Fascination Street

The air is thick with chaotic noise. People are running around as though it’s a massive Christmas sell in its last minutes. Royce steps of a local bar to investigate the commotion and finds a man standing in the middle of the street with a handgun in his hand. The man was screaming at the top of his lungs something Royce couldn’t decipher from this distance.

Royce: What the hell is going on now?

Royce stepped out with a beer in his hand and a cigarette in the other. He walked until he got to the corner of a building not 15 yards from the nutcase. Royce leans on the wall and watches on taking a sip of beer and following with a drag from the cylinder of nicotine.

Man: GET AWAY FROM ME. I F*CKING SHOOT ANYONE WHO COMES NEAR…

The man continues ranting and raving while Royce just leans and laughs every once in a while when someone would step forward but back down promptly once the man swung around on them with the gun.

Royce: Want to be heros. Everyone trying to save the man. What the hell is this shit all about anyway?

Royce looks around and catches the stare of a man sitting behind a light pole. He must have been there a while because he wasn’t budging and he seemed very startled.

Royce: Hey you, pussy boy get up and come over here real quick.

In the background:
Man: Stop… Don’t come any closer I will shoot you.. I SWEAR I WILL SHOOT. Don’t BOTHER me I don’t want to LIVE…
---

The young man sat back down with his back to the wall mostly out of view of the man with the gun.

Royce: So what is going on here.. uh…?

Royce looked down at the boy with a “Name please?” look on his face.

Boy: Uhh… Names Alex and I think the man is Suicidal, a few people try to talk to him and the cops haven’t gotten here yet.

Royce just snickers at the boy’s statement and looks up at the lunatic in the street.

Royce: People have tried to talk to him huh.

Royce takes a drink and looks on for a moment.

Royce: What the hell for? The guy wants to shoot himself. Let him, don’t risk your neck with the fool. Everyone’s a hero.

Alex: But no one wants him to hurt himself.

Royce: Who gives a damn, its his life not yours or anyone else. Why bother? If he wants to end it, its his to end.

Royce slides down the wall next to Alex and takes a seat. He continued watching the man as he talked.

Royce: Look if it were me… I would shoot every bastard that walked within the warning area I state. I don’t want anyone pissing around with me when I am doing something. I wouldn’t be in the street pulling this mind you. Which leads me to believe this to be a bit of a cry for help and I guarantee he will not do it. If he does it will be some pussy flesh wound.

Alex: What makes you think that? He has been waving that gun around for an hour now. Don’t know why the cops haven’t shown up though. It might not be an hour but it seems like it.

Royce: Go home he isn’t going to shot you. All you idiots need to go home. Your giving him what he wants. Look… He has been here for sometime now raving about shooting himself and hasn’t done it. People have tried to…quote…Help him… Look man this shit is a cry for attention. The mans probably fired from his job and his hore dumped him.

Alex: But… he threatens people when they try to help.

Royce just shakes his head and takes another drink and hit.

In the background
Man: I told you… STAY AWAY… I DON’T WANT TO GO ON…
---

Royce: Man you aren’t listening. It’s a damn stage act. You dumbasses need to just go home. This is a waste of time. I know people like this. They aren’t violent and attention grabbing with weapons, but they bitch and moan because they don’t get the recognition they want. I wrestle for CWR…

The boy cuts Royce off and his look of fear completely washes away and a contortion of excitement takes over him. The boy even forgets about the situation still brewing in the street.

Alex: I knew it, you never gave me your name. But I knew it… Your Dominic Royce the MTV Champion for CWR. You’re the one the Rookie of the Year talk is stirring around.

Royce: Yeah yeah yeah… anyway, listen here.

Alex: You are definitely the plus that federation needs. In a league full of blow hards and heads of hot air, you talk you game and back it up to. You are one of the greatest on the roster.

A gunshot sounds off in the background breaking the boys complementing and he backs tight against the wall. Commotion breaks out and the man begins screaming again. Royce returns his vision back out on the street, his calm composure never flinching.

Man: I WILL SHOOT YOU I WILL!!!

The man obviously shot the gun into the air and not at anyone because everyone was ducking but no one was down hit or screaming and writhing in pain. Although Royce was a bit disappointed he wasn’t surprised.

Royce: See I told you.

Royce looks at the boy.

Royce: Damnit open your eyes. I told you he wouldn’t shoot anyone. Now he is just shooting up in the air, little BS warning shots that do nothing but scare the blind and the meek. See he is just asking for attention. My federation has similar whining children. Complaining because they don’t get that title shot… They didn’t get that award they thought they deserved. They are not getting that push they bitch for… They didn’t get that win they believe they worked for… Blah Blah Blah… And the constant “I am the bad ass your were warned about,” talk rotates around so much… hell, a storm of hot air, shit talk, should have already materialized into a funnel cloud by now. Its down right sickening. It seems everyone has a word to say but no punishment to back it up. It’s a constant cycle… You ever watch the CWR Recycled shows and Pay-Per-View’s?

The boy nods really quickly and sharply, still shaken by the gunshots.

Royce: So you know what I am talking about?

The boy nods again.

Royce: You can talk, the fool won’t fire a whining shot into the air because you talked.

Royce paused for a moment watching the man take a seat on the road and he puts the gun back to his head. The sweat now pouring from the man’s forehead, his hair is caked down from the perspiration. Royce laughs again at a couple that inches their way closer to him from behind. They stop cold in their tracks and scurry back once he lays back with the gun pointed at them and shakes his head.

Royce: Anyway, you see it’s all a damn act. It is just like any childish tantrum that a grown man can muster.

Royce tosses his bottle far over the street and it crashes hard to the ground breaking into thousands of pieces. It sounds off with a large boom that damn near made every person on the street duck and piss on their self. The man on the street leaped to his feet. Irritated and startled by the crash.

Man: WHO DID IT, WHO THROUGH THAT. FESS UP DAMNIT!!!

Royce just laughs and rises to his feet.

Royce: I am tired of this show. The entertainment value has subsided and you people need to get home.

Royce turns to the boy and smiles at him.

Royce: Watch I will prove this to you and you idiots can go home and rest with a calm conscience.

Royce turned and walked away from the building and off the sidewalk smoking the final remnants of his cigarette. After stepping off the curb he tosses the butt to the ground in front of him and stomps it as he continues toward the man.

Man: You STAY BACK!!! DON’T COME ANY CLOSER. I AM WARNING YOU!!!!

Royce kept walking toward the man with a sly smile ear to ear.

Royce: Silence… I am tired of this foolish ignorance.

People were still flanking the side of the streets looking on in a emotion of shock and fear for the man stepping forward. The man in the street aimed his gun at Royce and began screaming at him to stay back.

As Royce came closure the man pointed the gun up and blasted off a couple of shots trying to scare Royce back. Royce never wavered and continued marching forward. Just before the man brought the gun down in aim of Royce’s head, Royce snatched the man’s arm and folded it behind his back.

Royce cracked the man’s wrist around and the man released the weapon. It crashed to the crashed to the ground and people began to rise back up confident now of the safety. Royce swung the man around and tripped him to the ground.

Royce proceeded to kick the man in the stomach and spun on the man and sat on his back with his arm still in grasp. Royce snatched the other arm and pulls off his belt. He locked the belt around the mans arms and rose back to his feet.

He turned and walked away from the man leaving him still thrashing on the ground his arms behind his back and no way to get to his feet. A faint siren sounds off in the distance, probably 6 blocks away.

Royce shakes his head in detest of the ignorant police squad in the area and their lame excuse for a dispatch. Coming back onto the sidewalk Royce passes by Alex again and smiles.

Royce: See boy, nothing but a blow hard pussy crying for attention. It takes all kinds and this type is very abundant. Now go home and watch TV or something. Hell, turn to Channel 69 and watch for some more crybaby tantrums to come from many people in my league.

Royce looks away and walks on down the sidewalk disappearing around the corner of the building and the video faded to black.