The Dark Place

The Dark Place: Part 1.......Oh And Comments and Critiques would be very much appreciated

It was one of the coldest January nights I could remember. It felt like deaths icy breath blew out every trace of heat from this bastard city, but still, I'd rather have it colder then a witches tit than to feel what I can only describe as the suffocating boiler room heat of 1000 furnaces that was this past summer. Mother Nature was a hot headed angry lady that season. Now she's just a relentless cold hearted *****. So why did I decide to walk the four blocks to the Ladder tonight? My local bar, a **** hole bar, but it's my **** hole bar maybe it's just a random act; maybe I just needed to clear my head and think; doesn't matter I'm nearly there anyway.

My name is De'marco Silver, 32 year old college dropout artist wannabe. My life is not a pleasant tale, hell its not even interesting, just filled with emptiness, but at least I got Cindy my girlfriend. For the last 2 years she's been just about the only good thing about me since I hit rock bottom; she keeps me going and I love her for it. I get about 25 feet from the Ladder when my cell phone rings. Caller id says it's sweetheart it's Cindy, love of my pathetic life; it's always good to hear her voice when I'm down in the dumps. Except for this time. She tells me it's over, says she needs more stability in her life and wasn't getting it from a drunk starving artist. I don't say a word; I just hang up cause she's right. I've been coming to the Ladder day In day out for the past 6 years and as far as stability goes im as stable as a new born baby on 50 foot stilts; she's right she's better off with someone else.

I walk into the Ladder and it's busier than the usual Wednesday night, but at least there's still some bar stools open. I sit down and Jess already knows the drill. She slides me a double of that honey moonshine I like straight up; along with a frosty, glistening pitcher of brew and a bowl of the salted peanuts she keeps under the bar for regulars like me. The moonshine warms my insides like liquid fire and the beer mellows out the heat with its cool barley flavor and I'm feeling a little better. I finished off my second pitcher and hear a voice say "buy you another round?" "Just as long as it's not roofied" I reply half drunk. "Ah com'on D Mac you know I don't need to use that ****; besides your too ****in ugly." D Mac? I haven't been called that in years I look up with drunk eyes to see my old buddy Anchor. Anchor was a nick name he got back in high school because of the popeye looking anchor tattoo his cousin gave him on his forearm back in the 11th grade and the name just stuck with him ever since. His real name is Felix Martin jr son of one of the richest men in the city Felix Martin sr all because of his fountain of youth cream he invented . Not sure how it works but he's rich for it.

So I have a few more drinks with Anchor and we get to talking about the past 6 years and I give him all the details since, well since I'm pretty hammered. He tells me if I need some work he's looking for a graphic designer to join his team to promote his new fitness venture. He hands me a business card and tells me to call him in the morning when I sober up and he leaves. I fumble with getting the card in my wallet, pay my tab to Jess and start walking home. I get about halfway back when I start throwing up a river of beer, moonshine and peanuts next to a wall with a sign reading "Dark Place Apartments" I close my eyes and open them to a dark room hand tied behind my back to a chair and a little girl staring me in the face and says "Welcome to my home for sinners, how would you like a job??"...

The Dark Place: PART 2:

"How would I like a job?" "Yes" she says. "Well sounds good, but I'd like it even more if I wasn't tied to this chair." She tells me she can't do that and I ask why? She says I have to agree to help her out before she lets me go. I ask how long have I been here and she replies 3 days. "Three days!?" I say. "For one you've been holding me against my will for the past three days, which is illegal and your just a little girl, what kind of job could you possibly offer me?" She says "For one I'm not a little girl and second I need residents to fill the unoccupied units." "Ok so your not a little girl, rrriiiightt. So What kind of place is this that you would need to kidnap a grown man to help you fill empty apartments." She says "I told you its a home for sinners. This city is filled with them. I need my units to be filled just like this city is. Do you accept my offer?" "And how would I go about doing this?" I ask and she replies "All will be realized once you accept." "And if I refuse??" "Then you'll stay here with me till the end of time."

So naturally I say "fine I'll help you out, but can you turn on the light I can barely see anything". She agrees and the light comes on and I say "You still look like a little girl to me" she looks at me with a twisted smile and says "I'm much older than I look." "Whatever" I say. "Now can you untie me?" And with the same smile she says "It's already done" and my hands are free. She tells me that all I have to do is see the sinners and she'll do the rest. I ask "How do I know which are sinners and which aren't?" And she replies "I'll mark them for you" I ask her "why do you need these people?" With the same smile she says "That's for me to know" at that moment the lights flicker and she's gone like smoke in heavy wind. The lights flicker again and I'm back outside, next to a sign that says "Never Forget Apartments."

Two weeks later I call up Anchor for the graphic design job and he asks where have I been? I just say it's a long story; I'm not even sure what happened myself. So the next day I'm on my way to Anchors place downtown nearly forgetting about my experience when I come to a red light and see a familiar figure. It's that little girl and she's standing at the cross walk. No way I say to myself it can't be, so I drive past her and get a couple blocks up to where Anchors place is and I see her again only she standing next to a man in a suit holding his hand at the corner of the crosswalk and now this man is covered; more like shrouded in a blue light. The light turns green for the cross walk and they both start walking in front of my car. I close my eyes thinking no way and when i open them again she's gone and the man is by himself still shrouded in blue. Just as he's passing my car I look in my rearview mirror and get smashed from behind by a taxicab. Hitting my head against the steering wheel and It forces me forward hitting the man and dragging him twenty feet underneath the chassis of my car. Dazed by the impact I look into the mirror again to see that little ***** in the passenger seat of the taxi smiling with that twisted smile of hers as if she's pleased. A crowd starts to gather around the wreckage and I know that man is dead. At that moment I get a text from an unknown number saying "one unit filled, fifty one more to go"...

The Dark Place: Part 3

It's been nearly a year to the date since that little, that little...that little whatever she is caused the accident that took the first ones life. And there's been one every week ever since that time. Like some sort of doomsday alarm clock that gets reset every time another life gets snuffed out to snooze. And every single time she's been there, watching every killing with that twisted smile of hers. I tried to avoid going outside for awhile, but then there she was, in my head, in my mind, like a bad song that kept repeating itself over and over again. There was no escape until I fulfilled our agreement.

48 deaths to count and every single frightened face still rattles around my brain in their last moments of life. I don't know which is worse. Is it the fact that I was responsible for their deaths or was it the fact that I actually started enjoying it. Something's wrong with me. I shouldn't enjoy watching these people die, I know it in my heart, but every time they die I get slight satisfaction from it. Men, women, children, rich or poor; it didn't matter to her, in her twisted vision they were all sinners and if they were marked I did my job.
After I got outta the hospital from the first accident something in me changed, I know it now. I felt it like a jagged blade in my spine. I tried to ignore it, but it felt so good, euphoric in a way. Then suddenly I felt that my life wasn't so sad and pathetic. I felt power, unstoppable power and I wanted it to continue. The 10 deaths that followed the first we're not my doing directly, but every other death was. 37 killings by my hand and she was pleased. Some were what the news called freak accidents others horrific murders. Trains, poisonings, tragedies, accidents and the unexpected, the unexplained, but I knew the truth. I was doing a service, a job, my job; a job that only I could do.

That morning I start my day of as usual. I showered got dressed and brush my teeth. Then I drove down to the Extreme Beagle shop and pick up a bacon egg and cheese beagle with a large lemonade for $10.95. Well worth the money. I started walking out the door and I see that little girl outside the shop. She was marking a young woman that was holding the hand of her daughter as she was bouncing a super ball. Then she looked right at me with that smile of hers and my job was clear. I walk outside the shop and walk towards them as the little girl bounces the ball that gets away from her. I caught it before it went into the street and brung it back to her and said "be careful, we wouldn't want you running out in the street for this." She let go of her mothers hand as I handed it back to her and says thank you. I say no prob. At that moment a bicyclist rides past and snatches the moms purse dragging her into on coming traffic. Cars swerve to avoid hitting her and I pull her out of the street just in time. She thanks me saying "if it wasn't for you she would've been"...Bam!!! A truck holding sheet metal hit a light pole that comes crashing down on top of her. The pole crushes her, but some how she's still alive. I watch in shock and amusement while the little girl thrust her face into my leg away from the horrible scene screaming "MOMMY!!!". Desperately trying not to watch her mom struggling for breath reaching out for her. This young woman at the prime of her life. What sins could she have committed to deserve this, this erotic death, this death that I helped to achieve? She reaches out and mutters "ssSSaarahh ssSSaarahh" and the light leaves her eyes. I try to hold back my smile. Then I get a text message that says 49 units filled 3 more to go.

The Dark Place: PART 4

The next week feels all to familiar, like a not to distant memory, déjà vu In a sense. I find myself walking down to the Ladder for a drink during one of the colder lip splitting nights. As I walk through the door i see Jess doing her usual at the bar and notice it's busier than the usual Wednesday night. As I walk to the bar a notice her talking to an even more familiar figure. Its Cindy, my ex girlfriend, love of my not so pathetic life. She's sitting at the bar having a sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist, her favorite; I never truly understood why she like that terrible drink; maybe I'm just too accustomed to a good brew. I haven't seen or much less even heard from Cindy since that night one year ago when she broke up with me. Yet and still I smile as I see her, as if she was still mine. I want to walk up to her, but what would I say? What would she say? Why the hell is she even here tonight? Doesn't really matter I guess. It's been a year and this is my **** hole bar and I'm just here for a drink. I make my approach to the bar when I hear "Ai D Mac!! Is that you?? I turn around and see Anchor walking towards me form the bathroom. What's he doing here? I think to myself. He walks up to me and asks "What happened to you man? You never came by to see me for that job?" And I say "Ah, yeah well, I got into a car accident that day and just, kinda been busy after that" "Oh you working now??" He says. I replied with a slight smirk "You could say that" "AWESOME" he says quite loud and I could tell that he's well into the night already. Com'on over and have a drink with us. "Us??" I say "Who's us???" He says "Me and my fiancé.

"Oh here she is. Cindy this I my buddy De..." "De'marco!!" She says cutting him off "Oh my god, how long has it been?? She hugs me as if nothing changed and it felt so good to feel her to touch her again. "It's been about a year" I tell her as she slips away from me. "Wait you two know each other?" Anchor asks. I say "You can say that." We walk back to the bar; I sit down and Jess already knows the drill. She slides me a double of that honey moonshine and pitcher of brew, along with a bowl of those salted peanuts. 2 hours go by as we chat it up on this years past events and I find out that Cindy and Anchor met each other a little more than a year ago. Coincidentally just before she decided to end it with the drunk starving artist for some one who had more stability in life. I couldn't sit there and listen to all the joy she's had since hooking up with Anchor. Plus my bladder felt like a full water balloon that had just been punctured by a needle, in other words I had to piss something awful.

As I come back to the bar feeling like I just flooded the sewer system, I look up to see Jess handing Anchor and Cindy another round as they close out their tab only now Cindy and Anchor are shrouded by blue light. I shake my head as if to steady my double vision only to catch sight of that little girl sitting on top of the bar staring right at me smiling that smile of hers and that's when my job is clear. Did they both deserve to die, a question I've asked myself plenty of times before the job was done. I never had to kill a friend before but it's not like he or she really meant anything to me anymore. Cindy love of my not so pathetic life; Cindy, the woman to dump me for someone else with more stability. And not just any someone, a rich someone an old friend of mine. Anchor just a old friend that became more of an acquaintance as time went on. My job is clear.

I walk over to the bar close out my tab and ask them both to walk home with me. They both agree and we all leave together. We get about half way back when Cindy breaks a heel and twists her ankle due to an uneven slab of concrete that throws her to the ground. As Anchor tries to pick her up with drunk hands I notice a sign that says "You're Home Apartments" and the little girl standing right in front of it. Anchor pulls Cindy up and looks at the sign and says "Hey little girl you shouldn't be out here right now isn't it way past your bed time?" A hobbling Cindy follows with "where's your parents, you should go inside." I stand there in shock thinking to myself how can they see her? Whats going on? She walks up to Anchor and takes his hand and says "Welcome back. You're all home now. Sinners.

Both Anchor and Cindy look at her in amazement and she let's Anchors hand go. The screams they both let out will be ringing I my ears for decades to come as their flesh starts falling from their bodies and dissipates before hitting the ground and just like smoke in heavy wind they are both gone. The little girl walks up to me and says 51 units filled, 1 more to go. She smiles with that twisted smile and reaches out for me and says you did a great job De'marco Silver, now it's your turn. You will do well in this city as its new reaper. Welcome back to you're home, The Dark Place and never forget.

At that moment it felt just like last year. I start throwing up a river of beer moonshine and peanuts and fall to the ground and I realized that I never made it home that night 1 year ago. I died committing the most unforgivable sin. An unintentional suicide death by alcohol poisoning. Now this little girl, this angel of death has cursed me with an existence of reaping sinning souls for the rest of eternity. I smile a twisted smile and I am pleased.

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