Long Lost Family
Before I tell you what happened after the return to my home, I must tell you where it began.
"I need those TPS reports by Friday."
My life as you know it began when I was a man in a desk job where nothing went anywhere.
"Sure thing, Bill."
Some days were completely unbearable. They were long and useless. The pay was horrible and when I got my bills in the mail, I still had to pick up my postage fees.
"Hey son, why don't you come and help me with this."
An old man with a flat tire was on the side of the road. I knew nothing about cars, that's why I didn't own a vehicle. The things weren't simple, just too complicated. Sure, driving was an ability in my possession but it was an annoying skill.
"See, I think we screw a few bolts here and there."
See, I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. So, when all was said and done, I ran back to my house. Passing by people who were seen everyday but never really understood.
"Did you get the chips?"
"No. Because you haven't paid your half of the rent."
Tieo was a couch surfing friend of mine before we were arch enemies. Sometimes I think of what we once were.
"Karter."
"Yeah?"
I was in the middle of channel surfing whilst he was talking. Thinking back on it, it was hilarious having your best friend as a housewife.
"Something came up."
"And that is?"
My friend stood and began to jump for joy before he showed me a letter. It was in thai so I couldn't understand it.
"Tieo, I can't read that."
"Oh yeah!"
He began to read it aloud before he gave me another hug.
"Job opportunity?"
He read that in a weird manor. He wasn't being honest. That was something I figured out later on.
"Where?"
"Taiwan. We move money from Korean banks into Taiwan."
"We?"
"Yeah. It pays a lot. You'll like it."
"I know you work long nights for nothing, so I just signed you up."
We got our bags and over the following month, moved from Thailand to Taiwan. Our job wasn't just moving money from banks in South Korea to Taiwan, it was stealing money from banks in Korea and running to Taiwan to funnel it into other accounts. The funny thing is, I made a deal with a demon in order to figure that out. He was posing as a Yakuza boss as he helped nudge good men into sinners.
"Just sign here."
"Why?"
"It says if you die, we burn your body."
"Fine..."
We signed the contracts before getting guns and going into banks. At our first job, men weren't willing to cooperate with us. Two of them tackled me whilst Tieo was in the vault.
"Don't worry buddy, you got this handled!"
He would yell words of encouragement as I had to get into brawls in a country with mandatory military service. After the grace of God helped me, I managed to fight them off. Being a gunman sucked. Who knew that being a 9-5 worker didn't do wonders for one's cardio?
"You could've helped me."
"But the money!"
We were driving down the road at high speeds. The money was in the trunk. The final part of the plan was for me to split up with Tieo and to have me be the distraction whilst he funneled the money through boats on their way to Taiwan.
"See you at home."
My friend was off and I was left with the cops. The plan was for me to fire off a few shots but that had to go wrong like everything in my life.
"Don't die!"
He trailed off with a smile on his face before eventually, I was alone and he was on a boat. This was during our first robbery. I only ever managed to escape thanks to the fact that one of the boss's men was there and they helped me escape. These were rough men. They took me to a gym and told me to lift some weights whilst they got a plan ready. A part of me was afraid they were going to shoot me for being a liability, but then I just got to lifting some weights and after some time, I was asleep on a bench and they were dragging me to the plane to fly me and them back to Taiwan. One thing you learn is that when you pull off a big job like a bank heist, you keep your head down.
"You boys did a good job. I like how you handled the people. If you don't follow the rules, you get hit."
The bossman was tall. He dwarfed me and Tieo like we were two kids during the eclipse. He had a wild eye that looked down on me like we were two toys that could've been molded.
"Thank you. But when are we going to be getting paid?"
"I don't understand."
We were speaking English during this time. Though, we easily could've had the conversation in Thai. At the time, I believed it was a language barrier.
"You made us go on the job. We went for the purpose of getting money."
"Oh, right. It seems like you two are really interested in this business."
"Not what I said."
Tieo stomped his heel onto my foot fast enough to make me shed a tear and not hard enough to leave any lasting injuries.
"We should have a talk sometime. Do you boys play golf?"
"Absolutely, we would just like to get our monthly payment and to have some fun!"
I glared at the man I called friend. He wanted to be in this business.
"Excuse us, bossman. My associate and I would like to discuss some important matters at this time."
We walked out of the yellow and green tinted office to a hallway with weird carpet and some other oddities.
"What's wrong?"
Tieo seemed genuinely surprised at the proclamation. He was making decisions that neither of us should have been making. He was always good at ignoring his natural instincts.
"What's wrong? We've been ripped off. You made me quit my job and now we're in the mob. He's not going to pay us. We're going to probably be put down. Don't you understand that?"
The longer I spoke, the madder I got. That was before I lunged at him and grabbed his shirt.
"You never act like this."
"I was a much calmer person before you came into my life."
I admit it, he was a horrible roommate. The goblins were easily better roommates as they paid their half of the rent and listened when other people spoke to them.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you've signed me up for something I could never dream of leaving."
"No, we have found a new opportunity!"
"Shut up for once."
"What?"
"Let me do the talking. All you've ever done is make my decisions for me."
I let go of him before I went on to the bossman's office. To be honest I was more mad at Tieo than I was scared of the bossman. Take that as a token of how mad I was or how appeasing the demon was.
"Hello gentlemen. I would like to ask you both, is everything okay?"
This didn't seem like a slight or an attempt at anything, it just seemed like it was general concern for his cash crops. Or more so his slaves that collected those cash crops.
"Just continue with what you were going to tell us."
"Yes, um... where was I? No, wait, you were going to tell me something!"
"Right, we want out."
"HUH?"
Both Tieo and the bossman's eyes went wide.
"This job is high stakes and low reward. To simply put it, there's too little in it for us and we've not even been paid yet. So, we would like our checks or our resignation."
It was so brash of me that now, with time of reflection, tells me why what happened next happened. With everything going on, we never even had the chance to watch the news and see what was going on. The president of Taiwan was kidnapped. We hadn't known how or when or why or where he was going next. Though, it was going to be unwillingly.
"Have you boys ever been on television?"
"No, but what does that have to do with this?"
"Simple, we have you boys in the news room. Pushing stories that don't talk about us."
He had more than a devilish grin. He was on the verge of laughing. It was so obvious that my dimwitted second half could see it. I kind of miss when Tieo was dumb.
"We'll take it."
For the next couple hours we were dressed in nice white suits. One of the men gave me a mask to put on right before he began filming.
"Good morning Vietnam!"
"Wrong country."
"I know."
"Take two, action!"
"Hello Taiwan, we come to you today with some special news! We've found the president!"
Soon, a man on a roller chair came into view of the camera. He was gagged and blindfolded. He was off in his later year and e=was obviously in pain of some kind.
"What is going on?"
The men behind the camera pulled out guns before eventually they turned on the teleprompter.
"Read it."
"Okay, okay. Alright."
My eyes narrowed on the words. They were going to have me killed or were going to make me see nothing but a jail cell for the rest of my life. Luckily for me and sadly for Tieo, this was going to be a lot better than expected.
"Hello Taiwan, we would like to report that the president has been returned safely and will be kept that way unless certain demands are made."
Tieo looked at me through his rubber dog mask. We looked like idiots and somehow felt dumber than that.
"For the small price of a billion New Taiwanese dollars, he will be kept safe. Along with the release of these people to Korea, south not north of course."
He went on to list off a couple dozen criminals. Most of them weren't associated with the bossman's organization but they could show to be future allies along with the fact that them already being from several networks allowed for them to be lost in the crowd.
"To ensure our offer is taken and to show how serious we are, we will harm him every hour the offer isn't made. Transfer the money to this address."
Tieo read off the address of the warehouse we were located at. This wasn't good. The men behind the camera soon tied one of our hands to the desk before leaving. We were going to die here. That was going to be the end of it all.
"I got an idea."
"And what is that?"
With the camera still rolling, he unloaded the magazine into the president. He fell over in his chair before eventually his chest stopped moving up and down.
"What is wrong with you? Now we're going to definitely die!"
"Not you, just me."
He took my gun and fired into the handcuffs. The metal rings were still around my wrists as I got up and made an attempt to get him out of his cuffs.
"Come on."
"No. There'll be a bigger search. Go back to Maine, Karter."
He knew I was from Maine. When I was a kid, it was my biggest dream to go to Thailand. There, I met the only American in my area, Tieo. Thanks to rent rising, we moved in together. After returning to the bossman, I found out that he had expected it all. He even gave me a passport and bought me a house in Amerlane. What a joke that whole time was. Now, we return to the tale in the present.
"We need to look for Joe."
"Why?"
"I made a deal."
"With whom?"
"A guy who controls time."
Tieo had retreated to Hell, Angela one and two were here and conscious. If you've seen any time travel movie, you'd see that this would never go the right way.
"What do we do about that?"
I was genuinely shocked at who I was conversing with, it was dear old Danny again. He was pointing at the unconscious Hou. After some time, a bullet came out of nowhere and hit him. The creature was dead but then that left Mark.
"You can go."
"Go where? Back to your old life. Like you used to."
He looked around before he went into the woods. The two Angela's picked up Fenwood and went on talking with him in hand.
"So, how am I going to get paid?"
"Didn't you just shoot Hou?"
"No?"
If the bullet didn't come from anyone in our company, then where did it come from? Simple, a man from D.O.W.N. He was dressed like a cowboy as he walked towards us. The man had shaggy white hair with streaks of brown in it. He was sweaty. He must have come through the woods.
"Hello there!"
He waved his hands at us with a smug smile on his face. Something was off about him.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Micheal Yeager. I work for D.O.W.N. I know what you're thinking, what is that organization? Well, you'll never hear it on the record. Now, I'm chief of reconnaissance."
Danny stepped forward.
"Why are you in my town?"
"Simple, I would like to give you a job. At D.O.W.N, we do a lot like your organization. But, unlike everyone at your organization, we're not dead."
"How did you take down everyone there?"
Danny was more in shock than in terror or anger. And to be honest, so was I.
"I'm very good at my job but that isn't the point."
"Then why are you recruiting us?"
"Simple, we pay better and need a few hands. Both of you just continue what you were doing and now, seven figures job."
"We'll take your offer."
Me and Danny shook his hands before he spoke again.
"See you in New Chicago. We're going to be doing great things."