Albino grumbles as he paces through the streets against the sharp wind lashing across his face. "I'm sick of this fucking weather." He spits before gritting his teeth and rolling his shoulders. He darts inside a shop, quickly glancing at his wristwatch and closing the door behind him.

The wind increases, rattling the single glazed windows in their timid wooden frames. Raindrops begin to dribble on the glass forming an erratic broad pattern before racing back down to the earth. As the wind soothes back to a whistle, a muffled shouting is audible from the shop. The door suddenly tears open.

"I'm telling you now, fuckhead. Friday." Albino punches the glass window of the door before glaring back at the shopkeeper. "Friday." He steps out of the shop, turning around to close the door before leaning in the windowless space and locking it from the inside.

"YO AL'." A sudden voice from behind shouts out. Lucky it was Frank suddenly rushing up beside him.

"Bad time, Frank. Let's walk."

"Nah Al', listen to this guy..." Frank gestures across the road where stood  Omar_Little - still frenzying over SonnyFranzese's diary. He must really hate that shit. Was that a carrot he's holding? Frank interrupted.

"Listen to him. He's got hustle." Frank insisted. "He could do it."

Albino pondered for a moment. "Dunno. Come on... We've got something to do. We'll come back later when I've had time to think."

If you could, would you rewind life, and do it all again, knowing what you know now?

The stranger's voice was becoming more and more muffled, like white noise, despair had Frank in a tight grip and the world felt like it was getting smaller. He felt like he was choking and his vision was narrowing at the edges of his eyes. He felt the need to blink, and each one lasted longer, his eyelids feeling like cement blocks, heavy as fuck and harder to lift back open again. Frank tried to, but he couldn't stay awake any longer, his vision going completely black as his body slumped forward.

Darkness.

They say it's all we truly are. Or know. It's where we come from and where we return. They say sleep is just a minor slice of that eternal ride, preparing us for the inevitable to come...

***

Frank felt his vision open up again, as if he and everything else was suddenly being flooded with light. Moments ago, it was pitch black. Everything was, and although he didn't know it, as time crept on he would forget the experience again, but he sensed for a minor moment that he was all the while conscious, even though unable to comprehend it at the time. He was but he also wasn't, and mere moments ago he didn't even recognise he was, until the lights flickered on, and the sight of a street corner lay before him, yet a deafening high pitched noise had him startled before it began to fade into a brief silence.

Then, the world before his eyes and ears started to unblur and sharpen, like his vision and hearing were coming more and more into focus, and the street corner more and more alive, all the while the body he was in felt more and more like it was fitting, like he was stretching into it, as he became more aware of it, yet not a physical stretch, more of his mind.

The surreal moment was brief, but it lingered enough he felt he'd lived this moment before. Then it began to fade, and just as Albino strode into an earshot of Frank. Frank was out a few minutes before waking up, and just as Albino arrived at their next mark too.

"Think I just had that de-ja-vu thing. You believe in any of that, Al?"

Frank peered up at Albino, then turned his attention back towards the street, his ear cupping the ground.

"I'm certain I've done this before, you know? Like this isn't new, you know? I don't know."

Another car slowly rolled past then turned left. More pedestrians had clustered with the pair at the crossing, all waiting for the traffic to clear.

"And not this sleep thing. I mean, like I've lived this exact moment before."

Frank reached his hand up towards Albino.

"You know?"

Albino helped Frank up off the street. He'd fallen asleep again. The doctors called it narcolepsy. He called it a pain in the ass. The drugs helped keep the nods at bay somewhat but his supply had dried up days ago. The crowd kind of seemed interested at the unconscious, grey haired scruff laying on the sidewalk, but not enough for anyone to care to do anything. Albino had sent Frank ahead towards the business, to get some eyes on the joint and scout out anything off looking. Besides the workers meddling about, trying to reopen the joint, nothing seemed too suspect. Not until the narcoleptic episode and dropping like a sack of potatoes.

"For fuck sake Frank, can you do nothing without nodding off? Transistor needs this business functional..." Albino frets, dragging the limp associate to safety when he hears sudden shouting.

"Oi, you! Weren't you dying a minute ago?!" A voice shouts out.

Frank turns his head in confusion, still attempting to grasp reality.

"Ignore him, Frank." Al continues to drag his dead weight away from the gathering crowd.

A fat man suddenly appears from within the crowd, charging towards the pair and spinning Albino around by the shoulder. "Not him - you!"

Albino forgets his mission and thoughtlessly drops Frank on the concrete before throwing himself head first at his assailant, obliterating the man's nose on impact. The crowd scatter, screaming as they flee in fear.

"Me?" Albino stands over him, clearly confused. He looks around for a moment - one last attempt at understanding the situation. It was futile. His eyes lose all life as his balding head darkens through multiple shades of red.

"Me?" He questions in disbelief as he leans down on to one knee and grabs the man by his hair before smashing it against the ground. The man's eyes roll as he begins to beg, only angering Al further. A rogue vein appears, popping out from the corner of his brow. He takes a deep breath before asking once more.

"Me?" Albino continues to bounce his head off of the sidewalk repeatedly, forgetting to even continue breathing. Some thudding and crunching later, Frank interrupts.

"Al..." His coarse, weak voice croaks in his best attempt to stop the psychopath. "...You're making a mess, Al." 

Albino pauses, looking down at the expanding pool of blood. "I think he meant me, Frank..." Albino shakes his head and squints his eyes as he comes to the realisation of what's happened. He climbs off of the corpse and rushes to his feet.

"The big man's gonna kill me... He said be discreet. No more mess. He can't keep covering for me." Albino begins to panic, pacing back and forth. "Frank... Transistor can't know I've done it again. I promised I had it under control, Frank!" Albino drops to his knees, cups his hands and attempts scooping the blood back towards the head from which it escaped.

"Help me clean this up, Frank! Quickly!" Albino exclaims.

"Mate, the fuck?"

Albino had beat the guy so bad he'd turned Frank Australian. At the very least, British. He shook his head in disbelief. Why didn't he nod off before shit like this? Frank thought as he gave Albino an awkward, you're a fuckn psycho, pat on the shoulder.

"Mate, the cunt's dead. He won't be needing that no more."

Frank started stuffing things into his overcoat, anything he could see and get his grubby hands on.

"Come on, we better get moving, security will be here shortly. You good, Al?"

Frank hasn't seen anything quite like it. It was the first time he'd seen someone get killed, and in that fashion? Was Al even still Al? They still needed to find the briefcase and get out of the building, and hopefully alive.