Blood Money

"Was it this street? Maybe it was on Elm? Damn, I'm lost! The bus leaves in like 15 minutes. What am I gonna do?"

"Hey... hey you!" Just ahead of me sitting on the street was an older drunken bum.

"Hell, maybe he knows where the fuck I am and where the bus line is."

The bum glanced up at me with a distorted glare which I could barely see through his unclean glasses. Layers and layers of muck covered his body. The aged bottle of wine he was holding looked like it too had come from the dumpster I saw sitting in the alley not more than 25 feet away.

"What'cha want?" He inquired in slurred English. His body swayed when he looked up at me. It made my stomach feel sick.

I approached with caution. This didn't seem like such a nice neighborhood and I was alone. It wasn't safe for a female to travel alone these days. I adjusted the backpack which was riding low on my back and looked around.

The streets were littered with beer cans and bottles. There was trash of all sorts everywhere and dirt. Swirls of it swept across the street, the sidewalks and into the alleys when the wind blew. Across the street from him was a topless bar. I realized, by the look of it, that it had been deserted for a long time. The paint peeled from the building in long uneven strips and swayed in the breeze. Behind him was an old movie theater. From what was left of the awning I realized the last movie shown in its uninhabited halls had been back in the late 50s.

Old model T cars lined the street on one side. All of them were missing something. One didn't have a fender, another was missing its wheels, and yet another didn't have any seats. Some were rusted out with holes in their sides.

That seemed strange as those would all be collectible, vintage, autos. Why were they left along the side of this forgotten street?

I approached the drunk mostly because he seemed to be the only resident in the area on the street.

"I seem to be lost," I said. "I need to find Elm Street."

Overhead, the cloudless sky turned stormy and the wind picked up making me gasp as it hit me.

"This here is Elm Street," he replied and took another drink from his bottle.

"What?" I looked around in total disbelief. "This couldn't be Elm Street."

"Where's the Post Office?" I asked as I quickly looked around. I'd never meet the bus on time. I felt panic rise up inside of me.

"This here's Elm Street." The bum assured me again in a sharper annoyed tone. He tapped his dirty pointer finger on the sidewalk beside him indicating that he was referring to this street.

Droplets of rain began to spit down from the sky and I retreated towards the old theater's awning. At least it didn't have any rips in the cloth. As long as the wind didn't blow too hard I'd stay dry.

The bum got up to join me under the awning. His slow staggered steps worried me. One moment he was heading straight for me and the next he was walking back into the street. If there were any cars on the roadway he'd have been dead, I assured myself.

I watched as he once again stepped out into the road and then traced his steps back to me. Finally, he arrived and plopped himself down so that he could lean against the wall. It lead to the main doors of the theater. His breath came in quick bursts and I feared he might pass out before he could be of any help to me at all.

The wind changed again and grew in strength. All the trash lining the streets began to come towards us. I put my hands up over my face to protect it. I heard bottles smashing against the walls around me and bits and pieces of it tried to attach themselves to my clothing and skin. I turned so that my skin was protected by the wall and only my back was exposed to the assaulting trash around us.

"Inside!" yelled the dirty man. I felt his hands pushing at my body. I resisted.

"You have to go inside! Otherwise, we'll be killed!"

More glass shattered nearby and I allowed him to push me along the wall towards the entrance. Each step felt as though it'd be my last.

"Is it open?"

"It's never closed!" he yelled back almost sounding sober. and we busted inside. The creaking old door closed behind us with a loud slam!

As the dust settled, I looked around. The room was dark and the fading wallpaper peeled away from the walls in places I felt were unexpected.

Layers of it dripped from the ceiling suggesting it had been wallpapered many times over in the years of its life. In this area I noticed there was a leak. The steady drip, drip, drip from the leaky spot drew my attention to the floor.

A big puddle of water was accumulating and spreading down one of the hallways. It reminded me of a trail. It had to lead somewhere. I glanced around trying to find the useless individual who'd saved my life. He was nowhere to be seen. I glanced towards the door.

Perhaps, he'd gone back outside. Then I saw his head pop up from behind the concession stand.

"I can't believe they still have any!" He smiled at me and held-up an old looking Pepsi bottle. It appeared never to have been opened.

I glared at it. Those types of bottles had been popular when I had been a teenager. They were only made today as novelty items. The long neck, which was narrow, had been one of its positive features. The bottle cap was the type you have to pull off using a special tool which I saw he had in his other hand.

The dripping increased from the ceiling and the trail of water flowed faster.

"Excuse me," I whispered as I trailed along after it. Now I was fully interested in where it might lead me.

The floor was covered in more trash and broken bottles. I shoved them aside as I trailed along after the running water. The stream grew narrower and narrower as it moved down the hall. I squinted because the light was failing. I stopped walking. What was wrong with me? What was I doing?

I started to glance around. Where might I find more light? It was stupid of me to travel down this hallway without a light, I scolded myself. How stupid am I?

I start walking back towards the entrance totally ignoring the water trail. People with sound minds wouldn't be walking around in a deserted building following a stream of water with a drunk as their only guide. I decided to go back up to the main windows and wait for a break in the storm to escape. I dropped my backpack on the floor beside the door and glanced out the window.

"yea wanna see something really cool?" The drunk asked me. I noticed the bottle of Pepsi he'd been so excited about was now abandoned on the floor.  Its contents surrounded it like a puddle of overripe pudding.

"It's gone bad!" he remarked and made faces indicating that the drink tasted bad.

"Cool?" I replied for want of any other thing to say. Hadn't I already seen lots of cool things today? Apart from missing my bus and getting lost this was the coolest place I'd ever been that I hadn't wanted to go. The place was all fucked up!

I looked at him and frowned.

"Yea got nothing better to do," he remarked and pointed at the door leading outside.

The storm had turned dark and the wind howled like a wolf. Outside wasn't a place anyone wanted to be. I brushed my long blonde hair out of my eyes and looked back at the drunk.

"Okay."I replied impatiently, "what's interesting in this place?" I needed get out of here and onto that bus. Which, I was sure had long since departed to places unknown by now.

My eyes traveled back to the stream of water and its path which now had separated into two streams going down two different faded and darkened hallways.  What had made that happen, I wondered?

"It's over here in this here hallway," he remarked and started walking handing me a lit candle as he passed me by. Funny, how his walk and his language had improved since we entered the building. He no longer appeared drunk.

I followed along behind him, as he'd pointed out; I had nothing else to do.

The darkening hallway seemed to go on for miles. Then again it could just be me. The stream of water grew less and less until I was sure it had vanished.

Yet, he kept on walking.

"Hey," I finally yelled, "does this hallway end?"

"Yes," was the answer and he stopped walking.

He pointed at the wall to my left, and I realized it was completely black.

"This wall," he commented and pointed with his free finger, "was once known as a peep show area. Do you have any idea what a peep show is?"

"No," I replied, but now I was just a little bit curious. "What's a peep show?"I asked trying to keep the boredom out of my voice.

"Look closer at the wall," he instructed.

I stepped closer examining the darkened space with ever growing big eyes.

I had to look closely in order to see that the wall had circles cut out in it. These circles were about the size of one's head. There seemed to be millions of them. I glanced along the floor line and saw something green sticking out of one of the holes. I bent down to get a closer look. The stream of water ended here. It vanished beneath the hole and disappeared into the wall. I put my candle closer to the object sticking out.

"Oh, my God!" I whispered, "Its money!"

I reached down and touched it. My eyes traced the 100 mark in its four corners. A fine layer of red greeted my fingertips. I pulled my hand away quickly. "It's blood!" I squealed.

The bum walked over to me and laughed.

"I wouldn't be taking that bill either," he said, unless you want a peek into the peep show."

"What?" I said aloud. "I'm sure there isn't anything behind this wall now."

He laughed.

"Isn't there blood on the money, and its fresh isn't it?" He pointed at my fingers.

I released the bills and stood.

"This wall is still active." he remarked, "If you touch the money and get that blood on your hands it's the same as saying you wanna peek in the hole."

He looked at my hand again and smiled.

"I watched someone disappear into one of them holes, and they never came back," he assured me.

He pointed to a hole about halfway up. "Several hundred dollar bills fell out of that hole when the gentleman was sucked inside. And they was all covered in blood!"

"No kidding," I commented. How stupid did he think I was anyway? I gently wiped my hand on a rag nearby to get the droplets of blood off of them. He was just trying to scare me.

"Did you use the money to buy booze?" I asked in a somewhat challenging voice. Turn about was far play mamma had always said.

He made me no answer.

My eyes returned to the wall searching the openings which all of the sudden seemed to look clear to me. I could see the outline of every opening.

"Don't look at them that way!" he advised. "They will attach themselves to you and force you to choose one!" He tried to move between me and the wall. I simply stepped around him. I didn't need him blocking my view.

My eyes finally settled on one near the top. It was almost glowing.

"Don't!" He shouted as I moved a ladder which had been resting alongside of the wall towards my peep show hole.

"Please," he whined" it ain't worth it!" He tried to stop me and once again I simply walked around him and kept going.

With each step I ascended my confidence grew. What could be on the other side I wondered? The ladder was shaky, old and at any given moment it might snap in half like a pretzel. Yet, all I cared about was reaching my hole. I kept climbing. The hole drew nearer. I let my sling-back shoes drop to the floor. Who needed them; they slowed me down.

Shelly, it whispered. The voice was soft and sweet-compelling as it were. I just had to get there.

The drunk either stopped yelling or I simply stopped listening to him. The opening was in front of me now and slowly the cut out was sliding away.

"What was within?" I asked myself. I stepped up one more step so that I could slide my head inside. Sunshine greeted my eyes and a meadow full of dandelions welcomed me inside. It was the field of my childhood. I'd missed that field so much! I'd always been told you couldn't go back. Yet, here I was back in time in my childhood. I climbed higher and bent forward so I could slip inside. I was home again!

At the base of the black wall a hole opened up and a body slipped out. The bum glanced down at the body and back up at the closed hole the body had just came from. It now contained bloody hundred dollar bills. He stepped to the side so that the droplets of blood did not touch him. It was done, he was free!

The objects in the room lifted off the floor and began to spin in a circle around the bum. As they picked up speed, a clear layer of smoke began to rise from the floor at the bum's feet. A loud moan could be heard, if anyone had been present to hear it. When it stopped spinning the bum was gone, and in his place stood a demon, with long horns and pointy, long, whitish teeth.

He smiled down at the body lying on the floor and slipped inside it. Now he was a dashing young man. His smile was so bright it almost lit up the room with its sparkle. He quickly moved the ladder away from the wall, and glanced at another opening about mid-way up the wall which now was vacant. It had once belonged to the bum. He smiled and nodded his head once and the opening sealed itself again. It was time.

As he headed out towards the street he searched the crowd for lonely souls. The streets of New York were crowded tonight and he had his choice of many fine victims. However, he needed only one.

He glanced down the street and all the model T cars vanished. The building across the street changed into a factory and the building he was standing in front of turned into a restaurant full of mindless customers. Far in the back along one of the walls sat a blonde haired lady. Her eyes looked vacant and her smile no longer beamed. Yet, she was home, she just knew it. She sipped her coffee and tried to look important.

The day darkened into night. The street lights turned on and glowed softly lighting up the street in places while leaving others in complete blackness. The demon lit his cigarette and waited tapping it ever so often to dispose of the burned edges. His shiny new shoes seemed to glow in the light. He leaned up against a pole which had suddenly appeared behind him and kicked a backpack away from him watching as its contents littered the street and flow off into the air disappearing for now from sight. He smiled and took another drag of his cigarette.

Around the corner she quickly came.

"Oh, no!" this wasn't where her boss had told her to go. Now she'd miss her hook-up and her trick. How would she support Christmas now?

She stumbled down the street a few feet and stopped walking. Damn, these new shoes hurt. Why in the hell had she let John talk her into buying them?

"They make you look sexy," he'd whispered in her ear after she'd given him a blow job. The whole deal had cost her a night's wages. Sexy or not they were coming off! She slipped her feet out of the heels and dropped them into her overly large, purple purse.

She looked around again. Who the hell was that nice looking fellow leaning up against that post she wondered. Maybe he was interested in a trick or two.

"Uh, Sir?" she found herself saying. "Where am I?"

And the trick began again...