The Encounter

The nighttime bus ride, from work to home, is as quiet as always. Julie sits with her head against the window, staring at nothing. The bus stops and it’s doors open, but she does not notice. She wants nothing more than to be home. To take and shower and slip into bed.

“Hello,” a voice says from beside her. “My name is Nathan.”

Julie turns to see a handsome young man sitting down next to her. She starts to protest, to tell him there are plenty of empty seats, but there’s something about him. “He’s cute, for one thing,” she thinks. Before she can say anything, though, he begins, again.

“I went to a hypnotist, today,” Nathan says. “I mean, I didn’t want to…wish I hadn’t…but I did. They thought it would be good for me, for whatever reason.

Julie stares at Nathan, blankly. She wonders what any of this has to do with her.

“Anyway, she was a sexy woman. Wore a black, business like dress. You know the type. So, she’s waving this shiny little pendulum in my face for what seems like forever, when she says, “Go to sleep,” all slow and sultry like. And, I do. But not because anything was working. Because I wanted to play along, to see where it would go. But oh man…” Nathan looks past her into a scene that only he can see, his face goes slack. “When I closed my eyes…”


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The office is cluttered and shadowy. Many odd tomes, on topics from anything to everything, line the dark shelves of the place. The only light is that of a copper desk lamp sitting on a mahogany monstrosity.

At the desk sit two men. The man behind the desk is lean and sinewy. His dress is black, his suit is clean. He’s pale, but not pallid. On his head is a black bola hat, pulled low to hide his inky evil eyes that are both kind, and sinister; intuitive, yet malicious. His guest, Nathan, is not nearly as well dressed. He looks both shocked and amazed to be here.

“What the hell…,” he mutters.

The man in the black bola hat sits forward in his chair. He grins a grin of sinister delight and says, “I been expecting you.”

Something about the dark man terrifies Nathan. It sends chills down his spine. He scans his confines looking for a door. “God, there’s gotta be a door,” he thinks.

“He is not here!,” the dark man screams. He comes forward in his seat, his hands go to sides of his desk. His stare is one of pure hatred. And, in the next moment, gone, replaced by an empty look, devoid of expression. “We are here, you and I. We are here, because we had an appointment.” He looks at his expensive gold watch and then back at Nathan. “You…are…late,” he says, emphasizing and pausing on every word.

After a moments silence to savor the fear he can feel emanating from his guest, the dark man continues. “I am not one to be kept waiting. I can make pain a pleasure and pleasure a pain. You may love me or hate me, but you will obey me.” He stands. His hands go to a cigar, lighter, and cutter from his top desk drawer. He takes a moment to light his cigar. He pulls a long drag from it and blows a few smoke rings.

Meanwhile, Nathan sits dumbfounded. Terrified. His mind is on the verge of panic. He sits still and tries to listen to his captor, all the while fighting the urge to run around the walls of this prison, grabbing and throwing books, looking for a way out.

“I want you to work for me,” says the man in black, smoke dancing around his head. “No…wait. That’s not quite right.” He takes another drag from his cigar.

Nathan’s heart skips a beat. “He wants me to work for him,” he thinks. “That’s all? That’s not so bad…

Nathan’s thought is killed in mid-sentence. The dark man is staring at him. Those evil orbs are looking into Nathan’s soul, they turn his heart into ice. Nathan tries to look away, to avoid that penetrating gaze, but he cannot. The dark man has him transfixed.

Then, the evil one’s expression turns deep and hungry. He smiles at Nathan so widely that the corners of his mouth touch the sides of his face. His hungry maw is full of huge, razor sharp teeth, not humanlike in the least bit. He begins to walk around his desk, towards his captive. “I’m gonna use you like a fucking meat puppet,” he says.

Nathan cringes. He draws back in his seat as far as he can, but he dares not to get up. Terror washes over him. It paralyzes his body and numbs his soul. His brain tells him to beg for mercy, to plea for salvation. But, his mouth will not move. His throat is dry and he cannot swallow. He shuts his eyes, tightly, and tries to block it all out. Everything. “I can wake up from this,” he tells himself. “It is only a dream.”

In the darkness, he can hear the faintness of foot falls on carpet. They are close to him. Closer. Right next to him…then they stop. No sound, no breathing.

Nathan, laboriously succeeds in slowing his breathing. “In and out,” he thinks. “In and out.” He counts to twenty, and then dares to open his eyes.

Nothing.

No, wait. In an instant, he is there. His pale and evil face is right next to Nathan’s, not three inches away. For a fleeting moment, Nathan’s heart stops. He grips the arms of his chair so tightly that his fingernails dig into the wood. His mouth opens in a terror stricken gasp. He stares at the rows of books and desk in front of him, unable to face his nightmare. And, for what seems like an eternity, it stays this way. Nathan fighting shock and the dark man biding his time. All the while he’s breathing down Nathan’s neck.

Finally, Nathan builds the courage to look the dark man in the face. He moves only his head. His body remains rigid. Moving his head is all he’s got left.

The dark man smiles that wicked grin, again, and looks down at Nathan’s shoulder. Nonchalantly, he bites a huge mouthful off with his razor sharp teeth. Blood pumps up from the wound and soaks Nathan’s shirt.

Nathan screams, but he cannot hear it. In his head there is only silence and a sickly sweet dread. A brain, numbed from horror, both shocked and in disbelief of unfolding events. He watches as his captor silently chews a mouthful of his flesh.

When the dark man is finished chewing, he takes a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his mouth with it. He catches some blood as it runs over his chin and down his neck. Then, in one fluid motion, he takes a wad of papers and a pen from his jacket pocket and drops them on the desk. His eyes never leave his prey’s. His face remains dreadfully close.

The thud that the document hit’s the desk with is deafening. It stops Nathan’s scream, cold. His eyes go to the document and then back to his assailant. Their eyes lock. The dark man wears his wicked grin. Nathan, begins to cry. “Now,” says the dark man, “sign the damned contract.”


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“And that’s how it happened,” Nathan says to Julie, as they sit next to one another on the quiet, late-night bus.

Julie stirs uncomfortably in her seat. Her nervous gaze searches for help, but there is none to be found. She tells herself not to panic, to try and find some logic in this unexpected and increasingly scary situation. “But what logic is there to be found,” she thinks. “Some handsome man I’ve never seen sits next to me without asking and tells me such an outrageous story…I just wanna be home.” Julie grabs the tears that are trying to well up in her eyes. “Gotta play it cool. Show no fear.”

“So,” Julie says to Nathan, “why are you telling me such a crazy story as that?” She masks her fear well, she thinks, but her hands will not cooperate. She stuffs them under her legs to stop their shaking.

Nathan leans in close to her, just like in his story. Julie can smell his breath. She turns her head away and cringes. “I just wanted you to know why I am going to do, what I am going to do.

Julie’s hand goes into her purse, slowly. “He’s going to kill me,” she thinks. Her hand goes around the knife she keeps in there. “Distraction. Ask him a question and when he prepares to answer, stab him. It’s not murder if he’s going to kill you.

She prepares herself. “What are you going to do to me?” she asks.

Nathan grins such a grin that his mouth seems to stretch to an impossible size. Razor sharp teeth gleam in the gloom. The look is so surreal that it startles Julie to her core. It gives her pause. “Exactly what I signed up for,” he says, then goes for the throat.

Julie isn’t fast enough.