A Melancholic Black Series (Book 1): The Red Door (9 page)

Mack turns his attention towards the basement door, when Nell grabs a steak knife. She swings at Mack who turns around just in time to dodge it. He cold-cocks Nell in the chin, knocking her down off the counter and onto her face.

He grabs the steak knife and heads to the basement. He doesn’t know what awaits him, but he’s a man. He’s as tough as they get. He’s never backed down from a fight and most times, he started them. But, again… he
really
doesn’t know what awaits him.

Mack gets to the bottom step and holds up the knife, his hands shaking from intense adrenaline. He’s looking to be a hero. “Rodney?” he whispers.

“Mack?
Mack!
Help me, please!” Rodney yells through the darkness as Mack moves closer to see Rodney tied up.

“Rod! What the shit…” he tries cutting through the cuffs, but there’s no way that’s going to work.

“Mack!” Rodney shouts as Amberly runs from the darkness and tackles his boss to the floor. Her shrieks echo loudly as she slams his head in to the concrete over and over repeatedly. Turning his skull to candy and his brain, puree.

Nothing better than the basement’s concrete floor to tenderize the meat you’re planning on eating.

She raises her hand to slash Mack and rip him in half when she accidentally hits the chain that is keeping Rodney prisoner, breaking it cleanly. Ripping it like paper. Her power is truly awesome. Just like how excited Mack was before opening the basement door, so is Amberly at the aspect of tearing something apart with her bare, little hands.

Rodney slowly crawls to the steps as he turns back around to see Amberly completely tearing Mack apart from head to toe. She couldn’t devour him quicker if she tried. Her smiles of bliss are only exceeded by her unbridled fury.

As for Rodney,
you will be remembered Mack for your sacrifice.

Rodney crawls out of the basement on his hands and knees through the doorway as Nell stands there holding a gun pointed directly at him. She’s crying and hurt. Not physically but mentally.

“Nell?” Rodney asks cautiously.

“Dannalee.”

Rodney’s eyes widen. “Who?” he asks playing coy.

“Just, answer me, Rodney!” she screams, cocking the gun.

“Where did you get that?”

“From a cop.”

“Cop? You… killed a cop?!”

“Dannalee!”

“What, are you going to shoot me now?”

“If you don’t answer the question, I will.”

Rodney pauses. He believes her. There’s nothing he can do. Down in the basement is a flesh-eating, demon-child who seemingly has crawled from the depths of Hell itself, and in front of him is a pissed-off wife. He’s contemplating which is worse.

“You’ve been sleeping with her?” Nell asks, helping Rodney along the way to the truth.

“Not sleeping,” he responds much to her surprise.

“Why?”

“I had… I was
bored
.”

The love she had for Rodney and trust, seems to pour from her drained face with such ferocity, she could kill him. Not to say that she hasn’t made up her mind. “Bored? You dirty
asshole
! I’ve done everything in my life for you! For
you!”

“I thought I wanted
this
,” Rodney lies. “When we were younger. The lives
we
had. I thought this was always what was planned for me. Thought this is what we deserved. I learned, it wasn’t. It just
wasn’t
, Nell. I’m sorry.” It’s the most sincere Rodney has been in months.

Nell is trying to process everything. She’s confused, when a sudden moment of clarity comes over her. She looks up at Rodney, her face covered in disdain. “This woman, Mack said months.”

“Okay?”

“Was…?” Nell asks before she gets a lump in her throat, holding back her emotions and tears. “Was she the reason you never picked up Amberly? Why, why she died?”

That’s Rodney’s dirty little secret he never wanted anyone to know. The fucked-up truth. The revelation that struck Nell like a bolt of lightning. What Amberly knew all along. At that moment his own daughter was being raped and murdered by someone she knew and trusted, he was getting laid. He chose the sin of adultery over his own daughter.

He stares at Nell in the eyes as he admits, “I won’t answer.”

“Why not?”

“Because you already
know
the answer.”

Nell heartbreakingly smiles with a tear in her eye as aims the gun and shoots Rodney straight in his heart. He falls flat down against the wall he was resting on. The look of shock forever implanted on his face. She shouts in frustration as she empties the rest of the bullets in the clip into Rodney; all 11 of them. Never aiming at one direct spot, instead, letting them spray all over. She felt that her didn’t deserve precision.

After the smoke settles, Nell falls to her knees. As if now, of all times, she accepts all the things she’s been doing. Only, she doesn’t care.

The stairs from the basement creak as Amberly steps out, panting and covered in Mack’s blood.

“I’m… I’m sorry, baby,” Nell pleads, hoping that Amberly doesn’t get angered, but all the little girl does is shake her head before hugging Nell, who doesn’t understand. “Do you
care
what Mommy just did?”

Again, Amberly shakes her head.

“You…
really
wanted him dead?”

Amberly nods.

Nell frowns and caresses Amberly’s hair, “You… knew.”

Amberly nods.

“Ohhhh, my baby. I’m sorry. I love you, please believe me,” Nell confesses, though Amberly already knows.

Amberly keeps staring at Rodney’s body. There’s only one thing she wants, to do what she’s been ready for all along. To devour her father.

Rodney thought that there was a more sinister reasoning for Amberly coming back from the dead. Maybe to protect her mother or maybe to exact revenge on the wrongdoers. Witchcraft. Devil worship. It wasn’t.

Sometimes people die before they were meant to. Sometimes they get second chances and just like second chances, things are done…
differently
. For better or for worse. Never will anyone be able to hurt Amberly or Nell again.

Her mother pats Amberly on the head. Nell wants to cry for Rodney, but she can’t. Not right now. Right now, she hates him.

“Go ahead,” Nell says standing up, turning, and walking away. Like all the others before him who meant nothing, Amberly yanks Rodney’s body down in the basement with such ferocity, it bounces off the door frame, shattering the wood into splinters.

XIV

November 29th.

8:00AM.

Huffing and puffing, Nell drags a black trash bag through the woods. Pushing aside the leaves, creating her own trail off the beaten path.

Her eyes are dead. Whatever was left of the sweet Nell that anyone remembers is completely gone. All that remains is a woman who, against all odds, chose to stay the path of loving mother to a renounced little girl. A person who loved her daughter so severely, she killed for her.

Nell Gray: serial-killer.

She gets to an embankment and tugs at the trash bag that is considerably heavy. As she tries to throw the bag down the hill, a root sticking out from underneath the ground grabs hold, ripping it open. A thick piece of scalp rolls away collecting dirt as it hits the bottom. A familiar piece of anatomy. Jet-black hair with pink highlights.

Dannalee. Victim number
who-knows
?

The last piece of the puzzle that ties directly to Rodney. Nell throws the bag down into the trench that is already littered with more body parts than anyone could count. Among the broken and shattered bones are Rodney’s glasses, Mr. College’s clothes, and in the back covered in brush is Sion’s mail truck.

Nell’s secret graveyard. More accurately, her personal landfill of her and Amberly’s victims. Only four-hundred yards behind the House of Gray.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading the first book in “A Melancholic Black Series.” The second book, titled “.45” is scheduled for release in late 2016/early 2017.

As always, I would like to thank my cover designer Brittney Fournier; my editor Nicole Giverdon; and my friends and family, who have shown undying support.

Lastly, thank YOU, the reader. I can only hope that my stories can help you escape from the real world, latch onto your psyche, and never let go.

-R.J.

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