The Mortality of Familial Love

By G.B. Miller

Against his better judgment, the Sulfur Underground’s premier soul collector Dmitri, agrees to do a small favor for a friend. At least, it was supposed to be small: deliver a package and walk away. Instead, he finds himself on the wrong end of a contract hit.
When Kaitlyn fast talks her way into tagging along, Dmitri has no idea she’s in on the contract and the pair soon become more than accomplices. A lot more. But when Kaitlyn has a change of heart and confesses both her participation as well as her love, Dmitri doesn’t know who or what to trust.
With the odds becoming increasingly stacked against him, Dmitri must trust his heart and instincts if he wants to survive and keep reaping what the world continues to sow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G.B. Miller
• Release date: Mar 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224413744

G.B. Miller

While working as a payroll clerk in state government back in 2006 (and with a little encouragement from friends & co-workers) G.B. decided to take up writing so as to make better use of his free time. In 2007, in a crisis of conscience, G.B. dove head long into the shallow water of chat rooms, so as to get the basic skills needed in order to write like he knew what he was talking about.By the spring of 2008 (with a little encouragement from friends), G.B. packed his quill and parchment and moved over to the blog world, where he promptly created his first mainstream blog called Cedar's Mountain. In late 2013, he created a new and improved mainstream blog entitled Father Nature's Corner, and promptly turned his first one into a living archive.Sadly, this new blog lasted until early 2017 and this too has been turned into an archival blog. He can now be found on his new Blogger blog, I Have Stories! a stream-of-conscience blog with his writing adventures as the theme that ties all the posts together.In the past 16 years, blogging has been extremely good to G.B., as he honed his writing skills to the point where he has had a modicum of success with his writing: two published short stories, two self-pubbed novellas, six self-published e-books (including two short story anthologies), his commercial debut novel, and a reissue of his commercial debutWhen he's not creating written mayhem in the cyber world and real world, G.B. now spends his free time chillin', styling and profiling in retirement....and walking around his tiny little town exploring the wonder of Father and Mother Nature.

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The Mortality of Familial Love

Copyright © 2024 by G.B. Miller

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

Book Cover Design by 100 Covers

Book design by Maureen Cutajar

www.gopublished.com

Contents

The Delivery Begins

The Meeting

Road Trip! We’re Together!

Road Trip! Infuriated!

Road Trip! Dual Revenge

Through The Forest

The Cabin: The Delivery Is Completed

The Cabin: Pain & Lust

To Fight Back!

Finish Them!

Prelude To Charles

The Cannon Fodder Firm

Amaliya

Niles

Sister, Brother, Lover

Charles v. Dmitri

In The Here & Now

Acknowledgments

The Delivery Begins

The ear-splitting scream gave Dmitri such a piercing headache that it took all his self control not to decapitate this junkie like he did to her crackhead pimp. Instead, he broke her jaw with the butt of his shotgun to kill his headache. Satisfying as this was, there still remained the thorny problem of her being able to rat him out.

He knew that he should’ve just decapitated her and be done with it, what with all the shit he had to go through just to regain possession of his stolen backpack. But, being that he was part human, he still had this thing called a conscience firmly entrenched inside him. So instead of quietly dispatching her, he curiously decided to be very slow and deliberate in acquiring her soul.

Knowing that he had quite a bit of time to play with, he strolled down into the basement of her pimp’s house to search for a few essentials. After spending about a couple of minutes rummaging around a few work tables, he found what he needed: a large roll of duct tape.

Returning to the main floor, he carefully dragged her over to the banister, taped both her ankles and wrists to the handrails, before slapping a couple of pieces across her mouth.

After confirming the snugness of his handiwork, he went into the kitchen to grab a knife and a bottle of gin. After taking a swig and immediately spitting it out, he walked back into the living room and poured the rest of the bottle all over her.

The girl eventually came to, saw Dmitri fondling a rather large carving knife, and promptly freaked out. She wildly thrashed against the binds and the banister, before making a very futile attempt at breaking those binds.

Dmitri watched all of this unfold with a detached indifference for about a minute, before stepping forward to pinch her nose long enough to get her attention.

You have been an annoying little bitch who has seemingly found a infinite number of ways to fuck me over and prevent me from making my delivery. This time though, you fucked me over so bad that not only did it cost me time and energy, but it cost the lives of two innocents as well. Two innocents whose souls weren’t presently needed. Because of this final fuck-up, you do not get to meet Inhuman Resources alive and battered. Instead, you get to meet them dead and drained.

He then stabbed her twice in her femoral arteries and once in her carotid. After wiping the blade on a curtain and tossing it, he sat down on the couch and spent the next four minutes watching her thrash and spray blood all over the hallway.

As her body became devoid of blood, the thrashing slowly stopped and her skin took on a remarkable shade of eggshell white. Eventually, the house grew eerily quiet, save for the blood squishing under his shoes when he went to check for a pulse.

Satisfied at a job well done and not disappointed at all in adding her to his official body count, Dmitri grabbed his backpack, holstered his weapon and locked up the house. Once done, he climbed through a bedroom window and promptly landed in some shrubbery.

He waited a minute or so to see if anyone was approaching. When no one showed, he climbed out and briefly dusted himself off. Once finished, he started walking down the driveway before deciding to take a short cut through a few backyards. As he approached a short chain link fence, he heard a police radio cut through the quiet neighborhood.

He quickly dove back into the shrubbery and moved a few branches to spy on the cruiser. Curiously enough, he saw the cruiser roll to a stop directly in front of the house he was hiding at, and saw an officer step out of the vehicle.

However, instead of walking up to the house, he simply took a furtive glance at the entire street, before opening the mailbox and taking out a brown envelope. After glancing at the writing, he threw the envelope into the car, hopped back in and took off.

I guess even the local po-po needs a lucrative side hustle, said Dmitri as he carefully stepped out of the shrubbery.

He threw the backpack over his shoulder, quietly climbed over the fence and landed in a backyard. He then casually strolled through the other backyards, taking ample care to not attract any attention from the other property owners.

A few minutes later he found himself on a side street. Not quite sure of the direction he needed to go, he decided to make a right towards the main thoroughfare to get his bearings. About a minute later, a rusty, pockmarked sedan screeched to a halt directly in front of him.

Two very ugly white wannabe thugs stepped out of the car, each one holding a large piece of pipe, and started walking with purpose towards Dmitri. He watched with a cocked eyebrow as both wannabes took up a spot on either side of him.

Unzipping his jacket a bit, he asked in his whitest voice, Gentlemen, what can I do for you today?

What the fuck is a black boy doing here in our neighborhood? asked the taller of the two.

Isn’t calling him a boy showing him a little too much respect? asked the shorter one, who had spat his words at Dmitri before moving directly behind him.

You’re right, calling this bitch a boy is definitely showing him too much respect. So bitch, what the fuck are you doing in our neighborhood?

Dmitri took a deep breath and said, If it’s any of your business, I’m going to a friend’s house and walking down this thoroughfare would certainly save me a lot of time.

The taller one said, Are you shittin’ me? Man, ain’t no one your color has the balls to walk down our street in broad daylight.

Dmitri was about to answer when he felt a sharp tug on his backpack. Tightening his grip, he said, Sorry my friend, this doesn’t belong to me, so I can’t let you take it.

The shorter one said, I ain’t your friend bitch, so what’s in the backpack?

Like I said, this doesn’t belong to me, so I can’t let you know what’s in it.

Bullshit, said the man as he made another grab for it.

Dmitri stuck his hand inside his jacket and fired his shotgun, which dropped the man, sans head, right where he stood. Stunned, the man’s partner could only watch as Dmitri pulled out the shotgun, chambered another shell and stuck it in his face.

I’m giving you a chance to walk away. So walk back to your car, get in and drive out of here. Stop or pause, and I will turn you into your partner.

The man turned to leave, but the roar of the shotgun dropped him to the ground. Grabbing his bloody stump, he groaned in pain. The last thing that he saw was the short black equalizer of men spitting out yellow flame.

I changed my mind, you worthless piece of human flesh, said Dmitri as he walked towards the rusty sedan.

He took his time, as apparently a third member of this posse was in no shape to stop him as he was busy puking all over himself. When he got there, he opened the door, pulled the guy out and threw him onto the sidewalk.

Not one fuckin’ word out of your mouth until I tell you to. Got it?

The man nodded, so he continued. So get your sorry white ass up and moving. I have somewhere to be, and if I can get started to that somewhere without any more grief, then you just may get out of this with your faculties and body intact.

The man got up and started walking in the direction that Dmitri had pointed. However, about a minute later Dmitri spotted that same cruiser from earlier at the far end of the street.

Worried that a little profiling may occur, he grabbed the guy by the arm and asked, You got a phone?

Just one of those Androids.

Take it out.

What for?

"Because a police car is heading towards us. If they stop us, we’re gonna tell them that we’re simply searching for a friend’s house. Got it?

Yeah, I got it.

Fantastic. So keep walking and make like you’re texting.

They both continued their walk and acted like they were looking for a house. Sure enough, the cruiser slows down before pulling into a driveway next to them.

The officer rolled down his window and said, Excuse me!

Dmitri approached the officer and spoke to him in a smarmy tone. Good morning officer! Is there something I can do for you?

The officer smiled at Dmitri’s bullshit tone and said, What are you and your friend up to?

We’re trying to find a friend’s house, but I think we were given crappy directions.

Really?

Yes, sir.

Have either of you seen any suspicious characters in your travels today?

No sir. We’ve been too busy trying to find our friend’s house to pay attention to anything else.

The officer was about to answer when the radio crackled to life.

Report of a dead body in a living room at one-thirty-five Hazelton Avenue. Any available units acknowledge and respond.

While the officer’s partner responded, the one talking to Dmitri said, Well, good luck to you and be safe.

Will do and you do the same.

You betcha, said the officer just before backing out of the driveway to respond to the call.

Dmitri watched until the car made a turn, then grabbed the phone from the guy and pushed him to the ground.

What the fuck, man?

He grabbed the man’s arm and roughly jerked him upright. We’re still not out of the woods, ‘cause that cop saw right through my bullshit. So get moving and shut your mouth, or I’ll shut it for you.

The guy saw the simmering rage in Dmitri’s face, so he fell in quickly behind Dmitri, who was cursing up a storm over that dead junkie still fucking things up for him.

A few minutes later, with his black mood threatening to surface in the bloodiest way possible, Dmitri suddenly felt a hard tap on his shoulder. Whirling around, he punched the person and jammed the shotgun into their stomach.

Wait a minute! Wait a minute! screamed the guy.

You dumb piece of shit! What the fuck is wrong with you? asked Dmitri as he holstered his weapon.

How else do you expect me to get your attention?

Point taken. So, what’s your issue?

I saw a minivan that you can use.

Where?

Last side street we passed. Four houses down on the left that somebody just recently washed.

Dmitri grabbed his arm and tossed him forward. Show me, and if you’re lying, you won’t be dying, but you’ll sure as hell be wishing you were by the time I’m done with you.

The guy gulped hard, and after looking both ways, took off across the street, got near the house and creepy-crawled to the end of the driveway where the minivan was parked.

Dmitri caught up with him and quickly searched the premises and minivan for signs of life. Not finding any, he says, Doors open to give us a direct invite to use and abuse. Go fetch.

Why should I go fetch? You’re the one who wants to get out of here.

True. But you’re the one who found it in the first place. So fetch, or I’ll drive your nose so deep into your skull that they’ll need a pair of tweezers to retrieve it.

Shuddering, the guy carefully opens the gate and sneaks up the driveway. Casting a furtive glance around the driveway and minivan, he climbs through the open side door and gets comfy in the driver’s seat. Not finding any keys, he dives under the dashboard to hotwire the starter.

What do you think you’re doing? yells a young female.

Startled, he bangs his head on the steering column and knocks himself loopy.

"Hey dad! Come out here quick! I caught someone trying to