Page 38 of Dark Side of the Cloth

“Why?”

“Stand up and find out.” Jeremy stumbled to his feet. He was tall, the same height as Dean, but wiry and thin. His scraggly dirt brown hair needed a cut, and the kid needed to be taken through a car wash to get all the dirt off of him, but he might clean up okay. Dean walked over and grabbed the discarded gun. He double-checked, but the kid had told the truth. It was empty, so he tucked it away and walked for the door.

“Follow me.”

It took a minute, but eventually, Jeremy came out of the room and joined Dean in the hall. He marched to the door that led to the roof and jogged up the steps to the top. It didn’t take much to jimmy the old door open. Stone crunched underfoot as he walked toward the edge.

“What are we doing up here?

“Come take a look.”

The wind picked up, a swirl of snow spun around the roof. Jeremy wrapped his meager hoodie tighter to his body and shivered as he tentatively stepped closer.

“Mister, I don’t know what you want from me.” That leery look was back in Jeremy’s eyes. Unfortunately, things were going to get a whole lot worse for him before they got better.

“Take a look down there and tell me what you see.”

Tentatively, Jeremy stepped forward, and Dean nodded. Jeremy turned away and peeked toward the ledge. Quickly, Dean reached behind his back and pulled the end of the repelling rope attached to his vest forward. Swiftly, he tied a bowline knot and waited.

As soon as Jeremy was close enough to the edge, Dean made his move. Grabbing a fist full of the back of the kid’s sweater, Dean pushed him down, so he was dangling over the edge from the waist up. Desperately, Jeremy tried to scramble back, but Dean had him pinned with his knee and forced him to stare into the depths of the street below.

“What the fuck?” Jeremy swore, fighting his hold hard.

Dean pushed harder on his back. “Look. Tell me what you see,” and Jeremy froze.

Dean used that moment to slip the knotted rope around Jeremy’s legs, braced his feet, and gave Jeremy a shove over the ledge. Fully hanging over the side of the building by his feet like a helpless piñata, Jeremy screamed.

“Oh my god! Pull me up, man. This isn’t funny.” Dean dropped him a couple of inches, and Jeremy screamed louder. “Please! I’m scared of heights. Pull me up. Oh my god.”

“Isn’t this what you wanted? You just begged me to kill you,” Dean called out.

“Not like this!” Dean dropped him a couple more inches, and Jeremy swore and yelped again. “Please, man, I’ll do anything you want, just pull me up.”

“I want you to say it.”

“Say what?”

Dean leaned forward in a sudden motion, and Jeremy screamed the loudest yet. “Fuck me! Tell me what you want me to say.”

“Do you want to die?”

“Yes, but…” Dean dropped him a little again. “I mean, no.”

“What was that? I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you.” Dean smiled.

“No! No, I don’t want to die, okay! I… I want to live, just not like this.”

“You said you’d put the gun in your mouth. Was that true?” Dean asked. The answer didn’t come fast enough for him, so he pulled back and then dropped Jeremy a solid foot.

“Ahhhhh—Noooo…Fuck!”

“So if you were given another way to live, a second chance at a better life, would you take it?”

“Yes!”

“Would you work your ass off?”

“Yes!”