Vincent

It was late midnight when the pub called Purple Butterfly filled with crowd. It was located in the corner of the street of some city in the United States.

Clicking sound of glass was heard pleasantly as the bartender served the guess with drinks. He was a man in his early twenties. He stood tall with his 6'4 height and strong built, not overly muscular but lean and well built. He has short dark hair and fair skin that was bit tan from the sunlight. His eyes were dark grey that looked almost black. He has a chiseled jawline, defined cheek, strong eyebrow and thin lips that completed his handsome appearance.

"Seriously! You should hear what that fat bastard said, Bill! How dare he call me incompetent bitch with only nice body! That bastard cannot even do his works without my assistances!" complained aloud a beautiful woman in the middle of twenties. She slammed her drink hard on the table. Her fair complexion was bit red from drunk.

"You should have just kicked his ass right there." Bill, the bartender chuckled lightly to the woman.

"Huh! If only! Unfortunately, he is my boss so I have to behave still. Maybe I should just quit this job after all. It makes me felt older. Look, I still haven't a boyfriend already till this day! It must be because this job made me looks ugly and old!" muttered the woman in upset.

"Of course not. You just haven't met the right guy, Melisa. You still look fine and beautiful." The bartender said with smile. That warm expression made his appearance even more handsome. His Asian heritage looked more firmly each time he was smiling and chuckling, showing his fair and smooth features.

Bill or that he was called now was a Eurasian. Some people said his appearance looked like he was born from Chinese and British parent, some said he was from Chinese and American parent. He never knew it certainly since he never bothered to check on it.

Bill was just a fake name. His real name was Vincent Luke.

He was an orphan that was born in Chinese. He never knew who his parent was because he never met them. Matron of the orphanage said he was dropped in front of the doorstep of the orphanage as few months old baby with only letter filled his name.

Live as mixed blood child was hard since he was different from everyone and almost every child in orphanage dislike something different. He often got bullied in schools or orphanage. Fortunately, he was fast and nimble, so he learned to avoid them in his childhood days. Even so, it was not rare that he got involved in fights.

Luke was a surname that he got when he got adopted by a middle age man in his early forties. Vincent was 11 years old at that time. His stepfather was a businessman. He ran a small company that was recently success in abroad. They move to United stated when he was 12 years old. His stepfather turned out already married. But his wife was dead few years ago because of an accident. He needed heir for his small business so he adopted him from orphanage.

As orphan child, being adopted into a family of course made him really happy. After so long, he finally had someone to call as family. Even though his family only consisted of small people, a stepfather and a step grandmother.

His stepfather was not a man with full of expressions. So they were not really close. But Vincent loved his grandmother. His grandmother was really kind and always cared about him. She was always at home to take care of him. So it was like a nightmare when he was 15 years old, his grandmother stated as cancer patient.

Vincent still remembered that day was the beginning of the worst days in his life.

They found out late of his grandmother sickness, so it was already in later stages. His stepfather took out a lot of money for the treatment of his grandmother's sickness. However, it could only prolong her life and not cure it. His stepfather started to seldom come home because of it. Vincent didn't know if it because his stepfather was busy with more works or because he didn't want saw his mother miserable.

It was when Vincent was 16 years old, his stepfather started not to come home in long times without news. Sometimes it was weeks, sometimes it was months before his stepfather came home, and he always had bad temperament each time. It was not rare he came home in drunk, and his grandmother's condition was getting worse each day.

When one time Vincent realized his stepfather forgot to send his monthly allowances, he forced to look for money on his own. He started to work part times after school time was over. He felt a bit of relieve because his grandmother's medicine already paid in advance for a year. Sometimes he even preferred to skip school than less work.

When he was 18 years old, he finally got a call from police that gave him shock. He didn't know how to feel at the moment. He should say that he had expected it. However he cannot help but felt sad when he heard it.

His stepfather was killed in an accident.

Afterward he heard from the police that his stepfather's business was in a big problem. They lost to some opposite companies and lost lot of money. It was hard but still salvaged. Vincent was thinking to take over the company and start over it again.

Then a week after his stepfather's funeral, a loan shark came to their doorstep.

He lost everything before he even started over. It turned out his stepfather had a lot of debt. Not only that, he also somehow got trapped to involved with some mafias. They took the company, house, car, money, and anything valuable that his family had. He and his grandmother forced to move to a small apartment.

Even then, the debt was still not fulfilled. Vincent then decided to quit school and look for more works. He started to work in earnest to earn money for his grandmother's treatment and his stepfather's debt. But it seemed fate really hate him because he got another hard blow few month later. Because of lack of money, his grandmother cannot get an operation for her worsen condition.

He cried really hard when his grandmother finally left him.

Vincent started thinking maybe he destined to live alone after all. He was an orphan. A family was something that he wanted the most. But after so long he got a small family, it cannot even last a long. He was really depressed in few months after his grandmother's dead.

Life was hard afterward. He always was cautious because the loan sharks could come anytime they want to demand money from him. When he finally threatened for his organs to be taken to pay off the debts, he decided right there that he didn't care anymore.

Secretly, he moved far out of the city. Using fake names everywhere before finally he could create a fake identity and settled far from influence of the loan sharks.

Even so, he still felt insecure. He thus often moved places in each few month or year. He also worked in many part times with fake identities. Vincent actually wanted to move back to Chinese since it was his first home. But because he didn't have money, he forced to cancel his plan. Nevertheless he still saved money from the part times for his moving plan.

This continued until he was 21 years old now.

Work as bartender at night was exhausting, but he held on till now because the pay was high. His work was over at 4 o'clock early morning. He walked toward home in silence. However he was always cautious since he didn't know when the loan sharks would finally find him. He knew they were still after him because his stepfather's debts were really huge.

His small apartment was remote spot in the corner of city. It was old and shoddy building, but it was cheap and comfortable. He didn't really care about house anyway, he just needed it for eat, bath and sleep. His childhood orphanage was even worse than this since he didn't even have his own room.

After reach home, he quickly took a shower so he will felt refreshed in the morning. He finally slept at 5 o'clock plus before his alarm clock woke him up again at 9 in the morning.

Vincent groaned aloud before forced himself to wake up. Like a zombie he walked toward bathroom to wash himself. He had a work in a convenience store at 10, so he had to quickly freshen himself and took breakfast.

After his morning routine was done, he changed his clothes and wore his only jacket. He checked his backpack for his things. His valuable things were not much, only wallet, small phone, and little money in bank. He also didn't have any valuable thing in apartment. All furniture here was from the landlord. Only few clothes were his own.

Seeing all were prepared, he walked toward door to work. He wore his only shoes before reach out his hand to the doorknob. But, just as he would rotate it, a strange feeling came over him.

Slowly he let go the handle, and pressed himself gently to door. He held his breath slowly to reduce sound before cautiously sneaked a peek outside from small hole on the door.

This feeling… he had felt it before…

A year ago when at one point the loan sharks from the mafia had found him.

It felt like his sense of danger suddenly screaming at him to run away. It was because of that feeling, that he was lucky enough to be able to avoid them.

…and now he was feeling it again.

He felt a shudder in his spine as he saw something just as he expected.

They were here.

They were really here.

Outside his door, he saw three bulky mans in black suit that slowly walked toward his doorstep. They have fierce face and full of tattoos. From just their appearance was enough from him to claim them as mafia.

Without hesitation, he slowly steered away from the door. He kept sound as low as possible as he walked toward window near kitchen. Cautiously he sneaked a peek outside window. Behind his apartment a small alley so he had to cautious just in case they also were waiting him in there.

Vincent let out a small breath as he saw no one in there.

Loud knocking sounds began to be heard from the door. Vincent looked anxiously at the door, afraid they would become impatient and just smashed open the door to enter. With a forced calm, he slowly opened the window. He moved as quit as possible to jump over the window. He swallowed a little seeing the height. His room was in the second floor, so it was bit high. But with his life at stake he cannot do with a slight hesitation.

Vincent lowered his body carefully until he was hanging from the second floor. He took a deep breath before he let go his held and fell.

Fuck!

It's hurt!

Despite already reduced the height with his hanging, his feet still felt a lot painful from the fall. Just as he stood again, he heard a loud smashing sound from breaking door in his apartment.

Damn it!

He ran fast without hesitation.