Devilry

“What’s more awkward then strangers sitting at a train station waiting for the train at such a late hour as this? Just you and I, sitting here trying not to look like we are paying attention to the other. Seems silly when you stop to think about it. Well, my name is Pan. Pleasure to meet you. Now we are strangers no more. Its two-o-five now and our ride comes at two-forty. Train isn’t due for another thirty-five minutes… How about a walk? We won’t go far. It will be good for you. We can stretch our legs and clear our minds. Come, we walk. Not a fast pace, just casual walking speed. It is dark. Not scary dark, just without light. The terrain is pretty much without any distinguishable features. That is… what terrain we can see. I brought something with us… for the walk. It will make it much more interesting. It is in my satchel. Here, I will show you it. Look here, yes… it is a mask made from wood. It is a very old piece of wood that the mask was carved from. Much older then you may guess it to be. Do you want to hold it? There you go. Feel how light it feels. Kind of like harden air, if air could be made hard. Yes, very smooth as well. It is meant to be worn while the possessor is walking. It is magical. Yep, call it nonsense if you like but it’s true. How so you might ask? Well, I don’t mind telling you at all. I was hoping you would be curious to know. When the mask is worn over your face, and you are walking, it will give you glimpses through many kinds of eyes. Sounds intriguing doesn’t it? It is a most delightful thing to experience… most of the time. I must worn you though, sometimes you see through the eyes of something… less then delightful. If that puts you off a little and you don’t want to try the mask on, I understand totally. I can just slip it back in my satchel and we can continue our walk without it. What’s that? You want to give it a try anyway? Well then, try it you shall. It is simple, just hold it over your face so it touches your skin and keep walking. When your ready, no need to rush. Ah, it is a beautiful night for a walk with newly found acquaintances.” Dark wood stained darker yet with some bitter smelling stain. Odd it should still be detectable if this mask is as old as indicated. There is no color on this wood but the detail etched in it is remarkable. Along the center of the face is a spinal column that twists a little left, then right. Every vertebra is complete in its detail. Around the holes for the eyes there are grasping hands, as if  they would close over what eyes might look through the holes. When held at the right angle, the fingers look like an old man’s wispy eyebrows. Where the mouth should be is a small snake that bites its own tail. It leaves the impression that the mask is surprised by something. There are several deep grooves along the cheeks on both sides. The grooves don’t blend well with the rest of the carvings on the mask. They leave a feeling of wrong when seen along side the spine, hands and snake. The inside of the mask is plain and dark. And when pressed against the skin of your face, cool to the touch. The effect of the mask is instant. A faint laughter is audible though from where is too hard to distinguish. Standing there infront of the mask is a small woman. Her hand is on her hip and her head is tilted slightly to the left. She is staring quite hard and does this without a word spoken. Without warning, the woman lunges out at the mask with clawed hands and opened mouth. A mouth opened so impossibly wide, her cheeks rip from lip to ear as she engulfs everything entirely. In the blackness of her maw, perversion and twisted reality assault endlessly………….“Yes officer that is correct.” said the train station attendant. “He was sitting by himself over there.” He pointed to some benches near the vending machines. “We get a lot of weird ones during the early hours of the morning. I didn’t take much notice of this guy talking to himself. It seemed a fairly innocent conversation. He wasn’t raving or anything like that.” The attendant’s story was interrupted by the shouting and struggling of the man who was waiting for his two-forty train to arrive and who had walked outside along the rails a short distance before going ballistic. He was strapped in a bloodied restraining jacket and had his legs manacled and was being half carried and half dragged by two burly looking fellows in white jackets smeared with his blood to a van with flashing yellow lights on the top. As the noise of the trio passed by the police officer and the attendant, the attendant resumed his story. “Like I said, he seemed normal enough. That is until he got over there…” he pointed towards the rails just beyond the platform in a shadowy area between two soft lights, “… Thats when he flipped out. He grabbed his face and started screaming. No, no… he didn’t just grab his face, he clawed his own face, like he was trying to tear his skin off or something. That guy must be a ventriloquist or whatever they call those guys who can change their voices. He sounded like he was a whole bunch of people. First his voice was high and sounded like a woman… and she was pissed! He back pedaled all the way over there…”, he pointed to a light post that bordered the parking lot from the train tracks, “…then fell over. Thats when he became some dude with a scary ass voice. I was already moving towards him but that voice stopped my in my tracts. It scared me a little. He was thrashing on the ground and speaking in words I didn’t understand but they felt bad ass. Then, he just sort of leaped up onto the light post and shot up it like a monkey on acid. I have never seen a man climb like that before. He went up so fast he broke the light at the top with his head. His voice changed again and it was like a raspy old man’s voice only it was loud. So loud I had to cover my ears to keep them from bleeding.” Both the police officer and the attendant paused to look up at the broken light. The attendant continued, “When the raspy old man stopped speaking, the dudes legs shot from the post and he just… sort of hung like that for a bit. Kind of like a flag on a post… only he was screaming again.. in his own voice I think. Thats when he flew off the post. Cart-wheeled  in the air before belly-flopping on that car.” He pointed to a small car with a broken windshield and a crumpled roof. “If it wasn’t for that being there, I expect I would have seen him smash up on the parking lot. I started to go towards him again… to see… you know, if he was still alive. I was not to eager at the same time though. He freaked me out completely by that time. I got about five feet from him when he sprung off that car like a gymnast and bolted straight into that window.” He pointed to a large window at the side of the station. Bloody smears plainly visible on the glass. “He hit that baby like a bird flying into a tractor-trailer truck! He stuck there for a second before peeling off. He was crying at that time and it sounded like he was begging someone for something. I had enough, thats when I ran back inside and called you guys. That man scared the dickens from me and I didn’t want anymore of him. How he ended up hanging on that wire is beyond me. Maybe he flew? I didn’t see much from inside and I didn’t want to either. When you guys showed up and got him down, his face looked horrible. I wish I never saw that. His eyes were all cut up and his skin was hanging like fingers. His cheeks had deep grooves in them and his face was split in half! Looked like his bones were sticking out like a zipper or something. And his mouth looked stuck open… like he was stuck trying to blow on something. Ohhhph… gives me the shivers! Anyway, thats it. That is my statement. Now can I go home? I don’t want to be here anymore. I need to get out of here and get a drink of something strong. Its been a hell of a night.”

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