Leo!

[Tyler Durden]

Here ya go. Enjoy!!


Vision
By Justin Hughes


Splash.

I try to avoid the flying drops of hydrochloric acid that splatter on the linoleum floor. As they land, they burn white spots into the black squares of the checkered tiles. Almost giving them eyes.

Splash.


The acid starts to eat away at the severed appendages that Adam is dropping, one by one, into the tub. One of the flying drops splashes onto my pants. Giving it a white glaring eye. I look at Adam.

Bastard.

The blood in the bathtub isn't really red anymore. It's that kind of salmonella pink that covers the countertop when you pull a raw chicken out of the package. Along with the acid bubbles, the blood and body parts of Lewis Strat's anatomy float at the top of the tub. Adam looks back at the wide gaping eye on my pants, which have now been bleached into being tacky. He smiles and looks at me in that ambiguous glare that could either be na?ve innocence or playful intent.

"Sorry"

Adam drops all of Lewis Strat's parts into the tub except the forearm and his eyeball. He picks up the arm and hands it to me. He gives me another elitist's grin and whispers:

"Accessory to murder"

Right, I say.

I pick up the arm and lower it into the water slowly so as not to create anymore eyes on the floor or on my pants. I watch it float to the top. After about an hour of Adam watching me watching Lewis Strat dissolve, Adam pulls a black garbage bag from under the sink. He pulls the cork out from the drain with a wire hanger and waits for the black eyeball in the tub to suck all the liquid into its retinas. After the black eye has seen all the fluid Adam scoops up all the Lewis Strat sludge that wouldn't cooperate with the acid and throws the mess into the bag. He stands up and moves towards the door.

"I think you left your bag in the kitchen, don't forget to grab it on the way out. And do me a favor; rinse out the rest of Lewis so he doesn't stain the tub. Thanks, babe."

I don't look at Adam but I nod my head. Adam is taking Lewis out to the back yard where he'll add him to his mother's compost pile. That pile along with Lewis and countless other unlucky people are allowed the pleasure of helping Adam's Mom's carrot patch to grow.

This is six months after I'm standing in the doorway of Adam's room. Adam's room is at the top of the stairs and it over looks the living room with the off white linoleum floor. I'm waiting for Adam to get home so we can finish up our history project. Before she leaves for work, Adam's mom tells me Adam will be home any minute and I should wait up in his room. I wait for an hour until I hear noises down stairs.

Six months ago I can see Adam slitting a girl's throat in the living room. I see blood seeping through the crevices of her teeth as she screams for me to help. I can't really hear her though because Adam has Beethoven's fifth playing in full blast on a loop, so I can't even hear my heart slam against my rib cage.

Six months ago, Adam sees me standing in his doorway watching him hold the girl down. Her eyes wide.

Six months ago, I?m on my knees and my eyes are staring at me from the reflection of Adam?s blood soaked serrated knife. I beg Adam not to kill me but he does nothing but smile at my shrilling voice. The knife makes a loud ringing noise as is hits the floor. Drops of blood fly off of the blade and speckle onto my face. I snatch the blade quickly and rise to my feet. I tell Adam I?ll kill him if he comes anywhere near me. Adam is still smiling when he slides his arms around my waist and pulls me against him. He does this so slowly, gracefully, intimately that I can?t help but let him hold me. He looks into my eyes and tells me that he can?t let me leave if he can?t trust me. Adam?s gloved hand slides the knife out of my hands. He whispers in my ear that if I help him, he?ll let me go.

When it?s over I?m looking into Adam?s eyes. He?s telling me that the knife he had taken from me has my fingerprints all over it, and that once I touched the body of that girl I became an accomplice to murder. Adam is touching my cheek and smiling with a look of soft amour in his eyes while he tells me this.

Adam says: ?You have three options. You can go to the police and damn yourself along with me. You can help me and I can show you how beautiful you really are. Or you can pick door number three.

What is behind door number three, I ask.

Adam says: ?You can help my Mother?s carrots grow.?

Adam says my anorexia makes me see something ugly. Something that isn't there. And that he wants me to see how beautiful I am. At least that's what he tells me. Whether he keeps me around to show off for someone or because he actually likes me is still unclear. Adam says:

"I love you to watch. I want to open your eyes. This isn't something I do because I had a fucked up childhood, babe. I do this to people because it helps me see. It helps me to see how fragile and simple things are. It?s so easy to just die. I like to keep that in perspective. You can't really appreciate the beauty and perfection of something until you've seen something horrifying. I do it because it opens my eyes, sweetheart. It makes me see how beautiful you are. And I want you to see it too"

Six months later I'm, sitting on a toilet in Adam's bathroom helping that black eye in Adam's tub see all the Lewis Strat it missed. I help it look until there is nothing left for it to see. I sit back against the toilet and look at Lewis Strat's eyeball between my index and my thumb finger. I wonder if he ever got to see any beauty. The thought doesn't really stick in my head for too long and soon Lewis Strat is looking at me from the inside of a toilet bowl.

Flush.

I walk down the stairs to get my bag from the kitchen. As I walk in, Adam is stepping inside and closing the sliding glass door. He takes of his gloves and throws them down on the white marble table. He takes me in his arms and kisses my neck. He looks at me.

"To think I have to starve my eyes of your beauty for another night."

He sighs.

He kisses my cheek and walks me to the door.

"You'll see it soon. You'll see how immaculate you are. And how beautiful everything around us is. Soon you'll be able to see everything for what it really is."

I walk out the door into the cloudy miserable grayness of a Monday afternoon. Adam is right. Things are beginning to look more beautiful. Suddenly?gray is such a pretty color.

[*Leo the Lioness*]

oh..............my.................god............ ..

tyler/justin, i'm afraid of you! *LOL*

seriously, this piece is magnificently creepy..........scary.........and it scares me that you have such vision into the thoughts and actions of a serial killer...........forget meeting me this summer, babe, you just scared me away!! *LMAO*.......it's excellent, sweetie *kotc*


oh and did you know that my son's name.........is Adam?


HAHAHAHAHA!!!........shit, i'm Adam's Mother!

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"they've been going in and out of style....but they're guaranteed to raise a smile"

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