“Well, what the fuck do you want?” Ghost grits out while shaking. It’s not at all cold in here, the heat is on as high as it can go, but the drugs leaving my brother’s body is causing withdrawals so bad that they would give Mr. Asia a run for his money.
“Looking at you right now equals last night’s bad idea, huh?” I raise my eyebrow at him as he shoots me daggers. All I can do is laugh.
“Fuck off 81.” He spits. “Poppets gone for coffee with that chick that has your dick so hard, I can see it. Go fucking annoy them.” He turns over in the bed, pulling the sheet up over his shaking body.
“I’ll ask you one more time, what do you want? I wanna curl up and die. Seeing as Poppets not here talking in my ear, I can actually do it in peace.”
“The same thing I have been doing now for the last few days, checking on your fucking ass to make sure you’re ok. Also seeing that your little lady isn’t too stressed looking after what looks like your grumpy fucking ass today.” Stabbing my smoke out in the ash tray, I pick up Ghosts guitar from the side of the oversized teal green, velvet chair. As my fingers find the strings, I start to strum out the beat of the Wicked Games cover by Corey Taylor.
“Well, you can both fuck off.” Ghost spits out and I bring my gaze up to look at him. Boring my eyes into his, a small grin kicks up at the corner of my lips as my VP tries to pull his weakened body from the bed and fails miserably.
“Want a hand there, brother?” I ask him in a small, yet slightly mocking tone. In true 81 style I know just how to rub Ghost the wrong way. I duck as another object, a bowl this time, flies past my head hitting the wall and falling on the hardwood floor.
“I’ll take that as a no then.” I laugh out, settling back into the chair to sit there and just play.
My voice, a ruff husk, grits out the painful yet true lyrics of the song, as my mind flicks to the young, stunningly beautiful woman across the street.
Ghost’s voice cuts through my inner battle and dark thoughts. I strum out the last verse in the song when my eyes meet the dead ones of my VP.
“Wanna actually fucking do something to help? Can ya put me in the shower? Poppet shouldn’t have to always do it and I need to ask you to take me somewhere,” Ghost says with shame lacing his words which pulls slightly at my not-so-alive heart. My body is a vessel of dead emotion and frozen feels.
“Sure thing, brother.” Placing the guitar down and striding over to the bed, I lean down. I pick my VP up under his armpits and legs and carry him to the bathroom. I sit him down on the edge of the tub before turning the faucet to hot. Steam starts to swirl around us in no time.
Ghost’s face pains as I undress him. I sense his unease.
“Brother, we do what we have to, so we can ease the pain and unleash the shame to the demon who demands to stay at our side while we sacrifice our soul to the taste day after day. This is hungry work and a sharp, deadly world that we live in, so the drug allowed you to escape. Took you to your own personal church and there was no sweeter innocence than that sweet tasting sin. Its only when we find that one human who makes us wanna fight as she won’t give up on you, that with her you will rise again, and you will win this battle you with your demon. Her fire we can truly say amen for, brother. With you together, this pain will leave and the clean is coming. Just keep sucking it up. I will take all your sins and I will take that drug wanting stare from you, brother.”
I fucking should have been there for him last night. I should have saved him from the temptations of the club. He came to me and pulled me up from the grass of a hell where I sat and wept. I let him drink and smoke weed. I did it with him and now look, he got a taste and fell again.
The steam from the shower fills the small room and the space between us. Standing, Iroll back the sleeves of my hoodie and help my brother to his feet. I take my cut off and placing it on the basin. The water’s hot, but Ghost’s body is still shaking as it cascades over him while I wash the strung-out withdrawal from his body.
“I have a job for you, brother. Over the last few weeks, if I have learnt anything from this fucking nightmare, it’s that you, you are loyal as fuck and trustworthy.” Our eyes meet and I just nod. That is a massive thing coming from the dead man’s lips. For Ghost, he is a Ghost, a man chasing death as much as death is chasing him.
“I’m listening.” My tone is harsh like always. It never gives anything away, always dark and on edge. To anyone other than a club member they would cringe and wait for the wrath of the man who looks death in the eyes and laughs. To my brothers I’m just 81. The man that wears the reaper as amour and the crow as a symbol.
“I am not only Ghost the VP to the Reapers Reign and executioner for them and their club, I also own a secret underground club calledThe Beautiful and the Dammed.The den is a hot spot for the NYC elite. We have high-end girls that will dance and give significant benefits to senators, politicians, business owners, The Cartel, The Mafia, shit even the mother fucking president.” His hands run over his face wiping the water from his eyes as he seeks mine out.
“My club runs on an extensive scale. We work with the DEA, the DA, FBI, CIA, Russian’s, Italian’s, Mexican’s, The Triads, The Irish, and quite a few motorcycle clubs. You name it, I'm in it. I have a voice in what, when, who, why and how things happen. I am the man on top, the king of kings in this world, and I use my power intelligently. I am the one the organizations use to fix all complications. To kill and eliminate hazards, rapists, traffickers, and drug syndicates that don’t abide by the policies. Also, the gun runners and the law enforcement agencies who refuse to listen to reason and who go rogue, have to answer to me.”
My mind stops dead in its tracks as I place the towel he is seeking in his hands and help him step out of the stream of water. Shutting the taps off, I turn and sit down on the closed toilet seat and just listen to what my VP has to say to me. What he is asking of me. Death and more fucking death either way I look. I’m constantly at war, with the Reaper on my back and the devil in my heart.
“Club know of this place and little side job?” I ask him, watching as he threads his still shaking body into his black tee and then steps into black jeans.
“No fucking way and it will stay that way,” Ghost barks out, but his body fails him as his voice cracks.
“No wonder you’re so fucking fucked up.” A chuckle leaves me, a sick sound that brings delight and a grin to Ghost’s pale and aged face. The last few weeks have been a ruthless battle for him.
“Too right brother. I have files for kills that need to be done. One crazy ass bitch called Saskia runs all my shit. She will eat you alive so don’t let her into your fucking head. She loves dark and she kills like a mad woman on a cocaine ride. I also have a hotel downtown.”
“Mmmmm hmmmm. Well we all love the cups of crazy don’t we, brother?” I say sending him a wink. Hannah is the craziest bitch that I have ever had the pleasure to hold insane company with. Well, her twin Jenna is just as bat shit fucked up and Ghost knows all too well how fucking mental that ride is.
My own cup of crazy, my Hannah, took her crazy from me way before I was ready. We got high and fucked up the world together. I never lied, but to me she couldn’t be true. She was too out of it all the time to let it just be me and her. A tragic love story like Romeo and Juliet. No dying together, just getting high and trying to kill each other. I did swear to her one day while we were high as hell, we hadn’t slept for a week, that we would die together. I just didn’t realize that my baby would take my words as gospel and try to make that a reality. I lived and she, well you know that’s a whole other story.
Walking back into the room, Ghost lights a smoke then chucks the pack over to me. While taking a long drag, Ghost pulls some keys from his bedside drawer and writes on a note pad scribbling a few codes on it, then hands them over to me.
“I trust you.” Is all Ghost says.
“I got you.” Is all I say before I lean down and kiss the top of my VP’s head.
