The Search for New Prey
by Alex Slaybaugh
I’ll never
forget the day that my path came across Morfran. In the past, I had
always been a good spirited person with considerably high morals, and I
always made the ethical decision about things. I was the stereotypical
blonde haired, blue eyed, awkward kid who made an effort to take a break
from my college work to visit the on-campus church every Sunday. But
that was the past, and this is the present. Now I know that sin is what
makes people grow old. Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll all have their toll
on the human body. My skin now hangs loose, my eyes are failing me, and
my soul has grown weary.
In my early
adulthood, I blamed Morfran for the loss of my purity, but now I know
better. Now I know that the only one I can blame is myself. The past
haunts me, follows me every morning when I wake up, doesn’t leave me
until I fall asleep, and then haunts my dreams. I’ll never forget what I
did that winter, and even worse I’ll never forgive myself for passing
that damn curse on.
I met Morfran on a
Tuesday--the Tuesday that changed my life. I was in a hurry, and I
cannot even to this day remember why, but I knew I was in a hurry. I had
something to do. Something urgent. Something that couldn’t wait one more
instant. That’s at least what I thought. A cold wind rushed in my face
and papers went everywhere as I briskly rounded a corner. A split second
later I hit a solid object that felt like a brick wall knocking me
straight on my back and the wind out of my lungs. After gasping for
breath, I looked up and saw the figure that would change my life.
“Fuck you, Adam,"
he said, staring at me as though he was looking into my soul. Fuck you.
Ass hole.”
Normally these
words would have had little affect on me, but there was an eeriness in
his voice. It was as if he was desperate. Desperate as if he had been
planning these words over and over in his mind for several months, and
they went in circles crawling to get out. And the question that haunted
me then and still does today… How did he know my name?
In an instant he
was there, and in another he was gone leaving behind the words, “Follow
me.” After making desperate attempts to get up and overcoming the shock
of the awkward situation, I left all my baggage behind and sprinted down
a dark and cluttered alley. I ran through multiple city blocks in varied
directions following the voice at full speed and ignoring the pain that
shot out of my lungs with each breath. I don’t even know why I followed
him, but I did. Finally, right as I thought my legs were about to
crumble in exhaustion, we were there, a dark, rusty building where water
dripped profusely out of the ceiling from an unknown source. Exhaustion
took hold; I closed my eves, sat down, and fell asleep.
Light streaming
through a muddied window woke me up at about midday. I couldn’t recall
the events of the past day until much later. I sat up, observed my new
surroundings, and quenched my undying thirst from a stagnant pool of
water. I saw Morfran in a chair but chose to ignore him for the present.
Morfran had a lean figure and glazed eyes. His animal instincts seem to
have taken over and there was always a sense of desperation about him.
“Man you look like
a piece of shit, you know that. Get the hell up and straighten yourself
up. Let’s get the hell out of this shit hole.”
In a strange
obedience, as if I had no control over the current situation, I got up,
dusted myself off a little, and then straightened my hair that was
gritty from the dirt on the floor.
“Where are we
going?” I asked.
“You’ll see. Trust
me, you’ll see,” he replied.
This time I didn’t
have to run to keep pace with Morfran, but he still managed to stay at
least ten or twenty steps out in front of me. I don’t think that he
wanted to know me, hear me, or even see me. He just wanted me there for
some reason. I served some purpose to him. We walked four blocks before
we arrived in front of a locally run general store. He went in, and I
tried to follow him, but he disappeared so I began to become accustom to
this new environment and study the new surroundings. A little bit of
everything occupied the shelves and even streamed onto the floor in some
areas. The clerks wore uniforms with bright golden nametags that
glittered a sharp flash of light where you could barley read the names.
Before I knew it, I had guided myself to the back of the store and began
to fumble through various bits of junk, none of which had a price on it.
Just then something
struck me. A pain went down my spinal cord, and I scream in agony. Red
warm fluid had then splattered onto the floor. In an instinctive manner,
I turned around to see a nametag that gleamed the name Louis, and
Morfran standing silently in a corner. It was a clay pot that had hit
me, and the broken pieces were now mixed in with the blood on the floor.
A second later another clay pot crowned my head and shattered, this time
knocking me to the ground. The clerk mechanically picked up another clay
pot and bit me. Then another and another. I lost consciousness.
When I woke up I
could only see one thing. I was still in the general store, or at east I
think I was, and two red eyes penetrated the blackness. The glow cut
through the darkness showing the true demand that Morfran was. In a
sinister voice he boomed, “In God’s name they shall cast out devils;
they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if
they drink of any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay
hands on the sick, and then they shall recover.”
An unnamable force
filled my veins. It smothered the inside of my being. Hate, violence,
irritability, and lust replaced my morals of the past. I was then and
there a new person and I knew it. The lights once again began to conquer
all the corners of the room. I still asked, “What did you do?” even
though I was fully aware of the answer.
“I have made you
into a man. Your past is now the past and your future is mine. My sin
will come upon you.”
“You can’t do that!
You can’t make someone sin. It’s impossible! I’ll resist.”
“We shall see soon
enough. You are now bound to me and must follow me until I liberate
you.”
My eyelids did not
close, but blackness filled my sight. Time passed without my knowledge
of its existence, and when my sight was finally replenished, bright,
neon lights pierced through the blanket of darkness. I knew what this
part of town was, but I had never ventured this deep into it. Every town
has these parts where your last name doesn’t matter and your self worth
is determined by how much change you have in your pocket. Morfran all
the while was no less than three steps in front of me and, after a while
of following him, we entered a dark bar that was tucked deep in an
abandoned alley.
“We are about to
close,” the bartender said as music blared from speakers surrounding the
room, and evidence of the earlier crowd was scattered on the floor. Only
a few drunks were left passed out on tables or trying to find a
bathroom. The bartender himself was a trendy looking kid that parents
feared their kids becoming friends with. Spiked, bleached hair and
multiple earrings accompanied his physic.
“It doesn’t matter.
“We’ll only take a few minutes,” Morfran said with his eyes beamed the
same daunting red appearance that they had what seemed like only moments
before at the general store. “Give Adam here a couple of drinks.”
“All right, no
problem. But first, do you have any ID?” Morfran’s eyes glowed a even
darker red and the glow filled the room. Mechanically, the bartender set
a glass and the bottle in front of me, and it bad become vital to my
existence that I drink it. It was as necessary to life as water.
The rest of the
night was a blur to me. All that I can make sense of is that sometime
during the course of the evening I had picked up at least three girls
who were strongly scented with perfume. Their soft skin was everywhere.
Their breasts softly blended into the peach colored haze that made up
their bodies. After a feeling of supreme satisfaction, I drifted off
into unconsciousness.
When I woke up, the
effects of the previous night had taken their toll on my internal
organs. To this day I have never felt as bad as I did that morning. I
was thirsty and lying in the gutter of an alley. I hit rock bottom and
had stayed there for three months. I found every possible kind of
self-indulgence and the worse the act, the worse I felt. Because I felt
even worse, it was a priority to find another way to satisfy my urges.
Morfran, all the while, was never far off. His eyes now constantly
glowed that dull horrifying red that dictated all of my actions. He had
now started to whisper into darkness. If I tried to resist whatever it
was that he wanted me to do, the eyes would flare up and I mechanically
obeyed without a second thought. However, he was also my guardian angel.
If something got out of hand and went too far, I could always find
reassurance in turning to him and his evil ways, even if it meant
accepting the demand that he was into my life, and thus, filling my
actions with sinful recklessness.
Then one day my
world came crashing down. Everything that I knew and had come to accept
had dissipated. It led to my great awakening and my revival,
Morfran appeared out of nowhere.
“My time is up. I
am through with you now. You have served my purpose, and now it is time
to cast you aside like a sack of garbage. Your time, however, has just
begun. You know what to do. Follow your instinct, the primitive one, the
one that only includes the bare essentials.”
He was gone and a
terrifying fear swept over my body. What was I going to do without
Morfran to guide me into my perpetual treason to God? My instincts,
however, were clear and decisive. I could now see the parts of people’s
souls that they tried to cover, the part of their souls that they didn’t
want to deal with and had long forgotten. I was looking for something
and I knew exactly what it was. Purity is a feeble notion that people
believe that they can hang on to. The truth is purity can only be lost.
I found who I was looking for and didn’t give a second thought in
passing this damn curse onto her. I had found new prey. I didn’t even
know her name, but that didn’t matter. My eyes filled with blood, and I
could feel the red warm glow over my cheeks. “In Gods name they shall
cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink of any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and then they shall recover,” I
boomed, and the relief of the burden had passed. I still had to guide
her through her turn of a hellish state, but I was free and I was happy.
I was happy? I had done my part, the selfish action, and passed the
curse to someone I didn’t even know. The weights of my sin were now her
responsibility.