Radu-Chaper XIX (A Novel by Patrick Kelley)

Previous Segments:

Prologue and Chapters I-X


Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII



Radu-Chapter XIX (A Novel by Patrick Kelley)
20 pages approximate

Joseph Karinsky was as pissed off as Sierra had ever known him to be, at least at her.

“I see now what you’re all about,” he said bitterly. “Fuck all of us, as long as you get to walk. Is that how it goes?”

“Did I tell you to kill a bunch of high school students,” Sierra demanded. “Did I encourage you to get some stupid kid that thinks with his dick to try to kill a teacher? How the hell was any of that supposed to benefit me, or any of us, can you explain that?”

He looked away, and made no reply.

“So, I was right,” she said. “Spanky has you wrapped around her little finger.”

“Bullshit!” he replied angrily. “I would have done the same for you or any of the others.”

“Well, the others wouldn’t have been that fucking stupid,” Sierra insisted. “Even Spiral Lamont would have had more sense than that.”

She knew she had to keep talking. Any sign of weakness would inflame Joseph much like a hungry bear, roused from her winter slumbers and stumbling upon a wounded deer. He would rip into her if she gave him the slightest such opening.

“Look, I’m not saying I really blame you for trying to make a deal,” Joseph said as he softened his tone. “It all worked out for the best anyway.”

“My faith in you was rewarded, despite everything,” he continued. “When you moved in with that reporter, you made it all work to our benefit. You found the pictures that bitch took of Larceny and Rhino at the farm, and the Leighton’s bodies. We got both copies of the film. Even if there is more, fuck it-we got the original as well as the negatives. Any other copies would be worthless.

“You came through for us when we needed you the most. That’s all I care about.

“Faith, Sierra,” he concluded as he adopted an uncharacteristically soothing tone with her. “Faith is what will keep us all together, and will make things work out for the best, for all of us.”

“So you’re saying you want me to stick around,” she said.

“Of course I do,” he said. “We’ve got to get the fuck out of Baltimore, though. It ain’t going to be safe around here. I just called Sherry, and I think Milo is more than happy to be getting out of here. Just the same, I need you to go around to their places and make sure their asses are in gear. Do that first, and then go to The Crypt. Gus should have everything ready by then.”

“You’re that worried about the 17th Pulse?”

Sierra was surprised Joseph would admit to being afraid of anything or anybody, but the Pulse was not exactly a casual threat to be taken lightly.

“I laid the blame for the poisoned pot off on them,” he explained. “If I was them I’d damn sure be looking to get our asses, wouldn’t you?”

“All right then, so we leave tomorrow night, right?” Debbie was still unsure as to whether she should go off with them. She wanted at times to rid herself of them, especially after they killed Spiral, who had been her best friend for years. Then, there was the influence of Debbie Leighton, who Sierra secretly hated from almost the first time she saw her. At the same time, Debbie was gone for good, as was Spiral, who really brought her fate on her own head with her infidelity with Marlowe, the absolute worse person with whom she could have been unfaithful.

“Where are we going anyway?” She asked Joseph this though her mind was far from made up.

“We’re going someplace where nobody will ever find us, just outside of town, for just a few days. After that, I’m thinking Baton Rouge, maybe in time New Orleans. It shouldn’t be that hard to fit in there once things are back to normal. I haven’t really decided yet, but we’ll all talk about it, and decide as a group.”

Sierra nodded her assent, and then said she would go check on the others’ progress. However, Joseph stopped her at the door.

“There is one other thing I’m curious about,” he said. “That CD, the one you and that so-called band The Mocktones made? I’ve been wondering just how Grace Rodescu ended up with a copy of it. I’m even more curious as to how she found the Leighton Farm. I don’t guess you have any theories about that, do you?”

She knew now she had to think fast. Joseph had taught her well, but for the same reason he knew how to see through her, and was in fact the only person she knew of that could do so. She knew she had to choose her words carefully, but not take too long in doing so.

“I passed out a bunch of those CDs,” she explained. “I purposely gave her one because I hoped she would review us in the Sun articles she was doing on Gothic sub-culture.”

Joseph gave her an exasperated look as he rolled his eyes.

“That would be the last thing you should want,” he said. “You guys were four of the most terrible musicians that ever plugged an amplifier inside a garage. What the fuck were you thinking? And how the hell did that lead her to the Leighton Farm?”

“I don’t know,” she said as she assumed a thoughtful pose. “I’m guessing Debbie said a bunch of shit to people that got rumors started, and since her name was on one of the tracks-“

“You and Debbie wrote a song together?”

“Yeah, it was called ‘Sweet Sixteen’ with Coming Home in parentheses. The crazy bitch wrote the lyrics and came to me one day, wanting me to put it to music. I did, and then the group recorded it. Grace told me it was the best song on the CD. That was really all that was said, that I know anything about.”

“Well, it almost got our asses hung, I hope you know that,” he said critically once more.

“I know that,” Sierra said. “But like you said, have a little faith, and everything will work out for the best.”

She left then and went straight to Milo’s apartment. She was surprised to see him sporting the most absurd Mohawk she ever saw. It was a bright almost neon green, and stood in a tall thin spike seemingly a full two feet from his head.

“Wow, couldn’t you have waited until we left to do that? You’re going to stand out like Michael Jackson in a day-care center.”

She was laughing as she said this, but was serious too. The last thing the group needed was to leave with an identifying characteristic sported by any of them that made them easier to track. Larceny was even getting rid of her moustache and goatee tattoo for this very reason. She was also going to allow her hair to grow back after they left. Now Milo has to go and pull this stunt. Yet, he acted unconcerned.

“Fuck the 17th Pulse,” he said. “They are a group of nobodies outside of Balmer, and what they are here is hyped like hell. So when the fuck is we leaving?”

“Are you sure you can?” she asked. “What about probation?”

“Over as of five days ago,” he said. “No thanks to you, by the way, you almost got me violated-you and your fucked up songs and your big mouth.”

“Yeah, I guess that tight little pussy not being around when you need some has got you kind of tense, huh? Well, you can always fuck her heifer aunt once more before you go. Or, there’s something else you can do”.

She bent down over her former boyfriend and gazed longingly in his eyes as he sat on the love seat and looked up at her expectantly.

“You can always have me back,” she said. “All you have to do is close your eyes, think about me, and jack off.”

“You want to get fucked up real good?” Milo asked her this as though unaffected by her obvious taunting. “It’s been way too long since I felt safe getting high. Now that I can finally do it, I want to get really good and fucked up. I think I am going to just float on out of Balmer when we leave tomorrow. I don’t even want this fucked up place to register in my mind as we go.

“I want to stay straight, at least until we’re out of here,” she replied. “And if you insist on getting fucked up, you damned well better be able to leave here on your own.”

He told her he would be fine. She looked around to see he had packed everything he intended to take with him, all in two suitcases and four backpacks. She looked back at him, and could tell he was in fact already stoned. With Milo, it was sometimes hard to tell. She was sure he would be all right tomorrow, and as ready as the rest of them to get the hell out of Baltimore for good.

She only wished they did not have to wait as long as they did, but Joseph had to be one hundred percent certain it was all clear with their lawyer. He was responsible for clearing it through the courts. It was a matter of their own safety, and frankly, the Baltimore authorities were quite happy to see them all go.

She left Milo’s apartment and made her way to the loft apartment maintained by Sherry “Larceny” Adams under an assumed name. By the time she made it up there, she could hear the agonized screams of her latest victim-and client. The crazy bitch was at it again, she realized.

She had no idea know who the fuckhead loser was, but he was a bloody mess. He was naked, with knife and scissor wounds, and wide, deep scrape marks-raw flesh into which vinegar and alcohol poured in a steady drip from different bottles suspended above him. A table saw rested down the table, between his legs, and was available for use at a moment’s notice. Larceny prided herself on rarely having to use that tactic. She preferred to leave her clients intact and therefore not devoid of some slim hope-at least until she got everything she wanted.

Larceny was nowhere around, which meant Rhino had to be somewhere nearby. She walked down the hall toward one of the other five rooms on this top floor of the old dilapidated apartment building. She listened carefully, but heard nothing, as she opened the door. There was Rhino, sitting with a perplexed and hurt expression on his face.

“It’s no good,” he said. “Everything is fucked up.”

Evidently, Sierra realized, he thought he was talking to a retuned Larceny. She decided to have some fun with him, and so concentrated on lowering her voice several octaves, something she did often in some songs she sung with the band.

“Mr. Dodd? Mr. George Dodd?”

Rhino stiffened, then exhaled as he lowered his head and then turned, not so much terror as something that almost looked like a resigned defeat registered in his eyes, until he saw it was Sierra.

“That’s not funny, Sierra,” he said. “If you had done that a couple days ago I probably would have decked you. Now I just about don’t give a damn if you were a cop.”

“Damn, what the hell is wrong with you?” she demanded. “And where the hell is Sherry anyway?”

“She’s transferring our landlord’s bank account to some island. Don’t ask me where the fuck it is because she won’t tell me.”

“That guy out there is your landlord?” Sierra was appalled at such a betrayal, as their landlord not only ignored all their activities, he did not even charge Larceny any rent, in exchange for a few infrequent sexual favors.

“”No, I don’t know who the fuck that guy is,” Rhino said. “I had to get me a new punching bag.”

As he said this, he pulled a lever on the wall. Suddenly, a door opened, allowing for the advance into the room of a hooded man, bound and gagged, suspended from the floor by a rope attached with hooks to specially fitted thick leather coveralls, the other end of it to a pulley incorporated through a special groove in the ceiling. The unfortunate man squirmed helplessly. He appeared already to be the victim of Rhino’s grueling exercise routine and obviously assumed another was on the way.

“Don’t you think you’d better go a little easy on this one?” Sierra asked.

“Nope,” Rhino answered. “Don’t matter-we sure can’t take him with us. It’s useless anyway. I was turned down for nose-tackle of The Blackbirds, thanks to you. Maybe I ought a put you up here.”

“Rhino, you were never going to get on with The Blackbirds,” Sierra said, a little concerned at the serious manner in which he conveyed the threat. In the meantime, the landlord, Freddie, seemed terrified as he attempted helplessly to beg for mercy, which he must have known was unlikely to come his way. Sierra was almost positive she could smell the scent of both urine and feces emanating from the terrified, pain-wracked man, the third such of Rhino’s toys. The first one lasted only two weeks. He went easier on the next one. He lasted all of four months. Freddie the Landlord knew about all of it, so perhaps it was fitting that he was probably spending the last day of his life in the same predicament as the other two men, both undocumented immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico.

Rhino could care less about them, of course, though he did take exception to Sierra’s stated view of his professional potential. He had worked and trained too hard on his strength, stamina, and skill, and built it up to the point where the steroids he had previously used were no longer a necessity. He worked out an average of six hours every other day, and ate only the healthiest foods. No opposing teams quarterback would be safe from him. He would have been the greatest nose-tackle in the history of Arena Football He would have almost single-handedly led the Baltimore Blackbirds to consistent domination in their league, to hear him tell it. Now, he had no chance for a contract. He would be lucky to find work as a parking attendant or towel boy.

“Rhino, it’s just as well, believe me,” she said. “When you were in the locker room and the other guys saw those little marble sized balls from all those steroids that would be it.”

“Bull fucking shit!” he shouted in a rage. Then, he started into a rant about how he would sue them if they did not give him a spot. No one ever proved anything on him, and no one had any right to withhold any opportunity from him.

“I’ll go up to the GM’s office and have a motherfucking talk to him, and if he won’t listen to goddamn reason I’ll rip the motherfucking son-of-a-bitches head off and punt it out his cocksucking window!”

“Wow! That would really show ‘em all, wouldn’t it?” Sierra said. “In the meantime, why don’t you work out your frustrations on ol’ Freddie here? We’re going to have to get rid of him before we go anyway.”

“Freddie” started to moan desperately at the sound of this and quivered in terror, though his bonds were such he had no true freedom of movement of which to speak.

“Nothin’ personal, Freddie,” she said. Indeed, she just wanted Rhino to take his obvious anger and frustrations out on something-anything-besides her.

However, Rhino now suddenly seemed to be back in his previous solemn mood of despair, and with a grasp of the lever, sent Freddie sliding backwards into his previous hiding place.

“Go on, get out of here, Sierra,” he said. “Tell Joseph I’ll be ready whenever he says we go.”

Sierra left. She had never seen Rhino in such a mood. The only other times that came close were when Raven began dating Marlowe Krovell-and the time shortly afterward, when she died. Larceny had latched on to the group by then, and made it her project to get Rhino over the tragedy of his loss. She did it with the whips and chains that were her stock in trade. Rhino was a changed man afterwards, having been granted the punishment he felt he deserved for losing Raven not once, but twice-and he got his rocks off in the process- or, as Larceny put it, “his gravels”.

She and Rhino became inseparable. They were lovers, though not in love, even if Rhino did do everything she told him. She for her part loved Joseph, but Joseph was wholly unattracted to her. The roughly one time a month on average when Joseph fucked her put Larceny into a girlish mindset, which made her look even more ridiculous than she already did. Sierra looked now at the calendar, with the date circled as August 17, with Joseph’s name scribbled in overlapping fashion to the circle. Four days from this date, Larceny would get her monthly fuck from Joseph. She did not care. She wanted to be away from all of them.

Rhino was a child in the body of a man, his testicles being the one physical match for his intellect. His penis as well was considerably shorter than average. Rhino was nevertheless capable of having sex multiple times in one night. If he had sex with four different women in a row, he would tell every one of them he loved them-and would mean it sincerely.

Milo was weak in other ways. He was intelligent enough, and he was better than average sexually, but otherwise had zero drive. He thrived only in the company of other, more aggressive persons, such as Joseph.

Joseph, she realized, was Milo’s polar opposite, and derived his strength through others. He knew how to read people, and how to play up to their vanities, as well as their weaknesses. He was a master manipulator.

He played up to Sierra by granting her the degree of independence she needed. Sierra fell for it but realized in time Joseph had his ways of reeling her in whenever he needed to insure he maintained the proper degree of control over her. He had been the same way with Spiral Lamont. When he realized how treacherous she was, he gave her enough rope with which to hang herself. Sierra was the rope. She was Spiral’s confidant, and Sierra regretted her role in Spiral’s death more every day.

She betrayed her friend for no other reason than to be with Joseph- just as she ended up betraying Grace Rodescu for the same reason. Why had she done that? She could have been free of Joseph, could have began the long, difficult process of putting her life back together. Joseph’s power over her, unfortunately, was way too strong. He was like a drug, one she knew she could never be free of, only in part because he had her hooked. The truth was she never really wanted to lose the addiction.

The only person who had ever openly spoken out against Joseph was Raven Randall. She was positive Raven’s death was no accident. The whole drug overdose scenario did not add up. Raven told her once she was through with the group, and advised her to leave as well, before she got in too deep. Sierra never mentioned anything about this to Joseph. Still, Joseph must have known. He knew them all far too well. Raven changed in those last few days, in which she returned, seemingly as though nothing had ever changed. Joseph as well acted as though nothing had changed. Nevertheless, Raven was dead within two weeks.

Now, as she sat outside Larceny’s loft apartment, on the stairs, she wondered why she did not just leave as well. No one that expressed any real independence from Joseph lasted very long. What made her imagine she would be any different? She lit up a Marlboro, and just sat and smoked, breathing in deeply as she inhaled, hoping to center her thoughts and calm her frayed nerves. She knew it was out of the question to turn back to Grace. She fucked up what could have been a very good thing, all because Joseph called her, boyishly excited and enthusiastic about the news of his release on bond.

She had almost decided to leave and cut her ties from the group forever, when Larceny returned.

“What the hell are you dong out here?” she demanded. “Rhino’s up there, ain’t he?”

“Yeah, but he’s not in a very good mood,” Sierra replied. “Plus, that guy you got tied up in there gives me the creeps. Who is he anyway?”

“An old, old customer, and a very, very rich one,” Larceny replied. “At least he was rich up until about an hour ago.”

“What are you going to do with him and Freddie?” Sierra asked. “Joseph says we might be leaving tomorrow night.”

“Me and Rhino will be taking a little trip to the Leighton Farm early in the morning,” she explained. “We’re going to leave Debbie a little going away present. Can you believe that bitch gets to keep her parent’s farm? The state of Virginia put it in escrow until she is an adult. Seems there is no real evidence she had anything to do with her parents murder.

“Can you believe that shit? The bitch spends two years in juvie, and after a couple years of therapy, she is home free. I guess you know Joseph is planning on us making a little trip back there in two years. He thinks she will be waiting for us with open arms. Hell, who knows, maybe she will.”

“Yeah, that is fucked up,” Sierra agreed. One of the main reasons Joseph wanted to leave Baltimore, outside of fear of recriminations from the Seventeenth Pulse, was his uncertainty as to whether Debbie could keep quiet about their role in her parent’s murder-among other things.

“So, you’ll be ready to go by tomorrow night?” Sierra asked.

“Yep, I’ll be ready,.” Larceny answered. “Somebody’s coming by tonight to get rid of the rest of this fucking tat. Rhino does not want me to get rid of it, but fuck him, I am sick to death of it. This guys good too, guarantees to leave no scars or shadows. He damned well better not, I know that much.”

“Damn, I was wondering about that,” Sierra said. “I can’t tell any difference.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to tell under these lights if you’re not used to it, but it’s more than half gone. I have been getting it erased gradually. It has been four treatments over the last three weeks. Tonight will be the last step. So, as you can tell, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me, and a lot to do if we have to get out of here by tomorrow night. I don’t see what the big rush is myself. The Seventeenth Pulse can’t go the fucking bathroom without the cops holding their cocks. Still, I don’t exactly want to hang around this fucking place any longer than I have to either.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later then,” Sierra said, making her way down the steps, wanting to leave as quickly as possible. Next to Joseph, she feared Larceny more than any other person she knew. Rhino was not dangerous so long as you knew how to talk to him. Unfortunately, Larceny had him as well trained as any pit bull. Yet, Joseph controlled them both. Joseph was the only person Rhino truly feared, and Joseph was the only person for whom Larceny truly had any kind of affection. Milo was only dangerous to himself. She and Milo were more alike than the rest of them, she realized. The only difference was, Sierra saw what path she was on, even if she seemed helpless to stop.

“So, what did that bitch say about me anyway?” Larceny asked as Sierra made it to the bottom of the steps. “Does she remember I’m the one that shot her?”

“Yeah, but she was fucked up on heroin that night,” Sierra said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, I’m not worried”, Larceny said. “I have another special surprise for that nosy fucking bitch, and it’s coming real soon now.”

“Well, it better be fast,” Sierra said, trying to hide her concern. “You can only do so much in a day.”

She left then, and happily made her way back out on the street. What in the hell was she planning to do to Grace, Sierra wondered. Was she really planning anything at all? Was she testing her loyalty to the group? Surely, that was it. Joseph would not allow-and then she stopped herself.

Joseph controlled all their lives. He controlled where they spent their time and how, and with whom, even down to delegating their sexual conduct. No one ever questioned him. It was baffling. At the same time, it was profoundly the truth, to such an extent Sierra knew full well that if Larceny did have some special plan for Grace Rodescu, Joseph was aware of and agreeable to it. The worse part of it was, she as well should know by now. The fact she did not know, if it were true, did not bode well.

She made her way into the street, and though night had now fallen, she found herself almost overcome by the stifling heat. She had one more stop to make, and wondered if she might be better off hailing a cab. Joseph, unfortunately, lost his job driving a cab, and she herself had no automobile. Joseph had sold his own car, and was now busily at work on the new van he purchased from the proceeds of not only his own automobile, but Larceny’s as well. In addition, he somehow managed to get two thousand dollars from the car stolen from the murdered man at the Leighton Farm who stumbled unsuspectingly into his own horrible fate.

Nevertheless, it was a used van, almost six years old, and Joseph engaged his time in assuring it was in the proper running condition. After all, they did have a long trek ahead of them. As for now, Sierra had one hell of a long walk, almost thirty blocks, to The Crypt, and she was not looking forward to it. Unfortunately, she had less than twenty dollars on her, and was not in the mood to part with any of it for something like a cab ride. Still, it was hot, she was tired, and she was not that crazy about walking alone in this neighborhood-not at this time of the night.

Suddenly, an old stretch limo pulled up beside her, as she thought, damn, what I wouldn’t give to get a ride in that fucker right now. She noticed the black man opening the door and stepping out, but did not really notice at first the dark burgundy colors he wore around his head, or the eerie way he eyed her dispassionately. Then, others got out, and she recognized one of them.

“Hey, Toby, what’s up?” she said. “Hey, can I get a ride?”

“Yeah you can get a ride bitch,” he said. “Get your skank ass in here.”

She looked around nervously, aware now that her friendship with the Pulse hardly made up for their present enmity with her boyfriend, Joseph Karinsky. She nervously started to shout out for help, but Toby had a gun pressed right into her side. How could she be so stupid, she thought. Of course they aren’t going to give her a pass. She had to think fast, let them know she had nothing to do with Joseph’s betrayal. She allowed herself to be ushered into the backseat of the limo, right beside the waiting figure of, to her surprise, newly freed though accused mass murderer and gang leader Spooky Gold.

“Spooky-you’re out!” she said. “That’s cool.”

“Shut your mouth, ho, before I kill you faster than I’m already planning. Who the hell you think you are anyway?”

“Oh, she’s just an innocent little girl, Spooky,” Toby now said, “just like that-what’s her name-Alfalfa, or is it Darla? No, Spanky-that’s it. Yeah, I wonder how that sweet little girl is doing these days? I don’t guess you would know, would you?”

“I heard she was sent back to Virginia yesterday, to some teenage group home for problem kids,” Sierra answered. “Look, guys, I don’t know what the problem here is, but I swear, it ain’t nothing to do with me. Whatever Debbie Leighton has done-”

“Yeah, we need to talk about what Debbie Leighton has done,” Spooky said. “Oh, and Joseph, and Milo, we need to talk about them too, and those other clowns you run with. First though, we need to talk about you.”

“Uh, do you mind if I ask you exactly where we’re going?”

Sierra was starting to become deathly afraid as it finally sunk in to her she might not be able to reason with these men, for very good reason.

“You know, I started to have the world at my fingertips,” Spooky said. “The DA was going to drop the charges on me for killing Marshall, all for me agreeing to the rap for killing George. Ain’t life funny? Marshall offs himself, I kill George, and I go down for just what I done. You know, that’s just the way life should be. I was looking at getting out in four years with good behavior-mitigating circumstances and all, you see. The deal was all set up, and then one day I get a visit to my cell. That’s exactly why we’re here now, Sierra. Oh, you asked me where is it we going? Well, where was it you was wanting to go?”

“Uh, well”-

Before she could continue, Spooky Gold backhanded her across the lip with his closed fist. The sudden pain almost made her black out, and blood oozed from her nose and mouth.

“Uh-well ain’t a place, bitch”-

“The Crypt,” she said as she now began crying and quivering, unable to contain her terror.

“The Crypt,” he repeated. “Good, it just so happens that’s exactly where I’m going. I guess we’ll just go there together. Damn, this time of the night, I’m sure they’re open, just ready and waiting for all the little white ass freaks.”

“Hey, is there any brothers that go there?” Toby asked. “I’ve always been curious about that. If there are, I think they not black at all, just constipated.”

“No, there’s a few,” Sierra said, desperate to try to talk reason to these men, and feeling at the same time they were past all reason.

“Look, Spooky, I didn’t have anything to do with you being blamed for what Debbie did.”

“We’ll see,” Spooky replied. “Not that it matters though, ‘cos you see, there’s a reason I’m out of here tonight. I ain’t supposed to be here. By the time they do the morning bed check tomorrow, I’ll be a wanted man. See, I ain’t planning on being anywhere around. In the meantime, I got some scores to settle. And right here we are at the first scorecard. Damn, what do you know, the fucking place looks closed. Maybe we should just leave, huh?”

Toby got out of the car and gave a series of knocks on the door. In a matter of seconds, the door opened, but Sierra could not make out who was there. Toby returned then and gave the all clear.

“All right, when we get in you take this thing back to the shop and bring Caldwell’s Land Rover back. I’ll drive it out of here. You guys have your own things worked out, right?”

“Got’cha bro,” Toby said, and seemed misty-eyed. “It’s been a wild ride, my man. I’m gonna miss it.”

“Yeah, me too, but what the fuck,” Spooky replied as he clasped the hand of his lieutenant. “I’ll see you whenever. Keep a pina colada ready for me. I can use some sand and surf.”

Spooky looked like a man who knew the end was near, and he was not in nearly as accepting and philosophical a mood about it as he tried to portray. When he once more turned his attention to Sierra, she saw the eyes of boiling anger.

“Me and you are going toward that door,” he explained. “And if you so much as look like you’re going to run or shout out for help, believe me, I’ll shoot you down just like I would a losing pit bull, and not feel half as bad about it. You feel me?”

She nodded her understanding, and they got out. Sierra was shaking so badly, it was all she could do to steady herself as Spooky held her by her right arm as though escorting her to the door, all the while a snub-nosed revolver stuck in her right side. He knocked a series of knocks, whereupon the door opened, and another Pulse member granted them admittance.

There were already more than twenty regular patrons there in all, and Sierra noted the presence of a terrified Marty Evans, as well as others she knew, some vaguely more than others. She then saw another man, a bouncer named Mackie, shot dead on the floor. On one of the pool tables set a mountain of cell phones, all guarded by a Pulse member by the name of Fishbait. Marty was obviously curious about Sierra’s presence and wanted to communicate something, but seemed to know that would not be advisable. Spooky told her to sit at the bar. She did so, about three stools down from Marty.

“What the fuck is this?” Marty demanded. “Are they going to kill us?”

Sierra finally started crying.

“Hey, no talking, you two, unless one of us talks to you first, got it?”

“Hey, fuck you, you’re going to kill us anyway, right?” Marty replied to Fishbait, who glared at them menacingly. “Do it or shut the fuck up. In the meantime I’ll talk to who the fuck I want.”

“Oh, will you now?” Fishbait said as he rose from his seat and walked toward the apprehensive Evans. Before Marty could rise to meet the advancing Fishbait, the Pulse member gave him a savage rabbit punch to the kidneys, which sent the hapless Goth down to the floor in a spasm of unbearable agony.

“You got something you want to say about that, bitch?” he then asked.

Suddenly, there was another knock at the door. Fishbait nodded to another Pulse member, who went to the door, to admit an already returned Toby.

“Tell Spooky the LR is on its way,” he said. “I decided to stay and play with y’all. What the fuck, this is the last dance, right? Don’t seem right to be missin’ out and all. Hey, what’s this, a fucking karaoke machine? Groovy, just what I need, a chance to make my last Baltimore appearance. Hey, anything by Nellie on this piece of junk, or Fittie Cent?”

He now addressed the horrified disc jockey as Marty now painfully pulled himself up to his stool. The DJ affirmed something to the effect that there were some rap songs, whereupon Toby told him to shut the fuck up. He then “requested” a specific number.

“I think I’m going to show these white kids how you really supposed to karaoke.”

“Toby, what the fuck you doing back here?”

Spooky Gold was now standing outside the office of The Crypt, glaring at Toby in surprise at his sudden return.

“Everything’s being taken care of, boss man,” Toby replied. “I figure a little number here will keep it from lookin’ suspicious.”

“With the door locked, and a ‘Closed For Repairs’ sign in the window?”

“Good point. I’ll change the sign to ‘private party.”

Toby was even now getting in position to perform his number at the Karaoke machine, and Spooky just shook his head.

‘Okay, fine, do it. You say everything else is smooth?”

“On the way, Spooky,” Toby assured him.

“Get your ass over here, bitch,” Spooky now commanded Sierra, who warily removed herself from her place at the bar and went hurriedly past the still whimpering Marty Evans. Toby now began a rap version of what was actually a metal version of an old rhythm and blues song, only in his version he was fucking everybody’s mother “cos I’m a real motherfucker.”

“The party ain’t in the office,” Spooky said as Sierra looked past him toward the manager’s office. “We got a date down in the storage basement. We got company coming, you might say. Actually, we be the company. Only you ain’t coming, you’re going.”

“Spooky, please, I’m begging you”-

“Just shut up before I hurt you worse than you’ve ever been hurt,” he warned her.

They moved down the steps into the basement, Sierra almost tripping on the stairs once in the semi-darkness. When they made it to the bottom of the stairs, Sierra could see the form of Gus Rakovski, the owner and manager of The Crypt, guarded by two other Pulse members.

“It looks to me like the end of the line,” Spooky said.

“You are making a big mistake,” Rakovski said. “Do you know who I am? I am not some low-level thug. I have pull. Do you really think you are going to get away with this outrage? You colored people are too much. Do you think my people give a damn about playing up to the vanities and sensitivites of your particular race? We can and will destroy all of you, and everything you care about.”

“So you’re saying I should just forget about you paying Karinski to poison my product so you can take over my territory? That’s really something to think about. Maybe we should make a deal.”

Suddenly, Spooky extended his hand, and fired his Smith and Wesson into the gut of the Russian mobster. The man slumped to the ground in shock and agony.

“Now, here’s the deal. You tell me everything, and speak clearly, and when I leave here, I call an ambulance. Otherwise, I just let your White Russian ass bleed to death. It don’t make no never mind to me. I’m leaving anyway, for good. I do want to leave with my rep cleared though.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rakovski insisted, groaning as the blood pooled around him. He struggled just to stay on his knees.

“Don’t know what I’m talking about, huh? Hey, bitch, what were you coming here for?”

“Joseph said he was supposed to give him a set of numbers to an offshore account. I was supposed to check the numbers and verify the amount. It was supposed to be two million dollars. Then, I was supposed to call Joseph, and he was supposed to transfer the money into his own offshore account. But really, Spooky”-

The gang lord held up his hand, as he addressed the bleeding, dying Russian that now collapsed with a groan upon his basement floor.

“Two million dollars,” Spooky repeated. “Two million dollars and bail, and probably all charges dropped to boot. Sounds to me like Mr. Karinsky sure must be doing something right. I wonder what that might be?”

He then addressed one of the other members.

“Go bring that bitch down here. She’s up in the office.”

The gang member left, and after a brief period of silence broken only by the loud and painful moans of the dying Russian mobster, he returned with Debbie Leighton in tow. Sierra was surprised to see her, but noted she looked more aggravated than afraid. She looked over at Sierra, and then shot her head up in the air.

“Okay, now let me get this straight, bitch,” he said. “You went along with this shit to poison those school kids, but you didn’t know it had anything to do with setting me or my boys up. Is that your position? As far as you were concerned, you just wanted to kill a bunch of people that were giving you a problem in school. Do I have that all down?”

“Yeah, now can I please go back to the group home? Sierra was probably in on it all, I didn’t have any idea what they were up to.”

“You lying little bitch!” Sierra shouted.

“You miss the group home, huh? Funny, seems I hear you was anxious as hell to get away from the place, couldn’t leave fast enough. All it took was Fishbait pretending to be a caseworker whispering he would like to help you get out, and you jumped right to it. Now you want to go back? So why should I take you back, or let somebody else take you back? Come on, I’m waiting for a good reason, not a load of shit about how you’re just an abused, misunderstood teenager.”

“I told you all you needed to know. I admitted this was Joseph’s idea,” Debbie said, now finally starting to show some degree of real concern. “I’ll tell the cops anything you want me to tell them, I swear.”

“Yeah, then you would gladly spend the rest of your life in prison for mass murder? Sorry, that does not add up to me.”

Spooky Gold now made a call on his cell phone, and asked to speak to “Aunt Ellen”. After a brief couple of minutes on the phone, during which he learned the status of some undetermined persons was “the same”, he told his auntie that he loved her, and then terminated the call. He returned his attention then to Spanky.

“That was my Auntie Ellen-a good woman-a good Christian woman. She was kinda upset at me over Rev George, until she heard the whole scoop. Me and her are cool, she don’t even worry none about me being the head Pulse. See, she knows she can count on me to make things right. Like with her little brother Huey, and her kid, Darnell. Yeah, that would be my uncle and my cousin. Come to think of it, though, you know them both-or you did. Darnell, well he’s dead, may he rest in peace. As for Huey, he be laid up in the hospital, fucked up for good, a vegetable for life. Wanna take a good guess why?”

Spanky just looked shocked, and then dropped her head, but her sudden terror was obvious.

“Look at me when I’m talkin’ to you, you little skank!”

Debbie Leighton bolted when he said this, and forced herself to meet his gaze, as he withdrew a hypodermic needle from his change belt.

“See, I think I is gonna send you two on a little trip. It damn sure ain’t gonna be no pleasure cruise either. See, when you own fighting dogs, you are in the position to experiment. Know what I got here? I wondered how you could inject embalming fluid in somebody’s veins in just enough combination with some other shit to really fuck somebody up without actually killing them.

“You know what this shit will do to you? Not only will you be a fucking vegetable for the rest of your life, you’ll be conscious, with no control over your bowel movements or your urine, just like poor Huey.

“Oh, but that’s not all of it, not by a long shot. You is gonna be in perpetual pain, going through frequent convulsions, conscious through all of it-and at the same time, you is gonna stay horny. Nothing would satisfy you. In fact, it will just get worse and worse. Course, I’m gonna show you a little mercy, Sierra. That is, somebody else might show you some mercy and give you a little dick here and there, not that it will do you much good. As for your little bitch friend here”-

Spooky Gold now produced a box cutter and opened the blade as he glared menacingly toward Debbie Leighton.

“By the time I’m through carving your skank ass up, nobody will be able to look at you without gagging, let alone giving you dick. I might send some hommies over to visit you once a year or so, just to torture you that much more with sex talk. Too bad you ain’t gonna see ‘em, ‘cos see, you ain’t gonna have no eyeballs to see with, or a tongue to talk with. As for that stinikin’ cunt, I got that covered too. If somebody does get weak and decide to show you a little mercy, it’s gonna feel like acid the minute somebody sticks a dick in it, or anything else. See, bitch, hell can be here on earth after all. So, if you got any last words, either of you, I advise you to say ‘em now, what few seconds you have left.”

Both of the girls were crying now, and begging, and Debbie for her part was screaming for help.

“Bitch there ain’t nobody that can help you now, and nobody that would want to if they could,” Spooky said as he advanced towards her, box cutter in hand.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise, the sound of a door crashing down, almost like an explosion, and gunshots fired, the sound emanating from upstairs.

“Holy shit, Spooky, it’s the fucking po-po. and there ain’t no way out of here.”

Spooky made his way toward the gangster on the floor.

“Quick, old man, if you want to live, where is the key to the back door?”

However, the old man just stared out into nothing.

“Fuck, he’s dead!” Spooky said, as he grabbed for his keys.

“Spooky we ain’t got time for that, they probably got the back covered anyway. We’re gonna have to fight our way out of this.”

Suddenly, Toby appeared at the door, and then turned desperately to lock it. He then ran hurriedly downstairs.

“The fucking cops, somebody called those motherfuckers, Spooky,” he shouted. “The fucking shits over. We gotta get out of here.”

“We ain’t got no way out of this,” another Pulse member said. “It’s either go down fighting or go down like punks. Which is it going to be guys?”

“We take as many of the pigs with us as we can, that’s what it’s gonna be,” Spooky answered. “They can only come down these steps one at a time. If we try to hide, they’ll be down here like a fucking herd of elk. We gots to face them straight up.”

As the four Pulse members made their way toward the stairs in readiness for the battle they knew they could not avoid, Sierra quickly lunged toward the old man, and went through his pockets. As the police upstairs banged upon the basement door, she found a set of keys, and one thing more-a postcard with a phone number, along with another set of numbers that Sierra figured must be to the offshore bank account. She ran around to the other side of the stacked cases of liquor and beer, hunkering down and feeling her way toward the door.

Debbie now joined her, and told her to hurry.

“We have to get the fuck out of here!” she told her.

“Shut up, Debbie, and stay the fuck out of my way!” Sierra warned her.

She tried first one key and then another, to no effect, trying to keep track of the ones she already tried, as she noted in frustration there had to be more than fifty keys on this one chain.

Suddenly, the basement door from upstairs flew open, and shots rang out, as Spooky God and his fellow gang members tried desperately to return fire, with the exception of Toby, who bolted and made for a refuge underneath the steps. One by one, they went down, until Spooky Gold stood alone.

“Drop the gun, Spooky. It’s over!” commanded the lone voice from the top of the stairs.

Gold dropped the gun, and raised his arms.

“Okay, I give up,” he shouted.

A gunshot then rang out from the one lone policeman at the top of the stairs. Spooky Gold dropped to his knees, and then crumpled forward dead, with a bullet through the heart.

“Sierra, it’s all right, it’s the police,” Debbie said. “We’re safe now”.

“All of you stay up there until I give you the all clear!” the policeman shouted as he walked down the steps.

Suddenly, Toby stepped out from under the steps.

Debbie made her way now out from behind the boxes, as Sierra continued desperately to search for the key to the exit door.

“God, what a mess,” the cop said as he surveyed the carnage. He checked the pulse of the old Russian mobster, dead from the blood loss of a wound to the gut.

“God, I’m glad you’re here,” Debbie said as she approached the lone cop.

“Who are you, young lady?” the cop asked.

“Debbie Leighton,” Spanky replied while pointing toward the now dead Spooky Gold. “He was blaming me for the pot that poisoned those kids, but it was his pot. He’s crazy.”

Shut up, you stupid bitch, Sierra thought to herself as she finally found the key to the exit door. She turned it as quietly as she could as Debbie was now explaining how the Pulse brought her there from her new group home, and how Spooky murdered the owner of The Crypt.

“That’s really too bad,” the cop said as he extracted the gun from the hand of the now dead Spooky Gold.

“Of course, he’s dead now, so we’ll never hear his side of the story,” he observed, as he then put a bullet squarely in the forehead of Debbie Leighton from the gun of the now deceased Spooky Gold.

Sierra almost screamed, but restrained her terror as she now ducked behind a stack of beer cases, one of which now leaked beer, courtesy of a stray bullet.

The cop looked around the front stack of beer and liquor, but saw nothing. He checked the door to see it was unlocked. Sierra tried her best not so much as to breathe. She could hear Toby Da Pimp walking and rapping to himself, and cautiously looked out to see the cop, stepping over the body of the deceased Gold as he approached Toby Da Pimp, apparently for now the lone survivor of the 17th Pulse.

“You guys let the other girl get away,” the cop said now to Toby. “She must have got Gus’s keys. That might not be so good. Really, Toby, I hate to say it, but you kind of fucked up. Of course, I can see where it would be hard to pull your end of the bargain, what with hiding under the steps and all.”

“Hey, I did the best I could under the circumstances,” Toby complained. “It was you who was late gettin’ here.”

Berry ignored Toby’s excuses as he placed Spooky Gold’s gun back in the hand of the dead Pulse leader. Then, he pointed his own gun at Toby.

“Hey, Berry, we had a deal, motherfucker,” Toby shouted desperately.

“Sure we did-we still do”, the cop replied. “In fact, you might say it’s as solid as lead.”

He then sent a bullet flying into the left thigh of the gang member Sierra realized was a police informant all along.

“Oh, fuck, you son-of-a-bitch, what the fuck are you doing?” Toby was obviously in pain as well as shock, and moaned as he cursed the officer, whom Sierra vaguely recognized. He and an older partner had once questioned her and her friends about the vandalism perpetrated by them at the Krovell Funeral Home.

For now, she merely hoped she could get out of this basement storage room with her life. She remained as quiet and motionless as possible, forcing herself to breathe no more than she absolutely had to. Her heart was pounding, and she had to remind herself there was no way anyone could hear it.

“Calm down,” Berry told the gang member. “Instead of Toby Da Pimp, you’ll just be Toby Da Gimp for a while. Besides, you’re going to need the street creds. It’ll look good on your resume if you ever decide to apply for City Manager of Baltimore.”

“Couldn’t you have shot me in the arm?” Toby was furious at the cop, but the cop just sneered at him.

“Yeah, that would look real good, huh? Every one of your gang members in this club shot dead, and you walk away with just a shot in the arm? Nobody’s going to buy that. In fact, we got to make it look real good. A shot in the gut should do the trick, since the ambulance is on the way. Well, it should be anyway. Don’t worry, I know just where to put the bullet, and from exactly what distance and angle. It’s the price of power, my friend. Wish me luck”

“Oh, shit, no, not in the gut, what if you fuck my stuff up? You already come close to”-

However, Berry put another bullet in the stomach of the treacherous gang member, who now howled in agony as a voice shouted from upstairs.

“Berry, what the fuck is going on down there? Are you all right?”

“Yep, I got’ em all. Get that ambulance here now. We got a survivor, Toby Da Pimp. Hurry it up. I want him alive for questioning. Spooky Gold is here, and he’s dead. So is the owner of this piece of shit club. Any casualties up there?”

The other cop was now halfway down the stairs, and another one was behind him.

“Yeah, the Pulse-they’re all dead, what ones are here. Only civilian casualty is a bouncer named Morris Mackey, killed before we got here. Everybody else is all right, just shook up. One kid took a jab to the kidneys from one of them, but he should be fine. Otherwise, everybody else is uninjured.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Berry replied. “Teenage girl was killed down here, right before we got here too. We just didn’t make it in time. But, you know what they say-you can’t win ‘em all. As soon as the ambulance gets here, we can go over everybody’s statements. Then we can bar the door and shut this dive down, hopefully for good. Otherwise, we can pull on out of here. No need in all these squads being holed up here any longer than they have to be.”

Soon, Sierra heard the sound of ambulance personnel arriving with their stretchers. They lifted Toby Da Pimp up onto one, still conscious, cursing, and moaning in pain. She thought now maybe she should present herself. Whatever Berry was involved in, he would not dare pull anything now, but she was not sure. She was too terrified to think calmly. Worse, he had locked the door back, and so she now had to find the key again. Soon, the EMT’s carried all the bodies out on stretchers, including Debbie Leighton’s. After what seemed to be an eternity, they seemed to have all gone. Still, as she waited, she extracted an undamaged bottle of gin and took a large gulp. She had to steady her nerves. She elt like her skin might pop open at any minute.

She also had the keys to Gus’s car, but feared that by the time she made it outside, the cops would impound it. She dreaded even trying to leave, and wanted to go upstairs, to the front door, but Berry gave instructions to barricade it. The metal door of the basement, with its bolt lock, would make that unnecessary-or so she hoped. She rummaged though the keys, separating the ones she thought might have been the right one based on her skimpy knowledge from before. Luckily, she found the right key with the fourth try, and cautiously opened the door. She stepped outside, and heard nothing. Still, she left the basement door open, but barely so. She then went on up the concrete steps.

Gus’s car was there, and so was Marty Evans. He sat hunched on a curb, talking to three other former Crypt patrons, all of them obviously trying to process the events of this past night. She got Marty’s attention, whereupon he made his way from the group toward her.

“What the fuck was all that about?” he demanded. “I thought you were dead for sure. They killed Debbie, did you know that?”

“Yes, and good fucking riddance,” she said. “Look, Marty, I need a favor. I need you to go with me to Larceny’s Adams’s place.”

“Not me, I ain’t going near that crazy bitch,” he said. “I ain’t got a ride anyway, mine’s in the shop.”

“I got Gus’s keys, we can take his car,” she explained. “You don’t have to go up with me, just drop me off there and wait outside. I’ll give you some pussy, alright? I need you to take me to Milo’s after that, and then home. Please, Marty, you know I give good head. What do you say?”

“Fine, I want a blowjob first, though,” he told her.

Sierra gave Marty the best blowjob she ever gave anybody in her life, but it was more out of desperation than any kind of pleasure. Marty was dirty and sweaty from the heat, and seemed as though he had been out partying non-stop for two whole days. She could not afford to worry about that now.

After she finished, he followed her directions to the loft apartment of Larceny Adams.

“I’m keeping my eyes open and the engine running,” he warned her. “The minute I see one person besides you, I’m bolting.”

She hurried into the apartment, and ran up the steps. She could hear the sounds of somebody screaming in terror, and the sounds of the table saw running. She checked the door, which seemed locked from the inside. She knocked repeatedly as she shouted for Sherry to answer. Desperately, she kicked it repeatedly, until the old door finally gave way. She peered inside.

She screamed at the top of her lungs at the sight of Sherry “Larceny” Adams, bound to the table. Her face was completely gone, dissolved into a hideous mass of melted flesh, as she made her way toward the spinning blade. She was, incredibly, still alive, up until the point where the blade entered between her legs, through her vagina, and continued up all the way through her abdomen. Her blood gushed out, a stream splattering on Sierra’s blouse and face, and for a second, she was transfixed in horror, but suddenly made her way to the exercise room.

Suddenly, a figure bolted out of the room. She screamed as the man ran into her, knocking her down. She screamed again, as the man garbled something unintelligible, and then made his way in seeming desperation toward the stairs. Sierra looked toward the exercise room, and then entered. She then saw a stream of blood oozing from under the panel that contained Rhino’s human punching bags. She pulled the lever in the wall, and watched in horror as the battered form of George “Rhino” Dodd projected into the main room. The chain went through his rectum and out of his mouth, and he hung there, his body and head beaten to a bloody pulp.

Incredibly, even though his brains oozed out of his crushed skull, he was alive, and even seemingly conscious.

“Rhino, who did this, baby?” she said, overcome with pity at the terrifying site of the fate of the man who was really little more than a child at heart.

“Marlowe,” he said weakly, and then breathed his last breath.

“Marlowe?” she repeated. “What do you mean, Rhino? Rhino?

She shook him, shouted at him, trying desperately to revive him, and then sobbed helplessly as she staggered out of the room, and back down the steps. By the time she made it back out into the street, she saw the police, no more than three blocks away, as the ambulances pulled up. She saw the police cordoning off that block, and she saw two of them kneeling by a completely naked, bloody and badly injured man. She saw Freddie in his leather coveralls. She looked desperately around for Marty, and finally saw him, two blocks from where he first parked in the opposite direction from the police. She nervously made her way toward him, trying to hurry, fearful he might well decide to leave without her. As she approached the car, she thought she saw the policeman named Berry, but could not be sure from that distance. She reached to open the door, but Marty had locked it. She pounded on the window and shouted his name.

When he saw it was Sierra, he unlocked the door, and she quickly climbed inside.

“What in the hell is going on down there?”

“Just get out of here, Marty, please!” she said, unable to disguise her fear. She had forgotten all about the blood.

“What the fuck happened to you?” he demanded, obviously concerned. “Where did all that fucking blood come from? It’s all over you.”

“Marty-just fucking leave, please, and I’ll tell you, please,” she said, by now losing her composure completely. “It’s not mine, all right, I’m fine. It’s Larceny’s. She’s dead. Somebody murdered her and Rhino too. Please, get the fuck out of here, now.”

As he drove, in the opposite direction from where the police even now made their way toward the apartment of the late Sherry “Larceny” Adams, she told him the horrific details. She was shaking and seemed to be on the urge of a nervous breakdown. Finally, she started wailing, loudly. Marty said nothing. He just drove, as he considered all the gory details of what he heard.

“We better go to Milo’s place,” he said. “Hopefully, we’re not too late. We’ve got to get him out of his apartment before he gets him too.”

“Before who gets him?” Sierra said.

“Marlowe Krovell,” he answered. “The fucker is alive. He has to be”

“Bullshit!” she shouted. “This was the Pulse, it had to be. They were going to kill me, and they did kill Spanky. They’re after all of us.”

“The Pulse are either dead or in jail,” Marty assured her. “I’ve been hearing all about it on the radio while I was waiting for you. Besides, they wouldn’t go to the extent you said they went through with Larceny and Rhino.”

“For God’s sake, Marty, they were going to inject us with embalming fluid with other shit mixed with it. The cops busted that up just in time, but”-

“Yeah, but that’s because of what Debbie and Joseph did to those kids, especially to two of Spooky Gold’s relatives, and then laying it off on them,.” Marty said. “That’s their idea of justice, but that other shit just ain’t their style. Believe me-I have no reason to defend them.”

“Rhino said Marlowe’s name right before he died, but”-

“Uh huh, see? That fucking settles it. Here’s Milo’s crib, come on, I’ll go in here with you.”

“Marty, if it is the Pulse and they’re here”-

“Shit, it ain’t the Pulse,” he insisted. “I’m telling you, what Pulse members weren’t killed in that bust at the Crypt tonight was rounded up earlier today. Not only are all seventeen of the charter members either dead or in jail, but thirty-one lesser members have been taken in. They’ve even rounding up all the newbies, and they wouldn’t be involved in something that heavy anyway. Plus, they been watching them for months now. People are already saying the bust at The Crypt looks like a set-up.”

“It was, Toby Da Pimp was involved, with some cop named Berry,” she said. “I heard it all go down. But shit, Marty, Marlowe”-

“Toby Da Pimp?”

Marty was more stunned at this revelation than he was at her account of the horrific deaths of Larceny and Rhino, and he wanted to know who in the hell was “Berry”.

“For God’s sake, Marty, it’s not important,” she said. “I just want to get the fuck out of here. If you’re going in with me, let’s go.”

They left the car, and proceeded to the apartment of Milo Richmond. They heard no sign of life or any kind of activity from the door. Marty knocked loudly, and asked if he was there, and if he was all right. Sierra nervously shouted as well, telling Milo to let them in. She added that both Larceny and Rhino were dead.

“Are you going to tell him about Spanky?” Marty asked.

“Milo, please open the door,” she said, ignoring Marty for the moment, as she started to fear for the worse. She finally looked inside her purse, and extracted a set of keys. Finding the one key to Milo’s apartment, which she still had from the days she lived with him, she inserted it into the lock, and opened the door. Nothing but a nightlight and the streetlights from outside provided scant illumination inside the darkened, musty room.

“My God, this place is a mess!” Marty said. “Does he ever clean this fucking place up? There’s books and papers all over the damn floor.”

“Yeah, he wants to make sure people knows he can read, I guess,” Sierra said. “Milo, where the fuck are you?”

“Sierra, Marty, is that you?” a voice responded. “Damn, I was laying here zoned out. What’s the deal?”

“We wanted to make sure you’re all right,” Sierra said, her voice quivering with anxiety but also relief. After all, she did still care somewhat for her bonehead ex-boyfriend.

“Why wouldn’t I be all right? What was that I heard you saying about Rhino and Larceny? Are they really dead?”

“Sierra, something’s not right here,” Marty whispered. “He doesn’t sound like Milo. His voice sounds like him, but”-

“Sierra, I’ve been thinking. I really do love you. I know I never told you that, but it is true. I would give anything if you would take me back.”

“Milo, are you sure you’re all right?” Sierra asked nervously as Marty fumbled for the light switch.

When he finally found it, he flipped on the switch, only to hear Sierra gasp, and then scream in horror. He turned to her, and then to the body of Milo Richmond, stretched out on his recliner, a gaping wound in his stomach and abdomen from which his blood pooled and all his internal organs protruded as he stared outward in what seemed to be his last conscious memory of horrific pain and terror.

“Come on, Sierra,” the voice said, actually seeming to emanate from Milo’s corpse. “I’m spilling my guts here.”

Sierra was now crying frantically as Marty just stared, his eyes transfixed on the horrific scene. Finally, Sierra tugged at him, trying to pull the incredulous Marty Evans back to reality, but he seemed incapable of speaking or responding to her in any way. He just stared, and shook, until they both heard the sound of what seemed to be the flapping of bird’s wings. It was loud at first, and seemed to be coming toward the open window, but it faded within a few seconds, and finally stopped.

Marty now responded somewhat to Sierra’s desperate attempts to engage his attention. He turned, looked at her, walked out the door, into the yard, fell to his knees, doubled over and vomited. By the time he finished, he too was crying, loudly.

“Marty, come on, we have to go, it’s not safe here,” Sierra urged him.

They finally returned to the car, and somehow Marty managed to keep his composure enough to drive away as calmly as possible.

“You’d better not go back to Joseph’s tonight,” he said. “You’d better stay with me.”

“No!” Sierra replied. “You can fuck me, but then I want you to take me to Joseph’s. I have to go there. I have to”-

“You think I just want to fuck you? What do you think would make me want to have sex after seeing that?”

“No, I want you to”, Sierra insisted. “Please, Marty, I’m serious. You don’t know what I’ve been through tonight. I really need it. Please.”

“No! After what I just saw I don’t think my dick will be getting hard for a long time to come,” Marty said in an angry tone of voice. “I don’t give a fuck about Larceny or Rhino-good riddance. I ain’t all that concerned about Joseph either, for that matter. But Milo and Spanky were friends of mine. How can you even think about sex?”

“Milo used to say he was going to take me on a trip to Europe, or Hawaii, sometimes the Bahamas, before we split up,” Sierra said, though it was as if Marty was no longer there. “He still used to say stuff like that, even after”-

Suddenly, she started laughing insanely, manically, all the time staring straight ahead. Marty found it difficult to keep his eyes on the road as he made it finally to Joseph’s apartment.

“Look, I can’t take anymore of that,” he said. “If you decide to get out of here, for whatever reason, you got my cell number.”

“You never told me,” she replied as the tears continued streaming down her face, though she no longer laughed. “What makes you think Marlowe Krovell did all this?”

“Because a few weeks after Raven died, I went to see him, just to see how he was holding up,” he explained. “We both got real good and fucked up, and he went into this long list of things he was going to do to all of you. He was still not over Raven, and wanted back at all of you. He had specific plans for you, all of you, even Larceny Adams, even though she was nowhere around when Raven was alive. He just hated her because she was part of your group. Everything that happened tonight-to Larceny, to Rhino, and to Milo-was exactly what he said he was going to do.

“The only thing that happened tonight he never mentioned so far as I can remember was the little ventriloquist number he did with Milo. I’m worried now he’s after me as well. I know he’s alive, and he has to be crazy as a loon to actually do that stuff.”

“What-was he going to do with me?”

“I don’t remember for sure, ‘cos like I said, we were both wasted,” he replied. “I just remembered it after what I saw tonight, but it’s otherwise still a jumble. I didn’t really take him seriously at the time. In fact, I laughed. We both laughed. I thought he was just blowing off steam. I do remember something though about you and Joseph meeting in a group home, but that’s all.”

“Yeah, Raven must have told him that,” Sierra said. It was true. She, Raven, and Joseph all met in the same Catholic group home. She and Raven were Catholic, in fact, though Joseph just ended up there through the auspices of another agency. Within less than two weeks, he talked the both of them into running away with him, first talking them both into seducing the manager of the home. They eagerly and easily did it, after Joseph explained he would be unlikely to report them after they ran off. When they left, Milo was waiting to pick them up, and afterwards they met Rhino and Spiral, who at that time was Joseph’s bitch. They had been together for all of seven years since that night.

Still, what did all that have to do with Marlowe’s plans for her, and Joseph? She decided she had no choice but to go inside. Regardless of her uncertainties about Joseph and their current relationship, he did not deserve to suffer the grizzly fate of their friends. In the meantime, since all of the others were now dead, Joseph needed her more than ever. Maybe things would be better.

She merely hoped that she could reason with Marlowe. After all, she had left him warning through his uncle Brad about the disgusting things they had done to the food at Marlowe’s place while everyone was away. Surely, that counted for something.

“Sierra, just be careful, all right?”

Sierra assured Marty she would be fine, and then went to the door. The door was unlocked, and she walked inside. There was Joseph, sitting on his recliner, staring out into space. His eyes looked blank, almost expressionless, as she began crying. She turned, and heard a voice ask her what was wrong.

She turned to see Joseph had not moved.

“Joseph, is that you?”

Finally, he moved, and looked up at her.

“They’re all dead. Milo, Rhino, Sherry, all of them. Spanky too, I heard about it on the news, shot dead at the Crypt.”

He now got up and went toward Sierra cautiously.

“Krovell was here,” he said, as though trying to process the information he saw with his own two eyes. “He killed Milo, and Sherry, and Rhino. He bragged about it, and said you and me would be next. He said he just wanted me to know that, and wanted me to sweat it for a few days before it happened. He said what happened to the others would look like child’s play compared to what he was going to do to me.

“I-I shot him and he just stood there and laughed at me.”

Sierra was crying again, and lit into Joseph.

“This is your damn fault, Joseph!” she shouted. “Why did you kill Raven anyway? That is what this is all over. Do you see now what the fuck you caused?”

“No,” he said calmly. “He killed her. He told me that tonight. I thought she really died of a drug overdose. We all thought that. He told me tonight that he killed her because-because she broke up with him and went back to us.”

“That-motherfucker,” she said, now collapsing on the floor beside him.

“Joseph, we got to leave. I got the numbers from Gus. You can call and verify the account, and transfer it, and then we can get the hell out of here. We have to go some place where nobody can find us-not the Baltimore police, the Russian mob, the Pulse, or Marlowe. We have to get out of here tonight.”

Joseph just stared out the window. She had never seen him in such a solemn mood.

“I saw the fucking bullets hit him, all four of them. One of them hit him in the arm, one in the leg, one in the chest, and one right in his forehead. I saw the impact. He just bled a little, jerked some, and then kept walking toward me-laughing. I never saw anything like it in my life.”

“Joseph, please, call the number here and verify the fucking account and transfer it, and let’s get the fuck out of here,” Sierra pleaded, her terror growing more by the second. She was visibly shaking and her arm was jerking as she handed him the recipe card onto which Gus had scribbled all the information. Joseph took it and stared at it for a few minutes, and then finally made the phone call as Sierra made her way to the bathroom.

She threw up as she listened to Joseph make the transaction, and finally made her way to the refrigerator, where she extracted a gallon of tea. She drank down two glasses of it, as if she had consumed no liquids in close to a week.

“Okay, let’s go now,” he almost whispered, the usual commanding tone in his voice a shadow of it’s former self. The van was completely loaded with both of their possessions, what ones they decided to take with them. They got inside, with Joseph at the wheel.

“I’ll never forget the look on his face, or the last thing he said to me before he left,” he said.

“Joseph, really, I don’t want to talk anymore about it,” Sierra replied, already by now well past the end of her rope.

“He said I wasn’t really important to him,” he said. “He could care less personally whether I lived or died, or how I died, but as he put it, Marlowe’s memories wouldn’t let him see any peace until he took care of all of us. After all, he said, it is Marlowe’s brain. That is what he said. Marlowe’s brain will not let him see any peace.”

Sierra tried to process that information as Joseph drove on, soon ending up somewhere far out from the outskirts of Baltimore County, then making their way toward a long, narrow, winding country road that eventually took them somewhere into West Virginia..

“Where is this place?” Sierra demanded as Joseph pulled off to the side of the road, after about a three-hour drive. He did not answer, just got out of the van and walked down a slope. She removed herself from the van and followed his path, until she saw him hunkered down beside what looked like a small river. It was not until she got within about ten feet from him that she saw the body of the middle-aged woman.

“Who is that?” she asked him.

“My attorney-our attorney actually,” he replied. “Luckily, she has no family to speak of. We’re gonna be staying in her place for a few days. I was lying. She got everything settled early yesterday. I just wanted to make sure the money was all set before I said anything. I was afraid everybody would want to bolt too quickly.

“It’s really too bad. She was a good lawyer. She did a real good job, but we don’t need her anymore. We do need her place, though.”

“I thought-we were going away,” Sierra said hopelessly.

“Oh, we are,” he assured her. “We just have one more thing to take care of first. You know, Krovell doesn’t really seem to know who he is now-let alone what he is. Well, I do know, and I know there’s a way to deal with him. If we leave without doing it, we will just have to do it later, or let him play his little cat and mouse game until he decides to pounce. I ain’t made that way.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. He made a big mistake not killing me tonight. The next time I see him, I’ll be ready for him, I promise you that. I owe it to the rest of them.”

“What about her? You sure she won’t be found here?” Sierra said, looking back one more time toward the ravine. “We could bury her somewhere around here, it shouldn’t take that long.”

“Too risky being here that long,” Joseph said, “especially around a murder victim. The river will take care of her”

They then heard the shrill sound of a bird somewhere nearby, and Joseph looked up to see the arrival of what looked to be a large black vulture, circling over them, and finally perching on top of a rock on the bank across the river.

“If not, that vulture will.”

Joseph laid the body of the deceased attorney just into the edge of the river. He seemed almost gentle, even respectful, as he pushed her on in. He then stood up, and regarded the waves as they lapped around the body, but only for a minute. He then stood and walked toward the van. Sierra looked at the body, and then over toward the vulture, which seemed to watch her in a bizarre pose of mocking curiosity. She then got up and followed Joseph.

They got in the van and left, as the vulture watched them with baleful eyes.