September 2006 Issue The Horror Library, your Haunted Home for Horror Fiction, Dark Art, Horror Games, Movie Reviews, Book Reviews, Non-Fiction, Alternative Music, Horror Authors, Horror Short Fiction and featuring The Terrible Twelve - RJ Cavender, Bailey Hunter, Boyd E Harris, Megg Roper, Jason Beirens, CJ Hurtt, Eric Stark, Cordelia Snow, Chris Perridas, Curt Mahr, Stephen Sommerville, M Louis Dixon, Kerry Drummond
Danny Fitzsimmons, or Fitz for short, woke up in his one room apartment to Christmas music. Now he loved the holidays, he loved Christmas music, but it was Celine Dion singing 'Oh Holy Night'. His automatic reaction to Mrs. Dion was to always break the radio (A habit formed from the unending playing of the Titanic song.) Which he did. His clock radio smashed onto the wooden floor boards and fizzled out. He quickly attempted to fall back asleep, his eyes darted open, remembering he had the night shift.
He wandered into his small kitchen and looked at the clock, 7:30 PM. He popped a bagel in his mouth and dressed. His blue uniform was getting tighter by the month. He looked in his long mirror, and patted his belly.
"Cop's curse."
~
The police radio crackled, words were spat out in a haze of electronic fuzz.
"We -fzzt- got us anoth -fzzt- jumper. Units in vicin -fzzztt- Main and G st -ffzzt- respond."
"This is Fitz. On it, Over"
Danny Fitzsimmons had been on the force for two years. He's was still wet behind the ears. His partner Johnny Harper, had been a cop for twenty years and running.
"C'mon Fitz. We're almost done fer the night. Unlike you I got a family to get home to..." Fitz smiled wide, and Johnny knew he wasn't going to be winning this argument, "...fercryinoutloud."
"He or she will likely jump, it's the holidays after all, and then we'll have some paperwork, that's all. I'll do it myself if you'd like."
Fitz still had the drive, the want to make a difference. Even he had started to believe he couldn't. The squad car cut through the snow as they sped along towards the scene.
When they pulled up they noticed a crowd had gathered already, No other cops had arrived. Johnny went into autopilot.
"Everyone back. Go home, go sing carols or something."
His big arms pushed the crowd back without touching them. Fitz looked up, ignoring the crowd, he knew Johnny had them. It was a tall office building, cookie cutter in appearance. He could barely make out the figure on the ledge. It, whatever it was, was at least twenty stories up, it was yelling as well. What it was yelling, was impossible to hear.
"Johnny, I'm going up there."
Johnny glanced over his shoulder, still with arms wide moving the crowd back.
"Are you crazy? We wait for the negotiator, you're gonna get canned."
"I can talk 'em down."
Johnny ignored him and went back to crowd control.
Fitz walked into the building as other squad cars began to arrive.
~
The elevator played a horrible version of 'Jingle Bells' on a xylophone and a flute. Fitz blocked it out, thinking only about saving a persons life.
A ding and the doors opened. It was windy with the window open. A few papers danced around his legs. Red ribbons and fake pine needles shifted under his shoes. They had something dark smeared on them. After a few seconds of denial, he realized the dark substance was blood.
Fitz pulled his revolver and slowly walked into the offices. Endless rows of cubicles made the place a very organized labyrinth. Every once in a while a fake Christmas tree could be seen popping partially out above a wall. He could hear the wind whistling from the open window, and he slowly moved towards the sound. His eyes darted around the room as he moved forward. One dead body, a middle manager looking man, with a bad comb over and an ugly tie lay on the floor. His throat cut. Then another body, a woman, likely a secretary was spread out on the floor. Her neck snapped, no neck could bend that way unless it was broken. Her face had a blue hue, her tongue protruded a bit.
The closer he got to the sound of the open window, the more the bodies were piled up. Pencils were jammed into every orifice on the mail boys head. A pair of tech looking guys were huddled together, their faces white, blood pooled around them in a circle, they didn't move. No sound of breath could be heard, they were dead. An old man, with the face like a snake was hung from a light fixture, his eyes had popped out. Fitz was starting to loose his composure. He thought of leaving, Before he could make a decision a loud thud startled him. His bladder defied him and he wet himself. He looked back, the elevator door was blocked. A filing cabinet was tilted before it. A dark thing moved quickly out of view.
Fitz continued to the open window. He could hear a man screaming. He popped his head out the window and looked first right, then left. The man was stock still against the wall to the left. He was blubbering. Ftiz screamed at the man, his mind slipping away, back into the room with all the dead people. He didn't care to try to talk sense anymore. He wanted answers.
"What happened here?"
The man looked slowly over towards Fitz. He bellowed, tears rolled down his cheeks, his eyes rimmed red. A bad toupee somehow still holding on to his scalp.
"Something is in there." he sobbed
"Did you kill all those people? Were they your coworkers?"
"Yeah. Accountant." he pointed to himself with a crooked finger.
"Did you kill them?"
"N-no. It did. It came out, and started to kill."
"It?"
The accountant laughed.
"You didn't see it, but it saw you." he fell forward, but Fitz caught him by the arm and with a heavy tug pulled him back inside.
"NO! I wanna die. I don' wanna face this thing. It's gonna kill us both, I think it takes your soul. I think it eats it."
"How do you know?"
The accountant doesn't answer, he just shakes.
"How do you know?"
"I don't, I just think it does."
Fitz noticed something on the accountants arm. At first it looked like a tattoo, but then he noticed it had dripped, smeared. It was a strange symbol. It looked evil, or like some sort of dark, black magic. Something bad.
"What's that on your arm?"
The man started to weep harder then before. Fitz's eyes widened.
"You did it."
"Fired. It's Christmas, and they were firin' me." he screamed, "I wanted revenge. Tired of being stepped on. So tired."
"A monster, you idiot. What is it?"
"I-I thought it was a lesser demon. But it's something far worse.. It calls itself Darius Augustus."
"Sounds human."
"N-no, not even close. I think it was bound, captured. Now it's angry."
Then the accountant slipped off and dove out the window in one movement.
"Fu-"
Before Fitz could finish, Darius was before him. He looked to be a slim man. No more than forty. A slick suit, all black, shirt, tie, socks, shoes. His face was pale, near white. His eyes were pitch, darker then the suit, darker then anything Fitz has ever seen. He dared not move, his gun was held limp in his hand. Something stirred in him, deep within his mind. He was in the presence of something beyond evil.
"I apologize." His voice was silky smooth, elegant.
"Why did you do this?"
"I had just been freed, I was confused. Angry. A few hundred years of imprisonment is tough on the mind. I lashed out. Again I apologize."
"What are you?"
"Something else." he dropped a present at Fitz's feet.
"Are you the devil?"
Darius Augustus laughed, Fitz shuddered feeling a deep, deep cold.
"No I am not. Open your gift." Fitz doesn't move, "Now."
Fitz looked down and took the small box in his hands and ripped off the paper and opened the thin cardboard. It was a snow globe. A sunny beach with Santa in swim trunks, shades and his hat. Santa was sipping a drink from a half coconut. A dead reindeer beside him, the creatures nose is red, and slightly glowing. Fitz flipped the globe over and noticed a tag. It reads 'Even Santa needs a break'
"What is this supposed to mea-" Fitz looked up. Darius was gone. The room was clean. All the bodies were gone. No sign of any violence, death, or torture was left.
Fitz made his way to the elevator. The cabinet was gone. He holstered his gun, and held the snow globe tight to his chest. He cried all the way down.
When he walked outside the crowd was breaking apart, leaving in chunks. Johnny looked to the body of the accountant, then to his partner.
"You all right? You're white as a sheet."
"No."
"Look...you said it yourself. He was gonna jump."
At that moment it began to snow, the flakes came down huge and black. Johnny looked around confused. Fitz ignored the strange snow and shook the snow globe. Black snow fell inside it as well.
