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Dance Of Death
Have you ever noticed a glint in a person’s eye? Have you wondered what it shows the world about that person? A person’s look may denote pride. Jealousy. Emptiness. Plain malice.
But it wasn’t the same case with this man. He had a look that was, well…tomblike.
Stony. Cold.
A student from the southern province had come up in the town for pursuing his studies. It obviously meant he didn’t have the spending capacity one ought to for living in a city.
He opted for something cheaper, a small apartment flat in a corner locality of the town. Not many lived in this place. Not many lived long here either. The dogs that once roamed freely in the garbage spot were now a rarity. Rats and cockroaches infested the locality, like blight, a disease.
It was a derelict godforsaken land, and the kid was already struggling to see himself live in this locality.
The man who lived next door with the student was always around to help.
He was bald, maybe about in his thirties. His spectacles were thick and frosty and had always worn frayed, tattered rags that were dirty and soiled. His grubby hands always shook, like some sort of nervous twitch.
Speaking in a small, puny voice, he looked with the intensity of a fortune teller in a person’s eyes. In these eyes was the coldness, the deathlike pleasure.
The boy had to be shown his room. He entered the staircase and they both trudged. The walls had stains on them; dark stains that left it caked with grease and muck.
Well, what more can you get for the kind of money you pay. I’d myself rent this flat for such a low price, thought the boy and looked at his to-be new home for the next few years.
A cedar wood door was rotting away, its putrid pieces falling off. The house-keeper rubbed his spectacles, adjusted them and took out a bunch of keys from his trouser pocket.
The boy could see the rawness underneath his fingernails and was somewhat revolted by the sight of it. It brought about this uneasy feeling in his stomach.
“There,” said the man to his tenant, his voice quivering like a wolf’s cry, “You have your bedroom, studyroom and kitchen and one small bathroom in there…”
His cracked fingernail on the index finger pointed out to a small disintegrated wooden door in the distance. There was absolutely nothing in the house.
The tiles had cracked and yellowed ages ago. The paint peeled off the walls and lay on the floor, mixed with the dust on it. Never had he seen a house with no windows, let for a small ventilator on top of the wall. That was the only light source in the room. The smell of rot was unsullied, rancid, disturbing his nostrils.
And for some reason, the kitchen lay locked. A deadbolt secured it in its rusty iron latch.
“…any questions??” asked the little man, his big fly-like eyes staring into the student’s who was unsettled by all this. Mustering some courage, he spoke to the owner.
“Listen, you…you call this a house? There’s no fucking window in here. I need a fan or something to beat the heat. There’s not even a bulb inside…”
“…Will get one.” the man cut him off, his gaze now steelier, more feral than ever.
“oh….Okay…” came the student’s reply, slightly ashamed of over-reacting.
“Come on downstairs. Come to my place. Let us take the furniture you need and your utensils…”
And the man looked away for the first time, walked down the stairs with his slight limp on one foot. He was rubbing his glasses again and muttering something to himself which sounded like some song to the student.
They lifted the heavy cot that lay in his room. The strange man lived in a strange home indeed. The house was no different to the one on rent. It was almost the same, only much more cluttered.
Hauling the dry, rough edged wood cot, they shoved and pushed it into the room upstairs.
“You wait here, adjust the bed if you like. Clean up the place if you want to. I’ll get the keys to the kitchen and the cooking utensils.”
He scurried away like a rat, taking small steps rapidly. The student was plain angry. He hadn’t expected something this bad for the price he was paying. Now he felt it better to pay a bit more and find some better place. After all, it’s about where you’re gonna live.
He was planning on what excuse to give to the flat owner on his departure the next day. Or he’d even ask to leave him then and there itself.
I can’t spend any night in this shit hole, forget pay for it, he thought.
The gaunt man returned by then. His eyes had this malicious glow to them and he kept staring, somewhat untamed. The student hated that. He’d rip his eyeballs out if he had the power to.
“Listen mister, I know that this is really great for the price you’re offering but I’m not comfortable here…”
“No. You must wait. First listen to me. You won’t leave until I am finished dealing with you.” The voice had suddenly become louder, more commanding. He sounded much more authoritative.
“What??” asked the student, perplexed by this answer. He was expecting something else.
The man unlocked the kitchen door and went back to the main door.
He was locking up the room.
“HEY!!!! What’s the deal with all this? Open the goddamn lock!!” the student yelled desperately.
“No. Listen to me first.”
“I’ll fuckin listen to you if you open that lock. NOW!”
The man shook his head. He took off his glasses, wiped them again and put them in his dirty trousers.
Looking up with his big green eyes, he gave a smile, baring rows of dirty, stained teeth.
His hand emerged from his pocket with the key to the lock.
“OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!!!!”
He laughed at the student as he took the little key playfully, raised it above his head, opened his mouth and in it went.
Unbelievably he swallowed the key. Just like in the movies.
“WHAT!!!!! ARE YOU FUCKIN CRAZY??!!? YOU BLOODY IDIOT NOW WE’RE STUCK!! Oh god, no, no, no! NO!!! You’re going to the crapper. You get that key out of your asshole or…”
“Or what?...What can you do? What options do you have? You either listen to me or pay the price…”
The young man was shaking in rage, frustration, and irritated by the truth in the man’s words. He couldn’t do anything but listen to him.
He finally broke the silence.
“Okay. What is it?”
“You people, your civilization…”
He spat on the floor.
“You are blind. You don’t see the world you live in, you don’t understand anything. All this ‘upbringing’ and ‘culture’ has corrupted us humans.
We aren’t what we used to be. We were once true creatures, fighting for what was ours. And now we get everything laid before us. No fight. We have broken the natural law. We have to be truly fit to survive. I lay a test before you. You might want to check the kitchen…”
The sick smile reappeared on his face. The student was frozen in trepidation, with a pale face and the cold sweat of fear running down his brow. He slowly slogged to the door, his muscles almost dead.
What he saw inside was beyond his ability to bear things. It could not be stomached.
On a table lay the source of the putrid smell. A human cadaver cut and chopped up lay on it. Mutilated beyond recognition of distinguishing male or female. Its guts spilled out, yellow ooze dripping. The brown-reddish flesh sagged from decay, the entire area caked with bloodstains. There were handprints of blood on the walls, and places where he was dragged around.
His throat was full of the bitter, sour bile, and he was unable to stand the sight. He whimpered and looked away in disgust.
Slowly, his eyes moved to the monster that lay before him.
He was still smiling.
“I expected that. All you new breeds have been raised wrong. Can’t stand this? This is what we always did to survive. Mankind lives on this. Whatever the world gives you is out of this.”
The student was on the verge of tears and nervous breakdown. He began to hyperventilate, cowered and tried banging the door open.
“You can’t run anywhere now. I have a test for you, if you remember.”
On the floor he threw a cleaver knife. The one used by the butcher.
“This is your ‘utensil’. I have mine.”
There was silence. He looked at the knife, and was in half minds whether to take it or not.
“You want to get out? You have to fight for it. Bring your wild instincts back. You will be enlightened by the end of today’s ordeal.”
He feared something so gruesome it was beyond our everyday terror.
“The key is in my stomach. You get it, or die before that.”
“Kill me if you’re strong enough. The winner will be decided by what you choose. The test begins.”
There was not enough time to react. The boy didn’t know what to do. The slayer lunged for him the moment he was finished speaking.
He swung the knife in one swift chopping motion, aiming the boy’s shoulder. He moved aside a bit too late, and his cloth was ripped off. The skin was cut.
He had drawn first blood.
He rolled and grabbed the knife lying down, sensing no other option.
“Ah, now you have realized?! On your path to enlightenment!!” the man gleefully exclaimed on seeing the same bloodthirst he had in the other’s eye.
They engaged in a tussle. Both clawed and slashed at each other little cuts here and there. He was playing a bit defensively, attacking and retreating.
“Scared? Scared of what? You have the knife in your hand. Kill me. Come on kill me!!!”
The boy’s mind was playing a tug of war inside. His conscience was losing to primal instinct. NO, I wont let that bastard control my mind and make me do anything he wants me to.
He wasn’t looking around when the knife tore at his flesh. He’d sliced his left forearm.
“I love this…We’ll kill each other slowly. You’re going to die anyways!!!” the man spoke, doing his dance of death.
The boy grew aggressive. He went charging over the man, hacking him left and right. He leaped over him and tried bringing him down, knocking him out cold rather than kill him. The man took the damage willingly as he was assaulted.
He was laughing.
“KiLl. mE!!!! HaHAhAHAhA!!!!!
The grin on his face was wide, his eyes popping out of their sockets with the excitement and adrenaline he was getting.
The boy proceeded to punch him and pummel him.
“Ah-ah, no cheating in the test. Use your weapon. I’m no good to you unconscious. There’s no way out. Kill me.”
“NO!!!!!!!YAAAARGH!!!”
He struck his fists at his bleeding face, breaking his nose and tearing a jaw.
The man retaliated all of a sudden, biting the boy.
He bit harder and harder into the guy’s calf. Until the flesh came out, hanging by the few tendons and muscles that remained unsnapped by his biting.
The blood flew more freely than ever, and both were mixed in a pool of their own sweat, saliva and blood.
The boy finally dug the knife into the man’s back.
He crawled away from him, thinking he was dead. His lips, nose and face trembled, a gash revealed his teeth then.
Was the man dead?
Astonishingly, he stood up. Laughing, the way he did in his bloodthirst, he pulled the knife out of his own back. Now armed with two knives he attacked the defenceless boy.
“I gave you a chance. NOW ITS MINE!!!!” screamed the man as he dug the knife into his collarbone.
There was a snap. The boy’s right hand went limp. The knife lay stuck near his shoulder.
He could barely stand up. Some how balancing himself, he pulled out the knife with his left hand. He tried to jump at the slayer, but collapsed.
“Unh…unh….AARRRGH!!!!!” he writhed in pain.
The man came and leaned over him, supporting himself on one arm.
“Feeling helpless? I love it when people do. And you know what I love more? I love this big slit I make…from you left ear through you mouth to your right ear…I know how it feels. You’re like a vegetable now. I will cut you, and make my meal…”“AAARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”
The knife in his hand moved up and impaled the man in his chest as he leaned over him. Shoving him with all his might, he lay on top of him and used whatever he could of his right and left hands to slash at the man’s stomach.
He swung and swung. The blood sprayed on the walls, and bits of flesh flew around. The grey organs started to show up.
The intestines were like a maze of grey pipes. He cut, slashed and furiously sliced his inner parts, the stench of the waste inside filling the room. The fluid trickled from his sides, and vomit covered his mouth. The man was dead, smiling, the disgusting goop of blood and vomit dripping by his mouth.
The boy was trembling and sweating. His wobbly hands dug into the mass, searching for a solid piece. The key to the lock. He cried and cried in absolute madness. He didn’t know what was going on anymore. His instincts had better of him. He looked at the key. A plastic tag was attached on it. In tiny print were the words against the blood red tag:
You passed the test
He passed the test. He killed, mutilated a man. He passed the test.
He wept on his corpse. He wept for that entire test he’d been through, all that happened in the last hour. Did he deserve the key? For what he did?
He would have passed the test if he stepped out of that door.
That would be it.
His salvation from sin was to deliberately fail.
And for that, he wouldn’t leave the room.
He sat, bled, and waited for death to embrace him as his life sapped away from the body.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
Have you ever noticed a glint in a person’s eye? Have you wondered what it shows the world about that person? A person’s look may denote pride. Jealousy. Emptiness. Plain malice.
But it wasn’t the same case with this man. He had a look that was, well…tomblike.
Stony. Cold.
A student from the southern province had come up in the town for pursuing his studies. It obviously meant he didn’t have the spending capacity one ought to for living in a city.
He opted for something cheaper, a small apartment flat in a corner locality of the town. Not many lived in this place. Not many lived long here either. The dogs that once roamed freely in the garbage spot were now a rarity. Rats and cockroaches infested the locality, like blight, a disease.
It was a derelict godforsaken land, and the kid was already struggling to see himself live in this locality.
The man who lived next door with the student was always around to help.
He was bald, maybe about in his thirties. His spectacles were thick and frosty and had always worn frayed, tattered rags that were dirty and soiled. His grubby hands always shook, like some sort of nervous twitch.
Speaking in a small, puny voice, he looked with the intensity of a fortune teller in a person’s eyes. In these eyes was the coldness, the deathlike pleasure.
The boy had to be shown his room. He entered the staircase and they both trudged. The walls had stains on them; dark stains that left it caked with grease and muck.
Well, what more can you get for the kind of money you pay. I’d myself rent this flat for such a low price, thought the boy and looked at his to-be new home for the next few years.
A cedar wood door was rotting away, its putrid pieces falling off. The house-keeper rubbed his spectacles, adjusted them and took out a bunch of keys from his trouser pocket.
The boy could see the rawness underneath his fingernails and was somewhat revolted by the sight of it. It brought about this uneasy feeling in his stomach.
“There,” said the man to his tenant, his voice quivering like a wolf’s cry, “You have your bedroom, studyroom and kitchen and one small bathroom in there…”
His cracked fingernail on the index finger pointed out to a small disintegrated wooden door in the distance. There was absolutely nothing in the house.
The tiles had cracked and yellowed ages ago. The paint peeled off the walls and lay on the floor, mixed with the dust on it. Never had he seen a house with no windows, let for a small ventilator on top of the wall. That was the only light source in the room. The smell of rot was unsullied, rancid, disturbing his nostrils.
And for some reason, the kitchen lay locked. A deadbolt secured it in its rusty iron latch.
“…any questions??” asked the little man, his big fly-like eyes staring into the student’s who was unsettled by all this. Mustering some courage, he spoke to the owner.
“Listen, you…you call this a house? There’s no fucking window in here. I need a fan or something to beat the heat. There’s not even a bulb inside…”
“…Will get one.” the man cut him off, his gaze now steelier, more feral than ever.
“oh….Okay…” came the student’s reply, slightly ashamed of over-reacting.
“Come on downstairs. Come to my place. Let us take the furniture you need and your utensils…”
And the man looked away for the first time, walked down the stairs with his slight limp on one foot. He was rubbing his glasses again and muttering something to himself which sounded like some song to the student.
They lifted the heavy cot that lay in his room. The strange man lived in a strange home indeed. The house was no different to the one on rent. It was almost the same, only much more cluttered.
Hauling the dry, rough edged wood cot, they shoved and pushed it into the room upstairs.
“You wait here, adjust the bed if you like. Clean up the place if you want to. I’ll get the keys to the kitchen and the cooking utensils.”
He scurried away like a rat, taking small steps rapidly. The student was plain angry. He hadn’t expected something this bad for the price he was paying. Now he felt it better to pay a bit more and find some better place. After all, it’s about where you’re gonna live.
He was planning on what excuse to give to the flat owner on his departure the next day. Or he’d even ask to leave him then and there itself.
I can’t spend any night in this shit hole, forget pay for it, he thought.
The gaunt man returned by then. His eyes had this malicious glow to them and he kept staring, somewhat untamed. The student hated that. He’d rip his eyeballs out if he had the power to.
“Listen mister, I know that this is really great for the price you’re offering but I’m not comfortable here…”
“No. You must wait. First listen to me. You won’t leave until I am finished dealing with you.” The voice had suddenly become louder, more commanding. He sounded much more authoritative.
“What??” asked the student, perplexed by this answer. He was expecting something else.
The man unlocked the kitchen door and went back to the main door.
He was locking up the room.
“HEY!!!! What’s the deal with all this? Open the goddamn lock!!” the student yelled desperately.
“No. Listen to me first.”
“I’ll fuckin listen to you if you open that lock. NOW!”
The man shook his head. He took off his glasses, wiped them again and put them in his dirty trousers.
Looking up with his big green eyes, he gave a smile, baring rows of dirty, stained teeth.
His hand emerged from his pocket with the key to the lock.
“OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!!!!”
He laughed at the student as he took the little key playfully, raised it above his head, opened his mouth and in it went.
Unbelievably he swallowed the key. Just like in the movies.
“WHAT!!!!! ARE YOU FUCKIN CRAZY??!!? YOU BLOODY IDIOT NOW WE’RE STUCK!! Oh god, no, no, no! NO!!! You’re going to the crapper. You get that key out of your asshole or…”
“Or what?...What can you do? What options do you have? You either listen to me or pay the price…”
The young man was shaking in rage, frustration, and irritated by the truth in the man’s words. He couldn’t do anything but listen to him.
He finally broke the silence.
“Okay. What is it?”
“You people, your civilization…”
He spat on the floor.
“You are blind. You don’t see the world you live in, you don’t understand anything. All this ‘upbringing’ and ‘culture’ has corrupted us humans.
We aren’t what we used to be. We were once true creatures, fighting for what was ours. And now we get everything laid before us. No fight. We have broken the natural law. We have to be truly fit to survive. I lay a test before you. You might want to check the kitchen…”
The sick smile reappeared on his face. The student was frozen in trepidation, with a pale face and the cold sweat of fear running down his brow. He slowly slogged to the door, his muscles almost dead.
What he saw inside was beyond his ability to bear things. It could not be stomached.
On a table lay the source of the putrid smell. A human cadaver cut and chopped up lay on it. Mutilated beyond recognition of distinguishing male or female. Its guts spilled out, yellow ooze dripping. The brown-reddish flesh sagged from decay, the entire area caked with bloodstains. There were handprints of blood on the walls, and places where he was dragged around.
His throat was full of the bitter, sour bile, and he was unable to stand the sight. He whimpered and looked away in disgust.
Slowly, his eyes moved to the monster that lay before him.
He was still smiling.
“I expected that. All you new breeds have been raised wrong. Can’t stand this? This is what we always did to survive. Mankind lives on this. Whatever the world gives you is out of this.”
The student was on the verge of tears and nervous breakdown. He began to hyperventilate, cowered and tried banging the door open.
“You can’t run anywhere now. I have a test for you, if you remember.”
On the floor he threw a cleaver knife. The one used by the butcher.
“This is your ‘utensil’. I have mine.”
There was silence. He looked at the knife, and was in half minds whether to take it or not.
“You want to get out? You have to fight for it. Bring your wild instincts back. You will be enlightened by the end of today’s ordeal.”
He feared something so gruesome it was beyond our everyday terror.
“The key is in my stomach. You get it, or die before that.”
“Kill me if you’re strong enough. The winner will be decided by what you choose. The test begins.”
There was not enough time to react. The boy didn’t know what to do. The slayer lunged for him the moment he was finished speaking.
He swung the knife in one swift chopping motion, aiming the boy’s shoulder. He moved aside a bit too late, and his cloth was ripped off. The skin was cut.
He had drawn first blood.
He rolled and grabbed the knife lying down, sensing no other option.
“Ah, now you have realized?! On your path to enlightenment!!” the man gleefully exclaimed on seeing the same bloodthirst he had in the other’s eye.
They engaged in a tussle. Both clawed and slashed at each other little cuts here and there. He was playing a bit defensively, attacking and retreating.
“Scared? Scared of what? You have the knife in your hand. Kill me. Come on kill me!!!”
The boy’s mind was playing a tug of war inside. His conscience was losing to primal instinct. NO, I wont let that bastard control my mind and make me do anything he wants me to.
He wasn’t looking around when the knife tore at his flesh. He’d sliced his left forearm.
“I love this…We’ll kill each other slowly. You’re going to die anyways!!!” the man spoke, doing his dance of death.
The boy grew aggressive. He went charging over the man, hacking him left and right. He leaped over him and tried bringing him down, knocking him out cold rather than kill him. The man took the damage willingly as he was assaulted.
He was laughing.
“KiLl. mE!!!! HaHAhAHAhA!!!!!
The grin on his face was wide, his eyes popping out of their sockets with the excitement and adrenaline he was getting.
The boy proceeded to punch him and pummel him.
“Ah-ah, no cheating in the test. Use your weapon. I’m no good to you unconscious. There’s no way out. Kill me.”
“NO!!!!!!!YAAAARGH!!!”
He struck his fists at his bleeding face, breaking his nose and tearing a jaw.
The man retaliated all of a sudden, biting the boy.
He bit harder and harder into the guy’s calf. Until the flesh came out, hanging by the few tendons and muscles that remained unsnapped by his biting.
The blood flew more freely than ever, and both were mixed in a pool of their own sweat, saliva and blood.
The boy finally dug the knife into the man’s back.
He crawled away from him, thinking he was dead. His lips, nose and face trembled, a gash revealed his teeth then.
Was the man dead?
Astonishingly, he stood up. Laughing, the way he did in his bloodthirst, he pulled the knife out of his own back. Now armed with two knives he attacked the defenceless boy.
“I gave you a chance. NOW ITS MINE!!!!” screamed the man as he dug the knife into his collarbone.
There was a snap. The boy’s right hand went limp. The knife lay stuck near his shoulder.
He could barely stand up. Some how balancing himself, he pulled out the knife with his left hand. He tried to jump at the slayer, but collapsed.
“Unh…unh….AARRRGH!!!!!” he writhed in pain.
The man came and leaned over him, supporting himself on one arm.
“Feeling helpless? I love it when people do. And you know what I love more? I love this big slit I make…from you left ear through you mouth to your right ear…I know how it feels. You’re like a vegetable now. I will cut you, and make my meal…”“AAARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”
The knife in his hand moved up and impaled the man in his chest as he leaned over him. Shoving him with all his might, he lay on top of him and used whatever he could of his right and left hands to slash at the man’s stomach.
He swung and swung. The blood sprayed on the walls, and bits of flesh flew around. The grey organs started to show up.
The intestines were like a maze of grey pipes. He cut, slashed and furiously sliced his inner parts, the stench of the waste inside filling the room. The fluid trickled from his sides, and vomit covered his mouth. The man was dead, smiling, the disgusting goop of blood and vomit dripping by his mouth.
The boy was trembling and sweating. His wobbly hands dug into the mass, searching for a solid piece. The key to the lock. He cried and cried in absolute madness. He didn’t know what was going on anymore. His instincts had better of him. He looked at the key. A plastic tag was attached on it. In tiny print were the words against the blood red tag:
You passed the test
He passed the test. He killed, mutilated a man. He passed the test.
He wept on his corpse. He wept for that entire test he’d been through, all that happened in the last hour. Did he deserve the key? For what he did?
He would have passed the test if he stepped out of that door.
That would be it.
His salvation from sin was to deliberately fail.
And for that, he wouldn’t leave the room.
He sat, bled, and waited for death to embrace him as his life sapped away from the body.
<<<<<<<
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