37: Black Friday

SCENE - Lobby of an abandoned building. Three chairs and a broken table emphasize the desolation of the place. An inch of dust covers everything. It is pitch black.

[Evan and Kadrey run into the room holding flashlights. Kadrey stops suddenly]

Kadrey: Wait. Wait! [whispering] why the fuck are we running?

Evan: [Stopping. Catching his breath] I don't... I don't know. That was a real ruckus.

Kadrey: Quite the commotion. Quite the commotion. But I'm not looking to get my throat slit.

Evan: What are we looking for?

Kadrey: Only the correct exit. [he shines his beam on the floor] What's this.

Evan: [augmenting Kadrey's beam with his own] I think it's blood.

[Kadrey is still. Evan moves his beam along the crimson trail. It goes into the next room.]

Evan: What do we do?

Kadrey: The correct exit.

Evan: We leave? Now? What if someone needs us?

Kadrey: That question only has the one answer. I only have the one life.

Evan: What's that worth?

Kadrey: What?

Evan: A life.

Kadrey: That's not fair Evan. I see no life here demanding consideration. It's curiosity. You want me to gamble for your curiosity.

Evan: You're no kind of man.

[Evan goes into the next room. Kadrey is left alone and in silence for about two minutes. His beam stays fixed on the spot where they first saw the blood]

Kadrey: Evan, damn you, make a sound.

Evan: [Coming out of the room, looking queasy] There's most of a man in there...

Kadrey: My God.

Evan: Alone. Whoever, whatever did this... He doesn't have much of a face left...

Kadrey: What can we do?

Evan: I don't know. I don't see a whole lot of options.

Kadrey: Can we take him somewhere? Or do we have to...

Evan: Damn it Kadrey! He's not some fucking horse.

[There is a long silence]

Evan: You get our shit packed up, I'm going to drive down to that truck stop and make a call.

Kadrey: Are we going to wait with him?

Evan: I've got no answers for cops.

Kadrey: For a little bit then.

Evan: You do what you want. I'm not going back in there.

[Evan leaves. Kadrey raises his beam to the entrance of the next room. As we hear Evan's car start up Kadrey starts walking towards the entrance. He turns his flashlight off and goes in.]

Kadrey: Hello?

45: Take From Me My Shadow

   Kadrey woke up in the tub clutching a half full bottle of Beam.  The plastic bottle was near empty by the time he thought to check on Evan.  He was face down between the two beds. Kadrey stood there watching for a minute, making sure his back rose at regular intervals; a habit he had picked up sharing a room with his brother for twelve years. 58.66 to sleep like bums. 

   A quick pat down told him he was out of cigarettes.  He made as much noise as possible unlocking the door. Still there he was, outside by himself.  He had no notion of the time, he'd smashed his watch in Virginia days ago.  Weeks?  No matter.  Leaning on the second floor railing he could spot three live neon altars.  He picked the one by the feeder.   

   At the gas station were a bunch of girls. Even wearing their make up like war paint, they still looked like high school.  High school mean.  High school stupid. High school treacherous.  They crowded the entrance.  

   Kadrey stood a long time on the wrong side of the line between the station's bright lights and midnight's void.  But waiting wasn't going to help.  Kadrey would not be transmuted through the power of patience.  The girls were not going anywhere; this was not a stop on the night's journey, it was the nest itself.  Waiting was an affliction he wanted to be rid of.  Actions then.

   Of course they were mean.  Of course they teased him and made the door an unlikely proposition.  Kadrey wanted to prove that he wasn't a tourist. Desperately.  Kadrey said the wrong thing. Repeatedly.  The half jovial ribbing turned all black.

   It was his first fight, and he couldn't help but notice how little pain was involved.  Confusion, a lot of it, and some pain, but not much.  Pretty soon, it seemed that he was only intermittently in command of his limbs.  Vision went in and out.  The girls had disappeared and were replaced by an adversarial entity.  He was not going to "win". 

There he is standing on the feeder.  A truck's headlights envelops him.  In his brain, the chemicals go crazy.  Vision is extended past vision.  Memories are palpable things.  Above all there is the stony understanding that the shadow so quickly spreading at his feet will be his body's last alteration to this world.

50: Everything in it's right place

The scent of the airbag is surprising, the glow of the flames very familiar, the combination is disorienting. As if he needed more of that. There is probably blood but he's in no hurry to find out. Past the flaming hood of his civic, the road stretches out to a black point, two lines whose intersection harmonizes into imperative rather than emphasis. He reaches for the seat belt before he can remember that he never uses it. His finger traces the empty smile of the clasp, then he coughs. The flesh knows what matters. He is standing on the road envisioning with unmitigated clarity every step that could have brought him here, but unable to actually remember any of them. He starts walking towards the convergence, very careful not to blink.