It only took a minute for Sal's laughter to turn to tears, but it was a truly agonizing sixty seconds, each one framing a more disturbed snapshot of Sal's seemingly instant descent into madness. It was as though every other part of his body was attached to Sal's face. As his eyes clamped shut, his brow tightened with the strain and the corners of his mouth pulled down as his teeth clenched in rage and despair, a barely audible groaning sobbed its way into the dead hospital air and hung with a sterile darkness. A single tear fell from Sal's eyes before his fingers pressed hard against the locked lids. His body tightened in around his weeping face until he crumpled to the floor, stricken by grief. He lay there sobbing, turning small circles like a fetus in a slow-motion whirlpool.
Suddenly, he stopped, sprang to his feet, leaped to Victor's bed and began pounding Victor"s already badly beaten face. "Who the Varst did this?!! Sal hollered as he grabbed Victor around the throat and began choking him to death.
"He can't tell you anything if you kill him", a voice calmly said from the doorway. Dr. Lee Kirby had seen just about everything imaginable that could happen in a hospital. He was very familiar with Sal Lorenzo, as were most who lived in Rat Town. In fact, he knew Sal rather well. Most of the hospital was paid for by Sal. Most of a lot of things in Rat Town were paid for by Sal. Dr. Kirby preferred to turn a blind eye to the violence behind Sal's business, figuring that the good he could do because of Sal's investment in the hospital far outweighed any unsavory acts that Sal Lorenzo might actually commit himself. Still, he wasn't about to allow him to beat a patient to death right in front of him.
Sal turned to Dr. Kirby, his eyes full of hopeless rage tinged with startled disbelief as he felt the sting of the needle at the base of his neck.
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