I woke up in a fit of coughing. There was dirt and grime on the
bottom of the van and I'd spent God knows how long breathing it in. I
reeked of piss and semen and My gym clothes stuck to my body from
sweat and all those other bodily fluids. I had no idea where I was.
Only that the Man from the gym had taken me somewhere and if I was
very, very lucky he'd kil me quickly. The van had stopped moving and
I tried listening to see if I heard the Man's breathing. Maybe I
could get away. Hide before he realized I was gone and get home, safe
and sound. Maybe. I sat up quietly and tried to peer out the
windshield, but saw nothing but black sky and stars. He wasn't in the
front seat and I had no idea where he was so I scooted to the back of
the van and quietly opened the door. There was no sound from him and
so I shoved the door open and scrambled out, hitting the ground and
running desperately away from the vehicle. The area was open and
there was nowhere to hide but I ran as fast as I could.
"Don't fucking run." The voice boomed out from the
darkness. "If you stop now there's a good chance I might not hurt
you too bad." I stopped in my tracks and looked around wondering
where he was. how he'd seen me. I turned around to risk it and
suddenly he was in front of me. "You were gonna run." It was a
statement, not a question. "It's ok boy. If i was in your shoes I
mighta tried the same thing. But I'm not. I'm in my position. I'm the
king. I'm the Man. You're not. You're the kid. You're the nothing.
Beneath me." His hand reached out and grabbed my throat. He used
what I knew was a small fraction of his power and started crushing my
throat. I gagged and struggled for a breath and grabbed his hand and
forearm and futiely tried to pry his huge, callused hand from me.
"How do you want to go, nothing?" He spit on my face and forced
me to my knees. "Do you want me to crush your windpipe? Not the
easiest way to go. Everything goes dark and you struggle. The whole
world goes dark and your body shuts down piece by piece till you
can't fight no more. You just..die." He smiled and let me go and I
fell to the hard ground gasping and coughing breathing in sweet air.
I thanked God for not letting me die, until I felt his huge boot on
my head. "See, if I put my size 14's on your thraot it's the same,
but if I use just a little bit more strength, I could crush your
skull. Messier, 'specially if your family want to do an open casket,
but it's more fun. At least for me." He pushed down harder and I
could feel my skull begin to shift and move under his foot. I hit the
ground with my feet and hands, trying to pound the pain away and a
scream escaped from my dry throat. "Yeah, scream for me. I like that."
He lifted his foot from my head and immediately the blood flowing
back from where it hadn't been gave me a huge headache. "Hurts, don't
it? It's cool. The pain makes you know you're alive. Pain is good. I
don't actually feel it much myself. Never have. Even when I wa a kid
in school. Street fights, wrestling matches. Never feel it. I think
I don't have nerves." He spit on me again and started walking around
me in a circle. I looked up at him and saw he was stripped to the
waist. His chest was huge and hard and hairy. He didn't have
washboard abs, but he didn't need them. He was pure power made into
human form. He scratched his head and I became fascinated by the way
his biceps bunched and shifted, the way his pit hair was long and
straggly and unkempt. He saw me looking at his arm and reached down
to grab me. In one swift move he pulled me up, my forearm in his grip.
"Maybe I should break some bones first. Gets me hard when I hear
bones snapping. But I guess you know that. You saw me with the
fuckin' wimp at the gym. YEAH!" He roared suddenly. Even his voice
pierced my skin, my soul and made me wince. He squeezed harder. "Feel
that? That's your bone getting ready to turn into dust. You can feel
it can't you? Trying hard to be all manly and everything. But it's
not shit compared to me. Just like you. Not shit." He let me go and
I fell to my knees again, rubbing my hand. "You ever use a guys face
to wipe your ass after you've been on the can? I have. Lots of times.
They hated it, but what were they gonna do? Hit me?" He laughed,
loud and booming. "I LOVE IT when they fight back. Reminds me why I
get to choose who lives and who dies." He knelt down and put a hand
on each side of my skull. "Been a long time since I crushed
someobody's skull in my hands. Nothing like hearing that last scream
and pop before someone just starts flopping like a fish. Can you feel
it?" He asked pushing it harder. "Can you feel it now? This hard
enough?" I started crying now. Tears flowed from my eyes and I
didn't even bother to try and pull his hands from me. "Awwwwww,
little nothing is crying. I like that." He pulled his hands from my
face and again I fell to the ground. He kicked me and I flew a foot
or so off the ground landing hard and in a heap. He walked over to me
slowly and I felt the vibrations from his strength powering into the
ground. As if he were more powerful than the world itself.
"You're gonna be my nothing for a while boy." He grabbed me and
pulled me up dragging my sore body across the ground. He opened the
back door to the van and threw me in. I skidded to the front and
curled into a heap behind the seats. "Do yourself a favor." He
reached out and grabbed the door. "Don't bore me."
The door slammed hard and I started crying again.