JUNKYARD
by Tom Leins.

A long-forgotten cigarillo smoulders between Solomon’s bruised knuckles.

“You know, Joe, you seem to have a real talent for attracting violence.”

“Does that make me such a bad person?”

Solomon’s rheumy eyes twinkle in the early morning gloom.

“Not in my book.”

Solomon chuckles to himself. His skin looks baggy and ill-fitting like some kind of hideous flesh anorak. He used to be big-boned and brutally handsome, but the sickness has left him ravaged and grotesque.

“Drink?”

“Sure, why not?”

*     *     *

Queenan helps Solomon out of the car. The old man didn’t seem to notice the congealed blood pooled in the bucket seat. Inside the bar the parlour snakes check them out with empty eyes. Over the low whine of the jukebox Queenan hears the familiar click of a flick-knife. Solomon rolls his eyes. “I guess we didn’t miss happy hour after all…”

A skinny degenerate with a complexion like a scorched spoon drifts across the sticky carpet towards them. The rusty blade in his fist hints at a whole host of nauseating possibilities. Queenan slams a sharp kick into his knee, and sends the junky sprawling into the cigarette machine. Before he can reach for the tool Queenan stomps his dirty fingers into the threadbare carpet.

*     *     *

The barmaid reeks of hair-spray and disappointment. She watches with a yawn as Queenan slams a wingtip shoe into the guy’s throat. Queenan takes out his revolver and shoots the junky through the knee. He howls mutedly into the floor.

“The next motherfucker to rattle my cage gets a bullet in the hair.”

Solomon wheezes with delight and bangs his fist on the bar.

“What’s a man gotta do to get a drink in this rat-hole?”

The barmaid smiles. Her mouth looks like a sewer pipe.

“Two beers and whatever you’re drinking, sweetheart.”

She grins. In two hours she’ll be whispering gutter lullabies into Solomon’s mangled ear.

BIO: Tom Leins is from Paignton , UK . ‘Junkyard’ is part of his ‘Short Brutalities’ series. Further instalments can be found online at: 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, Straight From The Fridge, Savage Manners, Powder Burn Flash and A Twist Of Noir. He is currently hard at work on his first novel Thirsty & Miserable. Get your pound of flesh at: www.myspace.com/tomleins