Chapter 2: In Which It Starts

As usual, after finishing a job Ashton was at the hot dog stand. The hot dog guys had his order memorized and even if there was a line he would still get Ashton's order ready first, Ashton was a regular who tipped well so of course he was favored. Just as he turned around with his steaming hot dog wrapped in foil which he was about to unwrap, famished after a long day's gorry work his phone buzzed in his pocket making him stop midway in order to take the phone out from his back pocket and answer it. "Ashton speaking" he answered "We need you at Santino street" the man on the other side spoke. "What you're kidding me right? I just did a clean up early this morning" he sneered out. "Well we need you out at this job alone, it's a high stake job, they want as few people as possible involved so be here alone" the voice, on the other hand, seemed un fazed. "I'll be there, the pay better be worth it" Ashton grumbled out. "You ever unsatisfied?" With a grunt, Ashton hung up the phone and slid it back in his pocket. He wrapped the half unwrapped foil on his hot dog back and kept it in his jacket's pocket, to save it for later and eat in peace. Half an hour later Ashton was on the Santiago street, he parked his Ford truck at the curb and stepped out, two men in suits escorted him to the alley where he was guessing the crime scene took place. Sure enough, there laid a man in a sharp crisp black suit with a bullet hole lodged in between his brows, his eyes wide, mouth slightly ajar and his head in a pill of his own crimson blood. He looked to be in his thirties. A normal person would hyperventilate or faint at the sight of the gruesome scene but Ashton was used to this, it was something his job demanded, hence, he had learned to disregard death. All he saw at the sight was that It seemed to be a quick clean up, he didn't feel remorse anymore either, it was almost an everyday occurance for him now and so without further inspection, Ashton got to work as he put his protective gear on and got the equipment out, starting with dragging the limp body away laying it on the body bag without fully bagging him. He had to remove evidence from the body as well before putting him into the body bag. That's when he got a glimpse of the black shiny gold broached badge around the man's neck, he was an FBI agent, that explained all the secrecy and high stakes this job held. He moved the body away from the blood and got to the scrubbing and bleaching of the crime scene. At this point, it almost came to him naturally, the whole cleaning routine. Just as he was busy with mopping up the gruesome murder scene, a pitter-patter of tiny feet sounded from the unguarded side of the alley making him halt as his facial expressions morphed into one of alarm and confusion. There, a dog sauntered over to the bloody crime scene. The little pug had its paws covered in Blood as he left a trail of bloody paw prints, directly sauntering over to a crate where Aston had kept his jacket and other belongings safely. Then Ashton realized, the dog smelled the sausage in his hot dog which was still wrapped in the shiny foil, uneaten by him. Before he could act and shoo the pug away, he heard another set of feet, this time even though light, definitely human. Just the next second he saw a girl stepping into the alley looking for something, probably the dog. There stood Sora in the alley looking for mocha, her dog. She had taken him for a walk just down the street from the bookstore but he had gotten off his leash and made her run after him and now she stood in a secluded alley looking for him. She was about to call out to mocha but her breath and her voice both hitched in her throat as if she had swallowed a whistle. She had never seen anything as gory and horrifying in her life. There was blood on the alley floor mixed with what looked like bleach and detergent, then there was a body of a man with a bullet hole gaping on his forehead add he laid lifeless on some sort of black parachute material cloth from what she could figure out. Next, her eyes landed on the man dressed in some sort of a yellow hazmat suit, his face though was clear from the plastic and she immediately recognized him, it was the guy from the day before, the one who saved her from the football, that handsome stranger. Sora felt paralyzed, she felt as if someone had bolted her down on the spot and she had lost her voice. There was so much going around her to process anything. Before she had ebbing time to come back to her senses and take some sort of action, Ashton had already taken swift Acton as he sprinted towards her, tightly covering her mouth with his rough hand and dragging her away forcefully as she kicked and thrashed against him. She was seeing her death, this was it, she was gonna die. She didn't wanna die, who was gonna look after her grandmother, who would look after her bookstore, she hadn't even finished reading all the great books that such talented writers had written, all the Y/A fantasies she would miss out on. She was causing a commotion and it wouldn't work in her favor if the guards heard her and turned around but the silly girl didn't know he was helping her out as she kicked him and struggled, her struggling and kicking was next to nothing to Ashton but it would get the guard's attention so with no other choice left he pinched the pressure junction between her neck and shoulder hard. Within the next second, she laid limp in his arms. He lifted her up with absolute ease and glanced at the guards who still seem to be clueless looking ahead. Ashton quickly made his way to the conjoined alley with a dead-end, stacked up with cartons, he laid her down hidden behind those cartons, thankfully, she was petite enough to fit and stay hidden. Without wasting another second he returned to his position. He needed to get this done faster. The dog was still sniffing around his jacket. Ashton took the hot dog out of the jacket and used it to lure the dog away from the crime scene to the same place where he hid the owner. He dropped the hot dog there getting the dog busy with it as he trapped the dog between cartons as well. Mocha was too busy with the delicious snack to even notice or care. Ashton hastily went back to his job as he lived the mop again, working with the bloody paw stains the dog had left, removing the evidence before the guards turned around and noticed. Things had taken an unexpected turn, one that he still couldn't believe just happened. When this sort of thing happened he was obligated to tell the mafia men, they would probably deal with the witnesses in their own way, most likely leaving more bodies for Ashton to clean, the last thing they want us witnesses and that's what this exactly was but he just couldn't bring himself to report the girl. It took him a minute but he recognized her from the park eating ice cream next to him. She was a petite thing with big doe eyes, eyes he didn't have in him to betray. He was in an inner turmoil, this could get him into big time trouble but he couldn't report her, if he did then he might as well just sign her death certificate in cursive. He just carried on with his job at a faster pace and thoroughly, the last thing he needed was her waking up and alerting the guards before everything was tidied up. He was truly in a messy predicament now.