Future

Josh walked through the crowd at the fair. Suddenly a woman yelling out at him caught his attention.
“Excuse me sir,” she said.
He snapped around to see a woman sitting behind the physic counter, “what?”
“You seem troubled,” she said.
He replied quickly, “I am fine.”
“Then you will be troubled,” she said, “sometime in the near future.”
He slowly walked towards the booth, as his eyes looked it over.
She smiled and motioned to the chair, “sit and I will tell you what you want to know.”
He sat slowly, almost mechanically, like he had no control over his body. He blinked, wondering how he was suddenly here in front of her. He snapped out of it, “there is nothing I wish to know.”
“Well, I’ve got you interested.” She laughed, “how about I do this one for free?”
Josh shrugged, what could be the harm in that? He let her take his hand and she slowly looked it over.
Studying the palm carefully she suddenly looked up, “someone will die. Someone you care very much for.”
Josh stood up, and walked away. The woman yelled after him, but he ignored her. How could someone close to him die when all of them were dead already? His dad had gotten into a rotten deal at work and, when things went under, him and his family was killed. All except for Josh who happen to have been at a friend’s house.
His mom, his dad, and both of his sisters had been shot and left to die in their bedrooms. Josh had moved away to live with his grandparents, but when he was old enough he came back looking for the people who had killed his family.
Josh’s life was going downhill though. After getting fired from his job he decided to become a hitman. He hoped it would get him closer to the killer of his family. Though each time he looked through the scope of a sniper rifle, or stabbed another man and left him to bleed to death. He always thought about if maybe they had a family, maybe now there would be another kid who lost his father, but the anger only fed him to do it more.

Several months passed by and Josh went to Tony’s place for his next job. He walked up and knocked on the door.
Tony yelled from inside, “who is it?”
“It’s Josh,” he yelled back.
“It’s unlocked,” came the reply.
Josh turned the knob and entered the house looking around. Tony came from the kitchen with three sodas in his hand. He tossed one to Josh who caught it.
“Come on,” Tony said, “there is someone I would like you to meet.”
Josh followed Tony into the living room where a beautiful blond sat watching TV. She looked up at Josh who froze in her green-eyed gaze.
She was absolutely beautiful. Josh had never seen anyone like her. He slowly came out of his trance as Tony started talking to him.
“This is my sister Jenny,” he said. “Your job tonight is to escort her to her dance.”
Tony stepped just inside the hallway as Jenny’s attention went back to the TV. He monitored Josh over as he reached into his pocket. “Here,” Tony said, handing him a roll of one hundred dollar bills, “treat her right.”
“Of course,” said Josh, nodding his head as he shoved the money into his pocket. “I’ll get everything taken care of.”
Tony smiled, “good. You go do that and be back here by seven. Got it?”
Josh looked at him, “got it.” He peeked back into the living room and said goodbye to Jenny and then walked to the door and left.

Josh pulled back up in front of Tony’s house in a white limo. He quickly jumped out and ran up to the door knocking on it. Tony answered the door.
“You’re a little late,” he said, “but I left you a tight schedule so I will let this one slide as long as you make sure Jenny has fun tonight and nothing happens to her.”
All Josh could do was nod as Jenny came around the corner. Her blond hair was all done up and her green eyes shined with pride as she showed off her new dress, a red, velvet, strapless. She walked up and kissed Tony on the cheek.
“You have fun tonight,” Tony said to her.
Jenny smiled, “I will, don’t worry.”
Josh and Jenny walked together to the limo and both waved before they got in.
Once in Jenny sat close to Josh, taking his hand in hers, “so, tell me about yourself?”
“There isn’t much to say.”
“Well, how did you come around to working for my brother,” she asked.
He was slow to reply, “my family was killed when I was kid and I am trying to find who killed them.”
“Oh,” she said, placing her free hand on his leg.
Josh was tense. Jenny was making moves on him and he had to be careful what happened or Tony may have him dead. They soon arrived at the building where the dance was being held and Tony was saved for a little while.

The dance was almost over and they both decided to slip out early. As they got outside Jenny trapped him against a wall and as she pressed her body against him she also slipped her tongue into his mouth as their lips met in a deep passionate kiss.
By this time Josh had decided that he didn’t care. He was falling in love with Jenny and he would find a way to deal with Tony. In fact, he figured Tony would be okay with it as long as Josh didn’t break her heart.
Though, suddenly everything in Josh’s world went wrong again. Two large guys walked up and pulled Jenny away.
One of them held Jenny back as the other held Josh to the wall, asking questions, “are you Josh Myers?”
“Yes,” he replied as well as he could with the pressure from the guy’s hand on his chest.
“Well, well, we have been looking for you for a long time,” he said.
Josh just stared them down.
“We were hired to kill all of you, but when we got there you were missing.”
Josh’s eyes widened, “you mean…”
“Yes,” the man said, “we killed your family.”
Josh came up with a sharp ridge hand to the man’s ribs, which got him free. Josh quickly pulled his gun from the back of his pants and let off a bullet into the first guy’s forehead. Then he quickly turned to shoot the other guy.
Josh wasn’t fast enough. The other man pulled Jenny in front of him and as Josh pulled the trigger the bullet passed through Jenny’s stomach. As Jenny was tossed away, Josh dropped the gun and then was quickly at her side.
“I’m sorry,” was all he could say. He watched as the life slowly drained out of her soft green eyes. Then he felt the cold muzzle of a gun on the back of his head. He only hoped it would be quick and painless.