Powder Burn Flash # 91 - Dana C. Kabel

Fucked and Finished

McTeague jammed the barrel of the snub nosed .38 into Ferret’s mouth and shattered several of his teeth.

“Where’s my daughter?” He shouted.

Ferret mumbled something desperate and unintelligible.

McTeague pulled the gun out of the scrawny man’s mouth and pressed it against his temple before pulling back the hammer. A gob of blood and teeth shards drizzled down Ferret’s chin and the front of his pants grew dark as he pissed himself.

“Jesus Christ, Mac! Are you out of your head?” Billy jumped out from behind the bar and ran to the front door.

McTeague swung the gun around and aimed it at the bartender.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Relax!” Billy said. He turned the bolt on the door and flipped the sign to “CLOSED” before pulling the shade down behind it. In his head he thanked Christ that there were no other customers left in the bar.

Ferret started to wiggle and the gun pressed into his skull.

“Talk, you toothless fuck!” McTeague growled.

“You fucking idiot! I’m a cop.” Ferret said.

McTeague put his mouth close to Ferret’s ear. “I know. You’re the reason I spent the last five years in the can, you fuck!”

Then he bit down on Ferret’s ear and tore a mouthful of it away. Ferret screamed like a banshee as McTeague spit the piece of fleshy cartilage out on the floor.

“Whiskey!” McTeague barked at the bartender.

Billy reached behind the bar and handed him a bottle of Jack.

He took a swig to rinse his mouth out and another to swallow down. Then he tipped the bottle up and splashed a generous amount of the fiery liquid over the bloody mess on the side of Ferret’s head. The wounded man screamed louder.

McTeague repeatedly slapped the side of the man’s head where his ear used to be until his screams turned into tired whimpers. Then he let go and Ferret slumped to the ground and curled into a fetal position.

“Tell me where they took Michelle or I’m going to kill you.”

Ferret was shaking on the floor as McTeague raised a foot up over his head and let it hover there for a moment.

“Mac!” Billy put his hand on his old friend’s shoulder. “Michelle ran away from her step-father’s house after they convicted you of killing her mother.” He said.

McTeague brought his foot back down to the floor instead of stomping Ferret’s skull in. Then he bent down and grabbed the dirty cop by the throat and yanked him back up to his feet.

“Is that what this piece of shit told you, Billy? And did you really think I killed Evelyn?”

Ferret couldn’t stand on his own legs. McTeague held him by the throat as he choked and sputtered.

“Mac…please…he’s a cop! Don’t do this shit in here. Don’t bring this shit down on me!”

McTeague shook Billy’s hand off his shoulder.

“Then tell me where she is, cop! Tell me where she is and I won’t spill any more of your blood on Billy’s floor.”

Ferret gasped. His face turned blue.

“F-f-f-fuh…” Ferret sputtered.

McTeague released his iron grip on the man’s neck and let him drop back down to the floor.

“TALK!”

He heeled back and kicked the cop in the ribs. There was a loud crack and Ferret coughed out a spray of blood. Then he started to laugh through the tears and snot and blood.

Fucked!” Ferret spat. “Fucked and finished! We fucked your little girl…and then we killed her.”

The blood boiled in McTeague’s head until his eyes looked like they would explode.

A gunshot ripped through the air and Ferret’s head turned into an unrecognizable pulp of shredded flesh and blood. McTeague’s face was wet with splashed gore. He wiped it from his eyes and looked at the gun that was in his own hand, thinking at first that he had instinctively pulled the trigger and hit the mark without consciously aiming.

But the little .38 couldn’t have caused the mutilated mess at his feet. He realized that his right ear was ringing and looked over that shoulder.

Billy stood there breathing hard through his flared nostrils and holding the smoking shotgun still aimed at the dead man on the floor. McTeague slowly took the weapon from the bartender’s shaking hands.

“Jesus, Billy…why did you do it?”

Billy’s mouth gaped open, but nothing came out. How could he tell Mac that he had betrayed him so many years ago? How could he tell him that Michelle was really his own daughter?

BIO: He has had other work published in Muzzleflash, and is currently seeking publication for my novel, Killing Is My Business. He can be contacted at danabushi@yahoo.net,