The dread burrowed in deep, its claws hooked in, like a new permanent fixture in Levi's psyche. He stared at the doorknob, reached out, trembled. A loud bang boomed through the basement, like thunder had struck. Levi jumped. It loosened the dread. He opened the door, still shirtless, still lost. So lost he didn't notice the bullet hole in the door. A few inches to the right and it would have hit flesh. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlR0nVyo4YB
The man stood in front of Levi, gun raised to eye level. The wild look took over his eyes again. The man started pacing, he was belligerent, his hands shaky. He was talking so fast he was almost incoherent, like he was overdosing on caffeine. He talked like a ransom letter. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxuydDKwQuq
“You did this! You took her!” The man said. “He told me..radio…Mr. Rem.” Levi had a hard time hearing what he was saying.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWAY4K5ASMi
Levi, at gunpoint with his hands to the ceiling again, tried calming the man. Speaking slowly with a soft voice, but it only made him angrier.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcR8JG9c6mO
“My wife! You took her!” The man, yelling now. “What did you do to her?” 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHaw8y530g
Levi pleaded, telling the man he didn't understand what he was saying. Again, only filling the man with more rage. He paced more, his steps echoed with heavy boots. He straightened his arm firmly, he almost made his mind up. “The guy on the radio! He, he said Mr. Rem took my wife! Three weeks ago she went missing! It was you, you son of a bitch!” He had made up his mind. His eyes watered, his finger squeezing the trigger. Fueled by vengeance and grief. Levi sprung forward, keeping low, he tried grabbing the gun, reaching out. Bang. Another thunderbolt. This one connecting. Ears ringing, Levi fell to the floor, blood pooling around him. A silence fell over the basement.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZtRU33iOQl
The man calmed down, stopped pacing. The rage soon replaced with a primal panic. The sight of blood, the loud ringing, sweaty palms. All of his senses a blaring alarm of guilt. He dropped the gun at his feet. He looked everywhere but down. He had never taken a person's life and even if this man had taken his wife, it didn't feel right. He felt disgusted all over. He ran for the door, going upstairs into the house. The door locking behind him. He was in such a rush, overtaken by raw emotions, he didn't notice Levi was still breathing. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHnZPC5DWJc
Levi's heart flooded his system with so much adrenaline he couldn't quite feel the pain, he wasn't even sure he was hurt until he tried pushing himself up. Instead of his hands meeting cold wood it sunk into warm blood. He examined his body, the side of his rib under his left arm had a chunk of flesh missing. The bullet only grazed him but still doing noticeable damage. He listened to the heavy footsteps grow quieter before getting up. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBBkbveGtD
He was hyper aware of the weight of his own body. He rushed over, wobbly, to the couch. Grabbing the first aid kit and going back to the bathroom. He cleaned up as quickly as he could, he thought of the man coming back to finish the job. It hurried his hands. The alcohol on his wound hurt worse than getting shot, a deep sting no amount of gritted teeth could fully bear. Wrapping more bandages around his body. The first aid kit mostly empty, but serving its purpose. He left it on the sink. It was a struggle to get his arms up to put his shirt back on.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimV8QGp4yh
Walking out the glint of chrome caught his eye. The revolver lay on the ground, the blood staging an invasion of the surrounding wood grains. Levi grabbed it. Tucked it in the backpack, along with the map on the table. He stood for a second, a thought lingered in the back of his head. The piece of marble the man showed him, it seemed important. Important to him. He needed it. It wasn't on the table or the couch. He couldn't remember what he did with it after seeing it. He searched the desk, pushing around papers and books and things. Couldn't find it. He started sweeping off things to the floor, bang. He jumped again before looking down. There it was. He picked it up and slid it into the backpack. He struggled to put the backpack on, too. The left side of his body, tender and weak. He finally managed it, going back out the way he came in. Free but not safe. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAR4liwQzQ
Levi wanted to run but he just didn't have the energy. He could only, at best, manage a pitiful limp. Dragging his feet along. He tried to stay off of the street, looking over his shoulder every couple of steps. Paranoid. But where his feet could barely walk, his thoughts could run. He tried piecing it together but it was like fumbling in the dark with a jigsaw puzzle with near frostbitten hands and half of the pieces were missing. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgDvC3lGR5R
Back there, the man, The Raven. The manic chaos of irrational thoughts manifested, left unchecked. It scared Levi to see how dramatic, how quickly, things can turn. A misunderstanding and an itchy finger moving less than an itch can remove you from the world before you even know what's going on. Maybe that's how he ended up in this place to begin with. If he was dead this place would surely be hell. But what scared him more was that there must have been some truth to the man's ramblings. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4EnfO30w9p
He himself, apparently, sculpted a statue of a twin headed wolf that now sat in the middle of town like a religious beckon, a call to violence. The feat would have taken weeks alone. He thought of the visions he had when seeing it. Scattered and fragmented, but the bird, the raven. “Were they premonitions?” Levi thought to himself. And now a mysterious man on a ham radio knew him, connected him to a missing woman who hasn't been seen in weeks. He had history here, he just couldn't remember any of it. He stopped, considered. He couldn't remember anything before either. Levi hang in the fold of the past and the present. Between reality and a dream. This thought a peak behind the curtain. He started doubting if anything existed at all before he woke up on that bench in the alley. He tried pushing the doubt down, in the box inside his head where unpleasant things go. He clung to the flashes of his childhood. A reminder that he's real, his world, real. He had to make a plan, he had to get out of this town. This dark place. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOuCsY8BLRR
Levi wandered through the vividly lit Bright Falls, hiding from the sunlight, sticking to the shadows, with eyes in the back of his head. A few smiles dotted around, aimlessly existing, like they were waiting for something, or someone. Levi was worried that someone might be him. He spotted a bookstore nestled away in a quiet corner. The windows holding back a peaceful darkness. It seemed safe, a decent spot to rest his weary legs and plot his next move.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfJFbsXr0vr
Opening the door rang a welcome bell, spiking Levi's blood pressure. Not wanting to welcome anyone else into the building, he reached up and grabbed the bell, stopping its announcement. He frantically shot his gaze every which way, searching for any sign of life. Ready to dart away. A long minute passed and nothing. He calmed his breath and went inside. Closing the door slowly. Keeping hold of the bell. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLMCGfvypDW
It was dark, mostly. The windows let in enough light to brighten a few feet in before slowly fading across the shelves of books that faced forward, the dark taking back control and reigning over the back of the small room. A spiraling staircase on the west side. Levi stood completely still, letting his ears do the work that his eyes couldn't. Not a sound could be heard. He crept, tiptoed, to the staircase and ascended. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIamBn4lDN0
The second floor held a few more standing shelves and floor to ceiling wall shelves, along with a couple of big tables in the very back. The windows here were smaller, thin stripes near the top of the storefront wall. Levi finally felt secure. The undertone darkness like a comfort blanket. He saw the light switch on the wall and decided to keep it off. He pulled his backpack around and dug through it, pulling out the flashlight he spotted earlier and flicked it on. To his surprise it wasn't a soft, white light but a dark purple one. A UV flashlight, blacklight. Fitting. “It'll work.” He thought, shrugged, before working his way to the back, tossing his backpack on a table and sitting down. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVHh8lslMM9
He fished through the backpack again. His fingers touching the broken marble piece. He couldn't shake the familiar feeling it gave him. It made his head foggy, misty. His fingers felt the cold chrome of the revolver, giving him a completely different feeling. Of dread, of relief. He almost didn't make it here. Finally, he pulled out the map of the town and flattened it. Lit up by the blacklight. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx4MrKEjW30
He found the bookstore he was at, the “Oh Deer Diner”. The wolf statue wasn't on the map, though. There were a few roads that could take him out of town, where they would end up was anyone's guess. Deep down he was terrified of picking the wrong one, ending up lost somewhere in the woods, starving to death. That almost seemed worse than being butchered. One road, though, that led eastward, caught his eye. A bridge that led out over a small river, but it's what came before it that he fixated on. The old movie rental store turned hardware store by some “government coverup” stood before the bridge. He pulled out the marble piece again, holding it, running his thumb over it. The place on the map, the parts not scratched out, did look odd. The other buildings on the map had some semblance for what they were but not this one. And the marble piece only added to the fact. The small building carved in. Levi was drawn to it. Just then, the welcome bell rang out again. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhtsLtbNOxl
Levi's heart didn't just sink, it fell through his entire body and bounced around like a pinball machine. He grabbed the revolver, held it close and held his breath. A few seconds felt like a few hours, nothing. He let out a soft breath. Then, footsteps. Slow, wide steps. Boom, boom, boom. Like artillery fire. Levi stayed completely still.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeo6iLH9tfm
He heard a light switch. Light poured in from the staircase, a spotlight welcoming the staring monster of the show. But the opening of the tall cylinder contained the light, held it back from the rest of the room. Someone turned the lights on downstairs. Levi stayed still, tried to tell himself maybe it was a normal person. Someone to help him. His mind didn't let him think too positively, also adding in it could the man, The Raven. Could be another smiley. His heart raced, he got his answer. A deep, distorted voice called out. Sounding like a broadcaster on a 50s radio show with a bad signal. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNEwwrPjSw
“Mr. Remmmm.” The voice hung on the last letter, stretching it out. “Are you hereee?” Levi died a little bit in that instance, a piece of him forever left but not forgotten in this small bookstore, in this town that god has turned a blind eye to. Levi gripped the revolver tightly in his hands. The footsteps brought dread with them, the heavy echo on the carpet, making their way to the stairs.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5yww3RwZr3
The metal of the stairs rang out when under the intruder's boot, like a scream for help or warning siren. Levi readied himself, holding the revolver and straightening his arms across the table, leaning down to get a better angle. He was afraid if he stood up his legs would fail him or he would be heard, make himself known. A head slowly poked up through the opening of the stairs with a tooth grin. The light underneath them casting egregious shadows on their face, hiding some parts but putting the smile on full display. The rest of their body below a mystery. Levi's blood ran cold. Their eyes locked in an eternity of paralyzing fear.166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87nUjDviDw
The monster's steps continued up, the rest of its body rising up like the undead. The greyish glow hanging around them, almost masking, censoring their features. They stepped into the softly dark room, their outline still clear. Levi, overtaken by anxiety, squeezed his trigger finger, letting off a small explosion of red and orange, a starkly bright flash filling the room for a split second, the all too familiar ringing returning to his ears, deafening. It all happened in a matter of seconds but to Levi it looked in slow motion but felt like it lingered. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFh52Og7jY
The bullet clearly connected, landing on the shoulder of the monster. A burst of grey and black particles expanding out from the wound and evaporating. The monster recoiled from the force but was otherwise unphased. It's head turned to face Levi. It shot forward at him at inhuman speed. Levi dove out of his chair to the side. The inverted light infused monster, in the blink of an eye, was at the table. Grabbing it and throwing it almost on Levi. His backpack went flying, spilling its contents all over. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNQCKe4qd7
Levi, in a panic, crawled back. Struggling to see in the deeper darkness of the room, his once adjusted eyes resorting back to normal from the flash of gunfire, the overturned table between him and the monster. With his free hand he felt around the floor and managed to find his flashlight, he flipped it on without thinking. The remnants of his primate brain telling him to fear the darkness, fight it. The monster grabbed the table again and tossed it aside, in clear sight of Levi now. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkK19SwqJag
Levi turned over quickly, pointing both his revolver and flashlight at the smiley. To his surprise, the UV light stunned the monster. Raising its arms up over its face to block the blacklight. The grey aura started fading a bit, but never leaving fully, it was too deeply rooted. Levi, not wanting to get hung up on racing thoughts, aimed true and fired again. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpe16k3aSVv
The smiley, vulnerable by the UV, weakened, let out a yell. Its body turning into dust, shattering, splintering into a million pieces through the air in its own fracture of grey and black and white lights. Levi, again, found himself on his back, out of breath but this time triumphant. He wanted to savor the moment. Lean his head back and laugh. Relish in conquering the dark presence, if only for a single battle. But he didn't, instead his eyes became misty. Overwhelmed by the panic, the fear, the survival. He couldn't take it, handle it. 166Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqsa64T32Q1
He wept.
