House of cards

Karl's criminal empire came crashing down like a house of cards! First ended his drug smuggling ring, as undercover police seized all dens across the city of Chicago. Fortunately (for him) Karl had other illegal businesses that kept him afloat, such as people and sex trafficking, oh no, that was stopped too. This time by the vigilante gang known as Saints, who wore purple and were hippies, "fighting for freedom!" They always claimed. Of course it was those do-gooders who put an end to his most evil crime business. That made Karl panic a little, but he still had his protection racket, but not even that was meant to last. As rival gangs targeted his businesses and beat up his own mafia. Things were looking bad, very bad, you may think this is more of a crime story than horror, but once you discover how Karl Tino died, only then will you understand why I have featured this gruesome tale here.

You see, the truth behind his downfall is far more personal than you could possibly imagine. A long, long time ago; Karl messed with the wrong man. A former member of his mafia gang was a bit of a loud mouth, a cocky young lad who liked to show off his gangster status, rather than hide it. The guy was named Tony Black and he was this slim, slick type of bloke who always wore a sharp black suit and designer fedora. Tony was going to blow Karl's whole criminal empire, so he ordered assassins to take him out and his own family. They succeeded in killing his family, but their deaths weren't quick. They were brutal and agonisingly slow. Cruel. The men Karl hired tortured them. Tony's mother was skinned alive, her peachy body was a ruined mess of gore and blood, redder than a tomato. His father had his head boiled in a pan full of hot water, police discovered the man struggled to escape, obviously he couldn't, somebody had held his head under the water and drowned him. The death must have been agony. Tony's sister was found completely naked in an ice storage container, she had been frozen alive, a look of a pure, frantic terror was stuck across her face. Eyes bulged, mouth wide open as if screaming, icicle tears glued down her cheeks. Of course Tony himself was supposed to be killed, he was cornered by several mafia hitmen one late night; all of whom beat him senselessly to a bloody pulp, some even pulled knives and gutted him in the middle of the street, scarring his body into a grotesque mess of gory cuts. He even lost his right eye in the assault. The gang left poor Tony dying out in the gutter, moaning and crying as death tried to take him, but he was rescued. Some good Samaritan had found the poor lad, called an ambulance and saved his life. Although when Tony woke up in that hospital, he no longer resembled the young handsome man he once was. Now he appeared broken and hideously deformed. I think that was the worst torment, not losing his family, but becoming this twisted abomination of scar tissue and one singular eye. Tony looked scary though, even some of the nurses were afraid of his new appearance. At first, Tony wanted to die, his whole life had been turned upside down, but killing himself was exactly what Karl Tino would have wanted. No. Revenge. That was the only choice. The only thing that Tony had left, to finish the man who destroyed everything he ever knew and loved. So he tipped the police off to Karl's drug empire, then he informed the freedom fighters known as the "Saints" about Karl's horrid treatment of sex slaves. He provided all of Karl's enemies information that allowed them to take over all of his criminal businesses. Yet above all that, when Karl was finally cut down to his knees, Tony would be the one to finish the mob boss off.

The night Karl Tino was killed happened on a Tuesday. The mob boss was leaving the city of Chicago in a black limousine, in a desperate attempt to escape from all the cops, Saints and rivals that were tearing down his criminal empires. What Karl didn't see coming was that the strange chauffeur in the front seat with the eye patch, was actually Tony Black under a completely new identity known as Reed Venge. Karl was blissfully unaware Reed was Tony, especially when he asked; "How'd you get those scars, driver?"
"You know exactly how I got these scars..." Reed smirked, his face was barely visible in the reflection of the small rearview mirror above him. Karl leaned forwards and got a better look at the man behind the wheel.
"Who the hell are ya?"
"You know exactly who I am..." Reed snickered.
"Enough of this!" Karl snapped, attempting to open the car doors, but they were already locked, "let me out this instant!"
"No!" Reed roared, "don't you recognise me?"
"Of course not, you're just the chauffeur!"
"Look beyond my scars and eye patch, Karl. Remember my voice!"
"Tony?"
"Bingo!" Tony raced the car forwards, down a steep hill.
"You're supposed to be dead!"
"Sometimes I wish I was!"
"Jesus Christ, you're going to kill us both!" Karl cried, as Tony almost crashed into a speeding train, passing the railway tracks before they were squashed.
"What a rush!" Tony laughed, "but I got other plans for you. I want to make you suffer!"
"Is it money you want, I got all the money in the world!"
"Not anymore you don't, not now that all your assets are burnt."
"I can give you power Tony, like something out of a dream."
"You've got no power left!" Tony laughed hysterically, "I crushed it all."
"But why?!"
"WHY?!" Tony snapped, drifting the limousine abruptly down a narrow roundabout, before speeding off into incoming traffic, "because you took everything from me, my life, my family, my... Good looks."
"Aww poor baby!" Karl spat, trying to get to the front of the vehicle, but Tony's driving kept pushing him into the back seats.
"I'm taking you somewhere real special, Mr Tino, just you wait and see..." Tony chuckled, before shutting the window to his section of the limousine and then suddenly a grey mist began to seep into the passenger compartment where Karl Tino was sat. The gas knocked him out cold.

When Karl finally awoke, he could no longer feel his legs or arms, although he tried to move them. They were phantom limbs, because they had all been chopped off, leaving him an immobile stump of a person.
"Wha- WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Karl screamed in horror, upon realising he could no longer stand or use his hands ever again, all he could do was roll on the spot.
"Now I've taken everything from you." Tony said, revealing himself from within the dark. Karl got a good look at the man's face, Tony even removed his eye patch just so Karl could get a good look at him. Tony looked grotesque, his face was a jigsaw of scars and stitches, his lips were cut in haphazard angles and the skin where his eye once was, had become a horrid mess of discoloured flesh.
"If you think I'm horrifying, take a look in the mirror!" Tony laughed wickedly, pulling out a small hand mirror from behind his back. Karl screamed, because his whole face had been skinned off, revealing his red muscle tissue beneath. It was a wonder he couldn't feel the stinging sensation upon his head, Tony had obviously slipped him some heavy sleeping pills or painkillers for him never to awake from such torture.
"Kill me!" Karl begged, "don't let me go on like this!"
"It would be crueller to let you live." Tony replied coldly, before leaving the dark room. Karl cried hysterically, begging to be let out of that confined basement. Except Tony was laughing, hysterically. He'd let the horrid crime boss starve, then feed the remains of his corpse to his pet dog, Bully; who was a bulldog that was never afraid of Tony's new face, the only good companion he had left in the whole wide world, there's a reason the dog is man's best friend.