Push

He let the guy drop to the ground and put his foot down on my chest, right on my sternum. He put a little weight on it. "We'll just add that to the bill, Mr. Bryant. The charges seem to be piling up, don't they? I hope for your sake, you can pay."

He pushed harder. I felt a little crack in one of my wrists. Turned out to be a greenstick fracture, I couldn't use that hand for days. "I can pay!" I yelped. "Please, I...I can pay."

"How?" I think he knew the answer. He just wanted to hear me say it.

"What I did...what I did to your wife." I knew I was taking my life into my hands when I said that, but if he didn't listen, I was dead anyway. "I can do that to other people. Whoever you want. I can push inside their heads, make them like me. They'll do stuff for me, and I'll get them to do stuff for you. Please." I really hate remembering how my voice sounded. You'll never know how pathetic you sound begging for your life until you actually do it.

He didn't let up the pressure, but he didn't push down any harder. It was getting hard to breathe, but he didn't move his foot even a little. "Alright. Here's the deal, Mr. Bryant. You will use this...ability of yours, on my behalf. Whenever I want, as often as I want, until I feel the debt between us is paid. You will never attempt to use that ability on anyone in my employ, ever again. You will cease freeloading off of my goods and services. You will never--ever--make any sort of contact with my wife again."

I nodded frantically. He took his foot off my chest, and I gasped for air as he continued. "When I don't require your services, I frankly don't care what the fuck you do, so long as you make sure I can contact you. If you try to run, I will find you. If you try to fuck me over in any way to get out of this deal, I guarantee you, you will be dead before you know it." He nodded to his other gorilla. "Cut him loose and get him the fuck out of my sight."

*****

And that was it. I was well and truly up against it. He's made me do some things over the years, things I'm not proud of. As I got better with my talent, started being able to use it in more subtle ways than just, "You like me," he found other uses for me. He doesn't need me so often anymore. But he makes sure I've got the beeper on me. Just to remind me the debt's not settled. I think nowadays he gets more of a kick out of that than out of whatever I do for him. He doesn't even mind that I try to push him occasionally. He just smiles. No matter how good I get, he just keeps shrugging it off, and knowing that...it's a big thing for him. He doesn't push me too hard anymore. He doesn't have to.

So that's why I was in Atlantic City, and that's why I'm heading back to Paris now in such a shitty mood. Thanks for letting me vent, by the way. I'm going to wipe it all out of your memory in a few seconds, because it's probably safer if you don't know any of this shit, but thanks for listening.

And because I'm wiping your memory anyway, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I'm a lot better with my talent than Bruno knows. He's got me pushing into people's heads now, rewiring their brains so they do what he wants them to do, but he doesn't know that I can add extra layers of programming to a person's subconscious, stuff that isn't going to show up at all until I want it to. So I can push, and that person won't act any different. They won't even know there's anything different going on inside their head until I decide it's time.

So Bruno can run me around a little every now and then, and wreck my vacations, and as long as that's all he does, I'm not going to squawk too loud about it. Hey, I got nothing but time, and it's not worth it to me to get into a fight over it. But Bruno doesn't know I've been breaking the deal. He doesn't know just how many of his men would side with me in a fight.

But one of these days, he's going to. Because one of these days, push is going to come to fucking shove.

THE END