No Good Deed

In July 2009, my wife and I lost a very dear friend. He left behind a wife and three children with no life insurance. At that point his body would remain in cold storage until funds were available to give him a proper burial. My wife, wanting to do an amazing good deed, asked me if we could trust the widow and his friends to make good on repayment (as they clearly stated they woud) if she loaned the money to put our friend to rest. In what I now know as foolishness, I said that we could trust them.

It took a great deal of coaxing to get the repayment of the loan started. When my wife did receive payments they varied in amount and were sporadic. Last October (two years and three months after the loan was given) the widow stated she was no longer going to pay and that any further contact on our part would be met with the widow filing harassment charges. 

We appealed to her sisters and friends to help her fix the problem. But that effort was to no avail. At that point it was necessary to take her to small claims court in an attempt to recover the losses of that loan.

In February, we sat before a judge in small claims and left after being told to come back on a new date with copies of all payments she had made. Yesterday that day came and we went in fully prepared with documentation and qualified legal advice for several lawyers. Upon getting a different judge, he made the ruling for less than half the amount owed and refused to even look at our evidence. To appeal his decision is a higher gamble than the initial cost of filing and would result in more lost time at work for the both of us.

My foolishness has cost her much more than money. She already suffers from Endometriosis and has had three major surgeries to counter it in the past four years. After her latest surgery in the Fall of last year, her doctor told her she had about a two year window in which she might be able to conceive a child. This is something she wants more than anything as she was adopted and has no blood relatives. She wants to be able to look in her child’s face and see her own. 

After the ruling yesterday I saw a great person crumble and it’s my fault. I’m swallowing all of my pride in asking for help to make up the difference of the ruling and the remainder that is still costing her interest every month. Please help me. 

Daylight

The door splintered at the second hit of the barricade bar. The team tossed it aside and in a matter of one minute, all thirty had entered the house. Boards and other barricades blocking the windows were quickly torn away, the sun’s rays filtering in for probably the first time in years.
"I’ve got movement Lieutenant!"
A section of the team quickly dispatched towards the one who had called out. Another door busted down and they were in. The smell would have pushed most away, but this group had seen it all before and was destined to see it again.
The floor was strewn with the decaying corpses of an unlucky couple. Rats had come to devour what little was left. One had been fortunate enough to feast on the tenderness of an eyeball. It’s blue iris glazed over from shock was being torn asunder by the rodents teeth and claws.
Every room in the on the first floor was given the cleansing of sunlight, the debris now heaped towards the center of the house.
The door to the basement was all that stood in the way of this team. How easily it creaked when they forced it open and swarmed down the steps. Their shoulder lights kicked on, the bright halogen forced white beams into the darkness.
Gunfire erupted as something crossed in front of one of the lights. The creature now lay almost completely separate of it’s legs. He snarled and lashed at the team though it was only a last attempt in scaring them. He knew it was too late when one came closer and pulled a long thin pike from his gear on his back and drove it through the creatures chest, impaling him fully through the heart and into the basement floor.
"One down, Sir"
The basement was systematically scoured by the team, each creature they found was either killed or rendered immobile by staking. Five in all had met their enemy at their weakest moment.
"Let’s get out of here, time to finish and burn it down," the lieutenant called out.
Fire consumed the house, the creatures along with the corpses were reduced to ash. The fire dept. had taken it’s own sweet time in getting there to put out the remaining flames.
The lieutenant picked up a cell phone and dialed 7. "Let the Viscontis know objective is swept and cleared."

Red Rain

Watching.
Waiting. I must have stooped there on that fire escape for hours before he entered the Song of Hellfire. The night air was wet from the winter rain falling. It was odd how I no longer felt the cold. Rather more was, how I welcomed it.
The girl smelt of weed mixed with the other poisons she put in her body, covered haphazardly by a bouquet of perfume. She moved inside the cage like a flame against the wind. Her body clad in as little as possible. An advertisement for all to see. "Who will take me home?"
He watched her with a predator look in his eyes. His lusts were making him whole. A dark decay that could be brightened by a swim in the carnal pool of lust. He was reading the writing on the wall as he approached her. He knew how to approach such a bold statement that was youth.
His hand reached out and held the railing of the cage, slowing its movement. Stopping hers.
"A caged beast within the confines of dance. Does the music not soothe the savage anymore?" His lips parted in a half grin as he spoke.
Her attention was on him like that of a child with a doll. His face was of purest porcelain, the flush in his cheeks as if a painters brush had placed it there. He wasn’t like the others in the club. He kept his hair neat, cut at a middle length with no dye killing its luster. She wanted to touch this toy to see if were real.
"Music is my only escape now. In this cage I am free to breath," she replied, her eyes still dulled in the gaze of him.
His hand stretched out to her, palm open and out flat. A beckon for her without words. Her own hands reached for the cage door and opened it, placing herself in front of him. She couldn’t have been a month over 16 he thought. Another child with the means to lie her way into a place such as this.
Her face turned to reflect an innocence immersed in lust as she looked up to him. His own scent now billowing over her. Or rather, the lack of scent.
"I can offer you as escape that needs no restraint. One that is yours to receive. All you need do. Is ask."
The music still blaring around them, stirring the masses in rhythmic waves. Here though, there was no sound. Only his eyes upon her could have possibly made a sound.
Then the silence broke when her eye shed a single tear. He could hear tears. Hers called to him in no other way but asking for salvation. His arm fell about her shoulder as he led her out the way he came. Away from the sound Song of Hellfire. And into Hell
The fire escaped creaked as I watch him return from the club. A new friend in his company. The demon sought to add another consort to his harem. Not this night he wouldn’t. Nor any night after this.
He led her down the street, away from the lines of people waiting to enter the Song. No matter to him though, they would dismiss their ever seeing him, or her, after this night was through. A calm alleyway gave passage to them as they descended into the shadows of the street.
A single red light bulb provided illumination. The misting rain drowning its attempt to allow sight. Red rain. His hand encircled hers as he opened the door that stood near the light. Holding it opened he spoke no word as she entered.
No longer did I wait as I fell upon him from the sky. My body crashed into his, throwing us both into the pavement of the alley. My bones ached as I knew I had broken a few. No matter. He would die as I healed. My hand reached inside my coat to pull forth my instrument of pain. Tonight it would sing most beautifully.
Homicide crawled over the scene they had decorated in yellow tape. The flash of a camera bouncing off the still wet street. Reporters arguing with patrolmen for access to the scene.
"What do you make of it captain? Another chalked up for our mystery man?" The obese cop questioned the one he stood near.
"All I know it that who ever he is, we aren’t finding him."
The coroners laid the sacks within the body bag. The first people on the scene had already covered the body of a Jane Doe. Her bloodless body on its way to the city morgue for identification. Another foot tag to be collected.
The captain looked at the alley wall and shook his head. Once again whomever was responsible had left his calling card. Graffiti was one thing, but this was something that made the captain shake every time he read it.
"If I had a hammer"

New Nest

Simply, this blog will feature my writing and views on past and current events. I encourage debate and constructive criticism. To start, I will be posting two short stories I wrote years ago that I feel need some work.