GREY SMOKE
“He
must be killed! He’s become so emaciated;
I can barely stand to look at him.
But I also don’t want to make him suffer anymore. He must be killed. And soon!”
“I
am sure it’s inevitable, Mr. Grey.” Linder replied, “It’s not your fault things
got this out of hand.”
Mr.
Grey opened an old iron gate leading into his estate. It creaked as it closed itself behind the two
gentlemen.
Mr.
Grey was dressed to the nines in a blue pin-stripe suit. Everything about his was always so
dapper, from his hair down to his shoes - even including his socks of which
were rarely visible.
He walked with a cane just for the
visible presentation of it all. He
believed a cane made a man look and feel more sophisticated. The more extravagant the cane the
better, he always said. The cane
he walked with today had the head of a gorilla molded in 24 karat gold as the
handle. The eyes of the gorilla
were small diamonds, but one of the eyes was now missing.
Linder on the other hand is a
little shadier. He always dressed
in dark drab colors and kept a large brimmed hat pulled over his eyes and most
of his face. His dark hair was
always stringy and unkempt flowing down over his shoulders. If he was outside, you could rightly
assume there would be a cigarette or a fine cigars fumes passing through his
lips.
As they walked Linder opened up the
left breast of his trench coat, reached in and pulled out a small bottle of
Southern Comfort.
“I have some finer choices inside,
if you care to save what you have in that bottle of yours.” Grey offered.
With one last big swig Linder
coughed back, “I’ll drink both…and refill my bottle before I leave.”
Grey smiled slightly and politely,
“Touché.”
As they ascended some stone stairs
up to a large wooden door Grey stopped suddenly.
“I must warn you again. This is not a pretty sight. I’ve had to make some
minor…’adjustments’…and a few…’restraints’ have become necessary. I do so apologize for these matters,
but I assure you they were very necessary.”
Linder took a drag from his
cigarette and waved his hand carelessly into the air as if to motion
“whatever”. He was about to take
another drag but was stopped when Grey abruptly grabbed his wrist.
“I don’t think you understand the
graveness of this situation or what you are about to encounter. I assure you, you have never seen or
imagined anything so beautiful and so disgraceful ever.”
Linder shook his hand free and
motioned with his eyes for them to continue walking in. Grey let out a small sigh before
turning back around and continuing on their route into the house.
Inside the house hung large
paintings and mosaics everywhere.
Art pieces on every shelf in every corner. A large bookshelf took up an entire wall of a hallway. A sliding ladder was at the end of the
hall with a single book sitting on one of the rungs. Linder stopped in front of the ladder and took one last long
drag from his cigarette before extinguishing it on the cover of ‘Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde’.
At the end of the next hall was
another shelf full of framed photos and a vase of plastic daylilies. Grey reached behind the vase of flowers
and pulled on something that released the shelf from the wall. He pulled the shelf toward himself
revealing a dimly lit descending staircase.
On the back of the shelf hung several
flashlights. Grey pulled down two
and handed one to Linder.
“You may want this. Just until we get to the bottom.”
Linder took it and flipped the
switch to the ‘on’ position and nothing happened. He hit it into the palm of his hand twice and then it
flickered before lighting up the wall in front of him.
“If you could close the entry
behind us, it would be greatly appreciated, sir.”
Linder found a rope tied to the
side of the shelf, which he used to pull the shelf taught to the opening. As soon as he heard a click, he let the
rope go and went down the stairs carefully.
Along the walls were scrapes and
nicks taken out of the walls.
There were a few pictures that were hanging up and each of them had
broken frames and cracked glass. One
of them, a photo of Grey standing next to his yacht, had dark red stains
streaked across it.
At the bottom of the stairs was a
single path to take. No turns, but
the walkway did curve to the right at a constant arc.
At the end of the hall stood Grey
moving his light along the walls.
“There should be a switch here
somewhere. I can never seem to
remember where though. Ah, there
it is!”
Grey flipped the switch and three
dim lights turned on revealing a door to their right.
“One last time.” Grey warned,
“Prepare yourself.” And with that,
he unlocked the door with a key from his pocket and opened the door slowly.
The room was dark with shadows
covering every corner. A small
bowl sat in the middle of the room full of maggots. The stench of sulfur and burnt hair filled Linder’s nostrils
as he winced.
“Be careful where you walk. He is back in that corner, but he tends
to throw his feces across the floor.”
Grey whispered.
Linder looked down and noticed he
was already tracking crap across the floor. He had taken a few steps with it already, leaving marks
across the stone floor.
“He’s back behind this wall. He is chained up, but the chains give
him enough slack that he can move a good twenty feet or so. So if he lunges at you, be ready to fall
back a little – just enough so he cannot reach you.”
Linder nodded and Grey didn’t even
look back to see a response. He
just assumed that Linder would do it automatically even without a warning.
Grey’s flashlight lit a corner up
enough to make out a small frail body hunched over in the corner. It’s bones looked as if they were
trying to burst out through his tight fatless skin.
Linder stared intently, peering
through his half-closed eyelids.
“Hello…?” Linder was attempting to
establish contact through a warm welcoming sentiment. “Hello…?”
The creature’s head turned towards
the two men standing in the middle of the room. Both of their flashlights now pointed its direction.
“Are you sure it’s actually human?”
Linder asked quizzically.
“Quite positive.”
“How can you still tell?”
“Now? Well, you can’t now.
I had to do too much to it.”
“Do too much to it?”
“It’s hard to tell from a distance,
but I had to ‘seal’ several of his senses because honestly, he was just getting
on my nerves. It was bad enough
that he had gone askew from what I was projecting. I had very high hopes for him, but now this is what I
have. I have this thing.”
The creatures face was turned
towards them. The eyes had been
stapled shut. It’s lips were sewn
together on one side and it’s fingers were somehow burned or fused
together.
“He looks nothing like you…”
“No. Not anymore he doesn’t. We used to look exactly the same. Exactly. Down
to every last freckle and mole. I
thought he was perfect at first.
But then…then I realized he had so many faults. So many issues I didn’t want to have to
deal with. So at first, I asked
him not to leave the house. He
refused my request, so I left him down here.”
“Why did you forbid him to leave
the house?”
“I couldn’t take the chance of him
going out into the world and making decisions for me. Simple as that.
He has the same physical structure, but his brain hadn’t fully
developed. Could you imagine an
idiotic version of me walking around making horrible ignorant decisions in my
place? Ludicrous.”
“Does he even know we are here?”
“At this point, I am not sure if
anything is registering. I think
his brain, for the most part, has shut down. No train of thoughts, no thought process, no decision
making. He just sits down here and
eats.”
“With the mouth…why did you…”
“He got too loud. He would yell and scream and it would
echo through the house. At least
this way, now that I cut out his tongue and closed off half of his mouth, at
least this way he can still eat and stay alive.”
“And the eyes?”
“His would creep me out at night
with his staring. Now his head
just wanders when he thinks he heard something. Plus, without his sight, if he ever happened to get away, he
couldn’t see where he was going.
That gave us an advantage in case he ever attempted to escape.”
“What went wrong? If you don’t mind me asking…with the
experiment.”
“I’m not quite sure, to tell you
the truth. I designed the clone to
be a perfect representation. The
only difference would be that the clone had absolutely no life experience or
memories. It was created starting
with the brain capacity of a newborn baby. As a few weeks went by, because the brain inside was already
at the adult stage, the learning and ability to retain information grew
exponentially. But the maturity
level took a turn for the worst - the very worst. After another week it became demanding. It would throw a tantrum if it didn’t
get its way. Then it became
rebellious and loud. So eventually
it came to the point of all of this,” Grey pointed to the creature huddled in the
corner, “and I was really hoping it would turn out to be a pacifist.” He said
with a slight chuckle.
“Do you really think it’s deserving
of death?” Linder asked compassionately.
“I didn’t bring you here to
question its existence. I only
brought you here to do what I myself couldn’t get myself to do. I need you to do this one favor for
me. I will forever be indebted to
you.”
Linder looked over at Grey and
looked him straight in the eye.
Grey said with a very calm and
collected voice, “Yes, yes I do believe it needs to come to this. Let me bring you what you will need to
complete the task.”
Grey’s cane made louder taps
against the stone floor than his shoes did as he left the room. The tapping echoed in the halls before
it paused to let a creaking resound throughout the chamber.
The creature covered its ears at
the creaking noise. It began
shaking it’s head violently from side to side and tried to make a screaming
side out of the open side of its mouth.
Only the attempt at a noise and a bit of drool found its way through the
creature’s lips.
“I pity you creature.
I really do.” Linder spoke gently and gracefully.
The creature heard this and lunged
for Linder. Linder took a few
steps back shocked and horrified as he tried to escape. He fell backwards on the stones and the
creature jumped on top of him. He
was pinned down with the face of this monster directly above his.
Both were breathing heavily, but
this thing started making high-pitched wheezing noises. It was almost as if it were sobbing or
trying desperately to speak.
Linder was too shocked to
move. It didn’t matter anyway –
with all the surgeries and restraints done to this being, it had no way of
doing too much damage to him.
Both just laid there as their breathing started to calm a
bit.
“My god, you look even more
gruesome up close.” Linder stated as a matter of fact. “So repulsive.”
Linder’s concentration was broken
when a blunt object swooped in front of his face and landed inside the open
part of the creature’s mouth. Grey
forced the creature up, slowly lifting the end of his cane higher and guiding
him backwards until it’s back was flush up against the wall.
Disappointed, Grey hollered over
his shoulder, “I told you to be careful.
He has a temper and can get quite violent. Do you not remember me telling you that? You must be careful. It’s just in his nature, there is
nothing you can do about it.” He
paused for a moment. “Nothing you
can do as long as it’s alive…”
Linder was only half sitting on the
ground still. His clothes a bit
ruffled and scuffed from the fall.
Grey was still holding the monster
in place, “There behind you on the table is a box. Go open it and pull out its contents, if you will.”
Linder shuffled to his feet and
made his way to the box. It was a
fancy hand-carved wooden box. On
the lid were two ornate roses with their stems intertwined and dancing about
each other. Linder took a moment
to admire the artistry of the box before opening it and revealing the contents.
“Hurry up!” shouted Grey from across
the room.
Linder glanced up then back to the box. Inside were two revolvers. He grabbed one and made his way over to
Grey’s side. He did his best not
to look at Grey, but even more to not look anywhere near where the eyes of this
thing used to be.
Grey barked out a few commands, “I
am going to drop my cane and let him go.
You need to make sure that he stays over here and that you keep full
control of the situation when I do that.
I won’t say when, because I know he can hear me. I will signal you with a nod. I will then back away and you do what
is necessary to end this. Do you
understand?”
Linder just stared at the creature
with slight admiration.
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND??”
“Yes, yes. I get it.”
Both men paused as the creature
shook a few times trying to get the cane out of its mouth with its
paddle-shaped hands. Eventually
the creature gave up and let its arms down to rest.
Grey looked over at Linder. Not moving his head, Linder looked back
with only his eyes. Grey slowly
nodded his head and stepped back keeping the cane in the creature’s mouth and
fully extending his arm that was holding the cane.
Linder stepped over putting himself
directly in front of this morbid being as Grey pulled the cane away. Linder quickly grabbed the throat of
the creature to steady its head and placed the gun into its mouth. Both their faces became more and more
tense. Linder gritted his teeth
before noticing tears coming from the creatures stapled eye lids.
A loud bang rang through the
chamber followed by a second bang.
The first noise had startled Linder so much that he accidentally pulled
the trigger, completely not meaning to.
Blood had splattered against the
wall and on to Linder’s face and hands.
Linder wiped his face with his sleeve only to find he smeared the blood,
not actually wiped any off.
Linder took a couple steps back and
let the limp corpse slide down the wall.
As it hit the ground, the body slumped over with a thud.
“What the hell was that?” Linder
yelled over his shoulder.
“Perfection, that’s what it
was! A perfectly executed plan!”
Linder noticed that Grey’s voice
echoed as if they were in two different rooms. He quickly turned to see that the door to the chamber was
shut. There was a small window in
the door that was cracked open with Grey’s face peering through it.
Linder walked over to the window
with a scowl on his face. He was
still trying to wipe some of the blood from his face.
“You slammed the door shut! You scared the crap out of me and made
me accidentally pull the trigger!”
“I just gave you a little more
motivation. You were
hesitating. Had I not closed the
door, you would still be standing there full of sympathy for that wretched beast! I did you a favor, you ungrateful
human!”
“I was making sure I was doing the
right thing. That thing, that thing was crying! It was in pain and distress. It had feelings and emotions!”
“It had issues and
complications. It had hate and
anger and violence. It had to be
dealt with and dealt with swiftly!”
“You had no right to force my hand
like that!” Linder clenched his fist and punched the door with the side of his
hand.
“So much aggression, Linder. Did the creature get to you too?”
“Whatever. Let me out…”
“I’m afraid I can’t, sir. Not when you have a temperament like
that.” Grey stated calmly.
Linder grabbed the door by the
handle and the reached through the window at Grey’s face. Grey had backed up just in time to
barely feel the breeze of air pass by from Linder’s hand.
“Let me out of here!” Linder
demanded.
Grey raised his cane up and poked
it through the window placing it into Linder’s mouth. Linder gagged and took a couple steps back before he could
shake the cane away. Grey dropped
the cane to the floor inside the chamber.
“I won’t be needing that
anymore. You can keep it…as a…as a
keepsake.”
Linder stood there enraged like a
bull waiting to lunge forward.
“Sir, I must thank you generously
before we depart. So, thank you
very much for a job well done.
Splendid! Good show! Hoorah!”
Grey began to clap slowly. A second clap began from inside the
hallway. Linder ran to the window
to see two figures in the hallway.
One was Mr. Grey, the other was…him.
“Have you met my partner,
John? This is the new and improved
Mr. Linder. The cloning process
has been quite delightful. With
the smallest amount of DNA, I can make anyone I please. Not only that, I can make them better!”
“You said that it was going
wrong! You said that things went
bad and that’s why I had to kill off your creation!”
“Oh no, sir. I never ever said that. I said you needed to kill off that
creature. That monster needed to
die. That grotesque being in there
had gotten so controlling and violent, it needed to be put to rest.”
The wheels in Linder’s head could
not stop running a million miles a second.
“I never once asked you to kill of
the creation. I was asking you to
kill off the creator, John.
Remember, we were created as pacifists. We couldn’t do it ourselves. And after burning his fingers together, he couldn’t even
kill himself properly. He could
barely gouge out his own eyes, leaving him tormentuous pain so excruciating
that I had no choice but to close up his failed wounds. And there you sit. No better than him. Ready to kill me if I were just to open
this door. Ready to kill us.”
“You sick bastard.”
“I’m not the sick one, John. You are sick. Your entire human race is sick. You are born with a sickness that only grows over time. You want to fix things, John? You want to make things better? You want to end this vicious cycle? I left you an exit, John. I left you means to escape. It’s sitting on the table right next to
the door.”
Linder looked over and saw the
second revolver still sitting in the box.
He grabbed it quickly and checked the chamber. One bullet - already loaded and ready. He pointed the gun out the window
directly at Grey who was now no more than 3 feet away from the door.
“What are you going to do,
John? Shoot me? Then what? Then you stay down here rotting and starving until you die
in a month or so.”
Linder moved the gun sideways and
changed targets to point at the clone of himself who had remained silent until
now.”
“Shoot me?” The clone chuckled,
“and do you think he will let you out if you shoot me? Do you think either of us will let you
out if you shoot the other? Be
realistic. Think this
through. You only have one bullet
and one path of escape. You can
end it all. The power is in your
hand.”
The clone reached into the inside
breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “I don’t smoke, but I know you
did. I kept these on me just for
this moment. Here, have one for
the road.”
The clone raised the Marlboros to
Linder. Linder took one out and
placed it in his mouth. He then
glanced up at his clone.
“Of course I have a light for you
too. I wouldn’t want to be in this
moment unprepared now, would I?”
The clone took out a lighter and
held it up for Linder.
Linder inhaled to get the cigarette
lit and then exhaled slowly into the clones face.
“For being a demented basket case,
you look pretty good.” Linder complimented the clone.
“Flattery will not get you the
keys, but I do appreciate the generous words. Take your time, but we do have to run. We have another appointment later today
that we must prepare for. Mrs.
Grey shall be returning and we must make sure all is in order when she
arrives. So many surprises
today! So many surprises!”
Linder sat down in the middle of
the floor where he stood. His
cigarette was in one hand and the gun in the other.
The clone poked his face through
the window one last time, I should warn you though - cigarettes will kill you.”
BANG!
