Nefarious Means

( A birthday picture for Blackwell )

I walk past this artwork from time to time. I'm sure there's a message hiding in the dots. There are two tall metal panels, with spheres that seem to be placed on a grid. I'm sure there's a reason why the dots were laid out the way they were.

One of these days, I'll take front-on photographs; and see if the dots form some kind of pattern. Like ASCII. Or a numerical sequence.

I guess if you look hard enough, and long enough, you can see a pattern in just about anything.

I'm a good little minion! Honest! This is a story for thenowhere, as a part of this meme.

---

James and Sarah were lying on the forest floor, in the early hours of the morning. It was a full moon, no less. How very dramatic.

James was hurting all over. Sarah was lifeless.

"It's not long until sunrise", James said to Sarah. She didn't have anything to say to that. Birds began to chirp.

"Really close to sunrise", James corrected himself. He got up, and looked at the grave he had dug for Sarah. "I guess I need to finish what I've started.", he muttered to himself.

He dragged her body from the clearing where she lay, into the shallow grave he had dug. She was still quite flexible - He had expected rigor mortis to have set in by now.

He gave her a final kiss goodbye, before he began filling the grave back up again.

"I'll see you soon", he said; looking at his revolver.

Blood was pooling around the body; and starting to coagulate. Flies were already starting to congregate. It was time to get the hell out of there.

[Then something else. But I'm not sure what. Perhaps something else will happen first.]

I'm sitting here, looking at the screen. Pondering what I might write next.

The words don't appear by themselves; they are only there because I put them there.

Or over here.

Except for the words I take away again. Those words are gone, now. Someone reading this will be oblivious to their existence.

Sometimes The words that are missing make all the difference.

His cellphone rang until he finished fumbling through his pockets. It was the chief. That's never a good sign. The chief began,

"It's time for you to go and get Olivia."

"Jesus. Do you think she is going to be suspicous?"

"You're a friendly face. I imagine she doesn't have many of those at the moment."

"She's not going to come easily. You do know that, right?"

"You've got the tranquilizer gun. That should be plenty to bring her down. If it comes to that."

"Right. Well, looks like I have a job to do". He hung up, grabbed his keys, and headed for his car; then set out on the drive across town to Olivia's new neighbourhood.

He reached her street, and grabbed the first carpark he saw. He got out of his car, and was walking towards her building when there was a shout from above.

"Hey! Jim!". He looked up; saw Olivia, and waved. She shouted again, "You want to come up for a drink?", he nodded.

"You can call me Judas", he muttered under his breath. He walked over to the building, and up the four flights of stairs to where she lived.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

She walked in the door, and kicked off her boots. Rats skittered off into the darker corners of the room.

"One day", she said to herself, "I'll move out of here. Or get a cat".

Orange light was glowing through her only window. She padded over and looked out over the city. Sometimes she could see out to the ocean; but not tonight. While she was looking out, she noticed Jungle Jim walking along the street.

She opened the window, and yelled, "Hey! Jim!". He looked up, and waved. "You want to come up for a drink?", she yelled again. He nodded, and walked towards the entrance to her apartment building.

A few moments later, there was a knock on the door; and she let Jim in.

"So. How are things with you?" he asked.

"They've been better", she replied.

"That's understandable, I guess"

"You make a couple of bad decisions, and everything falls apart"

"The chief mentioned you yesterday."

"Oh?", she replied; trying to seem indifferent.

"Yeah. He mentioned something about you coming back to work."

"No way", she said. "Not after everything that happened."

He pulled a small gun from his pocket. He said, "I'm sorry that I'm the one to do this", as he shot her in the neck.