CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - Face-Off

"Hello, Mike, you don't remember me, do you?" I had no idea who this was. I do meet a lot of people in my line of work. This guy's face was mostly covered up with a scarf or somethin'. "Nah, I can't say I do." "That's to be expected. You see, I was disfigured several years ago, burned to a crisp. You abandoned me." "Wait a minute, hold up", I says, "I don't leave nobody behind." "Well, then let me be the first. Do you recall a certain warehouse which was set on fire?" "Ah, come on, lots of warehouses burn up." "Yes, but by a serial arsonist you were hired to track down and capture?" "Serial arsonist?" "You had a little help then...Michael."
That kinda gave me pause. Something sounded familiar. "Michael? No one's called me that since.......Holy Great Mother of Shit!" I was totally shocked. "I had a kid workin' with me during the serial arsonist..." He cut me off with, "Oh, yes, he set a fire that trapped the both of us. You broke free and left me there to burn like a pile of leaves."

It was all comin' back to me. I remembered everything now. "If your memory is so great, you'll also recall I undid both our bonds and yelled let's go." I forgot myself and in the moment of anger, I pointed at him, "you were right behind me, what the hell happened?" He shot me in the hand I was pointin' at him with. "AH!" I screamed and grabbed my wounded hand. "It isn't polite to point, Michael." "In any case, you were right behind me. When I got outside, I looked for ya, but didn't see ya. I went back in and called out for you but I didn't hear nothin'. The smoke and flames were too damn thick. I couldn't get to ya if my friggin' life depended on it." "Well, it does now, doesn't it, Michael." "What the hell DID happen to ya, anyways? When ya didn't respond, I thought for sure you were dead." "I tripped, I landed with a thud, you should've heard that. I shouted out to you to help me." "Oh, yeah, like I was gonna hear that with all the noise goin' on. How'd ya end up gettin' outta there?" "Oh, let's just say I found a way. I was taken to a hospital, what you always called the, oh what was it, the old repair shop. Rather quaint. I was given several skin grafts, but they didn't come to much." He turns to Eddie and takes his scarf off his face, revealin' a pretty mean lookin' scar, some skin blotches and stitch marks. "You see what your mentor let me go through. I'm afraid you might suffer the same fate, maybe worse. You know, I did almost die in that fire."

"Maybe I'd have been better off if ya did cack it. You were never damn good to me anyway, too cocky, thinkin' ya was better than me. Ya always did like to show off. I shoulda dumped ya when I had the chance." He called out to his henchman, "take the kid and cuff him to the tree, please." The henchman did as he was told. Eddie was cuffed with one arm to a tree branch. He tried to fight back, but was overpowered with an upper cut to the face and a fallen tree branch to the chest. He was screamin' bloody murder and coughin'. "Oh, uh, bring out the flamethrower, would you?" Eddie's eyes widened in horror, as did mine. "What the hell do ya think you're doin'?", I snarled. "Edward, my boy, you're about to follow in the footsteps of all of Michael Batzinger's, uh, special friends, if you will." Eddie was defiant, "no way. There's NO way I'm gonna end up like you." "I beg to differ, young, Mr. Robinson." He looked him up and down. My God, he was cruisin' him. He gently stroked his face. "Mm, as soft as it looks. Too bad it's gonna be all burned up. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted." He gives the gun to his henchman and orders it trained on me. With a bullet in my hand already, I didn't see the point. He then turns the flamethrower on and creeps slowly toward Eddie, wrestling with his bond, tryin' to break free. I was thinkin', "please God let him break that branch off". Eddie was furiously yankin' at the handcuff, grimacin'. My heart broke. I never seen anyone look so scared. He was screamin, "no" as this wretch came at him. He held the flamethrower up to Eddie's cheek, a flicker of a flame just barely touchin' it. Eddie screamed and grimaced some more, holdin' up his free arm to defend his face, and then..............