I lifted the guy to his feet by his ponytail, and pulled him back against the stairway railing heading upstairs. I pushed him along, until his head was at the same height as one of the steps, and I used the handyman’s best friend, duct tape, to wrap around his neck, at the bottom of one of the railings. He was going to be standing there, breathing carefully, until I decided otherwise.
When I turned to face John, I saw him lying there, watching my every move, and not moving an inch. He was glaring at me. I looked to see what Debbie was doing. She just stood to one side, shivering.
I walked over to her, and gave her my bat. I told her softly to hit Dale with it if he said another word. I said it just loudly enough for him to hear. Debbie might have been frightened but she was no coward. She stood next to Dale, bat held awkwardly about halfway up the handle. He looked at her, trying to stare her down, and I was overjoyed to see her jab him in the gut with the handle.
“Don’t even look at me you jerk. I hate you.” She was almost spitting. I guess there was some history there as well. He turned away and looked down. Good for her.
I, on the other hand, wanted to deal with the fundamental problem that had brought us there.
“Why, hello John, have a nice nap?” I asked, walking over to him, and nudging his chin with the toe of my boot.
“What do you want?” He asked, timidly.
I’d expected more defiance, not capitulation so early in the campaign.
“John, now I just knew you couldn’t leave things along. You were going to try to get some of your cretin friends and cause some trouble, and I thought it better that you and I work this out before some of your friends got badly hurt.” I squatted in front of him smiling down at him.
“No, really. She’s yours. I wasn’t going to do anything.” He tried the lying route.
I don’t want you to think I’m a bad guy. I just have big emotions. I laugh easy, I love deeply, and sometimes I get pissed off. I don’t lose my temper very often, maybe once a year or so. But when I do, even I don’t like myself then. I was very angry. And I had the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
I walked behind him and kicked him between the legs. I then waited a few minutes for him to stop grunting and heaving. Dale watched the scene in silence and obvious trepidation.
“John. You don’t know me, and I’m willing to make some allowances for that. But if you lie to me again, I’ll feed you one of your own balls.”
Could I do that? Probably not. Even pissed, that would have been beyond what I could stomach. I’m sure I’d puke first. But he didn’t have to know that. I was a very bad person. And I wanted him to believe that way down deep. He needed to be absolutely certain of that.
I leaned over and showed him the knife he’d left at my place earlier that day. I pushed him onto his back and placed the blade of the knife at his crotch. I then stuck the tip in and pushed, sliding the blade between his pants and skin. I felt a little tug, and figured I might have poked him with the tip a bit. Oh well. I slipped the blade in to the hilt and pulled up and hard, cutting his jeans from balls to belt. He pissed himself.
“You dirty shit. Pissing yourself in front of a lady. You disgust me.” I grabbed his pants and yanking them hard, pulled them down to his ankles, dragging him across the floor at the same time. He was crying out some incoherent babble about being sorry, and leaving us alone, but I was afraid that over a few beers, and in the midst of his friends, he’d start getting ideas again, and I didn’t ever want to be on the defensive.
Dale decided to add his two cents worth, telling us we’d never hear from them again, he’d make sure of it. Debbie hit him with the bat, in the stomach, making him grunt. He couldn’t bend over, from the tape around his neck, and when he pulled forward he choked himself. She hit him again, this time in the ribs, and a third time. I got the feeling she really didn’t like this guy.
I grabbed piss-boy’s stinking shorts, and heaved hard, tearing them off of him. I walked to Dale, held the disgusting briefs in his gasping face, and warned him. “Speak again, without permission, and I’ll shove these in your mouth, and tape them in place. Do you think you’ll like that?”
He shook his head, minutely, eyes wide. No.
I placed them on a stair tread, inches from this head. I turned back to the object of my lesson, John.
I hadn’t really planned much beyond this, other than to play it by ear. My only goal really had to been to place John at my complete and utter mercy. Give him a taste of discomfort. And convince him that he wanted nothing further to do with me, and by proxy Debbie. Dale showing up had thrown awry any plans I might have had. I remembered one other thing. Debbie had left most of her stuff here when she’d moved out suddenly. We could at least recover anything that she wanted to take back.
“So tell me John, what am I supposed to do with you. I’d just finish your ass, but I’m pretty sure that would upset the pretty girl over there, so you’ve got that going for you. But somehow you need to convince me that I’ll never see you again. Can you do that for me?”
The wuss started babbling. He was sorry, he didn’t mean it. He just missed her. He didn’t know she was in a relationship. He was sorry. He’d stay away. Far away. He was sorry. He almost sounded believable.
I left him there pleading, and returned to Debbie who was just staring at him in disgust.
“Baby. I know you left in a hurry. I want you to gather up any stuff you left behind, and bring it all down here. No need to abandon it now. We’ll take it home. Can you do that?”
“Ok, there’s not much. I don’t have any way to pack it though.” She sounded amazingly calm.
“Just take a bed sheet and lay it on the floor upstairs. Throw everything in the middle of it. I’ll come up and get it when you’re done. Just yell for me.”