October

Momma had always told him that he was a good boy. Just as good as could be. And the doll girl reminded him of Momma. She spoke just the way that Momma had; with a sweet mousy voice that made him feel tingly. And he liked feeling tingly. He liked it almost as much as he liked doll girl’s hair. The doll girl had such shiny black hair. It was like spilt ink pooling down her skinny shoulders. 1

He lifted a blood matted strand to his nose and inhaled the copper scent of doll girl’s blood. Her lithe little body laid lace and leather clad amongst the tomb stones. He liked to be close to Momma when he appeased the Dark Man. He felt safer close to Momma. He could almost feel Momma now, stroking back his hair and cooing “My October. My October Grey. You’re such a good boy, October. You make me very happy.”2

And October loved to make Momma happy. He could imagine how Momma looked. Probably just how doll girl would look in a few days time. Doll girl’s Momma and Poppa would probably dress her in a nice, pretty dress like they had his Momma. No way would they bury her in the tutu and straps she wore now. October looked over doll girl with a solemn expression. The black make-up she had so meticulously applied was smeared into black bruise shadows around her eyes, making her look almost raccoon like. Streams of grey residue seeped down her cheeks. She had cried an awful lot, which made October make the Quiet come a lot sooner than he had wanted to. The Dark Man was so much happier when it took a long time for the Quiet to come. October tried to take his time with her, not wanting the Dark Man to be angry. She had been so supple and sweet, more innocent than she had appeared at first. Momma had a word for girls like her. She called them virgins. October didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he knew they felt good. Not as good as Momma. But only Momma could love him the right way. She had told him so herself.3

Doll girl’s eyes were still open, staring out at October with their smoky green hue. When she had started to scream, he had had to bash her head against Momma’s tomb stone, which put blood in her hair. October didn’t like that part, but her blood felt nice. It smelt good too. And doll girl looked pretty in the Quiet. Even prettier than she had before. October thought of this as he caressed doll girl’s pale cheek with the blade of his pocket knife. The blade was shiny like her earrings and it made little cuts on her cheek. The blood pooled slightly at the surface and it sent a shiver through him. He wanted more. He needed more. The Dark Man stayed away when there was lots of blood. 4

He moved to doll girl’s little stomach, where a belly button ring shined silver as her earring. ‘It’s like a little nose,’ he thought as he cut a smiling face beneath it from one side of her pelvic bone to the other. She had such pretty insides, and October wanted to badly to taste them. But the Dark Man got very angry when he tasted. That was the Dark Man’s job. October was just supposed to take the nicest ones out. The one that Momma called the uterus was nice and pink, so he knew that the Dark Man would want this one. He took all the pink ones out and set them aside, right on top of Momma’s tomb stone where the Dark Man would come looking for them. October was being a good boy, just like Momma wanted him to be. 5

But he made a mistake. He did the Bad Thing that Momma and the Dark Man told him never to do. How could he not though? Doll girl had such pretty parts. Especially the parts Momma called the ovaries. She had two of them, so pretty, pink and moist that they glistened in the moonlight. He could have just one, and give the other to the Dark Man. Surly that was fair. He wasn’t taking anything away from him after all.6

October lifted the little orb to his lips and tasted. He tasted and nibbled until it was consumed and he felt good and tingly. It was like he took some of doll girl’s magic, magic like Momma’s, and put it in his body. It felt so good. Even better than feeling her from the outside. She tasted like metal and sweetness. Like pennies and honey. He licked the knife when he was finished with his work, satisfied that he had done a good job and the Dark Man would never know he did the Bad Thing and would be happy with the doll girl’s pieces. 7

He inhaled the crisp, winter air that mingled with the scent of blood and looked over the macabre that was now doll girl with pride. He wiped his hand on the orange of his jump suit and picked up the flower he brought for Momma from its safe place a few feet away. A pretty yellow daisy, Momma’s favorite. He left it right next the doll girl’s parts and tried to wipe the smears of her blood from Momma’s stone, but it had already dried on. ‘Momma wouldn’t have minded though,’ he assured himself, closing his eyes to try and feel if Momma was close. 8

October could feel something in the night, but it wasn’t Momma. Momma was like a summer breeze. This feeling was like thousands of tiny needles pricking his skin. He opened his eyes and met what was in front of him, terror coursing through his body. October’s blood turned ice when he realized that Dark Man had found him, and the Dark Man was angry. 9

The Dark Man clucked his tongue at October, shaking his solid black mass of a head.10

“Bad Thing, October. Bad thing.”11

October began to shake, looking towards Momma and then back at the Dark Man.12

“There are two. I just took one. Only one. I’m sorry.” His words came out rushed and quivering. 13

Lights glimmered in the distance; the Dark Man’s magic. And his magic made October feel frozen, not tingly. October didn’t like feeling frozen. Almost as much as he didn’t like that Momma was Quiet now.14

“Freeze!” a voice yelled, more lights coming closer. The Dark Man laughed manically. 15

October was already frozen, so he just stood and let the Dark Man’s magic demons throw him to the ground.16

“It’s him! Greyson Rogers! Call the station and tell them he’s here!” another of the Dark Man’s demons said.17

“What the hell…Finch…the poor girl,” said a female demon as she leaned over doll girl’s body. She dug through doll girl’s pocket book and found a little card.18

“Finch…she was only sixteen. Damn it! What the fuck is wrong with him?”19

“Greyson Rogers is a fugitive from Kinsley Mental Hospital for the Clinically Insane. He’s been missing since this past Thursday. We’re probably lucky that he didn’t get to anyone else. The chief said he’s got four homicides and rapes on his record as it is. He’s a victim on child molestation. His twisted bitch of a mother committed suicide a few years back. It’s assumed that she suffered just as severely from schizophrenia as he does. He thinks he’s sees a demon who he calls “the Dark Man.” Makes sacrifices to him that his Mom taught him how to do. He has a history of cannibalism. We’ll have to call the CSI…see if any of her parts are…missing.” The one they called Finch paused to cuff the struggling boy. “I can only imagine how much his mother must have fucked him up. Bad enough that he’d come to her grave and do…this. It’s sick. The whole thing is sick.”20

October thrashed with anger.21

“Momma loved me!” he screamed wildly, the Dark Man laughing all the harder. “I know she did! She loved me like no one else can! She told me so! She told me!”22

Screams and sirens filled the night along with the falling of the first snow. In the distance, cutting through the silent chill of white that blanketed the city, was the sound of laughter that only one could hear. And as the screams faded and the downy flakes muted the world, the laughter was all that remained.23