3.101 - Bluebird of Chicago
Sampson gloats as we leave New Orleans, Isaac kisses his ass over the whole ordeal. I’m not as eager to celebrate. We could have wiped out a bloodline, we held an old lady hostage, torched some historic buildings while hurting and maybe killing dozens of others. Why? So he can make sure nobody sells drugs to the neighborhood he sold drugs to for years. To make sure nobody took over his turf, that he doesn’t occupy. Forget that.
“I know
you’re not getting sensitive back there,” Sampson jokes.
“We just
wiped out a small village worth of people, so yeah, I’m a little sensitive.”
“Stop
acting like a bitch, we just did something awesome,” Isaac laughs.
“What was
awesome? Making a woman watch her son be chased down in the middle of the
night? Burning down historic buildings? We didn’t actually get any drugs off
the street. Did you see a stash of drugs? I didn’t see any drugs. What about
money? They still got money?”
“We’ve got
your cut of the money in the trunk,” Isaac smiles in the rearview mirror, “big
trash bags full of money. I did some exploring after you knocked me out.”
“You could
have died.”
“But he
didn’t, and you didn’t die so what’s the problem,” Sampson asks.
“I just
told you what the problem was,” I can feel my voice raising.
“Take some
of that bass out of your voice when you talk to me,” Sampson raises his own
voice.
“Or what?”
“Or what?
You think I’m some kind of playground bully? Don’t forget I already laid you
out twice now. Hotel and big house. This ain’t what you want little buddy.”
“Pull
over,” the words seem odd coming from my own mouth.
“What,”
Sampson laughs.
“Pull
over.”
“Oh, now
you want to fight,” Sampson asks sarcastically.
“Yeah, I
want to fight now,” do I want to fight? Yeah, I want to fight.
“Alright,
I’ll knock you around a little.”
“Alright,
let’s just get home,” Isaac tries to play peacemaker.
“That’s not
my home, I’m a guest,” I respond. “You are too.”
“See, he
thinks he’s the Big Adze now because he came from up north. They’re always
looking down on us. They think we’re slow just because we’re Southern.”
“We don’t
think Southern people are slow. Maybe crazy, but not slow. I think you’re slow,
because you’re an idiot who would rather start a gang war than deal with his
issues like an adult.”
“Alright,
we can do this, but when I beat your ass out here, I’m leaving you here,”
Sampson loses his joking tone.
I don’t
need to strategize as he looks for a place to pull off the highway. I’ve seen
him fight enough to know how he’s going to play this. He snuck up on me the
first time and on the plantation, I wasn’t in the right headspace. Right now, I
just need to calm down. I know how he fights, he just overpowers people and if
I stay calm I won’t be in that kind of situation. He’s stronger, but I’m faster
and I’ve actually got skills beyond just being a muscle head vampire.
I’m the
first one out of the car when he pulls over next to some abandoned field. I
start to stretch after the long car ride. Isaac gets out the car next, trying
to talk me out of this but I’m not hearing it. Suddenly he’s concerned when he
realizes just how far I’m willing to take this. Sampson gets out the car and is
acting like this is all a big joke, making a big show of removing his shirt and
flexing his muscles.
“Until KO,
or give up,” Isaac tries to lay some ground rules.
“If I don’t
kill him first,” Sampson still thinks I’m joking.
“Yeah,
that’s with me.”
“Alright,
let’s go,” Sampson starts to rush at me.
Yeah, he’s
doing what I thought he would. It would be easy to run away, but I don’t budge
until he’s close. I drop down low and slide to the side. I move my hand towards
the back of his knee and a blade materializes in my hand, stabbing him and
causing him to drop to a knee. I retreat to a safe distance as he swings wildly
while trying to stand. He rattles off some cursing about how that was unfair. I
don’t care, I’m going to take his other knee when I get he chance to do it. I
watch Sampson inhale and know the flames are coming. I launch a nightmare at
his head forcing him to dive out of the way. He can’t react before I’ve slammed
my knee into his face. He manages to grab me, looking for a grappling match on
the ground. I take the opportunity to land more blows to his face but he’s
smiling, displaying bloodied gold teeth and taking it like it’s nothing, still
trying to grab me. He manages to lock me in a bear hold, but he’s started to
inhale, he’s going to try burning my face away here on the ground. His neck is
too big for me to wrap both my hands around but I squeeze as tight as I can,
pushing back towards the ground for leverage. It’s all about which of us will
fade first.
I wake up
to Isaac pulling me away from Sampson. I guess I couldn’t hold up after all,
surprised they didn’t just leave me on the side of the road. I stumble as my
brain adjusts to having fresh oxygen again, and my organs express satisfaction
in not being strangled anymore. I notice Sampson is still on the ground, passed
out.
“Did I
win?”
“Sort of,
you both passed out. I was thinking, you’re right. What we did was wrong. I’m
not going to apologize for doing what I felt like I needed to in order to get
my revenge. But, I am going to try thinking with a clearer head.”
“Is that
why you woke me up first?”
“Yeah.”
“Good
enough for me. Save all the other shit for when I’m not on the verge of passing
out again.”
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