An Escape

An Escape
Swell was zipping her suitcase closed when her phone rang. She reached over and snatched it from the dresser, not bothering to look at the caller identification. “Who this?”
“It’s me sis.” The voice was happier than Swell wanted to deal with as she was trying to escape her home.
Swell’s eyes rolled, but that was about as nice as she could be toward her sister. “What do you want bitch?”
“Now, is that anyway to talk to family?” Sara Lee Gastineau, Swell’s half sister asked sweetly. Too sweetly. Swell could picture her sister’s curvy frame. Her dark hair draped to her shoulders but rarely any farther.
“In your case...yes. That is exactly how I talk to your type of family.”
“Where’s our new customer?”
Swell looked on the floor where the bodies lay. She nudged one of them for no particular reason. They’d all been lying dead for the past thirty minutes. Fresh flies were swarming. Annoying fucking things. They couldn’t help but inspect their new birthing area. Within a few days maggots would be crawling all over the corpses. The home would be rank and unliveable. They have to burn it down and rebuild. Maybe this time she’d rebuild better. Something more fitting to her financial station, though not as pretentious as she’d like to be. “ They’re putting one hell of a stain on my new carpet.”
“The sheriff?”
Swell glanced over at the man’s body. His uniform was surprisingly clean despite his demise. A tear formed amidst the pain in her temples. He was an ass, but he’d also been the only man Swell had feelings for. What those feelings were… Swell wasn’t sure, but they did exist. “’Fraid he lost his head.”
Her sister’s phone line shuffled. Swell knew exactly who it was going to. The man’s voice on the other end had a thick and well practiced ‘Nawlin’s accent. Part French. Path Cajun. Part…a mix of everything else. “SueEllen,” he said, “now you’ve crossed the line,”
“Fuck you Antoine. You forced my hand. You gonna send folks to kill me, send more than four.” She pulled the suitcase from the bed and looked around for anything else she may have forgotten.
Antoine Gastineau clicked his tongue. “You need to be calm about this, SueEllen. I have more men than you. Chicago, New York, Tokyo, and the list goes on. They’re all in my corner. You just a small fish in a small pond.
“I got all the contacts I need.”
“All you have is an awkward Russian aristocrat who has an obsession with guns.”
“What’s your point asshole?”
“The point is I’ve got your gang.”
“You got my boys?” Swell took the suitcase and walked out of her bedroom door. A gun was in the hallway. A left over from the recent gun fight that left five dead in her room. “You the one who has Evan?”
The other end of the line was silent. The phone shuffled again. “Sis.” Sara responded. “We don’t have Evan.” Swell thought she could sense an actual emotion from her narcissistic younger sister. “What happened to him?”
Swell’s heart sank realizing in her sister’s voice that she wasn’t lying. “I was hopin’ you could tell me.”
“Don’t know. But we do have Cutter and Junior. And if you don’t get out of town by midnight, they and you are dead.”
“Why you givin’ me till midnight?”
Antoine was back on the other end. “Call me sentimental. After all you are my sister in law.”
“Fine, I’ll leave, but you can keep them two dumb assholes,” she said, and hung the phone up.


Cutter ducked and jumped out of the doorway as Junior pulled the gun and aimed it his way. He heard the bullet whizz by and pulled the gun he took from Bridgette before ducking for cover.
“Get him baby,” he heard Lenora yell out. Then Junior’s hard thumping feet seemed to swirl and chase Cutter.
“You can poke yo’ head out of that corner if you want,”
And sure enough the tip of Junior’s hat appeared from around the corner. Cutter took a shot. “I warned you boy,”
“Get him baby,” Lenora had already begun to get dressed as she called out to Junior again.
Cutter caught a brief reflection of her in a window pane. He felt something graze his bald head. He fanned thinking it was a bug, but turned to see a sheer white curtain being pushed around by a breeze.
Junior poked his head out again, and let off a single shot that went through the window, while Cutter got one off too, which whizzed by Junior’s ear likely missing his friend by an inch.
“Boy, I won’t miss next time,” Cutter said slipping one leg out the window. What the fuck is happening? Why did Junior turn. What the hell, man? Cutter’s only escape was the window. He could still take off in Junior’s truck. At least he thought. Replaying the night’s events he wasn’t sure the truck was still in the parking lot. He’d actually driven it to the Bellafont. That’s what he thought. But then they were bacl here. It was all so confusing.
“And neither will he.” Lenora egged Junior on. “Get him baby.” She shouted.
Bridgette seemed to disappear. While Junior took potshots at Cutter and Lenora spouted off encouragement, Cutter hadn’t heard a thing from Bridgette. That, despite everything else made him the most concerned.
Junior ducked down low and rolled across the floor hurting his semi-hard cock on the hardwood floor. He pointed the gun, but the space below the window was empty.
“He’s gone,” Junior said mater-of-factly as Lenora’s perfume flowed surrounded him, engulfing his senses.
“Well go get him you dolt,” she ordered. With a single nod, he ran to the window and dove through it.
“You forgot your clothes,” Lenora yelled, but by that time Junior was out of ear shot and running through the parking lot bare foot and naked.


Cutter ran beneath the pale moonlight through the high grass toward the river. He heard Junior yell behind him and the sound of a gun going off.
Cutter weaved through the trees as he drew nearer to the water. He saw the dock and two mid-sized boats attached to thick rope. Another bullet whizzed by and he ducked behind a tree.
“Don’t make me shoot you Junior,” he yelled. He heard a noise behind him and turned to see the grass shimmy and not a soul near it.
“Shit,” he hollered and leaped up to grab a tree branch. The gun went off again and he felt a bullet lodge into his left leg. Junior ran toward him just as he hit the ground.
“I’ll teach you to walk in on me and my girl,” Junior said.
“Fucker you shot me,” he spat as the gun filled his eye sight.
“Cutter?” Junior was suddenly lost.
“Yes fool.”
“I-I been shootin’ at you this whole time?” Concern seemed to wrap Junior’s mind. He looked at the gun still in his hand. What the…
“That voodoo bitch warped your dumb ass mind.”
Junior put his hand out, and Cutter stood. “Boy I done seen too much of you.”
Junior looked down at his naked body. “What the fuck?”
A still and unseen gator let loose a low growl. Junior grabbed Cutter into his arms like a child and dashed toward the boat. In one leap he was on, and managed to push the boat away from the dock. He shot at the gator and the rope tying the boat to the pier.
The gator looked at him and walked off the pier and back into the water. Slowly it swam toward them as Junior tried to start the boat. Its body was long. Its skin thick and leather. In the dark, only two eyes could be seen, but both men knew there was much more to be feared.
“That gator sure want our asses,” Cutter said tying a towel he found on the boat around his leg to stave the bleeding.
“Damn motor won’t turn over,” Junior spat.
Cutter looked down. “Uh, we got bigger issues than that.”
Water was filling the boat. The leak came from a crack in the wood paneling of the boat’s sides. “Of course this is the one we pick.” Cutter stammered. “Probably cracked when we jumped in.” He looked behind them and saw two pair’s of malicious yellow eyes swimming their way. He aimed his gun, and the hammer fell on an empty chamber.
“Shit,” he said and threw the gun at the gators. “You still got your piece?”
“Lost it in the brush when you shot my ass.”
Junior tried the key once more and the boat’s engines cranked up. The men felt some elation before it sputtered. Then smoke flowed from underneath the dash.
The gators dipped under the surface of the water, and the guys backed away from the boats sinking end.
“Got any bright ideas?” Cutter asked.
“I wish I brought my pants,” Junior replied.