Chapter 10: Blood and Death
When Jessie arrived to help Sofi cook, Bobby said hello but it was clear his mind was somewhere else and he wasn't happy. Jessie considered just going home but Sofi seemed to really want her to stay, so they went into the kitchen. They were both chatting when Jerry arrived. He came in through the back door, said hello as he passed through the kitchen, and then went into the living room.
When he got into the living room, Angel and Jack were on the sofa. Angel had the plain brown envelope and flashed some of the money they'd taken back from Evan. Jerry felt sick.
"Oh, man! You don't know who you're messing with!" shouted Jerry. He paused for a spit second and then said, "Where's Bobby?"
Before the words were fully out of his mouth, Bobby came up from his blind side and punched him in the stomach, sending Jerry to his knees. "What are you hidin', Jerry? If I thought you had something to do with what happened to Ma, I swear to God, Jerry, I'm gonna kill you right here and now."
"Bobby, no!" shouted Sofi. She and Jessie had rushed in as soon as they heard the commotion. Jessie echoed the cry.
The brothers continued shouting and arguing, pushing each other in the living room. Several vases and nick-nacks fell from shelves. Jerry finally got to his feet, punched Angel hard enough to spin him around, and shoved Bobby back. "Is that what you think?" he shouted. "Is that what you think? That I set Ma up to be killed?"
"Tell me different, Jerry. You got 400,000 reasons to lie. What's the money for?" Bobby yelled.
"Mom took out that policy for the girls…"
"Then why were you paying for it?" Bobby was ready to throttle his brother.
"Pay for it?" Jerry shoved Bobby, hard. "I paid ALL her bills! I've been taking care of her for years. And where were you? Where were any of you? I took care of her when none of you all were around to do it."
That was the truth and it took some of the wind out of Bobby's sails.
As Jerry was explaining that the bribe for Sweet was to get his project back on track, there was a knock at the door. While they seemed to be past the shouting part of the discussion, it was clear that Jerry, Bobby, and Angel were all too engrossed in their pissing contest to pay attention to the door. Jack got up from the sofa and went to see who it was. He opened the door only to be struck in the face with a snowball.
"You asshole!" he shouted.
As he wiped the snow out of his eyes, Jack could see the back of a man walking away. The hood of his sweatshirt was up but the voice trailed back clearly: "Your mother was a whore." And he gave Jack the finger.
"Sonofabitch! I'll kick your ass…" Jack charged down the steps after the hooded figure. As he ran, Jack managed to scoop up some snow and ice, ready to pitch it in payback for the one he'd caught in the doorway. Suddenly, the man he was chasing stopped and turned. He was wearing a hockey mask. In an instant, Jackie realized he was in trouble – deep trouble – and tried to skid to a halt as he saw the gun being pointed at him.
Inside the house, Bobby realized Jack wasn't in the living room. "JACK!" he shouted and raced towards the door.
For Jack, everything slowed as he watched the gun level. He scrambled backward a few steps but knew he couldn't get away. The first shot roared and the bullet ripped into Jack's right shoulder. He cried out in pain and clutched at the wound, dropping to his knees in shock. He looked up, straight into the barrel of the gun as his mystery assailant aimed directly at his head.
But that shot never came. Instead the next concussion from a gun came from the pump-action shotgun that Bobby grabbed as he ran out of the porch. The full force of the shot hit Jack's attacker right in the chest and sent him careening backward.
"Jack!" All Bobby could see was the blood pouring out of Jack's shoulder as his youngest brother struggled to his feet and hobbled towards the house, towards safety.
Then everything went to hell.
Out of a non-descript panel van came a half dozen men in ski masks with automatic weapons.
"Oh SHIT," said Bobby. He took another shot with the shot gun, but the six opened fire – one deliberately targeting Jack. Bobby, Angel, Jerry, Jessie and Sofi all watched Jack take several bullets to the back. He lurched forward, eyes wide with terror, and fell to his knees again.
"Bobby!" he shouted as he crawled towards the house. He made it to a snow bank and clutched at a telephone pole. The hail of bullets from the automatic weapons forced everyone else back inside the Mercer home. Bullets shattered wood and glass. Huddled on the floor, Sofi screamed in terror and everyone huddled against walls, trying to stay out of the line of fire.
Firing the Mossberg shotgun out of one of the porch windows, Bobby took out one of the shooters. He could just barely see Jack in the snow bank. "Jackie!" he shouted. "Hang on!"
"Bobby!" There was a level of terror in Jack's voice that Bobby had never heard before.
"Sofi," cried Angel. "My guns!" Sofi slid two handguns across the glass-strewn floor and Angel started firing as well. Jerry was pinned down by the gunfire.
"Do you have another gun?" shouted Jessie.
"Living room table. Don't know about bullets," yelled Angel. Jessie crawled along the ground, staying as low as possible as glass and plaster pelted her. At the table, she reached up enough to grab a gun. It was one of the .9 mm Berettas and it was loaded. It would have to do. She started to crawl towards a window where she'd have a better shot.
"Jack!" Jerry called for his brother, too. Another hail of bullets riddled the house as Bobby started firing with the shot gun again. One of the masked shooters realized where the shells were coming from.
"He's behind the bricks!" he shouted. "Jackhammer!" The four remaining shooters concentrated their fire on the porch and the force of the bullets started to destroy the bricks. Bobby scrambled along the floor, trying to stay out of the way. The hail of gunfire knocked more pictures off of the wall. Jerry looked down at the shattered picture of him and Camille and all he could think about was his two little girls. He got up and started to half-scramble half-run through the kitchen.
"Jeremiah, where are you going?" screamed Sofi.
As he got into the kitchen, he saw one of the shooters creeping around to the back door. The masked gunman shot the lock off the back door and charged into the kitchen. From the small pantry, Jerry jumped out and stabbed him several times in the chest with a kitchen knife, shouting about how he had a wife, and a family, and a life. Then he ran out the back and jumped into his car.
In the front room, Jessie got to a new position. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Angel run up the stairs, looking for a higher vantage point. The bricks near Bobby were starting to shatter. Outside, Jack lay in the snow, bleeding and shaking. Jessie looked out the window saw a opportunity and took her shot. The man's head snapped back as the Beretta's bullet took him in the forehead.
She aimed again, pulled the trigger, and nothing. The gun jammed. "Son of a bitch!" she cursed. From the upstairs, Angel took out one other shooter and realized he was out of ammo at the same time Bobby realized he'd used all of the shot in his Mossberg.
"Shit." Bobby tossed the shot gun away and looked out one of the holes in the brick wall. The last gunman was also reloading. Bobby realized he had one opportunity, he grabbed a chunk of brick and leaped out of the doorway. The brick caught the gunman in the head, stunning him just long enough for Bobby to tackle him. They grappled for a moment until Bobby got the upper hand and simply began punching him over and over again.
While Jessie checked to see if Sofi was okay, Angel saw a wounded man struggle to sit and take aim at Bobby. His brother was so focused on the man he was beating that he didn't see it. Angel jumped out of the window and scrambled through the snow. He reached the wounded man just as he was picking up his gun and kicked him in the jaw. But when he turned he saw the van that carried their attackers accelerating towards Bobby. From the house, Jessie saw it, too. The van was going to run him down.
"Bobby!" She screamed his name, but he couldn't hear anything but his own rage.
"Bobby!" Angel ran over and grabbed him. He almost couldn't move his brother off of the prone form. He looked up at the van's grill bearing down on them and nearly shit himself when Jerry's Volvo slammed into it not ten feet away from them. Jessie could see everyone moving so she ran directly to Jack. Bobby got there a moment before she did.
Jack was shaking. He looked so pale.
There was so much blood on the snow.
Bobby knelt down next to his brother as Angel ran over and Jerry stumbled out of the wrecked Volvo. "Jack? Jack, look at me!" cried Bobby. He looked over his shoulder, "We need an ambulance!"
Sofi dialed her cell phone, trying to keep her hands from shaking. She sounded so very far away to everyone, but Jessie heard the words "help," "ambulance," and at least part of the Mercer address.
Jack clutched at Bobby's arms. Blood began to pour out of his mouth. He looked up at Bobby, eyes wild and frightened, clearly in pain. "Jack, please, c'mon man," pleaded Bobby. "Come on, Jackie, you gotta breathe… Don't you die on me you little fairy. Breathe. You've gotta fucking breathe!"
In the distance, an ambulance siren wailed.
A moment later, Jack began to thrash and convulse. His head snapped back on the blood-soaked snow and his muscles spasmed. He clutched reflexively at Bobby's arms, trying to hang onto something, anything. He looked at Bobby one final time before his body relaxed and one final breath passed his lips.
"Jack? JACK?" Bobby wept openly as he held his brother's dead body in his arms. Jessie reached out and put her hand on Bobby's back. Jerry wiped away tears while Angel buried his face in Sofi's shoulder.
The sirens sounded closer.
Suddenly, Bobby jumped up and headed for the van and scooped up a gun from the ground. It was a big one – a Desert Eagle Mark I .357 Magnum, the gun that had first shot Jack. The driver, still pinned by the crash with the Volvo, was conscious and closed his eyes when Bobby pressed the gun to his temple.
"Who sent you?" shouted Bobby. "Was it Victor Sweet?"
"Yea. Yea, it was Sweet."
Bobby lowered the gun and the man – still wearing his ski mask – sighed and dropped his shoulders, grateful for the reprieve. "Thank God," he said.
"Thank God?" Bobby's voice was soaked in fury. "You killed my mother and my little brother, you motherfucker… Thank Victor Sweet."
The gun came up in an instant and he pulled the trigger, blowing the back of the masked man's head all over the seat of the van. The rest, all still huddled around Jack's body, heard every word and each of them knew in their hearts they would have done the exact same thing.
Bobby came back and sank down in the bloody snow. Jessie put her arms around him and didn't say a word. She just held him as the tears came.
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Author's note: Well, this is my version of one of the movie's big scenes. I tried to stay pretty true to the screenplay on this one because I think it is a pretty darn critical scene. Hope it works for you. Let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: the usual stuff – Jessie is my creation (as is Tyrell) but almost all of the other major characters are the brain child of the movie writers or others. Dialogue from the movie is paraphrased in many cases, but any matching dialogue is used for story continuity and character authenticity only.