Guns And Pretends

No one knew this man. 

No one cared to.

The man overlapped with black clothing would wander around, eavesdropping on the spoken words while people would be busy polishing their monotone lives against bricked duties. What was a man with dark shaded eyes, clumsy walk, and disintegrated smile doing in a small town like this? Ain’t worth for vacation, so no excuses could be figured out from regular sayings. This man had bigger intentions. Dangerous intentions. The man had an unusual belt strapped around his waist, taking a sneak peek once in a while, through the heavy worn coat. Attached to the edge of the strap, was a hanging object, he knew what it was. And he knew better than to make it public. 

A small blond girl came across the little secret of his and pointed the pink edged finger towards his belt, trying to grab her mother’s attention from the other. The man had no option but to turn his back and run while still pretending to be walking.

“Carson” he mumbled as he made his way to the footstep of a proud building. 

Suspicion lured the minds of many but as they say about humans, they ignored it. 

He did not know what to do then. Or whom to ask? His eyes wandered through the lengths of the architect piece, maybe the darkest house, or the most decrepit one. But fate offered him no luck. He wished he could ask the neatly uniformed person, standing on guard with a tight grip on a black rod. He would’ve if only he did not have blades hanging over his head. It’s been over a month, he’s been shuttling from them, and yet he had not found a stable environment. Not that he was not capable, he had met quite many offers but never secure, he pushed them away. And today, after the numerous steps of sweat and search, the ties had finally tightened. He had found his target, a ray of hope and he was never going to let go of it. 

Carson Roberts. From the constant rummaging of whispers, this is what he got. Nobody really knew Roberts or what was going in his life. Rumours lived on a whiff from the boy who delivered necessary items to his house. Carson never curtailed relationships with anybody and was rarely seen in the open air. Once a man reported to police about Carson, his doubts shadowed that it might lead to an illegal or inappropriate cause. But the police’s search let out gasps of failure when nothing was found. In other words, he was just the person the man needed. 

The thoughts of Roberts dragged him down to the delusions of his past but he shrugged them off just in time. He needed to act fast. Life doesn’t work if one’s thoughts do not consider risk. He had to take risks. Lowering his hat in front of his eyes, he walked towards the leaning guard. 

“Uhm sir,” he cleared his throat “Mr Carson Roberts owes me a huge amount of money. With the ongoing circumstances, I am here to take my money back. Can you tell where can I find him?” The man said, trying to be as polite as possible. 

“It’s on the fifth floor, the third flat. Wait for a second, I’ll just inform him about your arrival.” The guard replied.

“No!” The man involuntarily yelled and bit his tongue. Regaining the lost tranquillity in his voice, he continued “What I mean is, please don’t inform him. He would attempt to run away and all the hopes to get my money back would be lost again.”

The guard’s eyes filled with disbelief for a second but soon flashed approval. After all, that shady rogue was worth the accusation. 

The man walked away with relief, cursing the guard and swearing to take him back.

The man was ready with a clear mindset in his head. But his wicked plan met a full stop in the start only when he found the door unlocked. This Carson boy was really a weird personality. He turned the knob silently and placed his padded feet on the polished tiles. The house was trapped in a pungent smell while minimum light scattered through the unleveled curtains. The man continued his stroll until his knee met the hard surface of the sofa and that’s when he saw him. His prey. 

He pulled up his coat, careful enough to not make a sound and pulled out his gun. Carson still hadn’t noticed him. What a douche.

The building tension inside the four walls tingled the back of the man’s neck and he yelped “Hands up.” 

Carson who was then pouring some water in the glass, with his back facing the intruder, froze. He dropped the glass on the table with a thud and raised his hands over him.

“Turn back” The man yelled, his voice adjusted back to his original tone. 

Carson turned. Roberts had brown papery skin, like the ones used to wrap rolls and his dark eyes bulged from his sockets. It felt like he hadn’t slept in days. He looked quite pale for his age and for a second make the man regret his choice. But he was so near to his desire, the feeling of pity couldn’t overwhelm him. 

“W-who are you?” Carson’s quivering lips moved. 

“Does that even matter?”

“What do you want?” He tried to raise another question. 

The man left out a light chuckle but his expressions remained stern. “You wouldn’t like to know my plans, would you?”

“If only you’d tell me.” 

The man stepped forward and warned “Don’t act smart. You don’t know who I am or what I want. Mind your line”

“I-I”

“Your death!” The man yelled, his nose now almost brushing Carson’s “That’s what I want, your death!”

“W-what. B-b”

“But looking at your fragile soul,” the man said, eyeing Carson from head to toe “I can spare your life if you keep your hands to yourself and run away to a far place without anyone getting a waft.”

“Why are you doing this?” Carson said, with a sudden spark of confidence. 

The man snickered and slid his hand around Carson’s shoulder. 

“It seems like you really want to die,” he said “So I’ll let you die with my secret. At least, you won’t spend your dead hours curiously thinking why you died. Haha.”

The man took a deep breath and continued “Let me tell this in brief. My life has been beyond miserable, my friend. My parents abandoned me as a child so I had to spend my childhood helplessly wandering around this cruel world. A man found me and decided to take me under his care. But I was too young to realize the fact that no one fills your cup without a selfish end. He made me do endless crimes from pickpocketing to bank robbery. It was about a month ago, I was assigned to do the biggest robbery. I almost succeeded and that’s when a security officer saw me. Curse him. I got so scared, I threw the nearest object around me at him. He died on the spot. Ever since, the cops have been after me, with an endless list of crimes. Tell me is it my fault?” 

The man looked at Carson with sorrowful eyes.

“So why do you want to kill me and commit another crime?” 

“Because there is no other option. Once I kill and bury this body of yours, all my problems will be resolved. I’ll live pretending to be you my whole life, chilling out.”

“No. No. No. I won’t let you get away with this. Never:”

The man’s expressions changed and he lunged over Carson, the tip of his gun choking his throat.

“Are you sure?”

“N-no. W-wait. Listen, ah, listen to me” Carson managed to mumble while begging for air.

“What?”

“You can’t”

“Why!?”

Carson remained mum. 

“Why?” The man yelled. 

“Because I too am pretending to be Carson Roberts.”