“Sometimes, writing things down makes the pain go away.”

Lou picked up the pen and Red pushed the napkins over with the tips of his fingers. The white squares were a bright contrast on the dark wood of the bar. “Four people,” Red said, “Write their names on the napkin, and maybe you can put them out of your life. Maybe you can live the rest of your days a free man, just leave them on the napkin.”

“Can’t see how it will,” Lou said. The pen didn’t tear the napkin as he wrote the names in easy-to-read printed letters.

“That’s them,” Lou said, “And you’re right, it feels better to get it all out.”

Red was studying the list, “And you want to outlive every one of them, even your kid?”

Lou shrugged his shoulders, what was there to feel guilty about, “Yeah, I don’t want to give them any satisfaction of letting them see me die.”

- - - - -

What kind of horrors did Lou unleash on the four people who ruined his life? How does a man react when he makes an innocent list on a bar napkin and those people begin to die?

How does Lou Mackie feel when he is the Last Damned Standing?