God's Gonna Cut You Down

by Eduard Joseph

Matt’s wink – he was just one big cliché on legs. How any woman could fall for him was beyond Eric’s comprehension.

  “I have to process your papers first.” Eric said.

  As Eric turned to leave, Matt grabbed him by the arm, pulled him closer until their faces were an inch apart and then he flashed Eric a seductive smile. He was sure he had Eric in his clutches and was not about to let him go. His charm was sure to get him what he wanted without paperwork.

  “Wait a minute cutie.” Matt said, “Surely you can make an exception for me? Your old pal?”

  Eric was seconds away from hitting Matt with a stapler – if only he had one handy. He just wanted Matt to leave him alone and slipped out of Matt’s grip like a worm wriggling out of a soggy old piece of bread.

  “Fine.”

  “I’ll make it up to you.” Matt said and winked.

  “Whatever.” Eric said with a sigh, “Follow me.”

  He led Matt to the stationary room on the next floor and Matt smiled as they walked. His charm had yet to let him down. He knew Eric lusted after him, that’s why his charm worked and not only was he about to get his requisitioned stationary without paperwork, it made him feel a bit better about the fact that he bombed at flirting on the second floor earlier that morning.

  Elias was relieved that the day was a quiet one. Most of the staff took the stairs without complaining too much and there weren’t any day visitors yet. Day visitors meant completing visitor logs which he hated as he was a slow writer and day visitors sometimes got agitated when he took long to complete the registers.

  As soon as the work day commenced, he called to find out what time the technicians would arrive to work on the elevator. He was told they’d get there just after ten AM. All he had to do was hold out for the technicians – thereafter the rest of the day should be smooth sailing. He glanced at his wristwatch and decided to start his second round seeing that there was nothing much else to do.

  He reached for his radio.

  “Freddie, come in.” Elias said, “How are things out in the parking area?”

  Freddie didn’t respond. Instead, Elias heard an unsettling bang sound over the radio followed by the sound echoing outside. What could it be? It sounded stifled. Did something fall over in the outpost?

  “Freddie, come in.” Elias called again.

  There was no response. It was unlike Freddie not to respond. Freddie took his work serious.

  “Freddie?” Elias called again.

  Something beyond the glass doors caught Elias’s attention; someone was approaching from the parking bay, but he wasn’t sure as to what he was seeing. The figure was still too far away, but as the figure came closer he noticed that the person was wearing a sinister clown mask and had one hand behind his back as he opened the door. Without saying a word, the person strutted towards the reception desk and brought the shotgun into sight from behind his desk.

  Elias stood up and reached for the panic button, but before he could press it the clown cocked the gun and pulled the trigger. Elias’s head shattered into a mush of brain matter and skull fragments that spattered against the wall and blood spurted as his lifeless body fell to the floor. Blood gushed out from his neck and formed a pool around the corpse that still baulked on the floor.

  The clown stood for a moment with the shotgun still raised and watched as the headless body came to rest while the last of the blood gushed out onto the floor. He wasn’t remorseful, but instead listening whether someone heard the second shot. When he was sure the coast was clear, the clown lowered the smoking gun and walked over to the reception desk, crouched down next to the headless corpse – taking care not to step in the growing pool of blood – and reached for the keys attached to the corpse’s belt and removed it.

  The clown walked back to the main doors, locked them and jangled the doors to make sure they were secured before he switched off the lights.

  This building would be his playground for the rest of the day and he wanted no interruptions from the outside world.

  Gladys tried her best to stay calm, but she couldn’t take it anymore. She had coffee before leaving home and for every cup of coffee she had her body wanted to go to the loo twice, so she finally got up from her desk and walked down the aisle of cubicles. Alice spotted her and jumped up as she walked by; hoping to get some new gossip to Gladys’s anguish.

  “Where are you going?” Alice asked.

  Try to be discreet and the world will ask for an announcement, Gladys thought to herself. Why couldn’t Alice keep to herself?

  “I’m going to the ladies.”

  “Okay.” Alice said with a smile, “Mum’s the word.”

  Alice slid back down into her seat. Sometimes she wondered whether she seemed desperate for conversation at work as Gladys also recently started cutting their conversations short like the rest of the girls on their floor. With her mother’s illness and her useless younger sister she had little interaction with adults. Gladys was the closest thing she had to a friend and they weren’t even that close to begin with.

  Gladys left the work space and entered the hallway that led to the restrooms and as she made her way to the restroom she saw a shadow creeping up against the walls of the stairwell. At first she dismissed it as belonging to a colleague that had to use the stairs to get to their office, but then a moment passed and she noticed a sinister grinning clown mask approaching her from the shadows of the stairwell with a shotgun in his hand that dangled next to his leg. She cautiously backed up, but found herself cornered against a wall. She warily gestured with her shaky hands and tried to stay calm, though she was screaming inside. Who was behind the mask and what did they want? This couldn’t be happening. She could think of nothing but her two boys. If she stayed calm and did what he wanted she’d live through the ordeal.

  The clown raised the shotgun as he got closer to her and aimed it at her face with a relentless motion as she tried to back up as close to the wall as she could. Her heart started racing at the sight of the nozzle in her face and she started weeping.

  “Please.” She whispered, “I’m a single mother of two young boys.”

  The clown stared at her for a moment as if reconsidering and lowered the shotgun an inch, but kept staring at her with those dark and vacant mask eyes. Her heart was beating uncontrollably as if trying to break free from her chest, her mouth was dry and her inner thighs wet. The sound of her own urine dripping onto the carpet made Gladys weep as she grasped the severity of the situation. She was facing a masked gunman who had the power to end her life at any moment. She fought back the tears and tried to stay calm… All she could think of was her boys and all she could hear was her heartbeat… All she could see was the shotgun as he raised it again and she found herself staring into the darkened abyss of the double nozzle.

  “Please.” Gladys pleaded with tears running down her face, “My boys won’t understand.”

  The clown squeezed the trigger and a loud bang echoed through the hallway. Somewhere someone screamed as Gladys looked down at her waist; her guts spilt out from a bloody hole in her abdomen as she tried to grab onto her splitting body. Her knees grew weak and she collapsed to the floor; choking on her own blood as she gasped for air and her grip on her bloody abdomen slipped away. She stared up at the clown with wide eyes and gurgled blood as her life slipped away and the world faded to black.

  The clown tiled his head and stared down at bloody woman at his feet until she stopped twitching and making throat noises. He never really liked Gladys. He had no reason not to like her… he just never did.

  The clown cocked the shotgun, stepped over the corpse on the floor and walked down the hallway towards the entrance of the work space while keeping the shotgun raised as he entered the workspace of cubicles. As he entered he saw a man standing with files in his hands. The man looked up from his work and at the door with uncertainty as to what had happened when they heard the bang. When he saw the malevolent clown with the gun he completely froze and dropped the files
to the floor. He stood frozen in fear and was unable to move any part of his body, except his lips that were quivering. He could hardly breathe and tried to utter anything, but nothing came out.

  “Oh my God!” Alice screeched and ducked beneath her desk.

  The clown pointed the shotgun at the frozen man and pulled the trigger. Upon impact, the man’s chest exploded in a gush of blood and guts and he tumbled backwards onto his desk. Everyone started screaming and people ducked underneath their desks while others scattered for safety while shielding their heads.

  The clown stood calmly amongst the panicking people and loaded his shotgun.

  Alice sat beneath her desk; cowering as close to the wall as she could and tried not to make a sound – clasping her mouth with both hands as if to choke any sounds from coming out. She watched as a female colleague came running towards her cubicle. A shot rung through the air and the woman fell into a bloody mess in front of Alice’s cubicle with her wide open eyes staring at Alice whom watched as the woman’s pupils constricted and her life slipped away.

  Alice covered her mouth, shut her eyes and prayed to God that no sound escaped her mouth. She stared at the corpse of her co-worker lying in front of her cubicle and then noticed the mud covered boots of the shooter walking pass. Alice shut her eyes tight, cringed closer to the corner beneath her desk and though her quivering hands could hold in her screams, she couldn’t prevent her tears from flowing as she realized the nightmare was far from over.

  Please God, don’t let him see me, she prayed as tears ran down her cheek.

  She kept her eyes shut and prayed to God for it all to be a bad dream, but she knew it wasn’t a dream as another shot echoed all around her.

  Someone screamed and then another shot went off. Alice’s entire body juddered at the sound of the shot and she clasped her mouth even tighter when another shot echoed all around. It was really happening – there was a crazed gunman going around shooting the people she worked with.

  She opened her eyes and glanced out through the opening of her cubicle – she could see the doorway, but nobody was running towards the doorway. Why weren’t they running away?

  Another scream followed by a shot made Alice realize that she had to get out of there or she could be next.

  The sound of the shotgun being fired echoed through the air and made Alice tremble beneath the desk. Her palms were sweaty and her hands were shaking. She didn’t want to die today and knew if she stayed beneath her table there might be a chance the shooter could find her. If she left the sanctuary of her desk, he might see her. Either way she was in harm’s way.

  What was going on? Who was the man? Why was he doing this? Where were the police? Did anyone get a chance to even call the police?

  Alice glanced over at her purse that lay on its side a few feet away. She could use her mobile phone to call the police if only she could get her terrified body to do what her brain tells it to. She made sure that the coast was clear and then reached for the purse, grabbed it and retreated back underneath the desk.

  ‘Please! Don’t!’ someone pleaded and they were silenced by a gunshot.

  She searched through the contents of her bag for her phone and dialled 911.

  “911 Emergency.”

  “My name is Alice Simpson.” Alice whispered into the phone.

  “What is the state of your emergency, ma’am?”

  How could the operator be so calm? Alice could barely keep it together.

  “There’s a masked gunman at my work.” Alice whispered.

  “What is your location, ma’am?”

  “Johnson’s Incorporated Building, Everclear Road.”

  “Is anyone hurt?”

  “He’s shot at least five people.”

  ‘No!’ Someone