Mean Little People

by Dearth, Paige

  “Yeah, I’m fine. My morning sickness is back. I’m really nauseous. It comes and goes. I’ll have some ginger ale before we leave.”

  Kate grabbed one of the trash bags and went out the side door into the alley where the Dumpsters were lined up. As she walked to the end of the alley, she felt the contents of her belly begin a slow crawl upward. Her stomach was churning, and waves of bile rose and fell in her gorge. She scanned the alley and thought about running back inside to the ladies’ room but knew she’d never make it in time.

  “Come on, baby Bruno, knock it off,” Kate said aloud, rubbing her belly.

  Kate took a deep breath and lifted the trash bag but quickly dropped it to the ground and hurled her dinner onto the ground. Stepping over her own puke, she moved to the side of the Dumpster. She retched again, and the sound of thick liquid splattering over the blacktop drummed in her ears.

  “Fuck,” Kate breathed. “Come on, enough is enough.”

  Kate straightened up and leaned against the Dumpster. The nausea was slowly subsiding. Then she heard a man at the entrance to the alley groaning. At first glance, Kate thought he was drunk, but as she focused on him, she saw the man had collapsed onto the ground beside his car. She inched her way to the car to help.

  Before reaching him, she stopped and leaned against the wall of the brick building. She stood motionless for a moment, hoping the nausea that bubbled up in her throat would end. Oh no, Kate thought as she leaned over and heaved again. The sour taste of bile clung to her tongue and she spat a few times to get rid of it. The man groaned.

  “Are you OK?” Kate called out.

  The man slumped against the side of his car. Kate edged closer to the sedan. She kneeled down and looked at the older man. His large warm-brown eyes looked up at her pleadingly.

  “Are you OK?” Kate asked again.

  “Yes, yes, I’m perfectly fine. I have low blood sugar. It came on me quickly. I’m just sitting here for a minute until I can get up and grab the bottle of orange juice from the cooler on my backseat. I noticed that you are a little ill yourself,” the man stated.

  “Yes, a little. I’m pregnant. It’s just morning sickness that hits me at all times except the mornings,” she chuckled.

  The older man smiled. “I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first child. She puked for the first six months. I didn’t think she’d have another baby after that, but she did. In fact, she blessed me with three more. My wife wasn’t sick with the other three like she was with the first one.”

  Kate smiled. “Well, hopefully I’ll have the same luck as your wife.”

  The man attempted to get up from the ground. He was holding on to the door handle of the car, trying his best to hoist himself up. Kate watched for a moment and then put her hand out to help him, but he was too heavy for her to lift.

  Kate put her hands to the car window and looked into the backseat where the cooler was sitting. “If you unlock the car, I’ll grab an orange juice for you.”

  “Oh, that would be splendid. It’s very kind of you.”

  With the car unlocked, Kate opened the back door and shimmied across the backseat to the other side of the car where the cooler sat.

  “Aren’t you just a wonderful young lady,” the man said.

  Inside the car Kate smiled; she loved to help others. That was the last thing Kate remembered before she felt the prick of a needle being inserted into the back of her thigh.

  Chapter One Hundred Eight

  When Kate woke up, she was disoriented. She had lost track of all time and place. She was sitting in a wooden chair in the middle of a dreary room. As her mind cleared, she looked around. The room was large. To her left was a boarded-up window, and to her right, abandoned pieces of broken furniture, a dresser, a rocking chair, and a nightstand. Dust covered every nook of the room. The floral wallpaper was split and peeled where the plaster had cracked from the floor to the ceiling. Still groggy, she tried to focus her eyes, but everything was blurry. Her limbs were lifeless and heavy. Kate willed herself to move, but her body wouldn’t respond.

  Kate tried to remember how she’d gotten there. She’d been at the restaurant. She remembered puking. There was a nice old man that she’d helped. Then, nothing—she couldn’t remember a thing. After several minutes the fog inside her head lifted. Kate tried to move off of the chair only to realize she was restrained. Her heart fluttered in her chest as her brain signaled to her body she was in danger. The adrenaline quickly forced away any remnants of the drug that still lingered in her body. She pulled against the ropes that held her wrists and ankles securely in place.

  “Help,” Kate screamed weakly. “Somebody help me, please.”

  The man Kate had helped in the alley of the restaurant entered the old bedroom. Her heart paused. She couldn’t inhale. She couldn’t exhale. Her whole respiratory system seized. Her mind rejected the realization of what had happened, and her body felt like it was hit by a surge of electricity, fried and torn to shreds.

  “Who are you? Why am I here?” Kate screeched.

  “You’re a foolish woman. A foolish, pregnant woman that trusted a stranger. You made everything much easier than I expected. I thank you for that,” the man said, bowing in front of her.

  Kate’s insides quivered. Her chin trembled, and her eyelids blinked in rapid succession. Kate wrapped her hands around the arms of the chair, holding tight, until her fingers were numb.

  “Now, let’s see…where do I start? You can call me Carnie. That’s what my friends call me. Since you and I are going to be very close, I think we can consider each other friends now.”

  “Carnie?” Kate mumbled.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “My husband is going to be looking for me. You need to let me go before he finds you.”

  As Kate spoke, her voice broke in and out. She was bordering on hysterics.

  “Yes, your husband, Tony Bruno. I know who he is. He is the man who turned on the Slayers. My good friend had his tongue cut out because of Tony. Poor guy sounds like a complete idiot when he tries to speak. So back to your husband: he is in New York. Imagine my delight when I saw him get into his friend’s car and drive away yesterday. One can never be certain if a person will make the decision you want them to. But I was certain that Tony would do whatever the mob wanted, even if it meant turning his back on his wife. You know, it’s amazing the information you can acquire when you are friends with the right people. And of course…” He stopped and cleared his throat theatrically. “I know all the right people.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please just let me go. I’m sure Tony can tell you that you’re mistaken. He didn’t do anything to your friend.”

  Carnie rubbed his chin with his thumb and index finger. “Do you really think I would believe a word that came out of Tony Bruno’s mouth? That man is nothing more than a two-bit criminal who knows how to shoot a gun. He’s a fake, a dirty piece of street trash that the mob uses to do the work that no one else is willing to do. He would have been better off staying with the Slayers.”

  Kate locked eyes with Carnie. “I don’t care what you think my husband did to your friend, but whatever it is, you need to talk to him about it. I don’t have any information to give you. I don’t know anything. If you have a problem, you need to talk to Tony about it.”

  “Ha. Well, then please, let me give you some information. I mean, you seem to be at a disadvantage. Clearly, a woman who hasn’t earned her husband’s trust yet. Your husband, Tony, got the Morano family to bust him out of the Slayers. Now, just in case you don’t know, the Slayers are a very powerful gang in North Philly. Anyway, one night, your husband got the Morano family to attack the Slayers just so he could get away. Several of their men died, but the head of the gang, Razor, well, he had his tongue cut out. Like I said, he can’t speak too well; he grunts a lot. Anyway, Razor got in touch with me—we have strong ties from past dealings. Razor helped me out once when I was in a real jam. I owe him m
y life. So here I am to help him get even with your dumb husband.”

  Carnie’s dead, icy voice sent a shiver up Kate’s spine.

  “Do you want money? I’m sure Tony will find you money if you let me go.”

  “No, I have plenty of money. I need something…” Carnie looked up to the ceiling, tapping his index finger on his chin, as if searching for his words…“other than money. What I need, money can’t buy.”

  Chapter One Hundred Nine

  Tony and the others had arrived at an old warehouse where one of the major New York crime families kept their stolen goods.

  “Stay alert,” Johnny said before they entered the building.

  “Johnny, good to see you. Please sit down,” said one of the New York bosses.

  Johnny sat while Tony, Salvatore, and Vincent stood behind him.

  “Let’s talk business,” Johnny said with a forced smile.

  Two hours later, the mob families left the warehouse. Johnny took his men to eat at Umberto’s in Manhattan for dinner. Tony was happy that everything had been handled in one sitting so he could get back to Kate the next morning.

  Tony arrived back to an empty apartment. He figured that Kate had run to the store so he settled down in the living room and turned on the television. A few hours later, when Kate hadn’t returned, Tony started to worry. By then, Salvatore and Vincent had come back to the apartment to pick up Tony.

  “Wassup?” Vincent asked when he saw Tony’s pale face.

  “Kate wasn’t here when I got home, and she ain’t back yet.”

  “Maybe she went out shoppin’ or somethin’,” Vincent offered casually.

  “Nah. Somethin’ ain’t right. When Kate goes out, she does what she’s gotta do and comes home. She likes bein’ home,” Tony countered. “I was just gonna call the restaurant.”

  He picked up the phone and pressed in the numbers. “Billy, its Tony. Ya walked Kate home from work last night, right?”

  Billy coughed nervously. “She took the trash out and never came back in. I wanted to call ya but didn’t know how to reach cha.”

  Tony dropped the phone and walked over to the windowsill in the kitchen. He picked something up and turned to his friends. “Somethin’ bad has happened to Kate.”

  “Why? What did Billy tell ya?” Vincent asked.

  “Billy never walked Kate home, and this here…” he said, pushing the object forward. “This ring belonged to Kate’s mother. She never takes it off, not even to shower. Someone was in my apartment. They left it here for me to find—it’s a callin’ card.”

  Chapter One Hundred Ten

  Twenty-four hours later, Kate slumped over in the wooden chair where she remained captive. Her arms and legs were stiff, and her ass was numb. She had vomited on herself repeatedly, and the smell of the aging bile intensified her nausea. She was dehydrated, and her head had a searing, pulsating pain so overwhelming it made her captivity feel like a secondary problem.

  When Carnie finally came back into the bedroom, he was a carrying a dish with food and a glass of water. Carnie held the glass of water to her lips. Kate slurped and gulped at the glass, bobbing her head down to get the water into her quickly. The water provided instant relief to her burning throat and her dry, vomit-crusted mouth. When Carnie finished feeding her, he untied Kate and took her at gunpoint downstairs into the kitchen.

  “Get on the table,” Carnie said.

  “No. Why? Oh, please, don’t hurt me. I’m pregnant,” Kate said, sobbing.

  “Yeah, I know that already. Now, be a good girl and do as I say: get up on the table. Otherwise, I’ll have to hurt you, and I really don’t want to do that.”

  Kate looked at the cold stainless-steel table that stood in contrast to the water-stained walls and chipped brown Formica countertop of the ancient kitchen. The top of the table consisted of a long sheet of metal with small holes. Getting a closer look, she realized the holes let liquid through, which would be caught in the under pan of the table. Then Kate saw the spots of dried-up blood around the edges of the table. Oh dear God, she thought, I need to find a way out of here. Kate considered trying to run for her life, but feared he’d shoot her before she made it out of the kitchen. Suddenly, Carnie whacked Kate across the face with an open hand. Kate reeled sideways and caught herself on the edge of the table before hitting the floor.

  “The next one won’t be so soft. Now, get on the table. I don’t have all day.”

  Kate, still dazed, gingerly climbed up on the table.

  “Hands above your head.”

  Kate was crying as she followed his instructions. When she felt the first metal handcuff fasten around her wrist, she instinctively jerked away from him. His fist came down hard on the side of her head. Kate was temporarily stunned, close to unconscious. Carnie finished locking her wrists and ankles in place to the legs of the table using handcuffs.

  A moment later, Kate regained her wits, and Carnie cut her clothing away. Then he removed his own clothes. Kate screamed and thrust at her restraints.

  “Don’t do this. Oh, please don’t do this,” Kate cried, believing he was going to rape her.

  Carnie became uncontrollably angry. He put his hand around Kate’s throat and choked her. Kate tried to pull air into her lungs, but nothing could get through his thick hands, which clutched her neck as if he were squeezing juice from an orange. She felt the life begin to drain out of her. Kate thought about her baby, starved of oxygen. Just as she was fading into blackness, Carnie released his grip on her.

  Then, with great precision, he pulled out his knife and cut off a piece of flesh from her forearm.

  Half-conscious, Kate felt the knife going through the layers of skin. Her chest hitched off of the table, her eyelids were retracted and her teeth were clenched tightly together. Kate’s senses became alert and went haywire.

  Carnie watched her reaction, taking pleasure in the pain she revealed to him as though it was a present. He liked the way her chin jutted out and her upper body rose and fell from the table. He studied the piece of her flesh lying across the palm of his hand. He stared at Kate’s forearm, where the warm red substance oozed from her open wound. The sight of her blood calmed his anger and awakened his taste buds. He bent down and licked the cut. He felt euphoric as he looked at the delicacy that lay before him. After his first taste of Kate, he forgot about Razor and his real reason for being there.

  “I knew you’d be tasty,” he tormented, with her blood dripping off his lower lip.

  Kate squirmed. Her pulse quickened. Her mouth was so dry again that her lips stuck to her teeth. The sick, hopeless thoughts in her head were suffocating, and she began to hyperventilate. Carnie cut small slices into her legs and licked the cuts the same way a child licks an ice cream cone. Kate’s outward fear escalated his desire to have more of her.

  Carnie put his face close to hers. “You can blame your husband for everything that’s happening to you. I bet you’ll never look at him the same way again when I’m done with you.”

  Kate tried to remain calm and talk her way out of her situation. “I don’t know what Tony did to your friend. I swear, if you let me go, I’ll divorce Tony. I’ll make him pay for hurting your friend.”

  “Yes, I like that, Kate,” Carnie said, toying with her mind, playing on the hope he saw in her fake smile.

  Kate’s breathing slowed. I’m getting through to him. I can talk my way out of this.

  “Please, I mean it. I’ll divorce Tony, and he’ll be devastated. I’ll never let him see our child,” Kate promised.

  Carnie laughed. “Yes, I like the way you think. It’s important that Tony suffers for all of the pain that he caused the Slayers. I’m happy that you agree with me.”

  Kate’s breathing returned to normal. “Please, can I have some water?”

  Carnie went to the sink and filled a glass. Then he took a spoon and dribbled the water into Kate’s parched, hungry mouth. After only a few spoons of water, not enough to touch her scorching thirst, he put t
he glass back on the counter. Then he took out his knife again and passed it over her naked body. Kate’s eyes grew in size. He wanted to see how far he could push her before she broke. He laid the knife on her leg. Kate’s hips instinctively lifted off of the table. He pressed lightly on the blade and he inched the knife through layers of skin on her upper thigh, slicing off a three-inch piece of flesh.

  Several minutes later, Kate lay on the table, staring blindly at the chipped plaster ceiling above her. She could feel the throbbing of the raw, open flesh on her arm and thigh. She heard Carnie rustling around and then the sound of her flesh sizzling as he fried it for his dinner. The smell of her own flesh burning made her stomach heave.

  “Now, now, little Kate. You must remain calm and healthy if you wish to see your way out of this,” Carnie taunted.

  He walked over to Kate and grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her face toward him. Kate looked into his demonic face.

  “You see, Kate, you and I are only just getting to know each other. I need you to stay calm—otherwise, you’ll ruin everything. Would you like some dinner?” he said with a sinister smile. “I made filet of Kate for our main entrée tonight.”

  Kate stared into Carnie’s demented face. A roiling heat erupted in Kate’s belly, and as it rose, her chest tightened. Kate had never felt pure hatred, and she prayed that Tony would come and kill the man who stared back at her with soulless eyes.

  Chapter One Hundred Eleven

  Six days later, Tony sat in his kitchen. He hadn’t shaved or showered in days. Salvatore had notified Johnny of Kate’s disappearance, and the mob was looking for her. Tony was instructed by Johnny Morano to stay in the apartment in case she came home.

  Salvatore and Vincent were sitting with Tony in his apartment.

  “My father hasn’t heard anything yet. Trust me—he and Big Paulie have lots of connections. They’ll find someone who saw what happened to Kate. We’re going to find her and bring her back,” Salvatore assured him.