Heart of Revenge (Part 2)

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Subways sometimes freak me out. I don’t much care for them. There are too many creepers and nowhere to run if you need a quick out. Plus there’s the rats, I’m not talking about the people, I mean real twenty-pound city rats. They gross me out, all pestilence and grease and hair. It almost makes me vomit every time I see. Fortunately they tend to stay out of sight, but one never knows.

The ride on the subway ends up being very uneventful. I’m mostly alone in a car with a flickering fluorescent fixture at one end. There is a bum sleeping underneath it. I can vaguely smell his decay from the other end of the car. My guess is this is one of the few ways left to stay warm in the weather. We go through a dead zone in the tunnel, basically where the wind kicks up and the electricity goes out. Usually its only for a short period of time, but this one seems to last longer than I’m used to.

Suddenly the car is washed over with bright-ass lights everywhere. It’s blinding. I reach for my crowbar I keep tied up under my trench coat, but it’s not there. Oh shit, I think, what could possibly be going on now? Across the car the bum is lifted up like a marionette with an unseen hand controlling the strings. He looks like the dead, eyes askew, drool escaping from the corner of him mouth. As he is pulled closer to me I can hear a sonorous distant voice, “Five sevenths and three eighths, you must be sure you avoid the wraiths. One half and four thirds, don’t forget to head the words.”

Blackness. Silence. The whooshing sound of wind slowly creeps back to my ears and the car lights flicker back to its normal pattern. Even the bum is back in his pile towards the end of the car. I want to get the hell off this car and soon. My stop is the next one. My stop is the next one. The train slows, the doors open, and I get my ass out of that station so fast the littered newspapers didn't even have time to react in my wake.

The bum’s words are still echoing in my brain as I get out on to the street. I don’t have time for riddles so I try to push it as far back as I can, but it’s like that birthday song you just can stop singing in your own head. I guess I’ll have to find a way to deal with it later, for now I needed to get rid of this package.

Fortunately the subway station was really close to the Chimay tower, it was only going to be two bitter blocks in this cold. The streets in the business district were deserted. It’s weird to be in a commercial zone in the middle of the night. There is a very creepy air about. Best not to think about it too much, so I flipped up the collar on my jacket and bounded to the tower in the cold.

-V-

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Heart of Revenge (Part 1)

The night air was dank and cold. This was my fifth night out here waiting for the drop. I'm not one who likes to be kept waiting, but my boss insisted that I pick up this package. He assured me the delivery would be here soon. A set of headlights appear in the distance and I get my hopes up just like I have the last twenty times cars have gone by. The car doesn't slow down, but in fact picks up speed so that the wind starts gusting by me and I get a chill deep in my bones. Pulling my trench coat tighter around me I try to stamp some feeling back into my feet. I figure it's going to be another long night and settle in against the wall.

I wasn't always into hanging out on cold street corners. I used to be a regular Joe, working a standard nine to five. I had a wife and kids. I was living the American dream, until one day it happened. I don't much like talking about it, but lets just say everything fell away in a single night. Now, I really don't have much to live for. That's when I picked up this gig. In the business I'm what you'd call a sinker, I take care of things for people, no questions asked, no answers given. Tonight was no different, other than the fact that it's been going on for the past four nights. I think someone just wants to make me sick, but whatever, the pay is too good to pass up this time.

All I know is the drop is supposed to be some organs for a big fish cutthroat. He's been on death’s door for some time now and I think he's scouring the streets trying to get himself new kidneys or a new heart, if he ever had one in the first place. Normally I don't have this many details, but the person who hired me seemed to have pretty loose lips. That’s a very dangerous affliction to have in this business.

I'm not put off by any of these sick bastards discretions, but I generally don't like to know. Anyway, once I get the drop I'm supposed to jet it personally up to the 112th floor of Chimay tower and collect my pay. Then it’s back to scouring for more cash anywhere I can find it. I'm only halfway to my goal, revenge can cost so much these days.

Just then, a car screeches to a halt in front of me. It’s some type of Chevy something or other, all black with mirrored windows. Real discrete, I think to myself as the window lowers. It's Eddie, essentially a hatchet in a leisure suit. He had brown hair at one point in his life but now it's a mixture of grey and some black dye. His eyes are creepy as hell, one cloudy grey and one jaundiced green, it seems he took a two by four to the head as a child. He never said who did it, but everyone assumed it was his father. His face contorts into a crooked smile and he says, "Ello William. Wat yous doin' out 'ere?"

"Oh you, know, I just love hanging out in the cold, I was actually waiting for your mother to come along and give me a blow job."

His smile quickly disappears. "Look 'ere, ash-hole, I's don 'afta take this shit from the likes of you.”

“No but your mother does…” I say with a big smirk. I can tell this has really set him off. I decide to go for a more tactful route, "Sorry mate, it's just too damned cold out here, I've been out for hours on this corner. You need something?”

"Wat? Me? No. But you do, it's in 'e trunk." He proceeds to pop the trunk from his dashboard.

I walk around and pull out the only thing sitting in the trunk, a little Styrofoam container. As soon as I close the trunk he guns the engine and speeds away. Great, I think, I can finally get moving and get my ass out of the cold. Not having a car in the city can be a godsend, sometimes. Not right now though. It was way too cold for this. Luckily, I was near a subway entrance and could get out of the polar air quickly.

-V-

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