Kobe (6 page)

* * * * *

              Hunter kept a keen eye on Judd while counting his weapons. The hang out was full of glass bottles, dehydrated pints of whiskey and empty twelve ounce beers.

              When Judd gave him the thumbs up, Hunter threw a bottle at Lester. His six years of pitching little league helped immensely, he hit him square in the back. Lester arched his shoulders on impact.

              “Hey fuck heads," Hunter shouted, "I'll be able to give a good description to the cops." He picked up another beer bottle. "Earl, you used to hit on my mom when she came into the shop to see my dad. Too bad you’re uglier than a bag of dicks and she wouldn't even look you in your eyes." Hunter hurled a glass bottle at Earl, but it missed by a few feet.

              “Didn't your momma teach you how to throw?” Mike laughed and punched his fat friend in the arm."Or was ya too busy playin' dollies?"

              "Mike, you fuckin' moron!" Hunter screamed "I thought you'd be dead from drowning in your cheerios by now." Hunter picked up a rock and launched it across the lake, but it missed. "Why don’t you crusty losers come up here like men instead of pickin’ on that little girl?”

              “Boy, you don’t know what’s 'bout to happen. You best go home and say yer prayers. Whole world’s 'bout to know who we are,” Lester belted out.

              “They already
do
know, you're a buncha rednecks that can barely change tires.” Hunter picked up another bottle, held his breath, and took aim. Just like his father showed him.

              Hunter took aim, blew out the air in his lungs, and kept his eye on the bottle as it soared through the air and smashed on Les' wrinkled mug. Blood seeped from the old man's cheeks as he squealed out in pain.

              “Get that little bastard.” Les wiped the glass from his face, and cut his hand in the process.

              Mike ran through the lake quickly and latched on to the side of the cliff wall like a spider.

              Earl moved slow, and breathed heavy. He wasn't even halfway through the lake before he stopped for air.

              Hunter kept chucking bottles at Mike, but the muscular mechanic dodged them like a pro. "Stop messin' with that little girl, asshole!" Hunter yelled.

              Mike grabbed a tree sticking out from the side of the cliff, his chiseled biceps flexed as he climbed closer to his prey.

              Hunter picked up a brown Budweiser bottle and steadied his hand. With his peripheral vision he saw Fat Earl was about to join his stupid friend. He dropped the bottle, careful not to break it on the others, and picked up a rock the size of his hand. He cocked his arm back and launched the stone.

              Crack! It split Earl's head open like a walnut. The ugly ball of fat dropped to the ground, gushed blood, and lost consciousness.

* * * * *

              Judd stared at the little girl stuffed in the dog's furry skull, he imagined the stench inside, the fear crawling underneath her skin, and how it would be if he was in that situation.

              After it all processed through his mind he flipped out his switch-blade.

* * * * *

              "Hurry up, we're losin' the sun!" Lester picked out pieces of dark green glass, burrowed beneath his beady eyes. "Don't let him go! Earl's knocked out but we can still do the ritual! We're gonna get you smart, but the sacrifice's gotta be done by sundown!"

              "Yeah, you don't wanna miss Andy Griffith, grandpa!" Hunter yelled.

* * * * *

              Judd let out a battle cry and charged the old man. He paused for a split second to find that little bit of evil to kill a man. His inhibitions melted away, and a fist full of rage plunged the knife into Lester's side.

              The short, wrinkled man grunted and looked down at the blood soaking through his tan work-shirt. He growled and grabbed his assailant by the collar.

              Judd twisted the blade around in Lester’s kidney, the toxins stirred inside the old man’s system.

              The grease monkey tried to raise his box cutter, but to no avail. Judd pushed Lester to the ground with ease.

              The hero snatched Lester's retractable blade and chopped the creep's throat without mercy.

* * * * *

              Hunter watched Mike pull himself up the side of the mountain and clutch the top of the cliff.

              Hunter picked up a rock the size of a basketball. He struggled, but with a grunt, he dropped the boulder on Mike's fingers.

              The jock screamed and pulled his hand back. He forced all of his weight to his feet, and balanced himself.

              The boulder in Hunter's hands was too heavy to throw, but just the right size to let loose on the mechanic. He steadied it above Mike's head, slowly, meticulously.

              "Look, I won't hurtcha, just don't kill me," Mike prayed.

              "Save it for Satan, cocksucker."

              Hunter let it drop. The boulder plummeted Mike down to the sharp rocks below.

              "That's right you little bitches! Ain't so tough now, huh?" Hunter wiped his hands on his jeans. "Hey Judd, I'm gonna grab the law."

              Hunter ran the long way through the woods to grab the cops. His arms were too weak to make the climb down to the tunnel, and after watching the scene with Mike, he was a little scared of the fall.

* * * * *

              Without being able to move more than his neck, Mike looked down and saw his femur bone snapped in half. It pierced through his skin, and revealed the dark marrow inside. He went into shock after his adrenaline shut down.

* * * * *

              Judd cut the girl's sweaty hands free. The two of them fumbled with the canine cap until it finally came off. Her brown hair was caked with blood and bits of brain.

              "Karen?" Judd asked.

              "Judd? Is that you?" Her voice crackled like an autumn leaf. "Are they dead?" Karen saw Lester on the ground, his throat shredded like pulled pork.

              The stink of cheap cigars and fresh death-shit absorbed into their taste buds. Karen's tears transformed into rage as she kicked Lester's nose bone into his brain.

              Judd watched as teeth dislodged from the gumline, and Lester's eyeball detached from his socket.

              When she finished, Judd wrapped his arms around he
r
.
 
"Hunter went to get my Dad." 

              She tried to break free but Judd held on tight.

              "I did what I did to stop 'em from hurtin' you. If we kill the other two." Judd squinted his eyes. "It'll just be murder with a motive, plain and simple. The big one's lost a lotta blood and the fat one's floatin' in the lake unconscious. You already made this old fart's face look like roadkill, let the cops do the rest."

              Karen let go of the hate for a moment, and sunk into Judd's pudgy frame. She smeared grime and blood all over him, and he smiled down at her.

              "Thank you so much, Judd." She kissed his cheek. "Will you hold me for a little while? In case they wake up?"

              "I'll hold you as long as you like, Karen."

* * * * *

              As good as his word, Judd held on to Karen until the cops hauled Mike and Earl away, and every single day since.

              When the long days of summer came to a close, and fall's first wind blew through the trees, school started back up.

              Karen was no longer just the little smart girl that intimidated bullies with her intelligence, she was known as the damsel that kicked a Satanist until his eye popped out.

              In the midst of football games and homework, Judd made sure he had time to kick Tommy Doyle's ass every chance he could for making art projects on the wall of Playboy Tunnel, until the day the schoolyard bully painted over his so-called masterpiece.

       
 
Chapter VII

Dandelion Seeds

              Tina flashes her eyes back and forth from the blades sticking out of her oldest son's fingers to his dilated eyes. Her mouth goes on autopilot. "You need to leave," she grips tightly on the towel covering her body, "I can't have you in my house no more. I'm sorry son, but you've gone shit-storm crazy."

              She continues to watch his fingernails crack and bleed, holding the metal in place by the strength of his muscle, bone, and keratin.

              Skaggs pets Tina's dollar-store dyed hair with his normal hand, weaving his grimy fingers through the thinning lock
s
"Do you really want me to leave?" Skaggs softly whispers into her ear.

              She curls back her lip until the smoke stains show. "Yes!" Tina stomps on Skaggs' bare foot. "Get your shit and get out!"

              Tina punches him in the face. Her knuckles fold under pressure and her plan follies. Even though the mind is ready, her flesh is weak.

              Skaggs smiles and tightens his grip on Tina's brittle hair. "I love you, mommy, but like you always say, you did this shit to yourself." Skaggs slams his mother's head into the door jamb. The hit rattles her brain, ringing her ears and blurring her vision. Tina feels Skaggs grip her hair tightly as he scrapes his blades across her face.

              The pain brinks on treacherous, but her mind breaks through the agony. Her towel slides off her body onto the floor, leaving her vulnerable, but given the circumstances, nudity is the least of her worries.

              Skaggs tries to slap the old lady, but she grabs his arm on impact. The naked woman bites down on the back of his hand. Her heart speeds with adrenaline as her teeth latch on. Even a worn out waitress can still have some fight inside.

* * * * *

              Sheriff Judd pulls into his parking spot at the BBQ Pitt. Only a couple cars remain from the previous evening, and they belong to patrons too drunk to drive home. Judd parks outside every weekend, just waiting for some idiot to make a mistake. This is the same for all the bars in Kobe, an officer is assigned to a certain hot-spot every Friday and Saturday night.

              It's the worst feeling in the world to knock on the door at three AM to tell a mother her kid's dead, or even worse, tell a kid their mom's dead. Judd can count on his fingers how many times he's had to do it, but he wishes he could take every one of them back.

              Good crime fighting isn't just about picking up criminals, it's also about prevention. Killing isn't something he's ashamed of, nor is it something he's proud of, it just has to be done. Making sure people have the ability to go out and party one more time is just as important as making sure some no-good junkie doesn't diddle a kid.

              Most normal folks are getting ready for Sunday service. Judd doesn't put too much faith in the Lord. He does a good show of it, going to church once a month or so, more for political reasons than religious.

              Judd believes God is more likely to be a kid with a chemistry set than the master of the universe. It's tough, especially as a sheriff, to think our creator planned any of this, the hatred, the belief systems, the plain screwed up situations people create for one another.

              He strolls to the front of the restaurant and unlocks the door. As a silent partner and a brother to the boss, he's had an extra key for half his life. With all the business Zed's brought in, Judd's looking at a nice nest egg as soon as he retires from the world of justice.

* * * * *

              Skaggs stabs his claw into Tina's platysma muscle. Her teeth let go of the back of his hand as she howls. He tries to slide her off his Tim Burton fingernails, but the muscles in her neck won't release his talons. Skaggs picks up his hatchet, lifts it high in the air and sinks the small axe deep into Tina's skull.

              He presses down on the hatchet and finishes getting the razor blades out of her neck, slowly, trying his best not to dislodge the recent addition to his hand.

              Skaggs drags his dying mother away from the doorway by the hatchet handle. Still alive, Tina gasps and quivers as Skaggs picks her up off the ground.

              With all of his chemical-induced strength, he slams her head into the wall repeatedly.

* * * * *

              Quinn stops packing his bag to listen. It sounds like a pair of shoes knocking around inside of a dryer. He opens his bedroom door and peers out. Slowly, with his backpack over his shoulders, and his taser in his hand, he creeps through the living room, closer to the steady sound of thuds.

              Quinn stops short when he sees the slap marks of red smeared down the hallway walls. Skaggs pounds his mother's head into the wall in a strange rhythm, after a moment he stops and shakes his hatchet back and forth, up and down, to get it out of his hard working mother's skull.

              Tina's flappy granny tits swing like bags of birdseed in the wind. The green towel sops up her blood unintentionally.

              The Sunday morning blues.

              Quinn's teeth chatter, his whole body tremors a little. Decisions race through his mind but the fear of death is too much for him. He grabs his mom's keys from the coffee table and sprints out the door, down the stairs, and to Tina's car.

* * * * *

              Skaggs comes up with an idea.

              He positions Tina's corpse so that her body is in the hallway, but her head is in his bedroom.  He squeezes the door on Tina's neck like a vice grip.

              King Arthur might've pulled the sword from the stone, but he never had to pull a hatchet out of a skull. Skaggs puts his feet against the door and uses his weight to pry the hatchet out. But it stays.

              He leans back further... until...

              Imagine you're a child. Spring has sprouted and dandelions cover every baseball field. You delightfully pick one up, you press your little thumb against the bulb, and sing;

              'Momma had a baby and its head popped off'

              Tina's spine snaps like a twig, her skin tears near the throat and opens the rest of the way. Finally, her head rips from her neck. Despite a geyser of blood, it's a clean rip.

              Her lifeless body drops on the floor with a thud, as Skaggs falls back holding his hatchet.