No sooner had I said that than a text message came through.
TURN ON THE MOVIE I LEFT FOR YOU.
“Stay here,” I instructed Leon as I raised an eyebrow and went back inside. I sat down on the couch directly across from Swing’s television and picked up a couple of remotes to get to where I needed to be. Once I hit play, the room became quiet as everyone crowded around me to see what was going on.
Someone was messing with some kind of digital recording device. Then a pretty, young thing with her hair pulled back and white mask over her face. I could tell it was a female by the shape of the body.
“Hello!” she said brightly into the recorder, with a wave. She used some kind of voice distorter, but that was definitely a chick. “If you’re watching this, then I’ve done the first part of my job. I’ve got the guy that shot and killed someone that I love, and I’m going to kill him. The reason I’m making this movie is because I want you to know why he has to die. Oh and I wanted you to watch this,” she said as she disappeared from view. A few moments later, the grunt of her efforts was heard as well as the sound of something dragging.
You could see Swing’s arms as she dragged him into the view of the recorder. She left him alone in the living room then disappeared for a moment before returning with a few towels. We watched as she placed them meticulously on the couch and then hoisted him up onto it. Unconscious, bleeding, unaware of what was going to happen to him.
“Now,” she began again, as she sat on the edge of the couch. “When this man shot this person, I was still on the phone. They told me that they felt like they were being followed, so I told them to put the phone on mute and leave me in their pocket. Do you know what he said to them? ‘I’m sorry.’ For taking their life, all he could say was ‘I’m sorry.’” She wiped bitter tears away under her mask and looked away for a moment. “I lived too far away to do anything and I couldn’t prove that the person was killed because there was no body. What did you do with the body?” she shouted at him, punching him in the chest.
We watched her take a series of steadying breaths before she looked into the camera again. “I’m not going to shoot him if you’re wondering. That would be too kind. What I am going to do first however, is humiliate him on camera, before I hand him over to the person that hired me to grab him. And then we’ll kill him together, because unlike that person whose life he took, he deserves to die.”
I sat back against the couch and watched her get to her feet. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what was going to happen to him, but if there was any chance of finding him, I’d have to sit through this and see if there were any clues.
“What the fuck,” Breaker said, when the masked assailant pulled Swing’s jeans down and started to jerk him off. “She’s not gonna do what I think she’s gonna do is she?”
“Keep Leon outside. He doesn’t need to see this shit,” I said putting my face in my hand.
“Don’t look away,” her voice sang out from the television. “You need to know what it’s like to have someone you love get hurt.”
I glanced up, gripping both controllers tightly in my hands as she pulled her shorts and leggings off, followed by her panties and mounted him.
I felt sick to my stomach. Nero was a big guy and I never in my life thought I would have to witness his fucking rape, because that’s what this was. He wasn’t awake, he wasn’t consenting to it, and this crazy bitch was riding him like she was trying to break in a wild horse.
“Dallas!” Breaker called out urgently. I looked up and saw Leon pushing past him, so I threw both of the controllers through the television as hard as I could.
“What the fuck happened?” he asked, looking from me to the shattered TV.
“Nothing. We have to go. Now,” I replied, getting to my feet.
“Check this out,” Abraham said, coming toward me. We called him “Honest” for obvious reasons.
I took the envelope he was holding out and flipped it over. There was a phone number scrawled on the back of it and I raised an eyebrow.
“Did you try calling it?” I asked him.
“I just found it,” he replied, shaking his head.
“I’m going to go back outside and call this number. Clean this shit up for me and take that DVD. Get someone out here to clean up the blood,” I directed as I walked out the front door again.
I decided to head down the street because I didn’t want to take the chance that whoever the crazy chick was would answer, and Leon would come out. It would force me to hang up and I didn’t know if she would answer again.
Once I reached the end of Swing’s block, I sat down on the curb and lit another cigarette. It was going to take everything in my power to stay calm during the phone call, provided that she answered. I didn’t know how I knew it was her phone number; I was just banking that it would be.
“Here goes nothing,” I said to myself, holding up the paper in the same hand as my cigarette and dialing with the other. I took a deep drag and let it out in a huff as the line began to ring.
“Hello?”
I knew it, I thought as a female answered the line.
“Where’s Nero?” I asked.
“You mean Swing? He’s a bit tied up at the moment,” she replied.
“Listen you fucking psycho. If you hurt him, I swear to God, that what he did to whoever the fuck pumped you up to do this, will look like a dream compared to what I’ll fucking do to you,” I warned through grit teeth. There was no use in trying to keep my cool; she was nuts and she had every intention of ending my best friend’s life.