Outlive (The Baggers Trilogy, #1) (26 page)

             
As they made their way up the stairs to the mansion, Baggs couldn’t stop stealing glances at Bite’s missing finger.
He had to bite his own finger off,
Baggs repeated in his mind, trying to take in the gravity of such an event.
He still hasn’t explained why he limps, or how he lost his left eye.
Working for this Mr. Snow sounds dangerous.

             
The handle on the front door was shining silver that had been delicately molded to look like it had metal vines growing over it. “Home sweet home,” Bite said, repeating what Darius had said in the limo, and he pushed open the door.

             
A loud, high-pitched shriek echoed through the cavernous mansion and came out the front door. A female was producing the sound, and hearing such a noise made Baggs shiver.
Someone is being tortured,
he thought.

             
“Big man first,” Bite said, holding his arm out as a gesture inviting Baggs inside.

             
But Baggs stood there, finding that he couldn’t move.
I want to go home,
he thought. Though he was big, he was only fifteen years old. He wanted out of this situation. He wanted to be locked inside his parents’ apartment, knowing that they were sleeping in the other room.

             
“C’mon, Baggs,” Bite said.

             
Someone is screaming in there,
Baggs thought. In his mind’s eye, he saw Bite chewing off his own finger. He imagined the man with his eyes closed in agony, screaming as his own blood ran down his chin.

             
The shrieks inside changed tones, and Baggs reevaluated what he thought he was hearing.
They’re shrieks of delight,
he now thought. He hoped that this was the correct assessment.

             
Lilly took his thick right hand in her slender left one and pulled him inside. He walked obediently. He thought about turning and running, but between Bite and Darius, he would be easily caught.

             
The mansion was palatial. The ceilings were painted with angels, harps, and clouds. Baggs tilted his head to look upwards and was dizzied by the incredible height of the entryway.

             
“This way,” Bite grumbled, and he began to limp along in front of them. Pinky, Pointer, and Darius came into the front door before Darius pulled it shut.

             
They walked through a regal, high-ceilinged hallway. The walls were covered in gold wallpaper that shimmered in the light of crystal chandeliers. There were fish tanks inlaid into the walls with rare, deep-sea creatures inside. Baggs saw octopi, and strange, phosphorescent creatures that glowed and displayed needle sharp teeth.

             
As they walked, the shouts and echoes from dozens of conversations grew louder. They came out of the hallway, and Baggs felt as though a weight was lifted off his shoulders as he saw that he was, in fact, at a party.

             
There were about two hundred people in one room, and it was not at all crowded because of the size. The floor was made of assorted white rock, which was cut out in the center of the room to house a massive pool with a volleyball net running through the middle. There were wooden bars flanking the walls, with bartenders in tuxedos standing at attention, ready to serve drinks. Waiters paced the room, holding silver trays above their heads and serving Hors d’oeuvres to the guests. This ceiling, like the one in the entryway, was high above Baggs’s head and painted with angels flying in a bright blue sky. There were four huge cages in the room, one in each corner, and each held a cheetah that watched the festivities with dark orange eyes. The cheetahs did not seemed perturbed by the ruckus and movement caused by the humans below them; they acted like they had seen dozens of parties that were just like this one. Most of the men were at least wearing dress pants and button-up shirts, but some wore suit jackets, too. Baggs felt out of place in his grocery store uniform. There were lots of women in bikinis, talking to people as though their dress was normal. There were dozens of men and women in the swimming pool playing volleyball. Some wore swimsuits; others were in their underwear. Electronic music played quietly from speakers that were not visible.

             
“C’mon, let’s get a drink,” Lilly said, and she pulled Baggs through the crowd along side her. Baggs did not see Pinky, Pointer, Bite, or Darius for the next hour. Drinks at the bar were free of charge. Baggs and Lilly stood around, sipping on cocktails, and talking. She told him that she was trying to be an actress, and they spoke about her career for a while. After half an hour, Baggs was drunk. He was beginning to think that maybe Lilly actually liked him. All of the skepticism he had had that a girl so beautiful could be interested in him was disappearing as their conversation went along and he consumed more alcohol.

             
“Oh my God! Let’s play volleyball!” She told Baggs. “They just finished a game, let’s get in.” Lilly finished her drink (double vodka in cranberry juice) and then slipped her dress off her head so that she was in her underwear. Baggs looked at her body, lusting after her. “C’mon, let’s go play.”

             
“I don’t have a bathing suit.”

             
“Lots of people are just in their underwear.”

             
Embarrassed, Baggs took his clothes off. Even as a fifteen year old, he was tremendously hairy, with dark curls lining every inch of his body. No one seemed to care, though. They got into the pool, which was filled with warm salt water, and joined the game. Baggs guessed that the people playing volleyball wouldn’t accept him and would treat him as an outsider. But, Baggs found that everyone was nice to him. With his drunken brain, he was letting loose and starting to enjoy himself. People whistled and cheered as he spiked volleyballs down on the other side of the net. After he made good plays, Lilly hugged him, pressing her warm, near-naked body into his.

             
She likes me,
Baggs now thought. He had gone from thinking
she’s trying to lure me into something dangerous
to thinking
she really likes me
in a little less than an hour. Lilly was good at what she did.

             
But just as he was beginning to think that everything was okay and that he was safe, Bite came over to the side of the pool, knelt down, and called for Baggs. A man was standing behind Bite. Baggs walked to the edge of the pool. His beard was dripping wet with water.

             
Bite looked at Baggs with his one real eye and gestured with his hand that was missing a finger to the man above him. “Baggs, I want you to meet my boss, Mr. Snow.”

             
“Nice to meet you,” Baggs said. The alcohol eased the nervousness he had felt earlier when imagining meeting the man that had commanded Bite to chomp his own finger off.

             
“Are you having a good time?” Mr. Snow asked.

             
“Oh, yeah! Great time!”

             
Mr. Snow looked at Baggs.
This guy isn’t intimidating,
Baggs thought in his drunken state. Mr. Snow was a man in his late twenties or early thirties. He stood at five and a half feet tall and had dainty, slender hands. His hair was short and neatly trimmed and gelled. He wore a plain, black suit. “Come with me, Baggs. I want to talk with you.” Without seeing if Baggs was following, he turned and began to walk towards the back of the house.

             
Baggs did not move for a moment, and Bite reached down and tugged on his hair. “Do you have a death wish, kid? Move.”

             
Baggs dragged himself, dripping, out of the pool and stood at his full height. He looked over the crowd of people and saw Mr. Snow walking towards a door that led to the backyard.

             
“Dry yourself and then move your ass,” Bite said, offering Baggs a towel.

             
Baggs rubbed the towel over his body until he was moderately dry, and then walked in his underwear through the crowd of people until he reached the back door. Mr. Snow had left it ajar. He stepped through.

             
“Shut the door, Baggs. I want to take a walk with you,” Mr. Snow said. The back patio was dimly lit with light shining through the windows from inside and by candles dispersed among tables draped with white cloths. In this new light, the warmth that Mr. Snow had shown inside was gone. His jaw was tight. He was staring at Baggs with an unwavering, stony expression.

             
I was wrong. He is very intimidating.
Baggs’s mouth was dry. He obediently shut the door. Mr. Snow began to walk down a paved path through his back yard. Baggs followed.

             
They walked in silence until they couldn’t hear the noises from inside. The fog had cleared some and the moon reflected off multiple ponds in the back yard. Owls hooted from trees high above. The lawn that surrounded them was trimmed as finely as a fairway on a golf course. As they got further away, Baggs wished that they weren’t alone. This man, who was a full twelve inches shorter than Baggs, and one hundred pounds lighter than Baggs was frightening him a lot.

             
Mr. Snow spoke and Baggs jumped a little. “Bite told me that he saw you fighting someone,” he said.

             
They walked on a few more paces. Baggs was scared that if he talked, Mr. Snow might get angry.
He made Bite chomp his own finger off. I wonder if he did something to Pointer and Pinky to make them that way?

             
“I pay people back, Baggs,” Mr. Snow said. “It’s something that I believe in. I believe in something else, too.” He wasn’t looking at Baggs, but was looking away from his house as he walked. “I also believe in people paying me back. I make them pay me back. You take something from me, you pay me back. End of discussion.”

             
Baggs’s heart was beginning to thud in his chest. For perhaps the tenth time he thought,
I shouldn’t have gotten in the limo.
“I haven’t taken anything of yours, sir.”

             
Mr. Snow didn’t directly respond. “If you did take something of mine and then you gave me something back, I think that that would be a beneficial exchange for the both of us. I could make you very happy. I could get Lilly to sleep with you.”

             
Baggs’s breath caught in his throat.

             
“I could get you a nice place to live. I could get you a nice car.”

             
Neither of Baggs’s parents could afford a car.

             
“You could have a swimming pool. You could probably buy your own helicopter by the time you were thirty or so.”

             
The owls hooted. Mr. Snow’s shoes slapped against the pavement.
We’re really far away from the house,
Baggs thought.

             
Mr. Snow was speaking so quietly that Baggs had to walk closer to hear what he was saying. “I would strongly advise that you begin to exchange your services for my goods. And you should start by taking a good from me. Here, hold this.” He reached into his pocket and handed Baggs a gold coin. It was as wide around as a coffee mug, and was heavy in his hands.

He knew what it was, but had never seen one before. “Oh my God,” Baggs said, turning the coin over in his big hands. On one side there was a picture of Emperor Daman. On the other there was the inscription,
One-thousand CreditCoins
. “This is real,” Baggs said.

             
Mr. Snow did not respond to this. He didn’t react much to anything. “Put it in your pocket. Take it home if you want it. Let’s begin a good, lifelong exchange right here, Baggs.”

             
Mr. Snow and Baggs had stopped walking. Baggs looked from Mr. Snow and then back to the coin.
He’ll give me this much money to start working for him. If I work for him, I’ll get to spend more time with Lilly. I could have a house. I could have a car. And there will be more booze, and more time with girls like Lilly.
Baggs looked into Mr. Snow’s dark eyes. He imagined him ordering Bite to take off his own middle finger.
Then there are Pointer and Pinky; what made them the way they are? If I take this coin, will Mr. Snow make me like them? Or will he make me do that to people? He wants me to work for him because of my fighting abilities; he will probably make me kill people.

             
“With all due respect, Mr. Snow, I would not like to take this coin with me.” He handed the coin back and Mr. Snow slipped it into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. Then, he grabbed something else within his jacket and began to pull it out.

             
It’s a knife!
Baggs thought.

             
It was only a cigar, though. Mr. Snow lit the end of it and puffed out a small cloud of odorous blue smoke. “Go.” He told Baggs, and then he turned away from him and smoked, looking at the distant horizon.