Purple City was busy as usual today, an overly humid summer Tuesday morning, the Sun God is rightfully reigning on his throne currently, at the center of the heavens, directly over the heads of others.
Although the traffic in this gargantuan city is laden with congestion all year round, today it felt like the overblown streets were oozing out, especially to Victoria, who was uncomfortably checking her phone in the back seat of a comfortable black SUV.
Beside her in the car was her little sister.
St.Vicuna's Cathedral was one of the largest houses of God in the whole country. The massive structure flaunted 16th-century Gothic architecture in the middle of the city's financial district. It is a nostalgic whiff of history in the ever-changing, fast-paced, and modern Purple City.
17th Street on Harper Avenue was packed; traffic was moving unusually slowly, and strings of expensive cars, some even vintage, had bogged down the whole block.
Police and security personnel were hovering like houseflies on rotten sugary delights.
Many important personalities from various parts of the country, as well as all the important people worth knowing in the city, were attending Vincent Donatelli's memorial service.
Vincent was eccentric and let's say unconventional, okay, he was unhinged.
Most people feared him for his unpredictable nature and maintained as safe a distance from him as they could afford to.
In the end, he was a Donatelli, and he was the second in line of the main family, so nobody could really ignore him.
But deep under the social masks of the attendees, there was a sense of relief and elation at the final demise of the dreaded second son, Vincent 'The Butcher' Donatelli.
A big black SUV came to a halt in front of St.Vicuna's entrance.
"Look, Vic, so many people came for Uncle Vinny." Valentina looked at Victoria, who temporarily popped her head up from her phone screen.
Parasites...Victoria sneered in her heart.
"OH shit! Look there, Julian, is that...?"
"Oh my god,"
"No way"
"Quick, take a pic."
"Is that Victoria Donatelli?"
"Shuuush, quiet..".
Suddenly, the crowd on the church's well-trimmed front lawn came into action as Victoria walked by.
She ignored all the whispers and visible shock on faces.
The first thing she noticed was the huge rose window of the cathedral and the pointed arches, an intimate characteristic of the architecture. Victoria majored in history in college, and she was particularly interested in this period of history, one of her interests being the unique architecture reminiscent of the era.
What was that...?
Victoria glanced at the roof for the stone gargoyles, which were unique to this kind of Gothic construction, used as waterspouts for diverting rainwater.
She thought she saw something, a shadow perhaps, quickly move near the roof parapet.
"Come on, Vicky, let's get you and your sister inside," Roberto Donatelli was following the sisters closely behind all this time.
Victoria nodded and upped her pace, holding Valentina's hand.
Inside the Cathedral, everyone was moving towards their designated seats in an unhurried manner.
The central podium on one end of the massive grand hall had a large photo of Vincent Donatelli placed in the left corner. The decorations were kept to a minimum.
The Choir was humming to a guitarist playing 'November Rain' by the famous eighties rock band 'Guns N' Roses', on his white Ibanez.
Victoria was introduced to rock music by her late Uncle, especially to 'Axel Rose', who was his favourite.
Victoria saw her father, the Bishop, and the Mayor conversing intensely; she ignored them. Her eyes lingered on her mother, who was pointing at the front row and signaling Victoria to join quickly. The memorial was about to start.
After the Bishop concluded a ceremonial prayer, it was time for people to speak their eulogies for Vincent. Victor was the first in line, Victoria was next.
Victor took the podium, he took out a piece of paper but did not read from it, he folded it back and kept it aside.
"My brother, as most of you know him, would not want us to be doing this for him; he was the type of guy who would kick people out of his own memorial if possible".
Some mild chuckles were heard from the attendees.
"Vincent was a unique individual..."
As the speech carried on, a dark silhouette moved quietly in pitch-black darkness below the cathedral mezzanine floor overlooking the podium.
The mezzanine floor was out of bounds; not to be used for the ongoing ceremony.
There was kind of a hollow space below the concrete, and someone was there, but no one noticed, though.
"...and his godforsaken sense of humour, let me tell you it actually got better with age, imagine what his jokes were like when we were children, Roberto here will vouch for that."
Victor pointed at Roberto, who took out his white lace handkerchief to wipe his eyes.
The man under the mezzanine was waiting patiently; he continually checked his watch.
"One time, I remember Vinny brought a venomous snake home, saying that all his friends had got pets, he wanted it as his..." Victor continued.
The man in black was getting impatient; he took out some oddly shaped metal components from an electric guitar case, all while lying on his belly and adjusting his body.
The space under the floor was less than a meter in height; one had to crawl to move around. It was just a structural necessity with no other utilization. The front of that space was just old steel mesh with large openings at places; the intruder set himself behind one such opening.
"Either way, wherever you are, little brother, no matter with angels or with demons, I know you are giving them trouble and making them listen to your bad jokes," Victor pointed at the ceiling, looking above, his eyes moistening.
Victoria was also welling up; she did not want her father to see her cry, so she turned back.
Luke was looking at Victoria from two rows behind. He had a gentle smile on his face and kind eyes.
At sudden eye contact, Victoria was taken aback at first, quickly facing forward.
Was he looking at me the whole time? that child...idiot...
Somewhere in her heart, although in a very deep, dark, and cob web filled corner, a tiny spark was witnessed, albeit for a moment.
Victoria turned back again, she scanned all the people present in the grand hall, checked for all the exits, security personnel, etc.
The intruder in black just finished fitting a big muzzle on what turned out to be a makeshift gun, a rifle to be precise, with a small scope mounted on it.
Although the man was taking shallow breaths until now, he stopped breathing altogether and adjusted himself and his rifle. A small portion of the muzzle was protruding out of the metal mesh opening.
He adjusted his scope at a snail-like speed, like he had all the time in the world.
After some adjustments, he started breathing again, shallower than before. The mezzanine floor was quite a distance from the podium, the main hall of the cathedral being massive.
Victor was still narrating his eulogy, while Victoria was still scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary.
For one moment Victoria looked towards the far end of the grand hall, in the next moment she saw a flash from below the mezzanine, in the moment after that she noticed a litte hole formed on the wooden bench, between her and the Purple City Mayor, who was sitting on her left, quite involved in Victor's Eulogy, listening to every word with undivided attention.
Victoria did not waste the next moment; she took out 'Salma Hayak', pointed at the mezzanine mesh, and fired three shots in quick succession with Olympian precision.
Before the unknown asslaint in black could reload his makeshift rifle, a bullet wizzed passed his ear and two others followed quickly, they were not on target, however, they were recklessly close, the man in black took some firm split second decisions, in a matter of seconds he dismantled his rifle, as much as he could, put the dismantled parts inside the guitar case, and crawled out from below the floor quickly through a claustrophobic opening.
Before he was gone with the wind, the unknown assailant threw two smoke grenades at the podium to conjure up a smoke screen for his escape.
The smoke bombs went off with a loud bang; soon, the whole cathedral was filled with pink smoke. The smoke screen was a success.
Among those present, even the 'professionals' and the highly trained security personnel were unable to understand what had transpired in the past seconds.
Victoria, however, was unfazed, and the pink smoke hid a tiny grin on her face that went unnoticed by others present.
So the rats came out of the hole themselves...this is just good luck, maybe today is just my lucky day...Victoria smacked her lips wet with her tongue, her eyes two burning coals.
Nobody knew then she was going to raise hell on Earth in downtown Purple City on a summer Tuesday afternoon.