battered Ford pickup pulled into an unpaved driveway five miles from the watering hole at which it was recently parked. Loose pebbles crunched beneath the heavy tires before the truck eventually grinded to a stop.
A large man wearing a big silver ring nearly fell out of the driver’s side. He righted himself, belched loud, then slammed the car door shut before stumbling around the rear of his truck towards the passenger side. The passenger door flung open and a hefty woman reeking of booze and cigarettes fell into his arms, letting out an obnoxious giggle that culminated with a snort. The two instantly locked lips and exchanged a sloppy kiss that missed more than it connected.
The large man wrapped his arm around the staggering girl and guided her along the short, broken path to the front door of his one-story home—a dwelling that would be aptly described by any passerby as a weather-stained box with a few windows.
Before entering, the drunken couple paused for a second attempt at a kiss, nearly falling over one another in the effort. The alcohol-induced detriment to their equilibrium succeeded in bringing out another sloppy giggle from the female. The big man leered at his drunken catch then turned back towards the front door. He closed one eye (there were now two doorknobs for some reason) and fumbled and scraped his key along the lock’s plate until it eventually clicked home. A quick turn of the key, a forceful nudge with his shoulder, and the front door swung open allowing the big man to guide his catch inside. That was the last thing the big man remembered for almost thirty minutes.
* * *
The big man felt the headache before his eyes fluttered open. When his vision settled, he made out two men standing in front of him. It took him a few seconds, but he soon remembered who these two men were. One of the men was sporting an impressive wound on his cheek—a wound that he himself had given him.
The large man sprang to attention, but instant resistance seized his entire body, the confines of the ropes that bound him to the chair biting into his skin. He struggled briefly against the binds, but soon quit when he could not detect even the slightest bit of slack in their coiled grip.
“Careless fool,” the man with the wound on his cheek said. “You left your wallet open for damn near five minutes when you bought a round for that pig you brought home with you.”
The big man blinked several times; nothing this man was saying made any sense. His head ached at its base from where he had been struck upon entering his home, and the more he thought, the more it ached. He went to speak against the wadded cloth that was taped inside his mouth, but only panicked, muffled words escaped.
“Your license, genius,” the man with the welt said. “It was sticking out of your wallet like a hard-on. Meatheads like you are so fucking predictable. I knew you’d eventually start trouble with us tonight. I guess you can say I like to plan ahead.”
The large man’s eyes stopped blinking. He understood now. He struggled again for a brief moment—more a show of bravado than any attempt at escape—and then stopped. He tried another muffled shout, but its futility was heightened more by the pain the effort was causing his head. He resigned entirely and his shoulders slumped, a long strained sigh flapped out of his nose like a snore.
“Now,” the man with the welt said. “How ’bout we get a look at that ring of yours? I mean it’s such a cool ring after all. A skull. It’s just so rebellious and dangerous. Scary even. You must be a real outlaw to wear a ring like that, yeah?”
The man with the welt’s accomplice, a stocky man with black eyes and a shaved head, stepped forward, past the man with the welt. He squatted down into a catcher’s stance so he could study the ring on the big man’s hand that was strapped to the arm of the chair. “This is cool,” the man with the shaved head said as he fingered the ring. He looked over his shoulder at the man with the welt. “Very scary.”
“Well I can’t see it too well from back here,” the man with the welt said. “Can you bring it over to me?”
“I can try.” The man with the shaved head put on a melodramatic display as