Adam’s not his name of course. I have no idea what it really is. We burned his wallet after Kali got him to the apartment. He had twenty-five dollars and no credit cards or ID. Apparently whoever-he-was didn’t drive.
I’m saying this because whoever he was isn’t the same now as he was when Kali brought him up here. We had to call him something.
After the third day Kali took off. She said it was too much. Thom and Jared and Tabitha and I thought that was pretty rich.
Kali said maybe it’d be better for everyone if we just killed Adam.
Thom told her to watch it and if she told anybody about the guy we’d started calling Adam that whatever we’d done to him would just be starters for her.
She promised not to tell and we had no reason not to believe her. We confiscated her stash before letting her leave.
Anyway some of the stuff she did to Adam’s mouth and eyes and other soft spots was beyond the pale. She’s such a nice girl normally. It’s weird. She was going out with Thom and she practically jumped when he suggested finding somebody to keep in the closet.
The night she went out to find somebody she looked fine: black tights and a short, off-the-shoulder dress. She was all sweetness and froth and light and twenty-three years old.
The guy who turned into Adam kept buying her drinks, which is why he was almost broke by the time he got back to the apartment. But of course it wasn’t about getting his money at all.
We all had a few together after he came in. He was initially put out there were so many of us. I think he’d been hoping to get laid. We had some smoke and we fed the guy some JD with something extra and before long the guy was passed out on the couch. Everything changed after that.
It seems like a long time ago now.
The night he got out Thom and Jared and Cass and Sam and me and a couple of the homeless kids we adopted were playing poker.
The loser had to go into the closet and come out with a piece of Adam.
After a few hands I’m telling you there couldn’t have been much left of him. Like I said, we were all pretty out of it.
After five minutes or so we realized one of the homeless kids had been in the closet for awhile. And then the screaming started.
It wasn’t like Adam screamed anymore. He’d found out pretty early what happened when he did that.
The door flew open.
Somehow Adam had gotten a hand loose from the rope to pull a razor blade from his face. With one hand he’d managed to peel most of the homeless kid’s face off. He’d dug it into the kid’s cheek and pulled up as far as he could.
Jared jumped out of his chair and went for the drawer in one of the other rooms where he kept the gun. We were all pretty messed up. I honestly thought I was just tripping. It didn’t seem to add up.
We watched as Adam pulled the rod from out of the closet and beat the homeless kid until the kid stopped moving, and then he ran for the for the front door.
All Adam had to do was open the door and he was gone. Jared ran to the door and then looked back at us with wild eyes.
“Jesus Christ, why didn’t you guys do anything to stop him?”
None of us said anything. The homeless kid bled out on the floor. Adam, it’s almost like he never existed.
Why’d we leave the door unlocked? There were a lot of people coming in and out of there. Also we were pretty high all the time.
Like I said officer, I didn’t touch that kid. And I don’t know Adam’s real name. I think Kali shot some video before she left a few days ago. You might want to check with her.
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Mark Evans is from Halifax, NS, Canada. He is currently living overseas.
2 comments:
rough stuff... extremely scary.
Nice, neat and cruel.
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