look at it you can think of us. But then I couldn’t decide on which picture to use. So, I went back out to the store and bought a key chain for each picture I liked!” she squealed out. She then looked a little sad and said softly, “I know you probably think it’s stupid, but we worked really hard on it.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid.” He reached out and picked up one of the key chains. The one he was holding was the one he thought he liked the best. “I’ll take this one.”
Mia protested, “No! They are all for you. Have them all!”
“What If I wanted you to have one?” Sho asked.
She stopped for a second and thought about what Shotaro just said. “Well, I got them for you but if you wanted me to have one then you have to pick it out for me.” Reaching out to chose one for Mia, Shotaro stopped and his hand hung over a certain key chain.
“Here you go.” He picked up a key chain and handed it to her. She quickly took the picture part of the keychain and disassemble the rest. She then added the picture part to her ferret keychain. Shotaro didn’t notice but under Rupert’s bandana was a new-collar Mia had bought for him. On the collar was a small locket that had a picture of Mia, Shotaro and Rupert, that she neatly cut out to fit in it.
Mia picked up the remote off the table and said, “Since you’re awake now and you feel all better, I guess I’ll restart the movie for you.” She was smiling and kicking out her feet as she sat on the couch with Shotaro. The movie restarted but this time Shotaro didn’t feel too annoyed by it.
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