Most people understand the concept of laws, god and evil, black and white, and many people understand the gray areas.
Some people have righteous concepts; others will not or cannot abide by the rules of the world.
Charles had always seen the world as very much a black and white world, you do what you are supposed to do, a man of a few words he followed the rules and did his job without questioning or thinking.
Charles believed in discipline and control not only of oneself, but the environment around them, everything was always very simple when done in a precise manner "just follow the rules and do your job" he thought to himself.
"Mr. Snow" the voice in his earpiece stoke.
"Control." He answered back.
"How is the weather up there?" she asked.
"Oh, it is just divine here," he said, sweating as the heat of Windhoek burned down on him.
"Do you have eyes on the target?" she asked.
"Locked and loaded," he said, looking through the lens of the long-range rifle.
"Report?" she said.
"Calm and quiet," he answered
"Let's keep it that way, clear?" she said.
"Crystal." He replied.
His target was still on the move, he needed to take the shot as soon as he cleared away from the civilians.
Charles watched the man walk down the street after the meeting with his business partner, whoever this man was he had done something wrong, or right, causing a target to be pleased on his back. Charles held his breath, steadied himself and pulled the trigger, the bullet landed on the target's neck, and he hit the ground almost immediately.
Charles packed up as fast as he could. He placed the rifle and the shell casing in a bag and ran down the stairs as fast as he could. He got to the parking on the first floor of the building; he stole a car and drove off.
~~~~~~
Five months later.
Charles got up from his bed, walked to the kitchen, got himself a glass of water and drank it, he looked at his watch, it was almost 2 in the morning, and he walked out of the kitchen into the living room and opened the window as the dark wind of the night blew inside.
He grabbed his violin and started to play, he played to the tune of "silent night" the Christmas carol, making the notes as long and as loud as he could. As he played, he waited, and sure enough, she violently opened her window to stare at him. Since she moved in a year ago this had become his favorite hobby, to disturb and bully his neighbor.
Ocean was the definition of an anti-social/ evil bitch, and he hated her guts. For the past year he had become her neighbor from hell, cutting off her water in the mornings, and turning on and off her lights, even messing with the spark plugs of her car forcing her to take public transport.
Ocean was a petite black woman with a beautiful face, and a killer body. She was short and very rude, every time he would hear her talking on the phone at her balcony; she would curse like a 200-pound sailor.
This war between Ocean and him started when Jack had cried to him about how "The Miss from the window was mean to him" now Charles knew he should have let things go. He had tried to explain to Jack, that not everyone was going to like him and sometimes grown-ups were not the nicest of people, but that only made him more persistent to win her approval and it bothered Charles to watch four-year-olds cry.
After all, Jack was his "Little buddy" and he wouldn't let anybody hurt him. Charles had tried to be the bigger person and talk to her politely.
One day he and Jack had walked over to her house with some homemade bread, introduced themselves, and tried to make friends.
"Hi, I am Charles, and this is my friend Jack, we are neighbors," he said with a friendly smile.
Ocean leaned on the door, crossed her arms across her chest, and looked at the road out. Charles felt the tension in the air as she said nothing and jack squeezed his hand in fear as his smile faded away.
"Anyway, I wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood, officially," Charles said, offering the homemade bread he and jack had made for her.
Instead she stepped back inside and slammed the door in his and Jack's faces, causing the little kid to jump up in fear and cry. That was the moment he decided he would not be "Nice Charles" anymore, he didn't like the fact that she had been so rude to Jack when the child clearly liked her.
That's when he decided to make her life a nightmare and force her to leave; it also gave him something mundane to look forward too when he was gone on missions.
Every time he was done with work, he couldn't wait to start thinking of a way to mess with his hot neighbor, who clearly hated kids and nice, happy people.
Charles played football on the field with Jack's guardian and elder brother Russ, and that's how three of them had met. Three of them had a good thing going on, as the men of the building before Ocean destroyed their harmony.
He hated that when she would come from work, jack would try to run after her, just to be ignored. Hated how poor jack would pick up the best flowers from the garden at his school and place them in front of her door in hopes he would be forgiven for something he hadn't even done, Jack would make her nice drawing and save all his best candy for her. Charles hated how jack would ask him over and over again why she didn't like him.
Poor jack saw her as the mommy he never had. He was a very sensitive and good-hearted child who above anything else wanted to be loved and appreciated; he just couldn't process rejection, instead just doing all he could to be accepted.
Charles hated her for making him suffer like that, he thought she was cruel, but he quickly learned that this hostile treatment extended to everyone.
He rarely ever saw anyone around her; she was a loner. All she ever did was go to work, get drunk home alone, "smoke grass" and go shopping, far as he could tell. So he decided if she wasn't going to be nice to jack, then she shouldn't be around him.
As she gave him the death stare from her window, he couldn't help but notice she had on some black silk shorts and short loose t-shirt. She had a persing and he saw the outlining of a tattoo on her lower pelvic area, her breast were small and firm, and she looked like a lingerie model.
Charles usually had dirty thoughts of her, especially when he looked through his window, and she was dancing sexy while getting wasted; she would play music, dance for a while all around the house, and pass out.
"Why did she have to be that hot, move her body like that? and be such a bitch." He thought, wondering about getting back with his ex just so he wouldn't think about fucking Ocean, even if he knew that wouldn't work. Lisa was both great and bad shit crazy, he didn't want to sleep with her just to satisfy an itch that wasn't right.
Ocean threw one of her shoes at his window, and it landed on his sofa, he stopped playing for a minute, looked back at the heel, and got right back to playing.
~~~~~~~~
Charles thought about going back home to Manchester for the holidays, but he did enjoy Christmas in Mexico City with jack and his family, he had one more job to do before Christmas day, but he didn't want to think about that too much, instead, he decided to ruin his neighbor's Christmas.
Maybe he could set fire to her apartment, which made him smile as he drank his coffee.
He had an early morning messing with her car, and he had stayed up for hours playing all the Christmas carols on his violin, not letting her get any sleep. He heard a hard knock at his door, he check to see who it was and was almost amused when a fuming Ocean was burning her fist at his door.
