It was my first job. I was told not to expect much from it when I started, but I didn’t listen. Every aspect of the job was important; if table three needed to be cleaned, I was there. Another load of fresh dishes piled high with half-eaten food? I was the guy to call. The pay was a joke and the hours were insane, but it was mine.
There was one night, the restaurant had closed and the boss had left me to close up shop. I knew that I was just staying late because the last party had made a mess, but the whole concept of me being “in charge” for the night felt good.
As I drained the sinks, I heard a strange sound, almost like someone grinding their teeth while trying to whistle. Being the responsible employee that I was, I shrugged off the sound as something being wrong with the sink again. I was about to clock out anyway, the morning people could handle it when they got in. Smiling at my competent decision making skills, I left to take out the trash to the dumpster in the alley.
I was tired. It had been a very long day and I wanted nothing more to do than simply go home, and sleep. So as you can imagine, I was not as alert as I would have been under different circumstances. When I tossed the garbage into the dumpster, I had assumed that the smell was coming from in there.
Needless to say, I didn’t see the body right away. I did notice; however, when I heard the whistling sound again, louder this time, coming from behind the dumpster this time.
“Probably just a raccoon.” I assured myself.
I looked anyway.
It was one of the customers from earlier. I remembered him because he had been making a scene and my manager asked him to leave. Except now he was here- or at least his body was here- most of it, anyway.
I’ve heard that dead people can look peaceful, like they are just sleeping; that was not the case. His eyes were still open, bloodshot and crusty. The man’s rib cage was ripped open; bones jutting outward. The torso was a bloody, shredded mess.
I froze as I realized there was something crouched next to the body. It was the size of a child, but had sickly gray flesh and long greasy hair that reached past its shoulders. The grinding sound stopped.
I was still deciding if it would be more appropriate to run, or piss myself then run, when it spoke.
“I know you’re there, grub.” It didn’t turn away from whatever it was doing. If sandpaper could talk, it would probably talk like that.
“H-hi” I said.
The sickly thing slowly turned to look at me. Its face should not have been a face. The whole structure of it was disturbingly narrow as if someone had tried to flatten the side of its skull years ago. The primary feature of its visage was the nose. It was grotesquely long and hooked. Its chin looked tiny like a cat’s, which in turn gave it something of an overbite. Blood, dried and otherwise was smeared like barbecue sauce around its mouth. Ironically, it was gnawing on a rib when it looked at me. The eyes were the worst part.
I had seen pictures of cave animals in school, freaked out looking things with pale, bulbous eyes. I guess the eyes were something like that. Except, there was no fear in its gaze and instead of sticking out, its eyes were sunken so deep that I could only see pasty beads. They were calculating eyes. Cold.
It continued to chew on the bone, making that grinding sound I had noticed before. I realized that its nose made the faint whistling sound; a fact that I would have found humorous under other circumstances.
There was a little crack as the bone gave way. The thing licked its bloody fingers.
“What are you looking at?”
I took an unconscious step backwards, not sure where to stare, as looking at the body made me want to look somewhere else, and right next to it was the thing. I closed my eyes.
The sounds stopped. For a moment in the darkness, I imagined that everything was still. Then the whistling, sniffling, sound began again, much closer this time.
“Relax, you aren’t ripe,” the creature condescended.
I opened my eyes, almost immediately regretting that choice as I found the thing to be right there staring up at me. “What do you mean ripe?”
It laughed, a sound not dissimilar to that of a dog vomiting. “It means you can live a bit longer dimwit!”
The creature continued laughing for what felt like an unnecessarily long time. I wish I could say that I was too confused and horrified by the sight before me to act, but the truth is I was very tired. Thinking of a rational response seemed beyond my abilities. Instead I said, “Lucky me?”
The beady eyes scrutinized me for a moment; then it shook its head. “Not necessarily, there are things fair less enjoyable than dying.”
“How do you know?”
“Oh the grub slug thinks he’s clever, eh?” It began laughing again. I desperately wanted to run, but I was so goddamn scared. It continued, “Why do you want to live anyway?”
I panicked, not really sure how to react. “Because I don’t want to die.”
“Everyone dies. You’ll die, he died.” It gestured vaguely at the corpse behind it. “You don’t get a choice in that. I’m curious to know why you are so keen to go on living.”
“I’m just a kid! I’m not supposed to have that stuff figured out yet!”
“Says who?! You are at least sixteen, probably older; millions of kids don’t live to be as old as you are!”
I looked up in exasperation, “Fine, I don’t have anything, except the potential to do something worthwhile with my life.”
The creature gave a toothy grin (that I wish I could un-see). “Now that is an interesting answer.” I began to breathe a sigh of relief, but panic set in when it spoke again. “However, are you going to keep wasting that potential, or should I just kill you now?”
“Hey, that isn’t fair!”
“Life shouldn’t be fair!”
“Is that what you do with your life? Just run around killing people for the sake of making some philosophical point?”
“Huh? What? No, I killed that guy because he killed me first.”
“How is that possible?”
“It’s complicated.”
“What are you then, some sort of ghost?”
“For crying out loud! I said it was complicated! And where did all of your fear go anyway?”
Truth be told, I was still frightened, terrified really, but at the same time I was curious.
“So…what are you?”
“People like you are why I don’t spend time with humans.” It shook its head in disappointment. “I exist. That’s all you need to know. Every action has consequences. Me, I’m one of them.”
“Then what’s your name?”
It spat in disgust. “That is such a human thing to say. Not every being wants a name, not everyone needs one. If you must call me something, then call me pain. Call me by the pain that this man caused years ago when he ran over a pregnant woman in a drunken haze. Call me wrath. Call me by the wrath that I finally repaid him with. Call me anguish. Call me by the anguish that will come full circle when they find his body. Name me by the blood of the innocent, the guilt of the living, and the curse of the dead. Rain down all number of insults over my head if you wish; murderer, monster, fiend. But the only thing you are cursing is fairness itself. I am the wages of life."
“You are death…” I felt the weight of the statement hang in the air for a long moment. The moment didn’t last.
“Wrong. Death is a very nice kid. Be polite when you meet him.
"I told you that I don’t need a name; that’s because my actions are far louder than any utterance could ever speak. For you and your kind, your words are more plentiful than your actions. You require names because you have no actions, no deeds that you can be known by. You have no substance; therefore, you die as quickly as your empty words are forgotten.
"I commend you for your earlier statement. You do have the potential for doing something great. But I need to warn you, you are not on that path now.”
“How so? What am I doing wrong?”
“That right there, you say that like you mean it, but I know you’re going to screw this up.”
“Just tell me what I am doing wrong.”
“It isn’t what you are doing, it’s what you aren’t doing. You see what you are doing here at this place? It isn’t you. Get out before it tears you down, do something that makes you feel like yourself, and in the name of all that is marginally decent, think about other people before you act!”
I was taken aback. “That is actually really inspirational.”
“The sad thing is, you aren’t going to listen. Do me a favor and don’t let me find you when the time comes.”
Suddenly, the creature was gone. I stared for a moment at the bloody corpse, then thought better of it. The morning people could deal with it.
