Snuff & Nonsense

His sudden abysmal epiphany had stopped his feet just before the crosswalk, and had deadened his senses to the point that he did not notice the young gothic couple who stepped past him, trying to beat the DON’T WALK sign. He was only snapped out of his trance when the taxi to his right blared it’s horn, giving him just enough time to look up and watch the young couple get hit by the speeding semi turning left onto the street which he was just yards from crossing. Through some oddity of trajectory, the two black-clad bodies were sent tumbling over the crosswalk, end over end like bloodied rag dolls, leaving spots of blood where they touched the ground and, after their skulls had given way, dots of gore, until they both came to a skidding halt at Adrian’s feet. Adrian stood for a long time—everyone did—staring at the two things before him. The one that was once female lay with all limbs broken, each twisted at an impossible angle, it’s face broken down the center. Half of it’s actual features had been peeled off and lay to one side, like the tear on a Christmas package, with one deflated eyeball in it’s mix. The other half was intact, but lay over a shattered skull, contorting it hideously, it’s eye open and unharmed, giving Adrian a cold stare. The one that was male had sustained considerably less damage, except that it’s head and part of it’s neck had been completely taken off and now lay crushed beneath the semi’s tires. The pools beneath them both widened and thinned under the steady light rain, and the smell of freshly shed blood reached Adrian’s senses. There were no initial cries of terror or shock. Everyone simply stared at the carnage, and at the man who stood before it, with it at his feet, as though this atrocity were an offering to him. Then Adrian heard the cackling. He turned slowly around, knowing already what was to happen next. The old man stood in the doorway of the botanica, pointing his crooked limbs and screeching between laughter, “See! See! I tell you! Dead! See!”

A woman screamed, shattering the surreal silence into a frenzy of chatter and sirens. Adrian ran home like a scared puppy, up the stairs to the still-darkened apartment and curled up on the couch, shaking, hugging his knees and the bottle of rum, trying to convince himself that none of the past hour had happened at all.