Rooted From A Bloody Heart

Keep Your Enemies Close...

"Do you want to know how I have a severed finger?" The hand, cramped with masculinity, gives it's permission to shake vigorously. The middle finger, gone halfway, still represents a wedding ring that is presented with a blood stain. As the hand approaches its prey's face with caution, the shadow withers away that covered the mans like a mask. His eyes, dark brown, stare with an angry purpose. His mouth, open to an extent but gets his point across. The man looks down smiling, reminiscent, but as he looks up the smile disappears. He clears his throat, "My stepdad, put his hands on my mother."

The kid, trapped into a dark alleyway repostions herself. Her face that was isolated with fear changes into understanding. She thinks to herself, that this evil man was just like everyone else. She watches him smile the pain away, rub his stubble on a forever bruised cheek. He smacks his lips, and once again their eyes meet as he continues his story.

"So, I stood up to him. We fought, but of course me being a kid I was no match. He beat me down. But I got up, everytime. I remember my hands trembling, but clinched. I finally had the wherewithal to duck a punch, and I, finally had an opening. My punches started to land. He fell to the ground after one really good one, I got excited as I got on top of him. Wailing. Unfortunately, I broke my finger in the process. It was bent to hell, once we both noticed...he took advantage."

The man goes quiet for a second, the girl would have never imagined. But, she understands a little more of why he is the way he is. "As he slammed my head repeatedly against the floor, I remember thinking that this pain was no comparison to my broken finger. As he stood up, proud of his work. I got up...again. But what I did next, I saw his anger turn into fear. And I forever fell in love with that feeling."

He looks at his hand, which he has been more fixated on then the girl's face, although they linger right next to each other. The girl gulps as the man who laughs. "I bit off my finger, and spit it out at his feet. I guess that was my way of finally getting caught of flipping him off. Anyway, I told him that I'm not someone to fuck with. Blah, blah, blah...I killed him."

The girl looked down, in an act of disappointment. She was at first startled that he bit off his own finger just to make a point, but then she suddenly stopped caring. The fact that he rushed the story at the end, proves that her assumptions of him maybe, just maybe wasn't as evil as the world made him out to be; were wrong. Their may be some comparisons of a traumatic past, but he is still responsible for his own actions. She looks up at him, no longer reluctant. The man pushes up off his knees and stands over her. He backs away slowly meeting side by side with two other men. Heavy materillery in their arms like baggage they refuse to let go.

The man smacks his lips as the girl just stares at him the deadly eyes. The man on his left speaks, "Hey! Give your boss some respect!" The man slaps his hand on his shoulder in support, as a thank you. His smile quickly degenerates into a look of rage. He pushes him up against the left wall of the alley, and stabs him deeply into his gut. The other guy that was on his right, looks away quietly, but with a face of guilt. The man twists the knife around that is still implanted and pulls it out. Grunting, he stabs him over and over until his friend's body collapses slowly.

The girl's eyes widen, leaning her head up against the wall forgetting that there was no way out. Her knees push back as far as they can go. Her breath shakes like shackles to an uncirculated ankle. The man smiles, "I'm nobody's boss. Nobody's boss. I'm just at the top of the goddamn food chain, and me being the wonderful guy that I am, give people a chance. A chance, to be on my good side. Or...on my bad." His head draws towards the girl, he smiles like a shark that just smelled blood in the water. He turns around and looks at the other guy, who looks at his dead "colleague" haunted.

The man approaches him and slaps him softly. The guy doesn't flinch, not even a single blink. The man laughs out air from his nose, satisfied. He looks back down at the girl, who finally just stopped shaking. "You want a chance to be on my good side?" The girl nods her head as the guy slaps the guy in the arm. He backs up and orders them to dispose of the body. Once his figure disperses and is out of both of their sight, the guy looks at the girl with obligation.

"So, you getting on his good side?" He asks to be friendly and to distract himself. The girl gets up and hovers over the body with him. She nods her head, pouting out her bottom lip. There she is again, back with that deadly stare she is just starting to get used to. She looks up at him and smiles.

"Yeah." She murmurs. She looks back down at the body. "Keep your enemies close, right?"