Igneous Intent (1069 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Necro
Rating: 1.61 on 23 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Snark << snarkk.at.gmail.com (View user info) at 2005-11-23 17:36:12 EST
http://www.ubersite.com/m/79673
Delaney delivered his message but good by the time he was done with me.
I'm standing in the corner of Chancey and 5th. I'm in the heart of the red light district... the Seductress district, and Pitt is scowling and shaking his head. He's angry because I wouldn't take his advice and go straight to the hospital, and he's hating his job because it was his own people that worked me over in the interrogation room. It was his kind that did Martini's dirty work for him.
I should tell him that I don't hold him to blame, that we may not be anything close to friends, but I respect him as one of the honest Bulls. I should do that then thank him for the ride but I won't. I didn't take his advice and I know sure-as-rain, he won't take my thanks, so I slam the door shut, steady myself on a lamp post, and inhale deep of the musty night air despite the screaming of my cracked ribs.
I'm busted up and burnt. I got a head full of residue from the Seductress magic and it's making the thick red stuff running through me boil. I'm getting flashes of memory... bits and pieces of pleasure and pain; a nipple, a thigh, the swell of her mound sliding... sliding...
They're almost overpowering when they come. They hit me as hard as Delaney's brass knuckles, and yeah, it's a different kind of punch, but it's a punch nevertheless.
"Tell me about the blood Kane! Tell me who's it is!"
He'd asked me the question over and over again, and each time I told him 'I cut myself shaving' he'd buried his brass deep in my guts. He'd kept it up for an hour or more, until the metal started to make the skin between his fingers bleed, and the sweat was sticking out in large runny beads on his thick pockmarked Irish face. He'd taken them off and given me that sneer. The one that says 'You've had this comin a long time chump' and then he'd gone bare knuckled until I coaxed him into taking a shot at my mug. He'd pulled back to give me his best, and when it came, I made sure his fist found the crown of my head, rather than my chin. The world had filled with stars and the crunch of bone, and then he was screaming and walking - hunched over - out of the room, and just like that, the interrogation was over.
Ten minutes later the door opened again, and I was surprised to see Pitt with my jacket and hat, rather then a vengeful Delaney and a bullet with my name on it.
"We got nothing but blood so your free to go, just don't leave town."
He un-cuffed me from the chair, then helped me up from the floor after I collapsed at his feet. He offered me a drink of water but I refused in favor of a cig and my stuff.
"C'mon, I'll give you a ride."
"I can walk."
"Yeah right, you ain't walkin anywhere, you need a hospital and Delaney's called his boss. My guess is; one of Martini's men is already parked outside."
"You know about that?"
"Everyone know's about you and Martini. Word on the street is you took something of his. People are saying the old twist is pulling out all the stops. People are saying you're a dead man."
"I'm in too much pain to be dead."
"Yeah, I seen your back. Someone really did a number on you. Looks like, old Beelzebub's been finger-painting. You have any idea what they mean?"
"They?"
"Yeah they... The symbols burnt into you."
The expression on my face must have spoke volumes because his eyes widened a second and the scowl on his face dropped a degree or two.
"You didn't know?"
"I knew I was cut... I knew I was burnt."
"Not burnt, Branded."
He handed me my jacket, despite my protests, then helped me to slide it gingerly over the blood-caked ruin of my shredded shirt, and charred flesh.
"Got to hand it to you, you got Moxie, I don't know how you're even standing Kane."
In truth, I didn't know either, but I was and I was strangely thankful for it.
We drove and he talked, and by the time he was done, I had more questions than answers.
Someone had called in anonymously to the station and Pitt had been the first to arrive. He'd found a dead man in a car outside my building. His neck broken, his body facing forward, his face staring wide eyed at the back seat. He'd come up the stairs and found my door kicked in and a haze of smoke in the room. He'd found me alone, lying on my face, my back still smoldering, my pants down around my knees. The place had been cleaned out by the time he got there. There was no trace of the dead men, or my bags. Everything had been removed except a pool of blood and my revolver lying in the middle of it. My bags, the box full of files, even the pictures on the wall... all gone. Nothing left save the flask of gin in my desk drawer and the shotgun hanging under it.
Someone owes me answers. Someone owes me that, and the 15 large I had hidden in my luggage. My place is likely being watched by Martini's goons but I'm gonna have to go back and look for clues.
I need to know who Delilah Baines was. I need to know who sent her and why she did what she did. Why did she yell what she yelled? Who did the dead men belong too? Why didn't they finish me off?
The questions are flooding in but brother, I'm weak, and the Seductress taint is getting stronger. It's infecting me fast, and I have to act before I become like the other poor bastards that haunt this part of town. I need to get it out of me before it takes root and I join the sculking horde of men who populate the back alleys of this place; stealing, murdering, and doing filthy things to themselves while they wait till they can buy their next bit of bliss from some old moll with more power than looks.
There's a woman I know but don't. Her name is Mama Ngana. She's a witch doctor of sorts. A sorceress from some lost African tribe. I've dropped clients off at her place on several occasions. I've sent her men like me. Men who've been infected but still have a chance. They say she can suck the Seductress magic out of you somehow, but I'm going to ask her for more than that. I'm going to ask her for answer's too, and when I get them, people will begin to pay.
I'll get what's owed me and a pound of flesh in interest.
I turn and nod at Pitt. He opens his mouth to respond but I cut him off.
"Go home to your wife and kids Atraius. Go put your feet up and have the old lady bring you a glass of whatever hooch you've got stashed under the sink. Do yourself a favor. Forget my name."
His eyes go dark and then he turns his head and drives off, because he's smart, and the intent in my face is easy to read. He finally understands that I'm able to stand because I got something stronger than pain holding me up. I got revenge. I got blood and bruises and enough payback in me to fill hell with bodies if that's what it takes to get what I want.
I wait till the squad care turns the corner before I pocket the snub nosed revolver I snatched out of the backup holster on his ankle when he was helping me op. It's cold and comforting against my hand. It ain't the cannon I'm used to packing but it'll do for now.
Two blocks down and on the left there is a set of stairs. They're steep and crumbling pieces of brick that were laid long before the depression. At the top is a door, with a wreath of animal bones hanging from it. It is the home of Mama Ngana. It's the only place I can go, so I begin to my staggering journey there.
My back screams and my ribs creak. The goose egg on my head is throbbing in time with my struggling heart.
Whore's, hoods, and the dirty people in between look up then quickly away as I pass by. Some of them know me. Some of them know of me, but none of them say a word.
They've all lived here long enough to know murder when they see it.
User Reviews
Submitted by Stabkill (user info) at 2008-09-15 15:20:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2006-01-25 09:43:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2006-01-24 21:34:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2006-01-17 19:11:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
it's wonderful when you find a series that kicks ass.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-11-30 20:35:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
"We got nothing but blood so your free to go, just don't leave town."
Should be 'you're'
VERY interesting. The hook on this one is a motherfucker. The only thing I didn't like is the post starting with him getting out of the car, and then ending with him getting out of the car. I think if you had left out the part at the beginning where he's getting out of the car, it would have made more sense to me. I had to go back and check that I didn't miss something, the way you presented it.
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2005-11-30 14:52:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2005-11-29 16:10:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-11-25 16:16:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-11-24 19:26:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
You crazy kids you.
Submitted by Akira (user info) at 2005-11-24 19:12:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Because we spammed the Harry Carey post.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-11-24 18:37:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Ummm what's up with that banner?
Can someone tell my why Thorpe and Williamson got banned?
Submitted by Fungah (user info) at 2005-11-24 17:17:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
That sure is alot of words.
There has to be.... ten... carry the... um.... remainder.... divide......
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-11-24 12:35:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ahhhhh. You rock.
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-11-23 22:16:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
It is always a pleasure to read your work. Who doens't like a good Charles Bronson type payback tale? Add in some walking dead and magic and you know it's going to be very cool.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2005-11-23 20:10:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is settling in to a fantastic narrative.
Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to seeing how Mama Ngana sucks out the seductress?
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2005-11-23 19:53:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Inicidentally, I'm trying to work a Necrosiac into Cambrai. Think it'll work?
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2005-11-23 19:51:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Mama = the hag?
Rockin this shit again, my negro
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2005-11-23 18:21:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The name Pitt now makes my nipples tingle.
Why?
Cuz I know it's gonna be good.
That and I am a tingly nipple sort of gal.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-11-23 18:17:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by nahnoneofit (user info) at 2005-11-23 18:13:06 (#)
Ranking: 1
beginning is too sparatic and unexplained...
======================
Did you read part 1?
Submitted by nahnoneofit (user info) at 2005-11-23 18:13:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
beginning is too sparatic and unexplained...
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-11-23 18:01:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Yep, I powered this off at work.
Mama is next up :)
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2005-11-23 17:58:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great, but I can tell you hurried. fucking typos all over man. Another paragraph on what Mama Ngana is known for and biz he's done in the past that involves her would have been awesome.
Submitted by Falconer (user info) at 2005-11-23 17:48:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Really awesome, could picture everything in my mind, and it sounds like it's building up to something very cool indeed.