Nico looked down at him and then at me and smiled. “How did you know that I washere?” He was smiling menacingly.
“And look, you brought something for me,” he said eyeing Maria’s purse.
I made a piteous attempt to flee but Fatboy intercepted me. He ripped the purse outof my hands and threw it over to Nico. He fastened me in chokehold, and dug his knifeinto my lower back. Nico caught the purse with one hand, and then threw it over to theDiablo. He quickly dug out the money and the ring, stuffing them into his pockets andthrowing the bag and the rest of the contents on the ground.
“Negrita, usted es una chica mala.” The crew began to laugh as Nico eyed meseductively. Fatboy pulled me closer to him, his breath smelled like sewage. I felt hisblubber rub against my back as he spooned me with his bite-size penis.
“Hey Cabron, take it easy with that one. I got plans for her later,” Nico said. Theboys roared from laughter.
“Nico.” Chobo choked from his position on the ground. “Nico, don’t do this. Thesekids, they have a future, there is hope for them.”
“You need to speak for yourself old man,” Diablo hollered from across the room.“From the looks of things, it looks like your future is fucked.” The laughter explodedthroughout the room.
Nico looked around the room, at me, at Chobo. He began to parade about waving hisgun in the air.
“It’s hard work doing the shit that I do. And I got people like this asshole over heretrying to stop me,” he said pointing at Chobo.
“You work with the shadows. You put people into psychological and spiritualslavery.” Chobo muttered from his place on the floor.
“There you go again Chobo, putting all this crazy shit in people’s head. And I’m theone who supposed to be the brujo,” he said eyeing both Diablo and Fatboy. They bothlaughed obediently.
“But you know something Chobo, you’re right. I steal people’s souls. I break themdown into little bitty pieces, I put so much fear in them, that they can’t even fucking thinkfor themselves. Why? Because they’re slaves to me. I got the fucking power,” he yelledwhile turning around in half circles.
“Don’t you see my ass holding this gun, while your fat ass is squirming around onthe ground?” Nico yelled.
“You’re slaughtering the human mind,” Chobo cried shaking on the floor.
“You want to keep people in a state of darkness so you can exploit them, deceivethem and keep them poor and dependent on you,” he grunted through his teeth.
“Ah, here we go, some more crazy stories.” He walked over to a very attractivewoman who was hovering in her seat.
“Do I make you feel bad?” He spat this, sprinkling spittle all over her face.
He leaned in closer to her and looked her square in the eye. “Do I make you feel likeyou’re a piece of shit?” he asked.
“No Chobo,” he said as he ripped his eyes away from the woman. “I don’t make herfeel bad, because I give people power,” he said.
“No, you instill them with fear, you make them repress their memories and theiremotions and force them to do all the sick, wicked shit that you don’t have the balls todo,” Chobo said.
“Shut the fuck up!” Nico yelled stomping over to him, waving his gun.
“The shadows are nothing more than negative thoughts that need to be cleaned. Butyou let people carry them around, so they can rot inside of them like a dead corpse,”Chobo said.
“That’s a bunch of bullshit!” he yelled.
“You gain power, while the shadows dig deeper into people’s souls, until it reachesthe very root and poisons their whole being,” Chobo yelled while struggling to sit up.
“Diablo, shoot this motherfucker. I can’t listen to anymore of this shit,” Nico saidwalking over and handing him the gun.
“Then you move on to the kids, brainwashing them, feeding off of theirvulnerabilities and weakness. You create these vicious cycles that goes on from onegeneration to the next,” Chobo said with blood dripping from his mouth.
“Don’t even try it, Chobo. I didn’t start this shit,” Nico shouted. “No, but you’re partof it.” Chobo sneered.
“I’m tired of hearing you talk old man,” Diablo said as he raised his gun and pointedit at Chobo. I couldn’t watch. There was thirty seconds of silence. I opened my eyes tosee Diablo lowering his gun.
“That’s right son. Fear is a negative force that you must overcome. Nico has keptyou in the clutches of fear, so you never grow, so you never evolve, so you can neverescape the darkness that he wants to keep you in,” Chobo said.
Nico rushed over and kicked Chobo violently in the stomach. Chobo coughed,spitting out more blood. “You don’t want to kill me, son. Those thoughts in your head arenothing but spirits. The good and bad are fighting inside of you. Don’t let the bad spiritswin. Pray with me to Obatalá, he can clean you, he can save your soul.” Chobocontinued.
Diablo didn’t move. He just stared at Chobo, spellbound.
“I can’t believe this shit,” Nico puffed while walking over to Diablo.
“No seas maricón,” Nico said. He was inches away from his face. Diablo backedaway, lowering the handgun. Nico was pissed. He smacked the butt of the revolveragainst his forehead and his limp body fell to the ground. Someone screamed. A babybegan to cry and was quickly crooned to by a quavering mother. Nico looked over atChobo, who seemed to be smiling through a bloody mouth and missing teeth.
You keep it up chobo! And you ain’t gonna be the only one that dies tonight” Theroom became still. Nico wiped his brow. He seemed to be high off of power.
Chobo was clearly in pain. I could see that he was mustering up the strength to speakagain.
“This
