Life Reality: Part II
As he stepped out of the limo, Obadiah screwed up his face from the smell of the warehouse district. This is why he hated coming here. The smell and appearance of the place brought him back to a time when he had nothing, when he had to scratch and claw for every scrap that he put in his mouth. In those years he had sworn that one day he would become the most powerful man in the city and want for nothing. Years later, he had kept that promise and that’s why he was here. He walked up to warehouse sixteen, inserted the password, and slid open the large door. The warehouse was mostly empty except for the large metal drums that lined the left wall, stacked chairs in a corner, an elevator on the back wall, and the one hundred gang members standing in the middle of the floor with five men in front on their knees. Each of the five men sported a variety of fresh bruises and blood from multiple wounds on their bodies.
A tall, well dressed, muscle-bound black man walked from the crowd towards Obadiah, his dreads pulled back away from his face. Obadiah gave a slight nod at his right hand, Diamond. A dangerous man. Dangerous enough for Obadiah to know it was better to have him on his side than against him. Diamond had gotten his name from street fights where it was said that hitting him and being hit by him felt as hard as diamonds. He had never lost a fight in his life.
With a chuckle and shake of his head he began. “New guys, lost a gallon of Rush last night.”
Obadiah furrowed his brow and glared at the bloody men. “How?” he said through clenched teeth.
Diamond got closer and lowered his voice. “They said they were attacked by a…” he cleared his throat. “A ghost. Which then stole the drugs.”
“A ghost?” Obadiah couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “That steals drugs?”
He nodded. “They said it kept disappearing. Funny thing is…” He pulled out a newspaper from his pocket and handed it to Obadiah. “This isn’t the first time, just the first time for us.”
Obadiah read the headline of the newspaper from the Lower End of Londaris, The Shadow, Savior of the Lower End. He had heard of the Shadow months ago but since he only operated in the Lower End, he had discarded him. But now, now it seemed that the Shadow had gotten bored playing in one sandbox and was ready to move on. He hated losing, especially when he was losing money. He let the paper fall to the ground, pulled the gun from the inside of his jacket and walked over to the five men.
Obadiah paced in front of the men whose faces were frozen in fear wondering if this was their last day.
“Gentlemen, do you know how much money you have cost me?” the men carefully looked at each other trying not to lose their sight of Obadiah.
BANG
One of the five men slumped backwards as the rest trembled in fear. Any one of them could be next.
“I’ll ask again.” He stood over the four men calmly. “Do you know how much money I have lost because of you?”
“No sir.” One said abruptly hoping to spare his life.
