The Webb Family Coffee House
California was hot, even more so L.A.
It was wildfire season after all, the type of time people flee from their homes because one guy bummed a smoke in a park where one spark could start a fire. Leaving home for the last time in South Central made Erik feel like that as he looked around, he was still at the bottom of the food chain. After getting out of prison he couldn't really leave the Asian Boyz, a gang he cliqued up with when he did his time in Twins. Leaving his small abode he put on a wife beater and a pair of sweats, Stepping out he squinted as the sun hit him. He felt like the vampires he was hunting, skin burning and stunned by the sunlight after being underground for so long.
A
familiar tune played out from a set of burned-out 808s on the block.
Outside in a beat up little van was Zach 'Chomp' Chang and Tommy 'Grease' Mei were stood outside, posted up as the two veteran and tattooed Asians. They were his betters, Erik feigned a smile as he went and shook it up with the pair.
[Foochow - Chomp] "Hey Cruiser, welcome back to the fold cousin. Wuz hard to find you man.. You P.I. types love duckin yo set?"
[Foochow - Erik] "Yeah, heard Grease has a good ear to the ground. I'm back tho."
Erik said looking to Mei who said nothing back besides staring with his mirror shades. Mei had been sent to find Erik (also known as Cruiser by his gang) after he fell off the map once he was released from twins. In prison, once you join a gang, you don't leave. Gang membership is for life, Erik recalled seeing a mere accountant being forced into PEN1 (Public Enemy #1) and fighting his way to the top as a shot-caller for the Aryan Brotherhood. He's a lifer now, down on a fraud charge all the murders he racked never got him out. He's in isolation, for life.
[Foochow - Chomp] "All is forgiven Cuzzo, we got some biz' to work out. You're coming to New Orleans, gotta make some amends. Make some green, don't fuck around or Grease will deal wit' you."
[Foochow - Erik] "Whatever dawg, I'm straight. Lissen, I got something going down in Louisana as well. Paranormal thing, small town on the way place called Quintin. Let me hit this job with y'all.. When we're done drop me off there gotta make amends as well. Once I'm done, we go back home."
[Foochow - Chomp] "Yeah, you wanna slide after our job huh?"
[Foochow - Grease] "Small town out there, lots of gators. Remembered a guy who used to live there. Eleanor Black did favors for us. Let him go, he will need us in the end. Besides, he is at the end of his leash." Mei finally said, speaking plainly. Erik held back asking about Eleanor, maybe this thing was global. The sighting, the experience but many people in Twins knew Eleanor or claimed they did.
[Foochow - Chomp] "All right cousin, I'll listen to Grease but if you dupe us. Spider will greenlight your ass, no saving this time."
[Foochow - Erik] "Don't worry chomp, have I ever let you down?"
Erik let out a nervous laugh dismissing the threat as Chomp gave him a hard, mean squeeze on the shoulder. He got into the back of the van, seeing five or six people of different ethnicities in the back. Scared, young, starving perhaps here for a better life, in debt, or worse. He didn't think about it as the other two Asian Boyz saddled up in the front. It was going to be a long and hot drive to Louisana. Leaving Los Angeles was always the easy part.
Details were sparse but the multi-day trip to New Orleans was a bummer, everything seemed to point towards Erik with a big fuck you. He couldn't duck the Asian Boyz, Eleanor had fucked up his life and he was complicit in human trafficking. He felt bad for the poor souls in the back of the van, a route to escape or to get revenge on Chomp and Grease was slim. If he had some breathing room in Quintin, maybe he could put something together but the thoughts of Eleanor and that night at the Port kept coming up.
He had to get closure, even if it meant the end of him. His life was already over, even if he didn't see it like that yet. Shaving once again in a shitty motel near New Orleans, the burden of the migrants was gone as they were led away to other hands in New Orleans a black gang or criminal org. He didn't ask for the particulars, Grease whistled at him as he signaled it was their time to head back and on the way drop him off at Quintin.
Stepping off near the mouth of the town, Erik got out with his things as he looked to this strange picturesque town. "Hey, Crusiah. A few days then we come for you." Grease said out the driver-side window with Chomp peering over, Erik could see the Glock he had to give up to Chomp before he left.
[Foochow - Chomp] "Call us when you're done cousin, we'll come. More work to be done, hope these white boys don't shoot you. This is a nice piece!"
Chomp said laughing at him dangling his gun around, Grease joined in before rolling up the windows and driving back up the way they came. In spite of rage, Erik shouted at the retreating car before kicking up the road some.
"Fuckers!" He felt defeated, like a piece of gum under a table. Stuck, fucked and forgotten.
Dragging his feet he eventually made his way to the Webb Coffee house, it wasn't a place he would ever find himself in but desperate times make logical men do strange things. He saw what looked like a support group to the side, he would come to find that these people were the guys online chatting about Eleanor like they knew her. He was at the same place, after getting a glass of water from the front he made his way over and sat down being one of the last people to join the group.
"Sup everybody, the name is Erik. You guys can call me E if that's easier, Eleanor Black was my girlfriend for many years before she ruined my life."
He just let it out, it couldn't get any worse than this. Maybe some people would just assume she broke his heart as in 'ruining' his life or they could catch on that Eleanor Black is a sick and evil woman setting up young men all over L.A. It didn't matter, there was a sense of safety here even if it was false and it comforted Erik especially right now.
"I'm an investigator, always have been even from a young age. Good eye for detail, can handle myself in a fight, and know how to speak to people. If you have any worries about questions, I can put it in a nicer way for these locals."