Monsters
By
Karen Singer
Chapter 27 –Bad News
“Billy! What the hell is Houghton doing? I haven’t heard anything from him yet.”
“Don’t know boss,” Billy
replied. “Maybe the broad skipped town
after Beastman picked up her partner.”
“Not a chance! Besides, Beastman has pretty much declared
war on us because he thinks Houghton’s men killed so many of his. In fact, maybe you better check with
Houghton. See if maybe he hasn’t sent
his men out to kill Beastman’s people.
I’m still pretty sure it’s the Stokley girl, Death, but maybe we should
just check and make sure.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Billy replied.
“And while you’re at it, maybe you
better have Houghton redeploy some of his men to places where Beastman might
attack us in retaliation. We might as
well get some protection out of him since he doesn’t seem to be doing anything
else. You know the best spots.”
“Sure, boss. Got it and I’m on it.”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Ralphie sat on his cheap bed in his
cheap hotel room and stared at the dingy wall.
The TV wasn’t worth watching. His
mind couldn’t concentrate on it if he tried.
His mind was totally focused on one thing and only one thing. What should he do?
Should he call Vinny back in
Cleveland? He was afraid to do
that. Not as afraid of messing up and
Brandy finding out about it. But still,
with mobsters like Vinny, he knew he had to be very careful. You didn’t just phone them for no reason at
all. In the past, every time he had
called Vinny, it was to take care of business for Brandy. At those times, Vinny had talked to him, but
it had always been business like and curt.
Ralphie could always tell that the only reason Vinny was talking to him
was because of Brandy. But this. This was something very different than
anything he had called about before.
Ralphie knew that calling Vinny wasn’t something he could do unless he
knew for sure it was an emergency.
How could he find out where Brandy
was? One thing, and only one thing, came
to mind. The Chinese restaurant. As humiliating as it was for him to go there,
he had already been there a number of times.
They knew him there now. That
made things a lot easier for him. So…should
he? Should he go there and try to get
some information about Brandy?
He pulled out his cellphone and
tried calling Brandy’s number again. As
always, it went directly to Voicemail.
Where was Brandy?
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Carol quickly decided she liked
this new riding suit. Despite
everything, it was lighter weight than her old one. She just hoped it was as bulletproof. There was no doubt that she could move easier
in it. As far as she was concerned,
there was a lot to be said for carbon fiber.
She liked the new bike too. As she drove between her mother’s mansion and
Las Vegas, she pushed the speed as much as she dared. The engine under her gave her a feeling of
power. Invincibility. But she knew better than to believe
that. Still, the powerful bike was like
a sense of complete freedom.
She had tried to convince her
mother to try riding one. That
conversation had gone nowhere fast. Her
mother wasn’t ever going to climb onto one of the amazing beasts and try riding
it. But at least her mother
understood. And more importantly, her
mother understood her strange obsessions.
Carol knew that in many ways she wasn’t anything like the daughter her
mother wished she would be. Fortunately,
her mother also knew that many of those odd quirks in her personality had been
ones that her mother herself had instilled into her – from a very early
age.
Carol knew that her mother
understood that she had only herself to blame for many of Carol’s cruel
tendencies. But then, Carol also knew
that her mother was more than aware of the cruel tendencies of her own. Carol liked killing. Her mother didn’t. But Carol considered what her mother did to
men to be far more cruel than simply killing them. Her mother’s victims were still breathing and
moving when she was finished with them, but their lives were ended just as much
as a bullet to the brain.
As she drew closer to the big city, her speed slowed to just over the
speed limit. She didn’t need some yahoo
cop pulling her over and giving her a speeding ticket. Not that she’d pay it anyway. The cop would only see her Judy Cunningham
ID. Judy Cunningham didn’t exist. At least not the Judy Cunningham that she was
pretending to be.
Once inside the city, she began
touring the locations she knew about where both Beastman and Lozano had
businesses or buildings. The word from
Susan was that Lozano had dropped off the face of the earth. Was he dead?
It was a possibility, but Susan seemed to think he was holed up
somewhere back in Mexico with what was left of his men. According to Susan, with Lozano gone, heroin
was now becoming something of a major commodity in Las Vegas. It was looking like Lozano had been supplying
most of the city with the drug. But now
with Lozano gone, his drug pipeline had disappeared as well.
As far as Carol could see, someone
hadn’t counted on that little problem.
Someone had been stupid.
Unless…someone else wanted to be the major supplier for the city. But if that was the case, then who? And why weren’t they stepping in now to
supply those drugs. Unless…that person
wanted the demand to go way up first.
Higher demand, higher prices.
Carol had a suspicion that one way or another, someone was going to make
a bigger killing than usual on heroin.
Carols attention was suddenly
riveted. She was heading toward one of
Beastman’s buildings, but two blocks away she spotted several people standing
around where it was unlikely anyone would stay.
Closer examination showed her that all of them appeared to be carrying
concealed guns. And in each case, all of
them seemed to be watching her closely as she rode by. She kept going, right past Beastman’s
building as if she had no interest in the place. She noticed men with guns stationed in many
different places along the street. It
looked like Beastman had finally gotten smart.
He was prepared for someone coming in to attack. She kept going, putting a good distance
between herself and Beastman’s building before she turned her bike around.
She rode down a number of streets
in the area surrounding that building.
She spotted men watching all around.
If they were protecting it that much, was Beastman there? It was the only conclusion she could
draw. Hopeful now, she found a spot a
few blocks away and parked her bike. As
much as she like her bulletproof helmet, she left it behind.
She had seen where all the men were
posted, now on foot, she walked the sidewalks like a normal person, moving
closer. She approached the corner
ahead. She had already seen two men
posted just around that corner on the main street. She didn’t bother pulling her guns, she
turned the corner. She saw two heads
turn in her direction, but neither of them had their guns out. That was their mistake. Before either of them could react, she moved
fast, moving as if to run past the first one toward the second one, but her arm
reached out and grabbed the first man’s head as her foot lashed up catching the
chin of the second man. As her leg came
down, she threw the other man over her hip and slammed his forehead into the
sidewalk. Both men were out cold. She dragged them around the corner and
fastened their hands behind their backs with zip ties.
Both men were already coming around
as she pulled her cellphone from her pocket and called for a vehicle to pick
both men up. While she waited, she
started questioning them. They were both
lying face down on the sidewalk. She
grabbed the kinky hair of the first man and pulled his neck back hard. “Where’s Beastman?” she asked in a
threatening voice.
“I…don’t know,” the man replied.
She shoved his face against the
concrete sidewalk, then pulled his head back again. “Where’s Beastman?” she demanded. The man’s nose was bleeding.
“I don’t know!” the man begged.
She shoved his face against the
sidewalk again and got on top of the second man. She pulled his head back and asked the same
question. “Where’s Beastman?”
“We haven’t seen him,” the second
man replied. “Nobody has.”
“Then why do you have so many men
guarding that building?”
The man didn’t answer right
away. She pulled his head back
harder. “Why?”
“Uh…uh…the man grunted in
pain. “Because the mercenaries have been
waging war against us. They went through
a couple of our other places and literally wiped them out. We’ve got to defend ourselves.”
“The mercenaries?”
“Yeah. Soldiers.”
“Where are they from?”
“I don’t know. We were just told to guard the area.”
“So you don’t know where Beastman
is?”
“No. Maybe one of our other places. We just got word to consolidate as many
people here as possible and watch for the mercenaries.”
It made sense to Carol. And if Beastman was doing that, then it was
likely he could be in one of his other places.
“How about my friend,” Carol asked
next. “Have you heard anything about a
woman they’ve been calling Retribution?”
“Her? I heard we caught her.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
“What good are you?”
The man didn’t answer. She leaned down close to his head. “As far as what good are you to me, the
answer is the same as yours.
I…don’t…know!” With that, she
slammed his face into the concrete.
It sounded to Carol like Beastman
wasn’t here, and as far as these two went, neither of them knew anything she
needed to know. Maybe her mother could
get something useful out of them, but in truth, she doubted it. As far as she was concerned, these two would
make perfect chickens to go with the others her mother had now.
Her cellphone started silently
vibrating. She pulled it from her
pocket. “Yes?”
“The one called Ralphie is here at
the restaurant,” the voice with the Chinese accent told her. “He seems to be very worried about you and
your friend.”
“Ralphie! Shit!”
She had forgotten about him. Of
course he would be concerned. “Okay,”
she said. “I’m waiting on a pickup right
now. Hold him there. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She put her phone away. Ralphie.
Brandy’s toy. But he was more
than that. He also handled all her
affairs. Knowing Ralphie as little as
she did, he was probably going crazy not knowing what to do.
Ten minutes later, a van pulled up
quickly to the curb. Two Chinese men
jumped out of the back and hauled both men into the van. Carol was already heading for her bike by the
time the van drove off.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Ralphie sat in the back room of the
restaurant waiting. He preferred it back
there where he could remain out of sight.
He had no doubt at all that the restaurant staff preferred him to stay
out of sight too. The door opened and he
looked up. “Miss Carol,” he said as he
stood up.
Carol went into the room and closed
the door behind her.
“I…I’m sorry to bother you, Miss
Carol,” Ralphie said, “but I haven’t seen Miss Brandy in a long time now,
and…I’m not sure what to do. She always
leaves me strict instructions.”
“I know, Ralphie,” Carol
replied. “The truth is, I don’t know
where Brandy is either. I’ve been going
crazy looking for her.”
Ralphie’s eyes went wide with fear.
“I know she was captured, not
killed,” Carol continued, “but it’s been a few days now since they grabbed her,
and I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.
I’m hoping…that she’s still alive.”
“Miss Brandy? Captured?”
“Yeah. Believe it or not. I promise you Ralphie, I’m still looking as
hard as I can. In case you haven’t
noticed, Brandy and I became very…close.”
“I know, Miss Carol.”
“Then you have to know how I feel
about her, and also why I’m even more desperate to find her than you are.”
“What can I do?” Ralphie asked.
“I don’t know,” Carol replied. “I don’t know that you can do anything at
all.”
“Then what should I do? Miss Brandy had me going out every night to
talk to the pimps and hookers in town, but then she never came back to talk to
me again.”
“I don’t know what you should do,
Ralphie. As far as I’m concerned, you
can go home. I could bring you to the mansion
again, but there’s nothing you can do there either.”
Ralphie thought about that. “If I go home, how would I know if she was
dead?”
“I have no idea Ralphie, except
that if I do find out for sure that she’s dead, I can get word of it to her
Uncle Vinny. Then he could let you
know.”
Ralphie stared down at the
floor. “I don’t know if I’m free, or
still bound to her, or what.”
“I’m sorry,” Carol replied. “I don’t have any other answers for you. Do you have enough money for now?”
“Money isn’t a problem. The credit card she gave me is good.”
“Then what you do is up to you,”
Carol told him.
Ralphie continued to stare at the
floor. “I guess…” he started. He looked up.
“I guess I could try asking around on the street to see if anyone knows
what happened to her.”
That surprised Carol. “I know she had you talking to the pimps and
prostitutes.”
“Yes. Every night.”
“If you want to ask around about
Brandy, that would be a big help. Do you
know which ones work for Beastman?”
“I know most of them, but in the
last few nights I’ve noticed some new pimps running some of those girls.”
“Yeah. I have no doubt. “Do what you want, Ralphie, but if you want
to ask around, that would be a good thing.
You can come here to the restaurant if you find anything at all that
might help me track her down.”
“Okay,” Ralphie replied. “I’ll do what I can.”
“And Ralphie, to most of Beastman’s
men, they know her as Retribution instead of Brandy.”
Ralphie nodded. “Of course.
Don’t worry, Miss Carol. I’ll let
you know if I find anything at all.”
“Thanks, Ralphie. I appreciate it.”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Brandy’s eyes were mostly focused
on the door straight ahead of her.
Moving her eyes to the left she could just see the rear end of the girl
in the cage on that side of her. Moving
her eyes to the right showed her the back end of the girl on that side. Both of them had cried for what seemed like
hours. Even now, both of them
occasionally grunted, and screamed…and started crying again.
Brandy didn’t blame either of them
at all. She knew exactly what each of
them had to be feeling. The frustration
of being locked into that position and unable to move could easily drive a
person insane. Worse, knowing that there
was nothing they could do to stop anyone from coming in and using them in the
most vile ways possible was just as bad.
All of them, herself included, had
been taken, trapped in the most uncomfortable position possible, and been
rendered into nothing more than a thing.
An object for men to use. All of
them had been taken from being normal healthy women, and been reduced down to
nothing more than three holes for the enjoyment of men. In her case, two holes. Two holes, and a lot of pain and
frustration. Reduced to two holes. Helpless to be anything but those holes.
She saw the door open and three men
came in. Uh-oh. She was about to get used again. She was amazed when the men did nothing more
than glance at her as they laughed and paid all their attention to the two new
women…objects in the room. The entire
time they used those women, they barely glanced in her direction. And then they were gone and the room was filled
with the crying sobs coming from those two women.
Brandy didn’t know if she should
breathe a sigh of relief or if she should feel slighted that the men hadn’t
paid any attention to her. Wasn’t she
pretty enough…anymore? She quickly
stopped that train of thought. It was
far better if she was left alone. Let
them spend all their energy and cruelty on the new women. She had enough problems to deal with,
especially the pain in her breasts. The
bucket hung from them didn’t feel like it was full of her pee anymore. It felt like they had hung a small car there
instead. The weight was that awful.
Her mind briefly went back to
remembering Carol. Why hadn’t Carol
found her yet? Why? She was starting to believe that Beastman had
been right. Wherever this place was, it
was somewhere where she would never be found, even by Carol. It was starting to look like Carol would
never find her. It was starting to look
like Beastman was right, she was going to be stuck there in that position,
feeling nothing but pain, for the rest of her life.
Carol. Please still be out there. Please still be looking for me. Find me Carol. Please!
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