Stranger Sins

Just a story Im working on

These shackles are digging into my wrists, and their rusty chains are the only thing keeping me from hitting the ground. All you can hear are the drip drips of my blood hitting the floor, and cough wheeze wheeze as I attempt to breathe. There is no light in this room. The darkness is the kind of darkness you'd expect to find in the heart of Satan himself. It’s darker than night. Darker than all of this pain, this anger, and hatred boiling up inside of me. And I yell; I curse the Gods; I curse my life and all of its so called trials and tribulations; I curse myself my friends, and family; and its over. All of the things I've cared about are gone. Left outside in the flames that are consuming the so called "real world". And it burns. Everything burns, chars, melts away. I'm left with nothing, doomed like everyone else to die alone. And maybe, just maybe I'll be lucky enough to have some little kid find me. The skin falling from my bones. Maybe, thanks to me, this little snot nose will be scarred for life, if I'm lucky. When you can't see the sun rise or set you lose track of time. I don't even remember what the sun looks like anymore. The only thing I can picture when I think of it is a dull light coming through a crack in the darkness. All I see is that damn crack in the wall, letting in light and water. Blocking out everything I need food, fresh air, life. I've got nothing' I haven't had these things in days... maybe weeks. I lost track of time so long ago. The closest things I have to food are the various insects and animals that happen to land on me. I'm beginning to hear things now. The voices from my past; My sixth grade teacher Mrs. Jenkins telling me my parents divorce wasn't my fault; My dad telling me I'm worthless. Both voices I haven't heard in almost sixteen years coming back in a hallucination. I can almost see their faces. I can almost smell the alcohol on my dad’s breath. Now I realize what’s going on of course. I'm dying. There’s nothing else to it. My vision is tunneling, my muscles are weak. The pain I'm feeling is nearly unbearable. I can’t breathe, my pulse is weakening. Seth Tronea, the kid from a small town in Michigan, dying because he had to go to the police and rat on the freaking mob. The pain is gone now. Faded away. My heart will be stopping soon. I feel strangely at ease, like nothing matters. In all honesty nothing really does matter. We are all dying anyways. Everything is dark now. Silent. Cold. Empty. Empty but some how ... complete. Then there's nothing, no sounds, no feelings. Nothingness. Suddenly I'm awake. Surrounded by flames. Alone in hell. It seems fitting, I was alone in life, why not the afterlife. My eyes burn in the dry heat from the flames of hell. My skin blisters and peels from my bones. My body is dead, but my soul will burn for eternity. Mourning for life, wishing for death. Unaware of the fact it has no body. Scared. Alone. Paralyzed to the bone. This is the first day of the rest of my afterlife. I'm living in hell. It took three weeks for me to learn how to move again. Three weeks of being burnt to a crisp then brought back good as new. One more week to be able to make any sound but a scream escape my lips. All I have been able to say is "Why?" Why am I here? What did I do to deserve going to hell? I always thought I was a good person. I have been walking for hours and I haven't seen anything besides flames. I don't even know what I'm standing on. The pain is a constant; I don't even notice it anymore. My thoughts are clearer now. I have remembered more about life. My life. How everything ended. I think about it more and more and I know I shouldn't be here. I was always the guy who helped everyone out. I was the nicest guy in town. I always gave but I never took anything. "But you have taken something." I spin around trying to find the source of the voice. But I see nothing. "Who's there?" I call. "You have taken something from everyone you ever came in contact with." "What?!?! What did I ever take from anyone?" "Sin. You took in the sins of every person you helped. Now you are damned. Condemned to hell for eternity." "What do you mean I took their sins? How does that happen?!?" "You absorbed all sin from their souls into your own. When you touched them you connected with them and drained them of evil." "This can’t be true. There has to be some way for me to get out of here." "How about a deal?" "...What kind of deal?" "I will let you go back to earth for one week... If in that time you can send me ten condemned souls you can have your soul. You will get a new body and live out the rest of your life and if you live right you won’t be back here." "How have I lived that I deserve this now?" "You are here because you were too caring. Your soul wouldn't let others be damned no matter what they did." "This isn't right...." "No one ever said life would be fair. Your life has been spent doing only right and still you ended up here." "Ten?" "Ten." "I'll do it..." ................................................................................................. Seth wakes with a start. He is sprawled out in the ally of a large city, the name of which he doesn't know. It must have been a dream he thinks to himself. The man slowly stands and stumbles out to the street. Stepping out of the ally he calls to the first person he sees "What city is this?" he asks. No one so much as looks in his direction. Angered by being ignored by so many people at once Seth reaches out to grasp the shoulder of a passer by but his hand passes through them and they walk away with only a shiver. He turns just in time to see a man who was coming from behind walk directly through his body. He really had Died and gone to hell. He actually has to collect the souls of others... but how? As he glided down the street Seth saw a man stealing an old woman’s purse. He ran after the man and grabbed his shoulder, though the man didn't seem to feel it he actually made contact, Seth threw the man to the side and the man fell, he fell into the road, and got hit by a car. Twenty minutes later an ambulance picked the man up and sped off towards the hospital. Another ten minutes passed and Seth heard a voice in his ear. "One down. Nine to go."

Seth smiled and began to wander the streets trying to find more of the tangible evil souls. He now knew what he had to. Night fell and Seth hadn't found another soul he could touch. "Is there so little evil in the world?" he asked himself, "Or is it just that I must see the evil happening?" The ghost found a place to lie down and try to sleep, but after lying for two hours and not feeling the least bit drowsy he decided that in this form he didn’t need sleep. He got up and headed out into the city. The next morning’s sunrise was the first Seth had seen in years. He was frozen by its beauty. For two hours he did nothing but stare at the sun. “One day I will be close enough to touch you.” He whispered to it, “When I make my way into heaven. I will never let you be lonely.” He saw the sun smile and he continued his hunt. “One day down, along with one soul. Six days to go, nine lives to end. What am I going to do?” Seth remarked glumly. “I wish I had some advantages here, or at least some more time.” Suddenly his eyes started to burn, and he was forced to close them tight. When he was finally able to open them the world was changed. People were glowing with color. Red, Black, Green, and blue were all around him. He could sense the good and evil in people. He knew their every fault, their every dark secret. He knew more than he ever wanted to know about anyone. A red woman walking toward him. She killed a man in a drunken rampage. She robbed five stores, and took advantage of more people than Seth or the woman could count. A blue teen coming up on his left. He was a straight "A" student, he hasn't even thought of trying drugs. He is still a virgin. A green woman coming from Seth's right was an old school hippie. The worst thing she has ever done was getting high and chaining herself to a tree. Then a chill ran through Seth's spine as he turned to see a man glowing black. His business suit was impeccable; his hair didn't have a single strand out of place. This man his smile bright brilliant white, he has raped and killed twenty women, he molested and abused countless children. The man had even assassinated the first female President of the United States. He was marked for death. His time would run out in ten minutes. Seth followed the man into the local park. The place where all the children in the neighborhood play. Today is Saturday, the kids would all be coming this way. The man was planning his next strike. Three minutes and counting. The sound of heavy machinery comes from far off on Seth's right. He smiles knowing the sound. Chainsaws. There must be someone working on the trees in the park. Seth guides the man towards the sound. The man easily complies seeing large groups of children in that direction. Two minutes thirty seconds. Seth leans the man against a tree. One of the trees being worked on. The man stood against the tree watching the children, hunting for his victim. Ten seconds. A large branch begins to fall. Five seconds. The man hears it and looks up. Three seconds. He starts to run and Seth trips him. Zero. The branch falls on top of the man and a protruding limb impales him. It punctures his heart. Seth wishes the man would have had time to suffer for his sins. That he had lasted just a few seconds before falling to the depths of hell. He turns and looks for his next soul. Then next person marked for death. There isn't a hint of red or black in the park. Walking through the city Seth is bombarded with color yet still he sees no black. Wandering through the worst part of town the worst he sees is red. After a couple of hours of unconscious walking Seth starts to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He looks up to see he is in the rich part of town everything seems dark though it’s a bright summer day. A woman in a black and white satin Chanel dress walks out of her house. Her hair is white with a blond tint. Her shoes are black high heels, shined to perfection. Her skin wrinkled in some places and pulled tight and botoxed in others. Darkness surrounds her. Twenty five minutes and counting. Her house is more a mansion than a house. Three stories tall, with a grand piano in the foyer. I follow her up a marble spiral staircase to the top floor where her bedroom is, the third door on the left, and I watch as she takes off her heels and dress. She is wearing a silk nightgown underneath. I sit in a chair in the corner, watching and waiting, as she crawls under the covers. The woman reaches into the drawer of her nightstand and pulls out a bottle of pills. As she takes the top off Seth walks over to her bedside. She tips the bottle and two pills fall into her hand. Seth tips the bottle higher and nine pills fall into the ladies hand. She swallows them with the water on the nightstand. Fifteen minutes and counting. Seth, waiting for the woman to die, walks to the grand piano and plays a sad, haunting song. Ten minutes. The tune brings back thoughts of his death and the music grows darker. Four minutes fifteen seconds. The melody fills the house, as he comes to the end of the song he hears a voice from upstairs. One minute.

"Is someone there?" the old woman's weak confused voice calls out. "This is private property you shouldn't be here"

Seth decides to drag the tune for just a little bit longer. The voice upstairs is silent for a moment then "I'm coming down. I have a gun you had better be gone when I get there." Ten seconds. The sound of her first step is heard. Then the second. Then a loud bang and she tumbles down the stairs. Zero. When she reaches the bottom Seth walks to her and checks her pulse. There's nothing.

"Three down. Seven to go." Seth says as he leaves the house. When he gets outside he realizes its night time. So he waits out the night on the hood of the woman's car and watches the stars. They shine bright calling out to him, telling him to join them in the heavens. “Soon.” He whispers “I will be with you soon, to watch from above as the sun hides from the darkness of the night.” The Reaper closes his eyes to plan for morning.

 

When the sun finally rises Seth gets into the woman’s car and drives into town to search for his next target. He drives for two hours and see’s nothing more than a couple Greens and Blues and decides its time to ditch the dead lady’s car. Seth pushes the car to full speed and steps out gliding to a stop as the car smashes into a nearby building. People come running from every direction to find out what happened. Only one person doesn’t stop to look.

 

Walking past the car is a man shrouded in black. Images jump into Seth’s head. Images of things Seth couldn’t believe one human could do to another. This man murdered and consumed his victims, raping them while they were alive and after he kills them. Seth cringes and rushes toward the man. Anger burns deep inside him as races forward closing in on the monster. The man turns a corner into an ally and when Seth gets there he sees no one. The man was gone. Seth sprints down the ally looking everywhere but can’t find the man. “How could he have gotten away?” Seth wonders aloud. “I was right on his heels.” Discouraged he continues his search for souls.

 

After walking for two and a half hours Seth finds himself in a subway station. Business men and women, and homeless people surround him walking and jogging in every direction. Chaos is all around him. Flashes of color and sins constantly flash before his eyes.