This Guy #7

I still had not cleaned up. Streaks of blood covered my hands and face. The smell of vomit and metal rode on waves of gunpowder. The cigarettes I smoked only wreathed the scent, recalled it to my mind again and again. I had gone to take a shower, and stopped when I saw myself in the mirror, covered with dried gore of red purple and black. A grin at myself, thinking of any who saw me on the drive back, the mile or two I had walked between the ditched car and the one I stole. My own grin scared me, I saw the angel of death, my death, looking back at me. Waiting for me to get to the other side where I would become him. I shuddered and turned away, fell into a chair and was smoking a cigarette thinking of a fight Wriggly and I had had in high school.
We were great friends but even so testosterone could change things in a second. We were just hanging out and then next minute amidst shouting curses we were rolling on the floor wrestling. He was too fast for me back then, had locked my arm and head in a painful wrestlers hold and was rubbing my face on the carpet. I was bigger and stood up, lifting his whole body on the weight of his arm lock. He tried to force more pressure on but I was torqued to the max, tears in my eyes as I grunted through the pain. I grabbed his belt and lifted him to my shoulder level. I tried to hit him against the wall but it was agony to jar him against anything.
Finally I could feel his arms shaking with the strain of holding me. I felt a lump in my neck pulsing and was pretty sure I'd have a stiff neck for a couple weeks. I finally turned around enough to bang his head against a door jamb. He tucked his head down so every time he hit the door the high part of his forehead knocked into mine. After two or three good hits, my head was ringing a little, he had managed to reposition, choking me off. I started snorting then giggling madly even though I was losing my air.
He lessened his grip, and I let him down, we let go warily but I was still smiling, trying to pretend my head wasn't hurting, wanting to rub it.
"You're lucky you had the door there." He rubbed his head. He had taken quite an impact.
"If not I would have had to start hitting you."
"I wondered why you weren't."
"I didn't want to hurt you." I shrugged.
"Shit, If I'd known you were a girl, I'd have bitch slapped you." he retorted and spun on his heel bolting up the steps and out of the house. I almost had him while he was turning, but he was so fast I wasn't even out of the house yet and he was turning around in the street laughing at me.
The memory was painful. His face kept morphing into the crushed face lying in the back of the car. I sat there for a long time before I could drag myself up and into the shower. I wore my clothes right in with me and scrubbed them down as much as I could, undressing and scrubbing down the next layer, until I stood there naked with my skin turning bright pink as I washed and rewashed.
I was dressed and feeling better when Stet and Niklas came back to the room.
"Where's the car? I didn't see it outside?" asked Niklas. I paused trying to remember, but my mind was feeling pretty foggy.
Stet stepped closer, "What happened to your hand?" his voice sounded really far away, but I looked down to see what he was talking about, what had happened.
Suddenly Stet had a hold of my shoulders and he was shaking me, "Whats the matter?"
Niklas' voice "Is he high?"
"Could be. Dude, Alex!" he was shaking me pretty hard. I looked up from my hands and watched his hands clap together in front of my eyes.
"Stop fucking shaking me!" I yelled but it was slow coming out, he didn't look like he understood me.
"Hey! Hey!" Stet clapped his hands again then reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I couldn’t breath and was seeing spots. My head was pounding in time with his shaking.
I screamed in his face. ”Stop fucking shaking me!" Grabbing Stet by his shirt I lifted and shoved him away from me. He twisted and my hands seemed to wrap up in his shirt, then the ceiling spun past my eyes and I hit the ground flat. All the air whooshed from my lungs.
Stet leaned over me, one knee on my shoulder, my other hand was caught up on something and wouldn't move. The ground felt like it was vibrating, and my vision started to bounce around. I heard words in strange voices "drugs", "shock", "hospital".
I twisted to the side as my stomach heaved and I spewed yellow green bile across the side of the bed, and onto the floor, just missing stet.
I heaved until I went dry, and then continued to choke and heave until Stet and Niklas wrestled me to my feet and into the bathroom. I leaned over the toilet for a while letting the spasms in my stomach and body resolve. When everything seemed clear again, I rinsed out my mouth then took a cigarette from Stet.
We moved onto the balcony, to avoid the smell. I dangled my legs through the bars and rested my head on the cool metal. I still felt shaky, and tremors passed through me a little less strong each time until I felt like I could talk again.
"Thanks."
"What happened?" asked Niklas "Are you hurt or something? There's blood all over the bathtub?"
My stomach lurched a little but I pulled it back under control. Stet went back to take a look, then the shower ran for a few minutes before he came back.
"It's not that bad we can clean it up." said Stet. He handed me a coke he must have grabbed from the mini bar. "The puke though" he mock winced, slapped me gently on the shoulder "you're on your own there pal."
I grunted, drank some soda before talking. "Yeah. No problem, sorry about that."
"I've never been able to throw you that easy before. It was fun."
"Shit, whose blood is that?" Niklas asked sounding more resigned than upset.
"Wriggly’s" after a few seconds of dead silence, I looked up to find Niklas and Stet staring at each other.
"What?" I snapped.
"It's just, well I told Stet you probably went to see Wriggly, because he told Stet about us."
"Huh, you figured that?"
"It wasn't hard, just didn't figure you would kill him." added Stet.
"I didn't want to. It's pretty fucked up." I told them everything that had happened, sparing no detail. I kept looking up at the two of them comparing how pale they got against each other.
Niklas was the first to speak. "So what now? We change hotels?"
"No, if I thought the cops knew we probably would, but we should let Sal come to us." answered Stet.
I nodded agreement. "He's got a lot to answer for."
I paused then stood up facing my friends. "I'm sorry about Wriggly." my voice wanted to catch but I didn't let it. "I wasn't going to kill him, but it just got so fucked up. Then I almost beat him to death anyway. I just fucking lost it." I wiped my hands down my face, shook my head sharply to keep control.
“Some of that was the drug,” Stet noted “he deserved it anyway.”
"I'm sorry you had to kill him, Alex" said Niklas. "He was fucked up for years though. The only reason we trusted him was because we had no choice. Don't beat yourself up." he shrugged. "It's more fun to watch Stet here do that." He smiled as I flipped him off.
"Yeah, what he said, let's just not get all sappy and shit." Stet said taking a deep drag on his cigarette. "Remember you've some friends coming to adjust your vital signs."
"No shit."

This Guy #6

I was pretty upset Wriggly had told someone where we were. It was Stet, so there was no real damage done, but now I had to worry about who else he might have told, who they talked to and so on. I didn't tell Stet or Niklas and went to go have a talk with wriggly. I went to his apartment in Philly, one of his couriers, Benny, was just coming out as I came up. He looked pissed, and was muttering under his breath, when he saw me though he froze for a second then smiled.
He opened the door for me and waved me in, "Just go in man, he's not busy." I looked around suspiciously trying to see anything out of norm, but didn't.
I was starting to sweat, but tried to stay calm, I went in watching a reflection of Benny in the door glass half expecting him to jump towards me. Instead he turned an sat on the bottom step of the little stoop. I closed the door behind me and clicked the bolt closed, if he heard he didn't give a sign, It probably wouldn't stop him if he came in but at least I'd hear him.
I rounded the hallway corner slowly scanning the length of the front room, Wriggly was sitting, facing me, but he was bent over a stack of cash, and didn't seem to know I was there. I stepped out into the doorway a little more, my boot clunked on the floor and he jerked up in surprise. When he saw it was me he jumped to his feet.
"Fuck" he yelled and lunged low, making it past me with no trouble. Before I'd even made it a step back into the hallway, the fact that he was running from me just sinking in, I heard him throw the bolt on the door. I came out in the hallway just in time to see Benny's fist shoot through the gap in the open door and catch wriggly square in the face. Wriggly flopped over backwards, dazed, blood starting to pour from one nostril. His hands waved vaguely in the air for part of a second, then he went limp and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Benny pushed on the door but now Wriggly was blocking the way. I grabbed a handful of his hair and dragged him back into the living room. Benny followed and I heard the bolt shut again.
I was feeling a little bewildered, but dragged wriggly over to the sofa where he had originally been sitting and left him lying on the floor in front of it. Benny was out in the hallway looking back and forth between me and Wriggly.
"What the fuck Benny?" he met my gaze squarely, and then his eyes flickered down to my hand and back his face whitening a little. I actually had to look down to see that I had my gun out and was squeezing the hell out of it, my hand all white and trembling. I didn't remember pulling it out, but damned if I was going to put it away now.
Benny' father came from some what he said was one of the larger crime families in North jersey, New York. He never named him or them, but he would tell stories about some of the shit that went on at their family gatherings. His mother was Vietnamese, having met his father during the war, coming back to the states with him to be married. His father had gone back into the family business when he got back from Vietnam, got sent to prison and ended up dead in a prison fight. Benny and his mother pretty much got tossed out by the family as soon as his father was dead, maybe that's why his father didn't make it. He didn't really know, didn't care either, he took his mother's maiden name came to work the streets eventually working for wriggly.
He was kind of short, but his Italian blood, or his insane workouts left him bulging with muscle, he was the biggest oriental person I'd ever seen short of sumo wrestlers. He could move too, he was fast, had taken some kind of martial arts since he was a boy. Right now though I was far enough away from him he couldn't get to me without me shooting. I wasn't planning on it, but if anyone had jumped or moved suddenly I was keyed up enough I would have started blasting.
"He sold you out man." Benny looked like he was going to spit on him, but instead just waved at Wriggly. "See that cash?" he pointed at the stacks wriggly had been counting. "A guy named Sal Rogelio came by this morning. I never heard of him, but I seen him before, and not with nice people."
"What’s he look like?" I asked. Benny gave a great description of that guy I was looking for. "Damn" I let out a slow breath.
"That's all you're going to say? Damn?" Benny asked.
"I'm just thinking man." and I was, only it was more like trying to stick a paddle in the whirlpool of info in my brain.
"What's he tell him?" I asked waving the pistol at wriggly.
"I don't know. The guy came in and said 'I’m Sal Rogelio' like we should have known him. He asked about Niklas, only he knew his real name. He asked about you too, had a good description of you right down to your tattoos. I kept expecting Wriggly to tell him, we didn’t know anything and to fuck off, but instead he sends me to wait outside!" Benny was fuming. "Sal had these two big grease ball fucks with him he sent out after me, they waited on the step with me until Sal came out, then they all left. I went inside and Wriggly sitting there counting out this brown paper bag full of cash.
"I asked him about Sal, but he tried to be all big, told me to keep my mouth shut. Get the fuck out." He shrugged "that's when I came out and saw you coming. I figured you found out somehow?"
"No, I mean, I knew he told one of my friends where I'd been. I was just coming to tell him to knock it off. Shit."
"It was fucked up for him to do that." Benny leaned against the wall. "As soon as anyone heard, no one would do shit with us ever again. He's a fucking rat, he turned on you so fast, it was like he called the guy and told him to come over."
I could hardly believe it, one of my old friends actually stabbing me in the back had never occurred to me, now that it had happened I was trembling in rage, or fear, I couldn't tell.
"So what do you want?"
"I want this set-up." Benny looked around the small room. "I know where he gets his shit and I know all the runners. So you take him out of here" he nodded again at Wriggly, "and I take over in his place."
"What you think I'm going to kill him." I asked anger flaring up.
"Shit, you need to kill him, if you don't though I don't care, because me or one of the other runners will. We make too much money off this, we don't need him, and if he disappears every one will get the message that he got his for ratting someone out. We'll still be good here. No problem."
He had it worked out, that's for sure. Only I couldn't kill Wriggly, we'd shared some good times together. I couldn't leave him here either, I just didn't want him killed.
"I'll take him with me." I said squaring myself towards Benny so he got the threat. He nodded.
"Just make sure he never comes back here." he met my eyes. "Don't trust him. He's a fucking junky; he'd sell you for bottle cap full of Clorox, man."
Wriggly was starting to move around again, I had to get us out of here. I had a feeling Benny liked me enough, but he was all business and If I didn't get moving he'd make it easier on me, just not the way I wanted him to.
"Can you set up a heroin shot?" I asked Benny as I bent down and unlaced both of Wriggly's shoes. He said yes, so I had him fix me up two syringes, I gave Wriggly one in the forearm, just as he was coming awake. I watched the panic fade from his face as the drug hit his system, he gave me a sleepy looking grin, patted me on the arm. I tied Wriggly’s shoes together leaving 2-3 inches of slack, childish maybe, but he if he tried to run away it might be my only chance at catching him, he was fast.
Benny had gathered up the cash on the table and put it back in a brown paper bag. He handed it to me as I was leading Wriggly out the door. He gripped my arm for a second “Remember. That cash bought you from this man." I met his eyes then nodded.
"You won't see him again." I promised, hoping I could convince Wriggly of that.
"You're cool here. Come see me if you need something."
I threw Wriggly into the backseat, he was a little more lucid, but definitely high, Benny must have fixed one hell of a shot. I turned back, shook Benny's hand then left.
I drove back into Jersey and headed east, Wriggly mumbling and laughing in little snorts in the backseat. After driving about an hour I pulled off and went into a diner and had some coffee. Things were beginning to fall together again; I was just realizing the enormity of what Wriggly's betrayal could cause. Did he give our new names to Sal? If he did he could just call hotels until he found us. He must have figured we were still around, Wriggly would have told him we were. Would have told him I was looking for him.
I watched the car, but wriggly wasn't moving around a lot, I could see him in there, but he was beginning to worry me. I didn't know a lot about junk, but I figured even high he should move around more than he did. I paid for my coffee and went out, shaking him awake, slapping him in the face a few times. That when I saw the second needle in his hand. He stabbed towards my face, I jerked my hands up reflexively and felt the needle burn into the flesh between my thumb and first finger. It felt hot as he started to press down the plunger, and I jerked my hand way almost screaming as it ripped the syringe from his hands.
I punched him in the face with my left hand knocking him back into the car. My second hit went into his guts, making him retch onto the car floor. I didn't care I leapt into the car on top of him bashing him again and again with my left hand and my forehead. I felt his nose crush, felt a tooth crack, and finally managed to draw back. My left hand was covered in his blood, and some vomit, I didn't see any cuts on it, and had a flash of panic as I thought about what kind of sickness he might have from all his years shooting up.
I probably wasn't going to live through this though, if I didn't get killed by that guy Sal or one of his cronies, I was probably going to prison for the rest of my life. I looked at my other hand which I could feel throbbing, but numbly. The needle had gone almost all the way through my hand. I could see the dark tip right under the skin. A large bruise was forming around it though, getting darker as I watched. I jerked the needle out, noting he had pushed about a third of it into my hand. I was hoping some of it had been lost before it had stabbed me, but I could feel a tickly feeling building up in my chest, like when I'd gotten laughing gas at the dentist.
I didn't know how much it would take to get me high, but suddenly I was smiling and my hand felt great. I looked at it and flexed it several times watching the bruise swell. I had to get out of here though, I climbed back into the driver’s seat and took off, heading south until I was lost in the woods and didn't see any more houses. I pulled over leaned out the door and puked, not really minding that I was throwing up, but it did clear my head a little. I had no idea where I was, but I knew I had a problem. Wriggly was moaning in the back seat, when I looked back at him his face looked all crushed in. Both his eyes seemed to be swelled shut, just looking at him made me feel ill. He had sold me out, sold out Niklas, after all the work we did to hide. After killing that muscle guy and the drug dealer, he had gone and ruined that by selling us out to Sal Rogelio. He had to have known who Sal was when we were there. That's why he wanted us to leave. So he could call Sal, make some money. I could feel my chest heaving, my hands were trembling and I wanted to hit him again, but he was already hurting pretty bad.
I finally couldn't take it any more I got out opened the back door and dragged him out dropping him roughly to the concrete. I kicked him ribs, but pulled the hit a little, I just didn't have the heart to once I saw him lying there. He was pretty dazed, and wouldn't answer me when I tried to get him to acknowledge me. I dragged him off the road a little into the woods and leaned him against a tree facing away from the car. He came too finally, staring at me blankly for a few minutes. I crouched down in front of him.
"You fucked me up." his voice rasped out of his swollen mouth, streaks of blood were dried on his face.
"Yeah."
"Sorry man, being and addict, it’s a bitch." Only one eye seemed to be tracking me, the other gradually was drifting off to the side. I felt like crying, I had blinded him, I really lost it.
"Just for the money?" I asked swallowing down a lump in my throat.
His head nodded a little before he lifted it back up to answer me. "Yeah."
"Fuck" I said softly barely a whisper.
"Give me the rest of that shot?" he asked lifting a weak limp arm. "Just one more shot, then leave me here. You'll never see me again." A tear formed in his eye, rolled down his cheek riding a ridge of dried blood.
"Okay." I hung my head, tears of my own welling up. I walked back to the car and picked up the needle from the floor where I'd thrown it.
I crouched down in front of him, placed the needle in his hand, rocked back on my heels. He bent his head and worked the needle into his limp arm. I pulled my pistol out and pointed it at his head, tears blurred my vision, I knew my hand was shaking, but I wouldn't miss him from this close. I almost didn't shoot, but then his head swung up, his one eye met mine steadily and I swear his swollen lips pulled up in a tight smile.
I pulled the trigger.

This Guy #5

We had no problems getting a hotel room. The dealer kept fading in and out of conscience and I was really beginning to worry about him dying. We had him in the room propped up on the bed when he finally came awake. He looked kind of gray, with sweat beaded up on his forehead, but his body went cold and hot in turns.
"Thought you was cops." his voice was thick and slurred. His head dropped chin resting on his chest.
"What! What!" I slapped him not too gently across the face, shaking him.
He wasn’t responding, I shook him harder and foggy white drool leaked from the corner of his mouth. I put my ear to his chest; his pulse was racing then seemed to pause, like a sputtering engine. It caught again then stopped, this time it didn't come back. I started pumping his chest, but couldn’t bring myself to try rescue breathing. I had to give up, he was dead. I pushed his limp head over and had a glimpse of something shiny inside his mouth. I used a pen from the nightstand and pried open his teeth, there was a plastic bag stuck in his cheek all chewed up. The dead guy was staring at me and for a few minutes I stared back, his eyes looked different in death, they were blank, waiting for something to fill them, but nothing ever would. I pushed his head back over so he was looking at the curtains.
Niklas was standing at the end of the bed, white as a ghost.
"What the fuck dude?" he sounded panicked. "I didn’t kill him with the car. Did I?" He sank into a chair.
"No man, don't worry." My heart was racing and I was angry as hell, but I tried to calm him down. "Fucker had some drugs or something and when he ran or after we had him on the ground he fucking swallowed it. Shit!" I yelled slamming my fist down on the nightstand.
Niklas slumped down in the chair, his lips were moving silently as he stared blankly at the dead guy on the bed. I was kneeling on the floor next to the bed rubbing the side of my hand gently. I still had long thin bruises on both hands from the phone cord, hitting the table had hurt.
"Well shit." I looked from the corpse to Niklas. "What do we do now?"
"You're asking me? It's your plan." He held his hands up.
"Alright, we got his cell and beeper. We get to a computer and look up as many of these numbers as we can. If nothing’s listed we can at least get locations on anything but the cell phone numbers." We got our stuff together wiped down what we could of the room.
"I wonder how the news will play this." Niklas snorted and nodded to the guy on the bed.
“Don’t worry dude, I’m sure they won’t think he got run over to death.” We both laughed a little. I was a little surprised we both were so calm about another killing. Then again this guy had suicided, we were only partially responsible.
Niklas had a couple pre-paid credit cards set up under Niklas and Alexander, something I never would have thought of. They were incredibly easy to get, in fact he had got these at a Radio Shack, and after setting up he was able to use them over the phone or online without even having the card yet!
We left our car in a parking garage at the airport and he called down to one of the other car rental places and set up a new one. I was surprised how good he was at this, I probably would have been out trying to hotwire an old Camaro or something. The new car wasn't as nice, we actually moved down a few notches and were driving a tan sedan that smelled like smoked salmon and feet.
At the hotel we spent a few hours combing through the numbers on the cell and beeper, over half must have been cell phones and weren't much use to us, but we got out a map and circled the blocks the other numbers came from. Our biggest problem now was that the most numbers came from the same block we had picked the guy up in. We had to bring someone else in to help us, someone we could trust. More important someone who wouldn't hate us for dragging them into this mess we'd made.
After talking it out it wasn't hard for us to agree on who to ask, Stet. I hadn't seen him for a couple years. Niklas said he wasn't doing much, just hopping from job to job pretty irresponsible. That raised my eyebrows a little, Niklas the embezzler calling Stet irresponsible, I let it go though, they had some personal shit going on, and I wasn't going to get involved.
Stet and I had our own problems, mainly stemming from the fact I'm a real prick sometimes. After high school I had moved into a spare room in his house, we got along really good until I started messing up everything else I was doing. Things went downhill for me, and I took it out on him, he never said a word, and actually seemed sad to see me go when I finally moved out. I talked to him a few times after that but I never apologized to him, even after I'd recognized how much of a dick I'd been.
It surprised him that I called, but he agreed to meet me out at a diner near his place. He started to ask me a question, probably about where Niklas was, but stopped himself not wanting to talk about it on the phone. I asked Niklas to let me go alone
"Why?"
"I have to be sure we're cool before I drag him into anything." I answered, throwing my coat on. I was back in my normal street clothes, and felt like a man again.
"Okay." he nodded, I started out the door. "Alex." he called after me.
I stopped and turned towards him. "Don't kill anyone."
He gave a tight lipped smile, enough that I thought he was trying to make a joke.
"Depends how good the coffee is." I quipped back. His smile looked more genuine now, grinning back as I flipped him off and headed out.
Judging from the torn up sugar packets Stet must have been at the diner a good hour or so. He looked at me blankly a second or two before recognition hit and he got up to meet me.
"Damn, you got fat."
"Because I eat runts like you for breakfast." We both grinned and shared a man hug, right hands clasped, quick pound to the back with a fist.
He slid back into his seat as I took off my coat and threw it onto the bench ahead of me. He lit a cigarette while the waitress poured me a coffee, I must have been eyeing his cigarette hungrily, and he slid the pack over the table to me. I considered for as long as it took my hand to reach them, pulled one out. "No thanks, I quit a couple years ago."
He slid the lighter over to me, one eyebrow raised as I lit and slowly drew in a deep lungful. Toasted tobacco and menthol cool swirled up my nose tickling loose memories of many other cigarettes I'd shared with him and Niklas, some in this very diner.
"Surprised you're not coughing."
"I was made to defile myself." A second drag actually made me dizzy for a second. "It's been a long time Stet."
He shrugged, "I haven't really done anything."
"Ha, me neither." Our conversation was light, just two old friends talking. We filled in the few years’ worth of gaps back and forth without any great detail until the waitress had finally started ignoring us, realizing we were only there for coffee.
"Do you like your job?" I asked, surprising him a little.
"It's a job. You have a better offer?" he flashed a little smile, he thought he knew something.
"So what do you know so far?"
"I figure you came back to help Niklas" He stressed the name with a wink “out of some trouble. You hid out in Philly for a while, decided to go after whatever trouble had been chasing you." He looked to me for confirmation.
"Close" I answered. He smiled a big Cheshire grin at me, and then I connected it. "You talked to Wriggly?"
He nodded. "Niklas' roommate called me, he hadn't been there for over a week and the cops came looking for him.” I stiffened drew back a little involuntarily, I couldn't help myself and I looked around the room suspiciously.
"Damn, did they say what for?"
"No, but there was a story in the paper about the place he worked getting robbed of a couple million. With him missing it didn't take much to figure out."
I sat stunned for a few minutes, "A couple million? He only took about half a mil. What the hell?" I could feel the little wheels in my head clicking as my mind raced.
"Shit!" I exploded slapping the table. The waitress started over, but I waved her off trying to force an apologetic smile. Then lowering my voice to barely a mumble, "That was why they sent This Guy to kill him. He was just a front for their real inside guy who stole the big money. Fuck!"
"What? What guy?" Stet asked.
I'd missed it completely, so had Niklas, he was just a fall guy for some prick, probably higher up in the company than him. That meant they were probably still hunting for him, or if they knew about me, us.
They needed him dead and messy so they could close the books on the whole thing, leaving the guy inside free and clear. I didn't really understand why he'd want to keep working there after scoring a couple million, but maybe he was setting up for another hit.
I explained to Stet about the hit man, then the muscle guy watching his eyes get wide. I wasn't specific, just left it at Had To. He nodded agreement when I told him about Niklas being set up, it made sense. I filled in the rest including the drug dealer, and the neighborhood we were now shut out of.
We smoked another cigarette, I sat quiet letting Stet think about what he'd heard. He stared out the window rolling a spoon around in his hand. Finally he turned back, a mischievous little boy grin on his face.
"Fuck it I'm in. Guns, mobsters, drug dealers?" he chuckled, "Damn glad you came back to town son."