“Kill, Kill, Kill,” the
instructions snaked through the darkness, beyond a tawny sheet of hair that was
carelessly strewn over a long pillow and into the ears of a sleeping girl. The
hissed directions were barely above a whisper, but loud enough for her to snap
her head up and reveal crystal grey eyes that frantically searched through the
darkness of her bedroom. She knew the words belonged to The Dark One, her
master—the one that directed her to possess, to frighten, to mutilate, and in
this situation, to kill.
Her skin turned alabaster as the
moonlight from the window settled on it. The words came clear into her mind
again and in a poof, she disappeared into a cloud of glistening black dust. She
floated through the walls of her bedroom, over the green of her front yard and
towards an undisclosed location.
She was met by another form—a
glittering black cloud just like her. They didn’t speak to each other, but knew
each other’s presence because they were of the same origin. They traveled
together in the dark of night until they reached a small house that was on a
lonesome cul-de-sac. The disheveled house stood by itself, mounted on the curve
like a dot on an ‘I’. The house was dilapidated and uncared for. The vinyl
siding of the house was covered in dirt causing the house to look dark brown
instead of white it was supposed to be. The dark shutters were askew; some of
them were only hanging on by a lone screw. Panels from the windows were ripped
down and the screen door was shredded.
The two clouds floated through the
front door of the house and revealed themselves on the other side. They floated
past a couch that was completely covered in newspapers and debris, a coffee
table that was piled high with red plastic cups and into a bedroom that was
located down a long, dark hall. Lying on top of a small bed, a hairy man
dressed in a white undershirt and blue boxers noisily slept with his legs
stretched over the sides. His arms were limply lying off the edge of the bed
and his fingertips grazed an empty whiskey bottle. A bottle of pills had
capsized and sprayed small white tablets across the floor near the bottle.
With unsaid understanding, the two
clouds disappeared into the man’s body. From the outside, the man seemed to
sleeping soundly until his baby blue eyes sprang open and he began to convulse.
He flipped onto his back and arched it, spastically deforming his face as he
grasped for breaths. His fingers scratched at his throat as he rolled around
the bed searching for air. He threw his body onto the floor and continued to
convulse, slightly shrieking and bumping around the nightstand that was near
his bed. The man’s eyes were blazing red as the blood vessels in them popped
and exploded over the whites of his eyes. His cheeks turned red and then purple
until finally everything in the house was still.
