The Transmigrator: A Prelude

The Transmigrator: A Prelude

Johnny sat in a high-backed, steel chair and stared quietly into space. The two men in front of him wondered why, after the beating he was given, Johnny was smiling ever so slightly. They were also puzzled about the fact that Johnny never uttered a sound the entire time his dish was being served by two men who truly believed in their own brutishness. Johnny’s smirking lips were swollen and broken, one of his perfectly straight teeth was missing, his left eye was swollen shut and his left ear lobe had been torn off by Joolyus’ gap-toothed jaws. And that was just his face. The rest of his body had been equally ill treated.

“What the fuck are you smiling about?” said Joolyus.

Johnny’s bleeding lips parted, “I’m just pleased to see people who truly enjoy their jobs.”

The two thugs looked at each other. Joolyus shrugged and said “Do you believe this guy?” to his partner, Dave, and promptly backhanded Johnny Harker’s already damaged mouth. Johnny made a noise that may have been a grunt but Dave thought sounded more like a chuckle.

Jooliyus had been in the business for quite some time. He’d killed his first man at 15, the Boss’s oldest friend who later became the Boss’s newest nemesis. The Boss had wanted a problem fixed and Jooliyus had made damned sure that he was there to take care of it. Jooliyus felt that he was a pretty good problem solver but this Harker kid was really starting to piss him off. It was like the kid knew something that Jooliyus didn’t and the kid was copping this smug attitude, slowly driving Joolyus up the wall.

Jooliyus’ partner, Dave, spoke to Johnny now in a soft and terrible voice, “You better tell Jooliyus what it is that you are smiling about. The last thing you need is this big nigger getting a wild hare up his ass about whatever it is that you find so humorous.”

Johnny gave Dave a look then turned his gaze to Jooliyus. “You let him call you that?”

Jooliyus backhanded Johnny across the face again. Johnny and the steel chair he was tied to fell sideways to the filthy concrete floor. The crash echoed around the abandoned warehouse, bouncing off the corrugated steel walls and leaking out a profusion of broken windows. Dave and Jooliyus stooped down to right their prisoner. Joolyus snarled, “You shut your fuckin mouth unless you want some more.”

Johnny spit out a line of blood, “It’s not me you’re hurting, it’s your mother.”

Jooliyus’ face grew dark and twisted. He began to lay into Johnny with his ring adorned fists. When he was done Johnny was almost unrecognizable except for the smile that still hung from his torn lips. Jooliyus raised a thick, well-manicured finger to Johnny’s face. “Don’t you ever talk bout my momma.”

Johnny, barely able to see through his swollen eyes, said “How about Dave’s wife then? She’s feeling it too.”

Dave’s face hardened as he gazed at Johnny’s broken smile. “What do you know about my woman?”

“I know she’s close to death right now, just like Jooli’s mom. You two fucked em up pretty good.”

Jooliyus lurched forward, but was held back by Dave. “I said don’t ever talk about my momma,” Jooliyus shouted in his high pitched voice, spraying spittle into the air and across Johnny’s face.

Dave struggled to maintain his grip on his partner. “Come on Jooliyus, he’s full of shit. He couldn’t possibly know about us or our families. We’ve just met this fool.”

Johnny’s smirk widened. “You touched me. That’s all I needed. I found your bitch of a wife and his fat pig of a mother the second we made contact. After that it was easy to set up a link and shunt all of the pain to them. I imagine those two whores you fuckwits love so much are on the brink of death from the beating you’ve been giving me. I suppose I could have done it to you two jokers but where’s the fun in that?”

Jooliyus was almost in tears, straining against Dave’s iron grip. “Let go! Goddamn it! That smirkin motherfucker is dead! You don’t know shit about my mother!” This last statement was to Johnny and was followed quickly by Jooliyus’ foot smashing into Johnny’s chest, knocking Johnny backwards onto the blood spattered floor. Johnny continued to smile. Ever so slightly.

Dave pushed Jooliyus away from Johnny. “Quit being a fucking pussy. Go over there and calm down. Give your ma a call. She’s probably fine. Why are you buying into this ESP bullshit?” Jooliyus spat at Johnny, moved to the edge of the light and took out a slim, shiny cell phone.

Dave bent down and heaved Johnny upright for the umpteenth time. He leaned over and put his face next to Johnny’s, his lips brushing gently against Johnny’s mangled ear. “I do not know what it is you think you are doing, but I can tell you now that you should stop while you still can. By now I am sure you know that Jooliyus is going to take the first available opportunity to kill you. I cannot watch you all the time. If you tell me the process they used to transfer your soul I may be able to find a way to set you free. Or at least give you a quick death if freedom is impossible.”

Johnny looked into Dave’s calm brown eyes and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to call your girlfriend?”

Dave stood up, shaking his well coifed head. He sighed once and began to reach into his Armani jacket. Before Dave could remove his phone a wail emerged, high and thin, from Joolyus’ direction. Both men turned to see Jooliyus on his knees staring at his cell, sobbing like a child. “Momma! Momma!” He turned to Dave. “My momma’s dead!”

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