Rangers of the Dark

by Michelle Hart

  “Who did the job, Paulie?” I asked, cocking my arm back. “Who stole the drug shipment from the O'Malley brothers?”

  “Fuck you, Roman.” Paulie spat out a bucketful of blood onto the concrete floor. His left eye was so swollen that he could barely see out of it. Why couldn't this job just be easy for once?

  “Wrong answer, Paulie.” I pummeled him with punches, his head knocking back and forth. “I'll ask you one more time.” I knelt down until we were face to face. Sweat beaded on Paulie's brow. I pulled out a switchblade and watched Paulie's eye light up as the shiny blade sprung out.

  “Come on, Roman,” Paulie pleaded. “We've been buddies for a long time. Hell, remember when your mother would bake those apple pies for the neighborhood picnics. I could almost taste 'em right now.”

  My mom's pies really were the best. The annual neighborhood picnic was the best time of the year when I was a kid. But now it was only a memory. I had no empathy for this piece of shit. “Just because we grew up in the same neighborhood doesn't make us buddies, Paulie. Now tell me who stole the drugs and I won't cut out your eye.”

  Snot bubbles grew out of his nose as he breathed in and out. “Oh God. Oh God. I don't know, Roman. I swear it!”

  “Wrong answer.” I grabbed the back of Paulie's hair and craned his neck back. I put my knife just below his eye, the blade cutting into his cheek and drawing blood. This job could get pretty gruesome at times. But I was damn good at it.

  “No! No!” Paulie screamed. “I'll tell you what I know.” He knew I wasn't bluffing about cutting out his eye. I had done it to a guy in the neighborhood before.

  I lifted the blade from his cheek but kept it close. “I'm all ears, Paulie.”

  Paulie took a deep breath and wiped his runny nose. “I know it was a dealer but I don't know his name. Heard some junkie slut talking about him and his big score.”

  I put my knife right back to his eye. “You better be fucking telling me the whole truth.”

  Paulie cowered in fear. He was so pathetic. “I swear it!”

  “Who's this junkie whore?” I asked, digging the knife into his cheek. It might be faster if I just cut his eye and got it over with. Paulie would tell me every secret he's ever kept. But then who would be the rat the next time around?

  Paulie winced from the pain. “Some addict that lives on the twentieth floor in the abandoned building on Luther Ave.”

  “What's her name?”

  Paulie shut his right eye while his swollen one remained closed. “Uh....Emma. Yes! Emma was her name. Pretty sad story if you ask me. She was probably the hottest piece of ass before the drugs.”

  I released Paulie's hair from my grip and carefully put my switchblade back in my pocket. “See, that wasn't too bad. Now, I hope you're telling the truth because I'd hate to have to come back here and carve you up.”

  “I wouldn't tell you a lie, Roman.” Paulie slumped over with tears in his eyes. Next time he'd be more forthcoming.

  I left the rat and hopped into my black Dodge Charger sitting outside. I put the key in the ignition and my baby roared to life—the one sound that made me feel at peace. I gripped the steering wheel and my bloody knuckles were all torn apart. I would need to put some bandages on later. Especially if the bosses made me do another job.

  I worked for the O'Malley brothers as an enforcer doing the dirty work that nobody else wanted to deal with. I was good with my fists and never dreamed of doing anything else. The money was good and the hours even better. I'd rather go to jail than rot in a nine-to-five job.

  I parked outside the O'Malley's Pub and locked the car. The sun was barely overhead but I needed a drink after that meeting with Paulie. I looked around at my surroundings, scanning the crowds for any danger. My job could be pretty hazardous and the O'Malley's Pub had seen its fair share of drive-by shootings. When the coast was clear, I entered the bar.

  Harry was behind the bar, cleaning glasses with a white rag. His handle-bar mustache made him look like a bartender from those old western movies. “Give me the usual, Harry.” I sat down at the bar as Harry put a bottle of Jack Daniels in front of me. The alcohol burned nicely on the way down. It was already taking the edge off.

  “How's my favorite motherfucker doing?” a loud Irish accent asked.

  I turned my head to the side to see the younger O'Malley brother, Liam. He was already bald but it didn't phase him. He would have shaved his head anyways. Five gold rings sat on each finger of his right hand. You never wanted to take a right hook to the face from Liam unless you wanted imprints of all five rings in your flesh.

  “I'm one step closer to finding the guy who stole the drug shipment.” I took a swig from the bottle and let it slowly drain down my throat.

  Liam slapped me on the back and took a seat next to me. “What did our little rat cough up this time?”

  “Paulie didn't have a name for me but knows a drug addict who was talking about the heist.”

  Harry put an empty glass in front of Liam and filled it with whiskey. Liam downed it all in one gulp. “You do whatever it takes, Roman. I want my drugs back and I wanted this mess cleanly thrown away.”

  “Don't worry about it, boss. I got it under control.” I was confident I'd have this all cleaned up by tomorrow.

  Liam held my face in his palms and kissed me on the mouth. Some sort of Irish thing but I'd gotten used to it. “Don't let us down,” he told me. Liam left and the stench of cigarettes still lingered in the air.

  Liam was the entire reason I was in this business to begin with. After my mom passed away, my father didn't want the burden of raising me so he sent me off to a boarding school when I was ten. I was a scrawny kid with no meat on the bones. The other kids used to call me noodle boy and beat the shit out of me. I used to walk around the halls with black eyes and bruises. The headmaster never even gave me a second look.

  That all changed when I met Liam and his brother Connor. For some reason they took me under their wing and taught me how to stand up for myself. They probably felt sorry for me. I learned how to not only throw a punch but how to take one. Soon enough the O'Malley brothers and I were running the boarding house. A boy couldn't even go to the bathroom without our permission.

  Those were the best times. When we felt like kings of the world. Like nothing could stop us. Then we were put out in the real world and had to fend for ourselves. We had to beg, borrow, and steal but the O'Malleys finally built themselves an empire with me at their side. But the bigger the empire grew, the more problems we had to deal with. More people wanted a piece of our pie and it took all we had to protect it.

  This latest with the drug shipment stolen was just another in a string of thefts. If what Paulie said was true, then the O'Malleys were taken by a common drug dealer. If word got out, every Dick and Jane would try to steal from us. I had to finish this.

  I took one more drag on the whiskey bottle and filled up my flask. I had a long day ahead of me and only booze would get me through it. I winked at Harry and left him a tip.

  –

  The building on Luther Ave had been abandoned for some time. All the windows had been broken or shot out. Vines were creeping up the sides, making it more like an urban jungle. It used to be the shining center of what was supposed to be the new business district in the city. But the group ran out of money and the building and the district were never finished.

  I entered the tower through the opening at the bottom where two large doors used to be. Bums littered the giant lobby that would have been magnificent if it was ever completed. I carefully stepped over each one until I got to the elevators. I pressed the button and cursed aloud when I realized that the elevators weren't operational. I opened the door to the stairway and started my way up.

  Twenty flights of stairs later and my legs and feet were burning in hot lava. Sweat poured down my face and dripped onto the floor. Drinking all that whiskey was probably a poor choice. This chick better know some info.

  I walked into the hallway and
peeked my head in the open doors. The place was exactly what you would expect of a drug den. Stained mattresses lay in every room and that was the only furniture. The place reeked of piss and shit probably because the toilets didn't work. Most of the addicts I passed by were all men, gazing up at the ceiling with bands tied around their arms.

  I came to a room at the end of the hallway with a woman laying down on a mattress. She was a little younger than me with jet black hair. Her jeans and t-shirt were all ripped apart. I could see what Paulie meant when he said she could be a hot piece of ass if it wasn't for all the drugs. She would have definitely been one of those sluts I'd take home and fill with every drop of my seed. But not this shell of a human being in front of me.

  Emma

  It had only been a few hours since my last fix and my body was already screaming at me for more. I checked under the mattress and pulled out my little baggy of gray powder. There was only enough for one last taste. I'd have to figure out a way to get more tonight or else I'd probably die. My money was all gone and I was too weak to try and steal more.

  Tonight I'd have to use my womanly ways to get more smack. I didn't even want to know what I looked like anymore. My little room here didn't have a mirror and I didn't care to find out. I'd never been with a man before and I had kept my body untouched all the way through college. But now I was ready to throw it all away for just one more fix.

  I emptied the contents of the baggy carefully onto my silver spoon. Had to make sure I didn't waste any by spilling it. I pulled out my lighter from my back pocket and tried to trigger it. My shaking hands were getting worse but I was finally able to light it. The heroin bubbled on the spoon and I knew it was ready.

  Injecting was the best high—straight into the veins. It was the only way to fly. I took my syringe and soaked up all the smack from the spoon before piercing my arm. I didn't even bother taking the syringe out before I fell back on the mattress in a blaze of glory. Life never felt this good before.

  Reality faded away and I found myself back at that same college party a couple years back—the first time I ever got a taste of drugs. My entire life I had been such a perfect student, always studying and getting good grades. Everything changed when I went to college and met my roommate, Sarah.

  Sarah was the complete opposite of me. She didn't come to college to get good grades. No, Sarah wanted to party and fuck as many guys as possible. But that was her choice. It didn't have to be mine.

  The first semester, I played the good student and kept to myself. Sarah would nag me to go out with her and I'd always said no. My parents had spent their entire savings to get me to college and I wanted to make them proud. That was all true but deep down I was scared to death. I never really had any friends growing up and I was terribly frightened of going to a party. What would I even talk about with strangers?

  Once the semester was over, I didn't have anymore excuses left. It was the last night before everyone went back home for winter break and Sarah was talking about some huge party being thrown by Alpha Beta Kai—the biggest bro fraternity on campus.

  “Tonight is the big night, Emma. You're finally going to a party with me,” Sarah stated.

  I laughed her off and shook my head. “I have a lot of packing to do tonight. My parents are picking me up in the morning.” I placed my neatly folded clothes into a suitcase.

  “Not going to work this time. You're coming with me or I'll drag you there myself.” Sarah grabbed the clothes out of my suitcase and threw them back in my drawers. “You'll have plenty of time to pack. Now let's go.”

  I stood there, my feet firmly planted on the ground. It would take a bulldozer to get me to move. But really all it took was Sarah's hand grabbing mine and pulling me out the door.

  We came to a giant mansion with the fraternity letters nailed to the front door. The music was screaming from inside and there were already drunk people littered all over the front lawn. We walked inside to find the place filled to the brim with people. People squeezed through the crowds with their red cups raised above their heads to avoid spilling.

  “Want something to drink, Emma?” Sarah asked, swaying side to side to the music.

  One drink, Emma. That's all you get. I was a little nervous to try alcohol for the first time but I couldn't escape it the rest of my life. It was time to dip my feet into the pool. I nodded to Sarah and she ran off. I rested awkwardly against the wall and watched the students dance. A guy tried to come up and ask me to dance but I politely declined, my face turning an apple red.

  Sarah finally found me and shoved a cup in my hand. “Whiskey and coke,” she said, grinning.

  I took a sip and almost coughed it up. There was barely any coke in there. Sarah should never be trusted to mix drinks. I took another sip and it burned a lot less. The alcohol was already going to my head and my anxiety was disappearing. This partying thing wasn't too bad. I don't know why I had been scared for so long.

  “You cool, here?” Sarah asked, “I'm going to go find John.” The name sounded familiar and then I remembered that he was the guy Sarah kept interrupting my studying to talk about. John was a senior and apparently God's gift to woman according to Sarah. I told her I'd be fine and she went off to find her prince charming.

  The rest of the party was a blur as I continued to fall deeper and deeper into alcohol. I was full-on drunk from just one drink and it felt terrific. Turns out, I love to dance. I didn't even know my body could move in those ways.

  After my feet felt like they would fall off, I went out to search for Sarah. She was probably having sex with John. I found her in one of the downstairs bedrooms sitting next to John and snorting powder off a coffee table. Every warning bell in my head went off telling me to run as far way as possible. But Sarah waved me over and my drunk self couldn't say no.

  I plopped down on the couch and watched John snort the drug. I thought it was cocaine but later I knew it was heroin. John sniffed up as much as he could and wiped his nose back and forth, his eyes all big. He handed me the rolled up dollar bill and I sat there not knowing what to do.

  “Come on, Emma. It will make you feel like a million bucks,” Sarah whispered in my ear. I was too drunk to say no. Didn't all the celebrities do this? I bent over the coffee table and placed the money in my nostril. I didn't even remember snorting anything. Just a sudden rush of relaxation. I sat back on the couch with the biggest smile on my face. Sarah looked at me and grinned. I just chilled there for hours, staring at the wall. I'd never felt this at peace before. It was like I became who I always wanted to be.

  But heroin was never as good that first time. In the beginning, I did it a couple times a week to get through the hardest classes. Then my tolerance began to build up. I had to use more and more just to get that same high. Soon I was using it everyday and selling my school books just to pay for it.

  I dropped out of college and didn't have the courage to tell my parents. I just ran away. Ran away from everything. The only thing that mattered was the high.

  And it felt so damn good.

  Back on my piss-stained mattress, my high was hitting its peak. Every time I injected, I was reminded with why I could never go back to my old life. This was who I wanted to be. Life could never be this good without drugs.

  My high was interrupted when a tall guy with bulging muscles came barging into my room.

  Chapter Two

  Roman

  I had one rule when working for the O'Malley brothers: no women or children. I didn't mind asking someone a question but I would never lay my hands on a woman. And the O'Malleys knew that. Respected it. This junkie whore with a needle still in her arm was no exception.

  I walked up to the frail figure on the mattress and looked into her sunken eyes. There was nothing there. She was as high as a kite. I picked the syringe out of her arm and threw it across the room. This chick would have been a knockout if she didn't let the drugs take over.

  I never liked drugs. Never got the taste for it. Most of the men I wor
ked with used because we were around it all day. But it wasn't for me. My drinking problem was already enough for me. No reason to fuck up my life even more.

  I lifted the girl until she was sitting up. “I'm looking for your dealer?” I asked politely. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and drool dripped from her lips and onto my arm. I shook her shoulders a couple times until her eyes came back and looked at me. “Who is your dealer?”

  No response. I wasn't going to get anything out of this junkie. But I couldn't go back to the O'Malleys empty-handed. My only option was to take her to my place and get the info out of her when she sobered up.

  In the back of the head, a small voice whispered, “What are you doing, Roman?”

  Emma

  This steroid-fueled monster was screaming at me and messing with my perfect high. Everything out of his mouth just sounded like gibberish. I covered my ears but he wouldn't stop. I wanted to yell at him to get away from me but I couldn't find my voice. I felt like Ariel in the Little Mermaid. If only I could sing again.