Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 23: Wrong On Many Levels

Stepping back from the destroyed camera, Tony turned the gun on Laz and brought it right to his face. Laz was scared and had no idea what he was doing.

"Two things," Tony said, holding up a finger.

"One, never say you are going to kill someone. That's the shit that can be used against you if they ever find you or the body."

"Two," Tony said while holding up another finger.

"Don't talk. They can use your voice to identify you."

"But I changed my voice."

"I've seen better voice changers in cereal boxes."

"Do they even make those anymore?"

"Shut up." Tony brought the gun away from Laz's head and started looking around some more.

Laz walked over to look at the girl again, his face becoming darker and darker. He could feel his blood burning in anger. Even though he knew this was going on earlier, he didn't realize how much it would affect him to see it up close.

People don't react the same when they are somewhat disconnected to a situation as opposed to when they confront it up close. It's kind of like hearing a train derailed on the news and watching the footage of it while at home. Although the scenes may be disturbing, because you know you are in a safe and comfortable environment, it doesn't really affect your emotions much.

Now imagine if you were on the train when it derailed and experienced the entire tragedy up close. The way it would impact you would be far more profound and disturbing. Even seeing pictures of it afterwords would bring you back to that moment and haunt you.

This is kind of what Laz was feeling while looking at this unknown victim. Her face was so swollen, it was impossible to see what she looked like, but he felt she was probably quite beautiful before this.

Now she would be lucky if the scarring ever faded.

Laz had always lived in the light so his first view of the darkness was like a bucket of ice water. He felt like he was waking up from a dream and the one thing he felt the most was anger. He had never felt true anger like this before, the kind that makes your body shake.

He didn't know why, but he felt angry from deep inside and his blood was boiling in response.

"Don't bother trying to wake her, she's out cold for a while."

"How do you know that?"

"Special K will knock you out all night."

"Special K?"

"Google it, I don't have time to explain. Needless to say, I recognize my own product and I don't sell cheap shit.".

Although Laz was a little startled, he didn't show it. He didn't know what Tony was talking about but he figured the girl had been drugged and wasn't going to come to any time soon.

"So what now?"

"Now we go back up and wait for Lenny and his guys to get here. There is nothing we can do here."

"We are just going to leave her?"

"We ain't moving her body if that's what your asking. The camera is dead so at least that will keep Joey occupied for a bit when he gets back. My guys should be here before he returns anyway and they will take care of things. Besides, we move her and he will probably bolt as soon as he figures it out."

"You don't want to let him go?"

"It's already gotten to this point so he will know I had something to do with it cause I'm sure he won't think it was you or the old man. Last thing I need is cops knocking on my door. Move it."

Laz walked past the beads and started heading for the door with Tony just a step behind him. He suddenly got a feeling and calming down his emotions, he focused his hearing outward.

Joey's van had just pulled into a parking space and stopped.

"Shit, he's already back," Laz mumbled out loud. Tony heard him, but didn't process it for a moment. Once he did, his head snapped up right away and he looked at Laz.

"What?"

"Joey's back."

Tony walked over to the curtain and drawing it back slightly, took a look outside. Sure enough, Joey was getting out of his van with a bag of groceries from the small local market. Apparently, he didn't go far.

Tony looked at Laz for a brief moment with several questions, but he swallowed them back quickly and just simply said "Hide."

Tony moved behind the counter, hoping to sneak out after Joey walked back into the bedroom. Although it wasn't a good plan, it was the best he could come up with. He didn't want to be here when things went down.

Tony had started as a low level thug and worked his way up. He enjoyed his somewhat easy life that allowed him to order others around and still rake in a lot of money. He didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that.

He didn't fear Joey, but he wasn't keen on being the trigger man since there were to many things here he didn't have control of. He'd already done time for someone else's mistake so he had become more careful as a result.

While Tony was crouched there, thinking about a few things, he suddenly remembered that he forgotten to look at where Laz went. He knew that Laz hadn't walked back towards the bedroom or tried hiding in the bathroom as Tony would have noticed him go past him. He stole a quick peak over the counter and yelled 'FUCK' in his head.

Laz had walked behind where the door would swing open and was just standing with his back to the wall, facing forward. If the door were to swing open and not stop, it would smack Laz right in the nose. Luckily for him, he was rather skinny and there was a door stop on the floor.

What Tony was worried about was when Joey closed the door, there was no way he would miss him.

Even though they'd come in in a hurry, Laz had taken the time to re-secure the deadbolt after closing the door, thus ensuring that it would look undisturbed from the outside.

As he stood there and heard Joey inserting the key into the deadbolt, he felt like his heart was booming in his chest. His blood was pumping at an incredible rate as he felt his energy surge.

He knew this feeling. This was the same feeling he had when he blasted the punching bag, the feeling of unlimited strength. But this time, it wasn't going anywhere. The anger was the fuel that kept the fire burning within him as his eyes turned a brilliant red color. He tensed in anticipation.

As Joey opened up the door, he stuck his face in like he was coming home from work to surprise his family and called back to the bedroom, "Daddy's home! I've got a big surprise for you."

"Funny, I was going to say almost the same thing," Laz commented in a monotone voice. He reached his hand around the door and grabbed a handful of Joey's shirt. Before Joey could even figure out what was going on, Laz lifted him up and flung him inside, slamming the door shut.

Joey flew over and hit the counter, dropping the bag. Several baby bottles, a couple cans of food, some Vaseline and a turkey baster all rolled out of the bag and on to the floor.

Laz's eyes became brighter as weird thoughts when through his head.

"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Joey yelled, frighted.

Although Laz wasn't very tall or imposing, dressing in a ski mask with a skull on it while wearing black gloves tends to make people think that you are not a good person.

Laz didn't respond back, remembering what Tony said about learning to be quiet. He just walked over to Joey and kicked him in the stomach, causing him to roll over.

"Fucking let me out and I will deal with this little punk," came a mysterious voice that didn't sound a thing like Joey.

"No. You've been hogging all the fun the past two days and I finally got you to quiet down and let me have a turn. Now you want out again?' Joey asked the strange voice.

"Don't worry, I'm just going to kill this little pest then go back to sleep for a bit. It's not like we are in a hurry," came the response back.

Tony was dumbstruck with his mouth wide open as he looked over the counter. All he could see was Laz standing there with his glowing red eyes and his hands curled into fists while a massive lump was laying down in front of the counter. There was no one else in the room.

Laz had a bad feeling, a really bad feeling as he looked at Joey. He saw Tony staring at him and wanted to motion for him to come over since he had the gun, but he decided against it. The less Joey knows, the better they both are. He was sure Joey hadn't seen Tony yet.

"Ok, but you promised." Joey stood up and faced Laz with a mocking smile. Laz took two steps back and braced himself, squaring up his shoulders and preparing for a fight. He had no idea what was happening.

Joey then did something neither Tony nor Laz expected. He pulled down his sweatpants and underwear, letting little Joey swing freely. Although it was kind of small and buried in layers of hair, fat and filth, Laz had no intention to laugh.

It seemed like the tiny, pinky sized Joey was giving off a dangerous sensation that Laz could feel.

Before he had time to figure out where the sensation was coming from, little Joey started growing longer and thicker, reaching almost 3 meters in length as it waved around the room like a dancing snake.

The head then split in half to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth that finally twisted into a smile.

"Mmmm, I can eat this one since you want to keep the other one alive, right?" Little Joey asked Big Joey.

"Sure, enjoy yourself and sleep longer and make sure you go back to normal size before that, ok?"

"Fine." It seemed like this wasn't the first negotiation Big Joey had with Little Joey.

Many thoughts were going through Laz's head right now, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was,

"That's just wrong on so many levels."