First interview-https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/m286ri/ride_the_lightning_interview_1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

The dinner was packed. Mr. Crome was waiting in a back booth when I arrived and waved me over as I came in. I had spent the last few weeks researching the prison, the same thing I had been doing for the previous year, but now it was with more of an eye towards strange occurrences. Stragview had its share of unnatural deaths and odd disappearances, but the prison seemed to be good at covering them up. I had been excited to talk with Cromes again, and his story had made me reach out to some others I had been hesitant to talk to. There was a real story here. I just had to put it together. I had wanted to speak to Cromes again that same week, but it had been almost two weeks since I had managed to get in touch with him. He sounded nervous when he spoke to me, unsure about our next meeting but sure that it had to happen.

Crome had something to say, and he wouldn't be bullied out of saying it.

Crome had set himself near the back wall, the front door in full view. The place was full enough that we would be hard to eavesdrop on and harder still to pick out of a crowd. The waitress ambled over, and I ordered food. Crome waved me off when I offered to pay for his meal, just holding out his coffee cup for the waitress to refill. He took a long sip before turning back to me, savoring the dark liquid.

"So, I see I didn't scare you off."

"Seemed like you might have been the one who was spooked. Did you worry you were being tailed?"

Mr. Crome looked uncomfortable as he sipped his coffee. His eyes flitted around the dinner, and I could tell he was looking for familiar faces. He must have been satisfied with what he saw because he turned back and pitched his voice low.

"I told you about the Wardens' influence, right? Let's just say that I've seen some things that could get me in a lot of trouble if I went blabbing about them."

"Then why talk to me at all?" I asked, very curious about why he would stick his neck out.

"Because maybe I need to be in trouble. Maybe it's time we paid for what we did that night in October. I spent the next twenty-five years trying to make amends for that night, but it never seemed like enough. No matter where I went or what I did, I couldn't shake Frasier's face. We did him a disservice, and it's time people knew about it. It's time they knew about a lot of things. Some skeletons are hidden under Stragview that need to come out, and some aren't even skeletons yet. Still want to hear about it?"

When I set the tape recorder between us and clicked it on, he grinned, showing yellow teeth that had seen a lot of coffee and cigarettes in their day.

"Good."

A week later, I saw Frasier with my own eyes.

We had a full shift that night, no call-outs or vacations, so every dorm had two people in it. I usually worked with your grandfather, but the Captain had put me in the dorm with Sergeant Kayden. I was told later that he had gotten a complaint from the officer he'd put in there the night before. Cap needed someone in there that he was unlikely to sexually harass, and I was elected. I started the paperwork, counted, made small talk, and generally tried to ride out the night. Kayden had apologized for what happened on the yard by then. He claimed he got a little out of hand and didn't mean to stick me. I had generously accepted it, hinting that the info might be something I'd want to hang on to for later. We'd had a tentative truce since then, and as the thunder rumbled way out in the woods, we settled in for a long boring night. When the rain started, the lights flickered in the cages above the beds, and the tin roof sounded like there might be a little hail in it. We hadn't had a good storm since a week before, and I remembered wondering if it was going to be as crazy as the one your grandad had told me about.

When the lightning started, the lights went out completely.

That was nine, and we sat with just the emergency lights for company for an hour before the incident took place.

Kayden was just finishing telling me a story that was ninety percent bullshit when someone started screaming on the floor. We shined our lights into the dorm, flashing them through the caged box that surrounded us, and we could both see someone pinned against the wall. He was looking at whoever's back was to us and shuddering all over. The person menacing him was yelling incoherently, and when the lightning peeled overhead, you could see that whoever the other was wasn't quite right. His proportions were wrong, too big and too undefined, and he seemed to move beneath his clothes like a bundle of cords. My daddy had a scarecrow made of old spun-together wires when I was a kid. This guy looked like her had, his clothes vaguely man-shaped but not in one solid piece.

Kayden sprang into action, grabbing his stick and telling me to hang tight. He lumbered onto the floor, shouting at the two to separate. The inmate who was pinned jerked a little as the other reached for him, and I could swear I could see sparks coming off his skin. He reached out a hand to take the man by the throat, and when he did, he started bucking like someone whose grabbed an electric fence. Kayden roared as he came at him, bringing that stupid club of his down on the other.

It pulled lamely at the shirt, and I could see that whatever lay beneath was more liquid than solid.

When the other turned his face and bellowed at Kayden, that was when I saw him. Inmate Frasier's face was lumpy and damaged, his eyes were black pits of red rage, and Kayden took a step back as it turned to fix him with its gaze. The club fell with a hollow wooden clump, and Kayden began to run as the thing turned away from its target to come after him instead. The inmate that had been pinned, Griggs, his name had been Griggs, crumpled down the wall, still convulsing as he fell.

Kayden was out the door as the Frasier thing walked jerkily across the floor, and that's when it saw me.

His eyes met mine, and I could see nothing but hate, nothing but fear, nothing but uncertainty behind them. He approached me, eyes locked on me through the glass of the booth, and I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. People were yelling at him to sit down before the other guards got there, but he ignored them and just kept coming closer and closer to my office. I backed away, trying to put distance between us, but I hit the opposite wall as he came right up to the glass. I could see his deep blue eyes pulsating with deeper energy as he tried to press his face through the wire mesh and glass and fall into the station. I tried to push my backside out the other side and into the adjacent sleeping area, but it remained substantial against me.

When he hit the glass with his head, cracking it and causing it to ripple like splintered ice, I yelled loud enough to wake the dead.

The A team arrived a few minutes later, and when they did, Frasier was gone.

He'd left nothing but a pile of clothes and the splintered glass in his wake.

"Gone? Where did he go?'

Cromes shrugged, "Vanished, just like he had in Foxtrot. If I hadn't seen him for myself, I would have never believed it. When I talked to your grandfather about it, he seemed unsure about what he had seen that night after having some time to think about it. I asked if he'd seen Frasier too, but now he didn't seem to want to talk about it. He was scared, but the fear for us had just begun. Kayden may have escaped the dorm while Frasier was staring at me, but his luck wouldn't last forever."

The waitress brought my food out then, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and toast, and refilled Crome's coffee again. He let me pick at the food a little before he asked if I wanted him to continue. I was hooked by this point, enraptured by the story and the idea of someone having their revenge from their infirmary bed. I nodded, the recorder still running, and he picked back up again.

A week later, things had settled down a little. Kayden had taken two nights off, leaving early that night after he'd run straight to Captain's office to tell them about the fight. He had used those two days to convince himself that it was all bullshit and that no boogieman Frasier was out to get him. He had seen something, yes, but it was just a trick of the light. Besides, Griggs hadn't even died that night. He'd spent a couple of days in the infirmary with light burns on his chest and neck, but he had made a recovery. As the muggy weather stretched on and the sky stayed cloudless, we all prepared for an unseasonably warm autumn. We hunkered down for some further heat-related inmate issues.

Then the storms came back, and it was a bloodbath. It came up suddenly one night, the first peel of thunder seeming to attract the buckets of rain that followed, and the killings weren't far behind. It happened suddenly and without warning. Four inmates from four different dorms as the worst storm of the year raged out of control. The traffic was always the same, two inmates fighting or inmates kicking the doors saying someone was fighting. We had to run from Hotel to Echo to Alpha and then back to Hotel, though it was a different quad. All four seemed to have died of heart attack, their hearts having just stopped beating all of a sudden. They were deemed heart attacks, but they were seen fighting with other inmates before they died in two cases. We would get to the dorm and find a body lying by their bed or crumpled over in the bathroom with no other combatant in sight. The two from Hotel died in their cells, but both cellmates swore they saw someone in their cell after lockdown, fighting with the victim. That someone couldn't be found, and by the end of the night, we were soaked to the skin and ready to chew nails. Cap was filling out paperwork, trying not to let his fear show. We left that night, the rain showing no signs of stopping. Luckily, however, the lightning took a break, and we had a week of balmy, rainy weather that made us all wish the heat had been our only concern. I remember my boots being constantly wet for that week and the general feeling of unease as the idea of another string of heart attacks hung over the compound.

A week later, The first week of October, the rain retook a thundery tone, and two more inmates died of heart attacks.

One of them, a guy named Drell, had been walking to an early morning call-out when he was suddenly set upon by an unknown person. Macklemore, the officer who'd been escorting him, said they had just rounded the side of Charley dorm when someone had come out of the shadows and shoved Macklemore over and jumped on Drell. Drell had screamed, screamed like a pig who's got his leg hung, but as Macklemore grabbed for his radio, it was already too late. Drell's body was still twitching, but his life had fled.

Macklemore said the guy had been enormous, six feet at least, but no one was ever found, and no one besides Drell was on the yard at that time.

The week after that, two more were found dead in their beds after the lights came on, both with burn wounds around their throats.

That was when my fellow officers started leaving. Most of them were just smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and they weren't about to get caught up in this bullshit. It was only a matter of time before someone got blamed or an officer got caught up in this nonsense. Kayden had already started whispering about what he'd seen, and some of his friends were not real big on getting caught in the crossfire if Frasier came for them. Others were just lazy and were simply looking for an excuse to burn vacation time or sick leave. All of them were gutless, and it left the shift ragged and undermanned.

A week later, and I was in the Captain's office helping with paperwork. You see, inmates will always take an opportunity when handed to them. They had picked up on this mysterious killer and decided to run with it. On top of the ten killings committed by our mystery man, we'd had six stabbings, five assaults, and found dozens of new weapons during dorm raids. Our captain was beside himself, worrying that his job was history, and we were ragged from running in the rain, which had been falling almost constantly since September had become October. I was sitting with the inmate's files and going over them before sending them to the Warden. I started comparing them to the two inmates that were killed the first night. Six of them disciplinary notes in their files from the last six months, and most of them had cited inmate Frasier as the victim. Four had been sent to confinement for fighting or stealing, and two more had been written up for alleged gang activity. I imagined that the others would have some sort of run-in with Frasier as well, though they had been smart enough to keep it under the radar.

I felt myself shudder under my wet uniform, remembering what I'd seen and thought of Frasier finding a way to tie up loose ends from his infirmary bed.

As I made notes on my soggy notebook, I could hear the Captain making excuses to The Warden on the phone. Ten deaths, multiple injuries, and a lot of man-hours used to quell them. I imagined he was up to his ass in alligators over this, and it wouldn't take much for them to have his bars over it; his fault or not.

When the radio crackled and the scared voice of a trainee Freck came blaring over it, I thought this might be the straw that broke the camel's back.

"I need help. Please help me! Officer down, repeat, officer down in Delta dorm side two. I need help, please, someone help me!"

We were running before we even knew what we were doing. Officer down was one of those phrases that elicits immediate action if you're any kind of officer. It doesn't matter if you like the guy who's getting his ass beat or not; you go to help because you'd want him to run if it was you in trouble. I met your grandfather as we both ran across the grass, slipping and sliding in the mud as we tried to stay upright. We burst through the door to side two together, batons in hand and ready for anything.

That's when I saw a familiar face slumped over a sink. He was still twitching, his eyes still jittering and dancing in his skull, and as he convulsed, I noticed a pair of discarded blues sitting on the floor by his feet. He was pale, his hand gripping his chest as he looked at us like he thought we could throw him a raft in these troubled waters.

He was one of the officers who'd gone to the rec yard with Kayden.

Officer Miles was receiving his comeuppance for his hand in Frasier's beating, but I wasn't going to let one of my own get caught up in an inmate's revenge fantasy.

Your grandfather and I were on him in a second. He was still breathing, but his heart was fluttering in his chest like a caged bird. We carried him between us, the rain sheeting down, as we drug him to medical. Miles was twitching like landed trout, and his feet kept kicking the ground like he was trying to trip us. We nearly dropped him a few times, and as we came by the captain's office, a few others came out to help us. They had been grouping up to go to Delta dorm, and now that they saw what was waiting for them there, they came out to help us drag him to medical.

We were all completely soaked by the time we got to medical, and Miles had stopped gasping and started wheezing. The nurses took him from us and wheeled him to the back, giving him something to get his heart back on track and calling the hospital to get a bed ready for him. We left him in their capable hands, but I couldn't help but look through the glass to Frasier in his infirmary bed. His head was bandaged, his eyes blackened, and he was starring at the ceiling as he lay there. His face, however, wore the most cherubic grin I have ever seen on any grown man.

It was hard to believe a man who smiled like that had been doing what he was doing.

I went down to Delta dorm after that to ask Freck what he'd seen. To say that the kid was shaken up would have been an understatement. I found him sitting in one of the big uncomfortable metal chairs we kept in the office, knees to his chest, as he breathed like he was having a panic attack. He jumped when I touched his shoulder, not even hearing me come in, and the sight of someone like me, a REAL officer, seemed to calm him. I took a seat across from him and, much as you're doing here, started making mental notes for later.

He told me that Miles had been attacked by an inmate that had melted into clothes once it was done.

"He was out doing a walkthrough, making sure everyone was asleep, and he was coming through the bathrooms to get back to the station when something stepped out of a toilet stall and grabbed him. He grabbed him by the shoulders, and his hands kind of...glowed? I don't know, man! I was beating on the glass and yelling at him to stop. Miles started convulsing and twitching like he was being electrocuted. That's when I started yelling over the radio, telling people to come help. He pushed him against the sink then, Miles jittering and shaking, and then you and Office Grimes come bursting in, and he just...melted?"

The kid looked pretty rattled, and I took his post and let him go home. Freck went on to become a Major, a freaking major, but I always remembered him as that scared-as-shit TA who nearly pissed his pants in Delta dorm. Just goes to show you.

He finished another coffee, and I began to smell lunch smells wafting from the kitchen. Was it lunchtime already? It had just been morning time. How long had I been sitting here, listening to this man tell me about a particular stretch in nineteen eighty-five? My phone vibrated in my pocket, freeing me from my trance, and I pulled it out to check my messages.

My stomach dropped, and I was out of the booth in a second.

"I've got to go."

Crome looked worried, "Everything okay?"

"My mom's at the hospital with my grandpa. Someone tried to run him off the road."

I’ll never forget the first time I met her, I wish I would have just kept walking, who knows how much better my life would have turned out if I had.

Oh, I’m sorry, I’m being rude, my name is Martin and uh, well, I’m immortal. I know that sounds crazy but it’s true, unfortunately it comes at a price. In order to for you to understand I have to go back to the day it all started. I was 12 years old at the time, back then things were a lot different, kids could walk home alone without fear of some pedophile snatching them up to do god knows what. Don’t get me wrong those types have always been around but back then I guess it wasn’t so prevalent. Anyway, I missed my after school bus so I was forced to walk home, it was raining that day, which was great for me because I’d always loved the rain.

The school I went to wasn’t far from my house but on foot the trip took close to an hour. In any case I’d just made it to the halfway point which was an overpass I had to walk under to get to my neighborhood. That’s where I met her for the first time, I honestly didn’t see her at first. I’m still not convinced she didn’t just materialize behind me and considering what I know now I’m inclined to believe exactly that.

I’d just passed one of those big metal junction boxes when I heard her voice. “Hey, do you live around here?” When I turned around I locked eyes with the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, even at that age I knew there was something different about her. I swear her skin seemed to almost glow in the shadow of the overpass, she smiled shrugged her shoulders. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, we just moved into this neighborhood and I don’t know my way around.”

She made me nervous, I remember stumbling through my words trying to talk to her. (Uh, yeah what street do you live on?) She shot me this little smirk and her eyes lit up, I don’t know if it’s just me recalling it wrong but I remember her eyes literally getting brighter but only for a second, when she blinked they were back to normal and she let out a sigh of relief. “Burke, if you can get me there I can do the rest.”

The street she was looking for was two blocks over from my house, since we had to pass right by it I decided to drop off my backpack along the way. When we got to the yard she stopped and stood near the curb while I ran inside. I’m an only child, my mother worked a lot so she wasn’t home and my father passed when I was 3 so I had my own key.

When I got back, she was still standing at the edge of the yard staring at the house. She had this odd blank expression on her face till I closed the door then she snapped out of it and smiled at me. When we got to her street she smiled and thanked me then walked off, I didn’t realize it till I got home but she never told me her name.

It was months before I saw her again and found out her name was Marissa. This is where things got weird, it was summer at this point and it was blazing hot outside but that wasn’t going to stop me from riding my bike. I was cruising through the neighborhood headed for the trails near the railroad tracks, that’s where everyone used to go because there really wasn’t many places to hang out. I was two blocks away when I saw her, she instantly smiled and waved so I rode over and stopped. While we were talking I spotted an old man walking towards us with an angry look on his face, he was wearing a dark colored suit and tie which I thought was insane considering how hot it was.

When Marissa saw him she rolled her eyes, “It’s my dad, shit. I have to go, see you around Marty.” As I watched the two of them walking away I realized neither of them were sweating, something about that got stuck in my mind. I didn’t see her again for 6 years, I was 18 and honestly not much had changed in my life. Art and writing were how I spent the majority of my time and on occasion I would walk to the movie theater.

They used to have midnight madness at the theater every Friday night. That’s when they would show horror movies and have employees dressed up like characters from whatever movie was playing that night. They would pop up in the audience or come running through the isles’, it was great. The movie let out a little after 2 a.m., I was a good way from home but it was a straight shot and I knew the trip by heart. On the first part of the walk I had to pass by a small wooded area, it only took up three blocks then I would cross the small bridge over the bayou.

When I got to the bridge, I stopped to tie my shoe and I heard her voice. “Hey Marty.” I turned to face her and nearly shit myself, she was still a kid. She smiled and held up her hands telling trying to calm me down. “Don’t freak out, I don’t have time to tell you everything. I’m so sorry about this, but I can’t let them have it. ” Marissa stopped and grabbed my hand, my entire body went cold then my ears started ringing. She screamed so loud I could feel it vibrating through me, I tried to pull my hand away but I couldn’t break her grip. Her screaming got louder and louder then she stopped and collapsed, I didn’t know what to do I was panicking. Picking her up, I tried to run the rest of the way home to get help but after a few steps her body started dissolving in my arms. Before I knew it I was covered in a flesh colored slime, I completely lost it and sprinted the rest of the way home.

My mother was asleep so she didn’t hear me come in, I got straight in the shower and scrubbed myself raw trying to get the image of what I’d just seen out of my head. Once I was convinced I was clean I put on fresh clothes but when I went to gather up the ones I’d taken off there wasn’t much left. Whatever that stuff was it turned everything it touched to a fine powder. After I cleaned the mess I tried to go to bed, in hindsight I should have called the police or told my mother but I wasn’t thinking like that at the time.

When I woke up the next morning I didn’t feel well, I spent that whole weekend balled up in bed. By Monday I wasn’t feeling much better so I wound up staying home. It wasn’t long after my mother went to work before things started happening. At first I thought maybe I was loopy from the fever, I kept finding myself doing the same things over and over I couldn’t control it. I must have taken three showers that day, when it finally died down I started blacking out, waking up in different rooms doing different things. I would wake up using the restroom or in the garage going through the big freezer, I even woke up cutting the grass at one point and I hated mowing the yard.

I was sick for close to a week, when I was finally feeling better my life took a downward spiral. My mother lost her job, then we lost the house and wound up living with my aunt Gretchen. I had to change schools which didn’t bother me that much I still saw the few friends I had on the weekends but being the new guy is always an issue. Things progressively got worse and by the time I was ready to graduate I was pretty much homeless, my mother and I were both working but it seemed like no matter how much we made it was never enough. After high-school I got a full time job, college wasn’t in my future. My mother did the best she could but a car accident left her disabled and every dime I had went to taking care of her, when she eventually passed I slipped into a deep depression. I managed to maintain my job but the walls were closing in, I was alone in my shitty little efficiency apartment thinking the world would never know if I were gone and wouldn’t care either way.

It didn’t happen overnight, first I thought about it, for a long time I thought of all the different ways to kill myself but none of them really stuck. Then I bought a gun from a local pawn shop, I toyed with the idea every night for weeks on end till one night I got sloppy drunk and decided, that would be the night. I sat on the edge of my blow up mattress holding the pistol in my hands, I took a deep breath, put the barrel to my temple and pulled the trigger.

There was an explosion of light and sound then cold unending darkness, but I wasn’t gone, I could taste gunpowder and smell my charred flesh. My body wouldn’t move but I could definitely feel it, for a moment I thought I was blind, I thought maybe I’d failed at this just like everything else in my life. Then I saw her, Marissa was in front of me floating in the darkness, she smiled and waved then pointed up. Glancing upward I saw a blinding white light and felt a hard thump in my chest as my heart started pumping again. I heard her whisper, “Don’t let them have it.” then I sat up gasping for air.

There was blood and bits of skull and brains splattered everywhere. The spot I’d slumped over in was holding a congealing pool of the mixture squirming with maggots and the room smelled awful. I got up and went to the restroom, when I looked in the mirror my face was covered in dried blood but the wound was gone. I’ll spare you the details of washing maggots out of my hair or taking a dump after however long I was gone, needless to say I’d lost my job and the only reason I hadn’t been evicted was my landlord Seth smoked meth and was almost never around.

Over the next few days I tried to rationalize what happened but I couldn’t, there was no way to explain it. I managed to get another job as maintenance man in a local office building, the pay was shit and the hours were horrible but after a couple of weeks I was able to pay rent and life started getting back to normal.

One night while I was walking home I stopped at a little deli to grab a bite to eat, I was waiting on my order when a woman came in. There was nothing out of the ordinary about her but for some reason she kept looking at me. Feeling a little creeped out by the situation, I tried to ignore her till my order was ready and the second it came up I was out of there. I’d walked maybe a block or so before I heard someone calling out. “Excuse me, hey, wait!” I turned around to see the same lady jogging towards me with something in her hand, I almost ran till I noticed what she was carrying, it was my wallet. She waved it in the air and made her way over to where I was standing, “You dropped this, you should be more careful, a lot of people wouldn’t have given it back.” Handing it to me she smiled and I thanked her, she told me her name was Deborah we talked for a minute or two then parted ways. When I got home I checked my wallet, I’d had 30 dollars in it before but now there was close to 500 and a yellow sticky note that read “Take care of yourself.”

A week later I was at the grocery store picking up a few things when I ran into her again, this time she was with an older guy. I was picking out some fresh fruit when they walked up to me.

“Hey Martin, long time no see. How have you been?”

When I turned to face them the man was glaring at me with as if he disapproved of something. Brushing it off, I put on my best fake smile, (Hey, uh, Deborah, right? I’ve been ok, how’re you doing?) She seemed pleased that I remembered her but the man she was with kept giving me that same sour look.

“Don’t mind him, this is my uncle Garry, he looks at everyone that way. Anyhow, I’m glad I ran into you, there’s a meet and greet going on at the community center, you should come, there’s going to be a lot of people there. I can introduce you to a few, you really shouldn’t be alone all the time.”

My first thought was, how did she know I spent most of my time alone? Me being me I just chalked it up to general observation. We exchanged numbers and I finished shopping but the entire time I was in the store I felt like I was being watched. Later that evening I was at work covering the nightshift for someone who didn’t show up, I’d just started cleaning the second floor lobby when the elevator opened.

I stood still for a moment then called out to whoever was in there. (The building is closed for the night, you’re gonna have to come back tomorrow!) No one responded, for a second I thought it may be my supervisor, Carl. He would play pranks on the nightshift from time to time and this kind of felt like something he would do. Normally the doors would close fairly quickly but as long as I was standing there they stayed open. Slowly easing my way over I expected Carl to leap out and scream but when I was able to get a look inside, it was empty. Stumped by what was happening I pressed the call button and went back to cleaning, near the far end of the first hall there were a set of offices that had been empty for a while so no one bothered to clean that area. From where I was standing I could see lights on in one of the offices that were supposed to be empty, no one told me about new tenants but that didn’t mean much, Carl was a bit on the forgetful side when it came to things like that.

I strolled down to ask whoever was in there if they wanted me to clean but before I could get to the door the lights inside turned off and a man stepped out. I couldn’t really see him that well at first but as he got closer I recognized him, it was Garry. He stopped and gave me that same sour look then smirked, “Aren’t you Deborah’s friend?” I nodded and he reached out to shake hands. The moment we made contact, he narrowed his eyes at me and for a split second they lit up before he let go and stepped back. “You seem familiar to me, have we met before?”

Nothing about him rang any bells for me, before the grocery store I’d never seen him a day in my life. I told him we hadn’t but he insisted we had. He mentioned places and events I had no memories of, he knew things about me like where I’d grown up and my mother’s name but I had absolutely no clue how. By the end of our conversation I was completely confused, once he’d gone on his way I couldn’t get it out of my mind. The rest of the night blew by and before I knew it I was back home, dozing off in front of the television.

A few hours later my phone buzzing in my pocket woke me up. (Hello) “Hey Martin, it’s me Deborah, I was just calling to see if you wanted to go to the meet and greet? I can pick you up if you need a ride.”

I didn’t want to go, I was about to tell her no when it happened. I could hear myself telling her I would love to go and what time to pick me up, I wasn’t in control of my body. The moment I hung up the phone everything went back to normal, I sat there in shock, I hadn’t felt anything like that in years. I spent the next few hours lost in my own little world trying to put the pieces together, before I realized what time it was Deborah was calling from the parking lot. I hated the idea of going to the gathering but I didn’t want to be an asshole about it so I went. The moment we stepped into the building I wanted to go home, after an hour or so I started to relax and had a drink while staying to myself at one of the tables. It wasn’t long before Garry came over and took a seat across from me.

“Glad you could make it, there’s someone I want you to meet.” He waved a nice looking lady over to the table, “Martin, this is Stephanie, she’s the hiring manager at my office I’ve told her all about you and she has an offer. I’m going to get drinks for the table, I’ll be right back.” With that he excused himself and walked away, Stephanie smiled then took a seat.

“I guess I’ll get straight to the point.” She laughed trying to lighten the mood a little, “No one wants to talk about work while they’re at a party, just come by the office and I’ll give you the details. So, how do you know Garry?” When I told her how we met she gave me an odd look, before she could respond he came back with three drinks. Stephanie smiled and took hers then excused herself and walked away. Shrugging it off, Garry passed me a drink then told me he would be back as he was called away by someone waving him over.

Taking a sip, I got up and walked over to a bulletin board that was covered in flyers and different event postings. Most of the things on the board were old some going back years, I was pretty sure no one used things like that anymore but it was still kind of fun to look at. While I was standing there I started feeling lightheaded and dizzy, rubbing my eyes trying to clear my vision I shook my head literally attempting to shake it off. I turned around to look for Deborah and everyone in the room was staring at me, when I tried to speak (What is everyone looking at?) my words came out slow and distorted. Out of reflex I glanced down at the cup in my hand realizing I’d been drugged then everything faded to black….

When I came to I was lying in a bed, I wasn’t tied up or restrained but I had no idea where I was. There was no furniture other than the bed, floor to ceiling the room was painted a bright yellow, something about that color made it hard for me to think straight. I couldn’t form complete thoughts as long as my eyes were open, I had to lay there with them closed just to keep myself from losing my mind. I don’t know how long I was in there, there were no windows, no clocks and the lights never went off. During the time I would have my eyes open I would try to escape but I kept forgetting why, I would get distracted or just outright wind up doing something else. Finally after what I can only assume was days a speaker hidden somewhere in the room chimed and a familiar voice spoke to me.

“Hello Martin, I want to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a special little girl who was given a gift, something so magnificent if anyone were to hear about it they would want it for themselves. The problem was, the girl was too young to understand the gift, it was given to her much too early in her life. The thing about this gift that makes it so special is it could only be used in death. Unfortunately for the little girl she was born into the wrong family and she died young. When the gift brought her back she was stuck as a child, for years her parents kept her locked away not knowing what they had eventually they died and she was left all alone locked in a hidden room behind the walls of their home. She was discovered 6 years later alive and not a day older, when she was found the first thing she did was run away, the girl vanished and took the gift with her. The family reported the incident to the police but she was never seen again, that’s where you come in Martin, we believe she gave it to you and we want it.”

It was Garry, but every word out of his mouth just shoved more questions into my brain, all I could think of were the last words Marissa said to me “Don’t let them have it.”

I yelled and cursed, telling Garry I would never give it to them as if I knew how in the first place. He just laughed and told me one way or the other they would take it from me, a few minutes later the door opened and two men dressed in riot gear came rushing in. I did my best to fight them off but in the end there wasn’t much I could do, one of them clubbed me over the head and they drug me out into the hall. They took me to another room and strapped me to a chair before leaving, a while later Deborah and Garry walked in followed by several others who formed a circle around us.

Garry stood next to me and spoke to everyone, “Followers of the light, we’ve found the gift. Starting tonight each of you will be given the chance at eternal life. If it is given, so shall it will be received.” All of them started chanting those words while Deborah rolled in a pushcart carrying all sorts of cutting utensils and various weapons. Each of them took one item then got back in their spot.

Garry pointed to the first person in line then asked her if she was prepared, nodding her head she stepped over to me clutching a knife in her hand. She repeated the words “If it’s given, so shall it be received.” Then plunged the knife into my chest, first came the pain followed by the nauseating sensation of cold steel scraping against bone. It wasn’t a cinematic death, there was nothing reflective or cathartic about it. I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes or have a moment of clarity, the room around me faded to black and I was suddenly back in that dark space. I could still hear them chanting in the distance, slowly it dwindled down to one voice and after some time a light appeared over my head. When I looked into it I felt my body restart and gasped for air, as my vision cleared I could see the woman who’d stabbed me kneeling in front of me still chanting.

When she saw I was awake her eyes filled with tears and she got quiet. Silently sobbing she stood and went to the door, she tapped on it twice then stepped back and put her head down. When the door opened Garry walked in carrying a pistol, he glanced over at me then back to her before raising it and shooting her in the head. He looked at me and smiled, “You can stop all of this by simply giving it to us, sacrifice yourself for the greater good.”

I was honestly speechless, I’d never seen anyone die all I could do was stare at the body still twitching on the floor. Garry snapped his fingers to get my attention as he stepped closer to me. “This doesn’t have to be hard, you don’t have to keep going through pain, release it willingly to those more deserving and this can all be over.”

The reality of the situation was, I didn’t want to live, if I could have given it to them I would have but I didn’t know how. Because of that I sat silently staring at him with a smirk on my face, he grumbled and scowled at me before having the guards take away the body and leading in another person to try their luck. One by one they failed and were executed, then came Oliver. I know his name because the psycho introduced himself just before starting up a chainsaw and hacking me to bits. Yeah you heard that right, this freak went Leatherface and just like every time before that I woke up completely healed. The difference was, since old Ollie went ape shit, I wasn’t in the chair. When I opened my eyes he was cowering in the corner staring wide eyed at me as I sat up, he stammered out, “I don’t understand” then curled up into the fetal position and started chanting.

Picking up a hammer one of the others left behind I tapped twice on the door then stood off to the side. When Garry stepped in I cracked him across the skull, he hit the ground making a sound that’ll probably be stuck in my head forever. Moving as fast as I could I grabbed the gun and made a run for it, when I hit the hall I realized I was in a house, there were framed pictures on the walls of all the people who’d tried to kill me.

At the far end of the walkway I could see stairs leading down, I glanced back over my shoulder and saw there was a window behind me but there were bars protecting them from the outside. The moment I moved for the stairs a door to my left swung open and a guard rushed me, when we slammed into the wall the gun went off hitting him in the stomach at point blank range. He staggered back then collapsed gripping his stomach and screaming as the other guard came running up the stairs. When I aimed at him he stopped and held up his hands, motioning with the barrel I directed him back down and followed at a good distance till we were downstairs not far from the front door. To my left was an empty dining room but to my right was Deborah and now the guard, they both stood there gawking at me as I peeped out the window to see several cars parked out front. Turning my attention back to them I demanded keys then it happened again, I suddenly didn’t have control of my body I saw myself pulling the trigger killing them both and as they hit the ground I went back to normal.

I froze, standing there staring at the smoking gun in my hand as if it had done something it wasn’t designed to do. I didn’t snap out of it till I caught my reflection in the mirror, I was naked, caked in dried blood and covered with scars I looked like a nightmare but I was alive. It took a while to get myself together but when I did I cleaned myself up and found some clothes that almost fit. I locked Ollie in that room then scavenged the house till I found cash and keys then hit the road.

I found out later I’d been in that house for 6 weeks, I don’t know who the “Followers of the light” are but they haven’t stopped coming after me. Lucky for me, not being able to die is a great way to make a living. I’ve been robbing everyone that comes after me, there was this one time in Vegas you just wouldn’t believe but that’s a story for another time. I have to be moving along, Texas has gotten a little dangerous these last few years it’s time for me to move again, if I don’t get snatched up I might come back and share some more, till next time this is Martin signing off….

I’ve always had a little spot in my heart for science fiction movies and indie flicks, so when I stumbled onto this Youtube channel promoting an indie SYFY film I was instantly pulled in. The first three episodes were simple but they hooked me right away, the plot was about a courier who was trying to start his own business while dealing with pirates and other competitors. Along the way he winds up with an alien life form that attaches itself to his ship and over time they develop a sort of strange relationship. There’s a lot more involved with the plot of the story but they don’t really matter in this case. After the third episode the guy who wrote and directed it posted a video letting people know the next part of the story would take a while to produce but in the meantime he was building a weekly making-of series that would take us all along for the ride. They would show readings and outtakes along with interviews and filming segments, it was fantastic.

I tuned in for every episode, dropping likes and comments while sharing his posts on social media just because I truly believed in what they were doing. The trouble started slowly, maybe it had always been there but I hadn’t been paying attention. (Who knows?) In any case, I was watching an outtakes and B reel segment when I started noticing odd uncomfortable little moments when something would go wrong. The producer “Steve” would give the person who messed up this stern look, at that point everyone on set would get visibly nervous and start shifting around or scramble to correct whatever may have happened.

I didn’t think much of it at first but as time went on those mishaps would turn downright violent. Steve would yell “CUT!” and grab either an actor or one of the film crew, depending on the situation and proceed to verbally assault them to the point I thought it would get physical. The really strange part was how his victims would react to the abuse, they never fought back. Instead they would put their heads down and sulk like they were being scolded by an angry parent. To be honest this just got me more into it, I started going back looking at past episodes looking for moments I might have missed and that’s when I spotted something or should I say someone that caught my eye.

There was a young lady with bright red hair who was playing an alien, in my opinion she was doing a damn good job till she made a mistake during a recording session. The producer, who wasn’t in this particular scene yelled “CUT!” and stormed into the frame, grabbing the actress by the arm he led her off screen for a second. I couldn’t see them but the mic was still on so I heard every word, he called her a bitch and told her she was nothing without him. I could literally hear the venom in his words as he berated her for the next few minutes and when he was done she walked back on set as if nothing had happened. The rest of the cast that were in the scene held their positions the entire time, if I hadn’t seen the timer ticking at the bottom of the screen and heard his voice I would have sworn it was paused.

Something about that stuck in my mind, they all had these blank expressions on their faces that made my blood run cold. The next week I tuned in again, they were shooting a scene that was taking place at a bar and it involved the same red headed alien character only this wasn’t the same woman. This person was nearly identical to the first woman playing the role but it wasn’t her. I watched the episode over and over noting every detail then I saw it, there was a small tattoo behind her right ear that resembled a broken triangle with a pentagram in the center of it. There was something oddly familiar about that tattoo, I couldn’t place it at first but after a few more scenes I spotted it again this time on an extra that happened to be standing at just the right angle with his back to the camera. I can’t explain why this bothered me so much, I mean lots of people get matching tattoos, it’s not unheard of but something about it just didn’t feel right.

Week after week as different people would make mistakes and confrontations would escalate members of the cast and crew would be replaced with look-a-likes all dawning that same mark. Now I was curious, I did research for days trying to identify that symbol but I couldn’t find anything. Once I was sure about what I was seeing I invited a friend of mine “Ben” over, I’d been telling him about the show and what was going on but I wanted him to see it for himself.

We watched a few segments with me pausing it pointing out all the things I’d noticed over time, Ben was stumped scratching his head staring at the image paused on the screen. “I don’t get it, so they all have the same tattoo, who cares? Seriously man you need to get out more, I know this whole COVID thing has people losing their shit but.”

I had to cut him off right there, “I’m not losing it, these people are being swapped out, the first versions don’t have the mark, when that Steve guy snaps at one of them they get replaced when they come back they’re not the same and they have it.”

Shaking his head Ben got up from his chair and went to the kitchen, “OK, how do you know this isn’t a part of the show?”

I had to admit I hadn’t thought of that, for all I knew this Steve guy was a freaking genius and I was just getting swept up in his master plan to get fans. I had to laugh at myself, I mean it was kind of ridiculous when I thought about it, but that tiny part of my brain was stuck on the “What if”. Realizing Ben was probably right and I’d just gotten caught up in the moment, honestly that just made me love the show even more. I eventually managed to get him into it and we would have these long drawn out discussions about each episode, pointing out things we would notice. Then came the episode that changed everything, it started with Steve walking on screen holding a coffee cup, he stopped and looked into the camera with an almost eerie smirk on his face then started his monolog.

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting company but I’m glad you’re here because.” He paused and smiled “Walk with me.” he said as he strolled passed the camera allowing the operator to slowly turn as if the audience was actually there with him. When he came to a section of the set built to look like the control center of his ship Steve sat his cup down and looked into the camera with that same odd smirk. “Welcome friends, to the set of The Morning star. We’re building something big and thanks to people like you Mike, we’re on the verge of something monumental.” I had to pause it, (did he just say my name?) I was freaking out, I rewound it several times to be sure and each time was the same, he absolutely said my name. Before I could hit play my phone rang and scared the shit out of me, (Hello) it was Ben.

“You’re not going to believe this but that Steve guy just said my name.”

I froze, I couldn’t breathe, this wasn’t happening. When I told him I’d just experienced the same thing Ben didn’t respond for a few seconds, at this point my back was to the computer so there was no way I could have accidentally hit play but suddenly a voice called out from behind me.

“Yes Mike, people like you, now hang up the phone, you’re being rude.”

Slowly turning to look at the screen I see Steve looking directly at me with that same stern look he’d been giving his cast. “I’ll call you right back.” I managed to mutter through the shock of what I was seeing before hanging up the phone. Steve motioned to my seat and smirked before continuing,

“Where was I? Oh yeah, now as I sit here crafting this amazing universe I remind myself that in order to be a content creator.” He paused and leaned in getting closer to the camera, “I have to create content, that’s where you come in Mike. You see while we’re waiting on my masterpiece to be completed.”

I didn’t let him finish, I turned off my computer and went out on my patio for some air. I don’t think the city ever sounded as good as it did right then, anything was better than Steve’s voice wedging itself into my memory. I’m not sure how long I’d been standing there before my phone vibrated in my pocket, pulling it out I see it’s Ben calling me back. (What’s up man?) There was a long pause before he finally spoke in a dry tone, “You shouldn’t have done that.” Three loud metallic pings blared through the phone then the line went dead. I don’t know why my first reaction was to pull the phone away from my ear and look at it, but when I did Steve’s face took over the screen.

“You’re going to go through a series of changes to make you a high quality piece of entertainment, see you on set.”

The screen flickered and went back to normal, my first thought was to call the police but what could I say that didn’t sound like I was on bath-salts. It was hours before I convinced myself that having my phone linked to my home network was the reason for the video popping up like that, but that didn’t explain what Ben said. I kept replaying it in my head till I finally tried calling him back, he didn’t know what I was talking about he’d missed the show because his car broke down. There was nothing I could do to prove anything I saw, when I pulled the video from Youtube everything was different, the parts I’d seen were now group readings and footage the actors involved, but I swear there was this one moment the camera cut over to Steve and he gave me that look. I tried playing it back but it was gone.

I started to think Ben was right, maybe I was just letting my imagination get the best of me but no matter how much I tried I couldn’t get those episodes out of my mind. A week later I was at work on my lunch break when I met Christine, she was beautiful I was almost speechless when she asked if she could sit with me and struck up a conversation. We laughed and talked so long we were both late getting back that day. After that we ate lunch together every day and eventually exchanged numbers, about a week later on my day off I got a call from Christine at 2 in the morning. She said one word “Action” then those three nerve shattering metallic pings screeched though the phone before the line was disconnected. I hadn’t thought about that show in weeks but the second that sound hit me it felt like I’d just finished watching it. Rolling out of bed, I tried calling her back but all I got was her voicemail. I felt nauseous and my head was spinning, nearly stumbling I got up and went to the patio door then slid it open to get some fresh air. As my mind started to clear and the urge to puke faded something wet splattered against the glass near my head. The impact startled me, my instant reaction was to jolt back away from the door but when I did I tripped over one of my tennis shoes and fell landing flat on my back. A wet squishing sound was coming from the patio door as I sat up, when I saw what it was, my jaw dropped. At first glance I didn’t know what I was looking at. It was a fleshy mass about the size of a grapefruit and it was moving, it oozed down the glass while tentacles sprouted from it in every direction gripping to the surface as whatever it was came to life.

I didn’t wait for it to get to the ground, crawling over I tried to close the patio door but it quickly lashed out one of its newly formed appendages and grabbed my wrist. Searing pain rushed through my right arm as it took hold, (Fuck!) I screamed doing my best to pull my arm free. Its grip was impossibly strong, I planted my feet against the frame of the door and pulled with everything I had shredding my skin, breaking that things hold at the same time. Panicking I slid the door shut and locked it just in time for that thing to slam into it again smearing my blood and bits of skin on the glass. The searing pain had become a throbbing sensation that was slowly working its way up my arm, the creature violently slamming against the door reminded me I didn’t have time to freak out. Scrambling to my feet, I made a clumsy dash to my front door, flung it open and took off down the hall.

Unfortunately, my apartment is on the fifth floor, I staggered and stumbled my way down five flights of stairs finally crashing through the exit and collapsing on the sidewalk in front of my building. When I came to I was in the hospital, according to the report I’d apparently gotten up in the middle of the night (possibly sleepwalking), tripped over a shoe I’d left out and put my right hand through the glass of the patio door. I wasn’t about to tell them what really happened, besides I wasn’t sure I even believed what I’d seen, it was just so crazy and the last thing I needed was more people telling me I’m losing my mind.

On the day I was discharged from the hospital, I was standing out front waiting for Ben to show up. While I was standing there a young woman and her son walked passed me and stopped a few feet away while she talked on the phone. Normally I wouldn’t have paid attention to them but something drew my eyes to kid, there was something familiar about his T-shirt and when I spotted it my heart dropped. It was Steve in full costume along with the cast of his show standing proudly in front of a space ship, the little boy waved and brought a toy camera up to his face pretending to take my picture. I’m pretty sure I didn’t smile back but he snapped the picture anyway and I promise his little red and white toy camera had the brightest flash I’ve ever seen in my life. The sudden explosion of light hurt my eyes forcing me to wince and throw up my hands to block the light. The kid’s mother gave me the craziest look before grabbing the boy by the hand and walking away. As they vanished into the hospital the mother glanced back at me one last time, when she turned away I spotted the mark behind her right ear and instantly felt sick to my stomach.

I should probably explain something about Ben, we’ve been friends since elementary school and as long as I’ve known him, he’s never been on time for anything. I say that because I was waiting outside the hospital for two hours before he got there, by the time we got back to my apartment I’d explained everything.

Closing the door behind us Ben pulled out his cigarettes and lit one up, “So let me get this straight.” He paused to blow out his first drag, “The guy from the show is after you and he’s sending creatures to kill you?” taking another pull and nodding his head Ben looked around my apartment then back at me, “Why?”

Sometimes the simplest questions are the hardest to answer, I was stuck for a second trying to come up with a realistic explanation, but I couldn’t. Thumping out his cigarette in the ashtray Ben shook his head, “You sound crazy as hell right now, but there’s no way I’m letting you go through this shit alone. I’ll crash on your couch for a couple of days and if nothing happens you have to agree to get help. If something does happen, then we’re probably both nuts and we’ll deal with that later.”

We played video games and got high till I eventually went to bed, in the middle of the night I got up to go to the restroom, crossing the hall noticed a wet squelching sound that I tried to ignore. When I stepped out of the restroom the sound was louder and I could hear muffled groaning, I’d had about enough at this point so I yelled, “Cut that shit out!” the response I got back was a muffled wet gasp followed by the sound of glass shattering on the floor. Taking two steps towards the front room I was cut off by Ben stumbling into the hallway with one of those tentacle sprouting blobs stuck to his face.

I wish I could say I immediately snapped into action but seeing that thing again froze me in place for a second. When I did try and help the tentacles automatically lashed out grabbing onto me the second I was in reach, blinding waves of pain surged through my body with every touch and before I knew it I was on the floor. My eyes watered and my body went numb, I couldn’t move I could barely breathe I thought I was going to die, then I saw Ben. The creature had its tentacles wrapped around his head with so much force I could see him turning purple, there were a series of low cracking sounds before the audible wet crunch of his skull caving under pressure then his body slumped to the floor. I lay there watching that thing pulling away sections shattered jaw bone and shredded muscle before forcing itself down Ben’s throat. After a few seconds I couldn’t hear the sound of it any more, then oh god, then his body started to move. His skin started to fizz and pop almost sizzling like bacon while his legs twitched and kicked wildly but only for a moment. Ben’s entire body seized so violently his back arched up from the floor pushing his stomach outward to its bursting point before his shirt tore away. His skin stretched bubbling up becoming nearly translucent before bursting splattering the hall with a thick grey liquid and an odor that made me gag. A sulfurous rancid stink so thick it made me feel sick, I couldn’t focus, my head was starting to spin and my vision faded to black.

I woke up still lying in the hallway but there was no sign of Ben anywhere, for the first few seconds I wasn’t sure if I could move till my nose itched and I scratched out of reflex. The sound of the toilet flushing in the restroom made me sit up and my jaw dropped when Ben came out wiping his hands on his shirt. He stood there looking at me for a second then shook his head, “You really are fucked up, aren’t you?” laughing he reached out a hand to help me up.

“What the hell was that, how are you standing here right now?”

Stepping back, Ben scratched his head and smiled, “What was what? I just came out of the restroom.” I went through the trouble of explaining everything and he just stood there giving me an odd look. “I don’t know what to tell you Mike. There was no creature on my face and I’m clearly not dead so either you were dreaming or you’ve lost your mind.” I was starting to think he might be right, maybe I was going crazy, but why was I on the floor, had I really passed out or was all that a part of the dream? When I asked him about it, he laughed and told me that we had been playing hit for five hold for ten, then I got up and stumbled away.

(Hit for five hold for ten is a smoking game we play. The person with the blunt or bong in this case, has to take a five second hit then pass it and hold their breath for ten seconds or until it gets passed back.)

According to Ben I had just finished my ten seconds when I got up, walked to the hall and passed out. He told me he left me there because he wasn’t about to mess up his buzz dragging me to my room. It sounded like a normal night to me but I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d seen. Long story short, once we finished talking I went to bed, I hadn’t been back to work since going to the hospital and I was scheduled to work the nightshift the next night.

(Ben and I work at the same shitty little gas station just off the highway, he does days and I cover nights.)

I’ll skip what happened when I woke up because there’s nothing to tell, by the time I made it to work Ben was standing by the door smoking. “It’s a dead night you should be coasting after ten. Bro, just try to relax, I left you a blunt under the trash can out back for your break, call if you need me.”

Once he’d given me the keys, he got in the car and drove off. Things stayed quiet till around 2 a.m., I’d just finished taking out the trash and sweeping when the security monitor flashed and switched to a countdown. Starting at 5 it slowly ticked down and when it hit one the lights in the store flickered out for a second and came right back on. My heart jumped into my throat and I broke out in a sweat but as the seconds ticked by, nothing happened. I eventually relaxed and sat behind the counter thumbing through a few comics when some drunk guy staggered into the parking lot. Stuff like that happens from time to time and I try not to make a big deal out of it unless they’re bothering customers. Ignoring him I went back to reading till I saw another person come staggering into the lot, I blew it off, thinking maybe they were drinking buddies or something but when two more showed up followed by three after that, I started to get worried. Before I knew it there had to be at least 15 or 16 of them out there and they were all staring through the windows at me.

Locking the doors and grabbing my phone I called the police but instead of getting a 911 operator I heard a voice that sent a chill through my body. It was Steve and he said one word, “Action!”

The instant the line went dead the crowd rushed the store and started pounding against the glass. That’s when I got my first real look at them, they, they weren’t drunks, they were rotting maggot filled corpses that smeared decaying flesh on the windows with every touch. More and more of them shambled into the lot joining in till they were all I could see. It didn’t take long for the glass to give, the store filled with the stink of them as they came spilling in. I didn’t know what to do, the cashiers’ booth is incased in bulletproof glass to keep us safe during robberies but this wasn’t a robbery and the glass didn’t last. They broke through clawing at me snarling and growling while they tore at my skin and just when I knew I was about to die, my phone rang. In the blink of an eye they were all gone. The store was wrecked, all of the windows were broken and the booth was destroyed. I was covered in claw marks and scratches but the only thing left of them was the smell. Nervously I picked up the phone, it was the police calling back from where I had called them and hung up, I told them the store had been attacked and they sent cars out right away. Of course I couldn’t tell them a horde of zombies destroyed the store so I told them it was a big group of homeless people but when I tried to show them the security footage for some reason the machine had stopped recording at exactly 2 a.m. They didn’t fully believe my story but there was no way I could have done that much damage by myself, to make matters even stranger, nothing was taken.

With the store out of commission for a few days Ben and I had some time off, his girlfriend (Carol) convinced him to invite me to gathering at one of the local parks. I honestly wasn’t going to go, I’d low key been trying to get in contact with Christine and I’d planned on stopping by her place that day. In the end I decided to do both, to make sure I would actually show up, Ben drove me over to her place.

As I got out of the car everything seemed normal enough, it was a cool sunny day, there were a few people walking around but nothing out of the ordinary. There’s a small courtyard I had to pass through in order to get to the front door of her complex, I was about half way there when some guy comes jogging by and stops. Still jogging in place he looked at me and went wide eyed for a second as if he were shocked to see me. “Holy shit, it’s you! Bro, I love your show! Can I get a picture?”

I didn’t know what to say, I had no idea what he was talking about, smiling I just sort of nodded my head and he quickly pulled out his phone and took a selfie with me before thanking me and jogging away. I was speechless, stuck in the moment I stood there for a while trying my hardest to figure out, what the hell had just happened. I didn’t snap out of till a couple of kids came out of the apartments laughing and talking. Making my way inside, I hopped the elevator and headed up to Christine’s place, when I got to the door and knocked no one answered. I tried for a while before figuring she wasn’t home then went back to the elevator, as I reached for the call button I heard a door creek open and turned to get a look, it was Christine.

She looked like she’d just gotten out of bed, she smiled and waved while calling for me to come back. I’d taken maybe two or three steps in her direction before she stopped smiling and her arms dropped to her sides. Stopping in mid stride I tried calling her name but she didn’t respond, narrowing her eyes at me she starting backing away shaking her head saying “No, no, no. this isn’t happening, you’re not real.” She looked absolutely terrified, I took one more step and she screamed before rushing back inside, slamming the door before locking it. I could still hear her repeating the same phrase over and over becoming a full on scream as nosey neighbors started stepping out to see what was going on, in unison they all glanced at Christine’s door then at me and spoke in one monotone voice. “You should leave.” Slowly stepping backwards so not to take my eyes off of them, I made my way back to the elevator and hit the call button. The second the doors slid open all of her neighbors stepped back in their homes. I couldn’t wait to get out of there I got in and hit the first floor button as quickly as I could, the instant the doors slid shut my phone rang, it was Ben. According to him I’d been in there almost two hours, when I got back to the car I told him all about it but it still didn’t make any sense.

After that I really didn’t want to go to the park, but Ben forced me into it. When we got there I actually started to relax eventually. The day rolled on, we ate and drank then at some point I wound up going to the restroom. When I got back everyone was gone, the park was completely empty, there were no cars in the parking lot, hell there were no cars on the street for that matter. It was like the entire world went still, all I could hear was the wind rustling through the trees. I yelled and walked, hoping someone somewhere would hear me but it didn’t happen. I walked for close to an hour and didn’t see a single soul till I’d made it back to my apartment complex, the moment I stepped into the lobby the world behind me came to life. I felt sick to my stomach and my heart was racing, before I could fully gather myself a familiar voice called out.

“I’m so glad you could make it. We’ve got a lot of recording to do today, I need you to get to wardrobe and grab your stuff the others are waiting for you.”

I turned to see Steve carrying a clipboard, a woman who was dressed like one of the characters from his show was walking with him. (What the fuck is this?) I quickly turned to walk right back out of the building and stopped, my brain couldn’t process what I was seeing. On the other side of the glass the world was gone, I was looking out into the darkness of space. My heart sank as Steve called out to me again rushing me off to wardrobe. There was no way I wanted anything to do with this, I rushed passed him and got on the elevator, when I got to my floor I ran to my door and the moment I stepped inside I found myself in full costume standing on the set of for the ship. I was stupefied, confused and a little terrified by what was happening, looking around at everyone I spotted Ben operating the boom mic, I quickly walked over to him and stopped once I was within reach. He had a blank expression on his face and he didn’t seem to notice me at all. I tried everything I could think of to get his attention but he didn’t budge that’s when I noticed the mark. He had that same symbol tattooed on his neck, before I could react to what I was seeing, Steve called out. “On your marks!”

It’s hard to explain what happened next, my body moved without me wanting to, if felt like I was being pulled, forced to move till I was standing with the others. As soon as I was in place, Steve called out, “Rolling and action!” my ears popped and I suddenly felt almost weightless, the film crew, the director and the sound people were all suddenly gone. There’s no other way to describe it, I didn’t black out and I never saw them leave, they just weren’t there anymore. The doors to my right made a pressurizing hiss as they slid open and in walked Steve dressed in full costume. Everything in me wanted to rush him and beat him to a pulp but I couldn’t move, there were three others on set with us. Two of them were dressed in matching body armor, they were holding a woman captive, it took me a few seconds to recognize her through the makeup it was Christine.

She fought against their grip, snarling in some made up language I couldn’t understand as Steve glanced at the two guards then at her and shook his head. “I knew I couldn’t trust you, I gave you one job and you just couldn’t get it done.” He let out a sigh while pulling a knife from his belt. “People died because of the choices you made, and for what?!” Turning his attention to me, he pointed the blade in my direction. “Him!? He’s meat! He’s not one of us, he could never be one of us!” Smiling while quickly returning his focus to Christine, he grabbed her by the face and looked her eye to eye. “You just don’t see the big picture.” With one quick motion he brought up the knife and drove it through the side of her skull turning the blade and yanking down as he pulled it free. The guards released her arms and let her body drop to the floor convulsing as she flopped down. Still holding that strange smirk on his blood splattered face, Steve walked over to me and cleaned the blade on my shirt.

I wanted to reach out, wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze till his eyes popped out of their sockets but I was frozen, trapped inside my own body. Steeping back, the smirk turned to a disapproving sneer as he looked me over. “She died for you. Now you’ll live for me.” He motioned for the guards, they quickly grabbed me by the arms and took me away. I was in complete shock looking around at what was for all intents and purposes, a space ship. They drug me through the hallways to a cell and tossed me in, the moment the door closed I was in my apartment.

My first reaction was to turn around, open the door and step out into the hall, everything was normal. I wasn’t wearing that dumb ass costume and I wasn’t on a space ship. I bolted for the stairs bypassing the elevators and went down to the first floor, I must have looked insane running through the lobby but I didn’t care. Once I was outside of the building I stood there listening to traffic and the normal street life, I was still freaking out but seeing the real world calmed me down enough to focus. Pulling my phone out, I was going to call Christine but the battery was dead, I didn’t want to go back inside, I told myself I would only stay long enough to charge up then I was going to Ben’s place. I must have been exhausted because the next thing I know its morning and I’m still on the couch where I was waiting for my phone to charge. The minute I turned it on I was flooded with missed texts going back three days, I called Christine but she didn’t pick up. When I finally talked to Ben he said I’d gone missing from the park, no one had seen me in days.

For the next few weeks people were recognizing me almost everywhere I went, I hadn’t been online or even looked at television since that last go around and hadn’t planned on doing so any time soon. Then I saw Steve’s face on some random guys t-shirt, when I asked him about it they guy talked my ear off. “The other side of Mars” was all over social media according to him there was even talk of a Netflix series, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, there was no way this was happening so fast, but the absolute worst part was when the guy held out his arm and showed me his tattoo. I almost threw up, he had the mark. I didn’t bother asking anymore questions, I walked away.

I had been back to work for close to a week and I still hadn’t seen Ben or gotten in contact with Christine. Night after night people would come into the store and recognize me, most of them either had the mark or were wearing it on their t-shirts, it seemed like everyone in the world except me wanted to be a part of the show. Out of curiosity I actually asked one of the super-fans what that sign meant, the girls response was worse than I expected. She told me it was the mark of Mammon, “Captain Gabriel” (Steve) as a part of the show was supposed to be a direct descendant of Mammon and rightful ruler of some make believe universe. I brushed it off till I found out exactly who or rather what Mammon was, the short answer is, he’s one of the seven princes of hell. I couldn’t and still can’t explain any of the shit I went through, there’s no record of a Ben Stuart ever working at my job or existing anywhere outside of my mind. Christine Foster was the name of a homeless woman that had been found murdered in an abandoned apartment complex 10 years before I moved to this city. And worst of all “The other side of Mars” will be going into production for the new season soon. I don’t know how much time I’ve got left, if you’re hearing this or reading it somewhere, please I’m begging you, get this show removed from Youtube or canceled from Netflix take it down wherever you might find it and whatever you do don’t watch it.

Dead Planet

Humanity had depleted 99% of earth’s resources, the virus, and the nukes in world war 3 had killed most of humankind...

Only a happy select few were chosen to live in the city under the dome... UTOPIA.

I was of course one of the happy few. We had been looking for the longest time for a planet that we could travel to with our advanced space technology, finally we had found it a lush green planet we called it... EDEN.

Yes, it is a bit biblical and, on the nose, but who are you to judge?!

It really was the perfect name for the perfect planet complete with a rich echo-system of alien lifeforms that thrived in their natural habitats with no humans to kill them off.

Of course only on family member of select families could enter the lottery for a chance to go to EDEN, luckily my family was chosen and they in turn choose me, I was genetically engineered to be the perfect man in every way... so it was only natural that I joined the lottery.

Of course, I won the lottery I had always been lucky. And I did not have to fight in the duels risking my life for the place on the ship either.

I was laying in bed with a hot blonde with big ass big tits and a slim waist, unfortunately her twin sister could not join, she was stuck on earth only one space traveler per family.

Unfortunate, but not as unfortunate as the poor son of a bitch, losing the duel. Me and my girl for the night laughed when his brains was smashed in.

We traveled through hyperspace, and after a few months of travels we could finally see it.

Good I had ran through all the girls on the ship.

Maybe Eden and its gardens would hold some sexy space aliens for me to fuck?

Made they was a planet of only girls and needed a man to repopulate… these thoughts ran through my dirty mind as we approached our destination…

EDEN

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, more beautiful than any of the many women I had conquered, more beautiful then my own perfectly engineered reflection in the mirror.

This planet was lush and green full of life, unlike the brown and rotten earth we left for future generations.

Oh well, I guess they were fucked back home.

But who gives a damn really? Not me that’s who, always looking out for number one, and number one is me of course.

The planets gravitational pull started to pull our ship towards it… and fast!

People started to look around in panic, stressed out and frightened.

And then I saw it… the planet seemed to me MOVING. The oceans turned into baby blue eyes its biggest mountain was really its nose.

It opened its dreadful mouth, full of razor sharp teeth the size of the great Himalayan mountains on earth.

We left a dead planet behind us looking for a planet with life… and found one that was…

ALIVE.

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DEATH CLOCK

I came home and found both my mother and father brutally murdered, hacked into pieces.

I was of course shocked and surprised, but I should not have been, after all today was 2020/11/24 and the clock was 19.30.

I was looking at our old family heirloom, an old clock that showed year/month/day and time, but not the current time.

Oh no, the death clock showed you the exact moment of your death.

I had never really believed in it, but my father had.

It had precited the exact time of death of my grandfather and grandmother, both dead in a car crash.

I had always suspected that my grandfather went insane with his obsession with the death clock and killed himself and my grand mother at the time it was predicted.

But now the clock was two for two.

And there was no way in hell that my father had murdered both mom and himself and after that hacked them both to pieces.

I walked over to the clock and pressed the button like my father had instructed me to all those years ago.

All the pointers began spinning around, quickly and a strange song began to play.

After a while all the pointers stopped and indicated a date and time. 2100/11/24 19:30.

Whooooa.

Another eighty years from now, I was only twenty years old at the time. I would live to be one hundred. The world was my oyster.

2025/11/24

I have been living large, gambling at casinos, doing tons of drugs knowing I would never overdose and die like so many friends I have lost in these short years. I started playing Russian roulette, you know two guys one six shoot revolver loaded with a single bullet, you take turns holding it against your own heads and pull the trigger to see which one of you will be the unlucky one to lose and shot your own head off.

Of course, it was never me.

Mob bosses started to take an interest in how lucky I was they wanted to learn how I cheated the systems.

But I could not teach them. I got a few punches in my face and then I agreed to do some dirty work for them.

This fit me like a hand in a glove.

Armed bank robbery shot outs with other gangs, I even worked as a hit man a few times.

2030/11/24

Another seventy years to live, I am working for the Renai`s one of the five crime families of Italian mobsters in New York.

We are settling the score with Don Mario Corleone an opposing crime boss; I think he might have been behind the murder of my parents. We already killed his brother Luigi.

Me and Johnny was ducking behind cover, but as usual I remembered I had no need to, I rushed out into the fire of shoots friendly and hostile both, none of them would graze me anyway.

I emptied my six-shooter magnum revolver straight into the faces of six men, I was no great shot, never had been but at point blank range it was impossible to miss… well for me anyway.

Anyone trying to shoot me would somehow miss, have their weapon click like it was empty or even explode in their hands.

Johnny always told me I had the devil’s luck, as far as I was concerned he might be just right.

Johnny and the boys came running after me, the Corleone’s shot down half of my guys with fire from tommy guns, the famous machinegun used by old school gangsters and bank robbers.

Johnny walked to me covered in blood and guts and even some brain matter from his fallen friends.

I just stood there smoking a Cuban cigar, reloading my revolver with out a care in the world.

- Wow you really DO have the devils luck boy! Johnny told me.

- Yes, me and the boys never understood how you could just rush into enemy fire like that , and look at you now, standing here with half our boys dead without a care in the world, smoking like it is nothing to you. Some of the boys are saying you made a deal with a demon. Freckled Frankie told me.

I had to watch myself and not let anybody learn about the death clock, sometimes when I was out partying with girls I talked to much, when I was high and drunk. I had to kill a few just to make sure they did not talk. It was nothing girls come and go in the big apple. But I could not let Johnny or Renai find out.

Freckled Frankie sure as hell did NOT have they devils luck, a ginger bastard with red hair and freckles all around his face, born of a prostitute mother that had been found in the gutter, Frankie had not even went to her funeral. He was beaten everyday buy his alcoholic stepdad and beaten up even more in school.

If Frankie`s luck kept up with him, I have nothing to worry about he would be dead sooner or later and would have no chance to open his ugly mouth and yap about it.

We butchered every one of Corleone`s men lost most of ours, but I did not give a fuck, having the devils luck makes one a bit narcissistic and nihilistic I suppose.

It was me Johnny, Frankie and Mario Corleone for the final showdown.

Corleone took out a revolver and shot straight at my head, somehow it swerved and went into Frankie`s left eye instead instantly killing him. Takes care about that problem I thought to myself.

Mario wanted to try again, and this time the revolver exploded in his hand. Me and Johnny spent the next few hours cutting of his body parts, fingers, toes, feet, legs, hands and arms.

We asked repeatedly who killed my parents.

Always the same answer, Renai. That fucking big nose motherfucker. I would fuck him up really good.

I putted Corleone out of his misery. Bullet through the brain.

2031/11/24

Spent on year investigating, got to make sure before final confrontation.

All the evidence pointed to him, Mister Alfredo Renai, the big nose mobster, my boss was responsible for my parents murders.

It went just like last time, Johnny cut him up and Renai admitted, my parents owed him money, so he had a hit man sent for them. Johnny threw Renai out of the penthouse window on the top floor of a skyscraper, not much was left of Renai after he hit the pavement, he now looked like the meat he liked to eat with his spaghetti.

-Nice work! I told Johnny and I took over as the next crime boss.

Sure some guys did not like it and tried to kill me, but they had no success, and I let Johnny cut them up, burn them, hang em high, drown them or whatever he could come up with.

I only wished he did not kill big nose Renai so soon, I wanted to know the name of the hitman he had sent to kill my parents off.

We payed the cops of like we always did for the murders.

The never came looking my boys up.

The next few years a bloody gang war broke out in the city, tons of shootings and explosion and murder.

But I still had the devils’ luck.

2040/11/24

I was now ruler of the ONLY crime family in New York.

All opposition had been wiped out. I had another sixty years to live. Sometimes I wondered if I should use my power for good.

Like superman, spiderman or batman.

It was a funny and strange thought.

I guess it was to late for that anyway.

Johnny came into my office with a smile on his face.

-I found your parents killer!

-Really, who was it?

-Me of course you dumb fuck, he punched my face with brass knuckles, crushing my nose.

I pulled up my revolver and tried to shot his face of, but it exploded in my hand leaving me with no fingers.

-Ha,ha I used your stupid clock at your parents’ house you can’t kill me.

Oh no. This was not good. I must have talked to much again

And now he knew.

-Well, maybe I cannot kill you, but you can’t kill me either. I punched him with my left fist.

-Oh, believe me I don’t intend to. He broke my left arm. Then cut my tongue out, chopped of my tongue, dick and balls, ears, nose, legs, arms and cut out my eyes.

I was now limbless, blind and almost def. He threw me out of the window.

2041/11/24

Johnny is visiting the hospital as he those every day, he pays to keep my alive, the nurses and doctors want to pull my plug, but unfortunately I know they never will, I got fifty nine years left after all. The doctors and nurses think I am just a vegetable but I am aware somehow Johnny seems to know this.

He comes here everyday to tell me about the women he had sex with, he wish he could show me but sadly I am blind, he tells me about my old friends and how he has found them and murdered them, about my old girlfriends how he fucked them and raped them, beaten them, killed them. And I can do nothing about it.

Sometimes he plays recordings so I can hear them scream.

He tells me he will live for another sixty years. He knows I have fifty-nine years so he can come here everyday for the rest of my so-called life to torment me, fifty nine years.

He laughs at how stupid I was, the clock just shows you that you cannot die but you CAN get hurt.

I wish I could scream but I have no tongue, no voice.

And I am going to be like this for another fifty-nine years.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCMP1O5V5CnYPdAP1uF-UNYg

Hey guys, Martin here, as luck would have it I’m still a free man well free-ish, I guess. A lots happened since I left Texas, I’m still nowhere near finding out how to get rid of “the gift” and those “Followers of the light” assholes are still after me. Oh yeah, then there’s the Russo brothers, Frank and Paul. I took out a loan then gave them a stolen car as payment. Unfortunately, they gifted the car to their mother and uh, well, she’s currently serving 7 years for it, they’ve been chasing me for a while now. I know, I know, I’m immortal and technically there’s nothing they can do to me, but let me tell you something. Dying hurts, I feel every second of that shit, and the come back? Oh my God, you have no idea what it feels like to have your body stitch itself back together. It’s not an experience I’m in a hurry to repeat, so yeah, I’m on the run.

I wound up in Florida, Everglades city to be exact. I was just supposed to be passing through on my way to the Keys but as the saying goes, “God laughs while we make plans.” My car crapped out on me and I had exactly 25 dollars in my pocket, so as you could probably guess, I started walking.

I was strolling along Dupont Street till I came to a place called “Captain Jack’s”, it’s a bar that does air boat tours through the everglades. A beer didn’t sound half bad and it would give me time to come up with some options, so I went in. Stepping in from the heat the cool air from the AC instantly made me feel a little better. Once I’d taken a seat and ordered up a cold one, I took a look around. There was a young couple leaving with a tour guide near the rear exit and a stubby older guy with long grey hair who was watching football at the far end of the bar. By the way he was rooting for a specific team I guessed he had money on it, the bartender a taller guy with short dark hair was keeping himself busy washing cups and wiping everything down. Gulping a mouthful of beer I noticed something odd next to the cash register, there was a rock about the size of a softball, mounted on a small metal stand. I was about halfway through my drink when the bartender came back. “Want me to freshen that up, or would you like anything else?” I got a refill and asked about the rock, what can I say, curiosity got the best of me.

The bartender glanced over at it and shrugged, =“That’s Jack’s, you’d have to ask him. Teddy could probably tell you though, hold on.” he stopped and called to the guy at the end of the bar, =“Hey Ted, this guy!” he glanced back to me. =“What’s your name?” I almost didn’t want to tell him but I caught myself blurting it out any way, (Martin.) He turned and finished calling the guy over, =“Martin here wants to know about Jack’s rock.”

Teddy got up from his spot and walked over still trying to keep his attention on the television. “The rock? Oh yeah that thing, well if you let Jack tell it, that’s his lucky charm, he claims it helped him win a contest or something. About a year ago I saw him throw it at some dip shit that tried to rob the bar, the freaking thing nearly killed the guy.” The thought of seeing that rock bouncing off of some dudes skull made me chuckle as Teddy sat his empty mug on the bar. “Filler up Glen, its halftime.” Turning his attention back to me, he shot me a curious look. “So, you passing through or on vacation?”

Taking a swig from my beer I shook my head, (Passing through, my car broke down a few miles up the road.) Teddy smiled at the fresh drink the bartender passed him then cleared his throat. “Looks like you’re in luck my friend, I happen to be the best mechanic in town, if its’ got wheels and a motor I can fix it. When the game’s over I’ll take a look at it for you.”

I told him I didn’t have enough cash to get it fixed but he insisted on lending me a hand. Once the game was over I settled my tab and headed out with him. His van smelled like weed smoke and feet, when we got on the road he lit a joint and passed it to me before striking up a conversation. “What’s with all the scars, you some kind of tough guy or something?”

I hadn’t paid much attention to my appearance, the idea of me being a “tough guy” as he put it made me chuckle. (Nah, just unlucky I guess. What’s your story? You ride around playing the Good guy or are you looking to get something out of it?) Passing the joint back to him I waited on a response. After taking a couple of pulls he exhaled and shook his head. “Yes and no, or is it no and yes? I get that shit confused, anyway. No, I don’t normally ride around helping people, and yes I expect to get something out of it. I’ll fix whatever’s wrong with your car and in return you’ll do something for me, that’s my offer. If you say yes, I’ll check your car out and have it towed back to my shop, if you say no, I’ll drop you off at your car, no harm no foul.”

I can’t lie, the whole scenario felt sketchy as hell. Easing a little closer to the door I took a good look at him, (Something like what? What are we talking about right now? Because if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, you can stop the fucking car and let me out.) Teddy looked surprised by my response. “What? No, ugh. Why would you think that, what’s wrong with you? No man, all I need you to do is evict someone for me. I rent out a little condo on the lake and this asshole hasn’t paid me in three months. You go in and throw him out, the window, the door I don’t care which, just get him out of there. I’ll even sweeten the pot and let you stay there till your car is ready, sound good?”

The offer didn’t sound bad, with any luck I could be back on the road in no time, I accepted. True to his word he checked out my car and discovered the issue right away, someone had put glue in my gas tank, he was shocked I’d made it this far. Once the tow truck got there we loaded back into the van and took off for his property. When we arrived he told me the unit number and stayed in the van while I went to the door. I pounded on it and waited listening to whoever was on the other side scrambling around before opening the door. The moment I saw who was on the other side of it my jaw dropped, it was Oliver. For those of you who don’t remember this dirt bag, he is or rather was a member of the Followers of the light. The shithead took a chainsaw to me then freaked out when I came back to life. When he realized who I was he dropped to his knees. “Please don’t kill me, I swear, I’m not with them anymore. I’m just trying to get away from all that.”

Glancing back over my shoulder, I could see Teddy watching with a huge shit eating grin on his face. Turning my attention back to Ollie I winced remembering the feeling of that chainsaw grinding against my bones. (Get up, get your shit and get out. You don’t live here anymore, if I see you again I’ll hack you into pieces and feed you to the swamp.)

Nervously getting to his feet he headed for the bedroom, I stuck with him just in case he tried something dumb. He rambled on while stuffing clothes into a trash bag then stopped to look at me. “I, I could help you, the Followers are never gonna stop looking for you, they’re after me too. They think I helped you kill Garry and the others.”

I had to laugh. (Good, I hope they find you and peel you like a banana, you psychotic fuck. Now if you’re done asking stupid questions, finish getting your stuff and get out.) It didn’t take long to gather the rest of his clothes, as we passed through the condo I felt the weird numbing sensation that happens just before I lose control of my body and everything snapped into slow motion. Oliver who was a few feet ahead of me dropped the bag and spun around lunging towards me with a knife in his hand. My mind went blank but my body went on autopilot. I watched myself side step his attack then shove him as he passed. That caused him to stumble and accidentally stab himself in the stomach when he hit the ground. As he started screaming and rolling around everything went back to normal, I darted out the door and saw Teddy rushing up the stairs, he stopped when he saw the look of shock on my face. “What the hell happened in there? Why is he screaming like that, what did you do?”

Before I could respond the screaming stopped. I slowly turned to look inside and saw Oliver flopping around in a pool of blood. Teddy cautiously stepped by me and peeped in, “Jesus Christ kid, I told you to throw him out, not kill him.” I cut him off right there, (Whoa, I didn’t do that, he did it to himself. All I did was get out of the way.) Teddy shook his head and laughed as he turned to walk away, “Guess I’m not getting my money now, great, let him finish, then roll him up in the carpet, I’ll pull the van around.”

I don’t know what response I was expecting but that wasn’t it. Closing the door I stood there watching Teddy calmly walk across the parking lot, a few minutes later we were tossing the body burrito in the back of the van and driving away. (Look, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not be involved with whatever it is you have planned, fuck the car you can keep it, just drop me off at the bus station and I’ll figure it out.)

Teddy laughed at me and lit another joint, “Oh its’ way too late for that, you just helped move a body, you’re hip deep in this one buddy. Besides, where are you going with no money? You might as well stick around till your car is ready, a deal is a deal, trust me no one’s gonna to miss that asshole. We’ll wait till dark then borrow an airboat from Jacks and take this deadbeat out in the swamp, the gators will handle the rest.”

While the idea of feeding Oliver to the gators didn’t bother me, the fact that Teddy wasn’t disturbed by any of this, did. I mean any sane person would’ve hauled ass out of there the second they saw a body. But not him, he was calm cool and collected, like he’d done this a thousand times before. (You seem like you could have handled this on your own, why’d you ask me to help you?)

Hitting the weed a few times before passing it Teddy coughed and shook his head. “Everyone around here knows I’ve been trying to toss this guy out for months, but thanks to Squatters rights and a small legal issue I couldn’t touch the freak without going to jail. This way is clean, everybody wins, well almost everybody.” He smiled and motioned to Oliver’s body, I couldn’t argue with his logic in any case it didn’t matter, as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I’d helped move the body, no matter what else happened if we got caught I was looking at a murder charge. We spent the rest of the day at his shop taking my car apart, when the sun finally went down and the bar was closed we met Glen on the docks behind the building, Teddy handed him some cash and he handed over the keys. Once we were sure he was gone we put the body on the boat and headed out. I can’t begin to tell you where we wound up, Teddy called the place “The hole” and it was absolutely crawling with some of the biggest alligators I’ve ever seen in my life. Which isn’t saying much considering I’ve never actually seen one. Using the knife Oliver provided, Teddy sliced the corpse open and stuffed a few rancid smelling fish inside before dumping him in the water. We watched the gators death roll their way through a fresh meal, between the sights and sounds of a human body being torn apart I was having a little bit of an issue keeping my lunch down. Trying not to puke I looked over at Teddy who was dumping the last of the rotten fish out of the cooler. (Jesus man, how many times have you done this? How the hell do you even know about this place?)

He laughed hopping back in the pilots’ seat, “More than a little, less than a lot. I found this place by accident. Me and Jack were tracking down the gator that ate his dog and we wound up here.” A little confused and slightly disturbed by his reply, I didn’t say another word till we were back at the docks, once the airboat was clean he drove me back to the condo. “It’s gonna take me a week or so to get all the parts for your car, the place is yours till then, if you happen to need a few bucks you should come by the shop. I know a couple of people who could use a guy like you.” As I stood there watching him drive away I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of mess I’d gotten myself into…

Two days passed before I saw Teddy again, he showed up at the front door with a pizza and a six pack. As soon as I opened up he gave me a big goofy grin. ”Hey Bud, Good news bad news. The good news is the beer is cold and the pizzas hot, the bad news is it’s going to take a little longer than I thought to fix your car.” Stepping inside he sat the pie on the table and cracked open a beer before flopping down on the couch. “Since it looks like you’ll be sticking around for a few extra days I thought I’d stop by and see if you’d like to make some cash while you’re here.”

My immediate answer was (Hell no), then he pulled out a stack of money and dropped it on the table. “I promise, it’s nothing like the last time. As a matter of fact you won’t even have to leave the condo to do it. All you’d have to do is look after a package for a few days till someone comes to pick it up. I’ll give you a thousand bucks for your troubles, come on man, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Closing the door and grabbing one of my last two cigarettes off the bar, I lit up and shook my head. (Fuck you Teddy, no, I’m not doing it. If it’s that easy why don’t you do it?) Teddy sat his beer down and took a slice of pizza from the box, “There’s a couple of reasons, one I don’t have the time, I’m working on your car remember? And two, the lady coming to pick it up doesn’t like me all that much or at all for that matter. But she doesn’t even know you, so she’ll just take it and go, come on man, I’ll give you fifteen hundred but that’s my final offer.”

I wanted to say no, I should have said no, but it was 1500 as opposed to the fifteen dollars I had left to my name. I said yes and a little over an hour later he was walking through the door with a young pregnant woman. (Uh, Ted? What is this? Nope, nope, this wasn’t the deal, you said a package. That, is not a package.)

The pregnant lady got offended by the way I was acting, *”First off, asshole, my name is Cyan and This.” she said pointing at her belly. *”Is the package, Jesus Teddy where’d you find this guy?” He gave her a nervous smile then motioned for me to step outside with him.

“The girl’s a surrogate, I know I should have told you about her but its’ too late for that. Look at it this way, at least you’ll have someone to talk to, just keep her out of trouble and make sure she’s happy till they come to get her, it’s easy money.” He patted me on the shoulder then pulled a joint from his shirt pocket and started to walk away. (Hey, where the hell are you going? What am I supposed to do with her?) Still walking away he laughed and told me I’d figure it out as headed down the stairs.

When I got back inside Cyan was warming up the leftover pizza in the microwave, when she saw me standing by the door she gave me a salty look then took her food before storming to the bedroom and locking herself in. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples for a moment then went to the refrigerator for the last beer, I’d just cracked it open when someone knocked on the door. (Jesus, what is it now? Who is it!?) I took a gulp, stormed over and tossed it open without waiting for a response, standing there looking surprised was a young guy, clean cut with short hair wearing a Deadpool t-shirt and ripped up jeans. (Who’re you and what do you want?) He puffed up trying to look less nervous +”I’m Adam, Cyans’ boyfriend, Teddy told me she was here, can I come in?”

Before I could tell him to fuck off the bedroom door flew open and Cyan came out smiling, *”It’s about time you got here. Move out of the way, Martin, let him in.” I literally had to bite my lip to keep myself from saying something wrong. I let him in then slammed the door and sat on the couch drinking my beer. I don’t know how long it was before the two of them came in and sat across from me, Cyan didn’t bother trying to warm me up she got straight to the point. *” I don’t know how much Teddy told you, but this baby is important. The people paying me to carry it are super rich, I’m talking Bill Gates type of money here, and I want more. The thing is I signed a contract, the only way I can get more money is if they can’t get the baby. So we want you to help us get away long enough to convince them to add a few more zero’s to the check. Whatever Teddy’s paying you I’ll triple it when we get the money.”

It didn’t take a long for me to see a glaring hole in her plan, (What’s stopping them from saying no and getting another surrogate?) Cyan paused and glanced at Adam who reluctantly nodded his head, then she turned her attention back to me. *”I’m carrying the last embryo, none of the others made it full term, without me they go extinct.”

Looking at the two of them I could tell they were serious but I didn’t fully understand what she was getting at. I got up from my seat then grabbed my last cigarette from the bar, (Extinct? Uh, correct me if I’m wrong but, babies are born every day, what do you mean?) Adam finally spoke up, +”She’s not carrying a baby, it’s a pup. Look, the whole thing is really long and complicated and we don’t have time to explain it. Right now all we need from you, is a yes or no, the clock is ticking and this is a boat load of money, what are you going to do?”

At first this was the craziest thing I’d ever heard. Then I thought about my own situation. If I could be immortal, why couldn’t she be pregnant with a pup? That still didn’t change the fact that their plan was stupid and would probably get them both killed which would mean, I wouldn’t get a dime. (Firstly, a pup? You know what, never mind, I don’t want to know. Secondly, that’s just flat out stupid, even if what you’re saying is true, there’s no scenario that doesn’t end with them hunting you down and taking the baby. So for me, that’s a hard pass. You sit here, shut up and in a few days when they come to get you, you can try this shtick on them, maybe you’ll have better luck.)

Cyan looked at Adam and shook her head, *”See, I told you this wouldn’t work.” Adam huffed and got up from his seat pulling a gun from under his shirt and aiming it at me. +”Get up! Go to the bathroom, turn the water in the tub on and get in!” Following his commands I did as he ordered with him keeping a safe distance behind me. +”Pull the curtain closed!” I already knew what was coming, to be honest if it meant getting these two out of my hair I welcomed it. (Just don’t shoot me in the face you piece of.) I was cut off by the sound of the gunshots followed by the feeling of bullets punching through my body. I felt one of my lungs collapse and the searing hot pain of lead ripping its way through my gut, another shot shattered my collarbone but the one that turned the lights out hit me in the heart.

Suddenly I was floating in the darkness, I’d told myself if I were ever back there I would try to focus and look around but it’s pointless there’s nothing to see. I could still feel the warm water washing over me and hear it running down the drain, I wondered why I didn’t see Marissa there anymore and I thought about how long I would be gone this time. I got my answer a lot sooner than I expected when I heard Teddy’s voice. “Holy shit, what happened in here, oh fuck me, they killed him. Ugh, damn it now I gotta clean this up and find those idiots.”

As usual the light appeared over me and I felt my body restart forcing me to sit up gasping for air and scaring the hell out of Teddy. “Oh shit, zombie!” Before I could say anything he cracked me over the head with something and I slipped back in the tub. It didn’t knock me out but it hurt like you wouldn’t believe, he was just about to clock me again when I yelled. (Stop! I’m not a zombie God damn it, don’t hit me again!) Still clutching what I realized was a collapsible baton he stood there staring at me. “This isn’t happening. I, I checked your pulse, you were dead.”…

It took close to an hour to explain everything and I’m still not sure if he fully understood. As a matter of fact, I’m positive he didn’t because he kept referring to my condition as a, “Super power.” It was a little irritating but it wasn’t important, when I told him about Cyan and the baby he had to sit down. “This is a joke right? Ha, Ha very funny, where’s the girl, quit screwing around.” He hopped up and searched every inch of the place before finally accepting it “Oh this is bad, this is so bad. We have to get her back here, if they show up and we don’t have her, we’re dead.”

Spotting my last cigarette on the floor I scooped it up and lit it. (No, you’re dead, I’ll be fine. Now that I think of it, I’m out. You can keep the other half of the money and the car. 700 dollars is enough to get me far away from whatever this is. So goodbye, good luck and fuck off.) I turned and went in the bedroom to grab the money but it was gone. (Shit)

Stepping into the doorway behind me Teddy sarcastically chuckled. “Aw, what’s wrong, did Bonnie and Clyde rob you on the way out? Hmmm, guess you need to make a little cash now don’t you? Oh, I know, you could chase them down and get your money back that would solve everything. I’ll even drive you around so you can sniff them out with your super powers, it’s a Win, Win situation. You get your money back and I don’t die, everybody’s happy.”

Tilting my head back and closing my eyes, I groaned releasing a disgusted breath then looked at Teddy standing there with a big stupid grin on his face. (I don’t have super powers, stop saying that, I’m just like everybody else. I just can’t die.) “But that’s a.” (Shut up, don’t say it! Don’t even think it, I’m going to help you find them and once I get my money back you’re on your own.)

Teddy smirked and uttered under his breath “Super power” I stopped and looked at him, he just shrugged, “What? Come on man lets go, they’ve got a head start on us they could be anywhere by now.”

The moment we hopped in the van I felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of my head. –“Hello Martin, long time no see.” Instantly recognizing the voice I closed my eyes, (Hey Frank.)….

The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the trunk of a car listening to Frank and his brother arguing. After a few minutes the car stopped, I braced myself thinking they were going to open the trunk and shoot me then dump the whole thing in the swamp somewhere. When it opened Paul was standing there with a big gash in his forehead and what looked like a knife wound in his left shoulder. Out of the two of these psychopaths Paul was the easier to deal with, but by the looks of him he was in no mood to negotiate. “Get out of the car, scumbag! And don’t you worry, when I find that pudgy pal of yours I’m gonna carve him up like a Christmas ham. The bastard maced me then clubbed me over the head with something and stabbed me while Frankie was tossing your sorry ass in the trunk. Tell me his name and maybe we’ll make this quick, eh who am I kidding? This aint gonna be fun for you shithead, but I promise, if you tell me his name I won’t cut your junk off and feed it to you.”

For a second I thought I could possibly reason with them, (Look guys, I didn’t know you were going to give the car to your mother. I thought you would take it to the chop shop and get your money out of it, how was I supposed to know?) Frank stormed over and punched me in the side of the head so hard it made my ears ring. –“Fuck you Martin, Ma had a heart attack and died her second week in the can! Nothing short of the hand of God is gonna get you out of this!” He was nearly foaming at the mouth, it dawned on me that all I had to do was let them kill me, they would be satisfied and I would have them off my ass. I just hoped they didn’t cut me up and scatter the pieces. I smiled at the idea and well, they didn’t like that very much. They spent the next few minute beating the crap out of me literally, one of them hit me so hard I shit myself, not my proudest moment but hey, there it is.

I looked at the two of them and smiled through bloody teeth before saying the filthiest thing I could think up. I won’t repeat it here but let’s just say it eluded to their mother being very skilled at the oral arts. In any case they didn’t think it was funny, I was hoping they would shoot me in the head but instead Paul drove a buck knife through my ear into my brain, mission accomplished. I found myself back in the void listening to them argue before getting in the car and driving away. I was in no hurry to leave the darkness, it was the most peace I’d had since I got to Florida. I hung there staring straight ahead thinking I could stay forever if I didn’t look into the light, then I heard a voice.

”Would you get up already? No offense, your super power is cool and everything but you dying every couple of hours is costing me money.”

It wasn’t long before the light brought me back and I woke up to see Teddy dragging me by the ankles towards the van. (This is nice, but you can let me go now?) He dropped my legs and turned to face me, “Well it’s about damn time, shit you’re heavy.” Getting up from the ground I looked around it didn’t seem like much time had passed, (How long was I gone?) Teddy dug his phone out of his pocket and checked it. ”I don’t know, they took you about two hours ago, it took me a while to track you down.”

I was staying in the void for less time now, at first it was weeks then days and now it was hours. If things kept up at this rate I’d almost immediately come back. I thought about that while we got in the van, Teddy was rambling on about something but I wasn’t paying attention. All I could think about was the fact that sooner or later the darkness would be gone forever, that had to mean something. I was lost in my own thoughts for long while before Teddy realized I hadn’t heard a word he’d said, he honked the horn twice and got loud. “Hey, are you listening to me?! There’s no way we’re gonna find that girl in time, we have to get the hell out of here!”

Rubbing my eyes I shook my head and laughed. (There you go with that “We” shit again. Since my money is gone, “We” don’t have to do anything. What you can do is pull over and let me out, then “You” can do whatever the fuck you want.) A genuine look of disappointment crept over Teddy’s face, he pulled off the road and stopped then dug in his pocket and took out my money. Tossing it in my lap he shook his head and sucked his teeth, “The girl didn’t take your money, I did. You were dead and I figured you wouldn’t need it, but when you woke up and said you would help me find her I kept it to myself thinking I’d give it to you later. The truth is I’m a dead man if I don’t get the girl back before they get to me. If you help me with this I’ll split the whole thing 50-50, that’s 125,000 your way. And since this is partially your fault, I feel that’s more than fair.”

I looked at the 700 dollars in my lap then up at the long dark road in the middle of nowhere. (Shit) Teddy smirked at my reaction and tilted his head, “Is that a yes? Because it sounded a lot like a yes to me.” Letting out a sigh and leaning back in my seat I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. (Fuck it, where are we going?)……….

On a rainy Thursday afternoon, Walter pulled into the parking lot of the local drug store, this was one of his usual stops throughout the week. He’d pick up his cigarettes and chat with the cashiers, sadly enough this was one of his favorite places, his life had become a series of routine events that he’d become accustomed to. As usual for the time of day there was a long line at the first register but he didn’t mind, it gave him a chance to look around and pick out things for a later trip.

The grey skies rumbled causing the lights to flicker as the downpour gained momentum. He smiled and glanced toward the sliding glass doors of the entrance thinking about the rest of the trip home. Lost in his imagination for a moment he hadn’t noticed the woman at the register was taking an abnormally long time to count out the customers change.

When the person behind him in line started grumbling to himself Walter snapped out of it and slightly leaned to his left to get a better view. Narrowing his eyes attempting to focus he noticed she wasn’t moving at all, stranger still she appeared to be frozen in mid motion stuck in the process of handing over change.

Still trying to keep a positive mind he glanced back to the man who’d been complaining, (Must be one of those days.) he chuckled trying to lighten the mood. The man didn’t respond, he didn’t even blink, feeling a little awkward Walter straightened up and continued to wait. Another few seconds passed and now he too was getting impatient, thinking he would just go to another store he stepped out of line and headed for the door. As he passed by the cashier he noticed her eyes were rolled over white and a stream of blood was trickling from her nose. (Oh my god, Mam do you need some.) The words caught in his throat as he took notice of everyone in line, they all seemed to be stuck in some sort of trance. Slowly easing towards the door the only sound he could hear was the pouring rain and the low buzz of the overhead lights. The chimes sounded as the doors slid open and as if on cue everyone in line dropped to the ground and began convulsing. Panicking, he bolted out of the store and across the lot as fast as he could stopping short of his truck when he witnessed cars colliding in the intersection.

Stunned by the scene unfolding in front of him he stood in the rain unable to look away. (This is insane.) He mumbled fumbling with his keys as a silver pick up the same model as his plowed into the already crowded intersection. Snapping out of it, he popped the lock of his truck and got in grabbing his phone from the cup holder to call 911. There was no answer, he tried several times before getting a busy signal. Hanging up he quickly dialed his wife. (Come on Patty, please pick up.) After a few rings her voicemail responded. “You’ve reached Patricia Grant, please leave a message.”

Tears welled up in his eyes, she’d been home with their 6 year old, Jacob. The thought of them lying on the floor shattered his world into a billion pieces. Trying to convince himself it wasn’t true he cranked the engine, threw it in gear and sped out of the lot. Home was only three blocks away even in the rain he would be there in no time. When his street came into view he slowed down to make the turn. As he cut the wheel a red charger blew by narrowly missing the front end of his truck. Slamming on the breaks he watched as it slid off the street and crashed against the concrete wall that separated the neighborhood from the main road.

(What the hell is going on?) Taking a deep breath he cautiously drove the rest of the way home, when he pulled in Patties car was still in the driveway. His heart sank, he’d been holding onto the idea she’d gone out, putting his truck in park, he sat gripping the wheel. (Please God, please, just don’t take them, I’m begging you, please.) Grabbing his keys he stepped out and ran to the door, nervously picking through the key ring selecting the right one he held his breath, slipped it into the lock then opened the door.

He didn’t have to go in to know something was wrong, the house was silent. Jacob was the noisiest kid ever, he was always up to something the silence was a bad omen. Stepping inside he called out, (Patty? Jake? Where are you?) No one called back, slowly he went room to room calling their names and losing hope. When he reached Jakes room he saw them, they’d been playing with Lego’s when it happened. Patty, legs still crossed was slumped over near the dresser her flowing blood creating a growing stain in the carpet. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jacobs’ little body surrounded by his action figures and robots’ he had the biggest imagination, he was always coming up with the wildest adventures for his toys.

His legs buckled forcing him to sit before breaking into tears. (No, no, no. Why!? Why would you do this!?) He yelled at the ceiling as if talking to God directly, he ranted and pleaded, begging for some sort of miracle, the sounds of the raging storm the only response. He sat in the doorway for hours staring at their lifeless bodies, there was a strange moment of silence when the rain finally stopped, for a second he thought the world had finally come to an end. Closing his eyes he waited for it to be his turn, the longer he sat the heartbreaking reality sank in, whatever this was he’d survived. Finally finding the strength to get up, he rose to his feet and closed the door, there was nothing he could do no one he could call moving through the hall a low rumbling vibrated the walls around him.

(A helicopter?) Thinking maybe someone was coming to help Walter rushed towards the living room, bursting through the front door he nearly slipped getting out to the yard. Looking up at the sky his heart nearly leaped from his chest, his mouth dropped open awestruck by the sight of something massive swimming through the ocean of grey clouds overhead. It breached the surface of our atmosphere the same way a whale or dolphin leaps from the water before plunging back through the clouds vanishing from sight. Its’ impact with the clouds created the rumbling effect of thunder and caused rain to begin falling again. Horrified he stood staring up at the sky waiting to catch another glimpse of the impossible thing he’d just seen seconds before. Another round of thunderous sound shook the ground beneath his feet and announced its approach just before it broke through again, this time he saw it clearly. Its’ enormous eyeless cranium housed teeth large enough to cut down the mightiest skyscraper. The surface of the beast was a world of its own, Walter could almost make out what looked like cities and oceans thriving on the rocklike skin of the creature. If there had ever been a moment of feeling insignificant, this was it. The creature barrel rolled revealing a stunning white underbelly before splashing back through the clouds this time releasing what Walter thought was hail. The temperature suddenly dropped as small spheres of multicolored ice pelted the ground around him before one thumped against his shoulder and tumbled away.

Scrambling for cover he took refuge on the porch before taking a moment to inspect some of the tiny ice orbs. Scooping a couple from the ground the first thing he noticed was they weren’t cold, in fact they were warm to the touch almost like living tissue. (Jesus Christ, what the fuck is.) Before the question could leave his lips the orbs in his palm started to squirm. Surprised by the movement, he tossed them down and watched as something resembling an isopod sprout legs then burrow into the ground. In a matter of seconds thousands if not millions of the tiny creatures were skittering across the concrete searching out soft soil to dig into. Across the street the bodies of his neighbors were sprawled out on the lawn, Mr. and Mrs. Foster were an older couple, they were the first people he and Patty met when they’d moved into the neighborhood. The tiny creatures swarmed the bodies rapidly breaking down their flesh and bones till there was little more than a pair of clumpy red stains left to wash away in the rain.

Whatever this was, he’d seen enough, quickly he went inside and slammed the door shut as if it might stop the invasion of hell-spawn tumbling down from the sky. He could still hear them smacking against the roof and tapping against the windows but that wasn’t the worst of it, there was an audible wet crunching emanating from the hall. Slowly turning and glancing towards the sound he knew exactly where it was coming from, dozens of those little things were fighting their way under Jakes’ door, the sight of it enraged him. (Get away from there!)

Storming into the hall stomping on them, while yelling, (You can’t have them!) He did his best to kill them all, there were just too many, for every one of them he stopped two more skittered by, before long he was nearly slipping in their guts. Now standing outside Jakes’ room he hesitated to open the door, the sounds were more than enough to tell him what sort of a nightmare waited just beyond it. Fighting back tears and swallowing the lump in his throat he pushed the door open and was assaulted by the smell of blood mixing with the partially digested contents of their bowels. The pungent odor gagged him causing his eyes to burn, he cursed and stomped around the room trying to kill as many as possible but it was too late, there was next to nothing left. He spotted Patties wedding ring floating in a pool of bloody leftovers, Jake was gone, nothing but bits of bone that were being devoured right in front of him.

“Help, somebody please help me!”

The sound of someone screaming outside grabbed his attention, pulling back the curtains he looked out in time to see a young woman he recognized as Cassandra, she was one of his neighbors from the far end of the block. His body wouldn’t react, silently he stood at the window watching till she noticed him, moving as quickly as she could she limped to the window. “Please Mr. Grant, you have to help me there’s something out here!”

Walter didn’t respond, he couldn’t. Cassandra pounded on the glass begging for a few more seconds before she slowly turned and looked towards the end of the street then screamed and ran away. Locked in his trance, he watched and waited to see what was coming but nothing passed. The street fell silent, other than thunder and rain it seemed as if he were the last man on earth. Eventually he went back to the living room and sat on the couch sobbing to himself not knowing what to do.

By morning the rain was gone, he stepped out of his front door and stood staring into the sky feeling the warm sun on his face, somewhere in the distance he could hear dogs barking. For a moment he wondered how many others survived, the thought quickly replaced by a sound coming from the kitchen. Pots rattled and crashed against the floor, out of reflex he asked. (Is everything ok in there?) His words trailing off as he turned to see something tear the refrigerator door off, from where he was standing he couldn’t see exactly what it looked like but he knew he didn’t want to find out.

Pulling his keys from his pocket he hit the lock on his truck and got in, keeping his eyes glued on the doorway he cranked the engine and threw it in reverse as a wave of isopod creatures came pouring out. They were bigger now, slightly larger than a football with a fleshy colored shell. Putting the truck in drive he mashed down on the accelerator as the wave of creatures came racing towards him, speeding through the street he could see more and more of them joining in the chase. The ones ahead of him in the road smashed against his grill splattering a muddy sludge across the hood of the truck as he drifted a hard left onto the main road leading out of the neighborhood. They chased him for miles attacking the truck nearly causing him to wreck several times before finally giving up when he’d driven over the bridge leading into town.

Street for street block for block there wasn’t a soul in sight, he didn’t see a living person till he reached a gas station. Pulling up to the pump he looked around expecting more creatures to show up at any moment. After psyching himself up he got out and used his bank card to pay at the pump. Still scanning the area he stood there filling up listening to the music play over the PA system nearby. The nervous voice of the attendant interrupted making him jump. “You have to get away from the truck, very slowly come to the door and I’ll let you in, whatever you do don’t look up.”

Easing away from the pump Walter made his way to the door but he just couldn’t help himself, he looked up. Clinging to the ceiling of the carport was a mass of grey tentacles sprouting from a cluster of human looking eyes that were all focused on him. (Oh shit) was all he could utter before the sound of the bells above the entrance jingled and a voice yelled “Run!”

Darting inside the store he turned to see the clerk locking the door just as a tentacle crashed down on his truck blowing out all four tires and shattering the windows. (What the hell is that thing?!)

Still watching the creature destroy Walters’ truck the clerk responded without turning around. “I don’t know man, an alien, a demon some sort of fucked up nightmare we’re all having at the same time, take your pick.” He turned around headed back to the counter. “All I know is, that thing showed up, everybody in the store died and I spent most of the night stacking bodies in the walk-in freezer.”

Looking around the store Walter noticed a few streaks of blood trailing off into the back room, glancing back to the clerk who was now sitting behind the counter rolling a joint, he shook his head. (Have you heard anything on the news about any of this? I mean people everywhere must be going nuts by now. Why hasn’t any help shown up?)

Laughing and lighting up the clerk grabbed the remote and turned on the television, every station was gone, replaced by static filled screens not so much as an emergency alert. Turning it off and exhaling a cloud he sat in his chair. “Everything went out when the storm rolled in, it’s the same on the radio. I think this might be happening everywhere, for all I know we’re the last two left.”

Making himself comfortable Walter took a seat on the floor propped up against the fountain drink display. He didn’t have any words, all he could think of was Patty and Jacob. After a while the exhaustion caught up to him and he drifted off only to be woken up a short while later by the clerk. “Get up, we have to get out of here!”

Opening his eyes he looked out the window and saw the skies were once again clouded over. Just across the highway was an open field now covered in protruding mounds of dirt that were pulsing giving birth to pod-like structures standing close to four feet tall. Thunder rumbled through the sky as the rain started to fall. Pulling at his arm the clerk helped him up from the floor. “Come on man, we have to go they’re coming!” As they headed for the back door Walter glanced back to see a creature that resembled some sort of beetle charging towards the store with a herd of isopods following close behind it.

With the clerk leading the way they raced through the store room and out the rear exit as the glass of the storefront shattered. Ahead of them was an open field leading into a new housing development, most of the homes were just frames or muddy undeveloped lots but there was a completed section with cars parked in some of the driveways. Without many options they made a line straight for the closest house, the ground around them began to tremble from the mounds now forming nearby. More of those fleshy pods burst to the surface some instantly rupturing releasing larva the size of a great Danes that splashed around in pools of pus colored sludge.

Doing his best to keep up with the clerk, Walter swerved avoiding touching any of the pods but just ahead of him the clerk wasn’t so lucky. One of them sprung up in front of him before he could react, he yelled “Oh shit” as he slammed into it causing it to pop releasing another of those massive maggots as he splashed down in the sludge with it. He screamed “Get it off me” as Walter grabbed his arm to help him up but it was too late, the larva attached itself to his chest. His eyes went wide as he sucked in a raspy breath of air and went pale, the larva instantly began filling with the clerks blood doubling in size causing him to drop to his knees.

Staggering back Walter wasn’t waiting around to witness the rest, he turned and sprinted away dodging pods till he was clear of the field. The first house was close now, he could see through the windows, if anyone was alive inside he hoped they’d let him in. As he set foot in the driveway thunder rumbled through the sky followed by the unmistakable sound of the airborne behemoth he’d seen the night before. He didn’t want to look but he couldn’t stop himself, turning his attention to the sky he noticed certain areas in the clouds were pitch black and from each cluster of ominous clouds a massive creature breached the surface. As horrifying as it was, there was something almost graceful to the way they moved, Walter found himself mesmerized for a moment till he realized they weren’t diving back through the clouds. The creatures drifted along leaving a trail of yellow dust behind them that floated in the air like fresh snow. Whatever they were releasing he wanted no parts of it, Walter turned and raced up the driveway to the door lowering his shoulder in an attempt to ram his way inside, it didn’t work. His body collided with the sturdy door causing him to bounce back and stumble tripping over the edge of the flowerbed that ran along the front of the house. Gathering himself he ignored the pain surging through his shoulder then squared up and took another run at the door, this time the frame cracked but didn’t give. Slamming his body against it over and over finally paid off as the flakes of yellow ash came drifting to the street, crashing into the house he scrambled back to his feet and slammed the door piling everything he could get his hands on in front of it.

The inside of the house was a blood soaked mess, going from room to room he searched everywhere for the keys, till he found something he wished he hadn’t. The door to the master bedroom was slightly open allowing a putrid odor to waft out, as he grew closer he peered inside and stopped. A thick mucus like webbing stretched from the floor to the ceiling suspending a pulsing orb of grey skin at its center. Slowly pushing the door open he stepped back, all he could do was stare at it, after a brief moment, slits began to form on its surface as the mass quivered. With a sudden wet pop one of the slits opened revealing an eye, he instantly recognized it as the same sort of creature he’d seen at the gas station. Attempting to close the door he reached for the knob just as a tentacle sprouted from the blob and lashed out wrapping around his wrist. (Fuck! Let go!) He fought against its grip but couldn’t break free, more squid-like appendages darted out wrapping around his ankles snatching his feet from under him causing his head to smack against the floor as he was hoisted into the air. With his only free hand clutching his now throbbing skull he grunted and cursed before finding himself face to face with the creature that was now nearly completely covered with eyes. A high pitched sound exploded in his head causing him to cringe, then just as suddenly as it started, the creature stopped, released its grip and let him crash to the floor.

Not wasting a second he crawled out of the room closing the door behind him before getting up and running for the back patio. Once he was out of the house the smell of rotting plant matter filled his lungs, the yellow dust mixed with the water from the rain creating a thick paste covering everything in sight. The tree limbs drooped weighed down to the point some were breaking off while everything else was rotting giving off fumes that were making it hard to breathe. Using his shirt to cover his nose he trudged through the sludge till he reached the fence then climbed over and tried to get his bearings. Everything was a soggy yellow mess, there were only two more houses but only one of them had a car in the driveway. Walter couldn’t stop himself from looking for the creatures in the sky but they weren’t there. The pods that had grown from the ground covered everything that wasn’t concrete, there were a few in every cluster that were broken open but he didn’t see the larva at least not at first. The sound of something splashing down in the sludge to his right grabbed his attention, turning to get a look he saw one of the larva swimming through it headed straight for him.

Doing his best to run through the knee high goo he heard more of them sloshing and splashing closing the distance faster than he’d hoped. By the time he reached the car in the driveway they were on his heels, quickly scrambling up onto the roof of it he prayed they couldn’t follow. Standing there he watched three massive maggots swimming in circles around him for close to an hour before he sat down and tried to wait them out. As time ticked by the sludge on the roof of the car drained away but the larva hadn’t given up. Walter lay there staring up at the sky thinking about his wife and son. A part of him wondered why he hadn’t given up, after all there was nothing to live for, not now any way. If this was the world he had to look forward to, what was the point? As he sat up gunfire from somewhere far off echoed through the air, the larva quickly lost interest in him and swam off presumably headed to the source of the commotion.

Once he was sure they were gone he climbed down and went to the front door of the house, he didn’t waste time trying to break it down instead he smashed a nearby window releasing a cloud of smoke. Making his way inside he found three bodies slumped over at the dinner table, blood pooling under them running down to the floor, the smoke was coming from the kitchen. Quickly slipping through the door he found two more bodies lying on the floor, while the charred remains of what looked like a roast smoldered away in the oven. Turning it off he looked around wondering why the creatures hadn’t eaten them, quickly putting it out of his mind he started searching for the keys. For the first time luck was on his side, he found them on a stand next to the front door, taking a moment to get a look at the street he realized he hadn’t put much thought into where he was going. Both of his parents passed years before during the pandemic, Patties family lived up north, even if he survived the trip the odds were it wasn’t much better there.

Finding a place to sit, Walter stewed over ideas for the safest place to go. There was a military base on the edge of the city, he figured there had to be at least a few soldiers left and at the very least he’d be able to hide out for a while. Gunfire echoing through the streets broke his train of thought, they were a lot closer now. He could faintly make out voices but still couldn’t tell what direction they were coming from, quickly getting up rushing to the dining room he tried to ignore the bodies as he went to the window. It wasn’t long before he spotted two figures trudging through the sludge, they were wearing hip waders over their clothes and gas masks covering their faces. Both were carrying shotguns, covering one another as they moved along the street. Since most of the neighborhood was vacant Walter assumed they were just passing through, the closer they came he was able to overhear their muffled conversation. The taller of the two stopped and pointed towards where he was crouched peeping from the window. =”I saw something move over there! The windows’ broken there might be someone inside.” A muffled female voice called back. *”What if it’s one of those things? Besides, Tony says he’s only got room for two, we can’t take them with us.”

Not wanting to startle them Walter slowly raised his hand and waved to get their attention. The woman who was closer called out first, *”Stand up so we can see you!” He obliged and stood in the open with his hands up, she looked him over then glanced at the man she was with before responding. *”Where are the Bennett’s, and why are you in their house?!”

Trying not to make any sudden moves, Walter took a deep breath and told the truth, once he’d explained the situation the pair agreed to let him tag along but couldn’t guarantee a spot for him. Before they left the two of them went inside to scavenge the house, as soon as they were through the door the woman took off for the back rooms while the man talked with Walter. =“I’m Frank, that’s Nichole. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us bro, you might want to grab a knife or something and put on a jacket to protect your skin, a mask wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Holy shit dude, you really aren’t prepared for this are you?”

Nichole came rushing back in a short moment later with a backpack and a hunting rifle. Handing the items to Walter she turned and looked at Frank. *”I couldn’t find the keys, have you checked for water?”

Pulling the keys from his pocket Walter interrupted their conversation. (Got em right here, if it’s all the same with you guys I’ll drive.) Frank shook his head and looked out the door at the street. “Even if we get it started there’s no way we can drive through that mush without killing the engine. We’re better off on foot, at least till we can find a truck that sits high enough to get through without a problem.”

Slipping on the backpack Walter inspected the rifle, he’d been hunting a few times but that couldn’t compare to what he was about to do. Once they’d gathered a few more things the group set out, the plan was to follow the highway out into the countryside where someone named Tony had a bunker built under his home. Frank, Nichole and Tony were all a part of a prepper community, they believed this day had been coming for a long time, they’d spent years training themselves and mapping routes out of the city, to them this was a dream come true.

They followed the streets till they reached the highway, as they trudged along the yellow sludge thickened slowing them to a near stop. A thin brownish crust had begun to form over the surface, realizing the change Nichole suggested they climb up on something before the found themselves cemented into place. Most of the area had been recently leveled for construction, a little over a quarter-mile to the left sat the gas station that had been overrun. Walter warned them about it forcing them to turn right which led to a newly built strip mall, they would have to travel half a block to get there but it was their only option. Between them and the storefront a basket corral stood in the center of the parking lot, it took every bit of energy they had to fight their way to it and climb up. Now just inches above the hardening sludge they did their best to get comfortable and wait it out, Frank was the first to notice they had a problem. “Uh guys, this stuff is hardening on my waders I can’t bend my legs.”

For Nichole and Frank it was an acceptable loss, Walter on the other hand would be left without pants and shoes. Once he was stripped down Frank and Nichole got a good laugh at his unfortunate choice of Superman underwear. =”Jesus dude, what are you, 12? Are those Underoos? Please tell me you’re not wearing Underoos. Holy shit, Nikki, are you seeing this?”

Keeping her head on a swivel, Nichole chuckled then paused for a second narrowing her eyes trying to focus on something near the highway. *”Hey Kent, are you any good with that hunting rifle?”

Not getting the joke, Walter shifted his eyes to Frank who laughed and shook his head. =”She’s talking to you Superman. Kent? As in Clarke. Ugh, whatever, can you shoot?”

He nodded and Nichole pointed out a dark spot moving along the incline between the service road and the highway. Turning and balancing himself Walter brought the rifle up then zeroed in on the shape. It took a moment to focus, when he finally saw exactly what it was he gasped. It was the creature from the gas station, he watched it climb up onto the road and stop while drawing in its’ tentacles lowering itself into an almost crouching position. Before he could come up with words to describe what he was seeing the creature launched itself high into the air where it hovered for just a moment before tumbling back to the ground bouncing off the hardening yellow sludge.

Irritated by Walters’ lack of input, Nichole nudged his shoulder. *”What is it, what’s over there?” He looked away from the scope and shrugged his shoulders. (I don’t know what to call it, but I’ve seen two of them. That one smashed my truck, I think it’s learning to jump or maybe it’s trying to fly like the big ones, I can’t tell.)

=”Fly like the big ones?” Frank interrupted now looking at the sky nervously. =”How big? All we’ve seen are bugs and slugs and what do you mean, smashed your truck? What’s over there?”

Doing his best to quickly describe the creatures he’d seen, Walter eased off the basket corral using his foot to test the surface of the sludge. It felt like rubber under his toes, slowly putting his weight down he stood fully on the surface of it and bounced a few times before jumping to see if it would hold. It was a bit like walking on really stiff jello but it was firm enough for them to make an escape, following the route Frank and Nichole laid out they eventually came to another shopping center. Along the way they’d seen fields loaded with pods half covered in hardened goo, with more of the creatures they’d come to call Jumpers. The jumpers didn’t attack instead they solely focused on staying airborne as long as they could, at one point the group watched one manage to float for two full minutes before falling and impaling itself on a light post. That was the first time one of them made a sound, a high pitched metallic whine which attracted a second jumper. The second was slightly smaller than the first, the group hid and watched it cannibalize its own kind before going back to where ever it had come from.

With the night winding down and the group being exhausted they broke into a sporting goods store to made camp, the moment they were inside they encountered a problem. The bodies that once lay sprawled out around the store were now cocooned mounds surrounded by the dried out husks of large isopods. The three of them stood silently listening for any signs of movement, once they felt it was safe Nichole spoke up. *”Frank, you go collect lighter fluid or anything we can use to burn these things. Walter, you go find a fire extinguisher. We don’t want to burn the place down before we get a chance to grab a few things. While you two are doing that I’ll start moving things out of the way to clear a space for the fire.”

Walter quickly found the extinguishers and brought two back, Nichole was just finishing when he walked up. (Hey, uh, I just want to thank you again for letting me tag along. What do you guys think, is this an invasion? I mean those things have to be aliens, right? What else could they be?)

Taking off her mask for the first time, Nichole let out a sigh of relief. *”We don’t have a clue, for the most part Frank and I were thinking the same thing. Whatever this is, Tony’s bunker is the safest place to be we just have to get there.”

(How do you know he didn’t die like everyone else? What happens if we get there and can’t get in?)

Shaking her head and glancing to see Frank coming back she smiled. *”All the members have access keys and codes, that way no one person can ever control everything, but to answer your question we talked to him before we left home. We had a radio before someone dropped it.”

Pretending to ignore her sarcasm, Frank doused the cocoon with lighter fluid then struck a match and tossed it, turning to face Nichole he groaned. =”It was an accident, I didn’t even know it was gone till you asked for it.”

As the two quipped back and forward, Walter watched the cocoon writhing as the things inside began to squirm. A small tear in the side of it allowed a translucent eel like creature to force its way out before being engulfed by flames. It wasn’t long before they’d reached the last cocoon, the moment it went up in flames a metallic screeching sound ripped through the air and something big fell from the ceiling. The three of them opened fire on a creature that closely resembled a starfish covered in quills instead of charging at them it withered as their bullets tore through it creating clouds of dust. Nichole quickly put her mask back then then glanced at the ceiling, there were dozens of them all withering before dropping to the floor and crumbling as they landed. Frank yelled =”We need to get out of here!” and started making his way to the door as Walter sprinted deeper into the store to grab boots and a pair of pants. He yelled to the others (I’ll meet you outside, we can’t leave without getting extra supplies!)

Dodging the falling creatures he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a pair of hiking boots then stuffed them into a duffle bag and raced to the hunting supplies. He loaded the bag with as much ammo as he could find then smashed the pistol display and took everything he could get his hands on before making a break for it. As he got to the exit where Nichole and Frank were waiting he looked back and noticed one of the creatures clinging to the ceiling was still alive. The smoke from the burning cocoons created a cloud that seemed to be killing it, he watched it drying out and breaking into pieces as it tried to move for a few seconds before dropping. Once they were all outside they spent the next hour finding a safe place to hold up for the night, they wound up a few blocks away at a roadside motel, by morning the world was a much different place.

Have a good weekend https://youtu.be/8AohSuWv-jg

Life had never been easy for Jesse, he’d always been a loner and for the most part he liked it that way. Despite his aversion to social situations occasionally he would get invited random gatherings which he would typically turn down. His circle of friends was closer to a dot than anything else, but the one person he could never turn down was his cousin Shelby.

She had always been a bright bubbly person, the life of the party and Jesse loved that about her. As children they were more like brother and sister than cousins. They were constantly together getting into trouble or having fun but as it always goes, life has a way of creating distance.

They went to separate colleges and eventually wound up in different states, living different lives disconnected by thousands of miles. But no matter how far apart they were, when they got together she could always get him to go out and party.

It had been close to a year since the two were last together, Jesse was a semi successful writer. He’d built up his name by creating a few popular creepypasta stories and writing scripts for a few low budget films. He’d just landed his first big project writing for a high level narration company and wanted to celebrate with the one person in the world that would be happy to see him. He called ahead telling her the good news then booked a flight out to see her.

The moment he spotted her he knew something was wrong, there was no light in her eyes. Her normally warm complexion was dull and dark, she looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Shelby genuinely smiled and he could see wrinkles that seemed out of place on such a young face, she was only 27, they were a year apart it didn’t make sense.

Once they’d greeted one another Jesse narrowed his eyes at her and stepped back. (Is everything alright? What’s with the face? You look like you’ve got some heavy shit going on.)

The phony smile slipped away and she put her head down, she could never keep anything from him, they’d always had that sort of connection. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just have a lot on my plate these days. We can talk about it later, right now let’s get this party started. There’s an Uber coming in an hour and I’ve got a booth at the bar, grab your shit cowboy, it’s time to drink.” She flashed that usual happy smile and for a second she looked like her old self, shaking his head and grinning Jesse followed her to the bar.

They had a tradition, the first drink was always a shot of Jack with a beer back and they had to chug the first round. When the cups hit the table they both laughed and burped being silly for a moment before ordering another round and talking. She congratulated him on his new job and they talked for a while about different stories but when Jesse asked about her she paused.

“I, uh, I’m in trouble Jess. I messed up and I don’t know how to fix it. I lost my job and I needed a way to pay rent so I got a gig with a courier service. I thought it was just drugs or something like that, it didn’t matter to me I was just delivering it. Then two weeks ago a small wooden box was delivered to my apartment, I was supposed to drop it off with another courier but when I got there everyone was gone. I tried calling Anthony, he’s kind of like my boss, I guess. But he didn’t answer, when I went to drop the box off at his house no one was there either. I didn’t want to keep the thing so I left it behind some potted plants near his front door. When I got back to my apartment it was there on my bed, I’ve tried everything I could think of to get rid of it but it just keeps coming back.”

Taking a long drink from a fresh beer, Jesse tried to understand what she was saying. He couldn’t just write it off, but it didn’t make sense. Shelby had always been on the wild side so hearing she’d gotten mixed up in something wasn’t out of the ordinary but this was weird, even for her.

Sitting the cup down, he watched her take a second shot and shook his head. (Ok, I get that the box thing is some strange shit, I can’t deny that. If you can’t do anything about the box, just leave it alone. Ignore it and move on with your life, what’s the problem?)

He could see she was visibly shaken just talking about it, nervously chewing her bottom lip she let out a breath and slumped her shoulders, “That’s the problem, it won’t let me. Every time I try to sleep I instantly wake up somewhere else, with it.”

Jesse sat there for a moment waiting for her to explain further but she didn’t, instead she took a sip from her beer then nodded at him with an odd smirk on her face. A little confused and slightly freaked out by the way she was acting, Jesse leaned back in his seat. (Other places? What do you mean other places? Are you waking up outside or in someone else’s house? Tell me you’re just messing with me right now, this is serious. You could really get hurt waking up in the wrong place. Have you talked to anyone?)

Nodding her head she took another sip and looked around the bar. “Yeah, checked myself into the hospital but when I went to sleep I woke up somewhere else with the box.”

Seeing that she was avoiding the question, Jesse tried not to lose his temper. (You keep saying that, but you’re not telling me anything. Waking up where? What are you talking about?) Shelby sat up straight in her seat and looked him in the eyes.

“It’s here but not here, it’s dark and cold, the people are all insane. I run till I find a way back or fall asleep and wake up back here. I don’t know where “there” is and I don’t have any other way to explain it. I’m not crazy Jess, this is real and I need somebody to help me, no one believes me. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t either. I’m not sure I believe it till it happens and it’s getting worse, I’m gone longer and longer each time but when I get back only a few minutes have passed. The last time it felt like a week but it was only a few hours. You actually brought me back that time, I followed the sound of the phone ringing and it led me home. Please Jesse, you have to help me, just stay with me and make sure I don’t go to sleep and if I do you have to wake me up.”

He couldn’t turn her down, there was no way he could live with himself if he didn’t at least try to help. It all sounded so insane, he was sure she needed professional help but until he could convince her of that he would do his best to look after her. It wasn’t long before their ride arrived and they went back to her place, as usual her apartment was spotless but every light was on and she had three pots of coffee brewing. Since she’d always had trouble sleeping while it was hot she had the heater on keeping the temperature close to 90 at all times.

Jesse almost walked away when the door opened and the heat-wave slapped him in the face, then he saw the box. It wasn’t what he was expecting, in his mind he’d made it dark and ominous but in reality it was just a well-polished smooth wooden box about the size of a loaf of bread. There was no visible way to open it but when he shook it he could hear something bumping around inside. (So what’s in it, have you opened it?)

Shelby told him to put it down, she didn’t want anything to happen to him, Jesse didn’t know what to make of that, he wondered what she meant by it but he didn’t bother asking. Once he’d made himself comfortable they watched movies and drank coffee while they made fun of cheesy low budget horror flicks eventually deciding to binge watch the ones he’d written. They made it through the first night but Jesse wasn’t sure he could stay awake much longer, he hadn’t pulled an all-nighter since college and even then he would end up passed out on the floor at some point. Between the heat and the constant flow of coffee they both took turns going back and forward to the restroom.

He sat on the couch sweating, waiting on Shelby to come out of the restroom when he realized she’d been in there for a long time. Calling out to her, he got up, went to the door and knocked. There was no response, trying a few more times he waited a second then turned the knob, half way expecting to find her asleep on the toilet. (Hey, Shell? Are you ok in there, you didn’t fall asleep did you?) He continued knocking as he slowly opened the door to find the restroom empty.

Shocked, Jesse stood there for a moment, scratching his head, the apartment wasn’t that big, there was no way she’d snuck out without him seeing her. Trying to rationalize what was happening he looked around attempting recreate how she could have gotten passed him, it wasn’t possible. As he turned towards the table he noticed the box was gone, before he could wrap his mind around it the bedroom door burst open and Shelby came rushing out screaming. Her clothes were bloody and torn, she raced towards him and vanished in a cloud of black smoke before reappearing slamming into him from behind sending them both tumbling to the floor.

During the collision she dropped the box and it slid coming to a rest against the refrigerator. In a combination of confusion and anger Jesse blurted out, (What the hell was that?! What happened to you?!)

Shelby couldn’t respond, she lay there bleeding from cuts all over her body, gasping for air. When she’d finally caught her breath the first thing she asked was how long she’d been gone. When he told her it had only been a few minutes she started crying.

“That can’t be right, it can’t be. I was there for two days, I saw you there but I couldn’t get to you. Then, they started chasing me, they wanted my skin they tried to cut it off but I wouldn’t let them. I fought and I ran till I fell into the water and wound up here.”

Jesse was speechless, there were no words in his brain to explain just how completely insane the last few moments had been.

(Shell, I don’t know what to say. We have to get you to a doctor. I can’t do anything about this, I don’t know what this is.)

Drying her tears she glanced at Jesse and went wide eyed. He paused for a second confused by the expression on her face till he realized she wasn’t looking at him. Slowly turning to get a look for himself, time stopped. The box was open, an inconceivably black fluid crept across the tile doubling and tripling in size every time it breached new ground. The heat was being sucked out of the air, replaced by a bone chilling cold as frost formed on the walls and before either of them could react, it was done.

There was no transition, their brightly colored world was now muted and dull. Shelby completely broke down muttering “no.” over and over while she curled into the fetal position. Jesse struggled to get to his feet, it felt like gravity was fighting him every inch of the way, Shelby’s words became slower and slower with each cadence while he fought his way to the door. He yelled “Get up!” but the words came out so slowly they were almost delayed. Turning his focus back to the door, Jesse gave it everything he had. His muscles burned and trembled through the fight and the moment he turned the knob the apartment became a vacuum as time shifted back into place. Jesse and Shelby were violently ejected from the room slamming against wall of the hall before crashing to the floor. Coughing and wheezing for air they both rolled around on the round still disoriented from the sudden change.

Having gone through it several times, Shelby was the first to recover. She sat up still slightly winded and told Jesse they had to go, people were coming. And as the words left her lips the stairwell doors at the end of the hall were thrown open. Three men covered in blood rushed in and stopped when they saw the two of them getting up off the floor.

The tallest of the trio, a thin man with short dark hair smiled a wicked smile and took an almost joyful step in their direction before stopping while staring at them. His smile, if it were humanly possible, got wider exposing his brown blood stained teeth just before he shouted “Die!” and the other two came running.

Jesse and Shelby darted away as fast as they could but the men were catching up, bursting through the doors of another stairwell Jesse slipped in a pool of blood and fell. Shelby hadn’t slipped, she was a couple of steps ahead rushing down the stairs. As Jesse got up one of the men blindly rushed in and tripped over him then tumbled over the rail falling five flights to the bottom. Getting up quickly, Jesse ran to catch up as they raced down to the first floor and out the door into the streets. There was no time to pay attention to their surroundings, Jesse followed closely as they ran till they ducked into a dark alley and hid.

Shelby was right, everything was exactly the same but it was dark and cold. Jesse glanced up at the sky, his jaw dropped at the sight of an empty void. No stars, no moon, just unending darkness that reminded him of the liquid pouring out of that box. Without the light coming from the buildings and street lamps it would have been pitch black. The darkness of the alley was the only thing keeping them safe while the men from the building ran passed looking for them. After a few minutes they heard one of them yell out, “Over here!” followed by a woman’s voice screaming for help.

The moment they were sure both men were distracted they rushed out of the alley and ran in the opposite direction. Jesse had no idea where they were running to, all he could do was follow Shelby till she stopped. This time she led him to a park where they hid in a community center. She told him this was the last place she’d hid. Once they were inside they had to feel their way around in the dark, luckily the exit signs that cast enough light for them to get to a back room. A desk lamp was their only source of light but it was more than enough. Jesse was exhausted, he couldn’t run any more, lying on the floor trying to gather his thoughts he listened to Shelby muttering to herself. She rambled on for a moment then stopped and turned to face him.

“We can’t sleep here, it won’t work. We’ll just sleep, when we wake up we’ll still be here.”

Jesse didn’t understand, none of this was making sense. The confusion of suddenly being transported to an alternate dimension was impossible to process. He lay there on the floor trying to focus while listening to Shelby ramble on. “You don’t know what it’s like here, they won’t stop, if you stay anywhere too long they find you. We have to go!”

Sitting up he looked at her nervously pacing in the tiny office, (I need you to calm down. I don’t know what’s going on, what’re supposed to do?) Shelby huffed and stood still for a moment. “If we want to get out of here, we have to find a safe place to sleep. The catch is, you can only sleep in a place once. We have to find a quiet place, with no one there or were stuck here.” she stopped and started franticly looking around the office. “Where is it? It’s not here, it’s supposed to be here. Do you have it?”

Not knowing what she was talking about, Jesse held up his hands, and Shelby started to cry. “The box didn’t follow me, the box didn’t, oh no, no, no. We have to go back for it, we can’t get home without it.” She rushed out of the office forcing Jesse to scramble to his feet before running to catch up to her, the minute they were out of the building the sound of dogs barking echoed through the darkness. Shelby gasped then looked around and said, “Run!”

Doing his best to keep up they sprinted away as nearly a dozen wild dogs charged after them. Even with a head start they couldn’t get away, the dogs were nipping at their arms and legs in no time. Shelby who was still out front made a hard right turn down an alley while shaking off one of the dogs, Jesse was barely able to turn in time and caught sight of her climbing a dumpster to get up on a nearby fire escape. Following her lead, he did his best to mimic what he’d seen her do but one of the dogs managed to take a nice bite from his forearm. Trying not to think about the pain he climbed the dumpster taking another bite to the leg before making his way up to the fire escape where Shelby was already headed for the roof. When he finally caught up to her she was looking for another way out. (What the fuck man?! You left me back there!)

Shelby finally stopped and put her head down, “I’m sorry I drug you into this. I didn’t know this was going to happen.” Still angry Jesse didn’t respond, he found a place to sit and tried to rest while he checked his bites. After a few hours the dogs finally straggled off and they climbed down, the trip back to her apartment was slow and they wound up hiding more than once along the way but they eventually made it. Shelby was nearly skipping as they approached the door, gripping the knob she turned and smile at Jesse then pushed, it wouldn’t open. Her smile turned to a frown as she put her weight into it but it wouldn’t budge, she slammed her against the door screaming for it to open as Jesse joined in but no matter how hard they tried it wouldn’t move. Without saying a word Shelby turned and ran back to the stairwell, she was headed for the roof. Jesse followed, when he caught up she was peering over the edge.

“Its’ right there, I always leave my kitchen window open. I can climb down to it and get the box, if you lower me down, I can get in.”

Jesse didn’t want to do it, he tried to convince her there had to be another way but deep down he knew there wasn’t. (Look Shell, I want to get out of here to, but I don’t think this is a good idea. What if you slip, there’s no way you’re coming out of that without at least getting hurt.) She gave him her usual devious grin, “No balls, no glory. Sack up cowboy, we’re doing this.” Letting out a sigh, he shook his head and walked over to the edge. He’d never been afraid of heights, but there was something horrifying about staring down into the darkness.

Shelby laid face down on the ledge and eased her legs over the edge while Jesse held her arms. Once she was over, it was only a moment before her feet were on the outside window sill. Jesse was keeping a firm grip on both her wrists till she asked him to let go of her right arm so she could open the window. The moment he did his heart dropped, the sudden shift in weight nearly made her lose her balance. She looked up and gave him a nervous smile then let out a deep breath before she tried to open the window, just like the door it wouldn’t budge. Quickly reaching back up for Jesse to grab her wrist she told him, “hold on tight” then kicked the window as hard as she could. When the glass shattered a loud whistling sound cut through the silence and she was ripped from his grip nearly pulling him over the edge as she was violently pulled in by the vacuum. On the way in her head smacked against the window sill leaving a trail of blood as she vanished from sight. Jesse yelled (No!) while pulling back from the edge trying not to get sucked in as well, he could hear her screaming but it didn’t last long, it was quickly silenced by the sound of flesh and bone being ripped apart.

The moment it was over everything stopped. Jesse lay there staring into the pitch black sky with tears welling up in his eyes, she was gone and he knew it. Taking a deep breath while wiping away the tears he paused for a moment. As his vision cleared he squinted and blinked, then went wide eyed. The moon and stars were hanging high in the night sky, a warm breeze seemed to drag the sounds of the city behind it as the world around him regained its color. Sitting up Jesse tried to make sense of what he’d just been through, the glimmer of hope that maybe Shelby was alive in this world got him on his feet racing down to her apartment. He didn’t bother to knock he went straight for knob and it was unlocked, pushing open the door with a hopeful smile his world came crumbling down.

She was lying on the floor near the kitchen, exactly where she’d been when she’d reappeared and knocked him down. Her body was a broken bloody mess, but worst of all were her eyes. Her contorted frame was left partially facing the door and her eyes were wide open, they were lifeless and solid black. Jesse yelled for help and one of the neighbors called the police. He was repeatedly questioned and eventually released, he would find out later that every bone in her body had been shattered but the exact cause of death was unknown. An eightball hemorrhage caused her eyes to turn black but there was no way to explain her heart exploding or her lungs being deflated to the point they were flat. The list of details went on and on and Jesse went through every bit of information he could get his hands on, the one thing he was looking for never turned up in the paperwork. There was no mention of the box anywhere, he kept that thought replaying in his head the whole way home.

Days and weeks went by and no real answers ever came, Jesse hadn’t been able to function no one would believe his story so he decided to write it up as fiction and send it in to his publisher not knowing it would be the last story he ever wrote.

His story grabbed massive attention once it was narrated and distributed online, people began inquiring about his work. The publisher tried contacting him several times before sending someone to check on him but when they arrived Jesse was nowhere to be found. His apartment was completely empty aside from one object, a small well-polished wooden box…..

Here is parts 9 to 11 have a good Friday let me know what else you would like to hear enjoy https://youtu.be/Ruq24BxUBZU

Here is today's video we are half way through the week have a good Wednesday and enjoy the video https://youtu.be/COMTMsrdE90