“Shut the freak up!” one of the
demon teens screamed—
“Okay, now
what is it?” I asked.
“Freak?”
Nikki arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah,
Boss,” Jessie added. “Even I don’t buy that one.”
“Well,
yeah,” I said, “but you both know how I am about swearing.”
“I believe
you take issue with blaspheming more than simple cursing,” Nikki explained.
“Just
because I don’t take religious issue with other forms of cursing doesn’t mean I
approve of it. It’s not like dropping the F-bomb is going to add to the story
in this case. You know what he’s really saying.”
“It’s still
kind of weak, Boss,” Jessie said.
“Okay, I am
not going to sit here and drop bombs for the next twenty minutes as I tell this
story.”
Jessie held
up her hands defensively, then gave me a ‘just yanking your chain’ grin.
Nikki gave
a slight shake of her head. “Very well, carry on.”
“Shut the freak up!” one of the
demon teens screamed through the community center. I couldn’t tell which one,
but he was clearly angry, but then most teens were.
“We mean freaking business!” yelled
another one from what sounded like the other side of the stage.
“We’re not freaking leaving until we
get what we freaking want!” chimed in a third, from the front of the stage.
I sat up, trying to see through the
sea of legs for their location, but fortunately two people helped me and held
me up, my ankle still too tender for any kind of weight. I was afraid I would
see guns in their hands, but was only slightly relieved they had baseball bats.
One had gone the extra step to wrap barbed wire around his bat. It was enough
of a threat to cow the entire group, especially with so many kids in the room.
“We weren’t going to take it this
far, but now, we’re going to freak all of this up!” barbed bat said. He was
tall and stocky with menace in his voice and a tattoo of a skull on his neck.
He wore a tank top that showed off muscled arms and torso. He looked as built
as a linebacker, and there was no way that people wouldn’t get hurt if they
tangled with him.
Especially
me.
“Call the cops,” I whispered to the
men holding me up.
“Before any of you idiots get any
stupid ideas about calling the police,” barbed bat continued, “throw all your
phones off the front of the stage.” Some people hesitated. “Every person I
catch with a phone is going to get my freaking bat shoved up their freaking
rear!”
Cell
phones sailed through the air, landing in the first rows of seats. I added mine
to the mix.
Not like the cops will get here any
time soon, and I don’t want to provoke these guys more than necessary. Guess
I’ll have devise something clever to get us all out of this. Good thing I’m
Matt Allen, genius detective—
“Matthew!”
Nikki slapped a palm on my desk.
“Geez,
you really know how to kill a story,” I said. “Fine, I’ll tell the version
where the hero—and that is me—is more or less real. It’s not as fun, though.”
Jessie
unsuccessfully tried to stifle a laugh.