The cigarette quivers in-between her fingers; as it tries to stay steady, the glowing tip fills with energy as she inhales deeply.
“An angel? Man, I don’t know if I’m coming down off my high or if this is real. I’m not gonna lie, you’re
scaring me.”
Jasper leans forward. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but I’m telling you the truth. That’s what happened, I woke up and they were gone. He has them, I haven’t made any progress in finding clues or any leads. I’m scared too, but they need me.”
She takes a couple of more puffs then stomps the cigarette out. “So like, if you’re an angel, why you kill those men? Ain’t that like a sin or something in your religion?”
“I’m an outcast of Heaven, I’m not allowed back. I’ve wandered too long on Earth, lost and alone. My heart has felt drained, until I came across Jenny and Shawna. They gave me purpose, a will to go on again. If I shall be judged for my deeds, then so be it, but, before I take my last breath, those girls will be safe.” Jasper arches forward and coughs up speckles of blood into his fist.
“Me and Jenny go back, used to work the same streets. I thought of her like my daughter, kind of.” she lights another cigarette. “As much as a w***e can be a mother to a daughter, I guess. She’s a good kid though. Tough one she is, so is Shawna. That kid is a miracle. Sweet kid…s**t, I can’t believe he got them. I’ll help you find them. I know the right people to talk to. Name’s Cherry by the way, that’s what these welfare pimps call me anyways.”
Jasper places his hand on her free one, “Thank you, Cherry.”
She pulls her hand away. “Sorry, I’m still kinda scared of you, but you’re welcome. About the people we need to talk to, they’re rough necks. A street pimp named Sal and his crew. Won’t think twice to shoot anyone that looks at them wrong, I’m a little shaken up right now, so we’ll go find ’em tomorrow night.”
Jasper clenches his fist and sighs. “I’m sorry if I seem impatient, but every minute counts. Tomorrow could be too late, It could be too late as we speak. I don’t know anything about their whereabouts or their safety. Please..”
She looks down the alley, standing up off the wooden crate pressed against the brick wall, and begins to walk. “I think I know where they’re at, come on.”
—
Jenny’s legs jerk and cramp as she lays twisted on the concrete floor. Droplets of water fall onto her face from the cracked ceiling, her back still swollen and tender from the whipping. Her high had worn off, and just as the man told her, her body was immediately craving more. Too weak to move, she accepted her position on the floor and tried to get a clearer picture of where she was.
Only bare concrete walls and a sliver of light creept in from underneath a steel door. In the distance, she could hear voices arguing, a man and a woman? No, not a woman, a girls voice.
Jenny closes her eyes begging it to be someone else, anyone else. Slowly and more clearly she hears Shawna’s dainty voice screaming “Jenny!”
—
“Alright I see a couple of his guys, he’s gotta be inside.” Cherry says.
Cherry ducks behind a brick wall and lights a cigarette. “I’m gonna go in and see what I can find out. You stay hidden; honestly these guys are loaded and they’re all bat s**t crazy. I’ve seen one gouge a hookers eye out just for looking at him funny. Give me fifteen minutes.”
She heads up to a crooked building down the street, shattered windows and empty rooms mainly filled the place. The first two floors were filled with Sal and his men. Women of the night also lingered aimlessly, track marks on their arms and festering sores around their mouths, the undesirables. They weren’t exactly models, but they were a prize to any man with less than twenty dollars in his pocket.
She begins to walk in unnoticed, as if all was right in the land of deprivation, when suddeny, she is thrustes into a wall. Jasper walks past her, staring ahead with a cold stare. Something about his movement shouted that bad things were to come.
A mexican man with burly arms and a pot belly steps up to hold his hand outwards towards him. Before he can speak, Jasper grips his arm snapping it in half and twisting. The bone cracks before separating from the flesh, with the jagged edge, Jasper swings it forward plunging a hole into the man’s head. He pulls it back as the man falls to the floor. Other men come rushing out from the commotion and raise their machine guns. Jasper picks up the body and runs forward while bullets dig into layers of fat missing him. The chunky arm is used like a slugger bat, cracking skulls and fracturing jaws. He runs down the hallway slamming the arm into random thugs, covering the hallway in blood. His feet slide among the slick ground as he bashes heads apart with tremendous force.
On one head, he splits apart the arm, breaking in half. A man turns the corner taking advantage, and releases fire. Jasper kicks the body towards him while dropping the arm. The man collides with the body and before he can react, a fist drives through the fat suit and through his face. Jasper pulls back and grips onto the thin man. Throwing him upwards, the ceiling to the second floor cracks before he catches the body. He throws him up a second time breaking the floor.
Sal is startled by the first mini earthquake on his floor and reaches behind his desk, pulling out a shotgun. A body flies through the second time as he pulls the trigger in a panic. An explosion of blood flies apart as the body drops down into two pieces, within the red cloud, a man jumps through. He wraps his calloused hand around Sal’s throat and aims the shotgun with his available hand to his head.
“Rico’s location, now.”
“D-down Stalk Road behind the old cemetery, go until you see an abandoned trailer and turn left. Trough the woods you’ll find a building. That’s his hideaway, I swear it!”
Jasper guides his hand to the trigger and replies, “Doesn’t make your life worth living just cause you did one good deed.” He presses on Sal’s finger forcing him to pull down. A release of heat explodes from the tip of the barrel, blood and brain spray onto Jasper’s face as he grimaces it into a deadly expression. He was dying, but so was any good within.
Cherry stands outside shaking with a cigarette in her hand. Jasper jumps out of the second story window and lands next to her. Blood was all over him, his shirt was matted to his body. He looks over to her and says, “Got their location, we have to go, now.” She doesn’t question it, she just tosses her cigarette and heads to her vehicle with him.
—
Rico drags Shawna out towards the main area of the building, he had enough fun starving her and her sister, but debts had to be paid, and Jenny needed to learn. Jenny is pushed out of her room at gun point by a guard. Her hair was wild and dirty, her face had dirt scuffs and bruises. Her bony shoulders stuck out as she walked out, jittering withdraws have begun to set in once again. She steps out and witnesses Shawna on her knees, crying with her hands bound together. She was almost unrecognizable, even skinnier than before and in much worse condition.
“Shawna!” Jenny croaks. The guard pulls back on her hair and presses the cold barrel against her head. “Watch the show.” He whispers. Rico pulls a revolver out of his belt and says, “Jenny! Just in time, now see I thought of how to fix everything, and torturing you both just isn’t worth my time. It takes my use of men and you two take up too much space. It doesn’t bring back Cole, or make me feel any better, so I figured we’d get even. Let’s straighten this debt out so we can go about our lives once more, whatcha say?”
He c***s the gun and aims it at Shawna’s forehead. Jenny tries to run forward but is snagged back and bashed across the back of her head. Heated throbs pulsate through her skull as she tumbles to the floor. From the dirty floor she looks up as Rico grins widely, his bald tattooed head glistens under the fluorescent light.
The wall to the left rumbles with broken cinder blocks and splinter wood bursting out in a sudden motion startling everyone. Through the dust Jasper walks in, his wings spreading out ripping through his blood stained shirt. Upon seeing Rico, he instantly recognizes something in him no one else could. In the commotion of everything, a gun fires, and a girl closes her eyes. Blood trickles onto the floor as Jasper runs towards Rico screaming in rage.
