Primrose and Brimstone

by Jason Mueller

  Suddenly Andrew blurted out catching Garcia off guard. “She could have saved us from him!” Sobs and tears escaped as his mind took him back years, images and hurts replaying in his mind.

  Garcia already knew, but it was important for Weber to acknowledge his abuse. “Saved you from what Andrew?”

  “He used us like women!” Andrew was racked with sobs as he confronted finally what had always lurked underneath. “And what’s worse is that when we got older and he wasn’t interested in us as much, she started fucking us. What kind of mother fucks her own children? She always said it wasn’t her fault she was a sex addict like she was an addict for those pills. I lost my virginity to my mom and dad. How fucked up is that? Then my brothers started fucking my sister too. It killed me to hear her screams and her cries but I was the youngest brother. I couldn’t stop them. It was wrong, the rest of it was wrong, all of it was wrong I knew it but when it’s your mom and dad perpetrating it on you…”

  Tears were flowing freely. Silently washing away a lifetime of torment. Garcia waited patiently allowing him time to gather his composure. Would he finally admit to committing the murders or would he still cling to the lie that the shadow had killed his family? It was too early to know, but he was anxious to ask those questions. He glanced at the shadow on the wall. It was still there, but it seemed as if it were looking at him. Surely it was his imagination, a trick of light or maybe a movement by Weber that he hadn’t seen.

  Garcia wanted to be considerate of Weber but he needed to pull him back into focus as it was an interview not a therapy session. “Andrew what happened the night that the shadow started hurting your family?”

  Weber’s composure stabilized a bit as he considered the question. “I was outside playing basketball with a kid down the street. Every once in a while, we did get to do some of the more normal things. I sucked at basketball though but the other kid did too.” Andrew chuckled at the memory.

  Another stall tactic Garcia mused in his head. “Andrew, how did she die?”

  “They killed her!” Anger replacing the happiness that had just manifested with the basketball memory.

  “Who killed her Andrew?” Garcia continued to coax the information from his subject.

  With a sigh, Andrew began the tale. “You know she was younger than us. She was the baby of the family I was the second youngest but I guess you already know all that. Billy and Donnie killed her. Those fuckers would rape her constantly it seemed like. She would try to fight them off but they were too big and too strong. I used to try to stop them, I tried to protect her, but they were too big and strong for me too. They would have beat me to death or worse.”

  At this revelation, Weber looked away from Garcia in shame. Garcia decided to let it go. There was no point to making him verbally admit the sexual abuse by his brothers after he had already confirmed the sexual abuse by both his parents and statistically people who are sexually abused have a good chance of being perpetrators themselves. Although many victims go on to be good people, good parents and never harm anyone.

  “Go on Andrew.”

  Andrew wasn’t quite ready to say it yet. “You know she used to tell us all it was wrong what we was doing. They would laugh at her, tell her she thought she was better than us. When she would say it, it usually got her beat and fucked. How fucked up is that? You tell your parents and your brothers that it’s wrong to fuck each other, and they get pissed off at you and fuck you in retaliation. Her and I were close. Real close. We were very close in age. We used to hide and talk and play when we were kids. We never forced each other to do anything that we didn’t want to do. We would talk about normal kid stuff but we’d also talk about how wrong it all was. She saw it more than I did at first. She was good, she was pure despite it all and she hated how it all made her feel. We also used to dream of running away together. Going somewhere where no one knew us, knew about the things we’d done, the things that had been done to us. I loved her, she loved me. We wanted to be married and have a family. A real family not some perverted shit like we had. Now, I know that that would have been wrong too, but we didn’t know any better then. We thought that somehow, we could fix what had happened by getting married and doing things the right way. How we were growing up screwed up our perceptions. I’ve been locked up for a long time and I’ve talked to a lot of fucked up people and no one I’ve met has had as fucked up of a childhood as we had. Sad thing is at the time it all seemed normal to us kids.”

  Garcia could tell that while it was good to let Weber talk and tell his story that he was still stalling. “Andrew, I think it’s great that you and your sister had a good relationship like that and could count on each other. I also think it’s a positive sign that you can look back and understand that yes everything you experienced growing up was wrong and inappropriate and also how your feelings for your sister were outside of normal boundaries. I think it shows good improvement for you and healing. So, what exactly happened that night?”

  “They raped her and she fought them. I guess they got angry when she fought. They fucked her with a stick. I guess they tore her cause she bled out. I walked into her room and there she was dead, in a pool of blood and a stick sticking out of her cunt.”

  Garcia flinched inwardly at Weber’s language. One second his words made him sound reasonably intelligent, maybe even smart with a little education and the next second he was describing the sister that he loved so much that he wanted to marry dead in a pool of blood with a stick rammed in her cunt. How could this man shift to extremes like this? Of course, he couldn’t discount that Weber was incarcerated for killing his entire family and setting fire to the house. Investigators had been unable to ascertain if he had been responsible for his sister's’ death also or if he was throwing his brothers under the proverbial bus to assuage his guilt. Either way, he would have to let Weber finish his story and see what was revealed.

  “What happened when you found her Andrew?” Garcia pressed on.

  “I cried and cried like a baby. I held her for a long time. It felt like hours to me. Dad was gone to the bar, of course, I went to tell mom and would you believe that I found Donnie and Billy double teaming her. I was stunned how could they fucking kill our sister trying to rape her one moment and the next double teaming their own mother? And that whore! He fumed. You should have heard the filthy things she was saying to them egging them on to fuck her right and to give it to mama like she needed. I don’t really understand what happened next. It all seemed so surreal. I could feel the shadow separate from me. It was a little more violent than it had been in the past. It hurt when it left me but there it was standing before me larger than life with an axe in its hand. It attacked them, they were all fucking and groping and never saw it coming. Donnie died first. The shadow took his head clean off and then it buried the ax in Billy’s chest.”

  “And your mother?” Garcia had read the case file he knew that there was lots of abuse and suspected incest in the family but the extremes that Weber spoke of could keep him busy for the rest of his career analyzing the footage that he was getting and doing research on the case.

  “That fucking whore was screaming her fool head off scooting a crossed the floor dragging her ass begging God to forgive her. Can you believe that shit? I couldn’t believe that disgusting slut had the nerve to ask God to forgive her after everything she’d done to us and let the old man do to us. It pissed me off. The shadow just seemed to envelop her. Blood flew everywhere, and she was dead, ripped apart.”

  “What about your father Andrew? What happened to him?” Garcia wanted to be sure he had the timeline in order.

  “He came home; I don’t know when and saw everyone and freaked out. The shadow chased him down the hall and killed him. Tore his skin right off him. It was disgusting to see him lying there half dead and no skin.”

  Garcia knew that it was true Weber’s father's’ body did have the skin removed. Weber was wearing it when the police found him wandering the neighborhood dazed and covered with
the blood of his family as well. “Where did the shadow get the ax? From the Garage?”

  “Honestly I have no clue. It just was there. Pretty much like it is now!” Andrew screamed in delight looking at the wall where his shadow had been projected.

  Garcia turned to the wall and was shocked to see that while Andrew was sitting down shackled and handcuffed, his shadow stood there towering over them with an ax in its hands. It leaped from the wall and swung with full furry.

  Weber sat giggling incoherently as the shadow went about its deadly work. When the alarm was given that something had happened in the interrogation room and other officers burst in and found a still shackled Weber sitting in the chair. The two guards dead hacked apart, the pieces cooling in a massive pool of blood and Weber wearing Garcia’s face on top of his own. Weber's shadow sat quietly mirroring his form and movements.

  SHOWER TIME

  (Original Story)

  After one more peek in to check on the baby who had finally fallen asleep Sandy locked the front door and padded to the bathroom. “Shower time!” she thought gleefully. Turning the shower on, she stripped out of her jeans and t-shirt and stood looking at herself in the mirror. Not bad for just having a baby, she mused as she turned side to side inspecting her figure. Her figure had changed since having Abby three months ago. She thought she was more womanly now with her fuller breasts and belly. I’m not fat though, I’m thick and sexy she thought. The steam from the shower slowly obscured her image as she watched mesmerized until she was gone.

  She went to the cabinet to get a towel and washcloth and as she was stepping into the shower, she heard the front door slam shut. A shiver went down her entire body as fear took hold. She and Abby were alone while Abby’s father was stationed in Afghanistan. She timidly went to the door and peeked out down the long hallway, but saw nothing. Then the footsteps started toward her, rapidly approaching as if someone were wearing cowboy boots and in a hurry. Coming straight for her. Closer and closer they came, Sandy ducked back into the bathroom with a yelp and locked the door behind her. As she twisted the lock, feelings of guilt for leaving Abby alone assailed her, but what could she do?

  She put her ear to the door. Nothing, not a sound. Had she imagined it? Surely she didn’t just imagine all of that from being a little frightened.

  Trembling she wrapped her towel around her and opened the door. She had to know if something was out there and if Abby was safe. She stuck her head out and saw no one, and could not hear a sound. She made her way down the hall. I’ve never been afraid of the daylight, this is silly, she admonished herself. She looked in with relief on Abby to find she was still sleeping like an angel.

  Starting to feel better she made a quick check of the house and found nothing. “Am I losing my mind?” she began to wonder. She scampered back to the bathroom hoping no one was looking in the windows.

  Stepping into the bathroom, she froze in horror at the mirror. She noticed a large handprint. I was much larger than a man’s, by more than double she guessed. She frantically searched through the steamy bathroom, but there was no one there with her that she could see.

  A cold breeze blew on her naked skin sending instantaneous goose bumps and chills racing along her spine. Her eyes snapped back to the mirror where an invisible hand had started to write slowly on the foggy glass. Her heart felt as if it were going to stop beating as each letter appeared.

  Finally it was done. The message read, “Want Abby.”

  She stood in front of the mirror dumbfounded as the realization hit her that someone or something wanted her baby. “NO!” she screamed hoping that she could scare away whatever it was that was threatening her and her baby.

  An almost electrical feeling arced its way through the bathroom. The mirror began fogging over again and, in desperation, she reached out with the washcloth in her hand and made a single swipe across the glass. Reflected behind her was a creature that her mind could not even fathom. Towering over her was a black, leathery skinned creature with teeth that seemed to jut from its mouth in razor sharp points. Its eyes were a blackish-red with flashes of yellow, she noticed as they stared back at her menacingly.

  Sandy screamed and in a flash, her face was slamming through the glass on the mirror. Knocked senseless, her face was cut and bleeding profusely. She felt strong hands in her hair tossing her to the floor as she fought, but to no avail. She could feel her legs being forced apart, she could feel the weight of what she now realized was a demon on her and a hardness enter her.

  When the demon was done with her she was lifted up again and dangled limply by her hair. Despite the pain that racked her body, she looked into the demon’s eyes and got lost in the flames that seemed to dance within the blackish orbs. With a sneer, the demon tossed her through the glass door of the shower causing her head to bounce off of the tile. The water scalded her as she lost consciousness. The deep lacerations on her face and body seeped blood that flowed lazily down the drain.

  Sandy awoke, in what she could only guess was a hospital room. She sat on the edge of the bed noticing that her clothing was made of a paper-like material. She hurt from head-to-toe from the cuts and impacts she had suffered, but the most painful was the burning sensation between her legs and her belly. She lurched to the door to find the room locked, everything came rushing back to her, the demon, her attack, the pain, and Abby. Sandy’s mind broke and she started to scream.

  Sandy was shackled and now sitting in the institution’s staff psychiatrist office.

  “Sandy I have some hard questions for you, but I have to ask them. Why did you kill your baby, Sandy?” The old doctor asked, seeming somewhat disinterested.

  “I didn’t kill my baby! It was a demon. Look at what it did to me!” she screamed and broke into sobs.

  “I’m sorry Sandy, but that’s not what the police and the evidence show. Sandy, can you tell me how far along in your pregnancy you are?” the doctor asked. “I’m not pregnant!” She wept bitterly, but deep inside she knew the searing burn of her insides could only be a monster inside her and when it was done, the flames would sear her soul.

  SNUGGLE LOVE

  Alexandria drove down the darkened streets music blaring; windows rolled down allowing the frigid air to bring her down. Her head rolled a bit as the drugs coursed through her body. She was high, real high, and she was looking for a party. So far she had had no luck, but she was hoping to score tonight, more drugs and something else a little naughtier. She thought as she dropped one hand down into her crotch.

  Racking her brain trying to figure out where to go as her usual friends had bailed on her tonight. Who cares about Christmas Eve she thought as she kept driving starting to feel a little more alert.

  “Ricky’s!” She blurted out to the night. She and Ricky had spent some time together months before but he had always made her nervous. Dark and brooding and just a little weird for her taste in bed. She had followed her gut instincts and had quit going around him; but Ricky always had a party going on at his place.

  She drove up to the warehouse, where Ricky rented a loft. There were no cars around and very little light could be seen from outside. Desperate for some action Alex rang the buzzer and waited. She could hear foot steps behind the heavy door and the sound of locks being unlatched.

  The door opened. “Hey Alex, it’s been a while.” She got that creepy vibe as soon he spoke.

  “Hey Ricky, what’s going on? No one seems to be partying tonight. Fuckin Christmas Eve!”

  “Well nothing is going on here but you can come up if you want.” He moved out of the way for her to enter the gloominess of the warehouse.

  Desperate for a good time, she put the creepy vibe out of her mind and entered. She shuddered when she heard the door slam behind her and the locks being slammed home.

  She followed him through the maze of hallways and shelving units that towered above them to the freight elevator. They rode up in silence. Reaching the top, Ricky led her down a dark rambling hallway making his w
ay around boxes and, much to Alex’s surprise, a hospital gurney sat in the hall with what looked like blood in the dim light cast by the lone florescent light that flickered in and out struggling to keep the shadows at bay.

  “Is that blood on the hospital bed?” she questioned again feeling that creepy sensation, like she should get out while she could.

  Ricky chuckled. “No, it’s just rust and stains. I found it at a flea market and I thought it would be cool, been collecting dust ever since.” He kept walking not giving her a chance to dwell on it.

  Once inside his apartment Rick sat on the worn couch, the white Christmas lights nailed up crisscrossing the living room not quite giving off any holiday cheer. Instead the weak lights cast eerie shadows that seemed unnatural even in the darkness of the loft.

  Having nowhere else to sit because of piles of clothes and other junk piled up on the few other pieces of furniture Alex had no choice but to sit next to Rick as he made small talk while rolling a joint. He lit it and passed it to Alex who eagerly took a deep drag holding the smoke in her lungs. She wanted to be high; she didn’t want to think about the things that haunted her when she was sober.

  Soon the drugs kicked in and Alex was feeling high again, in her drug induced state she didn’t mind that Rick was snuggled in close to her, rubbing her. She was getting hot, he wasn’t so creepy now and his hands felt good. He leaned in to kiss her; she eagerly accepted and returned the kiss. Tonight, was going to turn out after all she thought to herself as everything went black.

  Alex felt like she was under water. Everything still had a murky dream like quality. She tried to move and couldn’t. Must have been some pretty strong stuff. As she laid there cold she realized she was naked, she started trying harder to move, willing her muscles but to no avail.