MUSICAroLina

by Daniel William Gunning

  The ship that bore us here is now old, broken, and worn.

  And the sails now hang lifeless, tattered, faded, and torn.

  And the plagues that it carried with it, rotting in its hold.

  Have long since been loosed upon this world oh so cold.

  For we are but strangers brought forth unto this lonesome shore

  As we struggle through life, we ask ourselves what does it all mean?

  What was the true purpose of this pointless and violent scene?

  Are we not but sound and fury and nothing more?

  What was the reason that we were brought ashore?

  At the end of our days we come once again to that forsaken shore.

  Left there to ponder that ship of death and the ones that came before

  Now I find it rather strange that life can be found here in death.

  And I’ll think upon this paradox as I draw in my final painful breath.

  For all our lives upon these cruel shores is but fleeting and brief

  And it is taken away from us so quickly as if by a master thief.

  For we are but strangers brought forth unto this lonesome shore

  As we struggle through life, we ask ourselves what does it all mean?

  What was the true purpose of this pointless and violent scene?

  Are we not but sound and fury and nothing more?

  What was the reason that we were brought ashore?

  Now my eyes close for the last time upon this rapidly darkening shore.

  And I collapse back into the sea from which I came long before.

  And as the swift currents roll, bearing me to my final resting place

  I wonder if upon that distant shore I shall finally find my true place.

  And ‘tis from this that I realize divine forgiveness may truly start.

  From this, the smallest spark of light shining within the darkest heart.

  For we are but strangers brought forth unto this lonesome shore

  As we struggle through life, we ask ourselves what does it all mean?

  What was the true purpose of this pointless and violent scene?

  Are we not but sound and fury and nothing more?

  What was the reason that we were brought ashore?

  We knew from the time we arrived all that has been and all that shall be.

  That one day we all shall return to that kingdom far beyond the sea.

  So in the end we fall back into that sea and stain it with a crimson hue.

  And every soul floats back to where all things begin and are made new.

  But take heart, my friends, for despite all the pain that you go through.

  You may believe that through every tempest I shall sail alongside of you.

  For we all start as strangers, but we are meant for so much more.

  It is through our journey we find that which we could not have foreseen.

  Here we see the meaning of all; our part in this great and wondrous scene.

  It’s here at the very end I finally found what always escaped me before.

  And it is in this divine revelation that I feel my spirit finally soar.

  I know now in death that which I could never hope to know in life.

  That we shall one day be relieved of all our toils and our strife.

  For we do begin but as strangers brought forth unto this shore

  But every soul is eternal and shall sail on these seas forevermore.

  And so we were never strangers, my dear, true love was always mine.

  And our love shall endure forever as we sail through all the oceans of time.

  John finished his sorrowful song and he slumped forward onto Virginia’s body. His head rested upon her lifeless chest and he wept freely, for he finally and unequivocally realized that she truly did know him. She had seen every part of his soul imaginable. From the good man he always wished he had been, to the darkest parts he wanted no one to ever see, and she loved him for all that he was. John realized now what he had truly lost today.

  Kurt stood near the doorway, watching his friend’s heart breaking. He turned to the preacher, who now stood beside him and asked, “This may be the wrong time to ask, but if we aren’t citizens, then how is it he’s singing?”

  “Because my son, true music, true artistry, the greatest and most beautiful kind, swells up from the very depths of the soul; it’s not the pop songs, or the commercial hits you hear so frequently on the radio. It’s the ones where the singers’ genuine hopes, their deepest pain, their truest emotions, everything they want to say to the world, and every part of their soul is laid naked, bare for the listener to hear and to learn and finally to understand. Music is all around us in the air here. It’s mostly hollow and meaningless, because it’s being forced by the demon. While he can feed on people’s souls he can never completely take them away; that’s what Virginia died trying to teach you and that is why your friend there can sing. He’s just letting it flow from the depths of his soul. You could sing too, if you had but an inkling to.”

  “That’s not gonna happen any time soon, padre.”

  “Go to your friend now,” the preacher said.

  Kurt moved to where John sobbed unashamed over Virginia’s body, and he put his hand on his friend’s shoulder reassuringly. Kurt stood there, not knowing what to say in this tragic moment, but he knew it was okay; being there was enough. John had sung everything that needed to be said. The preacher went back outside and left the two friends alone to grieve.

  ***

  The crowd had now completely disappeared into the stillness of the night, but the mayor had returned and was now waiting by the gate for him. He stood there directly in front of the church fence, which was now streaked with blood. He was leaning on his cane and grinning broadly, obviously quite pleased with his handiwork for the night. The preacher crossed the yard between them and stood directly across from him, showing no visible signs of fear, but he still stayed on his side of the fence. He did, however, close the gate, which John and Kurt had left open in their rush to recover Virginia and Mac’s bodies.

  “Well this has certainly been a most interesting night hasn’t it, my old nemesis?”

  “You’ve made a grave mistake tonight you know, letting the girl die like that.”

  “Well it was unexpected, not my plan at all, but I still disagree. In fact, I think it was a very productive night for me indeed. I got two more souls, count ‘em two, to feast on for all of eternity and subsequently I broke your two boys in their will to fight against me.”

  “Is that what you really think you’ve accomplished here?”

  “Oh, my dear, sweet, optimistic preacher. You precious, lovable, hopeful little unicorn you; I think it’s been far too long since you’ve had real people to deal with. How long have we been doing this little dance of ours now, my friend? When’s the last time someone even stumbled into your churchyard? Fifty years ago, a hundred? How long did any of them stay anyway? Tell me; what’s the record? You even had that one loony guy with all the mental issues back in 1892, but even he eventually gave in. Of course, he also jumped off the clock tower four months later thinking he could fly. My, is his soul exquisitely delicious, so very many tasty sins. You forget, preacher, I know people; I know their souls. I spent an eternity manipulating humans to my will and here I have it even better. I know everything about them, the inside and the out, the instant they come into my fair town. In just one day, these two have seen a brother killed, his girlfriend, their only other friend in town, and now, even his true love fair. They watched in abject horror as she bled out in front of the very building you expect them to hide in for the rest of time? Watching as they, you, and your puny God are powerless to intervene. No, no, preacher, the grief will get the one and the fear and the loneliness eventually will claim the other. Mark my words; they’ll both completely lose the will to fight me and I’ll be snacking on them, one way or another, within the week. You see, when push comes to shove humans are so very weak. It’s
easier to just give in than to put up a fight, and humans will always do what’s easiest, especially the stock that’s allowed into my town. Weak as the cattle may be, they still make fine meals.”

  “You know what your problem is, demon?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that I’m too awesome?”

  “No, your problem is that while you have the power to read a man’s soul, you, not having one yourself, completely lack the ability to truly understand it. Mark my words, that will be your undoing.”

  “Oh, do we doubt my powers now? Is that what we’re doing here? Let’s check the scoreboard, shall we? I have created an entire world by my own sheer power and will. I have created a place between the worlds where I control an entire town of tasty humans with the very power of my superior mind, where neither heaven nor hell can lay a finger on me. I can make anyone do anything I want and I can do anything I want, or I can conjure anything within this world that I can ever possibly imagine. Here, I am God Almighty. Tell me, preacher, what can I not do?” he said, menacingly.

  “Well, for starters, you can’t come across a simple picket fence.”

  “You’re kind of a prick, you know that?”

  “And you are simply an ancient villain whose time has long passed. You know what they call things like you?”

  “No, please enlighten me, what pray tell is that, preacher?”

  “A dying breed.”

  “I suppose that’s supposed to scare me somehow? Like some sort of ominous precursor to my inevitable doom?”

  “No, just something for you to think about,” the preacher said, smiling. He then turned and walked back to his church.

  “Oh, we shall see, preacher, we shall see...”

  ACT

  III

  CHAPTER 18

  WHAT WAS INSIDE THE VAULT

  John and Kurt burst into the bank vault, shotguns raised and at the ready. They immediately found that three men were already inside. They were quite obviously caught completely unaware by this sudden and dramatic intrusion; the occupants were scrambling to put back on various articles of clothing as John and Kurt came charging through the door.

  “Whoa, sorry guys, but we really weren’t expecting you yet. You guys are hours too early. We were just gonna sample a bit of the merchandise while we were wai...” one of the men began to say, but he never got the chance to finish his sentence. He looked up at the men who had so abruptly interrupted them in this rather compromising position they found themselves in. Almost immediately, the realization dawned on him that these clearly were not his allies. Instinctively, he and his companions reached for their weapons. It was the last thing they would ever do. John and Kurt instantly and mercilessly opened fire and cut the men down before they had to time to raise their own weapons in defense, or to even truly comprehend what was happening to them. Hefty, wet chunks of the men’s flesh splattered across the vault along with a healthy dose of blood as they were torn apart by the slug’s brutal force; decorating the vault like some form of macabre Jackson Pollock painting.

  The men hit the ground hard as the shotgun shells shredded through them, propelling their bodies violently backwards. They, mercifully, did not feel the terrible impact as what was now left of their well-ventilated bodies collided with the unforgiving, hardened floor. All three men were stone dead before they even hit the ground, a look of surprise burned permanently onto to their faces; the last expression they would ever make, as their souls departed from this world.

  John and Kurt paid no heed to the wet thud of the corpses as they sharply surveyed the room for any other guards who might have hidden themselves from their opening barrage. They swept their line of sight with their weapons, adrenaline pumping, smoke wafting from the barrels. Then they ducked down to make sure no one still living had dropped down to the floor for shelter and who was now waiting there in ambush. Finally satisfied that there were no other targets that needed to be immediately dealt with, they calmly paused and reloaded, nodding at one another grimly as they did, acknowledging each other for a necessary evil well done.

  Once they had finished reloading, they each used a free hand to reach down and take hold of an arm each of the first unfortunate man’s corpse and they dragged him together, back toward the entrance of the vault. They continued to haul him down the entire length of the hallway, leaving behind a wide, gruesome crimson trail of blood and gore covering the entire distance between the vault, past the conference room and all the way to the tiny back room, where they dumped the corpse unceremoniously in the corner. They repeated this ghoulish procedure twice more until all three men were piled in that room like so much fleshy lumber. They solemnly returned to the vault, following the ghastly trail they had just completed of fresh, warm blood and occasional entrails, whistling a cheerful tune as they did.

  ***

  Mac swiveled in his chair to look halfheartedly toward the doorway John and Kurt had just exited moments ago. He seemed to be either pensive about the events unfolding around him, or merely bored, sitting there guarding the hostages while John and Kurt did all the heavy lifting. It would seem, to any casual observer that somehow he felt as if holding a group of frightened hostages at gunpoint could somehow be considered a bland and mundane task.

  “It’s okay, folks; I’m sure everything is under control. They’ll be back soon enough and then you’ll be one giant step closer to going home,” Mac said, trying to sound calming and sincere, but failing miserably. “You there, I think you could use a drink just a little bit more than the others today. Which, now that I say it out loud, is really saying quite a lot about just how wildly awry this day has gone for you,” he said, looking right at Jamie. She sat apart from the rest of the hostages now, no longer crying. The telltale signs still lingered somewhat, but she had long moved past all that. She sat in her own private corner on the hostage’s side of the room, arms crossed defiantly and her eyes flashing an angry burning stare.

  Mac ignored her ominous body language and slid his flask across the conference table toward her, offering the most sincere smile he could manage, given the circumstances. She hesitated for a moment, sizing up his offer and then rose to her feet. She aggressively pulled out a chair and sat down at the opposite end of the table from him, still looking directly at Mac with her eyes blazing. Showing not the faintest sign of fear or intimidation, she bravely picked up the flask and took a swig, all the while still maintaining her fiery glare and not letting her newly-found confidence and resolve crack for an instant.

  “There ya go; that’s the spirit. Feeling any better now?

  “Well let me see, so far today I’ve been taken hostage, had my life threatened at gunpoint and I just found out that my boyfriend never really loved me. Yet I find as I sit here contemplating these horrible, unthinkable things, your cheap booze in this two-dollar flask simply washes all the pain right away. So, in answer to your most sincere question and concern, yes, I feel all better now. The world is once again sunshine, puppy dogs and rainbows. Thank you ever so much, kindly alcoholic,” she feistily spat back.

  “Aw, I know it seems rough now, but I promise you it gets a lot better, hun. You made a mistake is all; lots of people do, every second of every day. I’d be willing to bet there are at least a dozen people doing precisely what you did in this very town, at this very moment. You can’t stop it. It’s an immutable fact of the universe. Heck, take it from a guy that’s currently stuck in a bank completely surrounded by extremely heavily armed police officers that want nothing more than to bust in and shoot him right between his pretty baby blues. We all make mistakes to some degree; although some are obviously more dramatic than others. I happen to be about a level five thousand master.”

  “You know what pisses me off the most about it, more so than the gun to the head, the embarrassing, overwhelming display that I was wrong, and the very public humiliation of it all?”

  “No, sounds juicy though.”

  “I really thought that he was the one. He had me completely fo
oled, head over heels in love. I never saw it coming; I should have all along. It seems so obvious to me now, but for whatever reason I just didn’t.”

  “Really, the one, the ultimate love of your life, him, that guy,” he said, waving mockingly toward Mr. Myers, “The married jerk crying like a baby, tied up in the corner there?”

  “I know it’s stupid but...” she began to say, forlornly.

  Mac cut her off, “Oh, you’re right about that. It is indeed stupid.”

  “Thanks gun-toting psychopath, you’re all heart,” she said bitingly, while taking another drink.

  “Oh, don’t feel bad; you’re taking it all personally and you really shouldn’t. You can’t help but be stupid. It’s science, you see. You can never escape it; she’s a cruel and fickle mistress, that one.”

  “Science, really? Please enlighten me.”

  “Yup, science. I will admit something to you, although I will deny it vehemently later if anyone asks, that it’s true what everyone is always saying. Men are most undoubtedly idiots.”

  “True, but that’s hardly a stunning revelation, or even remotely scientific.”

  “That’s because you are getting ahead of the story; do you know what a black hole is?”

  “Yeah, but I hardly see...”

  Mac interrupted her again, “A black hole is a pure, unbridled force of nature. It sucks in everything that comes near it; space debris, light, even Martian exploratory probing ships, just absolutely everything imaginable, and nothing can possibly escape its momentous pull. Now, you see, it just so happens that men are so spectacularly stupid that it actually creates a miniature black hole of intelligence within each and every man’s head. That is why if you take a perfectly charming and intelligent girl like yourself and put her in a relationship with a man, any man really, all of her advanced thinking skills and knowledge just gets sucked right into the vacuum of that black hole. Furthermore, that’s why when they are finally parted and her intelligence is no longer being sucked out, she can’t figure out for the life of her what she was thinking. You see, science, not stupidity”