45: A Peaceful Retreat (Flashback)

*A large crowd was gathered in the Storm Shade Café situated in the heart of Minnesota. The Café was one of the several food and refreshment spots in a low-end Lake resort that was once one of the most iconic resorts in the state. But now it was merely a shadow of its former self. A large expanse of the resort was constantly closed for renovations that demanded a lot of money which wasn’t there. The owners had decided to lower the prices and trust the nature. It had worked. People swarmed in the resort just to absorb the peaceful aura of the still lake in the center of the resort. Whenever the tourists needed a break, they gravitated towards the nearest food vendor, be it on the ground or on wheels. The café was one of the better places to eat at. It offered all sorts of refreshments especially coffee and tea. There was always a queue and no table was ever empty. The interior was all wood and all the lights were yellow. The furniture was minimalistic. The barista was a skinny young guy with a head full of black hair. He wore a headless cap and a colorful apron which was a part of the uniform of the establishment. He constantly took orders from the customers and prepared heir coffees in a matter of seconds. He was a bit short handed. There was room and need for at least two more baristas behind the counter yet the poor guy handled the hectic traffic alone and all that with a smile on his face. The queue would wane and lengthen in a matter of minutes. A long-awaited moment of rest arrived and the barista took a breath of relief.
*
“Jason! There’s a call for you!”, a voice came from behind him. The barista was a bit perplexed. A girl stood at the counter of breads, croissants and pastries. Jason lent her the responsibilities of his station for a while and took off. He walked to the inner kitchen of the Café where the full meals were being prepared. There was a lot of noise of clanking metal and hissing pans. It was utter chaos in there. Several cooks worked together and somehow, they all looked late for something. He strolled to the phone that hung on the wall.

*“Jason here! Wassup?”, he spoke as he held the phone to his ear and rested his back on the pillar it was nailed to. He was till wondering who could call him out there. There was silence on the other side.
*
“Hal-Eck!”, a coarse voice spoke. Jason felt like dropping the phone with shock. No one was supposed to know where he was. The elders were the only ones who knew his whereabouts and that too because they were the ones who had arranged the job. But they never spoke via telephones. Jason tried to make up a response. He couldn’t catch his breath. “They are coming”, the rough voice added and hung up. Jason’s fears were significantly amplified. He hastily put the phone back and wondered what that had meant. There was only one simple meaning which was as plain as day. The vampires were onto him. They had wreaked enough havoc to make their own elders go underground. He decided to shake it off and act natural. He went back to his counter.

*“You took your goddamn time!”, the girl fired at him as soon as she saw him return. He managed to offer a fake smile which was responded to with an angry glare. The girl returned to her counter and Jason was left with his. There were no new customers on his side. He took a seat and the coarse voice on the telephone kept repeating in his head. He still had no idea who the man on the other side was. He was getting edgy. The elders had given him a sidearm for emergencies. The handgun was stashed at the back of the café. Jason decided that he should be prepared in case something out of the ordinary happens. He vanished from behind the counter without asking the girl to take over. It wasn’t going to take long and she would have killed him before anyone else if he had disturbed her again. He darted inside and jogged through the kitchen. He arrived at the storage room at the back where the card board boxes, paper cups and other disposable items were stored. He sneaked inside and walked to the far end where a small, discarded and rusty cash register lied. He pressed the button to open it and a it released a black 9mm that was entrusted to it. He checked the magazine just to be sure and found it full, just as he had left it. He put it in safety and stuck it in the back of his pants.
*
Jason walked back to his counter and found a sole customer waiting to be served anxiously. He broke into a sprint as soon as he saw him. The customer looked significantly relieved as soon as he saw him. Jason greeted him with a smile and asked for his order. The customer was a young boy with flaming blond hair and sharp facial features, wearing a black leather jacket. Jason couldn’t help but feel that he had seen that boy before. The boy was giving an eerie smile that was creeping Jason out. He asked for his name to put on the cup. ‘Sam!’, the boy happily gave it up. The name instantly clicked in Jason’s head. He instantly recognized the boy. The boy with the Vampire High Lord blood and the crooked billionaire’s son was a long way from home. Jason suppressed his emotions and didn’t give away the recognition. He simply asked him to take a seat and went to work. Sam didn’t look pleased on Jason’s lack of reaction. He walked to an empty chair and waited. As Jason was brewing Sam’s coffee, his mind was racing with ugly thoughts. He wondered if he was alone. The coffee was ready. He cheerfully called out Sam’s name and he popped up to receive it. Sam went back to his table and focused on the coffee. Jason sat behind the counter staring at him, anxiously waiting for a hint of anything. Sam gave up nothing. He just sipped on his coffee and stared out of the window, at the lake. It took him a while to finish his coffee but as soon as he did, he rushed out of the café. Jason was puzzled but it was still a burden off his shoulders. Sam didn’t even glance at him as he exited.

*The café was supposed to close at eight in the night and the hour had arrived. Jason happily pulled off his apron and hung it on a knob on his counter. He changed into his regular clothes and signed out. The resort was still up and running in the night but the demand for coffee was significantly reduced, hence the decision of the owners to save some bills. Jason was lodged in a motel nearby at a walking distance. He didn’t bother bringing his bike to work. The area surrounding the resort turned extremely gloomy after dark, probably on account of the tall walls of the resort and the lack of businesses nearby. Jason had been working there for past two years and he had never been so jumpy walking back to his home. He entered a deserted street as he always did, with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. There was a school on one side and a government office on the other. There was no sign of activity on either side in the nights. There were no cars or pedestrians. Only the street lights that stood several meters away from one another. Jason was deep in his thoughts as he heard a faint sound of footsteps behind him. He looked back and found nothing. He pulled out his handgun, switched it off the safety and put it in the pocket of his hoodie.
*
“Hal-Eck!”, a voice originated behind him. Jason looked back and found Sam standing a streetlight away from him. He glared at him with utter hatred. Jason was startled. “You really thought you could hide from us?!”, he added. Jason was in no shape to respond. Sam pulled out a revolver and marched right at him. Jason was frightened beyond recovery. He wanted to run for it but he froze at the spot. The distance between the two was covered in a matter of seconds. Sam pounced at him and pushed him to the ground. Both struggled on the ground.

*“Name your contact!”, Sam yelled as he pressed his gun at Jason’s gut. Jason tried to push him away but the gun didn’t budge.
*
“What contact!?!”, Jason tried to reason with him. Sam was having none of it.

*“Who tells you about us?!”, Sam yelled again. Jason didn’t have anything to give up. He had been a barista, nothing more. There was no contact, no information and no plans, unless the elders told him so. Even that channel had been static for months.
*
A loud thunderous explosion noise jolted both of them. Both of them loosened their grips on each other. Jason was convinced that Sam’s revolver had put a hole in him. Sam got off him in an instant and was also on the ground. Jason laid on his back, took deep breaths and tried to feel any part for his body that felt out of the ordinary. His stomach felt hot. He closed his eyes as he laid on the ground and waited for the pain to kick in. A coughing sound from his side attracted his attention. He looked at the direction and found Sam on his back coughing up blood. He instantly got up and checked his stomach and found a hole in his hoodie pocket. The hand gun in his pocket had gone off because of the struggle. He pulled out the gun and found it yielding smoke. He tossed it away and rushed to Sam. He opened his jacket and found a bullet hole on his chest. It looked like a lung shot. Sam coughed twice and fell limp. Jason put his hand on his own head and paced back and forth in panic. ‘What have I done?! What have I done?!’, kept repeating in his head. He bent down and closed Sam’s eyes. He realized that the buildings on either side had watchmen who must have heard the gun shot. It was only a matter of time before they arrived at the scene. Jason had to disappear and he did, reluctantly.