text: Alex Lape Reflected Shadows Neil hurried his pace as he strolled down bustling midnight streets of Sacramento, crinkling his nose as the noxious smell of rotten eggs seemed to well up from its sewage system. The meeting spot designated in the text he got couldn’t be three more blocks from the stoplight he had recently passed. A text from none other than his old friend Alphonse somehow managed to strike an ominous sense of dread in Neil, yet he found himself instinctively drawn to seeing what his former partner/handler sought from him. I’m barely even there, and I could already smell the bullshit , Neil silently despaired, taking the foul aroma as if it were a forewarning from Fate itself telling him that the meeting was either a trap or a whole new gateway to chaos in his life. As the oldest heir to his Family’s name, Alphonse exuded an air of overbearing arrogance and impulsiveness that often burdened everyone around him. If Alphonse gave an order, it had to be executed with the utmost urgency unless they wanted to be dealt with themselves. Neil had his fair share of having to make people “go on extended vacation” on Alphonse’s orders. “It seems this city isn’t big enough to keep you hidden forever, after all,” a voice pierced through the raucous medley of sounds that surrounded Neil. A voice that would’ve been comfortably familiar to him, had he not remembered to whom it belonged to and all of the underlying menace it implied. “I thought I told the Family I was out after I left Cleveland and I told YOU not to come find me ,” Neil growled lowly, spinning around to face his former ally, his eyes darting about to see if he could find either an escape route or improvised weapon. “Ah, funny that - cause if ‘I’ remember correctly: WE made a blood pact that makes us closer than family,” Alphonse smirked, his playful yet psychotic gaze seemed fixed on Neil before eventually noticing an open sports bar advertising free wings on game day, “Fancy a drink with an old friend for old times’ sake?” Neil groaned and glanced to his left, feeling for his wallet in case Alphonse was still as notoriously cheap now as he was back then. “Lead,” Neil huffed coldly and followed behind Alphonse as every instinct he had violently tugged on him to get away. “So, why the fuck are you here, Alphie?” Neil questioned with quickly dwindling enthusiasm that would go obsolete, depending on what answer he got. “Do you remember my godsister, Fran?” Alphonse just casually threw out the question as if he were simply skimming headlines in a paper. “Oh, no. We’re not doing this. Thanks for the drink, but I’m out. Goodnight,” Neil stated, getting up from his seat and dusting off as he fished for the last five dollar bill to pay for his lager. But as Neil turned to make his way to the door, a firm vice-like grip seized his right hand. “ I think Fran may be in trouble. I don’t exactly trust this new guy she’s been going around with,” Alphonse admitted with an irritated groan that came out muffled through his teeth. “And what does that have to do with me?Look, whatever happened between me and your godsister happened, alright? She made her choice and I respected that. That’s why when I left your Family, I gave her the space she needed, the space we both need, by moving from Ohio to California,” Neil blurted out exasperatedly, panting as if he were fighting to draw both his air and his emotions back into him. “Are you done? Just hear me out. I know you tried with my godsister, and I know you loved her. I never blamed you for leaving. That’s not what this is about...it’s just...this guy...,” Alphonse’s voice trailed off as he looked desperately out the window. “You don’t trust him, do you?” Neil asked with a more inquisitive tone. “Some things just don’t add up, ya know?” Alphonse sheepishly admitted as his shoulders reluctantly rose and fell as if signaling the wave of regret he felt in letting his cousin go so easily. “What things?” Neil further interrogated his friend, taking a moment to eye the bar to see if he was gonna need another beer for this explanation. “Look, word on the street is - this guy was in heavy with some Eastern Europeans. They even had him on this whole arranged marriage deal and shit. Apparently, he nixed all that when he ran off to be with my godsister. But now....” Alphonse rattled off before sighing and fishing for a cigarette in his right breastpocket. “Now all involved parties aren’t exactly happy and demand restitution. And you’re worried Franceska may be caught in the middle of this,” Neil finished Alphonse’s train of thought as the corners of his forehead began to scrunch up. “All I’m asking you for is to maybe look into this and look out for her. Someone has to- my godsister can be very impulsive,” Alphonse reminded Neil as a waitress went by to ask if they wanted wings or onion rings, which they waved off. “I’m sorry, but it can’t be me. History aside, I left that life a long time ago,” Neil rebutted as he drank his bottle down to its last third. “So, what - we just let Franceska go? YOU let Franceska go? Just like that? I know you, Neil. Our methods may be very different, but I know you. You were always giving your all to protect those who needed it. That’s why for all the shit I gave you, I’ve learned to respect you. ” Alphonse pressed him, his tone more challenging than it was pleading, as if it were a knife being methodically driven in to pry for a response. Outside the bar window, a neon light shone down on the pair, casting a cool, soothing almost mystifying blue hue on Neil while a furious, burning shade of red blanketed Alphonse as his jaws tightened, forming knots on the side. “Alphie...For fuck’s sake, even if I could be there - what do you expect me to do? Like I’ve said a dozen times by now - I DON’T DO THAT ANYMORE. I’m a sales associate at a local flower nursery now,” Neil tried to drive home once again as Alphonse scoffed and looked out the window. “So, is that it? Is that what you wanna do with your life? Spray down flowers for less than twenty bucks an hour? Knowing full well that one of our loved ones, the woman YOU love, can be getting into some deep shit? And if all you can do is sit by, then forgive me for thinking that a ‘Brother’ of mine could actually help me out,”Alphonse sighed, his disappointment plastered plainly on his face as he gathered his things to leave. “Alphie- Alphie, even if I could look into this - how would I even start? I don’t have the same ‘connections’ I did back when I was in the Family,” Neil protested as Alphonse straightened his jacket to leave. “If you were to somehow change your mind and come back to where you belong, every connection and every bit of supplies will be at your disposal - all you have to do is ask,” Alphonse punctuated his final offer by sliding an airline ticket and a calling card towards the middle of the table,”Think it over.” Neill pushed his empty bottle to his left as his eyes fixated on to the materials placed before him. Neil looked up and tried calling out to the man who dragged him into that life, and now sought to drag him back into, but as the door to the bar swung idly - he was gone.