Zodiac's toy, John Jones [nonfiction book recommendations .txt] 📗

fuck is that?" he said. "Are you selling coke now as well?”

“Yes, just expanding the busi…” he was cut short.

“When I invited you to set up shop here I didn't mean for you to turn it into a fucking crack-den. Now we've got junkies coming round like flies round shit, and you know I've got money in the safe and lots of expensive equipment in my office. So I don't want crack-heads anywhere near this place. I meant for you to grow the stuff here, then go out and sell it on the streets. So get rid of the coke, okay?" Chimp was sullen and nodded, and took a sip of his bottled water.

"Alright.." he muttered, then walked back into Rays. Gary entered his office-flat, and closed the door behind him.

 

Blotto wielded the baseball bat as if he was about to hit for a crucial strike, as if it would win a game, but he held it before Larry Strickland who was being held around the throat by Lee.

They had found him out in the back garden of his bungalow sawing wood for a dog kennel for his aged springer spaniel who barked but did nothing as it didn't understand what was going on but was too scared to interfere. Larry was sixty-one and had taken early retirement from his self-employment as an osteopath. He was never good with money and even his accountant left him to his own devices when he failed to save and spent what he earned in maintaining a decent lifestyle. It was however, rather precarious, as he found himself taking out loan after loan, and with three grown-up children who had all moved away and a wife who had also given up on his spending when they 'couldn't afford it', he wanted to do something special for her sixtieth.

So he decided to take her on holiday for a weekend in Biarritz, and turned to Gary for part of the money which he spent on flights. However, upon his return, he found payments hard to keep up, and then kind of hoped Gary would 'forget', but Gary never forgot anyone who owed him so much as a penny, and it had been two months since his last payment.

"Think we'd just forget do you? Think we're fucking idiots". Larry was a thin, lithe figure, a man who'd never been in a fight and shook his head at fighting sports.

"Here's a reminder that you need to pay up, and you're still going to pay what you owe". Blotto swung the baseball bat and it cracked into his left knee, splitting the cartilage and dislodging the knee cap. The man screamed and Lee let him go. He fell to the floor holding his leg which was at an unnatural angle. The dog barked louder but did not come any closer.

Blotto pointed the baseball bat at his face.

"I don't want to have to come back here and wrap this around your fucking head, but I will, so pay up, okay?" Blotto and Lee left the garden and walked back to the white van parked outside, and they were soon driving back. The job had taken them eleven miles out, and Lee wondered just how much of a reach Gary had.

"Sometimes I like it when they don't pay," said Blotto, "gets the old blood racing". Lee nodded in agreement.

"I know what you mean. I did a post-office when I came out. Little bit of aggro never hurt anyone", he said and they both laughed.

 

They eventually pulled into the high-rise car-park, and when they left the vehicle could hear voices from up in Ray's flat.

"Customers," said Blotto, "Never understood the appeal of crack or drugs or whatever. Fucks with your brain and makes people into bloody morons, and they pay for it as well. Fucking numpties".

"Ye," Lee agreed as they entered the building. "Took it sometime I must admit but it was expensive so I came off it and realised I could just end up like one of these crack-heads. I thought fuck that I not taking this anymore and it was easy to stop. Pure willpower".

They reached the top and Ray's door was wide open and wafts of smoke was coming out with laughter and no coherent voices.

They entered Gary's place to find him in the kitchen making a cheese and pickle sandwich.

"All good?" he asked Blotto.

"Yes, he'll be paying up, don't worry about that".

"Good, listen, another thing. I've asked Chimp to get rid of his coke, because, as you can no doubt hear, something like that attracts fucknuts. I meant for him to grow cannabis here and sell it out in the streets, but now he's selling crack and fuck knows what else, and I've got money in here and expensive stuff. So could you do me a favour and make sure he gets shut of it. I told him before but I think he's in there sulking, so..."

"I can do that. I've got my baseball bat in the van. I don't mind cracking a few heads". Gary shrugged.

"However you do it is up to you," he said, switching on the kettle.

"Come on," Blotto said to Lee, and when they were out in the corridor he pointed at Shane's flat.

"Go and borrow some weapons. We might need them. Maybe just for show, or maybe not," he said as he walked down the stairs and out to his van.

As he approached the vehicle he slowed down, his head bowed and he stopped at the doors at the back, opening them up. There wasn't much in there except for a sheet of tarpaulin bunched up in the corner behind the passenger seat. Two empty cardboards boxes and a baseball bat.

He stood there for at least a minute, looking at the floor. Then when he heard footsteps on the steel floor of the van, he slowly looked up.

One of the complete strangers in Rays, smoking cannabis was looking out of the window, and saw Blotto standing at the back of the vehicle, but the van was parked horizontally so he could not see inside.

Then he saw what emerged. His eyes widened.

"What the fuck?" he said, looking at the joint in his hand, then back out. Am I seeing things? he asked himself, but he wasn't.

"Fellas", he said, looking at the others and gesturing to the window. "Come and look at this," but when a few came over, Blotto had came to the entrance and was out of view.

Then they heard footsteps. Not Blottos. Thudding steps on the stairs.

The chatter had stopped, and one went out into the corridor to see Blotto appear. He looked as though he was in some sort of trance.

Then a large Ram appeared, with light brown wool and strong-looking curled horns. It slowly made its way towards Ray's flat. The man who had came out dropped his joint.

"What the fuck is this?" he said as the beast reared up, a foot taller than him. It slammed down on his chest, hurling him back to the grimy window at the end of the corridor between opposite flats. The glass cracked, and some shards fell down onto the pavement below, but some jagged glass sunk into his skin as he sank down, keeping him from falling to the floor. He screamed and squirmed.

The Ram entered Ray's flat. Then went to work.

Some screamed and shouted, and the Ram attacked them and smashed the hydroponic equipment. They scrambled for the exit, the table and chairs cracked, the doors split. Ray and Chimp and three others were huddled by the window, effectively trapped as the Ram attacked and destroyed.

The customers, and Harry had all left, some with fractures, broken bones, scrambling down the stairs trying to run away. Lee and Shane were stood in the corridor, unsure of what was happening. Lee with a machine-gun, Shane with a knife.

Gary came out of his office flat and saw Blotto in Ray’s hallway, his back to a wall, staring at the floor.

"Blotto what's going on..?" he entered the flat as the Ram split a bedroom door. It reared up and slammed into Gary's chest hurling him back out into the corridor.

Then it stopped. The Ram walked into the living room where the five people were huddled by the window. Blotto came in and stood next to the beast and pointed to the three customers.

"You three, fuck off," he said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. Even despite the cocaine and cannabis circulating around their systems, they did not need to be told twice, and scrambled out.

Blotto and the Ram just looked at Chimp and Ray. They were both unharmed. Then the beast turned and walked out. Gary had locked himself in his office-flat. The man impaled on the glass had broken free, jagged shards inside his skin. He had crawled down the stairs and had managed to get out into the car-park.

Ray and Chimp heard the animal go down the stairs and the main doors crash open. However, when they looked out to the car-park to see if they could see it, there was nothing there.

Blotto had put his hands to his head, then looked around at the carnage.

"Why?" he asked, "Where did I get that from?"

Gary precariously opened the door as the noise had stopped. His chest still ached, but no bones were broken, and he kept a hand there as though that would ease the sensation. He poked his head out, and Lee and Shane slowly approached.

"What the fuck was that?" Lee asked, but his question went unanswered. They entered Ray's flat and found Blotto stood amongst the shattered hydroponic equipment and the soil and cannabis plants. He was trembling.

"Blotto, when I said to make sure Chimp gets rid of the drugs, I didn't mean go and get a fucking Ram. I thought you were going to get your baseball bat". Blotto just looked at him with tears forming in his eyes.

"I don't know Gary. I don't know. Where did I get a sheep from to do that? It just appeared in the van".

"Have you been taking all this shit?" Gary said, gesturing around. Amongst the soil and plants there was white powder and some pills. Everybody was looking at Blotto, waiting for an explanation, but he just muttered:

"I don't know...in the van..it appeared". Gary shrugged in an exasperated gesture and looked at Chimp.

"Chimp, clean this up. This is your mess". He turned and left. Lee followed. Blotto slowly shambled into Gary’s place. Shane just looked at Chimp as if he had all the answers, but then he realised he wasn't going to get any. He left and made his way back to his flat. Ray just crunched his way across the debris and lay on his bed in a foetus position. Chimp made a start in cleaning up.

 

After around an hour, Chimp came into the bedroom and said:

"These yours?" He handed him the set of zodiac cards.

Someone must have rounded them up and brought them back, Ray thought. What else could it be? He lay on his back on the bed and looked through them. On the back of each card was a symbol of each zodiac sign, and there it was: Aries the Ram.

He curled back into the foetus position, and his non-believing brain strained, but held on. He wanted more reinforcement of his beliefs, so got up from the bed and sought out his phone. Chimp seemed to be enjoying the cleaning. Sweeping the living room floor and drinking bottled water.

Ray went and laid back on the bed and looked up astrology.

However, he only looked at the things which reinforced his belief. The arguments against, so scrolled past:

Astrology is supported by evidence...

Proof of astrology's legitimacy.

Non-believing sceptics cannot back-up their views.

...and instead, stopped to read:

'How can the planets affect a twelfth of the population of the world? With the constellation of stars light-years from each other, they cannot have an effect on a person's behaviour. Looked at from a different angle, the constellations do not represent the animals they purport to portray'.

Ray