Yesterday's Gone: Season One

and without thought, swung at Bob’s knees. Hard.
    Bob fell to the ground in agony, but still held the gun in his quivering hand.  
    Charlie rolled over and swung again. Harder. As the bat connected with Bob’s right wrist, a sickening crunch preceded the gun’s descent to the floor. Bob cried out, left hand now cradling his broken right hand.
    “You fucker!” he wailed, threads of saliva stretching across his wide-open mouth.
    Callie, who had just entered the room, ran past them, then grabbed the gun and aimed it at Bob, who sat, hunched over, crying, “I’m gonna fucking kill you, you little brat.”
    Charlie looked back at Boricio and his giant grin. Adam was staring next to him in the doorway, in wide-eyed disbelief.  
    “You hear me? I’m gonna hunt you down and fucking kill you!” Bob cried out, head down, staring at his broken hand.
    “You’re not killing anyone!” Callie said, as she marched forward and put the gun to the top of his head.
    Bob looked up, stared at her, his eyes equaling the hate he held for Charlie. A sick smile spread across his face. He turned. “Gonna let a girl do your job for you, Charlene? ”
    Why the hell is he goading us? Shut up, Bob. Goddammit!
    Charlie couldn’t understand why Bob was pushing his buttons. Didn’t he realize what was happening? How much the odds were stacked against him? He was backing Charlie into a corner, forcing him to respond. Though Charlie had come here seeking revenge for all the shit Bob had ever done, now that he was staring down at the crippled version of a pathetic man, his hunger for vengeance had soured.
    If Bob would just shut his mouth, Charlie would be happy to leave with Callie, even if it meant disappointing Boricio.
    Callie looked at Charlie, as if waiting for approval. He shook his head no. “Let’s go.”
    “You’re not gonna finish the job?” Boricio said. “Goddamn, kid, you’re a better man than me.”
    “I just want to leave,” he said, taking the gun from Callie and hugging her. It felt so good to have her in his arms, even if they were just friends. “He’s not worth it.”
    “But this fucker raped her,” Boricio said, “And he ruined your mother’s life. You said it yourself! You’re just gonna let that go?”
    Boricio’s eyes looked like those of a child who’d just been told on the night before Christmas that Santa wouldn’t be making the rounds this year.
    Charlie felt pangs of guilt. They’d driven all this way with Charlie all pumped up to take care of Bob once and for all, and now he was letting the team down. And though he barely knew Boricio and Adam, their bonds were forged in fire at the compound.
    “He ruined your mother’s life,” Boricio pleaded, working Charlie’s guilt.
    Boricio was the first man since Charlie’s father to show him respect. But when it came right down to it, Charlie wasn’t a murderer. While he’d fantasized many times of shooting every bully in school, he’d never actually plotted to do it. Despite his bravado and his darkest fantasies, Charlie didn’t think he could snuff out someone’s life unless he was defending himself or someone he loved.
    He handed the gun to Boricio and started toward the bedroom door with Callie behind him.
    “He said I ruined his mother’s life?” Bob said, laughing.  
    Why won’t he just shut the fuck up?
    “I was the best thing that ever happened to that bitch. She was a goddamn mental case when I met her! Always whining about her dead fucking husband and shit. What guy wants to hear that kinda crap?”
    Something shifted in Charlie. His blood ran cold and his skin started to tingle. Tears glossed his eyes with everything he’d been holding back for too many years.  
    He turned to Bob, jaw quivering, “You shut your fucking mouth.”
    “About your bitch mom or your dead bitch daddy?”
    “Woah!” Boricio said sounding like Al Pacino. “You did NOT just say that about the boy’s daddy!”
    Charlie swung the bat and hit Bob in the left knee. It popped and Bob screamed.
    “You aren’t even a tenth of the man my dad was, you piece of fucking shit!” Charlie screamed, spit flying from his mouth at Bob.
    “You sucked the life out of my mother like a fucking vampire! She didn’t love you. She was scared of you, you piece of shit!”
    Bob laughed.
    “Stop laughing!” Charlie screamed, tears streaming down his face.
    Bob looked up at him, eyes wild, manic, chest heaving in mocking laughter.
    “Stop fucking