Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Fucking bastard tricked me, I knew I never should’ve trusted him to do the right thing.

Big Poppa Stan had me in a tricky place, he had my woman, the soon to be mother of my unborn child, but Kildone, I owed everything to, he had taken me in, made me into something, and now, I had to choose.

To be honest, it wasn’t hard, I knew what I wanted to do, where my life was heading, and Kildone wasn’t a part of it. I gathered my things, and headed towards the tower, staring up at it, in a different light, it was my home once, and now, I had to destroy it.

Jimmy was on the door, as always, the look he gave me was one of surprise, shock even, I shuffled my busted arse in and headed towards the service elevator, normally I’d take the stairs, but I was fucked, and needed a rest. The ride was short, and Franco was waiting for me at the top. We’d grown up together, he was like me, pulled off the streets and given a life by Kildone, where I’d been more equipped to handle any problem, Franco, he was Kildone’s shadow, and someone you didn’t want to mess with.

He told me Kildone was not to be disturbed, and, if I’d done what he wanted, then my debt was paid, the look he gave me sent a shiver down my back, he thought I was ungrateful of what Kildone had done for me, and I could tell, he didn’t want to leave it just there. So I gave him his shot, I fired a weak arsed left into his throat, the look on his face told me he wasn’t expecting it, the second landed in his groin, and I finished it up with a head-butt, that sent him to the floor. I think it was the shock more than any of the impacts that left his laying there, blurry eyed and out of sorts, but it didn’t last long, he scrambled to him feet and dived towards me. I should’ve tried to talk to him, he was like my brother, he would’ve understood, I know he would’ve. Instead I drove the blade up, through the underneath of his chin, I could tell it had found its mark by the wide eyed look he gave me, as his brain tried to make sense of what had just happened, then, he dropped to the floor, dead.

I burst through the door of Kildone’s suite, and saw he was ready for me, he had her, I could tell by the look on her face, he’d told her everything, not that she didn’t know what I did, but, we never really discussed it in great detail. He looked around me, towards Franco’s lifeless body, and then back to me and shook his head.

What he said to me, the words he used, made me realise, made me see, that there wasn’t really a way out, that I couldn’t do anything other than what I’d been trained to do, he said my debt was still outstanding, and, if I valued the life of my woman, I would do what he asked, if not, he would kill me, and she, well, she would become his number one whore.

I felt like everything was in repeat, hadn’t I already done this? Wasn’t this what I was trying to stop? That’s when the explosion happened, downstairs, Big Poppa Stan knew I’d find out the truth, he used me as a diversion, and was now coming to claim his prize for himself.

Not on my watch, not today.