Lord of Rats

The man stretched out on his bed of straw and steel. The steel frame of the bed was the only metal he had ever possessed, and the priests had blessed it to make it holy. He treasured it and would not even let his friends inside his house lest they see his steel and be overcome by jealousy, and take it from him. It had been passed down to him from his father, the only thing he had ever been given besides scars.

The man was very tired, and rightly so. He had just finished hauling nearly a ton of bricks. His muscles were very sore and he wished so dearly that he could fall asleep, but he didn’t. He stayed awake for an hour; his eyes wide open, taking what had happened that day in.

He had scrabbled out a living for almost seven years, ever since the High Asylum had closed, and he had been kicked out on to the street. He was tall but thin man, and he was good at carrying things, even though it hurt his back more every time he carried something heavier. He didn’t dare tell anyone at work this, even his friends, or else he might lose his job, if there was even a chance that he would have to receive workers compensation.

Also, this man had a rival at his job, one who he had been waging secret war upon for many years. Both of them despised each other greatly, and would go to any length to see each other out of the job. Outside of the job his rival did not antagonize this man, or even think of him, but for this man, his rival was a constant focus. He thought daily of new ways to orchestrate the downfall of his rival, and believed his rival to be the source of all ill luck that ever came his way.

The man’s eyes grew large as the day’s events raced through his head. He had dealt his rival that day a serious blow. As his rival had entered the workplace, he had accidentally parked in the boss’ space. It was but a minor infraction, but the boss had fired men for less. His rival had accidentally parked his car there because it had been heavily snowing for almost seventeen days now, and the road crews were working furiously, pouring borax on the snow, but the name on the boss’ parking space had melted off nonetheless. The man had summoned the boss to supposedly go over some work he had done on the building, but when the boss had pulled up, and had seen his rival’s car in the parking space, he had gone into a rage. He had the rival fined, and publicly flogged. This man’s boss was very prideful of his status, but after the Middle Manager Appreciation Bill was passed, they all were.

That day was a great day for this man. His rival stared him directly in the eyes while he was being flogged, and bared his teeth at this man. His rival knew for sure who had done this to him, and as he was being beaten, he vowed to get him back for it. But the man was not frightened, because he believed himself to be far more intelligent and (obviously) stronger than his rival. He figured that he could outsmart this rat of a man any day, even on his rival’s terms.

But as the man was walking towards his home the next day, after he had left the bar where he hung out after work, five swarthy men with odd, catlike eyes strolled out of a side alley about five hundred yards from his house. They all clinked as they moved towards him, and he knew he would not be able to make it to his house in time to avoid them. They moved towards the man with a sense of purpose it seemed, and he knew it was time for him to pay for his misdeed to his rival that day. The swarthy men seemed to have a great knowledge of human anatomy, and used it to great effect against this man, and left him lying there, face down, on the side of the road.