It's not every day that you see such a big crowd in front of a megabuilding apartment, considering the fact that half of the population of Night City is completely desensitized to violence and death, not to mention that the crowd is filled with NCPD and these cops were not there just out of obligation, but they were actively participating — and that's not something you see every day.
These were the thoughts that were going on in my head when I saw a huge crowd gathered in front of an apartment one floor down from mine. "What is happening here? Why is everyone camping in front of the door?" I murmured softly to myself. In response, Johnny appeared right next to my ear and whispered in an equally low, obnoxious voice, 'It might sound weird, but there is a way to find out.'
"What?" I asked with a slight flinch and an annoyed voice.
'Ask someone, you gonk!'
"Tch—" Clicking my tongue in annoyance but conceding to his reasoning, I slowly moved towards the back of the crowd and spotted another one of my neighbors who I was pretty cordial with. "Hey, Jane!"
The girl turned towards me with an annoyed expression on her face, which immediately turned into one of excitement when she saw me. "V! I haven't seen you in a long time, choom." Taking a long drag from the cigarette in her hand, she threw it away and fully turned towards me. "You always running in and out of here like a gonk chases after a jig-jig doll."
Nodding my head with an amused expression, I slowly walked closer towards her and tried to peek inside the apartment. "Yeah… things have been hectic, to say the least."
"Oh, I know, I've seen the screamsheet alright," she said, lightly punching my shoulder. "Solving cases that police can't, zeroing monsters like Shobo in their own home, kleping hi-tech hush-hush stuff from Zetatech and Biotech… need I go on?"
"Okay-okay, I get it. You can read," I said quickly, patting her quite hard on her shoulder trying to shut her up. Now it's not like I was trying to hide myself or anything, but due to her exclamations, many people turned towards us, saw me, and immediately either quickly looked away with wary expressions or looked at me with awe and wariness. Especially the badges.
Ignoring them, I simply focused on Jane. "In any case, what happened here? Is Barry alright?"
Hearing my question, her expression immediately crumbled into one of sadness. "Oh no, honey, he killed himself this morning."
Not what I was expecting. Not at all. "What? Why?" I know the question was dumb right when I asked it, but to be honest, I never even considered that Barry would do something like this. Granted, we hadn't seen each other in a long while.
With a sad expression, Jane shrugged her shoulders and quietly said, "I don't have all the deets, but I heard some cops say that he was depressed or something, said that he left the force a few weeks ago."
"Oh…" I had no idea. Like I said, we hadn't talked in a month or so. But a month really was enough to push him to suicide? What happened? "He was a good man," I murmured slowly while looking into the apartment and seeing the body laying on the ground near the bed, half leaning on the table, surrounded by police perimeter lights and forensics buzzing over the corpse and photographing or bagging everything. It is quite weird to see the cops working so diligently, but it makes sense, considering that just a month ago Barry was one of them.
"Tell me about it," Jane muttered softly, pulling me out of my musings. "Gonk was the only NCPig I could stomach… was honest." No questions there. He actually helped a ton of people in the complex. He actually used the badge for something good.
Shaking herself out of the somber moment, Jane pulled out another cigarette, but instead of lighting it, she just put it in her mouth and turned towards me with a small smile. "Anyways, I need to delta. Need to get those eddies! See you around, V!"
Watching her walk away, I gave Barry's apartment another quick glance before shaking my head in mild disappointment over losing another good one, and quietly walked back up to my apartment.
Before I could even walk into the apartment, Johnny appeared right at the entrance and incredulously asked, 'You really sad about this? He was just a cop.'
"Yes, he was," I said quietly as I walked into the apartment, shutting the door behind me as I did. Walking over to the bed, I threw myself into it and buried my face into the pillow. It was already a pretty long day, and learning about Barry's death was like just another brick on this wall of disappointment. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he was a saint or anything. "But he was one of the good ones, like River."
"You're not wrong there."
"Jesus!" Exclaiming that, I flew out of the bed in fright and threw the pillow toward the voice, but instead of hitting anything, it passed right through the body. Obviously, there was only one person who could walk up to me without me noticing. "He was good, but he was also sad."
"Damn it, Scratch! How many times do I have to tell you? Don't just sneak up on me!" Of course, my screams didn't do squat to him, instead the bitch just shrugged his shoulders and slowly went to sit on the couch. Sighing, I tried to calm down a bit and bring my adrenaline level down a bit. "What are you doing here anyway?"
Shrugging his shoulders, he quietly sat there playing with the cane in his hand. "Took Barry to his next adventure this morning."
Next great adventure. That's a nice way to put it. Buying two burritos from the vending machine, I slowly walked over to the couch and fell down on it, while kicking my feet up on the table. Opening the burrito, I took a small bite of it and watched him do the same beside me. These burritos were not the best thing in the world, but they do satisfy that craving for something spicy and unhealthy. Clearing my throat awkwardly, I took in a small sigh. "So… suicide?"
Shrugging his shoulders in return, he quietly nodded his head. "Yup. Saw some pretty messed-up stuff on the force."
"That's the fate of so many cops." And ain't that the truth. "Those who are not corrupt or downright evil motherfuckers are always leaving the force in disgust, and that is always followed by this."
Sitting in silence, we both quietly finished our burrito before throwing away the wrappers. To be honest, it wasn't like we were avoiding the situation or anything, but the thing is that we were both desensitized to death. Scratch was death himself, escorting people to the afterlife is his job so I know he won't give a shit, and I'm a merc who doesn't shy away from killing and sending people to Scratch.
But it doesn't mean that his death isn't gonna affect me. Barry was a good person, we were not friends, but we were on friendly enough terms. "It's a damn shame what happened to him."
Nodding his head, Scratch quietly replied, "I know, right. And to think that you could've saved him." I nodded back to his words, but then I actually focused on them. Whipping back towards him, I saw that he was completely serious. "The fuck you mean I could've saved him?!"
Shrugging his shoulders, he stood up and straightened his clothes and in his usual carefree manner said, "I'm just saying. His death is not something that I didn't see coming. But it could've been avoided if you had paid attention and talked to him."
Looking at him with disbelief, I gave out a startled laugh. "Are you serious? You saying that I could've saved him? By just talking?"
Nodding his head, he picked up his cane and walked over to the door. "Yup, that's exactly what I'm saying." Turning towards me, he saw my confused expression and gave me a small smile before saying, "You'd be surprised by how much difference a little conversation can make." And with those final words, he walked out of the apartment.
"I could've saved him?"
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Hey guys! thanks for reading! please do consider rating, commenting and saving, it'll help me immensely! also I feel like Gollum now, running and chasing after my precious Powerstones. So please, do consider throwing some my way please!