Gazes

The smell along the apartment complex's walkway was getting worse.  It was the kind of odor that burnt the nostrils and made a person cringe since you knew in your gut only something dead could cause anything to stink that bad.  1

Martha James reached the spot where her nose was literally assaulted by that stench.  Holding her breath to keep from letting it make her vomit, she hurried along the walkway.  In the past she had just coped with that disgusting odor when it merely hinted to her nostrils.2

However now it was just far too overpowering.  She vowed to speak to the manager about it.  Holding her breath, she hurried down the walkway like she and the other tenants had done on several occasions.  Once Martha figured it was safe she exhaled and then continued on the walkway.  This time she wasn’t going to ignore this problem.  It was a vow Martha made and she truly felt would be kept.  Then excuses flooded her brain.  She told herself it could wait till tomorrow.3

“You wanted to see me?” Wilbur asks, stepping into the leasing office.4

“Yes Wilbur I did,” he manager, Ethel says.  “We’ve gotten several complaints about a terrible smell over by building 1A.  I want you to check it out.”5

“Um can it wait till later?  I got three work orders to do first.  A couple of them are two days old.  The tenants will be really hot if I let them slide any longer.  Especially Ruth Chambers.  You know how she gets pissed off so easily and loves to complaint.”6

“I know.  Well I guess you better take care of those first.  The last thing I want is to have Ruth calling corporate headquarters again.”7

Wilbur nods and then turns to leave.  Climbing into his maintenance cart he rushes off to building 4A.  The repairs are major ones and will take a couple of hours.  The he’ll go check out that smell.  It is probably a skunk or something.  They have been known to hang out in the bushes at times.8

About two in the afternoon the maintenance supervisor finally makes it to Building 1A.  The moment he rounds the corner of the building Wilbur gets a heavy blast of the stench.  His stomach muscles tighten realizing it isn’t a skunk, but something far worse.9

The only question was where did the odor come from?  Wilbur let his nose be his compass and keeps sniffing around.  Finally decides the smell has to be coming out of apartment 10.  That is where Cathy Harmond lives.  She is shy, but kind of cute and basically the type that treated him like a person.  Now that he thought of it he hadn’t seen her in several days.  He vaguely recalls her saying something about a vacation.10

That would explain why she hadn’t reported any complaint.  Perhaps she left something out and it spoiled?  Taking out his walkie talkie he calls the leasing office.11

Seconds later he opens the door and overpowering stench nearly causes him to feint.  That is until he sees the cause of the smell.  Stepping back, he turns around and pukes his guts out on the patio.  Still shaking from the horror, he takes out the walkie talkie and calls the office.  “Gladys?” he asks with a noticeable quiver in his voice.12

“What is it Wilbur?”13

“You need to call the police.”14

“The police?  What on earth for?”15

“Just please call them and report there has been ah, ah — death.”16

Gladys closes her eyes, exhales and calmly dials the phone.  Inside her chest is burning.  She doesn’t need to be a mind reader to appreciate Wilbur’s tone.17

An hour later, Wilbur is sitting on the rectangular cement flower box, sipping on a beer and still shaking.  The complex is swarming with cops.  One officer plays with a roll of yellow police tape to put across the apartment’s door.  A couple of plain clothes detectives are making notes on small pads while some uniform cops stand around swapping homicide horror tales.  In their eyes there is the hardness from having observed the worse kinds of gruesome brutality.  None of it prepared them for what they witnessed in apartment 10.  It was the kind of scene that could give even veteran cops a few nightmares.18

Two men from the coroner’s push the stretcher down the sidewalk with a black body bag strapped to it.  As it passes where Wilbur is sitting he looks up and shutters from the image of Cathy’s disfigured corpse that is now permanently etched in his brain.19

A police detective comes up and sits next to him.  “We’ll need a statement.”20

Wilbur looks at him and says, “I’m a Army veteran and I’ve seen death before.  I even helped out in a hospital for while years ago.  I thought I had seen it all, but that — god who could do that to someone?”21

“The world has way too many sick minds in it I’m afraid.”22

“You ever seen anybody killed that way?”23

“Never,” the cop replies.  “I’m struggling myself to imagine how anybody could literally strip every ounce of flesh and organs from a person’s body leaving only the skeleton, yet also have her head remain untouched.  Plus to not leave a single drop of blood on the carpet that’s a new one for me and I’ve seen it all.  Whatever diseased mind did this was careful about not leaving any incriminating clues, but made sure he polluted the air with  the kind of stench so somebody would discover his work.  It’s downright spooky and unbelievably evil.  How could anyone begin to forget that gaze of unspeakable horror in the victim’s face and the fact she had her mouth wide open as if trying to scream?  You can be sure we’re going to do everything we can to find this maniac before he has a chance to do it again.”24

Wilbur doesn’t say a word, he’s not a cop, but he’s smart enough to know with no witnesses or any leads they aren’t likely to find this psycho.  He finishes off his beer in silence.  Then he slowly manages to let the alcohol numb him enough to answer the cop’s questions.  Afterwards he’ll be taking a couple of days off from work.  His mind will file away the image of Cathy’s body with the ones from the war.  They’ll be his companion at nights when the darkness and silence will help to hide his sobs from his nightmares.25

Back at headquarters Lieutenant Jeff Spenser puts Cathy Harmond’s file on his desk.  His gut tells him he’s looking for somebody that — god he can’t even bring himself to consider there is some vicious cannibal running amuck in his city.  Sitting down at his computer he starts typing on the keyboard.  Hopefully he can find some report of similar murders that will give him a place to start.  However the one thing he knows, nobody is going to give details about this kind of grotesque butchery or the possibility of a literal man-eater walking around and stalking his next meal.  After an hour of futile searching the computer files and Internet he gets up from his chair and heads for a cup of coffee.  But he’s not giving up.  Despite the many cases that never get solved and the anxiety it produces like the other cops he knows he won’t quit trying.  There is always that one case that he’ll solve that makes it feel like he did his job.  Spenser just prays this is one of those situations.26

That afternoon in a local discount retail store it is crowded as usual.  Dozens of people push shopping carts looking for bargains to supplement their income that doesn’t match their bills clog the aisles.27

They are all too busy as are the clerks to notice a man dressed in a long black trench coat.  When you add the dark sunglasses and his pale complexion it gives him a certain menacing appearance like he is doing his imitation of a vampire.  Still people are just way to concerned with their own problems to give much thought to a guy dressed way too warm for the middle of the summer.28

He turns and strolls down the aisle where the air freshener is located.  Stopping, he looks both ways briefly and then removes a can of cinnamon scented air freshener from his coat.  It looks identical to all the other ones on the shelf.  The man snorts a couple of times like he’s privy to some private joke.  Placing the can with the others, he turns and shuffles away and takes the short journey to the store’s exit.29

A few minutes later Marty Acres scurries down the retail store’s aisle pushing his cart while grumbling about how he hated shopping.  He is an important man, the Vice President of marketing for his company who shouldn’t have to waste time doing grunt chores.30

So how come if he was so important he had to do some silly thing like shopping for sundries and crap?  The answer wasn’t that complicated.  He was married.  His wife had her own list of priorities today.  Thus somebody had to do the shopping and at least that was less of a burden to Marty than some of her other options.31

He checks off all the items on his list except for air freshener.  Looking at his wristwatch he shook his head.  Even if the stopped now he would be late to his meeting.  What if he told his wife he forgot the air freshener?  Yeah that would work.32

Then he remembered their cat.  No creature on earth could possible leave a worse smell in a litter box than Fluffy.  Guided by shear need to save his nostrils from enduring that odor he forced himself down the aisle and to the section where they kept the air freshener.  On his list it called for him to buy two cans.  Knowing Fluffy he reached out grabbed four cans.  Exhaling out of relief he headed for the checkout stand.33

Marty sits in his living room that night and sips upon his after dinner glass of Scotch while surfing through the channels for something decent to watch.  He can hear the wife in the kitchen finishing up the dishes.  Soon she will join him.  Then they will sit discuss her ideas on remodeling.  At least their two kids are spending a week with his parents.  That way if the conversation becomes heated they won’t have to worry about affecting that illusion they like to create with the kids of being perfectly happy.34

“Oh great,” Marty groans when he sniffs the air and catches a whiff of Fluffy’s latest air bomb.  Getting up from the couch he walks over and picks up one of the cans of air freshener he bought at the store.  He is grateful that he didn’t ignore that purchase as he points the can at the litter box and presses the button.35

Odd.  The can is cinnamon scented, but it sure doesn’t smell like it.  In fact he can’t even decide what the smell is, but it sure isn’t a pleasant one.  Maybe he needs to try more.  So he presses the button again.  It only makes the air worse.36

Suddenly in the freshener’s mist he sees an image forming.  Stepping back, his eyes grow wide as saucers as the mist transforms into a giant black cobra with glowing red eyes.37

Paralyzed with fear, he stands frozen in his spot, unable to speak or react in any way.  All he can do is gaze in utter and complete horror while consumed with disbelief at the site of huge reptile that is hovering above the litter box.  Seconds later the deadly giant cobra moves in his direction.  He tries to scream, but can’t.  The cobra eyes have some power to keep him silent.38

The cobra wraps itself around Marty’s body.  His skin begins to burn as if on fire and his insides feel like they something is biting at them with razors.  Pain of the most incredible intense and horrific form explodes in his body as the serpent's fangs dig into his arm.   Seconds later the snake turns back into a mist as Marty’s skeleton of bleached bones collapses on the carpet with his head still attached.  On his face is a gaze of shear terror, lying with the mouth wide open and his eyes riveted with an expression as if seeing the most hellish nightmare imaginable.39

His wife picks that moment to come out of the kitchen.  She drops her bowl of ice cream as the mist seems to react to her presence and becomes a cobra again.  Before long what is left of her lies next to her husband on the carpet as she too only has a head with a gaze of unspeakable fear remaining that will allow for any type of decent identification.  40

In the air the putrid stench of death grows thicker with each minute.  Eventually it will seep through the door and in a day or two generate a call to the police by annoyed neighbors.41

Meanwhile the reptile has transformed back into to a mist.  It floats in the direction of the fireplace, rising out of the chimney.  Then it gravitates towards a dark blue sedan that is parked on the curb.  Inside sits the man with the black trench coat who left the can of air freshener in the store.  He rolls down his window and opens a small blue flask that has a small control pad attached to it.  The mist flows into the flask, he replaces the cork and hits a couple of buttons on the control pad.  Grinning, he starts the car, puts it in gear and slowly driving away.42

The blue sedan pulls into the underground parking lot of a downtown office building.  Getting out of the car and the man walks to the elevator and hits the button.43

Opening the door to the suite on the fifteenth floor, he goes inside.  It resembles a laboratory.  Taking he flask and removing the cork, he sits in inside a device that looks like a microwave.  Then he hits a button on the control panel.44

The mist enters a glass tube before moving down and into a chamber filled with operating tables.  Slowly the mist turns into the cobra that opens its mouth and regurgitates the boneless corpses of Marty and his wife on separate tables before slithering over to a large cage with an open door.  Sliding inside it curls up and goes to sleep.45

Stepping into the chamber, the man pets the snake affectionately.  Then another man who had been sitting in a private office and nervously watched the snake on a monitor opens his door.  He walks over to the chamber and wait cautiously for the first man to close the cage door before going inside.  “Good, two more specimens.”46

The first man snorts.  “Specimen is an interesting choice of words.”47

“It will do,” the second man insists.  “Would you prefer something else?”48

The first man shrugs.  “How about victim?”49

His companion scowls.  “That kind of humor isn’t appreciated.  We are only doing our part to help the powers that be with this innovative organ cloning program. Sometimes there is a price to be paid for progress.”50

Reaching for a can of air freshener from the shelf the first man adjusts it to prepare it for future ‘use.’  Then when it is ready, he slides the top into a special nozzle attachment next to the cage.  Afterwards he looks at his companion and comments, “Too bad progress has to be so painful for the involuntary donors.”51

His partner smirks and replies, “We’re working on ways of solving that problem.  However for the moment taking advantage of this technology given to us by the aliens was more important.  But since the government can hardly admit to the world that we’ve made contact, we have no choice, except to find our own way to take their wisdom and make it applicable to our human needs.  I doubt the public would understand or agree with this program, knowing how we had to use that misty reptilian creature from an alien planet to achieve the process.  However once we’ve succeeded in curing all diseases with an organ cloning option I don’t think they’ll care how many donors were needed.”52

The first man glances at him.  It is a stare that knows that is just an excuse.  However sometimes a silent gaze is less painful to the conscience than a confession.53