‘The names John, People call me Hodgey though, stuck with me at high school.’ Said the man

‘Okay Hodgey. Are there any reasons you can think of as to why these people want you interrogated?’

The man shakes his head forcefully as if to make a point of his innocence.

‘I don’t know man. Sometimes all it takes is just a look. One single look and I’m dog meat.’

‘I’m sure you won’t become a dog’s dinner John.’

‘Either way I’m still stuck here, tied up to a bloody operating table like an animal. I feel like an inmate on death row just about to serve his bid. ‘

‘Nothing is going to happen to you Hodgey. Just relax. What’s your clearance level at M.I.T.? I would assume you fall on the top layer of staff here.’

The man shook his head forcefully again.

‘I’m just a janitor man. I clean all the mess up in this building. You know; shredded paper and polystyrene cups from the water dispenser. That’s about my entire work load, not exactly Mr Important around here.’

Nathan nods in confusion.

‘So what is it that they possibly want from you?’

‘As I already said, I have no idea. You tell me!’

‘I was sent in here to get you to talk. That is what I’m trying to do.’

At that moment Nathan heard footsteps outside the door walking down the hallway towards the room he was in. He knew that these guys meant business so he had to protect himself from being found out. He grabbed a mallet that was lying on the table beside the bed, which was littered with sharp objects that Nathan knew were not intended to operate but to disfigure. He looked down at the man on the table who started to reel at the sight of the mallet and was going to let out a shriek when it was stopped by Nathan’s glove covered hand. He sighed in deeply and raised his arm in the air in a striking motion.

‘I’m sorry Hodgey. I know I said that I would not knock you out, but I’m afraid that’s likely the safest option for you right now. I’ll be back to free you when I can. You have my word. ‘Nathan whispered to the man on the operating table, his hand still engulfing the man’s face.

Nathan swung the mallet down hard onto the man’s knee. His screams were muffled by Nathan’s large hand still pressed on John’s face. The footsteps stopped on the outside. Suddenly the door opened and the guard that escorted Nathan earlier walked in, this time meaner than before, the bulky man strides over to Nathan and smiles. He looks down at Nathans hand that is covering John’s mouth.

‘Let him scream. Were all friends here Nathan’ the guard says

Nathan lets his grip go on the man’s face; John lets out a massive scream in pain.

‘My knee my god dam Knee, you bastard!’ John shouted in agony.

The guard looks down the table at John’s shattered knee, which looked like it had buckled and cracked. Painful looking indeed

‘Stop being a baby! You’ll be fine as long as you tell us what you know. Luckily for you, our friend Nathan here knows nothing about breaking knee caps. Yours is not broken. It’s dislocated. You will walk again, if you tell me what I want to know that is.’ The hefty guard said.

‘I told you everything I know honestly, I’m not lying hon…..’ Before John could finish talking the guard had swung the mallet and hit him on the jaw, instantly knocking him unconscious. The sound of the impact was harsh in the cold silence of the room. The cracking of the jaw made Nathan even more wary of the seriousness of this situation.  The guard turns to Nathan and hands him the mallet.

‘When he wakes up, go for round two.’

Twenty Seven

Crystal had been sitting in silence now for a good thirty minutes, unsure what to say to her best friend who in her eyes had just gone against every principle that she thought they lived by. Crystal never thought of herself as a prude of such but more of a level headed person. She always made sure that Jenifer and her friends made the right decisions. She always took it upon herself to make sure that her friends never made any detrimental mistakes, mistakes that could cause them future harm. She saw it all too often, young bright women who had it all going for them, a future that consisted of more than just getting by. She hated when the people she knew threw everything away just for cheap thrills and eighteen years of responsibly. You could say that’s why Crystal has only ever been in one intimate relationship. That being said, she was with him for five years until she realized that the guy she was with had been playing the field behind her back. That’s probably the reason why she felt so strongly about putting her career first and sexual appetite second.

Jenifer was sitting across from Crystal, trying to avoid eye contact with her friend. She knew how Crystal would react, she knew her all too well. She turned her head to the left to see Jason dozing off in his chair next to her. Jenifer finally gathered the strength needed and turned her head to face Crystal who by now was staring a hole into her. Crystal signalled Jenifer to get up and follow her. She did. Crystal got up and made her way to the toilets, closely followed by Jenifer. They both reached the toilet cubicles and Jenifer followed her friend into the cubicle. Crystal locked the door behind her and turned to Jenifer who looked on nervously at her.

‘What the hell are you playing at?’ Crystal whispered in a harsh tone to her friend.

Jenifer started smiling while shaking her head in a disapproving fashion.

‘I can do what I like; I don’t need permission from you Crystal.’

‘That’s beside the point. You don’t know this guy from anywhere. Let alone who he has slept with or what sort of guy he is.’

Jenifer yet again shows her disapproval of the conversation with a tainted chuckle that angers Crystal even more.

‘Say what you want to say, but what happened…. happened. End of story.’

‘What did happen?’

Jenifer laughs once again.

‘The best sex I’ve had in a while. Now that’s saying something.’

Crystal’s and Jenifer’s voices were muffled on the other side of the door as Jason pressed his ear against the cubicle to listen intently. At the sound of their voices he smiled a sinister yet goofy smile. A smile that could stop a person in his tracks, a smile that could make you questions the sanity of the person wearing it. His eyes grew even wider with every word that flowed out of both girls mouths. His lips grew even dryer, prompting him to lick them as a lion licks his before devouring his prey.

Twenty Eight

‘Yeah it’s me Jacob. I got a problem; I need that hardware that you promised me. Okay, I’ll meet you there in a bit. I’ll drive down. I’m going to be in a Ford Capri.’

The phone goes dead as Frank puts it back into his coat pocket. He takes a sip of his Starbucks medium cup whipped late with extra sprinkles. Frank looks down at his cardboard cup that’s seeping with foam that’s trickling down the sides.  He surveys the heavily packed Starbucks that’s overflowing with customers and commotion as he remains idle. Observing his surroundings from his corner table, he smiles to himself as he witnesses the farm like behaviour of the people in Starbucks. He envisions the chaos with a smile as people are rushing around ordering coffee, serving coffee, and eating overpriced cakes and sandwiches. He notices how people are clamouring for seats and tables at the establishment. He wonders why it was so easy for him to get a seat at Starbucks.

It wasn’t his badge; he had thrown that into a waste bin at the incident building. So people are not being courteous to him because of his profession. It baffles him, and then it starts to eat at him. Frank’s hand starts to twitch as he’s holding his cup of coffee. He notices it immediately and quickly shoots his hand underneath the table so no one notices his strange behaviour. The whole place is chaotic in the sense of the usual lunchtime rush hour, but the day’s events had left a very eerie atmosphere in Boston, Frank felt it on the streets and he also felt it in the coffee shop. The backtracking thought of him managing to gain a seat so easily on this day was still eating at him. He could not put his finger on it until he turned his head slightly from surveying the front of house.