Pig Boy by J.C. Burke Page B

further through the ceiling and won’t come back down.
    â€˜Fucking look behind you, Prophet!’ Another of Cleopatra666’s warnings shrieks through the headset. ‘What is up with you tonight? Just kick the door open, you jerk. You are getting owned!’
    Cleopatra666 crouch-jumps and kicks the door open herself. ‘There! Mummy did it for you.’
    â€˜You love it,’ The Executioner, our team captain, tells her. ‘You’re a dominatrix and you know it.’
    â€˜That’s right,’ she laughs. It’s husky and dirty. ‘So you better do what you’re told too.’
    I spin around and unload on a sniper. He’s jerking on the ground and the blood’s spurting up his throat. ‘Am I a good boy now?’ I ask her.
    â€˜You’re a very good boy.’
    â€˜What do you do with good boys?’ The Executioner whispers into his microphone.
    Cleopatra666’s laugh is at full throttle. ‘Oh, wouldn’t you like to know!’
    Their breath is coming through my headphones hard and heavy.
    â€˜Leave it for the lobby!’ I yell. Cleopatra666 is prick-teasing him just to piss me off. She’s been trying to get a rise out of me all night. I can’t handle it when she gives attention to the other guys and she knows it.
    â€˜Coming up on the right side,’ calls Cleopatra666. ‘Fucking do him, Prophet, or we’ll never get to “The Assault”!’
    I miss and get hit.
    â€˜Holy fuck,’ she screams. ‘Can’t you kill someone , Prophet? You useless, dumb shit.’ Cleopatra666 sprays the enemy with her M16, scoring a record kill. ‘That’s how you do it, baby.’
    â€˜Oooooh, she’s good.’ The Executioner sounds like he’s about to come.
    â€˜Back out of there or you’ll get owned too,’ she commands. ‘Go up the stairs and watch the door.’
    â€˜Hey, I thought I was captain. But I like a bitch who gives orders.’
    â€˜Would you stop masturbating in my ear!’ I bark at The Executioner.
    The enemy’s throwing ’nades smack bang where I’ve just respawned. Now I’ve been killed twice in two minutes.
    â€˜What? What!’ Cleopatra666 yells. ‘Can’t you respawn out of enemy fire?’
    â€˜She’s pissed with you, Prophet.’
    â€˜Prophet only knows how to use one hand.’ Cleopatra666 is mocking me. It’s not funny. She knows she shouldn’t do that. She knows it upsets me. ‘Don’t you, Prophet?’
    â€˜Yeah?’ The Executioner sniggers. ‘Hey Prophet, you shoot over Cleopatra?’
    Cleopatra666’s shriek is blasting through the headset like it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard.
    â€˜Piss off,’ I snarl.
    â€˜Me and Prophet? Get real.’ Her game hasn’t finished. The mocking tone still dances in her voice. ‘Prophet couldn’t handle me. He’s too much of a pussy. Aren’t you, Prophet?’
    My fingers slip and thump on the keyboard. I charge down the staircase into enemy territory. I can hear my breath heaving through the headset as every jerk in view goes down in my shower of fire. I finish them off with the chainsaw until their blood and innards are splattering on the screen.
    â€˜So who’s the pussy now!’ I shout as I buck myself out of the chair. I yank off the headset and chuck it to the other side of the room. It hits the blanket covering the window then bounces across the floor.
    I’m tired of people fucking with me.

 
    THE BUTCHER’S IS CLOSED UP and dark, exactly as it should be at 3.55 am. I sit on the edge of the footpath and wait. It’s cold but not unbearable like it would’ve been just a couple of weeks ago. White vapour floats between my lips as if I am harbouring a mouthful of dry ice. I hollow my cheeks and feel my jaw click as I try to form smoke rings like the old girl’s.
    When I left