Chapter 1
Shepard’s POV
“Hit that fucker again!”
My fist cracked against the hard bone in the bastard's face, the pain vibrated up my hand and into my arm. That shit only pissed me off further. “Motherfucker!”
I picked Jimmy up by his hair and slammed his face into the steel table.
“Yeah! Fuck him up!” Tex cackled crazily behind me, “Fuck him up while I fuck this bitch.” The moans from the junkie whore he’d found in the back room echoing in the air. Tex liked that shit. He didn’t care who was around or what was happening; he would fuck anywhere. In lieu of payment for the drugs she got today from our delinquent friend Jimmy, she offered to fuck him. Tex gladly accepted though poor Jimmy didn’t have the same opportunity. I didn’t fuck men.
He owed the Spawns money, and I came to collect.
I let Jimmy’s limp body fall to the floor. His teeth were jagged and splayed in every direction apart from the ones that littered the floor.
“Where is the fucking money, Jimmy?” I asked, leaning down into his face. This was his last chance.
He spat blood, enamel and mucus in my face, “Fuck. You.” He slurred.
I wiped the foul liquid from my face and pulled out my gun. I popped off three rounds before he could open his mouth again.
“Ahh!” The junkie whore screamed, loud and long when she saw the bullets sail through her drug partner. I turned without a second thought and put a bullet straight between her eyes. She fell awkwardly on the couch, her blood seeping onto the stained couch cushions.
“Oh, what the fuck!” Tex pulled his cock out of the dead girl’s pussy. “I didn’t even get to cum!” Tex pouted as he pulled the condom off his dick and pulled his pants up.
“You should have kept her quiet then.” I shrugged and began getting Jimmy’s body into position for what came next. “Get the hatchet, Tex, and the rest of the gear from the truck.”
“Yup.”
I sat down on the wooden chair and admired my work. Jimmy’s face was already turning an ugly shade of blue. The blood from the gaping hole in his face was already coagulating. His mouth hung open, and his tongue now lax hung out like a fucking dog. It was hilarious. I laughed at the man whose life I’d just taken. I laughed long and hard. He shouldn’t have fucked with the Spawns.
“Brother, you ready?” Tex was behind me with the hatchet in one hand, and a hack saw in the other. Now came the only hard part of my job. We couldn’t leave the bodies here; they had to be dismembered and disposed of.
“Yeah, I’ll cut up Jimmy, you get the bitch.”
“Can I keep a piece?”
“What the fuck do you need a piece of her for? She’s dead Tex, we’ve talked about this.” I rolled my eyes and pulled Jimmy towards the middle of the floor.
“Maybe she isn’t,” Tex said under his breath as he stared at her already cooling body.
I turned to him, “Tex,” when he didn’t turn to look at me, "motherfucker, turn your ass around.”
Tex turned and looked at me, a blank look in his eyes. He was falling down the fucking rabbit hole. “Tex, did you take your meds today?”
“Shep, I don’t want to take them, nothing is fun when I take them. I’ll take them tomorrow.”
There was a fine line with Tex. As his brother, it was my duty to keep him on the right side of crazy. “No, you’ll take them now.”
“Fuck you!” Tex dropped his hacksaw and stomped towards me. “You don’t tell me what the fuck I’m going to do. If I don’t want to take that shit, I won’t.”
“Tex, I’m only going to tell you one more fucking time to take those god damn pills, then I am going to shove those shits down your throat.”
Tex tried to rush me, but I was ready for that, he always tried to rush me. I grabbed him by his long hair and twisted him around, so he was face up. I hit him one time in his throat, not hard enough to cause any permanent damage but enough to have him reflexively grab his throat. I yanked at his hair until tears sprang to his eyes.
“You going against your patch, fucker?” I asked, staring into his eyes. He shook his head no.
“Go against me again, and I will blow your fucking dick off, you want that Tex?” He shook his head again, this time with more enthusiasm. Telling Tex that he couldn’t fuck was like giving him a death sentence, he would do anything to prevent that. Even take the medication he hated. Tex reached in his pocket and popped one of the small pink pills in his mouth. It would take a few minutes to take effect, but as long as he took the medication, he would be ok.
I kicked Jimmy’s body, and he fell to the floor. I swung the small hatchet down with all my strength on the dead man’s shoulder. The blade crunched on the bone but didn’t go through. When I lifted the hatchet, a final lazy river of chunky blood dribbled out of the newly severed artery. The congealing blood coated my fingers, but it did nothing to stop me from what I was doing. It was normal. I’d been killing for so long that very little disturbed me about the process.
Tex sawed at the woman, puddles of blood formed around his feet. He took off the legs, her head and lifted the torso to his, placing its back to his front and shimmied his shoulder. “Look, Shep. I’m a bitch!”
I looked over to where he was a small smile inching up my face, “Tex, stop fucking around. I’m ready to go.”
“Always stopping my good time.” He dropped the body back down and went back to sawing off the woman’s remaining extremities. He hummed Garth Brooks, The Thunder Rolls, tune while he worked.
It wasn’t a long process, but by the end of it, I was tired. I was tired of always being the one who had to look for the money. Nothing more than a dog sent out to fetch. I was so tired of this shit.
“Can I blow it this time? Please, let me do it!” Tex asked as we loaded up the truck with the duffle bags now filled with the remains of Jimmy and his street whore.
“Did you douse the place?” I asked him
“Yeah, I did.” Tex bounced from foot to foot, waiting for me to give him the controls that would systematically light the crack house ablaze. We bleached every corner of the house to make sure that none of our DNA was left behind and to be completely sure we were going to torch the place like we always did.
“Fine.” I handed him a small control, it was a simple device that hooked into the electrical sockets, but it was highly efficient.
“Yeah, boy, party time!” Tex snatched the device from me and pressed the button. He mashed the button over and over, but nothing spectacular happened. “What the fuck, this shit doesn’t work. It’s broken!” He mashed it again.
“Tex, give it a minute.” It was supposed to be a subtle fire, not a huge explosion. He jammed the control in his pocket and sulked. A small smile played on his lips once he realized that the flames were coming.
The fire started slow, in one corner of the house, the bright orange flames licking at the walls. Within ten minutes, the entire house became engulfed, and not one siren could be heard heading this way. No one cared about this part of town; it was full of drug dealers and crack heads. Nothing anyone cared about, I stood back to watch it burn.
“Shep, let’s go. I’m sleepy.” Tex slurred next to me. His medication was finally starting to kick in.