The café

We are heading to my house. Although I am one of the sons from the most important family of the city, I live in an apartment, it is too small, the houses around are a little bigger. This is the cheapest part of this zone where wealthy people and not so wealthy people can live in. This zone is more like a place where workers live and their families.

We finally get to my apartment.

“Follow me” I say to Hope.

We go up some stairs and walk through the corridor. We are outside my apartment. I take out the keys and open the door.

 I invite her to come in and she does.

She doesn´t say anything. It´s just an empty room similar to the principal´s house. I just come here to sleep and read books while listening to classical music. This reminds me that I don´t have friends or at least close ones. The people from school are just classmates to hang out once in a while. After all, they are wealthy people and they are part of the “confirmed” society, which means they do despicable things too. Another reason to keep my distance from them.

I grab a bag and put some clothes in.

I grab some money and we leave my apartment.

In an instant we are out of my house. Then we head towards her friend´s place.

We passed the hospital where I was in a few nights ago. It seems only the cops are there guarding the place.

We go through the same street that we took to go to her house, then before getting to the police station where everyone was killed we turned left and head to an almost isolated place. There are houses around but the streets are totally empty.

We continue going like this a few blocks more, and then I see it. A café.

“Here we are.” Hope says.

We get in the bar and the first thing I notice is that they are playing Nocturne Op 9 No 2. What a delightful first impression accompany with the smell of coffee.

“Hey, this way.” Hope says to me.

“All right.” I´m in the mood.

I look around and there are quite a lot of people for this café… I remember she said that her friend was part of the mafia once.

“Hope, I´m happy to see you here.” An old man says.

“It´s nice to see you Jean.” Hopes says with a faint smile on her face. That´s weird, now she has more friends than me, that´s quite sad.

I look at the old man called Jean. He´s wearing a black hat, very formally dressed and he´s wearing a mask to cover his face. However I can´t help but notice that his skin is burnt.

“Oh, what a surprise Hope, you brought your boyfriend with you.”

“It´s not like that Jean.” She says.

“Nice to meet you Sir, my name is John.” I introduce myself politely.

“An educated man, that´s good to know. Please take care of miss Hope.” He says that with a tender tone of voice, he surely has affection for her. No wonder why she said is her friend.

“Jean, I need a favor to ask you.” Hopes says interrupting us.

“Of course, whatever you want.”

They both turn around and head to a door leading at the back of the café.

An employee approaches me, he is a waiter, he looks like a member of the mafia.

I take a closer look, he has tattoos all over his body even on his face.

“You know Hope?” he asks me with an intimidating voice.

“Yes, what about it?”

“Nothing, it´s just weird she brings a friend with her that´s all.”

“Do you know her?”

“… fufff” he exhales. “You can say we worked together.”

They worked together? Maybe this is my chance to know more about her.

“You know, she told me she works or worked with the mafia, since when did she start?”

“tch” He looks angry. “Listen kid, I ain´t gonna tell ya anything she hasn´t told´ya”

“…” I´m speechless, I wasn´t expecting that kind reaction so soon. How innocent of me.

“…ahhhh” He calms himself down. “Alright, all I´m gonna tell you is this, you shouldn´t mess with her, she´s a very especial person, she has gone through very serious shit you should never ask. If she ever wants to tell you something listen to her carefully.”

“What about her mother? Do you know something?”

“… I thought you were smart kid, don´t you ever let her hears you asking that ever again, that´s a delicate topic for her. I told you she´s especial, if you say something without thinking you may ruin everything you have with her.”

“You make it sound like if it came from experience.” I ask trying to get more information. I hope he doesn´t beat the crap out of me.

“… we were friends. I reacted in a way she didn´t like and messed everything up. Since then she stopped talking to me. That´s why I´m telling ya, you shold be careful with your words, even if you think what she tells you it´s not a big deal, for her kid, for her is very important. Mess that up and you lose her forever.”

He looks so serious, almost like a…

“Did you like her?” I ask the man.

“I still do, but my time with her has passed already. All I have now, are the memories of the time I had with her.”

It seems I won´t get too far with this so I´ll change the topic.

“What about the old man? Was he part of the mafia?

“The boss, well, he was more like a contact to the mafia and the army. He was a soidier, he retired after the day he got burnt.”

“How did he get burn?”

“Do you know about the theater nearby that burnt killing hundreds of people?”

“Yes, I do.” So, he was also there, just how many people were involved in that.

“Well, he was the only survivor, his brother was the orchestra´s director.”

“Are you sure you should be telling me this?”

“Yep, it ain´t a problem, people always ask him about his burns so he always ends up telling them that story.”

Jeez

I can´t stand the way he speaks.

“And how did he know Hope?”

“After that accident he opened this café, people from this part of the city get in touch with the mafia for all kinds of jobs. And, all people around him respects him.” He takes a pause. "When I was younger, Hope came by for a job and since then the old man knows her. He likes the girl and trats her like her daughter, although, she has never seen him like that."

“Frank! A client is waiting!” a girl calls the man whom I was speaking to. So his name is Frank.

The girl looks at me from the bar. She reminds me of Hope, serious and with an eerie aura of misfortune.

She turns and heads back to her job. Is she probably the cook?

Suddenly the music on the radios stops.

We are sorry to interrupt the transmission but three attacks had been reported, two of them involving the murder of people and the other the report of a dead man who has been reported to be the mafia leader of the east part of the city. The guilty appears to be the same person who tried to killed a student from the university and the slaughter at the hospital. A man wearing a mask. He left out signs written with blood on the walls and parts of the body, O3 and O5.

Two of the reports of these events appear to had happened at the same time which opens the possibility that it is an organization behind this attacks.

That would explain what happened at the police station, but why aren´t they talking about that? Could it be that they don´t want to spread panic among the people?