A Brothers Soul

Vic had noticed something changed in his brother, but he never could have imagined what it was. Brotherly love was about to face its harshest test.

It’s strange to think a person can completely change as quickly as the weather, given the right circumstances. And believe me, on that afternoon, the right circumstances were there.

“Just tell me what happened that day, d****t. You can’t keep it inside forever, look what it’s doing to you.”

“The f**k is that supposed to mean? ‘Look what it’s doing to you’. F**k you, how about you look at that.”

“You know what I meant Wes, it’s as if your soul is gone. You just skulk around like a damn zombie. I just want to help man; if you can trust your own brother tha-.”

“Alright, alright. God you nag. You remember when I left for Argentina last July?”

“Yeah. You were baby sitting oil lines, right?”

“If by ‘baby sitting’ you mean killing any piece of s**t that came within 10 feet of them yes, I was baby sitting oil lines… Anyway, there were about six of us for each section.”

“Six! Damn that’s a lot of money to protect an oil line.”

“Have you been to Dubai, they aint exactly in a recession over there. But like I was saying there were six of us, and every afternoon we rotated shifts. Three on and three off, seven days a week, and you never missed a shift.”

“That sounds like the worst job ever, is that why you act like a zombie, cause you were bored to death?”

“Do you want to hear this or not? I’ve got no problem carrying on about my day.”

I can’t share the same genes as this idiot…

“I couldn’t resist.”

“Try. So like I said, we had our routine and it never broke, until one Tuesday morning when Marx didn’t show. We waited for a bit but continued on without him.”

“Wait, you didn’t look for him at all?”

“I’m not his damn mother, I’m contracted to baby sit an oil line, not watch over a fool like Marx. For all I knew, or cared, he was probably holding his gun the wrong way and tried to shoot a rebel. I was actually hoping that was the case because I would’ve won 50 dollars.”

Marx, you dumb b*****d. You didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that.

“So you found him dead, is that what’s haunting you?”

“Not exactly. We did end up finding him a few hours later, well, what was left of him. As Lex and I checked our section we came across his hands and left leg. I knew they were his from the scars across the calf Marx got from his last deployment .”

IED’s really aren’t as effective as you think.

“Holy s**t, what the hell happened?”

“We heard stories of rebels killing the guards and leaving parts behind as a scare tactic, so we sort of chalked it up to that.”

“Wait… You’re telling me that you found a friend’s body parts and didn’t bother to go look for the people who did it? I knew you were never much for compassion but come on man. Grow a f*****g heart.”

“That’s the nature of this business, and you had better make peace with it damn quick. I’m there to make money, and I wouldn’t be able to do that if I spent my days crying over every dead body I knew.”

“That’s cold, man.”

That’s business.

“How can you be so callous? I can’t imagine what really rattled you. Never seeing your partner again, other than in pieces wou-.”

“I never said we didn’t see him again, or whatever the hell that thing was that wearing his face.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… Someone was wearing his face?”

“I said something, not someone. Two days later Lex and I rendezvoused with the second team before dusk; Lex used to joke and say the sun setting was God’s eyes growing heavy. Funny thing is, I used to buy into it, the whole god watching over us ruse. I don’t do that anymore.”
“So what happened?”

“Well we met up with them, and they were pretty much in the same condition as Marx. Except, what had caused Marx’s fate as well as theirs hadn’t quite finished the job yet.”

“Well! What in God’s name was it? Spit it out!”

“Vic, when I tell you that no hellish experience and nothing you could ever imagine could prepare someone for this, I damn well mean it. What I saw shook my entire foundation.”

“Yes, yes, what did you see? C’mon man, tell what’s got you like this.”

It’s funny, no one ever talks about how beautiful the day is during a horrifying experience. Scary s**t happens on perfect days too. God that sunset was breathtaking, perfect enough for my last.

“Lex and I crept closer, trying to maintain the element of surprise, but it was no use. They probably had our scent a mile away, just waiting for us; like lambs to the slaughter. Before either of us could fire we were pinned from behind. I tell ya Vic, I don’t know if this makes sense but when that creature exhaled on my neck, I could feel the fires of hell. That evil, I was saturated in it. When I pulled my head from the dirt I was greeted by an old comrade, Marx. A male figure towered in front of me, there wasn’t enough light to make out his features, but I sure as hell heard him speak. Lucifer would’ve quivered in this things’ presence.”

“What did you guys do?”

“We did nothing, right about that time I turned towards Lex to see his face had been impaled with this sort-of-spike like. I wanted to scream out, I wanted to kill every goddamn one of them, but I couldn’t. Something stopped me, some trance-like feeling passed over me and I could only lay there and watch.”

“Watch what? What the f**k happened? What were they? You’re freaking me out man.”

“It wasn’t until the one holding me down let go, and I was able to stand up to see what they were.

Vampires.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say vampires? F*****g vampires? What is this a joke? You’re a sick b*****d.”

“This isn’t a joke, they were vampires, at least that’s what I gathered at the time. You see they weren’t the type to just take your blood, they took it all, and it wasn’t just for nourishment. I could see it in his eyes, this was fun.”

“This is such bullshit Wes. You expect me to sit here and believe that you were attacked by vampires? And if you were ‘attacked and captured’ by murderous vampires how the hell did you escape? Happen to have a piece of garlic handy?”

“Those foolish tricks don’t work against vampires, you were always such an idiot.”

“And how the hell would you know that, Van Helsing”

“Because I never said I escaped.”

“Wait, what are you getting at?”

“You were right Vic, my soul is gone.”

Reviews

[Carol Cashes]

Brother acting strange, he's been a mercenary in a foreign country...this had forty eleventy directions to go. Did you pick one of those? No. No, you did not, and the element of surprise you provide the reader is absso-f*****g-lutely a surprise! Well and truly done!

[Jacob Clifford]

Damn solid ending. Not expecting it, and the build up to it was great.