#FridayFlash: "Waterfall"

Another week, another story, and this week, it's time for some mild unpleasantness as I veer into the crime genre. I'll say no more.

As ever, you can see more Friday flash fiction on Friday Flash Dot Org, and if you want to vote for some Hobson & Choi chapters on Jukepop, I wouldn't personally complain much either. Cheers for reading, all.

Waterfall

“Hello, Bobby.”

And Bobby barely had time to step away from the peephole in his front door, before the bald guy in the leather jacket crashed it off the hinges with a single kick. It wasn’t the main entrance into the flat, and the flats were awful, so it had never been secure. He’d always thought he should’ve insisted on a door you could punch harder.

As it smashed towards him, splintering and sharding around the lock, Bobby realised he should probably run. He was in a fourth floor flat with no access to the ground besides that front door, but still, he should run. He ought to.

The man in black crunched another hole in the door with his huge boots as he passed it, which seemed unnecessary. Hadn’t the poor thing suffered enough?

A thought which didn’t fade when the guy covered the whole of his flat in a few strides and grabbed Bobby by the hair. His “flat” was only a bedsit, so it wasn’t that impressive, even though he did have an en suite. The bed was in front of the TV, the kitchen units were so close he could reach out and touch them, as were the mice.

“Bobby,” the bald man grinned, “I’m Harry. I believe you owe someone some money?”

“Well,” Bobby muttered, “yeah, but. But.”

“Ha.” Harry threw him at the bed. “But what? You really needed it for your next mortgage payment card game coke hit DVD boxset? You and whose army, son?”

Bobby landed softly enough on the bed, thank god for the excessive togs on his duvet, but Harry wasn’t leaving. He didn’t have a baseball bat or anything, but that didn’t mean shit nowadays. Could easily hide a knife or even a gun in that jacket.

“Look... I... I paid the last few guys back, they’ll tell you I’m good for it.”

“Yeah, believe it or not, people have started to notice. You borrow money from someone, then take out another loan to pay that back. Once real banks started turning you down, you went elsewhere.”

“I...”

“Look, real money isn’t a waterfall, it’s not going to just keep tumbling downwards. Can you pay it back or not?”

Bobby sighed. “Know anyone who might lend me it?”

“Not anymore.”

“Shit. So what now?”

“I can’t really decide whether to waterboard you in your own toilet – that’s an en suite, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool, you don’t see many of those in bedshits. Anyway, it’s that or chuck you out of the window. Any preferences?”

Bobby curled up in his duvet and wondered if he’d wake up soon. “Neither?”

Harry scratched his chin. “Hm. Compromise, then - I could beat you up then sling you in the river?”

“Alright then. Thanks for being so reasonable.”

“No worries, man.”