The light in the garage went on startling me.
“A little jumpy, fucknuts?”
Fuck yes, I was jumpy. I’d been trying to think of what I could have possibly done that warranted a trip to the garage alone with Fuck Me Eddy. Then it came to me.
I remembered asking Junior one night where he got his supply of Mannitol and Lidocaine. That stuff was harder to come by than the Yeyo and he had closets full of the shit.
“Why? You thinking about going out on your own? Starting up your own crew?”
“Uh, no. GOD NO, Junior! That would be stupid. I mean I make plenty working with you so why would I need my own crew?” I stammered, realizing too late I should have kept my mouth shut.
“So you work with me?” Junior replied. “Like we’re equals? Partners?”
Damage done. I did keep my mouth shut after that. But Junior wouldn’t forget what I’d said. Junior never forgot anything.
Had I mad him suspicious? Was that why he had me take a stroll with the dark angel?
“Stay there.”
I stood rooted to the spot. Fuck Me Eddy walked to the far wall toward the only thing in the garage. He took out another set of keys and began to unlock three giant padlocks that secured a trio of industrial hasps on a steel trunk anchored to the concrete floor by huge bolts. The lid opened upward. Like on a coffin.
My grifter brain started working in spite of my terror.
Is this where Junior keeps his money? His uncut Yeyo? I could pop the hinges on the back of the trunk if I could find a way in without being detected.
I started checking out the garage for other entry points and electronic security. While casing Junior’s garage I noticed the space was indeed sound proofed.
“The hinges are on the interior and made of titanium, fucknuts,” Fuck Me Eddy offered, reading my mind.
I swallowed. Hard.
“Uh, sure, Eddy.”
Eddy ignored me and popped open the lid. I say popped because of the sound it made. The trunk wasn’t a trunk. It was a freezer. Ice fog poured out of the opening, down the sides and across the floor.
For some reason I held my breath, not wanting to breathe in the vapor.
Eddy rooted around for a minute before pulling out a cardboard box. The box had been sealed with duct tape. It looked square about a foot all the way around, perfect size for a human head.
Eddy stuck the box under his left arm and shut the lid on the freezer. After replacing the locks he sidled up to me and looked up at the ceiling. A meat hook hung from a steel pipe. An average size man could dangle from the hook, suspended in the air with his toes inches off the ground.
“In space no one can hear you scream,” he muttered, casually, the tag line straight from the movie Alien. Fuck Me Eddy was the kind of guy who’d root for the monster. Truth be told Fuck Me Eddy probably had the same DNA as that nightmare creature.
Seeing the look on my face Fuck Me Eddy laughed and stepped out of the garage…
…but not before turning off the light and leaving me in the dark.
Tags: the box