Heartless People

ELEVEN

If someone puts their hands on you, make sure they never put their hands on
anybody else again.

—Malcolm X

LAUREN.

Pulling up a seat in front of my old friend Scoot, I leaned back before I turned to my darling wife who stood against the brick wall to my right. I noticed a red gallon tank of what I hoped was gasoline sitting beside her. She grinned and it was as though she could see into my mind.

"I know who this fucker is," I said, as I rested my foot on his hand, which was taped to his thigh. One of the greatest gifts given to man had to be duct tape.

"But I am not acquainted with these lovely women."

"Meet Lacey, Scooters wife." My own wife pointed to the woman on the left with dusty blonde hair. "And to the right is Shelby, Scooters prostitute."

How he had so much time on his hands is beyond me.

"Which one do you think he loves more?" I asked as I tilted my head to the right to stare at the brunette. "They both seemed simple enough to me."

"I couldn't figure it out," Camz sighed dramatically, as she pushed off the wall and walked behind the blonde. The womans tears rolled past her taped
mouth and dripped off her chin. "His wife has the house and he always comes home to her. She was his high school sweetheart. Right Scooter?" Camz pulled his head back roughly before letting go, and he didn't struggle or speak. Instead he sat there with his head hanging so low that he tipped forward. Had it not been for the tape, he would've fallen to the floor.

He was broken on the inside. If only he hadn't pissed the hell out of me, that would've almost been
enough. But it wasn't. I wanted him broken on the inside and destroyed on the out.

"Yet, hes put up the prostitute in his old childhood apartment, she also has a stake in his will."

Scoots wifes head snapped over to him as her eyes went wide.

"So, its hard for me to say whos number one, I thought I'd let you figure it out," Camz whispered as she moved over to me.

With a sigh, I look to them both. "What did King Solomon do when he wished to find who was the true mother of the baby?"

"You want to cut them in half." Camila gasped in mock horror. "So messy."

"You're right, but the suspense is killing me." I dropped the brass knuckles as I pulled a razor tooth knife from my boot. Cutting the tape from his mouth, I held the blade to his nose and said, "You're going to tell me who you love more, or I will start cutting off their fingers."

He didn't speak, he didn't even look as though he were breathing.

Sighing once more, I moved over to his mistress and ran the blade over her thumb. Her breathing became rapid and her tears fell faster.

"You know what separates man from beast?" I asked her as she closed her eyes. "Our thumbs."

I slammed the blade down and started sawing off her thumb. She wailed so loudly that her body began to shake. Scooter watched the entire time, as tears fell
from his face.

"Who do you love more?" I asked him again, as I wiped the blood on his jeans and walked towards his wife.

"I-I"

"Too slow."

Holding the hilt of the blade, I drove it into her ring finger. She screamed as loud as her reluctant competitor, but the truth of the matter was that those kinds of wails no longer fazed me. Grabbing her dismembered finger, I held it in front of his face and tilted it ring-side down, he watched as the ring he'd given her dropped to the ground and nestled itself into the pool of her blood.