Beats Entropy

(Continued from Chapter 3: Part 1 and Part 2, Concluded in Part 4)

The doorbell rang again, this time the rapid multiple buzzes of an obnoxious child or asshole boyfriend. Danny’s headache pulsed in time to the beat. The ringer added a thumping baseline by applying his steel toed boots to the doorjamb.

“Open the door you fucking freak! You put a knife in my girlfriend’s dog; I’ll put my fist upside your fucking head!”

Danny glared at the Hedgehog.

“Thanks a lot”.

The Hedgehog smirked, to the extent he could.

“He ain’t looking for me, kid. Keep your chin tucked and try not to lose that ear…I don’t warranty my work”.

The Panda rubbed Danny’s shoulders and mimed a jab-uppercut combo. Danny felt the burning doubt and indigestion of the conflict-averse. A final hard kick busted the door from its frame. Beth’s boyfriend Pete “The Bone collector” Barlow, flanked by two of his douchey friends, stepped over the fallen door into Danny’s apartment. The douchier of the two friends propped the door back up on the frame; the other provided a mission statement.

“You fucked with the wrong man’s bitch, Bitch. B.C. is going break you off!”

Pete stopped a few feet from Danny, his two friends circled to either side. Danny shook his head ruefully.

“Look, Pete, normally I’d just take the beating and get on with my day…but this not a good time”

Pete fired a hard two handed shove into Danny’s chest, knocking him back into the wall.

“What the fuck did you think was going to happen? Do you know who the fuck I am?”

Danny shrugged.

“Vaguely”.

“I’m your worst fucking nightmare” said Pete.

Danny began laughing, hard.

“Dude, you have no idea. This is like… the fifth worst thing to happen to me today”.

Pete nodded at his douchey friends; they each grabbed an arm and slammed Danny against the wall. Pete pressed his forehead against Danny, to more properly scream in his face.

“Do you know why they call me the Bone Collector?”

Danny shrugged again.

“Because you suck a lot of dick?”

Pete butted Danny hard in the face. Blood poured from a deep cut over Danny’s eye.

“What did you just say, smart guy?” demanded Pete.

“I’m Sorry…I just assumed it had something to do with your love of hard cock”

There was muted snicker from the kitchen. Pete purpled with rage.

“How’s this for hard cock!” Pete screamed.

He smashed two brutal punches into Danny’s groin. Danny slumped in the douchey friends arms; both seemed uncomfortable with the tack the conversation had taken. Pete pounded Danny’s lolling head back into the wall.

“They call me the Bone Collector because I used break bitches like you in half when I played ball. Broke their bones” said Pete, eager to drive home the correct etymology.

Danny forced his head upright.

“Why would a collector go around breaking things…that doesn’t make any sense” said Danny.

Pete pounded on Danny for a fair amount of time. Eventually he tired and searched about the room for some novel way to cause harm. He spied the pine needle covered sweater; he grabbed it and it shoved it in Danny’s face.

“What the fuck is this: some queer fucking costume from your D&D night?”

Danny mumbled through his broken mouth.

“What did you just say” asked Pete.

Danny swallowed the excess blood and repeated.

“I said, Don’t touch my fucking Quills; I’m not some sleazy trick hamster!”

“What?” said Pete.

“Now, Curl! Now!” screamed the Hedgehog from the kitchen.

Danny flung himself into a ball, his abs made steely from his nights in the forest. The two douchey friends were sent hard into the opposite wall, forming heaps far sloppier than Danny’s tight defensive mound.

“Lunge” shrieked the Hedgehog.

Danny sprang towards Pete snarling and clawing, Pete stepped smoothly aside, Danny crashed heavily into the arm chair. Pete squared up. Danny rolled to his feet, sweater in hand. Pete grabbed the bat from the corner by the door. Danny pulled on his quills in one smooth motion.

“I’m going to smash your head in, you sick fucking psycho” said Pete, brandishing the bat.

For the first time he could remember Danny felt light; Awake, alert, and very much of his life.

“Keep talking, Buddy: I got twenty holes dug in the woods with your name on them” said Danny, whose count was off but intent was clear.

Danny shook a pillow out of its case and circled towards the bookshelf. Pete, unable to fully process how the situation had changed, swung his bat back and forth menacingly. Danny swept the Hedgehog’s pewter chess set, two cast iron bookends, and his reframed high school diploma into the pillowcase, gave it a smash against the wall for old times sake, and began whirling it above his head.

“I told you this was a bad time” said Danny, grinning manically.

Pete eyed his unconscious friends, willing them to wake up. It had no effect. Danny advanced, an ominous mix of whooshing and tearing cloth noise preceding him. Pete swung for Danny’s head. Danny snapped the bursting pillow case forward abruptly, sending a barrage of broken glass and scrap iron into Pete’s face. The impact sent Pete tumbling to the floor. Danny followed him down.

To be concluded in Part 4.

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(See :Chapter 2 PART 1 and PART 2 and PART 3 and PART  4 and PART  5 and PART 6 for the chapter before this one)

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See chapter 1 for the beginning of the story:  PART 1 and  PART 2 and PART 3 and PART 4 and PART 5