Behind His Eyes

-Behind His Eyes-

(The Chronicles of Mad Milo)

by Josh Knotts

Chapter 1- "Gearing up for a big Night"

Lock the gates, chain them shut, run inside and deadbolt the door for good luck. Grab a knife, shiver in the corner, I wonder what the scene will do to the coroner? Shut the curtains, pray for salvation, hear the sound of the snarls outside, you have come here for fear, now brace yourself for your insides to fry, "BOOM!" (heavy metal music blasts with a barage of snarls and screams of creatures unknown in the backround). A creepy, sinister, narrarator voice sounds, "There is NO ESCAPE from your inevitable brutal demise at the all-new 'CARNAGE INCORPERATED'. Attempt to run from the deranged psychopaths who thirst for new mutilations to digest, roaming the halls looking for you fresh little victims. Evil will crown itself your king in this place, but beware...spewed from the deepest pits of Hell lurks an even greater evil, the Demonic Mutation never seen by mankind. Your most sinster, macabre dreams are breathing hot breath in your face, raping your senses and eating you from the inside out, only $20 at the door, adventure to the very mouth of Hell and discover the meaning behind, 'true brutality' at the all-new 'CARNAGE INCORPERATED'!"

CLICK, T.V. turns off revealing our hero, the demonic mutation himself, Mad Milo, 27 years old, black hair, shaggy punk-rock bedhead, built like a rockstar, just a regular guy from the looks of it. Clad in a shredded black suit equiped with a red shirt, black tie and an even more shredded jacket. Some might say he dug up Edgar Allen Poe's clothes and made his costume out of a dead mans duds. The thin layer of dust resting on his shoulders provided an 'ancient' feeling to his black persona. He walks away from his t.v. to reveal a chaotic amount of horror memmorabilia, posters and statues on his walls and shelves.

He turns and sits at a desk gazing at himself in a gothic mirror, revealing a very professional makeup job on himself. He has much to ponder about when looking at his reflection. Milo examines himself in a very critical way, he was quite the perfectionist when it came to all things horror. His face looked as if he took a straight razor to his face, while rotting away with nasty wounds all over as well, "whaddya think, gorgeous?" He turns around to reveal a radiant, vulumptious, beautiful brunette laying on his bed, dressed in a corset and an assortment of clothing resembling 15th century English brothels. Lori's eyes were to die for, he always thought that even all those years ago back when he first saw her in the hallway in high school, but her voice was his lulliby, "You always look great, baby." She said as the words slowly flowed out of her mouth and melted into his skin and bones.

Lori floated over to him and put her hands on his shoulders, her touch was the most gentle thing he had ever felt in his life. "You are beautiful, even under all of that blood.", she softly spoke as she was staring at the both of them in the mirror. "You're the REAL beauty in this world, my love!" He said as he put his hand on her's and kissed her hand in between her thumb and index finger, leaving a black & blood stained kiss mark. "You always know just what to say.." His heart skipped a beat hearing her say things like that, always asking himself why he deserved a life so good knowing where he came from and how far he's come. "An artist is always pleased to know his work is appreciated." He said with a slight smirk on his dimpled face.

She spun his chair around and began to fix his hair and collar then proceeded to slowly get on her knees revealing a pair of green converse under her dress with black & white striped leggings going all the way up. "I'll show you appreciation, sweetheart." her seduction was next to impossible to even attempt to resist. Gazing at his reflection he looked at himself and the picture he had created for himself and his life and smiled. He was the happiest of men and he had made her the happiest of women on the day they said, "I do" 6 years ago. They were a fruitful, passionate, young thriving couple that drew envy from those around them.

Staring at the mirror, watching his beloved move in rhythm to the music in his mind. Up & down, up & down. His eyes rolled in the back of his head as he tilted his head back and, "BANG", with a shock that pulled his eyes back to their full upright position. Standing in the doorway was a tall, dark haired, lanky individual who called himself Brian and was Milo's best friend and partner in crime. Just as quickly as he busted through the door, Brian was screetched to a halt mid sentence only to realize his best friend was up to his usual shenanigans. "Hey Milo we're about to start lettin' in groups-" The boys shared a quick stare of "I told ya so" glances and a pair of grins. "Kinda booked at the present moment.", Milo smiled and pointed downward at current happenings. Brian laughed uncontrollably, "Well I'm sorry to inturrupt but the moment to open our doors is upon us, and I just wanted to let you know that I hope we don't SUCK!"

The sarcasm was not lost on Lori, on her knees, as she didn't flinch nor stop only to shoot him the middle finger. "You too, sunshine!" Brian shouted as they all shared a brief genuine laugh at the moment between them. "I'll be there in a minute, go get everyone ready." Milo said as Brian tossed him a walkie-talkie, "Think fast!" Milo caught the walkie without blinking. "I'm on channel 3" Brian added as he began to shut the door behind him, "LOVE YOU, LORI!" he was an honest trouble maker. "Mother fucker, I will pull your heart outa your ass!", Lori was a complete firecracker when pushed. Brian shut the door, "I'm gone, I'm gone." He giggled to himself as he shut the door.

As Brian shut the door behind him he begins to trek with a mission in mind, "We're going to terrify the world tonight!" He thought to himself as he passed through hallways of memories and history hanging on the walls of this quaint little cozy cabin. Pictures of good times and family collages and mash-ups of high school moments and dances. The air was thick with happiness and feelings of excitement, but a unexplainable wave of meloncholy was just around the corner. He passed through the hallways, through a library, and into the living room with a gorgeous fireplace and beautiful chair in the middle of the room.

He got to the front door when the walkie fizzled and a sharp squirly voice came through, "Hey B?" It was the voice of Eddy, another one of Milo's motley crew. "Go for B!", Brian shot back through the walkie. There must have been some unruly customers on the other end of the walkie as Eddy finished knocking them down a peg, "KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR ACTORS!...sorry B, we got some douchebags tonight, so tell everyone to stay loose and keep calm, push em' through and we'll kick some ass. Where the fuck is Milo?!", Eddy was quite a hothead at times but he was a good ol' boy, the kind of guy you can trust with your secrets.

"He's ready, don't worry." Brian opened the door to reveal a large tarp that was disguised as camoflauge that he had to lift up and climb under, shut the door behind him and pull it back down. This cabin was hidden in the woods, just a mere hundred yards from the attraction itself. There was no path from the cabin to the fence that blocked the woods in, almost as if stepping through the gate of another realm. 15 feet the fence stood stretching from left to right as far as the eye could see down the edges of the forest. Brian paused to fix his flickering flashlight to shine light at a completely daunting, severely intimidating, gothic two story victorian mansion that stood before him. It stood firm and fierce just a few feet from the woods. Eddy's voice chippered back through the walkie, "He fuckin' better be!" Brian was well aware that Eddy was well-known in the haunted house business. "Asshole is late to his own first haunt opening, chump!" Brian snapped back as he closed the gate behind him and locked it, "Watch your tone, Eddy, I know you think you're hot shit but show some respect or we'll put you in the parking lot!" Brian's pace had quickened and he was rounding the side of the derelict building.

Just as Eddy tried to fling back a witty comeback, Brian rounded the front of the building to bear witness to a massive crowd of people standing by what looks like the hundreds on the other side of an even bigger gate at the end of the path leading to the steps. Eddy was standing on the steps in front of the front door. Brian's appearance startled Eddy, and two other actors sharing a ciggarette, into a mild sort of 'attention'. "Sorry what was that Ed, couldn't hear ya?" Brian has been the eyes and ears of this place since they decided to turn it into a haunted house. People coined him the nickname, "Gatekeeper". It rarely bothered him, he liked it, he enjoyed feeling important even when he hardly believed he was. it sure was better than half the rest of the ones he had heard.

Eddy stood up straighter and spoke more respectfully when he wasn't on the other end of a walkie-talkie or computer screen. "Nothin' man....I didn't say anything". Brian shot a look at him that said, "Knock it off or I'll knock you out!" The tension and stress were always skin deep. The other 2 actors were brand new and always looked up to Brian, "What's up, Gatekeeper?", one asked and he motioned to both of them, "Hey guys, put the smokes out and get to your scenes, it's showtime!" The actors put their cigs out and ran back inside. Brian walked up to Eddy with a calm collected face and sounded, "If tonight doesn't go smooth... You're done." Eddy looked crushed as Brian walked away down the semi-wooded path towards the gates of clammoring horrorhounds. This gate was taller than everyone, heads impaled on the spikes of the gate in random patters of madness. Aged vines had coiled their way up the sides of it like snakes slithering up the side of a tree. It was padlocked with a set of keys Brian kept on a ring he kept on his belt. Two, very uneven, sinister looking trees lurched towering over the gate. They resembled tall, lanky unseen monsters gazing down at pure human insignificance. Milo called them 'Undying' because they never seemed to age. The trees were not the most noticable feature of this elaborate entrance, however.

Stretched from one tree to the other, tied to the trees with rope, barbed wire, chicken wire, and whatever else within arms reach that would hold them up there. Corpses, pieces of corpses and body parts all stitched together and gruesomely fashioned into a macabre tapestry archway. Spelling out the name, "CARNAGE INC." Brian walked over to them, unlocked the gate, looked up at the terrifying archway, smiled and opened up the gates to a time not soon forgotten by anyone involved. The groups filled the lines up and crowded the front door as Brian pulled the gates all the way back his walkie-talkie threw up static again. It was static for a few seconds as Brian tried for a response he could hear over the commotion, "This is Brian, hello?". Silence snuffed out the static for a brief moment followed by Milo's voice, "Hey B, I'm all set, let's tear shit up!" Brian was waiting for him to get back sooner, "Gates are open man, let's rock n' roll!" Milo whooped in the walkie, "I was born for rock n' roll!"