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."