The heavy drops of rain fell harshly onto the surfaces of the dark, destitute alley of the small Queens neighborhood. Most of the sound was drowned out by the intense noise of the droplets continuously smashing against the silver metal lid of the trashcan. I had already thrown the bulky and smelly trash bag into the contraption and was setting the rusted lid back onto the cylinder. We get complaints from the trash guy if we let the can get filled up with water.

Once I had set the lid down, I tightened the string of my dark, black raincoat to cover my hair and went to turn back into the murky alleyway that I had come through. Then I heard a loud, deep voice, attempting to yell around the harsh noise of the rain. It came from the opposite direction which I was going. Another obscure and hidden alleyway, although one I’d never walked through.

“Are you sure everything is secure? No one saw anything?” A tall male in a long black coat leaned in close to his smaller companion, who wore a similar yet less fanciful coat, hand on his shoulder. It was still pouring and the rain drenched only the second male as the first one carried a charcoal black umbrella. It looked big enough to cover two people, however, it didn’t seem like the two would be sharing it any time soon. Their faces were indistinguishable to me through the veil of rain that surrounded us, all I saw were their profiles. Sharp, dark and cold. As my eye caught more of the unfamiliar and eerie scene, I noticed they were stood behind the back of a car whose trunk was wide open. The car seemed almost as old as me, scratched and rusted, with nothing too special about it other than its mysterious owners. What was inside of it was what made different from any regular car I’d seen before. I saw a flash of a bloody hand one second and averted my eyes quickly. I felt a new and terrifying turmoil in the pit of my stomach.

“No, sir. There were no witnesses. I will dispose of the body. Please, tell the Boss everything is taken care of.” The shorter of the two concerning men responded before they both nodded courteously at each other as if to say goodbye and shook hands. The taller man with the umbrella headed into the darkness of the alley, out of sight. The other stood unmoving for a bit and moved to reach for something in his pocket. It wasn’t until I realized it was a handkerchief that I noticed his maroon-colored hands. I once again felt the need to bring my dinner back to the surface from my stomach.

The man, after cleaning himself, moved towards the car to finally take his leave, but before reaching to open the car door he turned his head suddenly in the direction of a noise face filled confusion and a bit of fear.
It was then that I realized the noise had come from me as my foot had accidentally kicked the metal trash can I still stood in front of. I had always subconsciously shaken my feet when I became nervous and at that moment I hated the ridiculous habit more than ever.

There was a moment before everything become blurred and crazy that I simply stared at the man in shock, paralyzed. But as soon as his facial features switched to ones of anger I realized I had to snap out of it and escape. So I ran.

I ran. Faster than I had ever run in my 21 years of life. The noise from the rain became blurred to my ears and all I could hear was my heavy breathing and my pounding heart. It didn’t even feel like I was truly running. I was just floating across the alleyway as fast as I could, to get away. Behind me, I heard loud, thunderous footsteps and in my mind, I begged my body to move faster. At a sharp turn, I managed to find a wall to hide behind and decided my best option at the moment would be to hide. I would never be able to outrun this man.
As I stood behind the brick wall, my lungs cried for me to take deeper breaths as my body was not at all fit for such intense physical strain, but as the heavy footsteps sounded closer I suppressed their pleadings and took quick, shallow breaths. I heard the man had slow down as he realized my quick disappearance was impossible and walked leisurely to find my hiding place. Confidently, as if he had already found me. I shut my eyes so hard it hurt and placed a hand across my mouth as if this would suddenly take me out of this situation and back home to the comfort of my house and family. But seconds passed and nothing had happened. I still stood there in the middle of a dingy alley, shaking from fear.

I realized the footsteps had gone quiet and all that could be heard was the noisy downpour of the rain that continued to fall. This made me think I was safe from the unknown man, so I stupidly decided to slowly open my eyes. And this terrifying new image that ingrained itself into my brain at this moment would follow me forever.

The man was standing a few feet from me, a demonic smirk on his face as he studied me. Nothing happened. I stood there, frozen with fear, waiting for him to make his move. Either grab me and place me in the trunk of that car with the dead body or take out a weapon and kill me dead right then and there. But he did neither of this things.

He simply stared at my face, hard, as if trying to etch it into his own brain forever like how his face was now in mine. Then he ran back the way we came from. And I let out a sob that wracked through my entire body, letting all of the air that had been forcefully kept inside, out.

Back then I hadn’t realized what the man was doing. But this event was the single most defining in my life as that is how I became one of the children in hiding. Hiding from who, you ask?

The Boss of Manhattan.