As It Seems...: Short Stories Read online

  Once there he took a post outside the door and watched the traffic on the street. Seeing a butt-can not too far from where he was standing, he walked over and grabbed the longest cigarette he could find and lit it with a match. He stood outside his door, smoking and thinking. Why would he kill his best friend? Where did the body go? He could not tell what was real and what was not. He needed help; someone who understood what he was going through. But who could possibly understand? Who would know what to do?

  He thought of the movies he had seen before his father kicked him out. Movies about possession and demons, but none resembled the one inside him. The one that had taken over and killed his friend. The one that went silent when he needed an explanation. The evil thing that told him he had to make a sacrifice. Where could he go now? He was dangerous. He could not even control his own actions. He did not want to sleep for fear of having a nightmare, or killing again.

  He thought for a moment about going to the hospital, but had no idea what he would tell them if he did. Finally, he decided to try to rest. What else could he possibly do? He entered the room and stood in the doorway, trying to figure out where he should lay. The bed scared him and he could not imagine ever sleeping in it again.

  Duncan approached the bed slowly and pulled the covers off. He had all of the bedclothes on the floor before he began to put them back again. First the two sheets, then one blanket, then the other. He dressed the bed to look like it had just been made up by housekeeping, then he sat on it, body rigid and still. He used the remote to turn on the television and tuned into Cartoon Network, trusting the channel to put him at ease.

  Adult Swim played on through the night and kept Duncan’s eyes and mind occupied. The young man laughed when he was supposed to but the laugh was robotic, like he had programmed his self to do it. Once the sun rose, he did, too. He stood, looked at the bathroom door and decided one day of missed hygiene was no big deal. He left the hotel room with no destination in mind. He just needed to walk.

  His stroll was very much like the ones he had taken when he was high except slower and more deliberate. He looked at all the people walking by him and wondered what type of life they had. He knew theirs could be nothing like his and he almost began to cry again. Soon enough he found himself back at the hotel and walked into the office. He had meant to have a conversation with the owner, but again, could not find him. The office was still and quiet and he had no bell to ring since it was still on the floor where he had thrown it the night before.

  Finding no one to talk to and keep him company, he went back to his room where he took a long shower and begged the demon to speak to him. His tears mixed with the shower water and left his eyes red and puffy. As he got out of the shower, the demon finally spoke, “I am hungry.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “I suggest you watch what you say, Duncan. It seems as if you are having trouble with your temper nowadays.”

  “Fuck you!”

  “Again, I warn you to watch your mouth. I am hungry, and you are, too. Why don’t we go out to eat?”

  Duncan thought about the Mexican restaurant he had eaten at the day before. “Not there, my boy.”

  “Why? I’m fucking hungry and the shit tasted good.”

  “You are angry. Why is that?”

  “You know why, you piece of shit! Why’d you kill him?”

  “I did not do anything. It was you who took his life. I only took what you gave me.”

  “I did not kill him. You did. You can’t tell me I wanted to kill my best friend. It’s bullshit and I’m calling you on it.”

  “You are yelling. You may want to lower your voice or they might put you away.”

  “I don’t give a fuck what they do to me! Get out of my head!”

  “Were you not begging of me to speak to you? Now you wish me to be quiet. But I cannot do that. I am hungry and need to be fed.”

  “Fine...fine. I’ll play your stupid little game. What do you want?”

  “There is a woman staying in room seventeen. You have seen her, no?”

  “Yes, yeah I saw her.”

  “She is old, and will not fully satisfy me, but she needs to go.”

  “What do you mean she needs to go?”

  “To keep you and I safe; she needs to go.”

  “So what, I’m supposed to just knock on her door and kill her?”

  “No. I will tell you what to do.”

  “Okay, fine. Let’s go.”

  Duncan left his room and left the door wide open in his anger. He walked down the way to room seventeen and knocked on the door.

  “Tell her you are hotel maintenance.”

  “What?”

  “Shut your mouth, boy! Tell her you are hotel maintenance and need to replace the shower head.”

  “I’ve got nothing...”

  The door opened and Duncan smiled. The woman was old. She was stooped over and wrinkly, and he could imagine her shuffling across the small room to answer the door.

  Instead of following directions, Duncan forced his way through the door and grabbed the woman, one hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. He kicked the door closed and whispered to her, “You’re going to die today. Pray to your God and beg him for forgiveness for all of your sins.” Then, using the hand that covered her mouth, he whipped her head to the right, and snapped her neck.

  “Messy, messy, messy.” The demon spoke up. “You should have done what I told you to do. Anyone could have seen you barging in on an old woman.”

  “Well, I can apparently get myself out of jail. What’s the point in being careful?”

  “You must not get caught. If you do, you will be running for the rest of your life.”

  “Running from what? The cops? They have no evidence.”

  “The evidence is on her neck, you fool! Do not disobey me again.”

  “I did what you wanted.”

  He stared at the body laying crumpled on the floor and felt nothing. The was no remorse. He had no room for that inside him.

  “Go and look into the mirror.” Duncan did not move. “Go and look now! I am taking the rest of what I need from you. You need to see this, then maybe you will learn to listen.”

  Duncan refused to move. He did not care about his face, or his body, or aging. What he had just done had just begun to click in his head. He was just realizing that he had killed another human being. He had taken a life, with his bare hands, on purpose. He stood there staring at the old woman’s face. He looked in her eyes and saw the fear there. It was an expression he had never wanted to see.

  Instead of an adrenaline rush, he was numb and very still. He could not hear what the demon was rambling on about in his head. He could not hear his own thoughts. He could only hear the woman’s muffled screams as she bucked and tried to get free. She never had a chance, and Duncan knew it. What he could not figure out was why he had done it. He had wanted to do it. He had almost enjoyed it. The look in the woman’s eyes excited him, and made him hungry for more. He did not care about the demon and what he was doing. He was ready to feed the thing again.

  Chapter 14

  Duncan left the room in a hurry. He left the poor old woman lying in a heap on the floor and went to the office. Once there he looked around, and seeing that the owner still was not there, he went around the counter and began to play with the computer. He was looking for a list of current tenants but was not very well schooled on how to use a computer so he sat clicking away at the mouse for quite some time.

  Coming up with nothing, he went back to the other side of the counter and stood thinking for a moment. He had no way of knowing how many people were staying at the hotel until he looked at the counter itself. On top of a Welcome to Vegas magazine, he found keycards left there by tenants who checked out. He counted them. There were eleven keycards all together, so that meant that in the time the owner had disappeared eleven people had checked out. That left nine rooms including his and the old woman’s. The keycards had no room number on them, so Duncan st
ill did not know what rooms were occupied. He decided to go door to door. But before he did that he would have to be sure, housekeeping did not check the old woman’s room.

  He jogged back outside and up to her room only to realize he had no way of getting in. So he jogged back to his room, grabbed his “Do Not Disturb” sign, and placed it on her door. From there he began to knock on doors. He tried eighteen, nineteen and twenty first. Heading back to room sixteen, he got smart and looked out at the parking lot. It was empty except for one lone car. Part of him hoped the car belonged to the old woman, and the other part hoped that it did not.

  “What are you doing, Duncan?” The voice startled him.

  “Oh, shit. What?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You do know, Duncan. Have a taste for murder, I see.”

  “What? No. I’m just making sure no one else is here.”

  “I can assure you that there is no one else here. Why don’t you guess where Mohammed is?” Mohammed is the name of the hotel owner.

  “What?”

  “Guess where he is, Duncan. Why is he gone? Why has he disappeared?”

  “I don’t know. I’d like to, though.”

  “He is where you left him.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “You have been good to me. You have fed me just like I asked.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You will see soon enough. For now, rest. You need it.”

  “I do not! I’m fine.”

  “You are not fine. You are tired, and confused. You must rest or you are sure to err.”

  “Sure to what?”

  “You are my toy, Duncan, and I am done playing with you. You are much too easy to fool.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “As I said before, you will understand once you rest. You’ve been awake for almost four days now.”

  “No I have not. I slept pretty good before I woke up and found a fucking body in my bed.”

  “Rest. Do yourself a favor. Go back to your room, and sleep.”

  “Fuck that.”

  “Alright, do as you please. I will watch and wait.”

  Duncan shook his head, confused, but not willing to ask any more questions. During his conversation, he had tried the rest of the rooms and they were all empty. The realization that he was totally and utterly alone in the hotel calmed him. He had no more to do to cover his tracks but find the housekeeping crew. If he was remembering right, it had been a couple of days since they had entered his room. He looked again at the small parking lot and decided to watch it from inside, so as not to cause any suspicion.

  Inside his room, Duncan peeled back his curtains and sat on the bed, staring out into the sun. The parking lot remained empty for some time and it confused him. How long could a Vegas hotel stay empty? Even one as dinky as this? He sat staring out of the window, rambling to himself about nothing, waiting for the demon inside him to speak up. He was sorry he had cursed him and wanted some company. He thought about O’Reilly and chuckled, repeating under his breath, “Dead. Dead. He’s dead.” He had no idea why he found the situation funny, but he could not help but chuckle here and there. Forgetting what he was waiting for he laid back on the bed. Under his back, he felt a tiny lump of something pushing against his skin. Sitting up and turning around he saw a tiny little baggy of marijuana lying there, forgotten. There was not much left, and he could not find his papers anywhere in the room so he stuck the bud in his mouth and chewed on it. He did not know if it would have any effect, but he did not care.

  Chapter 15

  Almost an hour later, Duncan sat, still chewing and looking out his window. He had seen cars pull up into the parking lot. He had watched people get out of their cars, and he had seen them re-enter them shaking their heads. Duncan was not hungry, or sleepy, and had no other plans than to sit and stare. He studied the one car in the parking lot and wondered who it had belonged to. He pondered over where the hotel owner had gone, thinking there must have been some emergency somewhere for him to leave his hotel open this way. As long as his key continued to work, though, he did not care enough to investigate the matter further.

  Finally, Duncan rose from the bed and headed out to panhandle in the streets. He had no idea what time it was, so he could not be sure of how much he would make, but he wanted to buy something that could get his mind off death and the demon.

  Out on the street, he asked each passerby for a dollar, hoping the small sum of money was not too much to ask. Several people turned their heads when he approached and some even cursed at him. It was not until he had made it around the block to the front of the hotel again that a man was nice enough to hand him a ten-dollar bill. He thanked the man numerous times and waited on the street a bit until the man was far enough that he would not see him walk into the hotel room. Once there, he found his phone under the bed and called his dealer. The phone rang and rang but he got no answer so he sat down to watch cartoons. Halfway through Gumball, his phone began to buzz and he answered it excitedly, “Hello?”

  “Hey, man. What’s up?”

  “I’m trying to get a dime.”

  “A dime of what? M.J. or that stuff?”

  “Why don’t you bring me half and half? I can put in some work, too if you have anything for me.”

  “Yeah, I just might. Give me a few and I’ll come through. You still at the same place?”

  “Yup. Still here.”

  “Ah, Mohammed’s doing you right, huh?”

  “Yeah, man. It’s nice.”

  “Alright, man, I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Duncan hung up the phone and went back to his cartoons. He had bummed a cigarette while he was out and decided to puff on it while he waited. Not ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door and Duncan let his drug dealer in, stealing a glance at the still empty parking lot.

  The drugs were dropped on the bed and the two men shook hands to pass the money. Duncan was all smiles and asked if he had any work.

  “No. I’m sorry, man. Things are moving kind of slow today.”

  “Oh, it’s cool. I understand.”

  “Hey, uh, can I use your bathroom? You mind?”

  “No, go right ahead.”

  “Thanks man. And just to let you know, you should shower while you got the chance. It smells like ass in here.” Duncan chuckled. He could not smell a thing and assumed the other man had simply been joking. The bathroom door closed and Duncan heard the hissing voice again.

  “I want him.”

  “No.” Duncan whispered.

  “I want him.”

  “I said, no. I need him.”

  “No you don’t. You don’t need anyone but me.”

  “That’s what you think.”

  “What?” The dealer had come from the bathroom, grinning widely at seeing Duncan talking to himself.

  “Oh, nothing...just...so you wanna do a quick line with me?”

  “Oh hell no. You know I don’t do that shit.”

  “Well loan me some papers and I’ll smoke you out.”

  “I can do that. Here.” He tossed a pack of rolling papers to Duncan who caught them and immediately sat down with them and the small bag of weed. “So where’s Reilly’s red ass been?”

  “Don’t know. He never answers his phone.”

  “That’s true. I’m just so used to seeing him on the block. He ain’t been around for a few days.”

  “Oh, well I definitely haven’t seen him.” Duncan dipped his head, intent on stopping the conversation where it was.

  “Ay, man, it really does stink in here. Smells like you got dead bodies in this bitch or something. You should tell Mohammed to check that shit out.”

  “I’ve been leaving him alone. I’m just happy he’s letting me stay here.”

  “Yeah, well, I can tell him on my way out if you want.”

  “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to him.”

&nb
sp; “Yeah, you should. It’s bad, man. You don’t smell it?”

  “Not until you mentioned it.” It was true, after Jimmy brought it up the second time, he could smell it. It reminded him of rancid meat and it filled the entire room like the green fog in cartoons. He was not positive of what it was, but he definitely smelled it and hoped the smell of the weed would over power it.

  The two men sat and stared at the television smoking the joint. Here and there, there was a chuckle, but other than that it was silent. When the joint reached its last puff, Jimmy stood and gave Duncan a weak wave. “Alright, man. Imma get outta here. I’ll stop at the office before I bounce, cause you need to do something about this smell man. Even the weed didn’t cover it up. Ya’ll prolly got rats or something dead in the vents.”

  “Okay, thanks.” Duncan walked up behind the man as he approached the door. “Drive safe.” Then as soon as Jimmy put his hand on the knob, Duncan grabbed his head with both hands and twisted, showing no mercy. There was a loud snap, and Jimmy fell onto the floor just as the old woman had.

  “Good boy.” The demon hissed.

  “Aw, shut up. He was asking, too many questions.”

  “About what, Duncan? What are you trying to hide?”

  “I don’t know...”

  “Yes you do. Think, think hard.”

  “No! This is all your fault. All of it!”

  “No. It is your fault. You must remember what you have done, no?”

  “I haven’t done anything.”

  “Just remember, it was by your hands, not mine.”

  “Fuck you!”

  Duncan grabbed the limp body and pulled, straightening him out on the floor. Then he stood over him, staring down into yet another face, this one calm and ready to go on with his day. He could not think of what to do with the body. He needed to move it, but where?

  “Next door.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to get in there?”