Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – Choo choo

CHAPTER 2

The Escalade pulled away from Floyd’s Pawn Shop with exactly what the gangsters came for — a sizable stack of cash.

Danny’s eyes glanced at Vincent in the rearview mirror. “Boss, has anyone charged a late fee before?” 

“Not that I’m aware of.  I’m the nice gangster in the family, so I gave him an option. My father and the other enforcers would have killed him on the spot.”

Danny chuckled.  “You’re the nice one?  I’m not so sure about that, boss.  You broke his nose, knocked three teeth out, and cut off his pinky finger.  If that’s nice, I don’t want to see you angry.”

“Well, when you put it like that,” Vincent chuckled as he unbuttoned his bloody white shirt and tossed it on the other seat.  He wore a white “wife beater” under every shirt he wore.  Luckily, the blood didn’t soak through.  

“Do you need to go by your apartment to get a shower, boss?”

Vincent nodded as he looked out the tinted windows. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.  I need to shine myself up before I go to see my father.”

“You got it.”

The two gangsters rode in silence for a few minutes.  Vincent stared out the window, but ultimately he stared at nothing.  He was completely lost in his thoughts. He kept replaying the violence he inflicted earlier against the deadbeat shop owner.  He wondered what his life had become.  Was he just going to be a puppet for his father?  Was this the life he even wanted?  He loved the money he had, and he never wanted for anything his whole life.  The power of the Sabatino name intoxicated him most of the time.  He never had to worry about his grades in school.  If he wanted to play on a particular sports team in high school, he never had to try out. They placed him in the starting line-up without question.  Vincent wanted to go to college and was certain his family name would get him into any university he wanted to go to.  However, his father had unique plans for him.  His father told him that college was a waste of time for him.  Vincent was going to learn the family business through and through and take over the family one day.  Whatever his father said went.  No one ever said no to Don Sabatino and lived to tell about it.  This was his life now, and he had to get used to it.  There was no way out.

Flashing red lights and dinging sounds brought Vincent out of his deep stupor.

“Fucking train.  Just my luck,” Danny growled and slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

“If this is one of those really long ones, I’ll have to skip the shower and go straight to see father.  You know he doesn’t enjoy waiting.”

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“I know that’s right.  Hopefully, this one will move its ass. I’ll do my best to get you to your apartment in time.”

“I know you will,” Vincent replied with a small smile.

The train horn was deafening the closer it got to our location.  The train looked as if it was hauling ass and would fly through town in record time. He figured he could get that much needed shower after all.  Suddenly, Vincent felt something slam into the back of the Escalade.  If he hadn’t had his seatbelt on, he would have slammed his head on the window or the seat in front of him.  

Vincent heard spinning tires as he tried to battle the stars plaguing his vision. The whiplash from the vicious impact was fucking him up.  He felt the Escalade move forward slowly.

“Fuck, I can’t get the car to do anything. They’re pushing us into the tracks.  Jump out!”

Vincent nodded slowly and pulled on the door handle.  The door didn’t budge.  It was unlocked, but it wasn’t opening.  When the vehicle rear-ended them, his door must have been jammed.  “Goddamit, I can’t open the door!”

“Me either, fuck!” Danny shrieked.

The horn of the train blared as they pushed the Escalade into the center of tracks.  Vincent stopped and just stared at the light on the front of the train barrel toward him.  This wasn’t a train anymore, this was death coming.  He heard a crash for a split second, then everything went black.

******

After a few moments, the darkness passed. Vincent opened his eyes to see a swirling tunnel of light.  He blinked over and over, trying to clear his eyes so he could see what was actually happening at that very moment.  As he traveled through the tunnel of light that constantly changed colors, he felt no wind or g-forces. It was as if he was in a vacuum, traveling at warp speed.  Vincent wondered if this was the light that everyone in those near-death experiences spoke of.  He’d never believed in God, so this was a shocker in more ways than one.  This Heaven and Hell stuff was actually true.  He wondered which eternal home he was headed to.  With all the bad stuff he’d done in his life, he felt it was impossible that it would be heaven.  He was going to Hell.  His stomach dropped and his heart pounded as he remembered all the depictions he had seen of the terrible place.  It was supposed to be a place of fire and eternal torture.  His mind raced through the multitude of evil acts that he’d taken part in over his life and regretted them all as he traveled to a place of infernal damnation.  Evidently, all those fucking pastors were right all along.  The Bible wasn’t some kind of fantasy book. 

There was a radiant explosion of light, then darkness once more. His heart began to beat even faster.  It cardiac pump had to have been nearing 200 beats per minute, and he was almost at the point of hyperventilation as well.  Suddenly, the realization hit him. Why in the world was his heart still beating when he was dead?  He wondered if this meant that he wasn’t dead.  He wondered if he was stuck in some sort of nightmare. He knew that had to be it.  He couldn’t see his hands or his arm because of the pitch darkness, but he could feel them.  Vincent pinched his arm as hard as he could, but he didn’t wake up. He just felt the sharp stab of pain.  He was stuck in this abyss, and he didn’t know how he could get himself out.  He realized that this wasn’t Heaven or Hell at all.  Maybe this was that Purgatory place that the Catholic priests harped about all the time. Suddenly, Vincent heard voices in the darkness.  He was terrified that they were demons on their way to pull him into Hell like they did to the bad people in that movie Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. He gulped and prepared himself as best he could.  The voices became more and more clear.  These weren’t the sounds of terrifying demons. They sounded like female voices… normal female voices.

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