He Returned at Night

A slow ticktock echoed in the dark void of the room. The only source of light came from outside where several lampposts stood, flickering a pale golden hue through glass lanterns. I stared outside the window from the chair on which I sat. Nary a star in the sky and the lone moon peeked from dark clouds, as if it were a glowing silver medallion pinned on a dark blue night, hiding behind grey curtains that shielded its beauty from the world. The harrowing, vast sky looked very fit to collapse down on top of me, smashing me and my house into millions of pieces, killing me instantly.

Lightning struck and crackling thunder sounded, breaking the eerie silence that hung like a chandelier in the dark. More lightning flashed from the clouds. The blinding white gigawatts of violence were unleashed, madly contrasting against that black background we called the sky. A slight drizzle began to leak from above. Only a mere, discreet tapping. Then the rain started to pound harder. It was the cry of the skies, as if the heavens were being torn apart violently, seeking refuge on Earth to show its sorrow. I saw my reflection in the window. Like two pools of mud, my eyes stared back into the pallid face of a stranger. A stranger I greatly despised. I felt cold. A shiver ran up my spine as I saw another reflection in the window. Tears stung my eyes. He was here.

He inched closer, through what I saw in the window. His face was concealed behind a silk veil. All he wore was black. The clothes were covering a scrawny man. His name was Death. Was this how Death really was? Death paced near me, standing by my right, holding the top of my chair. I felt the tears roll down my cheeks, stinging raw flesh as they slid and dripped onto my pants. Death cleared his throat and brought out a single butcher knife. The blade glimmered in the sharp flash of lightning. I squeezed my eyes shut, allowing tears to freely stream my face once more. The terror made my blood rush and burn against the walls of my veins. Adrenaline filled my system, until I couldn't stand it anymore. But before I could muster the breath to bawl out, a searing pain burned in my upper arm. I looked down, my body instantly frozen. Death's metal butcher knife sliced through my skin with little effort and dug straight in, almost crushing my bone completely. I cried out in pain, the air rolling off my tongue endlessly. A searing burn flared up my arm, consuming me in torment and making my mind go into a state of pure blankness. Death jerked the knife in a bit further before yanking it out. My shirt was completely obscured in a crimson blush. My vision blurred as more tears lined the bottom of my pale eyelids. I felt the cold, hard marble flooring underneath me as I fell in a heap, slamming into the ground. My pain intensified harshly upon impact. I slowly drew my other hand onto my right shoulder, feeling the deep gash that lined across my upper arm, which was obviously soaked in my dark blood. I was sobbing now, my body quaking in fear and agony and shock and confusion. I glared up at Death. I couldn't see his eyes but I bet they were happy eyes. He's done with me now.

"Who do you think I am?" Said the man cloaked in black robes, his voice dragging almost slightly.

"You are here to bring me down, to torture me, to crush me, to humiliate me, to kill me," I managed to whisper hoarsely, coughing and clutching my injury tighter, adding more of a nauseous pain into my body. "You're Death." Death simply cackled loudly, louder than the thunder and rain put together.

"So, you don't recognize me," Death laughed with a hearty sigh, "I'm your friend."

"Friend? How could a friend do this to me?" I questioned. Death kicked me in the wound he gave me. I screeched in pain, my eyesight blurring spontaneously. I wanted it to end right now.

"What do you want from me?" I ask Death with eyes full of fear and salty tears.

"Do I not seem familiar?" Said Death in his menacing voice. Thunder screamed from the sky. Death's hand steadily gripped the bottom of his veil and lifted it up slowly. I felt my mouth gape at the sight.

"G-Geoffrey?" I stuttered hesitantly. "Didn't you disappear four years ago?"

"I sure did," Geoffrey bent down, his breath smelled like liquor and tobacco. "But I'm back now." Geoffrey licked his lips evilly, brushing his finger along the sharp end of his butcher knife that was tainted in my own blood. Once he got up, he swung the knife back, only to swing in back down at my arm again. This time, the pain was even worse. The knife thrashed through my bone completely, sawing away at the bundle of nerves under my arm. My fingers were minced as well, soaring off under the chair which I once sat. My screams were hindered to my ears by an annoying buzz, which grew louder and louder every second. Blood scurried across my marble floor. Geoffrey was all covered in my sheer, red blood, soaking his clothing as well as mine. Geoffrey hacked at my arm again, to remove the dangling nerves and bloody tissue that hung limply to the side. I couldn't bear the pain that surged my body all over. Then Geoffrey picked my arm up, shoving it up my face, as if taunting me for having only one arm when he had both, like a joke. He threw it on the ground, splattering blood on the window. I was shaking violently now, my face probably as pale as snow. My vision was getting splotchy, distorted.

"Why?" I winced. That sole word drove mountains of pain into my body. "Why are you doi--?" I screamed from the pain before I even finished my sentence, clutching my phantom arm with a finger-less hand.

"You forced me to leave! You not paying back your loans was drowing me in debt! This house that I bought with my own money to keep you under a roof cost an arm and a leg! Now it's time to pay the price." Geoffrey threw his head back and commenced a fit of evil cackles. He swung his knife back once more, with ease and a hint of grace. Before the metal blade sliced through the skin, flesh and the thick muscle in my leg, bright lightning flashed against Geoffrey's face and displayed a gruesome smile. I couldn't exactly feel the pain he thought he was putting me through. My eyes peeked at the masterpiece he was creating. A clump of flesh and blood stuck out from the small stump that I would eventually have to live with for the rest of my life. Then Geoffrey start smashing against my femur. The pain was like no other. Geoffrey had trouble hacking away at the femur - the knife occasionally slipped from his bloody grasp. The bone was slowly cracking and breaking off but it would not give in. I yelled for him to stop but these were the screams of pain that gave him strength to torture me even more. The grin on his face did not go away nor diminish. Then the bone gave in and I screamed for my life. My finger-less hand shot up and pain pierced my phantom arm. However, my leg was not completely off. Geoffrey sliced through the softer, fleshier meat and tore off my leg with his hands. I felt warm blood gush out the stump in my leg. Pain still stabbed me all throughout my body.

Lightning struck through the clouds like skeletal fingers coming down from the heavens to stroke the Earth. My vision quickly began to fade into a void of pure black. Geoffrey was only staring down at me, shaking his head in disappointment in me. He came back for me to repay him with my life? Nonsense. This was retribution, payback, revenge... And revenge is not sweet, but painful and bloody...