Kill the Lights

06

There were many people getting off at the Jetblue domestic flight exit from LA to New York.

Stewardess Jaime came out little quickly among the people. It was because one passenger left his sunglasses. It was already annoying to walk on these new pair or heels, because of that damn service and since she was the newbie, she had to look for the passenger.

An idiot who left this new Gucci S/S sunglasses was a man who sat all the way in the back in a window seat. The man who deeply wore a cap and slept putting his head down. Jaime remembered the really pale side of his face.

…How did he look like? Just plain jeans and white shirt. Because of his plain atmosphere, she couldn’t remember how he looked like at all. I remember people’s face pretty well… Jaime just didn’t think too much and looked for the man in the cap.

“Excuse me!”

Jaime shout out to that man with a cap from far away. That man didn’t stop, and Jaime shout out louder, “Excuse me! Your sunglasses!” When she thought, not even only stupid but he's also deaf, that man turned around. He looked puzzled but soon saw the sunglasses on Jaime’s hand and slightly smiled.

“Ah. Oops, I’m sorry. I forgot about this.”

He apologized with a bright tone, but Jaime froze in surprise looking at the man getting the sunglasses from her. She just stared at him.

“You are that slut, no, Haley…”

Jaime murmured in shock and that man, Haley, didn’t even get mad at her calling him slut. He just chuckled and waved his hand at her and walked away.

Until her colleague brought out the luggage asked, “What’s wrong? You didn’t find him?” Jaime just stood there for a while with a stupid expression looking at Haley’s back.

“Did you know, that guy was Haley?”

“Haley? That delinquent slut?”

Did he swear at you? That crazy bitch. He walks around well with the thing he did. Her coworker cursed at him.

“How was he? He’s not good, right? He was pretty when he was little, but these days he’s so rotten.”

The coworker asked like she expected Jaime me to say, ‘Yeah. He was totally the worst. He looked like he’ll smell like drugs!’ but Jaime still had the stupid expression stuttered a little and said, “No, no well…”

“Still unexpectedly….”

“Huh?”

“No, well, I, I thought he’s still a celebrity…”

When he smiled, something was sparkling…. –Jaime covered her blushed tip of her ear with her hand and glimpsed at the direction where Haley disappeared.

Haley wore the sunglasses while getting out of the crowd. He usually didn’t wear sunglasses unless it was too sunny, but he realized why Tony prepared a sunglasses for him.

But calling a person slut in front of his face. While catching a taxi in front of the airport, Mason thought he wasn’t sure if it was Haley’s fault for living dirty, or if it was public’s fault for being rude.

“Please go to 119^th Street.”

Instead of leaving right away, the driver looked at Mason through the rear view mirror.

“I feel like I saw you somewhere… Are you perhaps a celebrity?”

“I did hear I look alike with Simon Wayne.”

Mason smiled and jokingly said it, and the driver laughed.

“Simon? You are way younger and handsome, what are you talking about?’

The taxi driver shook his hand and left the airport feeling happy. He was keep glimpsing at Mason probably because he looked familiar, but because he was wearing a sunglasses, he couldn’t figure it out and soon stopped his interest.

Mason put down the window and felt the wind. A warm breeze of New York air softly passed by his cheeks. When the taxi went over the bridge, he smelled wet water. Because of the sun, the water was sparkling. A song from the taxi radio gently hit his ears. ‘Don`t ask me why I`m crying…. cause when I start to crumble you know how to keep me smiling. You`re gonna save me from myself. From myself, yes….’ (Christina Aguilera: Save Me from Myself)

He leaned on the window thinking it’s pretty good to be alive. With a good feeling, he pushed his hair waving by the wind to the back and felt a stare on his cheek. When he raised his head, the taxi driver was looking at this direction and got surprised and laughed.

“Because your atmosphere was so soft, I didn’t even realized it….”

Are you really a celebrity? He tilted his head and asked, and Mason put his sunglasses up and just smiled.

The taxi dropped him off at the entrance of 119^th Street. He paid with cash and got off from the taxi. He walked to the alley and looked up the building where his house is. His house was two block away from Harlem, and it was a small apartment located in 7^th floor. This building was built around when Haley was born, so it was old, but it was cheap and manager was crappy. For Mason who rarely goes back home, it was a pretty good house.

Mason grabbed all the mail from the mailbox in the entrance of the apartment and pressed the elevator button. The elevator came down with a loud machinery sound. Mason went up to the 7^thfloor and looked around the inside little bit. While he was looking if there was any new cameras installed, he tilted his head thinking, ‘….Don’t I not have to do this anymore?’ He thought about it and realized Haley didn’t have anyone who would abduct or assassinate him, and Mason who’s already dead doesn’t have it anymore.

“This life is too comfortable. I can’t get used to it….”

Mason murmured to himself. He felt scared that Haley’s life was too comfortable compare to when he had to fight for his life. Who cares if somebody he doesn’t know call him slut. It’s okay even if people didn’t like him. He doesn’t even know those people anyway… The elevator stopped by making a loud sound, and he got off and murmured, “What did I do in my previous life that made my life suddenly comfortable?” No, if this present life is Haley’s life, then the previous life would be Mason’s life? …..It was definitely not a blissful life….

Mason felt like wives who get beaten all the time. He went to his house feeling nervous about his sudden peaceful and comfortable life.

Located at the end of ‘ㄱ’ shaped hall way, room 719. Mason stood in front of the grey door and touched a small gap on top of the door. Luckily Haley wasn’t that short, so he felt something cold on his tip of his finger. Click. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a familiar house with cold air.

Mason somehow felt strange and stepped inside. Just like how he felt when he met Noah, but right now he felt a stronger déjà vu. Looking at a place where he used to live with another person’s body.

“……”

Mason turned on the light and scratched his head. He did talk bad about how Haley lived, but this side wasn’t that great either. Since he came to his house in two month, the place was covered in dusts.

Mason skimmed through the mails and threw everything in the trash, and he opened a drawer. Among the rusted keys, he took out a small key and went to his bedroom and opened a safe under the table. In the safe, there was a handful of small keys, and Mason took two keys out. With the one of the keys, he opened the last safe in the closet.

Inside the safe, there were few fake passports he used during the missions, little bit of gold, dollar, euro, yen, etc. He hand a bundle of money from each countries. And there was another key. A key that he took out under the table and this small key was from J.P. Morgan Chase bank in New York safe. –The things that actual worth something are in there.

Even though he live this kind of place, Mason didn’t earn that little money. Mercenaries are the representation of an extremely dangerous and extremely high pay job, and he was a veteran who worked for more than 10 years. He earned higher than a pretty well going lawyer, and since he didn’t really use money, he had an outrageous amount of money in his account.

Mason dreamt of opening a small café if he was born again since a while ago. There was a small café when he was going through a worst time, and the owner and his wife looked very happy and gentle. They argued a little time to time, but he could clearly see they were treasuring, loving and respecting each other. He was so envious.

As a mercenary, he made a bunch of enemies, so that kind of peaceful life was actually a dream. This wasn’t something he could tell people, but he thought this will be possible for Haley’s life. Obviously can’t be like that couple….

“…..”

Mason bitterly rubbed his lips. He thought probably he’ll live by himself for the rest of his life. He was really happy when he got married, and he felt fulfilled and satisfied when he had a child. But when he lost all of those, the shock was unbearable, so he couldn’t even think of meeting a new person.

Of course, if he meets a woman he likes, he might change his mind. Mason’s type is a woman who's small and weak like she’ll break. Type that he can protect and secure….

He took out magazines and DVD that he put under his bed. It was his favorite porn star.

Money, porn, and among the guns he put in his drawer, he picked Glock 17 that won’t distress Haley’s weak wrist and Colt M1911 that he enjoyed using for a while.

Did I pack everything… Mason looked around and realized he forgot something very important and went out to the living room. He packed his wife and his child’s picture that was on the table in front of the sofa.

“……”

For the last time, he looked around the area indifferently. He didn’t waste too much time and opened the door feeling lighthearted.

“…...”

“……”

When Mason tried to walk out the door without hesitation, he froze holding the door opened. It was because somebody unexpected was standing in front of the door.

A bright blond hair and a beautiful face. Tall like a model and perfect body and luxurious suit that fits perfectly. Sparkling atmosphere that he was born to explain the word ‘luxurious.’ A man that did not even look like he saw this kind of old apartment was standing there.

It was Noah Raycarlton.

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The song is called 'Save Me from Myself' and it's from from Christina Aguilera! I liked it haha

Did you guys liked this chapter? Mason and Noah finally meet by themselves! What will happen to them~? What do you guys think? Hehehehe