The relative silence of the night was broken by a sickening scream. The dog was all over the cigarette smoker. The Rottweiler growled as he tore into the man’s flesh. Got close enough to see the blood come shooting out of the guy’s thigh. The thin bastard was smart enough to try and guard his throat from the dog, but made the mistake of going for his piece. As soon as he removed one hand from his throat, the Rottweiler went for it. Now the man was flailing aimlessly, panic having overwhelmed him.
Another man, big, built like a middle linebacker, came charging out of the house, a 9mm or.40 caliber in his hand. He tried pulling the dog off his friend with his free hand, but when he saw that wasn’t going to work, he blew a hole through the Rottweiler’s massive head. The dog collapsed and the shooter pushed him off his partner. The thin guy’s body was twitching, blood pouring out of his neck with decreasing force. When the big guy knelt down to see if he could help, I whacked him across the back of his skull with a chunk of concrete. He went down but not immediately out. Took care of that with a kick to his jaw. Heard his neck snap. Added both dead men’s guns to my collection.
Thought about throwing something through the front window and sneaking around back. Didn’t have the time. Charged through the front door, a pistol in each hand. Nothing. Then the house went dark. Blackness. Heavy steps. Floorboards creaking. Heard a sound that would make even the bravest man shiver. Cha-ching! A shotgun being racked. Something hard and round pressed into my ribs.
“Move asshole!” Finney.
Got me to the basement door and shoved me down the steps. Didn’t lose consciousness when I hit the wet floor, but I was a little disoriented. Listened to his heavy steps behind me. Smelled him as he stepped over me. Beer, sex, and onions. His meaty paws yanking out the guns still clutched in my hands. He tossed them. Stepped away. A switch clicked. Lights came on. Wish they hadn’t.
The basement floor was wet not with water but with blood. A foot or two away from me was a very naked, very dead man. Even in my hazy state of awareness, I could tell he was worse for wear. There was a hunting knife sticking out from where his left eye used to sit. There were burn marks and welts all over his body. And as my eyes refocused, I noticed his ears had been crudely sliced off. The thickened blood on the sides of his head told me that he’d been alive when the ears were removed. Another part of his anatomy had also been removed and relocated to his mouth. Was glad to have missed the butchering.
Heard something, a muffled moan. Kathleen!
“Get up, pig!” Finney ordered, shotgun pointed at my chest.
Kathleen was nude, tied down to a workbench with wire that had cut through her wrists and ankles. Her head was clamped in a vise. Duct tape covered her mouth. She too had cigarette burns on her body.
Charged. “You motherfucker! I’ll—”
He swung the butt of the shotgun and caught me in the jaw. I staggered backwards nearly tripping over the dead man, but didn’t go down. My back was now against the wall of the basement.
“Shut the fuck up!” he barked. “You piece a shit cop. See that rat on the floor there? That snitch fuck was Rudi’s favorite boyo. Good thing I know people on the cops who like to earn on the side or that cocksucker woulda brought us all down. Take a good fucking look at him. That’s where you’re headed in a few minutes. But first I’m gonna make you watch me kill your girlfriend here.”
“Leave her the fuck alone!”
“Shut your fucking mouth!” He waved the shotgun at me again. “Besides, she’s already asked me to kill her about twenty times already. The first time I stuck my cock in her asshole, she practically fucking begged me. She didn’t like it too much either when I squeezed her head a little. Like this.”
He stepped by the bench, took a hand off the scatter gun, ripped the tape off her mouth, and twisted the vise handle. Kathleen’s squealed. Her body jerked with pain, the wire biting further into her flesh. A car pulled to the curb outside. Finney heard the car too. He looked up. Had to move now.
Reached behind me and retrieved the.38 tucked between my belt and the small of my back. The stupid fat fuck had neglected to roll me over when he took the guns out of my hands. First shot caught him slightly above the heart. He twisted to his right. The shotgun flashed, then roared. Second shot caught him in the side of the head. He was on his way to hell before he hit the floor. Heard voices upstairs, feet rushing, pounding. Finney had fulfilled Kathleen’s wish. He’d killed her. The shotgun blast had torn away the left side of her chest. By the time they pulled me off Finney’s lifeless carcass, I had nearly cut his head off using the hunting knife. And by that time, I had come to realize I’d done as much as Finney to seal Kathleen’s fate. Griffin’s words about violence rang in my ears. Once you cross the line, you cross the line.
“Ah, jaysus!” Rudi.
Turned to see him crossing himself. That was the last bit of humanity in him.
“Start talking, boyo.” He eyed me coldly, pressing the still smoking shotgun to my temple. I’d seen more compassion in the eyes of an insect.
“Well, I served my purpose. There’s your rat,” I said, pointing at Finney. “This dead guy here missing his ears and the eye was like that when I got here. Finney didn’t mention his name.”
“Tommy Mac,” Rudi obliged.
“Tommy Mac found out about Finney from a source inside the cops. At least that’s what Finney said. So Finney killed him and then lured me down here by... Well, you can see how. He was going to set it up that Tommy Mac was the rat, that I found out about it. Finney was gonna make it look like Tommy Mac killed me and the girl. Finney was gonna come to the rescue, but too late. Then he would prove his loyalty to you by torturing the rat to death. His ass would be covered and he’d be even closer to you.”
Story had holes, but it was pretty good given that I’d just killed my first three men and was half crazy with guilt. Rudi wasn’t buying it.
“Might believe it if it were any man but Finney.”
“You said it your own self, Rudi. You underestimated him.”
Nothing convinces a man better than his own words thrown back in his face. I saw Rudi’s eyes return to their mammalian incarnation and knew I had saved my fairly worthless life. He pulled the shotgun away.
“Ya done good, pal. There’ll be a bonus in it for ya.”
Not an “I’m sorry about the girl” or “What a terrible price to have to pay”, but a bonus.
“Take him back to the safehouse and get him fixed up,” Rudi said to one of his minions.
Felt hands lifting me up and moving me along.
“What about—?”
“Quiet now, boyo,” he shushed me. “I’ll clean up the mess.
In that second, I came to hate Rudi more than I could ever hate Finney or anyone else. Ever!
“What did their purpose conceal
If not the simplest units of friendship?
Like a ship returning in a foreign language
They have turned into beasts, conscious only
Of one another, blind to perfection,
Finding peace only in each other’s arms.”