Red is not a guy you want to mess with ...
(And he actually got a DD!)
A colorful life - 1 by Centauran, literature
Literature
A colorful life - 1
His name was Bilious Green and if he was skulking around, then it was a cinch that Hideous Pink wasn't far away. They'd been dogging me for days, ever since I told our boss, Runny Palette, that I wasn't going to tout his numbers no more.
Bilious was a slob - his marking was as sloppy as his clothes and his personal hygiene was in the same class. Hideous always dressed in bright scarlet, which matched his whiskey-blown features to a T; he was scum, but at least he knew it. Bilious was scum as well, but the difference was, he thought he was real bright. I used to feel sorry for him ... until he stuck that shiv in my neck.
I'd woke up in hospi
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So now I had three corpses on my hands instead of one. True to form, Hideous and Bilious had come charging in with 'Hey Boss! Guess ...', which was as far as they got before I plugged 'em.
Easy job really - just a bit of staging and I could leave all three of 'em there for Mustard to find on his morning rounds. Naturally, not being a complete patsy, I'd shot Runny's boys with his own gun, so all that was needed was to put it in his flabby dead hand and squeeze off a round into the wall near the door. That put powder from his own gun on his hand and his dabs along with it.
My gun went into Hideous' mitt - a
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Before I headed round to Mousey's joint, I stopped by the drop to pick up the sawn-off Dingy'd left for me, putting cash in its place. I added some for the shells, too, plus a tip - it never hurt to keep in good with Dingy. The gun went into the big pocket I'd sewd inside my coat - after I'd loaded it, naturally. The weight felt good.
Mousey lived in an old Brownstone on Cherry Drive, though 'lived' probably ain't the right word. The place was derelict, like Mousey himself. The only room he used contained a filthy bed. Just a bed; nothin' else, unless you count the case of knives he kept underneath it. I'd
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Corn chowder had never agreed with me but I'd downed half of it before I realized what it was. The Big Yellow's soups were all much the same color so I wasn't too hard on myself as I threw it back up again in the Diner's one-cubical-excuse for a restroom.
'Jeez, Red. I did tell ya it was corn chowder!'
'S'okay Goldie - sorry about the eye.'
I left her staring reproachfully at me from the one that wasn't rapidly closing up, but if the truth be told I was already back to figuring out my next move. Frankly I was was stuck. Misty and Mousey were both dead and the only clue I had was a pointy rendition of the
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I was heading back to my pad when there was one hell of a bang from off to my right. I ducked just in time to miss a flying bain Marie in a cloud of French fries. The big Yellow Diner had exploded, taking most of the adjacent shops with it. Looked like poor Goldie'd joined the list of my recently expired acquaintees.
I grabbed one of the paper serviettes still settling to the sidewalk and wiped another helping of corn chowder from my lapel. The towel came off my shoulder with an ear in it ... it was Goldie's all right. I took out the diamond stud she always wore and put it in my pocket; she wasn't gonna mi
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I spent a reasonably quiet night in my own bed, troubled by just the one nightmare. Predictably, I suppose, it was about Goldie's ear. The damned thing was six feet tall, armed with a diamond laser and chased me clear across Central Park before it turned into a swan and flew away. It didn't take a genius to figure out that I had to get rid of the diamond stud before I was completely possessed. A quick coffee and a wash-up and I was back on Aubergine before the sun hit the pavement - not that it ever did, this deep in the concrete canyons.
'So what's it worth, Carmine?'
'Let go my arm already and I'll have
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It was still a.m.; not really a kosher hour for calling on one as exalted as Tony Amaranth, so I skipped the formalities and went in the back way. I didn't know who the big guy on the rear gate was, but I guessed he'd be okay if they got to him in time.
'Hey ... Tony!'
'Huh? ... Oh, it's you, Red.' He flapped an elegant mitt at the two hoods pointing their pieces at me, which probably saved their miserable skins. 'Nice t'see ya, Red. Can I getcha a Scotch?'
He didn't fool me for a second; the hand that'd flapped at the bodyguards was still flapping as he picked up the decanter and repeated the drink offe
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I hadn't told Tony about the ear - my soft side coming through I guess. I wasn't worried about catching scabies from the zircon, but Goldie's lughole was another matter. I was taking my third Lysol strip-wash when there was an official knock at my door. I knew it was official, because it was accompanied by Pine's dulcet commands for me to 'open up.'
I let 'em in; Pine never went nowhere without Grey.
'Another stiff, Red?' Pine leant against the doorjamb, picking at his nails, while Grey bent to examine my five-volume excuse for a bookcase. Maybe he was wonderin' what they were, because I was pretty sure h
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I was almost clear of the dump when I spotted something brown lying in a little puddle of what I hoped was water, but most likely wasn't. The squareness of the thing struck me, otherwise I'd have dismissed it as just more rubbish. I fished it out with a stick, realizing even before I landed it that it was a pocket-book. After wiping it with a few handy scraps of paper, it was clean enough for me to decipher the fancy scripted letters tooled on the front; they read ACB, which meant nothing until I gingerly undid the clasp, like I expected a biblical flood to pour out.
'Damn.' I'd hoped for an anonymous wind
A colorful life - 10 - final by Centauran, literature
Literature
A colorful life - 10 - final
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I was dreaming. Y'know how you get that feeling sometimes, when you're dreaming and you know it's a dream? Well I had it. I was sitting at my usual table in the Diner, trying not to look at the six-foot prawn sitting opposite - it wasn't so much the clicking or those beady eyes, or even the ghastly sucking sound it made while it was eating. It was the fact it was eating corn chowder that made me want to puke.
Anyhow, it finally stopped and started fishing about on its front scales for something ... and out came the ivory toothpick. I watched almost hypnotised as it brought the thing closer and closer to it