What Price Judas Pays for His Silver

Xavier tried not to stare as he followed his cousin through the building; Jona was obviously used to this, and unaffected. 

On the outside, this looked like a typical warehouse, with a few security guards patrolling. On the inside, it was an illegal dinosaur fighting haven. Xavier wondered how his cousin had gotten admittance, and almost regretted having come himself. Then he pushed the feeling down. Just this once, it was necessary, and he didn’t ever have to come back. 

Jona headed for a chain link fence enclosure anchored to the concrete floor, and circled it, looking for the bookmaker. Xavier watched as a forklift carried a cage towards the arena. Inside, a brown velociraptor paced, agitated.

“Hey, Carl!” Jona greeted a man with blond hair, slapping his brown hand into Carl’s pale one. They shook, then Carl jerked a thumb at Xavier. “What’s he want?”

“He’s gonna make a bet.”

“But not yet,” Xavier interjected. “I need to look first.” 

A second forklift approached the pen, carrying another caged velociraptor, this one a rusty red-brown. A man was walking alongside the cage, shouting directions to the forklift operator. The cage was lowered to the floor in front of a sliding gate in the fence.

Xavier strolled over and observed the rusty-colored animal, which was already growling. It looked a bit underfed, but alert, and intently focused on the far side of the pen. Xavier followed its line of sight, and saw the opponent animal.   

He headed to the opposite side, and watched the brown velociraptor for a bit. This one was still pacing, and seemed nervous, jumping at every loud, sudden noise, and snapping at whoever came too close. It was covered in scars. Listening to conversation, Xavier soon realized it was a celebrated winner, as well as the favorite. 

He went back and scrutinized the rusty velociraptor again, looking specifically for scars. It didn’t have as many as the brown, and was smaller. 

People were starting to cluster around Carl, placing their bets. Numb, Xavier clutched the thick, compressed stack of paper bills—nearly all of his family’s savings. As he handed over his bet, his stomach churned.

When the cage doors were opened, the rusty velociraptor stepped out first, head high. The brown shifted uneasily, until someone jabbed it with a prod of some kind, and it leaped forward. Then it saw its opponent. 

Xavier didn’t want to watch what followed, but felt he had to, so he would know whether his suppositions held true. 

The rusty-colored velociraptor was quickly set upon by the larger brown, but fought back hard. They bit and clawed each other until blood ran and bone was visible in deep gashes. The bigger animal kept jumping on top of his opponent and holding him down with his weight, while his sickle claws scored deep. The little one would twist his head and snap at his adversary’s exposed throat and undersides, until the uppermost dinosaur had to jump off to escape. But it always circled around and tried to get on top again. 

The brown was standing on the rusty again when the rusty’s teeth caught its arm, twisted, and snapped it. That took the fight out of him. The brown velociraptor ran around and around the pen, harassed by the rusty, until poles with lassos on the ends caught them and shoved them back into the cages. Xavier couldn’t tell whether it had lasted minutes or hours. 

People drifted towards Carl again to collect their money. Xavier waited to be one of the last in line. He didn’t want to get followed and mugged. 

“Lucky,” the bookie commented as he handed Xavier his winnings. 

Jona looked dumbfounded. “I can’t believe you pulled that off.”

Outside, Xavier couldn’t find a garbage can, so he ended up puking on the asphalt of the parking lot, then again on the side of another warehouse. Wiping his mouth on his arm, he drew a shaky breath, and mentally divided the money. Utility bill, phone bill, car repair, mortgage, groceries. But first, to the bank, to replace what he’d taken out earlier. Xavier crammed the wad of cash as far down into his pocket as it would go.  

Xavier’s mom was happy when he told her he’d paid the bills, and so were his siblings when he told them he had pizza and soda for dinner. When he thought about where the money for the food had come from, he felt queasy again, said he wasn’t hungry, and left to work overtime at the gas station.

<><><>

“I’m proud of you, Xavier,” his father said the next day, squeezing his hand. “You’re doing a good job taking care of your mother and your siblings.” 

The way the heart monitor kept beeping made Xavier feel crazy. The smell of hospital would be stuck in his nose for hours. Even Dad smelled like hospital. “It’s hard without you at home.” 

“I know. I don’t want to be here, and I’ll get out as soon as I can. You keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Okay, Dad, I will.” Xavier stood up. “Mom said she needed to talk to you about stuff. I’ll wait in the hallway with everyone else.”

“I love you, son. You’re doing a really good job.”

He wasn’t so sure about that last part. “I love you too, Dad.” 

Faster than Xavier could believe, money ran short. The bills needed paying. Eli needed new shoes. And they always seemed to need more groceries.   

He asked Jona to take him back to the fights.

His cousin laughed. “Thought you said you weren’t going back there again, Judas.” 

“I’m not a Judas.”

“I’ll write down directions.”

“Don’t. This is the last time.”

Soon Xavier knew the route by heart.

At the fights, he was known as Judas. It was the name Jona always called him. The only name they ever heard him called. He didn’t correct them. An alias was probably safer.

“I don’t know how you’re doing this with just the money from the gas station,” Dad said on the next visit. 

“I’m not. There are other things I’m doing, but it’s really hard.” Nausea punched Xavier’s gut. “I’ve gotta go.”   

Every time he went, he set up a mental block. He didn’t let himself see the injured, losing animals with mangled limbs dripping blood. Or the starving hatchlings eaten by their litter mates. At home he could barely eat dinner, and at the hospital he had a hard time looking his dad in the eyes. 

His family needed money.