For the night is dark and full or terror

    Kyle dimly opened his eyes as the mid morning sun came through his blinds. When he looked to his 

right he saw that Alice had gone. The clock on the nightstand right 12:01 and for a moment he was 

worried that he'd slept through his alarm for work. Then he remembered the text he'd sent Mr. Price,

his boss, at 6am this morning, when he'd woke up, realized what time it was, and realized he was still

completely intoxicated and in no shape to make it in to work at all. 

            He contemplated calling Mr. Price, but thought better about it when he he imagined how he'd

probably sound. Not long was Mr. Price strictly sober, he was also a former alcoholic, drug abuser, himself

so he knew all the tricks, all the patterns. He'd smell the booze on my breath from over the phone, Kyle 

had thought the time. 

        They'd had a wild time at the House of Venus the night before, drinking heavily, he'd paid for a lap

dance for him and for Alice and they'd stayed until closing time around 1. After that his recollection 

was more hazy, but Alice had ended up coming back to his apartment with him. He remembered that

she had really wanted to bang but he hadn't for some reason. He was soo drunk or something he said. 

Then he remembered saying, 'I can't do this,' 'I can't do this,' like he was some fat middle aged lawyer

in a hotel with a hooker. 

        Then they'd gotten bored, started watching a movie, when Kyle remembered that his brother, Issac,

who lived with him was over at this girlfriends house, and that he always kept a liter of good vodka in

the freezer. So he'd suggested to Alice that they have, a 'nightcap.' 'Just a little bit,' he'd thought at the

time, he'll never notice. Then, a few shots led to a few more, and before long they'd finished off the 

whole bottle.

                Then around 5, he remembered seeing what time it was, remembered he had to work at 7 that

morning, and seeing how this was going to be a real problem. He remembered his conversation with

Alice as if the two of them were speaking underwater, 'Just call out,' she told him, seemingly in slow

motion, 'But, I never call out...'

            He got up on the side of his bed, feeling like his brain was being beaten by hammers. Mr. Price

isn't going to like that I called out an hour before my shift, he thought as he collected his thoughts for

the day. Or that I did it in a text. He didn't care for liars, or people sneaking around hiding thing, he'd 

once told him. 

        'Just be straight with me man, and I'll be straight with you.' He'd told him once. Hell, Kyle thought

if this goes well tonight, maybe I'll quit, sell more, get a part time job at a gas station or something. 

They were going up to the sources house around midnight, they decided. Kyle, his brother Isaac, and

their friend Dave. It was simple plan, really. Drive up there, bust in the door, wake up the guy put a

pistol in his face and tell him to show them where the drugs are or they'll blow his brains out. Worst 

case, he tries anything, they have to kill him. 

            He got up, still wondering where Alice had gone off too as he heard the cell phone ring on top

of his dresser. 

            

        'Hey smiling Steve! What's happening brother?' Kyle said as he picked up the phone. The booze 

was still strong in his system. 'As a matter of fact a lot, my friend. In fact I have a whole bunch of these

jelly beans I think you might be interested in, all kind of flavors too. And I can hook you up give a good

price on them.' Steve explained.

           Not as good as the deal I'm about to get tonight, Kyle thought. 'Nah, man I'm good right now for

everything. As a matter of fact, hit me up tonight maybe around 4am, I should be back by then with a 

few interesting things of my own.'

        'Oh yeah?, alright then, I'll hit you up then. Bye.' Steve said and hung up. Kyle liked Steve Berardi,

thought he was in interesting character. He reminded him of Paulie on the Sopranos. Just sometimes he

talked too much, Kyle thought, as he laid back down in bed. Might as well sleep for a while, I have a 

long night ahead of me.'

                

            Steve Berardi took a sip of his beer and counted the money Jamal had just given him, they were

on the porch of Eugene's apartment smoking a blunt. Doing good today, Steve thought. He'd already 

sold 2,000 dollars worth of Oxycodone to various customers in town. It was easy to give a good price

with how little he'd paid for it.

            'You know Jamal, I remember when this old bastard here was just a wet behind the ears country

boy from Georgia, him and his friends Judge and Marcus, they all served in the same regiment in 

Vietnam. What was the name of your group? The 3 of you? The Young Bloods? Wasn't that the name

Eugene.

            Eugene sat in a folding jar in the middle between Jamal and Steve. 'Yeah, something like that.'

Eugene muttered. He'd never liked his clown at all, now he's trying to talk like we were buddies back

in the day or some shit, Eugene thought.

        'But you see back then, Eugene and his group they sold dope too, but they had to kick up to us. To

my brother Carmine. How much was it, 5 grand a month or something? Ouch that must have hurt.'

        'I don't remember.' Eugene replied, he was finishing up rolling a blunt. 'However time's change. A

lot can happen in 20 years.' Eugene remarked, watching Steve's face change to anger as he realized saw

the insult.

            Eugene lit up the blunt, man when is he going to leave. The deal on the pills was nice but now it

felt like he was trying to piss him off or something. It was working. Eugene passed the blunt to Jamal.

'See, you guys, to be honest I'm not particularly fond of my nephew Guy. I think he's a dishonest, lying,

stealing, two faced little shit. That being said, I don't think what you did was right Jamal. Sure he owed

you some money, but you should have given him a chance to pay. He never did anything to you. Did 

you ever try to talk to him, get him to pay?'

        Jamal took a hit of the blunt, 'Man he owed me that 200 over 2 years ago and he was ducking me

that whole time. Only way I was ever going to track that fool down was if someone brought him to me.'

        Steve threw up his hands, 'Look, I know, I know. And I want to talk to about this in person, face to

face, because, truthfully, this feels like an insult to our family. We've done business with you Eugene 

plenty of times with us in the past, sometimes us buying from you, sometimes you buying from us, this

feel like a real betrayal. You knew Guy was with us. Why would you authorize something like this?'

            Jamal passed the blunt to Steve, this is starting to get heated, he thought. 'Well first of all Steve,

and sometimes I think you forget this. Sometimes I think you get your time periods messed up. But it's

2010 now, Steve not 1978, and your family doesn't run this town anymore. And secondly, I wouldn't 

have authorized it if I thought he was still with you guys. I had heard that him and Matteo were on the

outs. That he had withdrawn his protection, in a manner of speaking.'

            Somebodies talking too much, probably that bitch Alice. 'Look all I'm saying is, what you did,

that kind of thing hurts your pride, and even someone as weak and lowly as Guy has a certain amount

of pride. He's gonna want to retaliate, and let me tell you, he isn't gonna go after Jamal. He's not a total

fucking idiot. He's gonna go after your boy Jack, he's gonna pick the soft target. And if he get's hurt 

that going to be one you.' Steve said, passing the blunt to Eugene.

            Eugene took the blunt and raised his eyebrow, 'Really? Well if Guy decides to do that he can see

what the consequences are. You do know who are main supplier is? Who backs us with muscle? Some 

pretty mean guys. Kind of guy's who slaughter entire families just to get to one guy. And I'll tell you

right now, if he lays a hand on Jack, that boys gonna have a problem with me. Jack's been making us

a lot of money.' He took another hit and passed it to Jamal.

        'Look all I'm saying is, your boy better watch his back.' Steve replied, and Eugene finally had had

enough. 'Do you have any other business with me? Anymore observations or comments or suggestions?'

Steve finished off his beer. 'Nah I think I'm good.'

        'Then why don't you just be on your way then, because honestly, your starting to piss me off right 

now.'

                Steve got up, cursing under his breath. 'You know we used to run this fucking town.' He said

as he got up to leave. Eugene laughed, 'Used to. Used to. That's the important part. That don't mean shit

anymore and you better start getting used to it.'

            'Whatever, Steve said as he walked to the door the led inside, 'This isn't over, your boy better 

watch out.' 'I'll be sure to remind him.' Eugene replied. As he stormed out, Eugene got out his cell phone

to call Matteo, wait 'til he hears this shit, he thought.

            'Take a right at this barn.' Isaac told Kyle as the large red barn came into view of Kyle's

subaru's headlights, 'Your going to follow this road for a little while until we turn unto this dirt road

that leads up this this guys house.'

            Kyle could hear and fear and uncertainty in Isaac's voice, but he tried not to let it get to him. 

After all, he thought to himself, he'd ripped off harder targets than this one. Hell, they'd once ripped off

a coke dealer who lived in the middle of the projects.

        That one had been hairy but they'd gotten out in one piece. Of course they had always been careful

to choose targets who weren't connected to any larger gangs or criminal organizations. That was part of

the reason why, deep down, he felt a little uneasy about this one.

        Not much intel, he thought. Not enough. That was the reason why his brother Jason had sat this

one out, not enough intelligence. 'You don't know what that guy could have up there, he could have

fucking traps, guns, anything. No something like this I'd prefer to know a little more about the guy, the

house, where the stash actually is.'

            Kyle watched the lines on the road, feeling a chill down his spine. He'd told Jason at the time it

wouldn't matter, that once they were up there they'd pull out their pistols, and get the information of of 

him, one way or the other.

        Now, however, he wasn't sure. It was just him and Isaac again. What if something did happen? 

Nah, fuck that, we've come to far now to turn back.

        'In a couple hours were about to be one of the biggest players in town brother!' Kyle said, trying to

sound as optimistic as he could. 

        'I hope you're right.' Isaac replied. He'd committed the directions to the house to memory, he was

something of a savant with things like that. 

        'The turn for the dirt road is going to be coming up in about 15 minutes.' He told Kyle. 'Right. So

you know the plan? We park in front, go in, find the guy, figure out where the stash is and take as much

as we can fit into our trash bags. I'm thinking in and out in about 30 minutes. You know, in case he tries

to give us a hard time.'

        'Uh-huh.' Isaac replied. They'd gone over the plan numerous times in the past few days and before

coming up tonight, but Kyle liked to remind him. 'Keep us on the same page.' as he liked to say.

            It was a little past 1:30 on the clock on his dashboard, making great time, Kyle thought. The 

GPS had estimated the time at 2 and a half hours so they were doing good in that regard. 'Who the

fuck is this.' Kyle said aloud as he saw his cell phone light up on the center console. He glanced down

at the number, 'Satellite bar.'

        'Ill call them back later.' He said to Isaac, who had the look of a soldier going into war. A minute

later he saw the phone light up again, informing him that he had a voicemail. 'I'll check it when I get

back in town.' He thought.

            'I'm so glad you were finally able to hang out. I was starting to think you weren't interested.' 

Jenny told Mojo. They had just kissed and were sitting next to each other on the balcony, a table with an

ashtray between them.

        'No it was never that. I've just had a lot on my plate the past few weeks.' Mojo replied. He took a 

joint from his shirt pocket and put it in his mouth, 'But you're right I'm glad I finally did come out.' He'd

been pretty down after his last meeting with Eddie, his source. However, after thinking about it he had

come to the conclusion that maybe it was for the best. He'd stop selling coke, pills, some of the harder

stuff and just sell weed, mushrooms and acid. Focus on Cloud City, his studio and record label. 

        After the meeting with Eddie, he'd called Elbourne and asked if he could talk to him, face to face.

He had a proposition and he thought maybe Elbourne could help him out. Elbourne replied that he was

pretty sure he new what this was about, and he was also confident that he had was Mojo was looking 

for.

            Also, Betty Jean, a singer who'd moved up to Warner from Texas, was going to sing a few songs

with Rapid Flank Movement, Elbourne's band. He thought she had the kind of sound Mojo liked and 

Elbourne felt pretty sure he could persuade her to do a recording session at Cloud City. 

            'You still got that good reefer right?' Elbourne had asked. 'Make sure you bring it.' Then, a 

couple hours before he was going to go to the show Jenny had called and asked if he was doing 

anything tonight.

                It had all worked out like clockwork, he'd picked her up at the apartment and they'd parked

in the lot of his studio, which was only a couple blocks from the satellite and gotten stoned and made

out a little. Just when it seemed like it was going to another level, she reminded him about the show. 

She saw the disappointment on his face and reassured him, 'Don't worry babe, we'll pick up where we

left off.'

            The show had been a blur and they'd both had their fill of the many craft brews that Satellite had

on draft, Mojo was partial to the porter, and everything had been a  blur, until just now when he looked

at his watch and saw it was almost 1:30.

            'Holy fuck.' He told Jenny slurring his words. 'This place is gonna close in a half hour, and I still

got to meet with Elbourne. You don't mind staying with me at the studio tonight? There's no way I'm

driving in this condition.'

        Jenny stood up, 'I was planning on it.' She said. 'Don't worry have Elbourne meet you there you

boys can do your transaction or whatever it is and when he leaves, we can get back to it. But I have to

go to the ladies room.'

        'Ok.' Mojo said. 'I'll be here.' He took a long sip of his porter, it was almost empty. He thought 

about getting up and navigating his way through the throng inside, but he hesitated. After all there

were still at least a couple things he wanted to do before the night was over. Meeting Elbourne he 

wasn't too worried about, but the other thing, with Jenny, he knew it would probably be best if he wasn't

completely gone. Maybe at the cusp of the edge, but not falling over.

        Outside on the balcony, people from the show were smoking cigarettes, weed, drinking beers, 

talking. He was just drunk enough to enjoy all the noise and smoke and drunken conversation. In fact

he was feeling at peace with everything at that very moment. Sure maybe he wouldn't make as much

money now, but it would probably be safer. Less worry about a bust from the feds or, just as likely, 

some asshole pulling a gun and robbing him.

        I can get back to making music too, he thought to himself as he saw a familiar, dreadlocked figure

emerge the door that led inside the Satellite bar with a bottle of beer in his hand and a young woman by

his side.

            Roady, Mojo thought, as he started to walk right past his table. Motherfucker, Mojo thought and

grabbed him hard by his arm, 'I need to talk to you. Outside.' He started to squirm, 'Or would you like

me to say it in front of your girl there and all these people?' Roady nodded, 'Yeah, might as well get

this over with.' As if it was a speeding ticket or something.

        'Just give me like 10 minutes babe, I'll be right back.' Roady said to his date. 'Is everything all 

right?' She asked concerned, eyeing Mojo with suspicion. 'Everything's fine. Just give me a few minutes

and all be right up.'

            Mojo led the way inside through the small, crowded club, where Rapid Flank Movement was

performing. In the hallway, Mojo told the guy at the door him and his friend would be right back they

were just stepping out for some air, he told them that was fine and Mojo led Roady down the stairs and

outside.

            'You put a fucking GPS on my car!' What the fuck man!' Mojo said to him as soon as they were

a few feet from the entrance to the club. 'Umm... well... you see..' Roady started to explain, stumbling

over his words.

        'Nah, I'm good man. Were done, I'm done selling anything to you and I'm going to tell everyone I

know, and anyone who will listen what you did and how, in my opinion they shouldn't trust you. And,

believe me, I know a lot of dealers in this town.'

        Mojo smiled, 'But you know what the best part about it to me is?' Roady shook his head. 'Your 

friends are fucking morons, they picked the wrong guy. You thought you were slick tracking my car

with that GPS, my guy man, he's been watching you and Kyle and all of them this whole damn time.

Got his whole place wired for sound. So he knows he's coming and he's prepared for it, and let me

tell you, this guy. He's like a cross between James Bond and Rambo. Hate to break it to you man,

but your friends, they're not going to be coming back tonight.'

        With that Mojo turned around and walked back into the Satellite, leaving Roady dumbfounded. I

knew it was a bad idea!, he thought to himself. I tried to tell him. He'd lost his cell phone a couple of

weeks ago and he and his wife had just been using their home phone. He'd meant to go over to the

Wal-Mart today and get a new prepaid one but he'd forgot.

        Wait, I'm pretty sure there's a pay phone upstairs, right at the top. Maybe I can reach him in

time,  thought as he walked back inside the club.

        "Hey Kyle it's Roady, look the guy your going to see right now, he knows your coming up there,

he's ready for you, it's some kind of ambush, if you get this just turn back. He'd lost his phone a couple

of nights earlier when he'd gotten too drunk over at Chapman's. He'd called over there asked if anyone

had seen it but nobody had.

        Roady reached into his pocket and extracted a couple quarters. 'Guess I'll try one last time.' He 

thought, after that, I've done all I can.

            Probably just someone trying to score something from me, Kyle thought, and he came down the

dirt road, a field on both sides. 'It's just through there.' Isaac pointed, 'Through those trees and up a hill.'

            The field ended and there was a slight right which led through the trees, up another dirt road, the

darkness was thick as they headed up the hill so Kyle put his high beams on. 'You got your piece?' he 

asked Isaac. 

        'Yup.' Isaac replied. 'In and out 30 minutes, we find this guy, find out where the stash is, grab all

that we can and get the fuck out!' Kyle said, as the trees started to thin out at the top of the hill. He first

knew something was wrong when the bright lights from the trees that Eddie had installed came on as 

soon as he reached Eddie's driveway.

        'What the hell?' Isaac said. 'Relax, its probably just an automatic thing-'' they both were silent as 

they heard the sound of all four tires on the car being punctured from the spike strips Eddie had put in.

Kyle pulled to the side, the house was visible now, lit up by the lights. It was about 20 feet away. 

'The tires are fucked!' Isaac screamed as he got out to asses the damage, 'All four of 'em.! How the fuck

are gonna get home now?'

            Kyle got out, 'Relax man. I'm sure this guy has a car of some kind that we can take after we get

the stash.' He remarked. 'No, man. Fuck this man, I don't like this we got to get out of here.' Isaac said.

'This guy knows were coming, something is off about this-'

        It was like something out of a war movie, Kyle thought, Isaac was talking and as he turned to reply

the bullet went straight through his forehead, killing him instantly. 'Isaac!' Kyle yelled, and as he moved

to check on his brother he felt the sharp pang of the first bullet entering his stomach, then the second,

and the third.

            This is the worst night of sleep I've had since I first went into rehab over 30 years ago Jim Price

thought to himself as he took a puff of his cigarette. He'd gone into work at 6 like he always did, but 

he'd been troubled by his forklift operator Kyle calling out. For one thing, he never called out, He

worked 7-3 Monday through Friday and was always on time. Even on the few times he was late he 

would always call and let him know. 

            His wife had made dinner around 6 and he'd gone to bed at 9 and fell asleep by 10 but it just

wouldn't take. Even when he did fall asleep he'd had terrible nightmares. He'd dreamt about Kyle

and a friend of his had their hands bound behind their backs and were lined up in a clearing deep

in the woods.

        Jim was watching helplessly as the shadowy figure raised his pistol and shot them both in the

back of the head. The scene kept repeating itself over and over until he'd finally woken up in a cold

sweat next to his wife.

            He'd thought about waking her but he didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Then when he'd

read the clock on the nightstand and saw it read 3:30, he figured he'd might as well just get up then.

He felt certain that going back to sleep would only lead to more nightmares.

        Now, as he sat on his porch enjoying his coffee and a cigarette, he tried to wrap his brain around

the dream. He'd had a bad feeling when Kyle had called out the day before. A feeling that Kyle had 

gotten himself mixed up in something that was a little over his head. He just wished he'd known what.

        Jim knew that most of his staff were aware that he was in recovery. Some of the ones who'd been

with him longer even knew some of the lurid details of his wild days with drugs and alcohol. He also

knew that a lot of his staff were careful what they said around him. They tried not to mention any drugs

or alcohol, or parties, or anything of that nature. They feared he would give them some sort of lecture,

or worse, start going off about AA.

        However, Jim had never been that kind of guy. He'd learned in AA that you can only help people

who wanted to help themselves. You can't force someone to accept help. Still, he'd heard the rumors 

that some of the staff said about Kyle, he considered them rumors because there was no proof, that he 

dealt drugs, guns. That his father was doing a life sentence in prison for the same things, plus murder. 

That Kyle had basically taken over his father operation since he'd gone away.

           Jim had always found these rumors hard to believe. After all Kyle was a hard worker, always 

said 'Please,' 'Thank You.' things like that. He presented such a wholesome 'Aw shucks' image to Jim

that he'd bought it entirely. 

        However Jim knew a thing or too about lies and living a double lives. He knew the lies he had 

told, the things he had done to people when he was using. He didn't think that was Kyle's problem,

but he did think he was involved with some unsavory characters. He also had a strong feeling that he

wouldn't be in for his shift tomorrow and Jim would have to fill in for him on the forklift again.

        'Thought he'd be back by now.' Steve thought as he parked in front of Matteo's house. Kyle

had said he'd be around later, with something. Steve didn't need the drugs, he had plenty from the

Florida score, but he didn't want to go home yet. He like hanging out over at Kyle's house sometimes,

there was usually good dope, and sometimes there were a few cute girls hanging around. However 

Kyle's phone went straight to voicemail.

            He took the keys of the car and put them on the seat. It had been a hell of a night. After he'd left

Eugene's he'd gone to the package store and picked up a six of tall boys and some nips and headed over

to his girlfriend Shannon's apartment.

        He'd finished off a couple of the tall cans on the way over and by the time he got to her house he 

was pretty loaded. He told her what happened at Eugene's, how it was bullshit, how they used to run 

this city and now these people were walking all over us. She'd let him rant for a few minutes before 

asking him to keep his voice down, he was yelling. Someone was going to call the cops. That, of 

course, had pissed him off even more until finally she told him he had to leave.

            Then he'd gone over to Chapman's, somehow managed to get a few drinks before last call, and

had finally decided to just go home. He grabbed the paper bag of beer and he got out of the car and

headed around the side of the house. There was door that led in to the kitchen and he was hoping he

could make it in without being noticed. All of the lights in the house were off, he made his way down

the path the led to the side door.

            Hope I'm in luck, he thought as he turned the knob and tip toed as best he could into the 

darkened kitchen. He felt along the wall to turn on the light and as he did he saw Matteo  sitting at the 

dining room table, waiting for him.

            'What the fuck is this?' Steve asked as he saw him. 'You scared the shit out of me.' 'Have a good 

time tonight?' Matteo asked. 'Did you get all of that out of your system?'

        Steve threw up his hands, 'I don't know what the fuck your talking about!' He's fucking hammered

Matteo thought as he watched him speak, I shouldn't even be doing this right now. 

            'Had a little talk with Eugene a couple hours ago. He told me about this history lesson you were

giving him. About the good old days in town when those damn niggers and spics knew their place.' He

said sarcastically.

        'Hey! Now your putting fucking words in my mouth I never said that!' Steve shot back putting his

beer on the counter and opening a can. 'Well you may as well have! Man, Eugene is fucking pissed. I 

can't even send you over there anymore he won't have anything to do with you. And your telling him

were gonna go to fucking war over what happened to Gaetano? Are you out of your fucking mind? Are

you just making shit up for the fun of it? What the fuck is your thought process?'

            Steve took a long pull from his can. 'It's about honor, the family honor! They disrespected the

family by doing that to him!'

            Matteo shook his head. 'I'm so sick of having to tell you this, but we live in the here and now.

not 50 fucking years ago. And if you think for one fucking second this family is going to war because

my piece of shit cousin finally faced the consequences of his actions, you are sadly mistaken.'

        Matteo got up and got closer to his Uncles face. 'And if anything does happen to that kid, I'm

holding you responsible. We do a lot of business with Eugene and his crew and now I have to try and

mend what you fucked up. But I'm tired now and I need to go to sleep, I have a meeting with Bobby

in the morning. He wants me and Mike there.'

        Steve took another draw of his beer silent. 'Look, I'm sorry I got mad. We'll talk tomorrow when

your sober. Have a good night.' Matteo said turning off the light as he walked out of the room.

        Steve sat down where Matteo had been sitting. He'd thought about turning the light back on but

decided against it. I kind of enjoy the darkness, he thought.