“Tell me sir, do you fear death?” My hang-mate asked of me. I chuckled as the rough noose tightened around my neck.
“Do I fear death? What a silly question. I did not come so far to fear death. I fear not death for its uncertainty, nor the question of my soul entering hell. I fear not death, for if I should enter hell, it will never be worse than the knowledge of what I did. You must be wondering what I did and I must confess before I go, the actions of which I conspired and completed. I fear not death, for while my work is incomplete, and no one upon this earth will finish it; it doesn’t deserve completion, because I have been caught. A man who can’t complete his work on his own doesn’t deserve the completion of his work.”
“Tell us,” the executioner spoke, “your tale of crime and horror. I will personally ensure your life is extended until your story is complete.”
I smirked at him and began to speak, “I killed my wife, that’s why I’m here. It seems to be a normal crime until you hear the reason why. That’s always how it is. Context is such a wonderful thing, it…”
“Speak the story without any unnecessary extensions. Unless you wish to be dropped now. I’m not playing around, now get on with it.”
“Fine. As I said, I killed my wife. She was so beautiful and innocent, like a white rose waiting to be picked. In a dream, I saw a man. His name was Arlen and he was a foul man. He reeked of blood, more specifically, he reeked of decay. That is the best way I can describe it. The smell wasn’t so bad as to cause me to clutch my nose, but it lingered around Arlen. He had a gorgeous face, which may sound odd coming from me, but if you’d seen it; you would say the same. His smile was inviting and pleasant, with a hint of hidden desire. That is to say, I knew his intentions were not pure. Darkness seemed emanate from him as light emanates from a fire.
“He claimed to be a deity, one of righteous decent. His family created the world, and his parents created him. Arlen was born from ash and dust watered by the blood of the first war. As he arose from the ground, less of a being than he was a concept, he saw the war and fire and bloodshed. It made him smile. Arlen transcended time and space, appearing where ever a malevolent deed transpired. He told me he was not able to bring himself before my eyes outside of my dream, for as I said before he was only really a concept. Now when I say Arlen was a concept you must understand I’m not saying he isn’t real, in fact, he is more real than the rope around my neck. He appears to people in various forms, which in themselves are not visible to the untrained eye. Arlen drives men mad, simply for his own enjoyment.
“Anyway, he told me that the world had been far too tame to his eyes for longer that it should have. Arlen hungered for a dastardly action of immense proportions and so he told me to sacrifice my wife. This was one of the many ways I was sure Arlen was real. Just by saying sacrifice, I knew the entire process. I have no idea how it happened, no man had spoken to me of such a ritual and yet I knew it so well. I followed his order in excitement, pure ardent excitement. Many would think I would do it out of fear of such a deity, but that was not even a complete thought in my mind.”
The executioner interrupted me, “And why did you want to do it so bad?”
“Well, as I explained before, Arlen instills thoughts into you. Thoughts you would never dream of having. Deeds you couldn’t normally complete in fear of consequence. So, now I’m sure you wish to know what I did with my wife. I know you couldn’t find the body and after the sheriff questioned me for the disappearance of my wife, I told him I killed her without hesitation.
“Well, one of the last steps of the sacrifice is to bury the body. That way it may decay for a month. The decomposition produces a smell that is most pleasing to Arlen. It is buried near the river, with a small hole to allow overflowing water to disturb the body. I killed my wife in a very particular way. I had to make sure she was unable to fight back, for if she did, I might mess up the strict ritual. Subduing her was simple enough, I used a thin, metal wire with T-grips to restrict her breathing when I pulled it tight around her neck. It was very convenient that the only sounds she could make were restrained gasps for air. Once she was unconscious, I carried her into our shed and laid her onto a large table. I held her down with simple ropes and gagged her with a towel. I prepared a needle attached to some thin tubing. With this, I stabbed into her neck, letting her heart pump blood into a large bucket. She writhed and bled out, almost filling up my bucket. Next, with sharp knife I carved the letters ‘A’ and ‘R’ into each of her palms. This marking reserved her specifically for Arlen. You know, it’s kind of funny, I could almost feel Arlen smiling down on me.
“On her left leg, I carved a crucifix, so that her pure soul would be just fine. Safe from Arlen’s desires. I then doused her with her own blood. It took about an hour for the blood to dry. Longest hour I’ve ever had to wait. After that, I was able to work again with the removal of the gag. Then, I broke her nose, so that skinning her face would be easier. Her eyes glared at me lidless and hateful. I removed those, ground them up, and forced them down her throat.”
The executioner stood bent over clutching his stomach. He rose as if to speak, but clutched his stomach again attempting to keep the contents of his stomach down. When he finally composed himself, he spoke, “You’re a sick, sick man! Scratch that, you don’t get to be called human. You’re a monster!”
“Oh, but I simply carry out his will, so if I am going to hell; I already have favor with Arlen. He will save me from the torture. Now, do you want to hear the rest of the story, and what I was unable to complete.”
The executioner was struggling with the choice I had presented him with. Despite seeming to hate me, I knew he wanted to hear the rest of the story. My hang-mate was looking at me with disgust, not saying a single word. I knew what I had done was wrong, but Arlen had made my mind open to such tragedies. The executioner finally decided he wanted to hear the rest of the story and nodded.
“With effort I was able to remove all of her teeth, then I used a hammer to pound all thirty-two of them into both of her arms. They were like little, blunt, white nails. It took me a while to mark out where every tooth would go, for if they were not evenly spaced Arlen would be very cross with me. After that, I went into my house and slept in my clothes. I was not allowed to shower or clean myself in any way. After all, atrocious acts and cleanliness don’t mix. I had another dream about Arlen, in which, he said nothing. All he did was look upon me with an approving smile. It was a nice reassuring smile, letting me know that everything was fine.
“Come next morning, I woke up before the sun had taken its place in the sky. I was to bury her on that day. I found her in the shed covered in rats eating away at her body. I forced them away, and just as I thought Arlen would be angry with me, I remembered that Arlen likes the destruction of the flesh. Her body reeked awfully, but I became used to the odor as I was burying her. The ritual called for her to be facing down, so that the cut flesh would be immersed in water, when the river overflowed. Funny, how today was the day when I was supposed to dig her up and finish the sacrifice. A nice coincidence, you might say.”
“Why would it be nice? Aren’t you worried ‘Arlen’ will be mad that you haven’t finished.”
“He will be angrier with you because you are hindering me.”
“I think there’s more to this then you want to admit. Tell me what the last step is.”
“She kills me and does the same ritual to my body. After that, we’ll be left above ground to rot away.”
“How can she kill you if she is dead?”
“I have to call on the powers of Arlen to reanimate her corpse.”
“You know what, if you’re going to die anyway you may as well finish this sacrifice. I mean, we need to find the body, and I’m sure no one really wants to dig it up except for you. Also, it will be entertaining to see you try to do something that’s just not going to happen.”
I had hoped the executioner would just let me hang, but this man was either just as twisted as my actions had been, or he really thought I deserved this. He had a man handcuff me and remove my noose. I led them to the river, and they gave me a shovel. It was kind of difficult to dig with restrained hands, but luckily, I hadn’t buried her very deep. The odor from her body was worse now, and as I flipped her body over I found worms and maggots had infested her facial cavity. I thought it was odd how many creatures there were crawling about freely, but I assumed this was just Arlen having some fun. They removed my restraints. It was interesting to see the doubting faces of the executioner and his guard. They were so innocent; the power of Arlen would surely scare them off.
“Arlen! Being of transcendence, hate, death, cruelty, and more! I have uncovered the body as you wished, now give life to this corpse, so that the sacrifice may be completed.”
Nothing happened. What’s wrong? Is Arlen mad that I didn’t really want to finish the sacrifice? Surely as a punishment he would force me to finish it. Or does he wish to humiliate me right now?
“Just as I thought,” the executioner said, “Arlen isn’t real. Cuff him and put him back in the noose.”
“Arlen, where are you? Surely you can’t stand someone claiming that you do not exist.”
The guard moved to put the handcuffs back on, but when he touched my arm he pulled back and let out a small yelp of pain. My body was getting hotter and I was sure my face was turning red. The last thing I remember before passing out was the burning sensation of blood spurting out from my mouth and into the open grave.
When I woke up, I was in rope bindings and there was a towel in my mouth. My wife’s body bent over me so that I could see directly into her face and eye sockets. Worms and maggots were still crawling around. I originally thought that my wife would be alive again, but this was definitely not her. It opened its mouth and spoke three words to me in a voice I had only heard in my dreams before.
“IT IS FINISHED.”