The Circus Freak - and the boy who was afraid of clowns

Twenty-Fourth Chapter

RENATO NOTICED HE HAD BEEN FORGETTING HIS OWN essence; he was a natural born killer. He had been feeling more pleasure in killing than in having rough sex. Killing people he disliked made him feel free, like declaring his rights.

But the death of the gateman would never compare to the importance and greatness to the sacrifice of the Red Evil Dragons.

Renato was sure that at this moment the Red Dragons were summoning all their allies, whether they were clowns or not, to end his life. The nosey gateman was probably just some inferior soul that was used by the evil clowns. That smell... Putridity! The little gateman's underarms smelled like Xangô's bad breath. Renato left the watch tower excitedly. He was breathing hard, and all his muscles were contracted, tense. He felt terribly thirsty. Ecstasy had warmed him up and dehydrated his body, ending his reserves of energy like in a bonfire of sensations. Renato stared at the gateman's tongue for the last time. The gateman's saliva was dripping down the side of his mouth.

"How are you ever gonna gossip again, huh?" Renato said laughing ironically, with his hands on his own face. But Renato did not have time for a break. He needed to get rid of the little man's dead body. Since there was nobody there, he thought he should take the chance and make use of the darkness of the area around the watch tower. The gateman's fat body grossed Renato out as he carried him. He quickly took the body towards his white pick-up. A beam of light reflected on the white color of Renato's car, blinding the murderer. "White light!" Renato said out loud to himself. It meant that the orixás were at his side.

The gateman was in fact a red.

While he was throwing the man's body in the back of the pick-up he smelled that horrible smell, which had gotten worse now, and he almost puked.  The gateman had pooped in his pants while being strangled.

Renato headed to Redinha Beach. He was driving past Newton Navarro Bridge, when he decided to stop his pick-up on the side of the road. He got out of the car and lifted the pick-up truck bed cover. At that moment a Fiat Pálio drove by at high speed.

"You idiot!" The driver of the Fiat shouted as he avoided Renato's pick-up that was parked illegally.

Renato made sure that he was the only soul in sight. He then hurried to pull the body out of the back of his truck, and quickly threw it off the bridge. That instant, when the body fell 440 yards freely through the air, was made eternal by the effects of the drug. Renato sensed the red light of the emergency lights coming from the car behind him.

"BOOM!" The body seemed to have exploded making a deadly sound that was pleasant for Renato's tuned ears.

"Kawô Ogum, alayeluwa!" Renato, the son of Ogum, shouted in rage."Aw!" He felt free. He noticed right after that another car approached. This time, a police car.

"Small world, sir Renato," he playfully predicted what the officer would say. He recalled immediately that man. Strong man. He had curly hair, too long for an officer. It was the same man that had pointed a thirty-eight caliber gun to his forehead, but now his body looked disproportionate. In less than a year, the weird police officer, who wore Ray-Ban glasses, had gained almost ten kilos of muscle mass.

An image formed in his mind. Valdo, out of focus, in the background; the aim of the gun right in front of Renato's eyes, in focus. He remembered Valdo's finger touching the trigger gently.

"Thank you, I really need a hand here. My car stopped suddenly, I tried to turn the engine on, but..."

"That's too bad, sir. I thought for a minute that you were about to jump!" The other two officers started to laugh. It seemed like officer Valdo had overcome the pain of losing Natália, and had regained his good humor. "He's on X! How high are you?" Valdo said furiously, coming close to Renato and placing his hand above that same thirty-eight caliber gun. Both officers faces changed suddenly. Valdo was crossing the limit there.

"Answer, damn it! How high are you? You keep spreading this shit around, killing people!" Valdo had his finger right in Renato's face. "You know, that sheriff is a mother fucker, he sucks! That guy is afraid of everything, not me!" He grabbed Renato's shirt and threw him against the security fence that prevented them from falling. "What if I threw you, man? Nobody would care, would they? I would be doing a whole bunch of people a favor. You wouldn't be out in the clubs filling them up with MDMA. I will catch you one day."

"You have caught me," Renato said accepting the fact that he could not react to Valdo; he was actually happy to not be carrying his gun with him. He wouldn't have a proper explanation for having a 9mm pistol illegally with him at that moment. "Now, could you please let me go, sir?"

Valdo let go of Renato's shirt quickly making him stumble and fall.

"Listen, pal, take it easy!" Felipe, the other officer, interfered, approaching Valdo. "Valdo, man, he didn't do anything, at least not that we know of. Go wait in the car, ok?" Valdo walked away, realizing his partner might have been right. He needed to be patient. This type of explosive behavior had harmed many of his other partners. 

"Put your hands on the car, sir!" Felipe said with his hands on the holster. Renato did what Felipe told him to do. Felipe searched Renato for guns and drugs. Meanwhile, the other cop searched the glove compartment of the pick-up.

"Open the truck bed cover!" Valdo reminded his friend from inside the police car. Renato did that too.

                        "What's that smell?" Felipe said and closed the cover quickly.

                        "Oh... yeah, I wish I knew, man. I've been scenting it for days. No cleaning can get rid of it. I think some animal might have shit in the back of my pick-up or something."

The officers stopped bothering Renato and left. They had stepped out of their routine to respond to their friend's request. They left Renato exactly where he was in the first place. At this exact moment, the body of the gateman emerged full of blood, two hundred yards away from the bridge, at Forte Beach.