From Within
by Duston Justice

“Sir! You’d better come look at this!” the deputy yelled from the back of the house.

I slowly walked to the back of the house, following the blood stains on the carpet, to where the deputy had called me and stopped at the bedroom door. The entire room was blood red. It looked as though someone had painted the entire bedroom with blood. There wasn’t a single spot in the room that didn’t have blood on it, not even the ceiling. It was the most ghastly thing I had ever seen in all of my 15 years of working in homicide. There were human appendages hanging from ribbons and strings like macabre Christmas ornaments.

The deputy was standing next to a man, about 28 cowering in the corner shivering, and also covered from head to toe with blood and bits of flesh. There was raised skin and cankered flesh on his forehead that formed an upside-down pentagram. I walked over and stood next to the deputy.

“A witness?” the deputy said quietly.

“Fuck the wife!! FUCK THE WIFE!! Beat the kids!! BEAT THE FUCKING KIDS!!” the man in the corner began screaming.

The man’s brains seemed as though they were mush. His ears were bleeding and so was his nose, but there were no signs of head injuries.

“Wife everywhere!! All over walls!! ALL OVER ME!! Him all over wife and in...IN WIFE!! MY WIFE!! In my head!! FUCK THE WIFE!! Kids torn to bits!! Kids drained!! Kids paint!! BEAT THE KIDS!!” the man began screaming again, his eyes bulging from his head, as though they were about to explode.

“This witness may be of some use. He has already told us what happened to his wife and kids and explained the gruesome setting we see before our eyes right now. Maybe one of our psychological experts could get something else out of him,” I said to my deputy, who was recoiling from the man in the corner.
The started screaming incomprehensible words at inhuman sound levels. Blood began to flow from his ears, nose and now his mouth in rhythmic gushes. His bulging eyes left their sockets, which were now also spurting forth blood. His screams then suddenly end as his skull split right down the middle from the pentagram back, exposing the inside of his head, which was completely empty. My deputy then ran out of the room and vomited on the floor.

* * * * *

Once I had gotten home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the so-called crime scene I was at earlier that day. My mind was being trampled over and over with questions. Who or what could have done that to that man and his family? And more importantly, what caused that man’s head to split open, and how did it come to be empty of his brain and to be filled with blood.

“Dinner’s ready, Michael!” my wife called to me from inside the kitchen, shattering my thoughts.
I walked into the kitchen and walked up behind my wife and put my arms around her and kissed her neck.
I am sorry, Lynne. I really don’t feel like eating anything right now,” I whispered into her right ear.
“What’s wrong, sweetie? Are you OK?”

“Well, I just have this vision of a crime scene I was investigating today. There were some very strange goings on with the one survivor of an entire family that was murdered. He acted as though he was in extreme shock. But, I would rather not talk about that right now, OK sweetheart?” I whispered to my wife again, as I gave her another kiss on her neck.

“Better tell the kids to come and eat.”

“OK. I’ll go get them,” I said as I began walking out of the kitchen and down the hall.

“Hey! Come out! It’s time for dinner.” I said, banging loudly on my 12 year old daughter’s and 14 year old son’s bedrooms.

“Sure, Dad,” my daughter says through the door.

“I’m coming” my son said afterward.

* * * * *

“Pain is power. Power is pain. Give all of them your power!! POWER IS PAIN!! PAIN IS POWER!! GIVE THEM YOUR POWER!! WAKE UP MOTHER FUCKER!!”

I am suddenly jerked violently out of my sleep. The voice still screaming over and over in my head. I can feel an almost painful tightness within my chest, right behind my heart.

“I am not just some voice in your fucking head you ignorant piece of shit! You’re smarter than this Michael.”

I could hear the voice as clear as if a person was talking directly into my ear. It was scaring the fuck out of me. My wife still lay asleep next to me.

“I fucking told you that I am not just some fucking voice in your Goddamn head you son-of-a-bitch! TALK BACK TO ME! I HAVE THE ULTIMATE POWER OVER EVERYTHING PHYSICAL THAT BELONGS TO YOU AND I CAN TEAR YOUR BODY APART FROM THE INSIDE OUT!!

The tightness in my chest suddenly got agonizingly painful, and my temples began to pull towards each other, causing my nose to bleed. I tried to reach for my wife to wake her but was pulled back by the same tightness in my chest which was now taking over every part of my body. I could feel a scream coming up in my throat, but that was also pushed down by the tightness.

“You can’t scream dumbass! Haven’t you been listening!? Maybe I should clear your ear canals for you so you can hear me.

Suddenly an unearthly screaming echoed through my ears. It sounded the same as the screaming that came from the man earlier that day. The pain in my head and every where else was about to make me pass out. I could feel blood trickling from my ears.

“PLEASE STOP!! I’LL ANSWER YOU!” I screamed without bringing forth any sound.

“Well now, Michael that’s much better. I’ll ease the pain enough to keep you conscious.”

“Are you the devil?” I muttered grunting, still in pain from head to toe, feeling like my bones were being pulled like rubber bands.

“The devil? You mean that pussy-ass faggot, Satan? I could kick his fallen angel ass! Do you honestly think that the devil is in charge of evil? Of course not! Every human soul is linked together through me. I am evil itself! Do you think that it was an accident that live is evil spelled backwards? Evil keeps the strong ones alive and causes the weak ones to be killed under their own conscience. I MADE THE FUCKING DEVIL!!”

“Why are you bothering me? What have I done to deserve this? I am not evil.”

“YES YOU ARE GODDAMNIT! You, like many others, choose not to use to your advantage. I just told you that all human souls are linked together through me. I am pure evil elemental! The man you saw earlier today was resistant to me. He was punished for his impertinence. And for a little extra fun I dismembered, raped and mutilated his wife through him, not to mention redecorated the master bedroom with the colorful insides of his two kids. Dissolved his brains while they were still in his head, too. Now that is definitelya lot of fun.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Well, first of all we a have to bring my presence in you to the surface. Are you up to a little fun? I really hope you don’t love your wife because we are going to have to test your willingness on her.”
“No! Please don’t make me...”

My bones were suddenly tightened again and the pain surged through my body again. I felt as if my head was going to burst. There was a terrible burning sensation in the middle of my forehead and I couldn’t think enough to speak.

“PAIN IS POWER GODDAMNIT!! You will kill your wife or I’ll do it for you!! And I’ll tear you to shreds in the process!! I could pull your cock up through your fucking throat and force your jaws shut!!
“I...WON’T...KILL...M...MY WIFE!! I LOVE LYNNE!!” I managed to bring a few words to the surface even though I was teetering on the borderlines of consciousness.

“This is your last chance, Michael. Either you kill her now or I will do it for you!”

“I...LOVE...LYNNE!!”

“You just fucked yourself, my unwilling friend.”

My tendons and muscles grew tighter and forced me to get out of bed and stand up. I tried with all of my might to fight off the voice’s pushing, but the pain in doing so was unbearable. I bowed my head over in pain and notice my legs. The entire surface was black and blue, with the exception of areas where my bones were protruding through my flesh. I was sick to my stomach with pain. My legs began walking for me against my will towards the door, and with each step my bones punched through my legs that much more.

“That’s it. One two one two, left right left right left. Come on Michael, walk. Hurry hurry.”

I was walked into the kitchen and over to one of the cabinets. I started to try to fight off Evil Elemental one more. The voice was forcing my arms to open the drawer with the knives in it. I started trying to move my muscles with it even the pain was so incredibly nauseating.

“Well, now its about time you came to your senses, Michael. Are you finally ready to have a little, okay a lot of fun?”

Upon the voice saying the pull in the muscles in my arms was released, but still twisted my legs. I could barely feel anything in my legs anymore and couldn’t move the muscles at will anymore anyway. I grabbed the first knife I seen in the drawer and held it up next to me as if ready to stab someone. The voice then started moving my legs for me again. My legs were now just big pieces of muscle and bone. It was unbelievable that they were able to hold me up.

I was walked back into the bedroom and over to the side of my bed. As I was walking over I noticed my face it the mirror. There was an upside down pentagram on my forehead, and my eyes were blood red. My nose had been bleeding and so had been my ears.

“Alright Michael. Lets slash up this bitch!! FUN FUN FUN!!”

I took the knife and brought it up next to my head as to slash at my wife.

“I love you, Lynne,” I said to her one last time.

I then turned the knife and slashed with it, slitting my own throat, spilling blood all over myself.
“MICHAEL!! YOU STUPID SON-OF-A-BITCH!! YOU CAN’T KILL YOURSELF, MOTHER FUCKER!!”

To my horror I noticed after slitting my throat that I was still alive. I started crying and the voice took over my arms again. I felt myself being depersonalized. Evil Elemental made my arms raise up, with both hands on the knife as if to stab my wife. I had one last hope, the image of the man and his family’s fate flashing in my mind. As the knife was about to be slashed by the knife, I screamed from the inside out. Evil Elemental started screaming with me and it lost control of my appendages. I then fell to my knees and I could feel the blood pouring from my eyes ears and mouth. My wife raised up in her bed just as my chest and head split down the middle and opened, covering the carpet with my blood.

THE END