A Melancholic Black Series (Book 1): The Red Door (6 page)

IX

November 12th.

5:00AM.

The pain… my head
.

The first two thoughts that crosses Rodney’s mind as he wakes up with his right hand cuffed to a chain wrapped around a beam in the basement. He’s hurt and disoriented. Chained up like a dog by his own wife: the “love of his life.”

“Wake up,” a voice coos from the dark. A light turns on. Nell stands in front of Rodney with a plate of salad. “You’ll have to eat green. We don’t have any meat left.”

“Because of that little monster.”

“That ‘monster’ is your daughter.”

“My daughter is dead. Like this fucking marriage.”

Nell sucks her teeth. “I forgot how cute you got when you were angry.” She’s teasing him, but she is incredibly frustrated that Rodney cannot see things now the way that she does. So traumatized by the events surrounding her child’s death, she keeps turning the other way. She loves Rodney, otherwise he’s sure he’d be just like Sion: slowly digesting. “Your daughter is alive and healthier than before. She needs her father
more
than I need my husband,” Nell says placing the salad at Rodney’s feet.

Rodney bleakly states, “She’s not going to stop, Nell. You have to know this. No matter how far down you lock up that feeling.”

“You’re wrong. I’ve looked in her eyes. I can’t
stop
looking at her beautiful face. I don’t see a monster looking back, I
see
Amberly.”

“Amberly would never hurt a fly, let alone kill our fucking mailman! For God’s sake, Nell. Sion has a family. He has kids. He is our friend. Now he’s dead.”

“I can control her.”

“How? Please. I’d love to hear.”

Nell smiles. “She’s watching cartoons right now. All I had to do was give her lunch and ask nicely.”

Rodney shakes his head in disgust. “You are fucking sick. Who did you feed to her this time?”

“Don’t be rude, Rodney,” Nell says. “It was Janine’s dog, Prince.”

“Our neighbor’s dog? HA! That’s fucking rich, Nell. Just keep murdering everything and everyone.”

“You
hated
that dog!” she shouts and she isn’t wrong. If Rodney wasn’t trying to make a point, he’d admit it. “I know what I will do for my daughter, do you?”

“I’m not moving to first in line for lethal injection.”

“That’s unfair, Rodney.”

Rodney tilts his head in disbelief. “
You have
to be shitting me, baby. I see that I can’t convince you, but, it’s
wrong
. For Christ’s sake, just
look
at what you are doing! I’m your husband and you have me chained like an animal. In
our
home. You’re willing to end this? Everything we’ve built, over a delusion?”

“Once upon a time
this was
a delusion. I’m protecting our child,” Nell insists. “It’s all out of love.”

“How far are you gonna go?”

“As far as it takes. There’s
nothing
I won’t do,” she says looking deeply into Rodney’s eyes. He knows she’s dead serious. “No-
thing
.”

Rodney smiles, not through humor, but by how bat-shit crazy Nell sounds. “That’s good, Nell… really. But she will kill you.
Both
of us.”

Nell smiles back which angers Rodney. “Amberly would never hurt
me
. I’m her mother. You’ll see that she’s the same little girl that we raised together. Just, stop seeing what you want to see and actually look. Watch.” Nell leans in and kisses Rodney on the cheek. “I promise, Amberly
is
back.” She leaves.

Rodney screams, “Nell! Don’t… help me!
Please!
Don’t fucking leave
me!
Don’t leave me down here…
Nell!
” but she doesn’t listen as she slams the basement door, leaving Rodney, once again, all alone in the dark basement, with nothing but the pile of mulch formerly known as Sion.

Left to deal with the stench of defeat and a dreaded sense of his own mortality. Time to ponder what he has done and said about his own child.

Bad boy
.

Noon…

Hot steam from the shower covers the bathroom mirror before a hand wipes it clean. Staring at herself is a naked Nell. Her body: a stacked paragon even after having a child. She was never one for being lazy. “Fit! Fit!
Fit!
” That’s her motto. She has the curves; hips, breasts, and legs that go for miles.

It’s always been an advantage for women: their curves. Their soft skin, sweet voices, and gentle touch. A mother’s touch. Kryptonite to men.

She’s gorgeous. Beautiful
and
humble, it’s what makes her irresistible. Rodney must be out of his damn mind. Nell sure is. Maybe it’s a sexually-contracted result of their lovemaking.

Amberly needs to eat. Nell knows this. To control her hunger and aggression as well as to keep her looking young, healthy, and normal. As normal as it can ever be, at least. As much as the thought of murder doesn’t exactly turn Nell on, she needs to help her daughter at any cost and pay the consequences later. Time to use her looks to get what she wants. Something that might be hard for her since she’s never done it before in her life.

It’d be fair to say that most men who see a woman like Nell would most likely assume she’s done it hundreds of times. Truth is, she always hated the attention that her beauty brought her.

Hard to tell what she might have today if she let her looks do the talking and
not
her mouth. Chances are she’d have someone more loyal than Rodney. Then again, maybe some one worse. She’s just not selfish or conceited. Though if her looks could help anyone who was in need, then she would make use of it. No better person to help than her own daughter.

Men won’t stand a chance.

Downtown Olave.

The Soup Kitchen. A place that Nell and Rodney visit every Thanksgiving and Christmas to donate turkeys and hams to the homeless. Always willing to be helpful. Anything to ease the burdens on the souls who always seem to be less fortunate and severely hard-pressed. More-so Nell’s idea than Rodney’s. He’d rather keep what he’s earned than to give it to the needy.

He’s not rapacious when it comes to money. It’s just harder for him to give away the things he worked hard for, for
free
.

Nell has always had a better understanding that some people are born with everything, while most are born with nothing. There is no in-between. A difference as large as night and day with no shades of grey.

She enters the building. It’s just a large cafeteria in the old elementary school. Town saw no need on knocking it down, so it became a home to the homeless. A hobo haven which has been getting larger through the years with no identifiable reasoning. Most likely the shrinking economy.

“Nell!” an older, taller homeless man calls out.

Nell smiles. “Sean, how are you?” she asks the familiar friend.

Sean walks over, his long beard covering his neck. He smiles, his missing teeth make him adorable; at the very least to Nell. “I’ve been better. Say, are you here to donate some of those delicious turkeys?”

“No, unfortunately, not this year. I was laid off of work back in April, I’m afraid.”

“Aww, shit. I’m sorry, beautiful.”

Nell smiles quaintly. “It happens.”

“Where’s, uh, Mr. Gray? Rodney?”

“Home. That’s actually why I’m here,” she giggles. “We’re moving out and we need a hand.”

“I can help!”

“Can you?”

Sean smiles. He’s been through a lot in his life, but he’s just happy to be alive. When you go through the worst life can offer, you really learn to love the little things. More importantly, the calm times. Something Nell should have learned by now.

“Oh, sure. I’m not as strong as I used to be, but I can lend a hand. Shit, before I was homeless I used to work for a living. Construction.”

“Well I’m going to pay you,” Nell offers.

“
Nah
. No need. Your family has done a lot for this place and I’ve heard you’ve been through your own troubles. I’m happy to help free of charge.”

“I have to pay you somehow…” she offers again, just trying to make it easier on her own soul for what she has planned.

“Well… lunch. Maybe a sandwich or something. Nothing too serious,” the humble Sean recommends. “
Will work for food
.”

“Deal!” Nell says excitedly. Ironically enough, that’s exactly what she’s working for.

To think that she figured it would be harder to get someone to come with her, and she completed her goal by just walking in the front door. It’s amazing what being nice to people can wield you. Friends. Relationships. Dinner for the dybbuk living in your basement.

The decayed flesh on Sion’s corpse cracks as Amberly’s rotted teeth rips through it. She chews nice and slow to savor the flavor of his Mediterranean skin. Like bubblegum or some kind of skin-jerky, it’s surprisingly chewy.

She swallows as she rips off another piece. This time with some meat covered in maggots. It bothers her none. It’s like an ice cream covered in sprinkles. Chewing on Sion’s femur, it’s all that’s left of him. Grown adult male consumed in 24-hours.

Rodney sits, still imprisoned in his own home, watching in horror. More so disgust. Scared shit-less like a whimpering mutt. To see the little girl he raised devolve into this creature.

“How did this happen?” he asks her. But she does nothing but finish her dining. “I’m talking to you!” Still, nothing.

He snickers in amusement. She won’t even pay him mind. Perhaps if she wasn’t eating. Though she’s just about done.

“Hey! Look at
me!
” he hollers kicking his feet. Still, she doesn’t. He knows what she wants. For the time being he amuses her, “
Amberly
,” her calls out.

The little girl stops eating just long enough for Rodney to understand that she likes to hear her name. Whether Amberly is in there still or there’s something that rolls off the syllables that this tiny creature likes, Rodney may be wrong about his daughter being dead.

Somehow, this upsets him even more. There’s no mistake he loved his little girl, but this thing is a mockery of everything he remembers about her.

“You’re not my daughter. You know that right? You’ll never be Amberly. Amberly is dead. Dead!” This time the little girl looks up and shakes her head. “Oh… finally you notice that I’m here,” Rodney sardonically says. “You really think that you’re Amberly?”

She nods.

“Bullshit,” he laughs. “Why? Because you look like her?”

She shakes her head.

“Then why?”

She shakes her head, again.

“Because you
are
her?”

Amberly nods.

“What do you know?” he asks.

“I-I-
I
…
know!
” Amberly yells back, her voice stuttering, low. She stands up and drops the bare bone. She walks up to Rodney and sits down on her knees with her feet tucked. She doesn’t say or do anything, she just stares at him as he swallows heavily. He was scared before when she was more than a foot away, but now, face to face, he’s petrified. In his mind, he hadn’t cared anymore if he lived or died. But
now
, he knows of the pain he surely would go through. Being eaten alive.

He wondered what it would feel like. Sure it would hurt. Would he go in shock? Would he feel everything?

Yes, he would.

He’s positive that Sion had. Too bad there wasn’t a little left of Sion so he could ask. Perhaps it’d be easier to deal with it if he knew what was coming. Would it be easier? Absolutely not. If anything, it’s even scarier knowing there’s nothing he could do to stop it.
Even
if he wasn’t chained up.

“
What
do you know?” he asks.

“Wh-wh-why… I… a-am… dddead.” She reveals.

Rodney’s eyes open wide. “Dane…”

“No,” Amberly responds. “
You
.”

“Me? There’s no… you don’t know anything.”

Amberly doesn’t move or say a word.

Rodney thinks for a moment. Fretful of asking the next question. A question he feels he needs answered. “Do… you, uh, want to…
kill
me?”

She shudders from excitement, smiling as she nods.
Yes
, she does. More than anything.

“Are you?”

Amberly shrugs. She’s really enjoying messing around with Rodney. Even if she is telling the truth. He has no clue.