Heaven and Hell

Chapter 19

Trent craned his neck up at the top few floors of the apartment building the madman calling himself Crazy Pete occupied. Lex stood at his side, silent after arguing the entire walk about what Trent was doing. Bobby stood close on his other side, eager for the adventure. Lex didn't want anything to do with it, and had lectured his friend that he was throwing his life away for a few bucks he wouldn't even have a chance to spend.

Trent had stopped listening two seconds into the lecture. He had made his decision, and that was all there was to it. When he looked at the five story building looming over them he saw an opportunity to get his life back together.

“Let's go.” Trent said confidently, striding toward doors that had long ago had the glass broken out. Lex stifled a groan at the sound of Trent's confidence.

Lex had visited Crazy Pete too many times for anything he saw to surprise him. Bobby and Trent had never been into the epicenter of the life of crime, though.

The first two floors of the building were empty. They could hear the sounds of people in the distance on each of them, though. Down dim hallways and in rooms that smelled worse than any human habitat had a right to. There were beings that hardly resembled anything remotely human. The people living in that squalor were those that had nowhere else to go. They didn't have the money to pay for food, shelter, clothing, or most importantly the habits that drove them to where they were.

Lex stepped forward upon reaching the dark stairwell to the third floor. A large man lounged on the few visible steps in front of a heavy wooden door that wasn't found on the building's original blueprints. When he saw Lex leading the group he relaxed noticeably and raised an eyebrow at the other two.

“What's up?” The bouncer asked Lex in a voice that said he still wasn't positive whether or not violence would be necessary. An oft-broken nose and bare arms that displayed the scars of previous battles proved the man was no stranger to a fight. He certainly didn't look as if he would shy away from one. Trent nodded confidently at him, and Bobby stared wide-eyed at the bandage holding together a cut on his eyebrow.

“Not s**t. Hell'd ya do to your eye?” Lex asked curiously. Crazy Pete's building wasn't well-known for violence. Not violence against Crazy Pete's employees, anyway. No one else was really safe. Lex knew better than to be intimidated by a bouncer that was put on the lowest floor of the base. The guy was like the barking dog that snarled at everyone that passed by and then licked the hand of the man who broke in. Too friendly by half, and none too bright.

“Eh, barfight. Nothin' ta worry about here.”

“They'll happen. Gotta watch 'em, though. You never know when someone will start hittin' people with bottles.”

Bobby was intimidated in spite of Lex's camaraderie, and was rapidly rethinking coming along. He wondered if there was a way out without embarrassing himself. The door swung open under the bouncer's hand, and all thought of leaving fled his mind.

The previously dark stairwell was suddenly awash in pounding music and an eerie blue glow. Lex and Trent stepped through the door, but it took Bobby a few seconds and a shouted 'Hey!' from the bouncer to get him moving.

Lex looked back and motioned Trent and Bobby to follow him, but only Trent noticed. Bobby was entranced by the music, and more by the glowing mass of humanity in the neon blue strobe lights. There were more people gathered together on that one floor than could be seen anywhere else in the slums. Bobby was in love. He didn't care what else happened, he didn't want to leave. Even the bouncer closing the door behind him didn't phase him in the least. His entire body was infused by the deep rumble of the bass, and the electronic scream of the techno pulled at him. The dance floor pulled at him, and his feet began to bounce slightly as his eyes drifted shut and his head swung back and forth.

Trent looked back after making his way through dozens of wildly dancing people to see Bobby staring in awe at the spinning lights and gyrating people. He screamed at Lex from just a foot away and still had to grab his shoulder and turn him around before pointing back at Bobby. He hurried back; the bass that could be felt vibrating the air around him made his chest hurt, and he wanted to get away from the boom of speakers taller than he was.

Bobby jumped at a pair of hands grabbing his waist from behind, but he smiled when he turned to see a girl with pink-streaked hair swaying against him and staring up into his eyes. Her face was shiny with the sweat of someone that had been dancing a long time, but she didn't seem tired in the least. The sight of her smiling through the sheen of perspiration made her even more attractive in Bobby's opinion.

He began to dance with her, then had a second shock when a hand fell on his shoulder with a lot more force than the girl's hands had landed on him. He looked back with nervous thoughts of an overlarge, scowling boyfriend beating him senseless while the techno drowned out his screams.

It was Trent's face only inches from his. Bobby regretfully looked to his dance partner, but she was gone. Just like that she had disappeared in the crowd. Bobby glared at his friend.

Trent laughed loud enough to almost be heard over the music and turned back toward where Lex was standing on the second step of another set of stairs looking as if he ate a bug. They made their way through the crowd easily, people dancing smoothly out of the way of two people moving with a purpose. Lex turned to lead them up to the next floor with a silent huff. There was another heavy door blocking their way, but Lex opened it without hesitation and ushered the other two in.

The sheer joy displayed on the floor below seemed to be reversed. Everything below had been bright and happy. Here everything was soaked in drab and dreary before being smothered in depressing.

Half the floor was open, and two dark hallways led to the few rooms that were left standing after someone with a sledgehammer had taken down the rest. The open part of the floor was really just the remaining pieces of the rooms that had once been there. Piles of trash, clothing, and who knew what else rested against walls that had only been half torn down. Even though none of the walls rose more than five feet off the floor, a feeling in the air made you wonder what was hidden behind even the shortest walls.

Trent and Bobby both jumped when the sound from the floor below went dead with the click of a latch. That was when they noticed the people that seemed to blend perfectly into the horrific scene.

In a corner lounged a group of girls in various stages of undress on couches and recliners that looked to have been dragged out of a garbage dump. They were the only people that seemed to be even mildly lucid, though, talking and giggling as smoke from a dozen cigarettes rose into the air above them.

Men and women were splayed against the broken walls in sick parodies of rest, twisted like broken manikins. The few mobile ones scavenged through the pockets of the comatose with movements and sounds Trent would expect from a bad zombie movie. His eyes goggled at the sight of peoples' heads or backs just barely visible over crumbling walls. There was no way to know how many people were in the room, not if they were hiding the way they seemed to be.

Bobby felt like he would be sick looking at the human detritus around him. What had happened to the happy people below? Couldn't he just stay down there?

Lex watched as the change swept over Bobby's face. From bliss to disgust in seconds. He smiled, hoping the sight of what awaited the people who fell for the beauty of the floor below would keep Bobby from ending up there himself. Lex glanced at Trent, and wondered at the lack of expression on his friend's face. It was the thoughtful gaze of someone looking at something they knew they should understand.

“Come on,” Lex snapped.

He led Trent and Bobby across the sea of junkies that littered every nook and cranny. It was an even race whether or not there was more trash or more people hidden beneath the trash. Lex didn't notice the eyes that followed their every move, but Bobby was terrified by them. The junkies could smell fear, and Lex hoped one of them would jump out and scare the crap out of Trent. Bobby was reacting correctly, Trent was trying to play like he wasn't bothered by all of it. He wouldn't be so calm with a junkie trying to scratch his eyes out.

Lex was disappointed, though. No one leaped out at the two guys trailing behind him. He had been forced to fight one of the crazy fiends on his first trip through the room, even accompanied by one of the bouncers and well known in his own right.

When he reached the steel door at the end of the dirty maze he glanced at his two companions. He understood why no one had leaped at Bobby. The look on Trent's face was one of rage; rage that begged for release in as violent and destructive a way as possible. The look of someone that would kill in a heartbeat. Even Lex blinked worriedly at the look. In all the time he had known Trent, his friend had never done anything remotely violent unless he was attacked, and he didn't do violence well, but the look on his face told everyone that this was a man capable of taking your life without the slightest bit of remorse.

Trent winked, completely unaware that he had thwarted his friend's plan to let the wolves have them. He had managed to scare the bejesus out of Lex's wolves with nothing more than a look. Lex was even more uncomfortable at what he was helping his friend get in to after the wink. But it was something he could help with. Even if it was ill-advised Trent really did have to find some way of making money. He would have to learn the hard way that crime wasn't the way to do it.

Lex turned and pounded on the door. A slat in the door opened and a wide face appeared.

“Oh, Lex...What's up?” The large eyes studied the two people he didn't know. “They got business with the boss?”

Lex nodded at Trent without really looking at him. “Guy here's comin' to talk about a job.” He didn't look at Bobby, but he could almost feel the blond stoner wondering what was going to happen with him.

“Okay. What about that guy?” The guard pointed at Bobby, waiting for some kind of reason to let him in.

“Well, what do I do?” Bobby looked at Lex when they all looked at him. No one had told him to come along.

Lex looked back to the door that led downstairs, “I guess ya can go have some fun. Be careful, though. There are people down there that'll take everything you've got. And some things ya ain't got.”

Bobby smiled widely, “I'm gone.” With that he nearly sprinted across the floor filled with junkies and even hopped one of the lower walls before darting through the door. A few of the girls in their half-circle laughed cruelly at the display of exuberance in a place devoted to evil pleasures and pain.

The bouncer threw a lock on the other side of the door and swung it wide.