Vecna Variant
Tell this story AT MOST once per 4 years:
Listen close, kids. I can't tell this tale too often. *looks around*
Okay, so once there was this hit man. For the {Italian/Jewish/Polish/Irish/Native American -- whatever you most look like) mafia, the "(name)" family. He was the best there ever was. He could put a cigarette out with a knife from 100 yards, and he could skin a man in a little under an hour.
Anyway, this other rival family, up and coming, wanted to take away the "(name)"'s chief weapon, the skinner. So this up-and-coming family sends in thier demolition expert, to rig the skinner's house to explode. It's not subtle, it's not stylish, but it is damn dramatic.
The bomb man is nearly done wiring the house when he hears a noise. He sets the timer and turns to leave, but his hand is still on the (desk/wall/dresser), like this: *demonstrate with scarred hand*
Suddenly a knife flies out of nowhere, pinning the bomb-man's hand to the (place). He knows he's in deep doo-doo now, since he set the explosives for only 5 minutes. And these weren't explosive timers like in the movies -- each bomb had its own detonator, smaller than a wristwatch, and no big red count-down in glowing digital -- but anyway.
So by now the bomb-man's been laid out by the skinner-man. He's beat up pretty bad, one hand pinned to the wall by a knife blade, the other cuffed to it. The skinner man's tenderized him pretty well, and now he's starting to take his skin off -- starting at the pinned hand. He's just about to start on the other hand when the bombs go off. Luckily for the bomber-man, he's shielded from some of the blast by the (desk/wall/dresser) and from most of the rest by the skinner man's body.
I'm told that when the FBI searched the place, they found the bomber man covered in 2nd degree burns. Where he had no skin, his muscle and nerves were charred beyond repair. But, in a twist of fate, they found the skinner-man's entire (left?) arm intact, uninjured. They also found one of his feet, and part of his face, but anyway.
The end of the story goes like this: when the bomber-man woke up, he was in a hospital, with a fed on either side of his bed. He had a new hand and his skin was healing up pretty well. He'd been in FBI custody so long he figured his family wouldn't want him back, so he spilled whatever beans he had on the "(name)" family in trade for relocation & a new identity. He hasn't blown anything up since.
What's strange, though, is that sometimes the ex-bomber-man swears he can feel or remember things that the skinner-man's hand knew. He's a better shot with a knife than he should be, for example. He hasn't ever tried to skin anyone either, though he's been tempted...
... especially when his class isn't behaving...
-- Nifft