The phone chimed with a text.
Where are you, baby? I'm missing you.
Followed by a photo of an attractive young woman, glowing under soft light, barely a thread covering her.

I felt a stir down there.

Glancing at the man gagged, wrists bruised and writhing on the floor, I smirked.
So the fucker has a girlfriend.

I typed back: Home. Missing you too. Come over.

-

“No, I’m Aquarius,” I said proudly.

Mom started crying. Dad didn’t say a word.
I don’t know why the Doctor Uncle thinks I’m a Cancer.

-

My son and his wife looked me in the eye and said they wanted me gone, they’d be better off without me.

As the priest stirred the flames, sprinkling something into the fire and chanting the hymns with growing urgency, I knew it was time to leave.

-

“Let go of the woman,” the priest said sternly, gripping his cross.

She trembled, eyes wide with terror.
With a snarl, the priest spat in the man’s face.

“It’s because of people like you that faith in the church is dying.”

The man smiled, reaching for his clothes. “Don’t start acting holy now, Father… you just happen to prefer boys.”

-

I swerved hard, narrowly avoiding the dog that suddenly darted into the road.

The car screeched to a halt, and for a moment, I just sat there. Chest pounding, hands trembling, sweat clinging to my brow. A wave of relief washed over me. I’d avoided disaster.

But as I stepped out and looked around, I noticed the growing crowd behind the car. Pushing through, I froze.

A little girl was lying on the road, unconscious, a pool of blood slowly spreading beneath her.

-

Inconvenience

He stood at the metro station, checking his watch for the third time. The platform was more crowded than usual, yet there was no sign of a train.

His thoughts were heavy, circling the same dark corners they always did. The delay didn’t help.

Then came the announcement: someone had jumped at the previous station. The metro line was shut down until further notice.

The mood around him shifted. Conversations sparked. Some people sounded shaken, a few offered quiet sympathy. But most were annoyed. They cursed the man for the inconvenience, for disrupting their day.

He stared at the tracks a moment too long.

Then looked away and sighed.

So that’s how they'd talk about him, too. That's all he'd be. An inconvenience.

-

“I was drunk... and driving when the car hit the kid,” the man said, wiping sweat from his brow.

He hesitated. “Dadababu had nothing to do with it. He was in the backseat.”

“Good,” I said, smirking. “That’s exactly what you’ll tell the cops.”

-

I lay crumpled on the ground, pain flaring through my groin where she’d kicked me. As I was recovering, she tore ahead through the open grounds, a razor glinting in her fist. I couldn’t let her get away.

When I finally caught up, she slashed at me, teeth bared like an animal. She lunged, tried to bite. I dodged, pinned her down, and drove the syringe into her neck. Her body went limp.

Two nurses are already down. I need to get her back to the mental ward before she wakes.

-

Bits and pieces of her brain painted the wall red as the service revolver fired accidentally.

"NO!" her father screamed, lunging forward but it was already too late.

Her brother, stunned, wiped blood from his cheek and parted his lips to whisper, almost mechanically, "Dad will scold us if we play... Russian Roulette."

-

"You're funny. What is it you say? The kid becomes Batman?" The masked man chuckled, glancing at his companion.

"Yeah. Let’s not take chances."

The boy trembled, eyes wide, kneeling over his parents' bodies as the two men calmly debated his future.

-