The Future is Behind You

In a city of forgotten mystery and unresolved truths lies a storied past of greed, deception, murder and mayhem. 'Here Lies Bartholomew(Brett)McGinnis' reads the weathered grave stone in the completely deserted graveyard on Talbot St. "It should have been me!!" screams young Daniel Cromwell as he stands over his dead friend's grave who was taken well before his story was over.

Daniel and Brett grew up together on what you could say was the wrong side of the tracks in South Boston and pretty much did everything together. They both grew up in pretty broken homes and the only real family they had was each other and the streets. The way it was back in the day was that if you wanted anything at all you had to either steal it, or con someone to get it or to get money. The two of these misunderstood youths pulled every trick of the trade and they were good at it. Well in to there teens, they started selling drugs and pretty much anything else on the streets and at schools just to get by. By the time they were out of high school you can safely say they were 'Ballers".

As you can probably assume, they eventually moved into a house together and were partying all of the time. They would be entertaining the tainted youths of the southside to all hours of the mornings with drugs, music, women, and other shenanigans. They quickly earned a pretty good reputation among the sultry asphalt dwellers of good ole' Boston Mass. The two criminal entrepreneurs both agreed that the little side hustle they had going on was just small bananas for what they had in store for the rest of their lives. They started to broaden their horizons on to bigger enterprises in their own ways. Daniel thought of patsy schemes in very lucrative and intricate ways and Brett thought to step up their drug game in quite the bigger boat that they were used to. They both agreed that no matter what happened they would always have each others back. Well, it turns out that Brett's idea for drug growth was to take out a loan from some pretty high profile mobsters down on Louis St. and thought it best to keep Daniel out of the deal. These guys were into everything under the sun from drugs to guns, prostitution and way worse than we were ever ready to handle.

Brett took the money from that deal and bought so many drugs that even the crackhead down the block would have a coronary just from the sight of the vast amount. It was like hiking a mountain and getting to what you think is the top and realizing there is still two more mountains to climb. This eventually did wonders for the bank accounts they had but, to Daniel's surprise, the repercussions would not be so great. It turns out that the money that Brett had borrowed was very quickly forgotten by his dimwitted brain and the mob came quick and hard with retaliation. They shot down Brett outside a strip club one Friday night while Daniel watched in awe as his best friend plummeted to the ground and death struck instantly. Daniel broke out in tears and couldn't believe that he was still alive. How did they miss me? Why him and not me? What did he do to deserve this? Daniel asked these questions constantly to himself for weeks after but, he had no clue what was yet to come.

Every month, on the anniversary of his death, Daniel would go to Brett's grave and lay flowers and have a drink and a toke with his fallen comrade. He shortly started to notice that there was a tall gentleman at the cemetery every time he was there. He didn't really think anything of it until he started noticing this darkened creep pretty much everywhere he went. He started getting very paranoid and nervous about this awkward event that was unfolding in front of his eyes. Are the mobsters coming after me now? Am I going to have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life? "I had nothing to do with that deal!!!" he screamed aloud to himself. There was one night even when he came home from Ninja workout(which was as cool as it sounds) and saw the slender, dark man standing under a light across the street from his window and in a very ominous and terrifying way. To add to the already creepy and dramatic scene that he had himself in, it was raining profusely out and the man just stood there drenched. Daniel closed the blinds walked to his gun safe and grabbed his protection piece and retreated to his closet with his pillow, blanket and teddy bear to keep feel safe. When he awoke from what was the worst nightmares of his life, he decided that enough was enough and decided that the best course of action was to go to the cops and explain the whole situation that him and his friend had got themselves into.

When he walked into the 72nd st. precinct he was completely honest with his story and genuine with how scared he was for his life but the cops just blew him off and told him he had quite the imagination. He couldn't believe the level of ineptitude the police force was capable of. He thought that the Boston PD would have jumped on the chance to bring him to justice and possibly bring down some mobsters. Well, he was sadly mistaken. He started his long and terrifying walk back to his fortress of solitude with thoughts of where to move to and how to get out of town ran circles through his head. He turned the corner on to Valhalla ave. and across the street from him was his slender villain he had been avoiding for weeks. He started walking faster and faster to try and make it home in the mean time the man gained on him step by step. He turned the corner on to Bishop st. and got hit straight in the chest with what felt like a very sharp and extremely hot dagger. He fell to the ground, struggling to breath, he slowly looked up and could only see a car door close and the car start speeding towards him. He tried to move but the aching pain made it not possible and was run over by the car. As he laid in the gutter, bleeding his life away and awaiting his inevitable demise wondering how that slender guy got in front of him the only thing he could say to himself was "Happy Birthday!!"

"Detective Dekker what do you got for me?" said the chief of police. "Well sir, we almost had the bastards but they got away. All we have is a plate on the car." said the hesitant detective. "I'm sorry sir but, we had been tailing the Cromwell kid ever since his friend was killed by the Macavetty goons and thought he would bring us some sort of evidence to take them down. They must have been two steps ahead of us though." The chief dropped his head down and muttered quietly in disappointment, "So, we lost two kids. We have not a shred of proof the Macavetty's had anything to do with this and we're back to square one. Why the hell didn't you tell that kid you were tailing him to begin with? You idiot!! He's a kid. Did you ever think that maybe he thought he was being followed by someone trying to kill him?"

'Here Lies Daniel Cromwell'

'A son, a brother, a better angel'

July 24,1985-July 24,2019

'The truth behind the cloth is beautiful only when it stays a mystery'