Free Jack and Mr. Grin by Andersen Prunty

the porch steps and stood at the front door.
    Sam pulled the door open. He wore an old Cincinnati Bengals shirt and baggy, dirty pajama pants. His salt and pepper hair was pulled back into a thin, greasy-looking ponytail.
    “Jack,” he said, opening the door. Jack was greeted as much by the smell of smoke and sweat and possibly old semen as he was by his name.
    “Sam.”
    “Come in. Come in.” Sam ushered him inside.
    The door to his apartment was to the left. Jack followed him into the smelly pit.
    If he told Sam Gina was missing, could he trust him not to tell anyone else?
    He thought he could trust Sam.
    And Sam couldn’t tell anyone else if he came along with Jack. This was what he was hoping for. He didn’t know if he was putting him in danger or not. He didn’t feel any sense of pressing danger. And if he sent Sam away before they came to Mr. Grin, if they came to Mr. Grin, then there wouldn’t be any harm done.
    “Sit down.” Sam tossed a blanket from the couch and gestured for Jack to sit down. Jack did, feeling a little dirty as he nestled into the once-off-white-now-more-brown cushions. The television was paused. A woman was in between two men, one of them fucking her mouth, the other fucking her from behind. A band of static ran through the middle of the screen. Jack found that he did not want to look at it. Thankfully, Sam grabbed the remote and turned the power off.
    “Sorry ‘bout that.”
    “It’s okay.”
    “I just get so used to being alone I forget what I’m doing sometimes. Everything okay?”
    “Not really.”
    “You’re soaked,” he observed. “You walk here?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What happened to the car?”
    “It’s a long story. It’s all a pretty long story.”
    “Gina okay?”
    “No, Sam, I don’t think she’s okay at all.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “I am. Things are... well, they’re really fucked. That’s what they are. They just haven’t been right since this morning.”
    “You going to tell me what happened?”
    “Yeah, I’ll tell you. Although I don’t think I’m supposed to. Before I start though, let me give you a warning. In a few minutes, you’re going to feel a very intense pain in your left arm. No, you’re not going to have a heart attack. But you will be left with some kind of brand. And when you’re having these pains, you’re going to see a picture of me in your head. I want you to remember what I’m doing in this picture. I think the pain will go away. But I’m not sure.”
    Sam stared at him, digesting everything. Jack knew Sam was a smart guy, it just took a moment for reality to penetrate through the layers of chemicals usually surging through his body.
    “If you say you’re serious,” he said. “I believe you. I should probably start numbing the pain then, huh?”
    He sat down beside Jack and grabbed a water bong from a table beside the couch. It must have been packed and ready to go. He put his lips to it and held a lighter to the bowl on the other side. Once he had sucked a good lungful, he offered it to Jack.
    “No, thanks.”
    “That’s right. I forgot. You don’t do this, do you?”
    “Not in a while.”
    “You’re missing out.”
    “I’ve heard.”
    “So,” he hissed as he exhaled a plume of smoke. “Where’s Gina?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know? She run off or something?”
    “Has she done that before? Run off?”
    He inhaled again. “Not that I know of. Not when she was living at home anyway. I think when she was dating Tim Fox, she might have ran off a couple of times. Came here to just chill out after a fight or something or...”
    “Or what?”
    “Well, there were a couple times I know of— like after she knew that shit was fucking around on her— when she would go out with some friends and pick up a guy. Just to, you know, fuck him out of spite or something.”
    Jack was kind of surprised. If this had happened, she hadn’t told him anything about it.
    “She did this a lot?” he