Authors: Joel M. Andre
Chapter Six
The stench of kerosene and burning wick awoke Aaron Stuck. As his green eyes slowly focused, he became aware of the taste of metallic blood in his mouth and the sharp pain in the side of his head. He wasn’t sure where he was or how he go there.
Last he could recall, he was in the parking lot at Mingus Mountain High School after grading papers, and was planning on heading home. It was Monday night and his wife had made a large pot of her famous chili and had rented some silly slasher flick that she had wanted to see. He wasn’t fond of the horror genre, but liked the way it felt when she would bury her head in his chest for safety. Married 20 years and they were just as in love as ever. Even when he found he couldn’t have kids she decided to stick by his side and they had made it work.
She was his world and he wanted to be there with her in this moment. Looking around, he tried to figure out where he was. Pushing up, he could feel the hard dirt beneath him and he struggled to his feet. For a moment, he almost lost his balance, steadied himself and then looked around the room again. As his eyes scanned the dark chamber, he had the eerie feeling he was being watched.
Placing his hand against his dirty blonde hair, he placed it against the area that was throbbing in pain. It was warm and wet and even in the soft flickering of the lamp light, he could tell there was blood on his hands. Part of him worried there would be permanent damage after all was said and done.
“Is anyone out there?” He shouted.
He could feel the fire in his throat as he realized how dry it was, making him wonder how long he had been kept down here already. He was hoping it had only been an hour or so, but the dryness made him fear a lot longer had passed. Without the ability to see outside, he wasn’t even sure that he would be able to figure out much more. This was a time when he wished he owned a watch.
Thinking of his cell phone, he dug his hands into the pocket of his blue jeans and fished around. Finding the phone, he frantically pulled it out and hit the power button. A single bar of power remained and the time displayed was 5:42 PM. Pulling up his contacts, he quickly selected his wife and then noticed the no service display.
“Figures. The jackass at the store says I can use this thing anywhere in the world. Turns out that is anywhere but here.” He softly grumbled.
Reaching in the back of his jeans, he felt around and found his wallet. Pulling it out, he flipped through it to check to make sure no one had stolen his credit cards and cash. With everything there, he shoved it back into his jeans and sighed a degree of relief.
“At least the asshole didn’t rob me.” He muttered.
Reaching for the kerosene lamp, he decided to explore the area and see if he couldn’t find a way out of there. Hopefully, with a little effort, he could find a door or something that would take him outside until he could use his phone and call for help. He just hoped Lisa wouldn’t be too angry with him for their missed date.
With heavy steps, he thudded through the dark tunnel. The light caused shadows to dance around him and occasionally caused him to believe there was someone else following his every move in the tunnel. Deciding to break the silence and possibly attract help to his whereabouts, Aaron began to whistle as he walked along.
The song filled the cavern and embraced him. It lightened the mood and helped him to relax a little, when all he really wanted to do was to scream at the top of his lungs and cry for help. But with how raw his throat felt, he was afraid of damaging his vocal chords to the point that they would end up being beyond repair.
Before him, he could see that the tunnel was set to split in two directions. As he approached he stopped and considered both options. Licking his finger he positioned it in front of both hoping to find a draft of some kind that would take him on to safety. That proved to be impossible, though, and Aaron sighed.
That was when he noticed the scratcher ticket that was nailed to the wall. Looking around, he figured it was some kind of joke. Waiting for someone to jump out and claim to have pulled a fast one on him, he decided to grab for it and check it out. The black background offered a golden skull and simple crimson red letters that said,
Lucky Damnation
. It was a strange name for a scratcher ticket, but these days he felt that they catered to all kinds of people. If he was able to win a decent dollar amount on the ticket, he could pick up some wine and flowers on his way home and hopefully get his wife to calm down a bit. While he could show her the injury, he really didn’t like upsetting her and she loved flowers more than anything else in the world.
Fumbling in his jeans, he found a quarter and began to scratch off the coating and felt his heart race when he saw the word. There were bold, black letters congratulating him on a win, and he clenched his hands and drew them into his chest and laughed.
“A bad night is starting to get better.” He shouted. “Let’s hope it is enough for some flowers.”
Scratching off the rest, his joy turned to confusion. Red letters saying, “You’re Dead” were at the bottom of the ticket. Some sicko decided to knock him out, drag him in the middle of nowhere and then prank him with a fake lottery ticket. Aaron could feel his blood boiling.
“Not cool.” He shouted. “I don’t have time for your shit anymore.”
Looking at the coin in his hand, he flipped it. Heads he would go right and tails, he would go left. As it smacked back in his palm, he flipped it over and nodded his head at tails, and headed through the left side of the tunnel.
Walking just a few steps, he stopped at the sound of steel slamming shut and then fell to the floor in crippling pain. He looked at his right foot which was broken with the bone piercing through the skin. The bear trap clamped around it gripping him in place.
Placing his hands on the cold steel, Aaron desperately tried to force open the trap. His hands began sweating profusely as the pain surged in his body. He felt like he was close to blacking out, but he continued to struggle. He needed to make it out of here alive. He needed to make it home to his wife.
His breathing grew shallow, and soon he began to feel his body become weaker. As he was twisting and turning, he was tearing up the leg worse and realized he was losing quite a bit of blood. Frantic, he looked at his phone and saw there was still no signal.
Desperate he began to call out, hoping someone would somehow hear him. “I am here, trapped. Please someone come to me. I need help!”
It was then he heard the sound of heavy footsteps walking towards him. Someone had found him and they would be able to help him now.
“Please over here.” He called out into the darkness.
Slowly a figure emerged in the light of the lamp. Dressed in a dark black cloak, Aaron suddenly felt that feeling of hope turn to dread. He turned to look at the figure, who did nothing more than raise a finger to where his lips should be. Then from inside of the cloak, it pulled out a vial of something. Aaron’s eyes struggled to see what it was. There appeared to be a clear liquid of some kind inside of the vial.
The figure let out of deep laugh and then popped the seal on the vial and walked over to Aaron. As he looked up, he felt the liquid splash on his face and body and waited for it to burn. He thought it would be acid or some other horrible disfiguring liquid. But instead, nothing happened.
“Why would you do that?” Aaron demanded. “Help me get free; I don’t have time for your games.”
“You’ve already won a prize and I am here to deliver.” The figured growled.
With that, it grabbed the kerosene lamp from Aaron’s hands and smashed it on his face. Aaron howled in pain as his body became engulfed in flames. As he felt his skin melt and his flesh rip apart, as it sizzled in the flames, all he could think about was his wife and how she would never have the chance to see him again, or kiss him goodbye. It was in that moment he realized how painful it was to lose the one thing he loved the most.
Chapter Seven
Kayla Stuck glared at the burning white screen in front of her. The writer’s block was killing her and her deadline for a new post was just a few hours away. Scratching her blonde hair, she slouched her thin frame down in the office chair and let out a heavy sigh. She knew she needed to deliver something that would keep her readers entertained, and deliver something of actual value.
Too often, she would encounter bloggers that would ramble on about kittens, glitter, and god forbid, even unicorns. She couldn’t fathom all the stupid internet junk that ended up out there that people kept fawning over. That’s why she was determined to give her readers something different and unique.
However, days would sometimes come when getting anything out there would take all that she had. As her blue eyes scanned the screen, she tried desperately to grasp at an endless number of ideas that could spark interest and potentially even become a series that she could use for a week or so that would truly stand out.
“Think Kayla,” she grumbled to herself.
She found herself slightly distracted. Her husband was late and hadn’t called. He wasn’t even answering her numerous phone calls, and she was growing concerned. He did love the bars in town, and sometimes even a pot of chili couldn’t convince him to come home and spend one evening with her.
Outside of her bedroom window, she could hear the sound of thunder rolling across the red rocks of Sedona. The crackling and crashing seemed to echo as it bounced off the rock formations in the area. The rain was so rare and beautiful, she felt a need to turn around and look at it.
Beyond the smudges of red dirt, she could see the black sky and how the clouds gave the land a slightly faded appearance. Watching, she shivered as a lightning bolt shot across the sky and the rain began to trickle down on the warm Arizona land.
Despite being alone and wishing he was there right now, she still was able to enjoy the local beauty. This was certainly her favorite time of the year. The endless number of summer monsoon storms that could build up and pour rain in a hot Arizona summer, just seemed to be acts of perfection. She liked to sit and watch when the waters finally boiled up in the sky, to the point that rain would fall hard and take away some of the residue in the air. That sticky pollution that came from the endless number of tourists who traveled through town.
While the area was beautiful, she often wondered what the tourists did when they were visiting for weeks on end. While there were the brilliant rock formations like Snoopy Rock and even the intensely spectacular Cathedral Rock, she couldn’t imagine what someone does here for endless months on a visit. That was, unless of course, they were headed to the ghost town of Jerome, or to see the beautiful mountainscape in Flagstaff.
Outside, the lightning flashed again, lighting up Kayla’s blue eyes and she shook her head softly. Jolting her back from her thoughts, she knew she needed to get back to work. Posting something soon was going to be essential. As she prepared to return to her desk, something caught her eye.
Beyond the rain, in the hedges, a shadow moved. Returning to the window, Kayla tried to adjust her eyes beyond the falling rain as it began to fall harder and thicker in sheets. She couldn’t figure out what was out there. Perhaps it was a dog or some stray javelina roaming around when it shouldn’t be. Laughing to herself, Kayla returned to her desk and began to sit down and place her hands on the keyboard.
Tapping her fingers along the keyboard, she decided to write about the current economic state. While it was certainly a cop out, it would at least get her article up for the night and she could start to work on some other items instead.
As the words began to fly across the page, she was suddenly very happy she was able to type 75 words per minute. It helped to crank out a 500 word article in a matter of minutes. That was, assuming that there were no facts that needed to be checked on the topic. Thankfully, she had browsed the news earlier this morning and as always, the state of the economy was a hot topic that they spent way too much time on.
This made Kayla laugh to herself. The whole solution was simply getting people to spend money. Jobs were being slashed because people stopped spending it. Money flow is essential for economies to thrive and businesses shut their doors as people started to save more. While having some savings is essential, it was very important to keep things flowing in the local economy.
Kayla, liked to do her part and shopped at the stores of a rather likeable character that owned
Sedona Green
and
The Bucking Lizard T-Shirt Company
. She had met him many years ago, when she first moved into town with her husband Aaron. While there were certainly some less than desirable characters in the area, Mike Blevins was always very willing to take anyone in and give them a fair shot at life.
A gentle man by nature, she couldn’t imagine him harming so much as a fly. In fact, the worst thing he did was to play Christmas music a little earlier than most people. But it was part of the innocence he gave off that made him his own unique character.
Stopping for a moment, she pulled away from the keyboard and took note of the calendar on her desk. As it edged closer to the end of the month, the rings of coffee mug stains littered it. Taking a black pen, she scribbled in
Sedona Green shopping
onto her calendar for the following day. She would have a great time with Mike and might even bring along her sister Abigail. The pair certainly got along and it was a blast to have everyone together in the room.
Returning her gaze to the computer monitor, she was startled by a heavy knocking at her front door. Shaking her head, she tried to ignore whoever it was. There was certainly no reason for them to be pestering her right now and she really needed to meet her deadline.
Slamming her fingers down hard, she was able to get the last few paragraphs done. Copying and pasting, she posted the article to her blog and clicked publish. In less than 5 seconds, it has successfully published and the views would soon trickle in on it.
Leaning back in her chair, she sighed. She needed to head out to the grocery store and pick up a few items. Otherwise, dinner would be lackluster, from a can. Pushing up and out of her seat, Kayla walked by the old mirror next to her bed. She took a moment to pose in front of it and debate her present outfit.
The bulky t-shirt and blue jeans were certainly a fashion statement of some kind. Had they been cleaner, it might not have been so bad. Shrugging her shoulders, she made her way through her home. Boxes still cluttered the tiny space from their move into the home just 6 months ago. She knew she should spend the time unpacking them, but there really didn’t seem a point to any of it. After all, it was just her hanging out in here. Eventually, she would need the packed items and would grab them at that time. If for some reason she didn’t touch them in a year, then a thrift shop could make more use of the stuff.
Grabbing her keys and a denim purse she reached for the door knob. She stopped for just a moment as she considered the fact someone was out there a few minutes ago. Peeking out of the door, she noticed a box waiting out front for her.
Opening the door, she bent down and picked it up. It had a good weight to it, but no postage or shipping label. Instead, there was a perfectly written,
For Kayla
in what looked like red marker. Taking it inside, she began to consider all the possibilities on who it could be from.
Setting it down on the counter top, she pulled out a steak knife and cut open the tape. A strange odor began to float out from the tiny brown box. Scrunching up her nose she gave it a confused look.
Why does it smell like cooked meat?
She wondered to herself.
Pushing into the box she reached in and felt a coarse patch of fur or hair. Pulling her hands out, she stumbled backward. Looking around, she shook her head and controlled her breathing. Opening the lid all the way, she could make out what appeared to be melted flesh and bone. A note fell from the box.
Looks like my lucky day. Now Aaron’s no longer in my way.
Kayla could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and she fought back sobs in the back of her throat. She didn’t need to look in the box to know who was in there. She didn’t have to see much more to know in the box was Aaron’s skull. Curling into a ball, she struggled to breathe as her lungs fought for air.