THE SHORT-SHORT STORIES-DARK AND LOVELY

STORY THREE

A DANCE WITH THE DEVIL

He was raised in a abusive home. His father would always slap, punch and kick his mother for small things. His mother even had a miscarriage because of this.

He would punch and kick him too when he disobeys him or get involved when he hurt his mother. He wanted them to laugh when he makes jokes, funny or not, to cry when he wants them to. He even went as far as choosing friends for them.

It was when he was sixteen years old when he killed his own father. On that day he found him beating his mother for cooking dinner late. One minute he took a knife on the kitchen table and demanded him to stop, the next minute there was blood everywhere and the knife was sticking out from his father's big belly.

Both him and his mother told the police it was self defence and all the neighbours knew that he was abusing his wife.

Instead of things getting better, they became worse. The breadwinner died so they were left without food. He mixed himself with the wrong crowd, that's when he started to break in people's houses and to rob people.

One day he was arrested and met worst people on the inside while waiting for bail hearing. They called him names and that he was nothing but an imposter. They said only a real thug can take a life of a person while looking in their eyes.

He liked them not only because they were real hardcore criminals but also that they live the life he desires...money, cars, protection and women, they had them all. He asked to join them and they told him he is too weak to be one of them.

Few days later, his mother bailed him out. She shouted at him for resorting to crime. Her biggest fear was to see his only son turn out to be like his father. Seeing her mother cry because of him made him cry too, he therefore promised to stay away from crime. He hated his father with a passion but the truth is he was unconsciously turning to become him.

Weeks later his mother found a job as a domestic worker. Some days she would come home late at night while he was sleeping. They didn't live a luxurious life but they were living a better life, no abusive father and no crime, just the two of them.

One day on his way home from school, he bumped into three of the guys he met in prison. They were driving a red 2014 model mustang, wearing very expensive clothes and they were with beautiful and seductive half naked women.

They asked him whether he still wants to be part of the crew and he did not hesitate to say yes. He jumped inside the mustang and they took her to a party in town. At the party he tried cocaine for the first time in his life and it made him feel like a new powerful man.

Few hours later they told him it's time for his initiation. He followed to the black van parked outside the house. They told him only a real thug can rape and squeeze a life out of a body while staring in its eyes.

"Do you think you can handle that?" one of them asked him.

"Hell yeah!!!" He said.

They drove around at midnight while it was raining, playing music, joking and smoking for entertainment . Until they saw a woman in the streets walking alone. They quietly gathered around the corner and followed her until the darkness swallowed her. They wrapped a shirt around her head and dropped her to the floor.

"This is it kid, now you get a chance to be raw" they said.

So he kicked her and grabbed the woman by her hair, he dragged her to a lobby that had nobody there. She struggled hard but they forced her to go up the stairs. They got to the roof and then held her down to the ground.

He screamed "shut the fuck up and stop moving around!!"

The shirt covered her face but she still managed to cry for help. He stomped on her face and broke her jaw, the dirty bastards knew what they were doing. They kicked her till they cracked her rips and she stopped moving. Blood leaking through the cloth, she cried silently.

Then they all proceeded to rape her violently, he was made to go first but each of them took a turn. Ripping her up and choke her till her throat burn. A broken jaw yet mumbled for God's help but they were not concerned.

When they were done and she was broken and bruised. One of them pulled out a gun and told him she was a witness for what she had gone through and if he killed her he was guaranteed a spot in the crew.

He thought about it for a minute, she was practically dead and so he leaned over and put a gun in her head. Right before he pulled a trigger and ended her life, he thought about the cocaine and the whiskey with ice. He felt strong standing with his new brothers, he pulled the back the shirt cover.

What he saw made him to stutter because he was staring in the eyes of his own mother. She looked at him and cried because he had forsaken her. His whole world stopped, he could not even contemplate, his corruption has successfully changed his faith and he remembered how his mom used to come home late working hard for nothing.

Now what was he worth? He turned away from the woman that once had given birth to him. He cried out loud to the sky because he was lonely and scared, only the devil responded because God was not there. Right there he knew what it was like to be empty and cold and then he jumped off the roof and died with no soul.

After that they killed his mother and never spoke about it.