Gerald laughed. It wasn’t a genuine laugh. It was one of those fake laughs that were meant to mock you; I knew. It bit at me, it really did. He wasn’t taking me seriously.

“That’s it? He fucked your girl?” He looked at the house and shook his head, his mocking smile static. “You’re willing to pay me for that?”

I scowled at him. Why was he questioning me? Why did he give a shit?

“Yes, that’s it. Got him off a million ways, probably. She did what she did. Isn’t that enough?”

He looked at me. His stupid smile was gone, I noticed. “There’s a lot of answers to that, depending on who you ask…”

I looked back at the house. I was parked under a tree where the streetlights didn’t shine on me. There were no cars on the house’s driveway but I knew that the prick’s car was still missing. He’d be coming soon, though.

“Well, it is for me…” I said. I heard Gerald sigh.

“Listen, kid. People make stupid, eh… decisions. All the time. Getting pounded by some guy behind your back, for example. Or risking getting arrested all because some guy plowed your girl behind your back.”

I looked at him sharply.

“Not a cop, no.” He shook his head. He didn’t even bat an eye as he said that. Plus, I had already told him my intentions so he had enough evidence against me. He had done nothing so far. He continued, “My point is, do you really want to have this on your back? What about the girl? Won’t she have an ounce of common sense to notice it’s a bit odd her little lover died soon after you found out? She does know, right?”

“I think she does.” This guy was getting on my nerves. I didn’t come here to get moral advice from a hired gun. “How many people have you killed?”

If Gerald was taken aback by the question, he didn’t show. “Nice try, kid. You’re young. So is this Casanova guy. What do you get out of this? They’re going to trace this back to you. What are you going to do, then? You rat me out, you’re dead. They won’t find me; I’ll make sure of that. I’m not a lawyer. You’re on your own after the trigger’s pulled, you understand me?”

The condescending tone is what got to me, really. He didn’t think I thought this through? It was the same condescending tone Jane used when she told me to stop being so paranoid about where she was going out at night, too. I balled my hands into fists. “Are you going to do it or not?” My voice was cold.

Gerald looked at me with his mocking smile. He was about to say something when I saw his gaze drift towards Casanova’s house. I turned and saw the car go up the driveway. My heart started to pound.

“Okay, this is it.” I said.

“First the money.” Gerald said.

“Glove compartment.”

He opened the compartment and found a brown paper bag. I had seen it in movies so I just did what seemed right. He took the pocket knife next to the paper bag in his hand and looked at me. He chuckled and threw it back in the compartment. Gerald made no comment on the paper bag cliché, though, and counted the money. He nodded. With my heart in my throat I let out a nervous laugh. My palms were sweating and when I turned my head for a moment I thought I was about to have stroke. Jane was getting off the douchebag’s passenger seat. I stopped laughing.

“Hmm… Two people? That’s not what you said.” Gerald said. He said it sarcastically, I knew. Why couldn’t he take me seriously?

“I know what I said!” I yelled as I punched the steering wheel.

“Double the price.”

“Just do it!”

“I don’t leave witnesses. Double the price or nothing happens.”

I knew what he was doing. He obviously knew I didn’t have that much money on me. I looked back at the house and saw Jane behind the asshole as he opened the door. My throat was in a knot. She was with him. After she told me not to worry and that she loved me. I shot my hand at the glove compartment and Gerald grabbed my arm quick as quick can be.

“Remember who has the gun here. You reach for that knife and I’ll break your arm.” Gerald said in such a low voice I almost leaned in to hear him. I was getting stepped on again. Like piss on the floor. I tried to pull my arm back but Gerald was strong.

“Let go of me…” I said in a choked voice. I hated how weak I sounded; I hated how weak I was. “Let GO!”

After a while, he let go. I didn’t want to cry. I wasn’t going to cry. All the while Gerald just looked at me.

“I know people like you. Insecure. Spineless. Think that being an asshole to everyone around you means you’re strong. Think that maybe hiring someone to do your dirty work is a feat of courage… It’s not.” He took out his gun and looked at it. I shifted in my seat. “You better find a way to get that guy alone.” He opened the door and got out of the car. I took the pocket knife from the glove compartment and got out. Gerald was standing by the side of the car looking over at the house.

“I’ll do it.” I said. Gerald laughed. This time the laugh was real. I’m not sure which laugh insulted me the most.

“Oh, will you?” Gerald said. “Why did you hire me, then? You could do it yourself.”

“I paid you,” I said. “Now, are you going to do it or not?”

Gerald looked back at the house and snorted. He nodded as he put the silencer on his gun. I noticed I was breathing heavily. We walked towards the house. When I reached the door, I looked around and saw that Gerald was in front of the douchebag’s car which was parked about five feet to the left of the door. Gerald nodded again. I looked back towards the door and knocked. I waited…

My breathing was getting heavier and all I could think about was the stuff Jane was doing to him. I knocked again, harder. I noticed the peeping hole on the door and stepped to my right, kneeling under the window. After a good while, the door opened slightly.

“Who is it?”

It was him. I stood in front of the doorway again but I didn’t answer him. I just stood there.

“Reuben? Is that you?” he said it loudly, I noticed. He might think I’m an idiot, but I knew he was doing it to warn Jane. The knot in my throat was back. I said nothing. “I’m… What are you doing around here? It’s late!”

He wasn’t exactly worried but I could sense his unease. My grip on the pocket knife was painful and my hand was shaking. “Busy tonight?”

“Uh, kinda, yeah…” the idiot looked back over his shoulder and then opened the door more. “Next time you come around you tell me, buddy, okay? What is it?”

What hurt me most, I think, was that he kept playing the role of a friend. I let out an uneasy laugh. I just couldn’t believe it. He stood there with arched eyebrows. I was going to lure him out and then Gerald could do his work. But I couldn’t help myself.

“I know what you’re doing.” I said. I could see the fucker’s face change. My voice was shaky again. “You think I wouldn’t notice, you asshole?”

His face was back to normal, though. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Good night.” He was about to shut the door when I held it open with my hand. “I’m going to ask you to let go of the door nicely.”

I just stood there with the door in my hand. The door was shaking with both of our strength pulling at the door. “If you don’t leave I’m going to call the cops. Reuben, let go—”

I pulled the door with all my might as suddenly as I could and it took him by surprise, just like I wanted. He stumbled outside and the door slammed against the wall. He tried to push me but I took him down with me. We fell on his front steps and I pulled out the knife. When he saw it I saw his eyes bulge out. He stood up lightning quick and kicked me in the ribs. As he was backing up, he looked towards his car and saw Gerald with his gun pulled out.

“No, please! NO!” I heard two dull shots and a dull thud as his head hit the blood-splattered wall.

As that happened, I saw through the open door as Jane poked her head out of some hallway. As quickly as I could, I slammed the door shut. I wasn’t sure if she saw me.

“Time to go, kid.” Gerald said as he put the gun back in his pocket. I felt such an adrenaline rush as I stood up I thought my head was going to explode. Suddenly, the door opened. Then she saw the body and the knife hanging limply from my hand. She screamed and ran back into the house. I heard as she locked the door. I started to panic.

“Gerald… Gerald, she saw me!” I looked back at the car and Gerald was already about to go.

“That’s on you, buddy.” Gerald said. “That’s one body for the price of one.”

I almost threw up. “Please, I’ll pay you later! PLEASE!”

“Sorry. I only take money up front.” Gerald smirked. “Goodbye, Reuben.”

I tried to open the door.

“Shoot the doorknob! Do it! Please!” I was begging but I didn’t care.

He looked at me for a while. He walked calmly towards the door and then past it. He reached for the window and jabbed at it with his gun. I heard Jane scream inside. He did it several times and the window was broken.

“Our mind’s stupid when we panic.” Gerald said.

I got into the house, careful not to get cut by the broken glass. I saw as Jane ran from the living room towards a hallway to the right. I ran after her. She was about to reach the door to the left at the end when I caught her. She had her cell phone to her ear but she dropped it as I slammed her into the nightstand at the end of the hall. The mirror on the nightstand was shaking. Her back was towards me and I had her grabbed by the arm.

“Please, let me go! I’ll do anything you want! Anything you want! DON’T!” she screamed.

I gritted my teeth. She was giving a good fight. I wanted to let her go. I wanted to go. I didn’t want to be there. I could have been at home. But all the thoughts that came to me were of her doing everything she hadn’t done for me to the douchebag. All her sweet words had meant nothing. Nothing. That was what bit at me the most. And so, the tears came. And so did the knife against her back. She uttered a gasp; I pulled the knife out and turned her around.

Insecure. Spineless.

I looked into her green eyes. Eyes that I had, funnily enough, found to be one of the prettiest I had ever seen were now ugly. Ugly, red and glassy. My eyes were ugly, too. I was crying. So was she. We were crying for different reasons, though.

“I love you…” she lied.

I pushed the knife in once again. Jane never lied again. Her eyes never left mine as she slid down onto the floor. I looked at myself in the mirror. The only blood that was on me was on my arm and some on my shirt. I didn’t have a crazy look, if I was being honest with myself. Just as Jane didn’t have a guilty look when she cheated on me. Just because we don’t see things doesn’t mean they’re not there. I saw the cell phone on the floor and suddenly remembered Jane had probably called the police. Then I looked at myself. I had grabbed Jane. I had grabbed the doorknob. My fingerprints were everywhere. I turned around and saw Gerald in the living room.

“Hmm… You killed her.” He said, almost amused.

“Help me with the bodies.”

“Nah, don’t think I will. This is on you. Doesn’t mean you didn’t surprise me, though. Didn’t think you’d do it. Pretty girl, by the way. No wonder that guy wanted her.”

“Gerald, I’ll turn you in if you don’t… Where are you going?”

I followed him outside and found myself with a choked voice again.

“Please, Gerald! The police will know—”

“You threaten me to turn me in and you ask for my help?” Gerald snarled. “Killing doesn’t make you brave. You’re still a weakling, through and through.”

Gerald looked at me for a long time. He looked at me as he would a dirty, wounded rodent. Up and down; shaking his head.

“I’ll give you a choice, kid. You got many but you’re an idiot and you don’t see them. So here’s what I give you. If you’re stupid enough to mention me to the cops, not only will the police get nowhere, but I will find you and I will murder you. So you’re first choice is to run far, far away and pray to all the gods you’ve ever believed in to never get caught. But let’s face it, you probably will.”

He stood silent. I wasn’t going to ask him what the next choice was. That’s what he wanted. We stood looking at each other for a long time. The cops were coming and he was taking his time. Finally, I broke. “What’s the second choice?!” He looked at me for another while.

“I kill you. A straight shot to the head. Make you part of the murder scene. I’ll even be nice and take away the knife. You’ll be just another victim of an odd killing spree.”

I thought I heard sirens. I wasn’t sure. This guy was cold. I wiped a tear as it went down my cheek and I heard Gerald snort.

“Got a soft spot, eh? Whenever you’re ready, softy. The cops will be around any minute and I’ll be gone.” He took out his gun and pointed it at my head.

I looked down at the body of the douchebag cheater. Gerald stood unblinking in front of me. I looked into the barrel of the gun. I prayed to every god I had ever known for an answer.

I love you…

I loved you, too, Jane.

I heard sirens in the distance.

“Time to go, kid.” Gerald said as he put the gun back in his pocket. I felt such an adrenaline rush as I stood up I thought my head was going to explode. Suddenly, the door opened. Jane stood at the front door and looked me straight in the eyes. Then she saw the body and the knife hanging limply from my hand. She screamed and ran back into the house. I heard as she locked the door. I started to panic.

“Gerald… Gerald, she saw me!” I looked back at the car and Gerald was already about to go.

“That’s on you, buddy.” Gerald said. “That’s one body for the price of one.”

I almost threw up. “Please, I’ll pay you later! PLEASE!”

“Sorry. I only take money up front.” Gerald smirked. “Goodbye, Reuben.”

I tried to open the door.

“Shoot the doorknob! Do it! Please!” I was begging but I didn’t care.

He looked at me for a while. He walked calmly towards the door and then past it. He reached for the window and jabbed at it with his gun. I heard Jane scream inside. He did it several times and the window was broken.

“Our mind’s stupid when we panic.” Gerald said.

I got into the house, careful not to get cut by the broken glass. I saw as Jane ran from the living room towards a hallway to the right. I ran after her. She was about to reach the door to the left at the end when I caught her. She had her cell phone to her ear but she dropped it as I slammed her into the nightstand at the end of the hall. The mirror on the nightstand was shaking. Her back was towards me and I had her grabbed by the arm.

“Please, let me go! I’ll do anything you want! Anything you want! DON’T!” she screamed.

I gritted my teeth. She was giving a good fight. I wanted to let her go. I wanted to go. I didn’t want to be there. I could have been at home. But all the thoughts that came to me were of her doing everything she hadn’t done for me and all the things she had done for the douchebag. All her sweet words had meant nothing. Nothing. That was what bit at me the most. And so, the tears came. And so did the knife against her back. She uttered a gasp. I pulled the knife out and turned her around.

I looked into her green eyes. Eyes that I had, funnily enough, found to be one of the prettiest were now ugly. Ugly, red and glassy. My eyes were ugly, too. I was crying. So was she. We were crying for different reasons, though.

“I love you…” she lied.

I pushed the knife in once again. Jane never lied again.

In the evening, the boats start disappearing. During the day the town’s waterways are filled with boats and the streets are filled with buyers and merchants. Now, as Dall walked with his cane and stood on the bluebrick road near the church looking over the pier, the boats were sloppily parked, their owners calling it a day. The boats swayed back and forth. Some tied to a post with rope, chain or anchor. The sky was a fire red, the Sun slowly going down into the sea. Dall smelled the salt in the air, his heart pounding. Leaning over the railings, he looked at his boat near the end of the line of boats. A cheap, small one that cost a few silver coins. This will do, he thought. He looked back at the church, about ten minutes in boating distance.

The church bell started singing, as it always did in the evening. He had lost too many nights doing nothing but listening to the church bell. Just lying there… Thinking about how his wife had left him and taken their two children with her. He had lost his left foot in an accident handling crates at the old docks. A few days back, he had been laid off of his job, as well. He could find one easily in the bustling town, but he was tired of it all. Of living. It was why he perked up one night, suddenly remembering something he had heard a few months ago.

“Near the waterway by th’ church, aye…” Bristle had been saying to a group of drinking men gathered around a table, a middle aged man who worked with him on the docks, “They say you hafta listen to what’s gonna happen’ to ya… It never says pretty stuff, they say… Some don’ even come out, y’see? Some have heard they’ll receive endless gold and all that worthy shit, y’see? Never know if it comes true or not, but they say it does… They say it does…” He took a long gulp from his beer. The men around him muttered.

“Bunch of bullshit is what I think…” scoffed Jeer, a skinny man who Dall had had to help countless times lifting crates due to his weak build, “The way you say it you sound like you actually believe that bullshit, old man. You know how many stuff gets spread around that is complete and utter horseshit?”

Bristle finished his gulp and put his cup down on the table. “Tell that to the missin’ people, mm? Those who never come out? You think yer tough, go into the alleyway yerself, see if we can get rid of ya…” The men listening to the story laughed and so did Dall. Jeer scowled and turned red.

“I will, pops. Prove what a senile sack of shit you are, I will.” Jeer said in his scratchy voice as he took a swig of beer. He found that he had already finished it. “Gimme some more, sweetie!” He yelled over at the serving girl. Dall took some more for himself, as well.

Nothing came of Bristle’s japes. Jeer had been pissdrunk by the time they had left the tavern that night and Dall knew that even if Jeer had been sober he wouldn’t have had the guts to do it. Dall reached his boat near the end of the pier, placed his cane aside and undid the knot in the rope. He got into the boat awkwardly and pushed the boat away.

Dall was inclined to believe that the story was not true, but the legend was apparently a lot more well-known than he had thought. A lot of people went missing supposedly from going into that alleyway, but those claims were groundless. There were a lot of people who had also said that their fortune had come true, but those claims proved groundless, too. Another group of people claimed that it was “complete and utter horseshit” altogether. It was a matter of looking for yourself and finding out, probably finding a dead end in the waterway. He was going in, anyways. What did Dall have to lose? He had lost a lot already. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the absurdity.

He was now reaching the alleyway. There was still a bit of light from the setting sun, but the waterway was still very dark. In front of the alleyway was a bridge that arced over, creating the sense that he was entering a tunnel. To his left, Dall saw the church up close. It had its candles lit from the inside giving it a ghostly feeling. He rowed his boat into the pseudo-tunnel.

When he got under the bridge, he realized that the bridge had hidden the dimly lit candles that were near the end of the alley. The candles reflected solemnly against the black water. The smell of salt was much more prominent here, but something else. Dall couldn’t tell, but he wrinkled his nose slightly.

He had been rowing down the alleyway for some time and looked back. He saw the silhouette of the bridge. It was almost night. The smell was stronger now, Dall noticed, like the smell of… not fish, exactly. Something stronger. Where had he smelt that before? The hairs of his arms began to stand up. He kept rowing nonetheless. He realized that the candles ended abruptly.

The alleyway appeared to keep going but it was dark. Dall wasn’t planning on going in without any sort of light to guide him so he decided he’d turn back. Complete utter horseshit sounded about right at that moment. He sighed.

As he began to row backwards, he heard a low thump on the back of his boat. Now the smell was so strong Dall grimaced. He covered his nose and then quickly realized why the smell had been so familiar. When he had worked as a butcher, a cow had been left to rot in the back room along with other products due to preservation issues. Rotting flesh. Dall leaned over the back of his boat and saw something that would’ve made him scream had his breath not being taken away. He stumbled backwards only able to utter a choked gasp.

“Why do you hide?” said a voice that sounded as if it were gurgling water. It speaks? Dall thought, still unable to scream. He heard light splashes all around his boat, the sound when something underwater breaks into the surface. Steeling himself, he stood up and looked around the boat.

Floating from the water were dismembered heads. Some men, some women, some looked like children, but it didn’t matter. They were dead. Yet they were looking at him. He felt it. Some had their eyes closed, others had them open and others were eyeless altogether. Dall’s shock was soon turning into panic. He looked over to the original speaker, where the first head had bumped into the boat. The eyes regarded him, his white skin glowing from the flickers of the dim candles. He had long black hair that stuck to his face and deep scars that were as black as his hair. The smell of rotting fleshed filled Dall’s nose.

“Who—” Dall could still not speak. He suppressed the urge to vomit and stood his ground. Finally, he said, “Who are you?”

“The better question is…” Dall noticed with horror that some heads to his back were talking in unison to the one in front of him. Some voice from a woman, another from a child. “Who are you?”

Silence.

“Why did you come?” The head floated up and down from the water, his voice gurgling. Dall felt dizzy.

“Did you expect a fortune?” A head to Dall’s right spoke. He saw it was a woman without an eye and an eternal grin.

“Did you perhaps want gold?

“Or women?”

“You can have me, if you’d like.”

There was a horrible gurgling and gasping sound all around Dall, and he quickly realized they were laughing.

“I was told… I’d be told my… Future.” Dall stuttered.

“And why would you want that?” the original head sneered. “What if you lose your woman in a terrible accident or lose your foot?” Dall’s body tightened.

“The truth is… our fortunes always come true.” To his left Dall saw a child’s head, but its voice was a drowned man’s. That made him sicker than the rotting smell. His words were little comfort, though. Above all else, he wanted to get out of this place.

“So… Will you tell me?” Dall asked in a shaky voice.

Silence. For a while the only thing Dall heard was the sound of the water as the heads bobbed up and down around him. Finally, they spoke.

“Yes.” And they all said in unison:

The church teaches us death is the end

In this cursed place

They are all wrong, my good friend

Tell us, the Floating Face

Different; to the ones who’ve drowned

You came to seek vision

We came to seek the cold, soft ground

To revive us is your mission

Suddenly, the boat rocked unsteadily. Dall’s boat began swerving to the left and then to the right. Dall saw that the heads were attempting to mount the boat. Some were biting their way up and others were biting through the wood. The face that had first spoken kept floating. It was watching, but it wasn’t moving. Suddenly, the boat gave an uneasy lurch and Dall fell on his rear. Suddenly snapping back into reality, he took one of his oars and started smacking any head that he could see. He began to hear crunching and realized one of the heads had made an awful hole on the right side of his boat, gushing water in. Dall began to row desperately, to leave, but his oar was jerked so hard away from him his shoulder almost popped out of place. He still had his cane. He fought and fought, until a head bit into his cane, trying to grab him under water.

“It’s time to teach some of those outsiders a lesson…” Dall heard a gurgling voice say, but he couldn’t say where it came from. Before he knew it, he was screaming, but nobody heard him. He was sure. As he struggled to keep his cane, a head bit into his back and one jumped from the water to bite his arm. The boat was already filled with water and he fell face-first into the bottom of the boat. The heads started to jump on top of his back and before he knew it the boat had swerved over and was sinking. The heads fed. He screamed underwater, but he was sure nobody heard him there, either.

~o~

The moon glistened over the water under the bridge. A lonely wet figure walked across the bridge, dripping water around him as it walked. It looked up at the church. The moon shined on its face, revealing milk white skin with scars and long black hair. Its body had pieces of flesh bitten off of it. Its face made a grotesque mismatch of color that started at a flesh wound around his neck and down to his body. It regarded the church solemnly. The candles flickered feebly inside of the church. As it dragged itself across the bluebrick road, it pushed the doors of the church open, where he went inside and waited. Waited for all of those empty promises.