Commit To Violence

"Ouchhh, shit!" Cruz yelled in pain.

Black knelt down next to Cruz. "Was all this really necessary? I only wanted to talk."

"Fuck you, Black."

Black hit Cruz in the face with the barrel of his gun. "Doesn’t matter now."

"You gonna kill me anyway," Cruz said.

"You’re right. You’re gonna die. But before I kill you, I’m curious. Why’d you start shooting at me when we got out the car?"

Cruz didn’t answer so Black shot him in the other leg. Then he pressed the barrel into the wound.

"Okay, okay, shit. Man said you was comin’ to get me for killin’ Kenny. But I told you, I ain’t have nothing to do with that shit."

"Then tell me who did?"

"Fuck you, man. I ain’t no fuckin’ snitch. Go ahead and fuckin’ shoot. I die like a fuckin’ man."

Black looked around the darkened area and walked away without speaking. When he came back he had a chain in his hand. He swung the chain around, inching closer and closer to Cruz’s face. Cruz didn’t flinch and Black laughed. "You a tough mutha fucka."

He grabbed Cruz by the collar and dragged him to the open area of the basement. Then Black took the chain and tied Cruz to one of the support beams.

Black stood in front of Cruz and pointed his weapon and shot him once on the side of his stomach. Then he put the gun away and turned to leave.

"Where you goin’?" Cruz asked.

"I’m goin’ to check on Victor. I left him upstairs to deal with your bitch Jorge. But I’ll be back." Black took a few steps then he stopped and turned around. "Oh yeah. Watch out for the rats." Black started walking back toward Cruz slowly. "There’s a lot of them down here. They’re gonna smell that blood, and they’re gonna come to feed. When they do, then we’ll see just how tough a mutha fucka you really are," Black said and walked away.

"Black! Come back here, Black! Don’t leave me down here. Black!" Cruz screamed.

Black could still hear him screaming until he closed the basement door and started up the steps. When he got to the third floor, Black could hear gunfire and he started to run up the steps. The gunfire had stopped by the time Black got to the sixth floor. He ran down the hall to the apartment. The door was open. Black set himself and went in. There were three dead bodies on the floor. Neither one of them was Victor. Black kicked over one of the bodies and saw that it was Jorge.

As he moved farther into the room, Black saw that there were drugs and money on the table. Black heard a noise and pointed his weapon in that direction.

"It’s me, Black," Victor said quickly as he came out of one of the bedrooms with a suitcase in his hand.

Black looked around the room. "Not bad, kid. Not bad at all," he said as Victor moved to the table with the drugs and money. "Take the money, leave the rest."

"You want me to leave the dope?"

"What I just say?"

Victor looked at Black for a minute. "You’re the boss."

When he had packed up all the money, Victor followed Black out of the apartment. They took the elevator down to the first floor. But instead of leaving the building, Victor was surprised when Black started walking down the hall toward the stairwell.

"Where we goin’?" he asked and followed Black to the basement door.

"Cruz is down here waitin’ for me to come back."

Victor looked at Black curiously but followed anyway. As they opened the basement door, Victor could hear what sounded like somebody moaning in pain. The further into the basement they moved the louder the sound got. When they got to the open area of the basement, Black stopped and Victor said, "Oh shit."

Once they smelled blood, the rats moved in as Black had predicted and began to feed on the wounds on Cruz’s legs and stomach.

Black fired one shot in Cruz’s direction and the rats scattered. Black walked up and stood over Cruz.

"Who told you we were comin’ for you?"