"By Any Means"

I hated Chris.

I hated him with all my heart, for stealing Jess away from me. She was cheating with him, I knew it. I confronted them. I walked out on her in disgust, and I never forgave him for stealing the love of my life away from me. What’s worse is, I saw him every day in the office, his smug fucking face taking sly glances at me. It was unbearable, I just wanted to plant my fist square in his self-righteous mug.

I started drinking. Hell, at the time it was the only way I could cope with the grief, bottle after bottle after bottle, slugged down in seedy bars all across the city.

That was where I met the dealer. He was an old dude, wore a leather duster, sly, ratty face. Used to play cards down the back of one of my old haunts, taking suckers for money in games of blackjack, or whatever the hell he used to play. I considered myself too wise for his silly card gimmicks. Was probably rigged anyway.

He came up to me one night, handed me a bottle of cheap booze, and asked me what was on my mind. I was in a bad place, and nobody else in the damn pub wanted to hear, so of course I spilled out the whole story to the guy.

He talked to me about it, sipped from his flask a bit then offered me some. I declined.

Then he says that this Chris guy, there might be a way of… Making my problem disappear, if you get me, he says. No questions asked. I ask how he can do it.

By any means, he replies, leaning in towards me at the bar.

I say, hell, if he can do it, sure. Make Chris go away. It was part booze talking, part hatred and part me that agreed.

The guy extended his hand to me, and he shook it. “The deal is done,” He said. The guy had a real vice of a handshake; he had a firm grip on him, I thought.

I didn’t think too much of it the next morning, I was well under with a killer hangover.

I didn’t notice the news until two days later.

Six people had been torn apart, mutilated and butchered in their own homes. The victims were linked, in that they were all of the same family. Christopher Walton was among them; he had been murdered while visiting his mother and nine-year old sister, who were found eviscerated along with him.

I guess I got my wish.

By any means necessary.