Darkness. There was no difference in what I saw with my eyes
open or closed. I opted to keep them closed because I was in excruciating pain.
I felt blood trickle down from my temple through my greasy hair and down to the
ground from my nose. Immediately above me, a man with putrid breath was
breathing erratically, searching for his words. A moment of silence, then he
spoke. “I know they call you Vinnie.” He began to feel around for my pockets
and quickly found my wallet and removed it. “Now I have all of your
information, just in case. With this I can find everybody in your family, all
of your friends, and even get access to your financial records if necessary.”
At this point I didn’t think there was any point in mentioning that none of my
credit cards would ever work and there was no driver’s license in the leather
tri-fold.
“I work with an organization that has beef with your boss.
Yeah, I know King is in there. Right now there are two choices you can make.
You can listen to what I have to say, leave, and follow my instructions and
live and maybe work for us one day. Or, you can listen to what I have to say,
leave and go tell King what happened tonight, and I promise you and he and your
families will be dead in less than a day.” This was the second time in twenty
minutes that somebody had threatened me and my family with murder. I wasn’t
really scared for myself, but I never wanted anything bad to happen to my
family because of the stupid life I had chosen, so I listened.
“I’m sorry I had to hit you, it was the only way I know how
to make sure somebody really pays attention. And now that I have your
attention, I need you to listen carefully.” In the distance I could hear the escalating
noise of a vehicle driving toward the alley. It seemed like days since I had
seen light, and now it was fast approaching from the side street. The vehicle
turned in and I was momentarily relieved and hoped that the man would run in
fear and I would be able to escape into the darkness. It became clear that this
car was part of the plan. “You and I are going to get up and get in the car.
When we get in, you are going to take off all of your clothes so we know you
don’t have any weapons. Capiche?” I
nodded. I was really nervous now, I had over $10,000 in drugs on me that I
still owed for and I knew they would find it.
The car drew near and I opened my eyes again to see what was
going on with the added light. I caught just a glimpse of what appeared to be a
robot before the headlights went out. Night vision. The guy was wearing fucking
night vision goggles! God damn tweakers. It made sense now that he was able to see me
so well to follow and incapacitate me. These guys were really organized.
He shoved me toward the car and the back door opened up and I
was forced in. I hadn’t even hit the seat before I had a 9mm shoved in my face.
On the other end of the gun was a shirtless, fat, bald, skin-head looking man
with a giant swastika on his chest. In my head I named him Dumpy. Dumpy was a
very angry man. He yelled, “Take yer fuckin’ clothes off, man!” Goggles got in
the passenger seat and the car pulled away. Slowly I began fiddling with the
buttons on my shirt. The meth was in a giant Ziploc bag against my back in my
waistband. Dumpy said, “Hurry up!” I knew there was no point in delaying, so I
undressed as quickly as I could. I didn’t even try to hide the bag; I knew that
would just agitate the situation. I threw the bag at Dumpy and said, “There you
fuckin’ go. That just sealed my fate.” Goggles turned around and said, “That’s not
even close to what we want.” The car stopped in another alley a few blocks away
and I was ordered out at gunpoint. Quickly my shirt was used to tie my hands
behind my back and I was thrown into the trunk. The lid slammed shut and I was
alone in the dark again. For only a moment, there was complete silence and I
actually felt safe.
There was a small amount of light coming from the running
lights so I could see my surroundings. Right in front of me were three shovels.
To be continued…
