by Martha Woods
The walk to town was getting shorter every time he made it it seemed, not even having to shift himself into a bear to weather the frigid temperatures and the at times hazardous terrain, snow turning to slush and his feet sinking into deep mud more than once, but he was content enough in the moment of enjoying his walk that he brushed those little inconveniences to the side like they were little more than just mere trifles that weren’t even worth his time at all. There were worse ways that his day could go after all, and four of those ways had just been carted out of the forest as a warning to the others. He figured that he’d earned a small moment of relaxation, no matter how fleeting it may turn out to be.
When his feet hit solid concrete as opposed to hard ice, he could feel the small tension in his spine starting to unwind, hoping at least that whoever may be watching him was smart enough to know not to attack him in an occupied town, no matter how thirsty they may be for revenge surely they could be a little bit more discreet than conducting mid day raids in front of the townspeople? They were likely to get a face full of buckshot if they tried something that foolish.
“Who am I kidding?” He asked himself, “If they’re anything like I am they’re probably aiming to do it even more now. No point in worrying about that though, I’ve got other things that I could be thinking of right now.”
“Oh yeah?” A familiar, grating voice called from behind him, “Like what?”
Shane clamped his eyes shut, forcing a breath through his lungs before he unclenched his fist and turned around, coming face to face with Matt and four more of his flunkies, none of which he knew from the logging company, and none of which looked like they were the usual non-criminal element of the town. He didn’t want to judge without knowing the full story, but with the obvious gang tattoos and the scars along their arms, it was clear that they weren’t exactly flipping burgers every day.
“Matt,” He said, nodding his head at the group in front of him, “You got your boy band back together, that’s wonderful. Are you performing in town or is this just a casual get together kind of thing, working on a new EP and all that?”
“That’s very funny,” Matt said, stepping forward and cradling his still injured arm in his other hand, “You know when you broke my arm the other day, I was really upset for a while, I was thinking how you could do that, what kind of freak you gotta be to do that, it was pretty embarrassing.”
“I bet.”
“But then I got to thinking, maybe it’s not you that was the problem. Now I’m thinkin’ back, and I was being a bit too confident when I didn’t even know what you could do! Bringing two of my guys around, those guys don’t know how to fight, they’re just good for standing around and looking tough, no way are they good enough backup for someone like me!”
“I’m glad that you’re at least aware that you need help, and that you can’t take someone in a fair fight.”
“But see that’s the thing isn’t it? I didn’t know what a fair fight was going to be, so I just assumed that I’d have enough to win! And you won that fight, I’m not that proud, I’ve gotta admit that.” Matt snapped his fingers, grinning as the four flunkies stepped to his side and held their hands at their sides, each of them holding a pipe, a knife, or some other strange or frightening weapon in their hands. “Now I know what you can do, so I’m not taking any chances, you hear? I’m gonna make you pay for embarrassing me in front of everyone, and you won’t have Todd stepping in to help you this time neither!”
Shane sighed, pinching his nose between his fingers and leaning himself against the wall. “Matt… just go home, alright? I told you to just give the arm a rest, and to give the rest of this up, you can’t keep doing this and thinking that it’ll all be ok.”
“Pffft,” One of the cronies said, bouncing his pipe off his leg, “See the way that he was staring at that bartender the other night? Probably too tired from trying to hit that, I can’t blame him, I’d do the sa-”
Before he could finish another word he felt a pressure on the back of his head and saw the brick wall of the alleyway rushing towards him, before his forehead impacted with enough force to knock him out completely and split the skin open with a dramatic smashing of blood. The brick wall was at least still intact, though if you looked closely you would be able to see that one of the old bricks had noticeably shifted inwards, a remnant of an impact that would stay there for decades to come. For his part Shane was surprised at the sting in the palm of his hand and the fact that he’d moved forward ten feet from where he’d been standing, realizing belatedly that he’d dashed forward and smashed the unlucky crony into next year, his body lying motionless at his feet aside from the occasional gasp of air.
“Oh… shit…” Knife said, shifting his weapon nervously in his hand as he looked between the body on the ground and the person who had put it there in the first place, weighing up the options of running away and keeping his skull intact or rushing in and hoping that he could get lucky with wherever he could sink his knife in. The options, to him at least, were equally as bad, being that he didn’t want to be known as a coward, and he also wasn’t too keen on being left as a smear on some shitty alleyway in what even they could recognize as a complete backwater town.
“Gonna be honest, didn’t mean to do that,” Shane said, shrugging his shoulders and looking at the rest of them, “But if you don’t turn around and leave now, that exact thing is going to happen to you, and I bet it won’t be as clean when that happens, do you?”
“You… fuckin’ asshole!” Knife made up his mind, sprinting forward and thrusting his knife out, hoping that he could at least sink it into the space below his ribs. When Shane grabbed around his wrist and twisted the knife out of the way, painfully tweaking his arm in the process, he dropped the knife quickly and let himself go with the momentum of the twist. Fortunate, given that it resulted in him being spun around and tossed carelessly into a nearby dumpster to collapse with a loud clang.
The other two cronies rushed forward, one with a bat and the other with a set of brass knuckles, before Shane dashed out of the way faster than they could blink, thumping one of them in the side of the head with his fist and sending them rocketing into the other, heads cracking together and the two of them slamming against the wall of the alleyway to rest in a heap. Shane exhaled heavily, shaking his fist out and rolling his eyes, glaring over at Matt with a look that could have stripped tar from the roads.
“Are you done?” He asked, taking a step forward and holding his arms out to the sides, “We really can’t keep doing this, you have no idea just how annoying it is to me. Or maybe you do and that’s why you keep doing this, either way you really need to cut it out.”
“I need to cut it out? I… you… you fuck!” Matt reached around to his back, pulling a pistol out of his waistband and cocking the hammer, holding it level with Shane’s head even if he had to aim slightly upwards, finger twitching on the trigger as he stared at him in wide-eyed rage. “What am I just a joke to you! Huh? Some big fucking hilarious joke that you keep making fun of?”
“What are you doing with that gun Matt?” He said, stepping forward steadily and never wavering, “You know what those do right? You really prepared to do that?”
“Am I prepared for that? What am I a fuckin’ kid?” Matt stepped forward, holding it so closely to Shane’s face that he could see the twist in the inside of the barrel. “Now you… you get on your knees, and you apologize alright? You do that, we’re square. You need to know that this not how you treat me in this town, I’m not some fuckin’ loser that you can kick around whenever you want, I’m the king here.”
“You’re the king huh?” Shane hummed, clicking his tongue and looking off to the side, completely unimpressed before he leaned in, pressing his forehead against the barrel of the pistol with enough force to leave a mark on his skin, “You’re the big dog? You don’t let anyone disrespect you? Then you go on and you put a bullet in my head right now, pull that trigger and watch me fall dead, see if that makes y
ou a big man and not a tiny, pathetic scrap of shit, see if I really care.”
“Are you… fucking nuts?” Matt asked, “Just get down on the ground and say you’re fuckin’ sorry! It’s not fuckin’ hard!”
“No, you get on the fucking ground, how about that?” Eyes flashing with anger, Shane bared his teeth before he reached up and slapped the gun out of Matt’s hand, busting it completely in two even before it hit the wall, shoving him back with his other hand and sending him crashing down to the ground. “I’m so fucking sick of you people thinking that you can just dick me around for no reason, I’m not taking it anymore, I’m not going to let you just walk around like your shit doesn’t stink, this is my time, do you understand?”
Still staring at his broken gun in disbelief, Matt just nodded his head wordlessly and watched as Shane took a step away, looking around one last time at the state of everyone in the alleyway and shaking his head to himself. “Get a fucking life Matt,” He said, “This isn’t fucking high school, you’re not a kid. There’s no big dog, there never was, and people aren’t afraid of you anymore, so you’d better get real good at finding some way to get in everyone’s good books. Otherwise you might find yourself on the other end of that gun.”
He could do nothing as Shane walked out of the alleyway, just letting himself fall back against the freezing concrete and let his heart stop racing, long as it took for his body to approach something resembling normal after everything. Staring over at his cronies, then at the broken gun at his side, Matt knew that he had a decision to make, and it was one that would define who he would stay, or who he would become in the future, however long that may be.
Unfortunately, Matt just wasn’t one to really question his nature, he figured that if something had been there was no reason for it to turn into something else. And it was with those thoughts that he rolled over onto his front and pushed himself up onto his feet, collecting the broken gun and leaving his friends behind to clean themselves up after a solid thrashing, marching away to plan what he was going to do to get his revenge. Part of him knew the offer that he’d been given, just how truly generous it was to be given to an enemy like it had.
And the other part of him, well, that was just far too eager to spit all over it.
Chapter 8
“He did what?”
Leo stammered out his reply, running his hand through his hair and hoping that he could at least speak clearly enough not to be the one that anyone got upset with. “H-He told me to just… grab the three of them and drag them back here, let you know what was going to happen to anyone who tried to come after him after everything that he’s gone through. I think he’s serious about this, the four of us… we didn’t even hear him. He was like a ghost!”
“He wasn’t like a ghost, you just didn’t know what to expect when we sent you out there,” The leader sighed, leaning back in his seat and placing his head in his hand, “Well, we’ve got to go kill him, that’s not something that we can deny, it’s a necessary part of what’s going to be coming as we move forward. I don’t like it, you don’t have to like it, and he can fight as much as he wants, but it’s something that’s going to happen regardless of how we feel about it.”
“Graham, if I may?” The wolf leader, Kenneth, leaned in and whispered something in his ear, Graham’s face shifting from one of disappointment to one of interest, leaning back to look up at his momentary partner in this operation.
“That’s definitely an ambitious little plan,” He said, “What makes you think that it would work?”
“It’s almost impossible to be a true loner for very long, we’re intensely social creatures, we need to seek out connections wherever we go or we risk not being able to go on living properly. If he’s truly spent a significant amount of time in this town then I would bet my life that he’s made at least one connection with one of the locals, and that is where the rest of us need to act.”
“I’m not sure I like it, but you’re definitely right when you say it could be a good option…” Graham leaned on his elbow, pressing his fingers together in thought. “I’ll send some of my people to look around the town, gather what they can, but I’m not certain any of them will be able to go for a snatch job. It’s been hard enough to get them to agree to kill Shane in the first place, involving someone innocent is… that's a line that I’m not sure they’ll be able to cross.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Kenneth said, nodding his head in agreement, “I’ll have my people ready to go, they should have no problem with grabbing whoever this unlucky person may be, and I promise that they will be released unharmed.”
“You promise that? Really?”
“Well, assuming that they cooperate, of course, but I’m not going to pretend that I can fully control such things. There’s always a little wiggle room in how these things work out, but if all comes together perfectly then there should be no need to worry.” He smiled, stepping away to talk to his men. “I’ll keep you informed, you do the same.”
“You got it,” Graham said, realizing that Leo was still standing there and staring at him, equal parts uncertain and disapproving of the plan that was taking shape right in front of him, “Don’t give me that look kid, this is how war is, sometimes you’ve got to do bad things to win.”
“And you don’t worry that you’ll end up just as bad? I mean… when I think about it, he really hasn’t been doing anything bad to anyone at all, he’s just been trying to mind his own business and he wasn’t even involved in what happened back in the forest. Me and the other guys were trespassing on his property, I still don’t know that much about how everything works out here, but I’m pretty sure that means that he could have probably killed us and been totally right to do it…”
“Look, it doesn’t matter if he was there, everyone else needs to have a message confirmed that there’s not going to be any tolerance for traitors, and the best way that we can do that is show that not only are the traitors going to get taken care of, so are their families too.” Graham shuddered. “I don’t have to tell you that Orson’s family would probably come right back and tear through us when they found out he was dead, this is just taking care of that little problem before they can find each other and form a plan first. Once we do that it should be much easier to find him and take care of the root of the problem.”
“I don’t know,” Leo said, shaking his head and walking out towards the door, “I just… I don’t know. Just isn’t right.”
“No, it’s not, but we’re adults! So we just get over it and do our jobs!” Graham rolled his eyes. “Fuck me, I know you’re just a kid but grow up already, if this is something that you want to do then you’ll have to get used to this shit real quick. In fact, I want you to be on the team that goes and gets him, you can see for yourself how the big kids go out and do it, sound good? Now hurry up and get out of here, you have a few hours of rest before you leave with the rest of them, I suggest you get some sleep.”
“Y-Yes sir…” Leo said, bowing his head and changing direction towards the makeshift barracks that had been set up in one of the nearby tents. It wasn’t pretty, wasn’t even warm, but it would all do for what they needed it for. Laying his head down on one of the uncomfortable beds and shutting his eyes, sleep did not come very easily, and when it finally did it was soon to be interrupted by a fitful nightmare or an overzealous teammate.
But for a few hours, as brief as they may have been, Leo could finally let himself relax into a hard mattress and catch himself up on what had been some much needed sleep.
He could tell, even without knowing fully, that he was going to need it.
“Hey ma- oh, the hell happened to you?”
“Nice to see you too Todd,” Shane said, waving at the bar as he walked in through the heavy doors, “Been a while since I walked in here, forgot how warm it was after all that cold!”
“You’re covered in snow, it looks like there’s ice in your beard, did you fuckin’ walk here?” Todd stood, leaning in closely an
d picking out a chunk of ice that took a few short hairs with it. “That is ice, the hell is wrong with you?”
“I wanted to take a walk! Nothing wrong with that!”
“Sure, yeah whatever you say,” Todd said, rolling his eyes, “Just get the hell over here so that you can warm up properly alright?”
Taking a seat at the bar, Shane shrugged out of his coat, now nearly stiff with the cold, before he leaned his elbows on the hardwood and leaned forward with a groan. “I ran into Matt and his friends before I came here,” He said, “Was really hoping not to do that today.”
Todd placed his glass down on the counter, looking around to make sure that no one was listening in before he whispered, “What happened? Did he try something again?”
“He tried to get four of his friends to rearrange my skull, it didn’t work too well. Left them in an alleyway about twenty minutes from here, no big deal.” Shane picked up the glass that Holly slid to him as she walked in, leaning his head back and swallowing a generous mouthful of the liquor. “Oh, and he also tried to shoot me but I broke his gun, so that’s a thing that happened.”
“He tried to fucki-” Todd lowered his voice, seeing Holly walk over in concern at what she’d heard as well. “He tried to fucking shoot you? Are you kidding me, in public?”
“He wants me to apologize, get on my knees and beg for forgiveness for disrespecting the big dog of the town. Far as I’m concerned he can go and fuck himself, I’ll let him think things over and if he still doesn’t get it then I’ll end it, one way or another.”
“Shane, he could kill you.”
“No,” He replied, draining the rest of his drink and tapping the counter, “He really can’t. He’s just too stupid to realize that.”