The Wrong Man (Prose)

  Please read the authors notes before reading this Prose (Short Story) Poem.              He sat there in his cage, right next to the chamber of poison, savoring his last moments in the material world. Breaking bread for the last time with his defeated champion of society’s law. Moved to the end of the aisle, in this row of death, one last time they sat together as he recounted events leading him to this… Tragic, poetic, end!
    I lived by the sword and here at the end of all things I've thrown myself on it! My dearest friend, reveal I could not, even to you the true nature of my malady. Your brilliant mastery of society’s laws would have caged me for an eternity in a prison, for the mind! Never again to feel, the rays of God, warming my face. Poked and prodded, shocked and drugged, till old age took me and the light of life shown no more in my eyes!
    I feel a longing, an alluring call to death and rebirth. Here and now it ends and begins. The great cycle of life will not be denied! And now as the witching hour approaches, I shall meet this end leaving the truth for you to hold.
    Beware the demon alcohol. The mystical sword of the great unknown that cuts both ways when wielded by the wrong hand. And such was mine my vanquished champion of the law. Little known to the common man are the psychic doors alcohol can open into the vessel that houses your soul! An open invitation for astral dwellers that fear the light. Still drawn, still consumed, by the pleasures of the physical world.
Before my thirtieth birthday, my whole life had been one of quiet desperation. Never had I felt the intimate touch or the warmth of a woman's body next to mine. My only glimpse of my desires realized were found in the pages of a romance novel old and dog-eared, stained with the tears that only the lonely could know!
    Then it happened, a feeling of adventure raced through me. Never before had I consumed alcohol. Mine was a sad endless existence. Nothing but, a mundane life of work sleep and endless tears. I decided to take a different path home from work that day. I was drawn to the flashing neon of a seedy little bar. Like a fluttering insect is drawn to the flame. I stepped into the inferno and sat down. After the first drink a warm glow swept through me like a brush fire in the wind! I could feel the loss of self as I faded into the void.
Even before my eyes opened I could feel the light of a new day on my face and knew I was not at home. In my arms a woman of such beauty I could never have hoped to hold! She, I, both smelled of alcohol, cigarettes and seafood. No not seafood. Oh... So that's what a woman smells like! But I knew in my heart I would never allow myself to smoke! I remembered as the neon buzzed in my ears last night he was buzzing in my head. Down, down, down he pushed me into that place where my primitive side dwells. As I faded into the void I could hear his birth cry as he won over my body to his use.
    She had gone to bed with him and now nuzzled in my arms she would awaken with me. Panic consumed me, frozen I laid there dreading her consciousness. He had robbed me of my virginity, not even present to enjoy the moment, I cried! She stirred and slowly woke up. Upon seeing my tears, she was touched by the moment. She kissed them from my cheek and mounted me. I dare not speak, lest she find me out. Instead I grabbed her hips, met her thrusts and lost my virginity for the second time!
Getting up and dressed, by his name she called out to me, Steve, Steve, as the door closed behind me. Where are you going? I didn’t answer and just kept going. Scared, confused and elated I said... So that's your name my partner in crime. Home I went and called in sick. Doctor Jekyll or Mister Hyde Which one was I? I wasn't sure. She had shared her bed with him. And unaware of the change, she had shared her bed with me. So I wrestled with my thoughts.
    Who was, the real monster? For as much as he had stolen my body I had stolen hers! I was both victim and victimizer! The most exquisite story of S and M... ever told, and I wanted more. Showered and shaven. I dressed for the evening, out the door and down the street where the neon lights beckoned to me.
    Seven nights of darkness followed by seven mornings of bliss. Sloppy seconds weren't so bad when you were also the first! When the morning came, after the eighth night things were not quite the same. I awoke in my bed covered in the scarlet essence of what had so freely flowed only hours ago, from his and my first conquest. It was Friday morning and work was not an issue, I had been fired! Fetal position, I laid in the tub with the shower beating down on my shaking body. The essence of her life force slowly faded from my skin. After a long restless sleep huddled on my couch knees on my chest, arms locking them in place, I sat there withdrawn, watching the horror of last night played out on the television screen. A serial killer copy cat was on the loose. Steve Stunning the Romeo Slasher, who had been executed at midnight eight days ago, obviously had an admirer. She had been ripped from valley to sternum with her heart cut out and the number one painted in blood on the wall above her bed.
    The neurotic, pathetic, excuse of a wasted life that I was, I took my meds and went to sleep. Only to wake up to the same scene all over again! Bleeding was my heart and torn was my soul, for the things I had not and yet had done!
Job gone, my life over, psychosis setting in, overwhelmed and over medicated, I hid in my home dreading the night and the morning that would surely follow. Each day I counted the crimson numbers on the walls of the victims as they played out on the evening news. The seventh night had finally arrived. A sigh of relief that it soon would be over! I climbed into my bed and got in between my last set of sheets not stained with the victim’s blood!
A voice in my head, that I could not silence, spoke to me in lyrical tones… my dear, sweet dear, brother in arms.

Into the void this time, you won’t be sent
For use of your body, it's time to pay the rent.

For you will be my witness, on this very night
To my crowning jewel, of horror, fear and fright!

So come with me my brother, and together we'll set free
The last tormented soul, that gave herself to me!

I screamed and pleaded, and begged him not to go
But out the door he went, dragging me in tow!

He picked up his blade of death, from the bushes by my door
I'm sorry my dear brother, but it has to kill once more!

Just one more block, inside her house we'll creep
It's late enough now, she'll surely be asleep...

The door creaked open, into her dimly lit bedroom.
We stood there, both of us. It was just in that moment when, he made his move. I felt the bond denying me control of my body, loosen! I stopped his attack, in mid swing our knife wielding hand, frozen, as if stuck in time.
    We stood there looming over the body, of this red headed beauty. Gaining control of my vocal chords, I screamed, run!
Half naked, she leapt from the bed and swept past us as we fought for control of the shell that housed us both. I should not have underestimated her strength. She had more guts than I thought any woman could possess. She didn't run out the door. Instead, she opened the hall closet, picked up her dead husband’s gun and returned to the bed room. A shot rang out… and then he ran out... of my wounded body. Leaving me there, writhing in agony from the pain of being gut shot! A slow painful death that would insure I lived, long enough to pay for his crimes!
    Sirens in the distance, closer they came, growing louder and louder. The shrill sound of the sirens, and her blood curdling screams rang in my ears and still echo in my head even now! Hand cuffed and bleeding, they raced me to the hospital. They wanted me alive. An example had to be made. A strong message for all the want to be “Copy Cat Killers” of the world!
    That's where you came in, my defeated champion, of society’s law! And so, here we sit, you and I and my last request, this bottle of liquor. Only five more minutes and they'll be strapping me into a dead mans throne. Inside that air tight chamber!
There's one person missing, from this last hurrah. But if I know him and I do! By the time I turn this bottle down emptied, he'll be knocking at the doorway to my mind. And there in the chamber, as they strap me down, I'll let him in. But he won’t get out! And when the pellets drop into the bucket of acid below my throne, I'll be free! And he'll be locked away, in a decaying prison six feet under for an eternity!
    Curtain drawn, witness's present, the Warden nodded and the pellets dropped! As I watched the man I had come to call friend slowly die, for the first time since we met, three years ago, he was smiling!