“I’ll see your five and raise ya to one thousand," the fat greasy old Italian scumbag said with a strange anticipation in his voice.
Words came out of Worm’s mouth so fast he had to say them twice. A blur of time flew past his face and the finally he was there.
"Another 500, that’s a 4 G pot," said Tony.
"Call,” said worm (as he could not raise him any more).
And with that Tony put out his cards slowly, King, King, Ace, Ace. The last card floated towards the table, he knew it couldn't be an Ace cause he had the other two, then the card hit the table, a King.
Worm tried to run but after a few steps all he could remember after that is pain, pain that tore him apart. Hands and shoes and what felt like a bat, his body rolled and he began to leave the living world, feeling less and less pain, “is it time to give up?” He thought. Then he drifted into a dream, there was Jane always beautiful to him.
Then he awoke, in an alley with a voice echoing in his head.
"Seven grand by next Thursday or your dead, dead, dead ya scmuk"
Worm needed help, he needed money, he needed Jane.
Jane was about 6ft and well built. She was quite attractive with fair brown hair and diamond blue eyes. Her body was muscular but compact and flexible. She walked in long powerful confident strides. You could tell by looking at her that she was the kind of woman that didn’t take stick from anybody. She was wearing a traditional white martial arts robe with a black belt, Tom always called them dressing gowns she often thought to her self smiling.
Jane skipped along the hall of her new school. Jane was a Tae Kwon Do black belt and she had been the state TKD women’s champion for seven years running. But she was getting older so she invested her life savings in a run down abandoned gym which she had done up with the rest of her money. Worm had been her best friend since kindergarten and Jane had always got him out of trouble and Worm always made her laugh. She loved Worm, she didn't now why, but she always loved him. She could tell Worm anything. Worm gave her unconditional love, she had had that from no one else, her parents never gave it to her. Deep down she knew how bad worm was for her but she was conflicted in her mind. He always knew how to make her laugh and feel better when she was down. Unfortunately Worm was too ignorant and obsessed with gambling by his late teens to really appreciate Jane and they eventually drifted apart. Worm's gambling had forced him to borrow money off Jane and he lost every cent to Tony and various other poker halls across the city. Jane wouldn't have cared about the money if Worm just listened to her and tried to stop gambling. Jane was often visiting other countries learning the different types of martial arts and trying different culture. This gave Worm time to get into trouble. Jane was trying to forget about Worm and just get on with her life and just as she had nearly gone a day without thinking about him there was a thud on the big old oak doors which made the entrance to the gym. It was raining outside and as the door swung open a cold gust hit Jane pushing her back. A small thin pale figure stood before her, soaked, with eyes like a puppy.
"Jane..."he paused as if nothing he could say would mean anything. Then instinctively they hugged. As Worm's head drooped over Jane shoulder he whispered:
"Jane its all gone wrong, its no longer just a beating, if I don't pay off the money I'm a dead man." and with that he began sobbing, creating a pool of saliva all over Jane's white robe.
Jane sat awkwardly; Worm leant back across an old sofa sipping hot coffee gazing at Jane who gazed into the crackling fire. She began thinking to herself about every time she had helped Worm and every time he had thanked her, knowing he only did to make her feel good. Maybe that's why she loved Worm, she thought, the only person who had ever loved her truly was Worm. Unfortunately Worm had a funny way of showing it and he never really told her how he felt and so she could only guess.
"What are you gonna do now?" she finally blurted out after what seemed like a lifetime of thought.
"That's what I thought you could help me with. I'm gonna go to Atlanta and...."
"Atlanta?!" she shrieked.
"Yeah I figure I could start fresh and...."
"Wait," she paused looking angry "how much do you owe?"
"Well kinda seven..." he began.
"Seven hundred dollars! That's a lot of cash to..."
"Will you let me finish what I'm saying for once in your life!” he snapped, the sudden power of his voice startling Jane and making her see the stress he was under. "I owe Fat Tony seven thousand dollars," Jane just stared at Worm, her face going a pale creamy colour "I've got to get out of here, I need about six hundred bucks to get to Atlanta and set up." he sighed with the relief as if the hardest part of his journey was over.
“What do you mean?” she questioned, looking angry.
“There’s a couple of new casinos opened up there, virgin territory for gamb…”
"No, were gonna see Tony," Jane ordered.
"But..."
"No buts,"
"If...."
"No ifs," she paused” were gonna see Tony and I'm gonna get him to leave you alone."
She dragged worm with her to her old fiesta. She turned the keys that started the old diesel motor chugging along rapidly. Worm opened his mouth to speak, she glared at him and he slowly closed his mouth and broke eye contact. Eventually he managed to get the courage to speak.
"Jane this isn't the fat kid who used to steal my lunch money!”
“Your gonna pay him back I don’t care if you have to clean toilets for a year.” She said in a mothering tone.
“This is a gangster, he wants his money now and he has guns!" he half shouted.
"Look in the back, under the black sheet." she said calmly.
Worm turned around and pulled off a heavy old sheet, which revealed an old brown trunk. He opened it and was greeted by the sight of an armoury of crossbows, knifes nun chucks and an array of other Kung Fu hardware that Bruce Lee would envy.
“Wow what do I get to use?” He asked.
Jane pulled out a six-shooter from the glove compartment.
“Only use that if there's no other way,” he nodded in agreement.
Time passed quickly.
“Take that left, just down 134th street, just there.”
She stopped the car, it was about half ten, a fresh downfall of rain began pounding on the roof. Through the window they could make out an empty car park that led to the back alley entrance to the poker room. Worm sat staring at the door down to the basement.
Jane suddenly realised Worm was the worst thing that had ever happened to her and made a decision she had been edging on her whole life. A tongue of thunder flickered across the horizon, the rolling drum of thunder crackled through the sky.
“Tom,” Jane pulled Worm close and kissed him, “when this is over,” thunder crackled as she spoke, “I … I don’t ever want to her from you again.” And with that she got out of the car and pulled out the trunk from the back. Secretly she turned away from Worm as a tear dropped down her cheek although she knew, she had done the right thing.
Worm just sat staring at nothing, he felt burned and angry at everything. He knew that he had lost everything and nothing he could do would change it. Either liver without Jane would kill him or more likely Tony would crucify him and Jane both. He had taken terrible beatings and verbal abuse that made him cry, but he would rather take a hundred years of that then for Jane to leave him. He gave up on life in that instant. Jane was the plug that stopped him draining into insanity. He swallowed his thoughts and knew what he had to do. Then for the first time in Worm’s life he knew what it was to understand, gambling was wrong, he should have made something of his life. He should have loved Jane and treated her right. He understood and was happy for he knew what to do. He began counting backwards from ten. Nine, he clicked off the safety, eight, he pulled back the pin with his thumb, seven, he turned it slowly to his mouth, five. His thoughts focused on Jane again and he felt even worse. Three, two, one, he pulled firmly on the trigger. It was loud. A bullet tore through his skull ending him instantly. It sounded like thunder. But Jane knew what it was instantly.
She couldn’t move at first, the sound of the bullet echoed through her ears. She collapsed onto the floor weeping, calling for Tom; she pounded the ground with her fists. Adrenaline poured into her veins and a pain in her stomach forced her into a ball. She breathed hard and fast, her whole body shaking. The rain began to thicken to a down poor. She lay there looking dead. No thought passed her mind only emotion tearing through her soul. Then a white light opened up in Jane, then the light turned to a dark maroon red. Rage violently gathered moving Jane’s arms and legs involuntarily. She sat up and roared. Standing she screamed and gargled like rage itself turned into sound.
Jane moved without second thought, when people get into that mode they can make there bodies do anything. She armed herself with everything she could carry.
She kicked down the old basement door knocking the guy behind unconscious. She trampled down the stairs and burst through the door into a smoke filled room. It was filled with about 15 men, most over forty wearing tired looking suits most smoking dirty looking cigars, sitting around small tables a bar on the left with a tough looking bar man making cock tails. Fat Tony must have be in his office at the other end of the room.
Now Jane decided she was going to have vengeance on all of them, and enjoy it. The old men all stared at Jane. A guard approached from her left another to her right.
“Who da hells this bi…”
Smack, Jane kicked the left guard in the jaw flipping him over. Then she shot the crossbow at the other the other crippling his leg. At this point the room was on its feet. Jane smiled and threw herself using an overhead pipe to fling herself to the other side of the room like a gymnast. She landed on a table. She kicked one guy then jumped on another's head. She spotted the bar man loading a double barrelled shot gun. His arm flinched as two nun chucks hit it. She rolled and upper-cutted one guy to her left then elbowed a second to her right. She began working the room dishing out damage then escaping by using the pipe if more than three closed in at once. The adrenaline was still pumping through her veins but her true fuel was rage. She then pulled out her meter long samurai sword this made most of the old guys run out the door. Then the waiter pulled out a baseball bat and joined the fray. She sliced the bat in half with a light blow. More began to desert the battle. Only two guys were left. They paused, they were tough and covered in blood, and breathing heavily they looked at each other and then Jane. She had already hit each many a time. Then simultaneously they hobbled out the door.
Jane kicked through the door of Fat Tony's office. He was sitting at his desk very still looking very calm.
“So this is the little girl making all the noise,” he smirked speaking like a tiger.
“Who sent you, I’d guess the Japanese from the Kung Fu but you aren’t Japanese or even Asian by the looks of it. So tell me are you being paid well?” he spoke softly, she thought briefly that this was no gangster he seems to calm. Then she saw him as a cat gently purring to slow a mouse so it could strike with ease.
“You’re a monster!” Jane spat at him.
“My dear I don’t think you quite understand. Bad guys like me always win. New York is no fairytale land. It’s an inverted modern fairytale and I’m the hero and you’re the villain.”
Jane grew angry.
“The world belongs to people like me. You think your fighting for good I assume, but in reality every man you just injured or killed is simply providing for himself and family.” He spoke slowly no moving his eyes a millimetre away from Jane’s eyes.
“I enjoy people like you, I especially like them realising that the battle between good and evil was lost at the beginning of time and there has never been a valid challenge to satins throne since. But the thing enjoy most is watching people like you die.”
Jane drew her sword. But Tony was too fast, he took a gun from nowhere and shot her straight through the heart. She dropped to the floor, 14 years of physical training ended in an instant. Tony leant over her.
“You see my dear shmucks like are the real suckers in this world,” he smiled as Jane fought for breath. Then he leant even closer and whispered:
“And they all lived happily ever after, except of course you.”
The End