Ivory on Mars (True Freak pt 1)

Ivory on Mars


My fingers were paler than usual, as I glared down bits of ashes falling through the crevices of my dried knuckles off the curling bud of a dying menthol, all while the hairs on my arm twitched in tune to the beat of rain hitting Isaac's caravan. It was a long, hard day of work at the dig site, a gig that Isaac got me into after my landlord’s latest eviction notice drove me to desperation. Though everything was soon about to change. At least that’s what I was told when he said we were going to ease the tension of what he called was “reality’s rotten cycle.” I guess it was gonna be like a guys night out sorta thing. Oh, and I almost forgot, I can’t call Isaac by his real name tonight. I am to refer to him only by his codename, Gekko.

Along with us were a couple of guys from work who I’ve passed by from time to time, but have never actually spoken with. They were longtime buddies of Gekko’s, and though I didn’t know who they really were, I was told to call them by their own codenames as well. The skinny guy in the passenger seat who looked like a spaced-out hippie with his shoulder length brown hair and scruffy beard was known as Tramp. He was a jittery spaz who kept fuckin’ with Gekko the whole time we were driving, cracking jokes about his growing beer belly as he kept poking him like the Pillsbury doughboy, to which Gekko would counter by calling him a cross-dressing cockbag with a little dick, as they then giggled back and forth like a couple of loony bin nutcases. It was odd, but I guess most people act a lot differently when they’re not on the clock.

The guy sitting next to me though was in a category of his own. He had that kind of expression that would make your skin crawl from the inside out. Always calm and motionless, but you could tell just by looking at his piercing black eyes that his mind was like a never-ending steam engine, thinking about god knows what, while masterfully disguising something terrible that only few could fathom. He was tall and fit with pale skin, and had dirty-blonde hair that was just long enough to slightly hover over his scarred eye lashes, while sporting a worn out, dark-green alpine wool felt hat with a thick, black leather jacket resting over his shoulders like a caped crusader from hell. His codename was Needless. He didn’t seem at all interested in conversing with any of us, but always had his eyes buried in a little black book that he carried with him for the ride.

My codename was Ivory. I have no fucking clue why. It was Needless’ idea. I couldn’t make up my own yet because I was still the “rookie” of the group. I didn’t really care though, these guys were like veterans compared to me. They’ve been doing this sort of thing for a long time now, so I just kept my head down low and followed in their league. I first met Gekko a few months back at a bar, after my girlfriend of three years turned coke addict and left me for some piece of shit street hustler who called himself BluJay. It was a stupid name. Found them both in our bed one night. Then, after waking up on a cold jail floor, I ended up on parole with no one but myself to pay off the growing debt of my ransacked, one-bedroom apartment, along with the lawsuit for BluJay’s dislocated lower jaw with not a single penny to my name.


I don’t really remember what happened. I guess I just lost it. To be honest, I’m not too fond of violence. Hell, I don’t even care for the sight of blood. But after walking in on that, it was like I became a different person, like some kind of beast just erupted from my own skin and bones that I couldn’t control. I tried not to overthink it, but then one night at the bar, Gekko and I struck up a conversation about how fucked up our justice system is. How scumbags like BluJay roam free and take advantage of people like me. He said he understood what I was going through, so after landing me this gig working construction, he told me about this thing that he and his buddies do once every other week. Said it was some kind of “vendetta” that they’ve been crusading on ever since they were teenagers and that they thought I’d be interested in tagging along this time. I didn’t really think much of it. Who knows, maybe it’ll be kinda fun? I needed to do something to get my mind off things anyway.

The caravan then came to a sudden stop, parked alongside the front lawn of a lone, two-story house on a vacant country road. After Gekko turned off the headlights, it was nothing but pure dark and a soft drizzle. It was cool, and felt refreshing on my rough skin as we each exited the car doors one at a time.

“Put your mask on, Ivory.” Tramp said to me through a small cut hole where his lips were on a thick black snowcap that was stretched all the way down to his neck.

Needless and Gekko weren’t wearing any kind of cover at all, though I complied without question, and as we stealthily moved forward, I noticed a name on a half broken mailbox near the porch steps that read “Dean Corll” I remembered hearing the name before, but couldn’t remember where. It is a small town, after all. I had never done anything like this before, and with the exception of the whole ‘BluJay’ thing, this was my first actual crime, but Gekko assured me that it would help get rid of all that stress I had pent up. Once we got up to the front door, Needless knocked with a few hard bangs until the porch light turned on. The door then cracked open, stopping ever so slightly when the chain lock had reached out to its end. A middle-aged looking man then peeked the right side of his face through the narrow opening.

“Can I help you?” he said timidly.
“Have you found Jesus?” Needless asked with a sarcastic grin, impersonating the thick accent of a southern pastor.
“Do you have any idea what fucking time it is!?” Dean demanded,
“If you’re having trouble finding baby Jesus, then how bout lady death!?” Needless shouted as he kicked the door open wide, knocking Dean to the floor.

Dean, in panic, squirmed his way through the hallway on his knees as everyone then rushed into the house, laughing like mad dogs, with me hesitantly coming in last. Needless then pistol whipped the back of his head with a black revolver, making him collapse as Gekko and Tramp then dragged him into the dining room, half dazed and shaking in a sweaty coat of fear.

“I’ll check the rest of the house,” Needless said while running up the stairs as the other two started doing something rather peculiar with Mr. Corll.

I didn’t know what to make of it. It was beyond anything that I was prepared for. It came out as a sudden burst of joyful singing, while Gekko began backhanding Dean across the jaw over and over again with a brass knuckle duster as he sat mounted along his waist.

“I fell into a burning ring of fire! I went down, down, down and the flames went higher! And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire! The ring of fire!” Gekko sang at the top of his lungs with twisted delight while beating the man senselessly.
Tramp then started trashing the place, flipping over tables and chairs, smashing everything in sight while singing along with Gekko. I just stood there in place, completely motionless on the outside, but my insides were constantly turning in spasm. Dean was bleeding severely out the back of his head as tears poured out from his red beet eyes. I couldn’t find the words for it. I thought we were just gonna rough him up or scare him, but they were enjoying his torture like some kind of sick game. Gekko told me that they were like vigilantes or something, but they acted more like crazed killers. I was about to say something, but my lips were quivering too much to spit it out. I then heard footsteps coming from behind me, and before I could muster up the balls to say anything, Needless walked through with a handful of tapes and photographs.

“Well, isn’t this fucking dandy?! The piece of shit had kiddie porn underneath his mattress” he said while tossing them on the floor next to Dean’s feet. “Are these pictures that of your victims? How many boys did you and your douchebag pal's rape and kill, huh!?” Needless demanded as he spat in his face.

At that moment, something clicked in my mind, that’s when I remembered reading Dean’s name before in a news article a few months back. The details were still strong in my head because of the words used to describe this madman. Dean worked at some kind of candy factory, raped and killed a twelve year old boy after luring him down an alley with chocolates and then made his mother watch helplessly after bashing her legs with a wooden bat after she caught him. A convicted pedophile that was caught before years back, but was found not guilty due to a stupid technicality, so they let him off the hook, then the courts did it again, even after the mother testified. Was this that same man? Is that why we came here? Gekko then stood up from Dean’s waist and went into the kitchen with Tramp.

“Want a sandwich, babe?” Gekko asked Needless.
“Sure thing, Hun. I’ll take care of it from here. And no fucking tomatoes! That shit’s weird” he replied while smirking at the crippled Dean.

"Who the hell are you!?" Dean pleaded,
"Me? Nobody. I'm just an insignificant little bug, crawling aimlessly in a world I couldn't possibly hope to understand. And you...are the dirt beneath my feet. And I promise you that before we're through, the lowest depths of hell will whisper rumors of your pain and pray it isn't true. Oh, by the way, do you have any gum?"

“Oh my God. please christ, save me!” Dean cried with a confused gaze riddled with fear,
“Oh, now don’t give me any of that! We went from the ape and branched off into lambs and leeches, and now we're nothing but ants with egos. So how does God know that he isn't a part of someone else's game, and he's just made to believe that he's a special little twat just like the rest of us?” Needless replied,

“Please...I’m sorry…” Dean pleaded in agony, as Needless simply ignored his whimpers.
“Hey, hey, just relax. This is only going to hurt like hell, Dean, or should I call you the ‘Candy man’? Now, if you wouldn’t mind, be a sport and tell me where I can find a Mr. uh… Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. and the other fuckface, uh, David Brooks?” he asked, to which Dean replied by saying he didn’t know who he was talking about.


Then, as Needless was getting ready to backhand him once more, Tramp then came rushing into the room.

“Needless, look! He has Twinkies!” he shouted while tossing him a sponge cake.
“No shit? I fucking love these things! You want one, Ivory?” I stuttered, but couldn’t say anything coherent, this shit was still way too beyond me.

“Suit yourself, kid, but I’d get at least one before Gekko finds the whole box...”
“I heard that, you asshole!” Gekko yelled from the kitchen as Needless then commenced to viciously bash the edge of his revolver’s handle against the top of Dean’s skull until his forehead caved inwards from the constant pummeling.

There was blood everywhere with bits of bone and brain matter sliding across the floor and next to my feet.

“Did you see the look on his face? It was all like, ‘Ah no! I have so much nothing to live for!’ hahahaha!” Needless howled so carelessly, as if reciting basic poetry, but in a manner of tone that was quite different from before, as if he was a completely different person now. Could this be his own beast?

“Goddamit! You could have at least waited till he told you where the other two jackoff’s were! Now we gotta search the entire house for his contacts!” Tramp yelled. I felt sweat dripping from my chin as I tried to wipe my eyes clean. It was like time itself had frozen in place as my pulse kept pumping beyond measure. My heart raced faster and faster, and then, without any control, my throat gagged as I tried desperately to light up another cigarette, only to put out the spark of my lighter with a massive upheaval.

My eyes became lost in a blur. Needless then came up to me with a crooked smile and bloody cheeks, “You’re gonna be fine, kid. Trust me.” And then, there was nothing. I had passed out, only to wake up fifteen minutes later back in the caravan, still delirious.

“Hey! He’s finally awake! We thought we lost you there for a second, kiddo.” Gekko said to me from the passenger seat while brushing off bread crumbs from his strong dimpled chin and onto his light brown vest.

My head was leaned up against the cold surface of the window, and as we drove off, I could see Dean’s house lit ablaze and burning off into the distant night through the side view mirror. The only saving grace being the moist sensation of resting my sweating cheeks alongside the cool door. I wanted to get out of here. I needed to get out of here. I wasn’t prepared for anything like this. Not like this.


“They’ll never accept what we do, Ivory. To them, our actions are considered ‘inhumane’ while the whole world sits idly by as fuckheads like Dean and his pals continue to elude punishment. And we’re just supposed to be fine with this. We don’t belong here, Ivory, it’s like we’re from another world. A distant planet where the only law is the morality of a true freak who knows nothing but grit, follows nothing but gut, and feels nothing but pain.” Needless counseled me with his words, but to no avail. I thought about jumping out at the first chance. Just curl my legs and arms in tight and fall like a tumbleweed into the darkness.



“We’re almost there!” Tramp then shouted. Oh god, what now? The caravan was then slowly coming to a halt in front of a rundown apartment building. We had made it back into the town. It was quiet and late, with not a single soul on the streets as we again made our way out and in through the complex. This was my chance, I thought, to make a run for it. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, maybe scare, but nothing like this.

“You’re gonna love this next one, Ivory. We’ve got some real class-act scumbags hiding out on the third floor here,” Needless said to me in that sick, deranged tone again, as he put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in closer and forcing me to walk in with them. “Elmer Henley and Dave Brooks. You know what these pieces of shit did alongside the ‘Candy man’, Ivory? Trafficking of little boys and girls! It’s become a modern day slave trade right here in our own backyard, but not anymore!” he finished.

There was then a loud thumping noise, as Gekko attempted to tiptoe his boots up the stairs as he and Tramp kept pushing eachother like kids in a school lunch line, while sarcastically telling us to be quiet. Once we reached about halfway up the second flight, Needless stopped the two of us in our tracks.

“Take this, kid. It might make you feel better” he said, passing me his revolver, wrapping my fingers tightly around the handle’s edge still stained with blood. I tried to hide it, but he could sense I was still shaken. Why would he give this to me? Is he testing me? I just want to leave! Gekko then banged on one of the doors of the third floor, not stopping until some angry burly looking man in a greasy tank top opened it wide in fit of rage.

“Who the fuck do you think you are!?” he shouted, only to be bashed in his face by Gekko’s brass knuckles. We all then rushed into the room, taking another man drinking beer at the dining table by surprise, with me steadily coming in last once again. Tramp then took out a gun of his own, “Don’t even fucking think about it!” he demanded, pointing it at the other man as he immediately stood up.

Needless then threw the burly man, who was dazed and bleeding out his nose, onto the hard floor in the center of the room as he started humming a familiar tune through his lips. It was Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’, I remembered it being a popular song from last year’s top billboard charts, why I remembered something like that at a time like this was beyond me. Gekko then brought the other thug to his knees, holding a serrated hunting knife’s edge against his throat, as my own finger kept twitching on the trigger. I tried so hard to not let it slip.

“Alright, asshole, where are you keeping the children? I know you guys like to keep your ‘products’ safe and sound in some kind of storage house. Where the fuck are they!?” Needless demanded in fury, but the burly man wasn’t saying anything, instead spitting blood in Needless’ face. Needless wiped his cheeks clean and stared him down like a hawk would its prey.

“Ivory, hold him down!” he said, but I wasn’t able to respond. I still couldn’t move. I tried to react out of instinct, but I just couldn’t budge a muscle. “Ivory! Hold him down!” he shouted once more in irritation.

Tramp then jumped in on my behalf, pinning down the burly man while Needless looked around the apartment, only to get his hands on a hammer and a can of screws he had found in one of the kitchen drawers. He then removed one of the man’s shoes, placing a screw directly on his big toe.


“This little piggy went to market” as he then slowly tapped the screw in between his toe nail and flesh. Harder and harder, he swung the hammer down while Tramp muffled his mouth shut as he screeched in pain. No more, I thought. It’s just too much, as I brought myself down to one knee, sweating up a storm.

“Where are the fucking kids!?” I heard Needless shout, as Tramp then slightly removed his hand from over the burly man’s lips so he could speak.
“Down...down stairs on the second floor! Fourth door on the right!” he said panting heavily for air.

“Thank you for your cooperation” Tramp replied as Needless handed him the hammer, only to have the curved edge be plunged into the right side of the burly man’s neck, causing slight struggle, and then a slow death as he bled out on the floor.

“There better not be any more of you jackoff’s down there” Gekko said to the last man standing as he forced him up on his legs, making him walk out the door. I slowly started to lift myself up as well, and as they passed by me, I caught the last man’s gaze meeting my own. I didn’t realize it before, but I knew him. I didn’t say anything, but he was my parole officer. Of course, officer Brooks, why didn’t I recognize his name before? Was he really involved in this shit? I don’t know why, but seeing him here made me feel somewhat less sick. It almost felt...right. I knew it was wrong, but still, it eased me so.

When we made it back out in the hallway, Gekko stopped along the edge of the staircase, “Alright, be careful now, baby steps!” he said sarcastically to my parole officer as he then hurled him down the third flight. The tumbling made a loud noise, but no one else came out to investigate. Nobody was concerned. Brooks held his ankle in pain, squinting his eyes as he tried to crawl away.

“Oh no, you can’t want to leave yet! We haven’t even found our guests of honor yet,” said a cynical Gekko, picking him up again and dragging him to the fourth door on the right, with us not far behind. We stood no more than a foot away from the door when Needless then looked at all of us while nodding his head, as if to give the command on his lead. He then kicked the door open wide, flicking on the lights with Tramp, Gekko, and the crippled Brooks right by his side.

The thought of escape crossed my mind again. In fact, this would have been the perfect opportunity, but I couldn’t help but follow in with them. For some reason, I wanted to see how the rest of this would play out. There was no one else in the room, as Needless began searching every room and closet in a hurry, like the whole world would have come to an end if he didn’t move at top speed. I dare say he even had a look of fear in his dark eyes. One by one, he kicked down every door, until finally, locked in chains on the dirty bathroom floor, were the bodies of two teenage girls. We all gathered around outside the bathroom door; as Gekko brought Brooks back down onto his knees, knowing he wasn’t gonna go anywhere. Needless then placed his ear against the chest of one of the girls who wasn’t moving.

“There’s no beat…” he shuddered.

Needless then desperately tried to resuscitate her with CPR, only to stop soon after the crooked cop started laughing aloud to himself.

“It’s too fucking late for that skank! We gave her too much heroine the other night. Fucked her up real good too!” he chuckled.



Before Needless could attack in rage, we were all then left in awe at the sound of the second girl coughing up spit as she tried to lift herself upwards. Needless then rushed over to her side, unhooking the chains and lifting her in his arms. She began to cry tears of relief as Gekko and Tramp then went over to help her up as well. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but this monster before me, who just moments ago, killed another human being without hesitation, was now left paralyzed by a brief moment of passion shared between two victims: the girl...and himself.

The fear I felt before soon began to subside, and now there was nothing left but this lingering aftershock of overwhelming solace that confused me so. A peace of mind that I’ve never known so profoundly before, stronger than any drug could ever produce. But my finger was still twitching on the trigger, my hands still embodied by sweat as I soon found myself in a haze of bewilderment. Then, that’s when it finally hit me. It hit me as fast and as sharp as the bullet that sparked out of the barrel of this revolver, and it left a staggering impact on me, just as it left a gaping hole in his head.

Needless and the others then calmly turned their sights toward me, as if they were expecting this from the very beginning. And as I stood proudly for what felt like the first time in my life over Brooks’ dead body, I looked up at them and smiled as I sang…

“Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it’s cold as Hell.”




End of pt 1





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