Google Images... Artist: Ian Joyner
Baffled
It was all over the papers and TV: Cops Baffled... Suspect Sought. They had very little to go on, the blood type of the perpetrator was O+, which narrowed it down to about 35-40% of the white male population. Other than the race and blood type, they didn't have much to go on. Some bright young detective had made a link to Bobby and Jenn's murder two years earlier- but that was just a supposition at this point, they had nothing more conclusive than a similar blood type.
The cops weren't the only ones baffled either... what was I going to do. I had tried unsuccessfully to kill myself. What was happening sickened me. I wasn't a killer... at least I didn't want to be. I thought about turning myself in, but every time I tried something stopped me. I was going crazy. I was miserable so I went out to get drunk. There was a bar up near Inman Sq. that was mostly guys. This was how I was beginning to live. I tried desperately to avoid women- but that was impossible. For some reason the Night Gods wanted females, I don't know why... I feel like I don't know anything at this point... just that if I got drunk enough maybe they would leave me alone.
I walked in and there she was. I turned to walk out again but couldn't. I avoided looking at her but somehow, I knew what would happen... At least I could avoid eye contact- I knew in my heart it wouldn't work but I had to at least try. Maybe I could get too drunk. It was too late, she had been chosen... the demons wanted her. I wanted to run out screaming, but sat numbly drinking my beer.
Her name was Helen and she lived on Mass. Av.. She was kind of plain but in a pretty sort of way. I had seen her before, my friend Reggie lived on the first floor and I must have seen her while visiting him. It had only been two months since the last time I had killed and I thought it too soon, but the Night Gods would not be denied. Tonight is the night, they made me think... God if I could only stop myself from thinking, but that wouldn't work either- they thought even when I didn't... even in my sleep- like some crazy, murderous party going on in my head. My mind screamed, pleading with them to stop- but to no avail.
Helen's building was an older wood frame structure and presented no problem getting into... not to mention that Helen herself was a little tipsy when she got home. She never even suspected I was in the apartment when she got there. From the dark recesses of her walk-in closet I watched as she got undressed and prepared for bed. Her body was decent, angular and lean. She had smallish, pert breasts that strained against the fabric of her t-shirt. It said something on it which I couldn't quite make out- the name of some school or something. No matter... it would be soon enough soaked with her blood.
She climbed into bed as I stood in the semi-darkness and I watched her go to sleep. Rolling onto one side, she murmured something inaudible. Her back was to me as I sprang from the closet. I snatched her by the hair yanking her upward. There would be no seduction this time, only the rage I felt welling up inside me. It wasn't directed toward her, but that didn't matter- she would pay the price anyway... She would pay for the Night God's sadistic lust. Her eyes looked at me with a vague recognition. I punched her knocking her unconscious. The Night Gods would take their time with this one.
Using my knife, I sliced off her shirt baring her upper torso. I cut off her panties and stuffed them into her mouth gagging her and then secured it tying it on with her shirt. I bound her hands with what was left. She was beginning to come to. She looked up at me, her eyes searching mine. I wanted this over, but the demons were in their element... I could almost hear them laughing with glee. Helen struggled against her bonds but they were too tight. She kicked frantically, hoping to keep me away, but I was too strong. I thought about knocking her unconscious again, but the demons wanted her awake. I went to work.
The papers were full of it the next morning. Another woman murdered, each one more grotesque than the last. The victim had been raped and sodomized and then raped with a knife. She had died slowly and painfully. When reading about it I jumped and ran to the bathroom, vomiting violently. I wanted to die. I wanted to get caught... to turn myself in. But, there was something that I was yet to realize. That night, so many years ago on that lonesome dirt road in Portsmouth... they weren't just watching me as I ran. I was becoming.
The Judge
I had nothing against this guy, hell I didn't even know him. His only flaw, the one that led to his downfall, was being honest... his misfortune. All I knew of him I had read in the paper, or seen on the news. He seemed like a fair enough fellow with a lot of political potential. The papers said maybe a Federal judgeship or even the Supreme Court someday. One thing for sure- he definitely didn't deserve to die.
I struggled with why thoughts of the judge even entered my mind at all. Henry Parker, Superior Court judge... I shook my head and shrugged it off. The Red Sox game was coming on and "El Tiante" was pitching against the Yanks- it promised to be a good one. I grabbed a beer and headed to the living-room. As I approached the TV, it turned on by itself... and what I was watching wasn't the Red Sox. I changed channels but they were all the same. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before... a world far away yet so very near strange and familiar at the same time. A world beset with war, famine, pestilence and death. A world afire, desolate and diseased where cruelty and evil reigned supreme. A world corrupt and corrupted. A world I didn't want any part of- yet I was somehow drawn to it... I couldn't take my eyes off the desolation, I was mesmerized by it... almost to the point that I felt like a willing participant.
I watched with grim fascination, glued to the television screen as though hypnotized. El Tiante and the Red Sox forgotten now... I felt a part of this horrible tableau, near and yet so far away. My role in this destruction was becoming clearer. The incremental destruction of a world I had loved and felt so much a part of was to become my avocation.... More than that- it was my life- my purpose for being unfolding in front of my eyes. But, I wasn't there... I was at home in my apartment- I knew that. I felt as though in a trance- there but not there. Here but not here. They spoke without speaking... thoughts came and went, but they were not my own. I knew their source...that the Night Gods made sure of. The old Beatles song began to play in my head: "I am you and you are me and we are all together..." or something like that- it was unclear, I felt dizzy and elated at the same time. I fought it back, but it wouldn't go away... "we are all together." I was a part of I watched with grim fascination, glued to the television screen as though hypnotized. El Tiante and the Red Sox forgotten now... I felt a part of this horrible tableau, near and yet so far away. My role in this destruction was becoming clearer. The incremental destruction of a world I had loved and felt so much a part of was to become my avocation.... More than that- it was my life- my purpose for being unfolding in front of my eyes. But, I wasn't there... I was at home in my apartment- I knew that. I felt as though in a trance- there but not there. Here but not here. They spoke without speaking... thoughts came and went, but they were not my own. I knew their source...that the Night Gods made sure of. The old Beatles song began to play in my head: "I am you and you are me and we are all together..." or something like that- it was unclear, I felt dizzy and elated at the same time. I fought it back, but it wouldn't go away... "we are all together." I was a part of I watched with grim fascination, glued to the television screen as though hypnotized. El Tiante and the Red Sox forgotten now... I felt a part of this horrible tableau, near and yet so far away. My role in this destruction was becoming clearer. The incremental destruction of a world I had loved and felt so much a part of was to become my avocation.... More than that- it was my life- my purpose for being unfolding in front of my eyes. But, I wasn't there... I was at home in my apartment- I knew that. I felt as though in a trance- there but not there. Here but not here. They spoke without speaking... thoughts came and went, but they were not my own. I knew their source...that the Night Gods made sure of. The old Beatles song began to play in my head: "I am you and you are me and we are all together..." or something like that- it was unclear, I felt I was a part of something. Something I despised with everything that was within me. I wanted it to stop. I wanted the familiarity of the Red Sox... I wanted it so very badly. Why me my mind screamed? And a small voice as if from very far away... Because you were there... Because you are here... Because you are we.
So this was how it was to be. The Judge, along with the others, were just the beginning. Judge Parker must be made to look like an accident. Unlike the others, who were just a part of the demons' sick fantasy, the judge was political... this was about power- the power of good against evil and this time, evil would triumph. I had no idea at the time but I was becoming a part of something much bigger than just myself. This would take some planning. First I had to watch, watch and learn his routine. He was a batchelor. That was good, there would be no wife to complicate things...no collateral damage. He was also a creature of habit. This too was another point in my favor and given the high profile nature of the judge's life, I needed all the advantages I could muster. I watched...watched and waited. I broke into his house to familiarize myself... I had to be aware of everything- all the surroundings, all the possibilities- to make the plan succeed.
He was young to be a Superior Court Judge. Most were older men in their sixties, but Judge Parker was in his late 30's. Parker was a member of a prominent New England family, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boston College and near the top of his class at Harvard Law. There were awards and diplomas on the walls... He was somebody- not some nondescript law clerk or drunken barmaid- he was a judge... He was THE judge. He had made a name for himself as a young prosecutor, getting convictions against many high profile criminals. By the time he was 35, he was a superior court judge.
I had considered the possibility of sabotaging his car, but it was almost impossible to do without leaving any traces of evidence. So cutting the brake lines or causing his Porsche to explode were out. This would take finesse. I finally got the Sox game but watched with very little enthusiasm. Apparently the demons didn't have any ideas either. As I lay on the couch drinking beer after beer, I began to evaluate the interior of his house that I had burglarized a day earlier. I went room to room, thinking about the best place to arrange an accident. Then it came to me.
The judge had a bathtub that doubled as a hot tub. On the shelf adjacent was a radio that he listened to while soaking. It was his habit to have a long soak after a hard day at work. The next day I went to work. First, I stopped by the sporting goods store and bought a spool of monofilament line. Then I went to the judge's house and entered through an upstairs window that I had left unlocked while breaking in. I made a loop in the end of the line and attached it loosely around one of the feet of the radio. Then I ran it along the wall and out the window. The monofilament was practically invisible. All I had to do was return when the judge was in the tub and give it a little yank and then pull the line out the window. My job finished I went about my business, waiting until after the workday was done and the judge returned home.
It went off without a hitch. If I wasn't sickened by what I had done to a good man, i would have called a work of art... a thing of beauty. The judge stepped into the tub and sat down. I pulled the string and the radio plummeted into the tub electrocuting the unsuspecting man... Henry Parker would never become a Supreme Court justice. I could almost hear the demons dancing around singing... "Here comes the Judge, Here comes the Judge, order in the court cause here comes the Judge." It might have even seemed comical, if the act I committed wasn't so utterly detestable.
@richq11/repost-the-night-gods-original-forms-without-forms-and-donna-and-me
@richq11/repost-the-night-gods-original-the-night-gods-of-war-bobby-and-jenn
@richq11/rewrite-the-night-gods-original-revelations-and-nice-night-for-a-murder
GIF by @papa-pepper
