Tag: review

A hitman sits on the floor of a dimly lit rental apartment, head in hands, with a glowing smartphone displaying a red Blockchain Hits app notification and a silhouette in the doorway holding a knife.

Hitman Blockchain: Part 3

Posted on by Johnny Roque

I rush to my rental only a few minutes away. The entire time I feel the gaze of death following me up through the streets. I know that my end draws near, my life wants to keep living, but this customer service personnel says otherwise. To prevent any situations like this, the group of keyboard warriors sitting behind their desk set up a series of rules. One of those rules says that after the mark finds themself sleeping forever, make sure, at 110% accuracy, that the mark stays dead. Too many frauds took place in the beginning of this app.

Under the rules currently I am not allowed a redo or time to recoup the money I already spent. Everyone in the world hunts a target like me. Someone that made a mistake, a part-time hitman. I thought I made the right choice. It only meant that one person dies, then the rest of the world turns out a little better. Now I need to survive in a world determined to murder me. The customer  service operator informs me that they need to hang up the phone now. I say thank you, they say “sorry”. On the floor of my rental I start to cry.

I cry knowing that outside my door, a busboy or a bellhop or even the receptionist might kill me. This app that I wanted to save my life, ended up ruining my life. One or two CEOs felt easy, it felt right, but now I am on the other end of the hunt. It feels unjust, I wanted to release good into the world. Now I feel hopeless. I feel a knife piercing my neck, painless and quick.  

Two brothers, one recently released from jail, walking together outside a school gym under warm golden sunlight, symbolizing love, redemption, and new beginnings.

Admiring Jail

Posted on by Johnny Roque

I write to my brother in jail weekly. He went in when I turned 10 years old to repay his debt to society. The debt? Stealing an old ford and fighting the owner. On your second offense the judge never takes it easy. I probably wrote him about two thousand letters and some change over the last seven years.

Growing up he taught me to fight, steal, and to never back down in a situation where someone treats you like a punk. After he left, those lessons left too. I buried my face in books. Every book possible. The world felt terrifying without my big brother. In my letters I tell my brother of all the adventures I pursue everyday. He reads about the fights I start or on occasions he reads about the cars I take out on joy rides. All of these things I made up to impress him, even my girlfriend Tracy. I found out he finally leaves prison on good behavior soon. The date varies, but I need to earn some street cred to show him I grew into a neighborhood warrior. Today I challenged Julio to a fight after school. Julio, the biggest gangbanger in the school, accepted.

Julio always picked on me. He called me a nerd, even took my notebooks just to throw them in puddles. It finally turned three o’clock, finally detention ended, now  I just wait to fight Julio behind the gym.

“Aye foo, what you doing here? You need to run home.” That voice sounded familiar. I expected a bit higher of a voice, Julio sounds squeaky, this voice held base. Turning to my surprise, my brother stood behind me. I hugged him so hard.

“They let you out?”, I asked him,  still latched onto him.

“Let me out? I made it out, good behavior, just to show you that living my old life only leads to trouble. We fought all the time here, you fighting Julio?” After all this time, he still knows my every move. “Pick up your bag, let’s go home.”

“Julio bullies me. I need to fight him.”

“No, I spent so many days fighting, you only need to finish your homework. I love you too much to see you miss out on a day of sunlight. I missed over two thousand days of sunlight, not a single fight makes losing your freedom worth anything.” He put his arm around me and we walked home. I told him of all my academic accomplishments, he cried out of love and pride.