Pizza Die by Koji Jagust

“Beep! Beep! Beep!” the alarm clock sounded through out Brian’s ears. He squinted at the blaring red light as it went from blurry to clear. Reading 5:30 am. He sat up, Damn time for work, he threw off the covers and went through the normal routines pee, shower, dress, eat, and brush teeth. Every morning was the same. He would leave at 6:00 am sharp. As he was leaving, he noticed the sun was coming out peaking its way from behind the hills, its rays were shooting out toward the sky, making the hills look as if they were volcanoes. While staring at the sun he got distracted and lost track of time. When he snapped out of his trance, he glanced at the clock as it was now 6:13. “Shit I’m late,” he muttered to himself and rushed out the door. He sprinted down stairs unlocked his bike and went off out to the cold street. Jumping on his bike, he began pedaling. The streets were deserted as he raced his way to work. It was an hour long bike ride to Joe’s Pizzeria. After weaving in and out through streets he finally found himself in front of Joe’s. Right as he entered he heard a yell it was Joe. Joe owned the place thus the name Joe’s Pizzeria. He was middle aged, shaped like a pear, with grizzly bear forearms, loud, and bossy. “Where the hell have you been? You’re twenty minutes late,” He shouted “Sorry I lost track of time,” Brian said softly. “Yeah well you also lost your tips. Now get to work,” Joe replied. Brian clenched his jaw and walked back to kitchen where Mark was already prepping and cleaning up. Mark was a few years older than Brian but started working at Joe’s the same time Brian started. “Hey Brian,” Mark said. Brian nodded and began to make the dough for the day. Brian loved making dough as it was relaxing and a good way to beat out his anger. While punching the dough, he would imagine Joe’s fat ugly face in it. As the day went on, they opened up. At lunch time people began to come filing in. Brian and Mark would be in the back making pizzas and Joe would be up front yelling the orders as usual. Brian and Mark would be quickly adding all the ingredients and sliding the pizzas in the ovens. Rapidly throwing the pizzas in the boxes folding them up to give to Joe. Every time Joe would inspect it and scold them if they ever did any little tiny thing wrong. Yelling either. “Not enough cheese!” or “Where’s the table at!” Talking about that tiny plastic table holding the middle of the pizza. While working Brian and Mark never really talked very much but just had a silent way of going about work exchanging looks and going through the same routines every day. Once the lunch time crowd thinned out, it became less hectic. As the day drew out into the night, it was almost time to close down. So Brian and Mark started cleaning up. Joe was in his office in the back with some friends of his. Brian did not know very much about Joe’s life outside of the pizzeria but suspected something about his friends. He glanced in Joe’s office and saw Joe and the friends exchanging wads of cash and noticed a pistol resting on Joe’s desk. Brian went back to cleaning and the friends of Joe left. Joe then came in and told Brian and Mark to lock up. Mark then asked Joe. “Can I get my paycheck today,” Joe stared with a confused look and said back “Are you kidding me? No!” Mark shook his head while biting his lip. Mark always hated Joe and he felt that him and Brian needed to stand up to him one day. After that both Brian and Mark locked up. Joe left and Brian began to get on his bike when Mark asked Brian if he wanted to go get a drink. Brian surprised and unsure about the invitation replied “Uhh sure.” “Alright. Lets take my car.” Mark said The two headed over to a bar Mark knew about. There was an obvious tension between the two. As, the only sound was the car’s engine and a murmuring from the radio for a liquidation sale. Once they arrived, they pulled in, in front of a small brick building with a flickering neon light reading “Marty’s Lounge.” Inside there were a few people at the counter watching a football game on a small T.V. that was up in the corner of the bar. The place smelled of cigarettes and fried foods, and had a dungeon like appearance to it. A waitress passed by the two and greeted Mark. “Hey Mark. Who’s your friend?” “This is Brian. He works with me,” Mark said “Hi Brian, I’m Suzy. Mark there’s a booth over here,” Suzy said and pointed to. Finally, once the two sat down and a couple beers came over, they started talking. First they were just chit chatting but five beers later the two came to the topic of Joe. “I hate that fucking guy.” Brian blurted out “I knoow I can’t staaand him” Mark slurred As the conversation grew, as well as their bladders, it became more like a yelling competitions between the two of who hates Joe more. After thirty minutes of this they decided to head out. Mark gave Brian a ride back to Joe’s Pizzeria since that’s were his bike was. The two kept complaining till it got to the point, where their complaining about Joe was just angry rambling with Joe’s name mixed with profanity and weapon names. When the two got there they sat in the car just staring at the pizzeria. All the sudden Mark turned to Brian and said. “Watch this,” And slammed his foot on the gas. Brian scared yelled out “What the hell are you doing! STOP! STOP!” The car was coming closer and closer to impact. The whole street was shaking and just before they crashed the two of them jumped out. Their bodies went rolling and bouncing across the asphalt and the car crashed right through the pizzeria. In a matter of minutes it caught a flame and the whole pizzeria was engulfed. Dazed, and still intoxicated the two stumbled to their feet looked at each other and the pizzeria. It was now a glowing fireball. Brian’s head was pulsing and the pressure in his head made it feel like his eyes were going to pop right out. Once it stopped, he turned and screamed out to Mark. “Are you fuckin crazy! Huh? Huh? Answer me!” Mark just sat there gazing with his eyes tranquil as if he was hypnotized by the fire. Brian staggered over to where Mark stood petrified. Brian shouted again right in Marks ear trying to snap him out of his trance. And very slowly Mark raised his finger pointed to a car at the end of the block and said with no emotion “Isn’t that Joe’s car.” “Holy shit man! That is! Come on lets get the hell out of here. Now!” Brian shouted nervously. He grabbed Mark by the arm and started pulled him. Brian tugged Mark down the street as the rumbling of an engine followed them. With every step the car was gaining on the two. They cut into a deserted alley but the car kept up behind them bearing down on both of the two. As they dashed out approaching the end of the alley, and the beginning of another street, Mark lost his footing and slipped in a murky puddle of water. Brian unaware that Mark slipped continued sprinting up ahead to the street ahead. After Brian noticed the roaring of the engine not as load anymore he turned his head back to see what was going on. Mark yelled out “Brian!” Just then the dark silhouettes of Joe and his friends from before got out of the car. Brian frozen and unable to do anything stood in the street looking on as he saw the three shadows circle around Mark and like a piercing howl gun shots sounded though out the air. As soon as Brian heard the shots he immediately jolted and ran off. In the distance Brian heard faint sirens and Joe’s voice yelling out “You can’t run forever!”. While Brian kept running all kinds of thoughts were racing through his mind. He could not believe what just happened he did not know what to do. But just went on running as every step was distancing him from it all. He ran all the way home. Right as he got inside, he packed up as much clothes and money he could find and fit into his bag and left. Brian took a taxi to the airport where he stood confused and not knowing what to do again. He sat there looking up at the checkerboard of flight number and times, gazing. Until he finally saw there was one leaving in an hour. Being so anxious to leave this town and it memories he did not even care to look at the destination but just memorized and said the flight number to himself “467.”. Repeating the number “467,467,467” as he raced away to buy his ticket. Just as he was going to buy the ticket a T.V. caught his eye. Marks face was on it. They were doing a news report about the murder and said the police did not know who killed him. That struck a nerve. As Brian turned right around. He walked outside and spotted out a police car at the end of a long line of taxis. Brian ran up to it and told the police men inside that he knew about the murder and how Joe did it. As soon as he told them there faces lit up. They asked Brian if he knew where Joe was and if he could take them there. Brian took a second to think and immediately told the two police men. “Take me to my house.” While they drove over to Brian house, he sat in the backseat with mixed feelings of anger and nervousness. As they approached the house Brian noticed a black car parked in front of his house. It was Joe. The two police men cautiously walked over to the front door of the house with Brian closely following them. They went up to the front door and noticed the lock shot off. The officer in front yelled out. “Police open the door!” While knocking on the door. There was no response the officer in front then looked back to the officer behind, nodded his head, and kicked the door down. Right as he entered “Bang” a shot. The officer dropped to the floor. The other officer behind quickly shot right back and hit one of Joe’s friends. He collapsed to the floor. The other friend of Joe came around the hall and the officer fired again “Bang” as he hit the floor too. Brian scared and not knowing what to do, was just in a still position. Crouched behind the officer, with his hands softly resting on the officer’s lower back. Then all of the sudden Brian spots out Joe but as soon as he does Joe fires of a shot, and hits the officer in the arm. The officer drops the gun. Brian sees the gun falling. Dives out for it catching it with his index finger, and while in mid air fires off a shot hitting Joe right between the eyes. Brian gets up and walks over to Joe’s body looking over him with an astonished look. As blood trickled down the side of Joe’s brow soaking into the carpet below. “Nice shot.” The officer, shot in the arm says, while walking up and holding his shoulder “Thanks” Brian replies. The next morning Brian’s alarm clock goes off. He looks over to it, as it shows 6:00 am. He gets up off his bed, walks out to the living room looks out the window, and sees the sun rising with it’s rays shooting out across the sky. As he gazes out into the horizon, he turns his head down seeing the blood stain on the carpet. He smiles and goes back to bed.