Mr. Black
“Take my hand.”
Was the first thing I ever heard Mr. Black
say. I’ll never forget how deep and distant his voice sounded. With blurry
vision, I looked up at his shadow from the cold, hard ground and whispered,
“What happened?”
“I knocked you out. How are you feeling?”
“Umm, I feel okay considering.” I said,
“Where am I? What do you mean, ‘knocked me out’ was there an accident?”
“You are where I bring all of my… for a
lack of better words, victims.”
By this time I couldn’t even move. All I
could think was, what the fuck is going on? I was having an okay day before
waking up in this bright shit hole of a place.
“I assure you, you’re not a victim, as of
right now, and I don’t have any plans on making you one if you do what I need.”
He said directly into my eyes without blinking.
I sat up, put my hands over my face and
started to rub my eyes. I’m not sure what he knocked me out with. I wasn’t
bleeding, I didn’t have a bump, I just was out of it. I did get a Coke from the
gas station, but I don’t remember him being in there. I would have noticed him.
He is a very tall man. Black styled hair, like he was from the 40s. Very slick
and proper looking. Wide shoulders and long arms. His grey eyes would look
right through you and see you for what you are. I still get chills when
thinking about him looking at me like that. He wanted something, and nothing
was going to stop him. I feared for my life for the first time. All I could
think at the time to ask was…
“What is it that you want, sir?”
“Want? Hell, I want a lot of things,
little man. What I don’t want is to
go to prison for a very long time. I say long time because this state doesn’t
believe in the death sentence; so I’d rot for sure.”
The state he talked about is California. I
looked around while we was talking and noticed a table with something hanging
off of it.
“Listen, I need to leave town and require
help finishing a few details of my plan so I can get the fuck out of here
without any issue. Will you help?” Mr. Black asked.
My eyes focused on the table and realized
the bloody, boney legs hanging from under a cloth. I shot up, got under my legs
and shagged ass as fast as my foggy brain would let me. Every turn I ran into
brick walls. Rooms flooded with light like mini surgical rooms. Each room had
tables in them with clothes covering something. Fuck, I thought my heart was
going to explode until I felt Mr. Black kick my foot from behind me and I
tripped over my own foot.
“You’re one fast son-of-a-BITCH!!! You saw
more than I wanted you to, but that’s okay. You run again and I will cut your
feet off. Do you understand me, little man?”
I still don’t know how he caught me. Yea,
I was out of it, but never thought someone as big as him would be able to keep
up. I told him I wouldn’t run again and he took me to the open area. By this
time I was clear headed and found out I was in a storage unit lot. 10 units on
each side of us, all full of… nightmares.
“Are you listening, Kid?!” Mr. Black
yelled.
“Yes… sorry.” I said looking up at him.
“You scared of that body under the cloth
over there?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to be a bloody piece of shit
under one of my clothes?”
“No.”
“Do you want to get out of here today and
be home in your warm bed by tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Good. And you will be. The cops are on my
trail pretty closely; too close for comfort. I normally can control the
outcome, but I’m not sure about this time… I need to leave and start over. What
I need you to do is help me get this place ready to blow up.”
“Blow up?! I don’t know anything about
bombs!” I yelped.
“You don’t know shit, that’s why I chose
you. Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt your elder? Shut the fuck up and
listen. I already rigged the place, I just need help hanging this guy and
making it look like he killed himself. I got the idea from my brother. He used
to do that to his victims. So this guy is a John Doe I picked up, the cops will
assume I killed myself. They don’t have any DNA from me, and this guy is a
ghost; they’ll be okay just to go with it to close the case and move on with
their lives.” Mr. Black said.
“Okay, I’m ready to get this over with. I
just want to go home.” I said. What else could I say? I was ready to get safe
and call the cops when I was able to. We hung the guy, cut his throat after we
hung him for overkill. “What now?”
“I am going on my merry way. You just have
to do one more thing.”
“…”
“Go
in each unit and turn the levers to release the gas before you press that
button next to the body… oh, and try to make it out alive. It’s going to happen
very quickly after that button is pressed.” Mr. Black said with a smile.
And he walked away. He thought I wasn’t
going to make it out alive. He destroyed these bodies, but kept each room
perfectly clean. The last room I went into was a makeshift kitchen. I think he
was eating them. I went to the body after each lever was pulled and pressed the
button and ran as fast as I could to the back of the lot. There was a RV I could
hide behind. I barely made it. As soon
as I got it to the RV, everything was on fire, including me. I got to the other
side of it and rolled around in the sand until the fire was out. I never felt
so much pain in my life and was thankful for it. I loved the pain in that moment,
because it meant I made it; I was alive and free.
So, that’s my story. I know it is hard to
believe, but it’s the truth.
“I don’t believe a word of it. Each room
his prints and hair are all over. No one else was in that storage besides the
defendant. You are a sick individual, sir, and I sentence you to death by
lethal injection.” The Judge said.
“We don’t have the death sentence in California,
your honor.”
“No, but Nevada does, and that’s where a
few of the victims were from. Now get out of my sight.” The judge said with a
blank expression.
I
guess I am one of Mr. Black’s victims after all.
The End
