Swiper blinked, looking at the clock. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head and roll under the table. Seventy two hours, he thought. He had been awake for three days. He swallowed, hard, and rubbed the stubble on his face. He leaned back in the chair he was currently occupying and let the events from the last couple days replay in his mind again.
Darkness. Darkness was all he saw in the alleyway, breaking his back trying to drag Benny's bulk out the back door. He had stayed in that room for no more than ten minutes after his release, running on adrenaline alone. He hadn't even cleaned up the gore coating his backside. He instead threw on the clothes he had arrived in. He wasn't thinking, just acting. He kicked the door open and he dragged Benny's limp form out of the back of his work, into the abandoned alley. Every fiber in his back was burning with the exertion. There was a thin film of perspiration on his coat, making it gleam in the moonlight.
With a loud groan the door came swinging to a shut, and caught on Benny's upper torso with a dull thud. The noise revisited him almost every hour since then, replaying in his mind. With a groan Swiper pulled Benny's heavy leg with all his might, and he cleared the doorway. The door came swinging to a shut and he heard it latch with a hollow click. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest. He looked at Benny's mangled body, his mouth full of saliva.
A thin line of drool escaped his lips, dribbling down his chin. He licked his teeth, feeling the sort of euphoria you feel only after your first kill. It felt as though every blood vessel in his body had dilated and blood was freely pounding. He could even hear it's roar in his ears. Suddenly, there was the sound of an aluminum can being stepped on in the distance with a pronounced crunch.
Every vessel in his body suddenly constricted as he felt his heart stop, his ears perked towards the noise. He let out a low, warning growl. In the distance he saw a figure come nearer to him, the male's faceless outline cut out from the night's fog. Another step closer, and Swiper could breathe.
"Tico," Swiper breathed, not letting his guard down. This would be hit or miss. He eyed the purple squirrel warily. A large smiled broke out on Tico's face.
"¿Sí?" he asked, taking another step towards Swiper. His movements were twitchy, his eyes darting back and forth as though ready to jerk out of his head. He put his hands in the front pockets of his multi-colored jacket and produced a small baggie of assorted pills. He carelessly grabbed a small handful and brought them to his mouth, loudly crunching on them. Small globs of spit mixed with white and red pill shards leaked from his mouth.
Tico was known for one thing, and one thing alone. That was that he would do anything to get high. Swiper didn't know him too well personally, but Tico had a reputation for exchanging anything he could get his hands on for another hit. No questions asked. One thing did confuse Swiper, and that was that Tico almost always responded in Spanish even though everyone always spoke to him in English.
"Tico, I will give you fifty dollars to help me dump this body and bring me to the address on this I.D.," Swiper spoke very clearly. Tico's eyes were heavily dilated, and his crunching stopped momentarily as he seemed to think things over. He looked from Swiper, to Benny, then back to Swiper again. He reached into his baggie and carefully selected a bright orange pill and held it delicately between his fingers before tossing it into his mouth. Crunch, crunch.
Tico took a step closer to Swiper and leaned down, grabbing Benny's opposite leg. Together, they both dragged Benny's heavy weight to the semi-abandoned street. It was dark out, the only lights coming from the windows of the local bars and strip joints lining the street. Tico retrieved a charred-up screwdriver from his pocket and walked towards the nearest car.
Swiper stood guard in the mouth of the alleyway, Benny's dead body by his feet. He pulled Benny's wallet out of his pocket and retrieved the fifty dollars from the bulging opening, stashing it away for Tico. Within moments he heard an odd scraping sound, saw a blue spark, and heard the car starting up. Tico also had a reputation for being able to drive anything, and liked to live up to it at every available opportunity.
Swiper wondered momentarily what kind of pills Tico had been casually munching on because when it came time to stuff Benny's body into the trunk of the car Tico did 90% of the work. Benny's leg stuck out of the trunk at an odd angle, unable to bend. Tico looked vaguely annoyed at this until he grabbed Benny's leg at the hoof and wrenched it down with all his might. With a sickening crack his leg laid across his torso at a jarring angle. Unaffected, Tico slammed shut the trunk, seemingly pleased to get the job done so easily.
They did not talk on the drive. Swiper rested his head on the headrest, and allowed his eyes to close for just a second. Although his mind should have been travelling at a thousand miles per hour, it was, for the first time he could remember, clear. He breathed in, and he breathed out. He continued to relax this way until an alarming thought bubbled to the surface of his mind.
The Fiesta Trio, Benny's goons. Swiper feared they would hunt him down. His life, he didn't care about, but his little girl….
"Tico, we need to make a stop first before dumping Benny's body…" Swiper began.
Swiper snuck a glance in the back seat, looking at his beloved daughter. She was all he had left in this world. Her cheek was pressed against the window of the backseat. A bubble of fog waxed and waned on the window as she breathed in and out.
Swiper internally promised as the road got steadily bumpier as they drove far out into the country. He silently promised again five or six times while Tico and he yanked Benny's frozen body out of the trunk of the car and dragged it to the outskirts of a field. The same promise, no, now it was a swear, played in his head on repeat while Tico and he dug their shovels into the ground the first time.
He couldn't get his mind off of anything but his swear as he took out his frustrations on the cold ground, tearing away layer after layer of soil. Sweat was freely dripping off of his limbs as they filled in Benny's shallow grave. He could feel the hot, sticky mess of his ruined asshole as he labored. With every twinge of pain he repeated the same swear in his head.
As they returned to the car and started it, he took one last look at his sleeping daughter in the backseat and swore to himself for the last time. He swore to keep her safe, no matter what the cost. The car drove on towards Benny's estate.