The Purging

Nightfall

CHAPTER 2

Benjamin Guitierrez, phone in hand, is visiting bloodwillflow for the seventh time today, watching a new post. This particular one appears to be of three supposed vampires giving a tutorial on skinning a human body. It involves butcher knives and an intricate system of pulleys. People kept telling him the videos were fakes. He knows better.

The average person can’t tell the difference between film violence and the real thing. Ben is an enforcer for ‘La eme’, the Mexican Mafia. He’s committed enough violent acts in his life to know real blood when he sees it. The videos on this website are either the work of a group of dead eyed psychos, or there really are vampires out there.

Not that he’s too worried about it. Nobody he’s run across yet has been able to kill him. Not for a lack of trying either. His rise through the ranks of the organization was anything but peaceful. That’s how things go when you’re the small guy. You’ve got to prove yourself twice as often, twice as brutally. He’s done everything you might expect to earn his nickname. ‘Body bag’ doesn’t play games; he goes in shooting and doesn’t stop until the job is done. This current crisis will be no different. There’s an armory of brand new guns sitting in his trunk if things jump off with any assholes, supernatural or not.

Halfway through the clip, he’s interrupted by the familiar voice of his cousin Juanito, “Hey cuz, what are you doin’ here? I thought I was the only guy comin’ to make this pick up.”

Juanito isn’t the most useful soldier in the world. No matter how many times Ben tries to explain how to hold a gun properly, he goes right back to holding it sideways. A singular fondness for fried dough and cheeseburgers have given him a plump, soft physique. Maybe not the best gun hand in the world, but he’s family. Ben has been letting Juanito ride on his coat tails ever since he came to America.

The two men exchange a brief embrace, “Good to see you, bro. I’m here because this package is an important one and I don’t trust your pudgy ass not to fuck it up on your own.” He punches Juanito in the shoulder and lets out a derisive laugh.

“Yeah, blow me bro. What are you watchin’? Don’t tell me you’re on that dumb ass website again. That shit is gonna rot your brain man.” Quickly snatching the phone out of Ben’s hand, he looks at the screen and breaks out in hysterical laughter. “HA! Man, just look at this nonsense! I mean for fuck’s sake the special effects ain’t even any good. At least they could have used somethin’ other than ketchup for the blood. This shit ain’t scary, it just makes me think about the hot dogs they sell at the Dodgers games.” Tossing the phone back to Ben, he continues, “So which terminal are we meetin’ our boy at Benny?”

“Number four. He should be on the eight PM flight from Tijuana. And for the record, we’re not here to meet him, we’re here to pick up one of his suitcases and that’s it. If you see him, don’t say shit to him, pretend he ain’t even there.” Ben grabs Juanito by the scruff of the neck and pulls him off to the side, out of the way of the crowd of weary travellers moving through the crowded corridors of LAX. “And as for this” he says, holding his phone still open to the infamous website up to Juanito's face, “That skinning vid might be bullshit, but have you seen the original?”

“Of course. Who hasn’t? They showed that shit on the eleven o’clock news on Wednesday night. I think the news lady called it the 'most elaborate hoax in recent memory.'”

Ben responds with a swift slap up the side of his head. It’s no time for jokes. The numerous hours he’s spent surfing the site over the previous few days has him jumpy. It all seems way too real. He needs to make Juanito take the situation much more seriously, “In the original video, you remember the part where he cuts her throat, right?”