The Cold Darkness of the Night: Chapter 8

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Chapter 8

Brian’s eyelids sluggishly dragged themselves open. All he saw was complete darkness. He blinked a few times to make sure he was awake. He was, so he waited until his vision adjusted to the enveloping blackness.

While Brian idled, he tried to recall what happened to him, and figure out where he was. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain on the back of his head. Someone must have hit him forcefully there with a hard object. As he recalled the sudden debilitating agony that immediately led to unconsciousness, Brian extended his hand behind his head. He felt a large welt, touching it gingerly, which generated a dull, throbbing pain.

As the large killer’s eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, he saw the outline of another person. He thought the unconscious man might be his friend. Focusing more intently on his environment, he noticed that they were in a small, enclosed space. It was so miniscule that he and Bill were forced to lie in the fetal position.

Brian reached up and felt a roof approximately a foot above him. He could hear a tunnel-like sound that told him they were moving at a high speed. His weight occasionally shifted involuntarily as he felt the impact of small bumps. They were in the trunk of a car.

Bill started to stir, and his partner nudged him lightly on the shoulder.

“Bill, wake up,” he whispered urgently.

As the man’s eyes slowly blinked open, he looked around, disoriented. “Brian? Where are we?”

“We’re in a trunk,” Brian replied grimly. “It seems like someone got the jump on both of us, knocked us unconscious, and put us here. All I remember is getting hit on the back of the head and blacking out. Did you put up a fight against these motherfuckers?”

Bill sighed before he replied. “No, they were really fast. I saw you fall, and looked over to you, and saw a guy hitting you with a shotgun. I started pulling out my gun, but I blacked out too, so that must have been when I got knocked out.”

Brian rubbed his bald head contemplatively as he whispered, “These guys are professionals. It’s not easy to sneak up on both of us at the same time and surprise us.”

“Who do you think it is? I don’t think any of the gangs are good enough to pull this off,” responded Bill, stroking his beard thoughtfully.

“Exactly,” Brian agreed. “So someone must have hired outside help right? Whoever they are, they’re good. And why we were kidnapped is beyond me. It doesn’t matter who’s doing this. They should all know that if we were held hostage, Marcel wouldn’t give a shit. There’s no way he’s going to meet their demands. We’re expendable assets.”

“Maybe this is personal then,” suggested Bill. “Maybe someone hired people to do this because we hurt or killed someone they know.”

“Fuck! That’s a good point. I hope it’s not that,” said Brian, the characteristic coolness in his voice fading away at the edges.

Recognizing that their captors might hear them, the massive man made a louder suggestion to Bill. “Let’s just cooperate with these guys for now. If they’re as good as they seem, we might get killed if we try anything.”

The smaller assassin turned around and looked at Brian quizzically. The other man shook his head, pointed behind himself with his thumbs, and then pointed at his ears with his index fingers. Bill got the message.

“You’re probably right,” he responded, injecting artificial reluctant acceptance into his voice.

Both men lay in silence for a while. They listened to the car moving, felt the sporadic bumps in the road, and thought about their predicament. There were a lot of potential reasons for it. Wars between the gangs rarely made a lot of sense. A large amount of the actions were power plays and retaliations, and Brian and Bill had hurt of lot of people.

Their pockets must have been emptied when they got knocked out, so they had only a vague sense of how much time passed. But after what felt like a long time, both hit men felt the car come to a stop. They pretended to be unconscious, and waited for the trunk to open. It did, sunlight quickly enveloping the darkness.