Page 28

He heard another soft boom as he took off the desolate road.

Calmly, he swept some of the glass off the passenger’s seat and turned on some tunes.

Blues Saraceno’s, ‘Grave Digger’ finished, then ‘Carry Me Back Home’ was playing, real smooth and easy like.

He hummed along. When he’d driven for about twenty or so minutes in the tranquility of night, with no illumination around but his headlights, he pulled over.

The music kept playing as he leisurely got out of the vehicle, grabbed the gas container, and lowered the bed of the truck.

The men moaned and wiggled about at the sight of him. The odor of fear was pungent in the air. One after the other, he dragged them out and placed them on the dirt. Using the phone he’d picked from their SUV, he dialed Grandpa. There was no answer, so he hung up.

“You boys thirsty? I’m sure you’re parched after all that heat, gettin’ your asses beat, dragged, shot and whatnot.

” Grabbing one of the bastards’ jaws, he squeezed his face real hard, forcing his cheeks to compress and his mouth to butterfly open.

With the other hand, he shook the gasoline container as though it was some treat to feed an animal.

“Open up, now. Don’t you want to party?!” The man’s eyes grew big and wild. “I was mindin’ my own fucking business, and then you two showed up. You wanna see me pump gas so damn bad, now’s the time!”

The man groaned and writhed about; his eyes large as a full moon.

Sweat and dirt mixed along the fucker’s face—a slippery, dirty mess.

Kage tightened his grip on his chin, then forced the gasoline nozzle down his throat, letting the liquid flow.

The man started spitting and vomiting as he rolled onto his side.

Satisfied, he snatched the torn sleeve material out of the other one’s mouth and doused it with gasoline, too.

This fucker tried to fight in his own pitiful way, squirming and struggling.

What could they do with their hands bound, feet shot, and their ankles broken?

They were bleeding out, their complexions ghostly.

“Time for a nightcap.” He forced the man’s lips to part and made him also swallow down the gasoline.

Just then, that damn cell phone rang again. Kage set the container down by his feet, took a few steps back, and answered.

“Brandon!”

“Naw… this ain’t no Brandon, Grandaddy.”

“Kage,” came Grandpa’s steely voice. “Five of my men have vanished into thin air! I’ve been callin’, no answer!

They were gonna talk to you, show you a new offer that would’ve been to your liking.

I was willin’ to negotiate. I just drafted it up!

I don’t know what the fuck you’ve done, but I’m sure you blew it! ”

Kage chuckled at that. “Funny how you said blew it, ’cause I sure the fuck did.

Blew that shit right up! Now, let’s speak to the lie you just told.

I find that somewhat hard to believe, Grandpa.

If you had a new offer for me, then you would have contacted me directly.

A negotiation takes two people. Nah, you sent them boys to try and intimidate me.

Beat me up. Rough me up a little. Scare me straight.

You sent two of ’em, bigger and badder than the first two.

Did you even brief these motherfuckers on what I am capable of?

” He snorted. “I’m disappointed. Over the years you’ve burned down my place, sent animal heads to me like some gift, shot at me, had me attacked.

You had me put in mental institutions, kidnapped, hunted in the woods by some damn wild dogs that you let loose on me, and the list goes on.

Torture. Lies. Extortion. Blackmail. Naw, we’re way past the point of negotiating. This is war.”

“This is a war you will lose, Kage. You will lose. You will lose. YOU WILL LOSE!”

“What’s so crazy about all of this is that you know how I roll, but you keep thinkin’ that if you send more folks, different folks, bigger folks, catch me off guard, do it in the daytime, do it at nighttime, afternoon tea-time, whatever time, that somehow, I’m just gonna fold and let the shit happen. I’m a gotdamn survivor.”

“You should have taken the offer. Now you’re a dead man walking.”

“They tried to kill me. I would’ve been dead anyway.

I know plenty ’bout the dead, and I’m comfortable with it.

You’re troubled at the thought of death.

That last breath. I’ve known that for a long time, old man.

I been half dead for most of my life. Death don’t scare me!

How’d you think I got out of the brain drain hospital that final time, huh?

” Grandpa was quiet, but breathing hard.

“I used my skills. When you’re not ’fraid of death, but others are, when they see the sandman in your eyes, they run…

I am the Grim Reaper, old man. For some strange reason, you think I’ll have mercy on living demons.

I don’t even know how to spell mercy, man.

You thought I’d buckle because you threatened to take my land and have me locked back up in a funny farm. ”

“You’re an evil, dark, twisted soul. If you won’t let me save your soul, then I’m gonna have to take you out, Kage.

You were born in the month of Hollows Eve, and grew up by a damn funeral home, and graveyard.

Your mother is into that devilment, and your father was a mass murderer without a conscience. ”

“Ohhhh, granddaddy, don’t be superstitious and silly.

I tell you what, do this test: Put me in a strait jacket, wrap a cinder block ’round my ankle and toss me in the river.

If I float, then I’m a warlock. A witch like my mama.

” He cackled. “If I sink, then you’re still screwed.

’Cause my ghost is gonna come back and kill you… ”

“You’re going to slip up, Kage, and when you do, I’ll be waiting. I will destroy you as soon as I get the opportunity.”

“I’m fully aware of the livin’ hell you can make my life.

You’ve got the money, the connections and the power.

You’re already doing it, but what I won’t do is cower down to you.

I ain’t no rookie to this shit. No amount of money can buy me, and no amount of scare tactics can make me kiss the ring.

I ain’t nothin’ but a walkin’ gun with an axe to grind.

That time I spent in that mental institution on account of you, bein’ abused, overly medicated and mistreated, well, guess what?

It turned me into the fiend that I am today. ”

“You were crazy before that!”

“You put the final nail in the vampire’s coffin.

The final bolt in Frankenstein’s monster’s head.

You thought you could use that to your advantage, break me down to make me bend to your desires, but it backfired.

It’s alright as long as I’m doing dirty dealings on your behalf, but when it ain’t for you, and is instead aimed towards you, then you’ve got scriptures to quote, and reprisals for days.

I had left you alone, but now you’ve woken the wolf from my den.

I’m up now, you son of a bitch, and ain’t going away.

Now, you’re gonna pay for what happened to me, motherfucker. ”

“You were sick! You deserved to be in there, or be killed! Your mama was—”

“All it’s done is give me more fuel to destroy you…

You know exactly why I wanted to kill you when I was a kid, old man.

People have their theories, don’t they? And I could never prove what I knew to be true, but you and I know the truth.

” A chill black silence rested between them.

“You thought I was a monster before I went in that hellhole hospital, Grandpa? That was child’s play. Motherfucker, you ain’t seen shit yet.”

“You’re going to pay… and you’re going to pay good . I’m gonna skin you alive, like you did those men. I’m going to make you eat crow! Your mama’s feelings be damned!!! Kage… you hear me, boy?! KAAAAGE!”

He set the phone down on top of his truck, the speaker on, and reached for the lighter in his pocket. Lighting a little torn piece of fabric from that sleeve, he set it on fire. Then, he picked up the other half that he’d torn in two, and did the same.

“…Please… no… please… no… I have a wife, man! PLEASE!” one of them blubbered. The other one seemed to be going in and out of consciousness.

“I used to have a wife. She’s dead to me now, too.

I used to have a lotta shit owed to me, a life I coulda lived but lost out on, all on account of that man who goes by the name of Cyrus Wilde.

Ain’t a bone in my six-foot-seven inch body that gives a holy hot damn about you or your family, boy.

You sure as hell didn’t care about mine when you were tryna kill me earlier today, now where ya?

” he taunted as he looked down at his prey.

“I got folks that care about me, too. Now, you two make sure you tell them foul goblins you’ll see in hell soon: goodnight for me.

Keep the torchlight on for the old man. I reckon he’s on his way to join you one of these days. ”

“KAAA AAA AAA GE ! ” Grandpa screamed so loud, he could hear with the phone set down.

Kage dropped the scorching pieces of gasoline-soaked cloth into the men’s mouths at the same exact time.

Taking several steps back, he watched both of them try to scream as they trembled, turning into wailing infernos until their tongues were engulfed by the flames.

The quiet of the night was now electrified by their dual glow.

The stench of burning flesh imbued the atmosphere.

Kage watched for a few minutes, stroking his beard.

After a while, he snatched the phone and added it to the bone and blood bonfire while Grandpa continued to shriek on the other end.

When he’d had his fill, he got into his truck and drove a good distance away.

Then, he called Grandpa, this time from his own phone.

“KAGE! JESUS! OH MY GOD…” Grandpa screamed in pure panic. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE! YOU KILLED ONE OF SIVERO’S KIN! HIS NEWPHEW! SHIT! GOT DAMN YOU! YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOU, ROTTEN, FUCKIN’ CRAZY SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!”

The Sivero Family, an Italian dynasty with a small but notable presence in Texas, was not one to play with. Kage assumed they owed Grandpa a favor, and in doing so, they sent someone over to ‘handle’ him. Handle him the Sivero man did not—now, that someone was burnt to a crisp.

“… You got that boy killed. Simple as that. Put the blame at your own feet. Now you’ve got another enemy. Bravo.”

“Oh, no sir!” Grandpa laughed. “You did this! They’re comin’ after you !”

“Grandpa, don’t you worry…everything will work out as it should.

See, me and my six cousins that you’re tryna trap and bring into your cult are the worst of the worst of the Wilde family tree.

You said it yourself. That’s why you want us so badly.

We’re seven fucked up individuals. We are free thinkers, and we do what the fuck we want.

We ain’t scared of you, and you hate us for that.

Problem is, when you send your attack dogs after us, you don’t tell those dogs that the bones we have for them are laced in arsenic.

Poison runs in our blood. You misjudged me.

” He seethed. “I’m on your mind all the time, old man.

“I was at your hip most of my childhood. I watched you kill, destroy, then lie and deny. Instead of impressing me, I just studied you. Then I realized you’d done the unthinkable.

You had to be eradicated. I was too small.

Too young for the job. Now, I’m ready . Here’s a Bible quote for you, sir.

1 Corinthians, 13:11 says, ‘When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things.’ Time to put you to bed, Cyrus.

You’re an old toy that I don’t want no more. ”

“Where the fuck are you?”

“In your obsessions, dreams and nightmares. You’ll find your errand boys’ charred remains in Greens Bayou. Well done. Cooked to motherfuckin’ perfection. Ribs, brisket, and baked beans… lil’ bit of coleslaw. That’s good eatin’! Mmm, mmm mmm! Trigger lickin’ good.”

Then he disconnected the call, wiped his hands with a napkin, and headed home to the sounds of The Jompson Brothers’, ‘On The Run.’ He sang along, feeling damn near delighted.

Joy danced in his bones and swam in his blood, taking over all of him from his swaying hair that cloaked his eye, to the work boots on his feet.

His enemies were dead, and that made him feel so damn alive…