I'll TELL YOU WHAT...PT UNO

Let's dig it up, shall we? Let's follow the blazing trail to the Land Beyond The Curtain Call, huh? For Rob.

 

 

"Look at it, silly Gringo," the Dominican man said, a sly grin on his face. His teeth were perfectly white behind full and steady lips. His hair was close-cut and glistened as if there were droplets of honey sprinkled throughout. He was tall and well built, but contrary to what he had perhaps been to some in life (slightly intimidating), there was a peaceful air about him.

 

Still grinning, the Dominican man swept his left hand across the vast blanket of nothingness that the two of them occupied.

 

They were quite alone.

 

"A horror," bellowed Gringo, dread in his voice, "A horror is what this is!"

 

The Dominican man's grin didn't falter, but there was something in his clever gaze that told the man he'd called Gringo that he was panicking. There was something in this man's gaze that managed to quell the stark terror that had taken a hold of him.

 

He had been shrieking into the white blanket of nonexistence that had enveloped him after the bright strobe light show that lured the living away from the conventional existence of life.

 

He had expected more.

 

He had expected order.

 

"There's nothing to be afraid of," the Dominican man said. He was still grinning, as if nothing could be more amusing than a newly dead man's startling confusion.

 

"The difference between death and life is that life allows the average human soul to believe that everything's separate in its own right, yet, what is still is, believe it or not."

 

"What the f**k are you talking about?" screamed Gringo, whose terror was again rising.

 

Upon realizing the swearword he'd screamed, (after death, with his immortal soul apparently undecided on where it would spend Eternity, no less) he clapped a shaking hand over his mouth and peered around himself. Over his shoulders, to his left and right, even down at his feet. His gaze lingered longest at his feet, as if he expected a blazing chasm to open between his left and right big toes and swallow him whole.

 

The Dominican man's right hand fell onto Gringo's shoulder. Gringo jumped and swore again through the fingers clamped over his mouth. When had the strange man walked close enough touch his shoulder?

 

"Hell, is that what you're looking for?" asked the Dominican man, who now looked down at Gringo's feet.

 

Gringo shook his head frantically, his eyes wide and glistening, but to the mysterious man at his side, this action was as good as a written admission.

 

"Bad news, my friend," said the Dominican man. "There is no Hell other than a garbage dump in the Middle East back in time, many decades before the date of your death. God isn't what you think He is…God isn't a 'He'. God is an 'It'."

 

Gringo frowned and allowed his fingers to slide from atop his working mouth. There was a grotesque look of utter confusion and contempt on his now-sagging face.

 

"You…you don't know what you're talking about!" he shouted. "You don't know a goddamn thing more than I do."

 

Now Gringo pointed an accusatory finger at the thing that was apparently to be his guide. The finger shook with fury.

 

 "You know so much, do you? Why are you here with me, in this hellish white nothing? What do you know?"

 

The Dominican man turned on his heel and began to walk away from Gringo, his hands deep in his pockets. Gringo couldn't see his face as he walked away, but he could still hear the strangely joyous lilt in the man's voice.

 

"Follow me, Gringo. I'll show you what really lies beyond the cusp of physical death."

Reviews

[Peter Grantham]

This story is very good. Just one criticism: I feel that the sentence beginning with: "He was tall and well built..." needs rewording. I'm looking forward to part two.

[Inda Lauryn]

Amazing the sense of horror and suspense enveloping this story. Something also with the centered format that adds character to this story. Another good one.

[Logan Carryall]

Keep writing this....damn man....whats your problem? You build up and up and up...and then I'm still in the white...waiting for the more! I gota see what happens (I'm a big fan of this Gringo character!)