The Black and Blue Wasteland

With only ten minutes left before his lunch hour was over, Gabriel Granger finished eating his #2 combo meal sitting in his car, watching it rain. He just happened to glance at his rearview mirror at the precise moment the man drove by...

Gabriel saw the rapist.

Three years ago, Alan Jones and Gabriel's sister Carrie met at a local single's bar. They only went on two dates, both disastrous, and after their ill-advised second night out together, Jones forced himself on Carrie when she was shit-face drunk. Gabriel didn’t find out about the assault until months afterwards, when he accidentally overheard a tearful conversation between Carrie and his other sister, Kylie.

He hadn’t thought about Alan Jones in a long time. But when he saw the bastard drive by, circling around to the back of the restaurant in a black Crown Victoria, Gabriel was instantly infuriated.

His heart hammered as he considered confronting Jones. He would love nothing better than to give Alan the ass-beating he so richly deserved. But Alan was bigger than him, more muscular than him, more intimidating. And Gabriel wasn’t a fighter.

Distant thunder grumbled as Gabriel pulled out of his parking spot.

Only two vehicles were now idling in the drive-through lane: Alan was second in line behind a white Honda Civic parked at the speaker box. Trembling with rage, Gabriel slowly cruised up beside Alan’s car and stopped.

Blandly, with no visible sense of recognition, Alan looked over through his passenger window directly into Gabriel's eyes.

Glaring at Alan, squeezing his steering wheel tight, Gabriel spontaneously thought-sung, 🎼🎵 I hereby banish you into the Black and Blue Wasteland! 🎶

Much to his astonishment, Alan Jones turned black, then blue, and then vanished altogether. There was a muffled pop from inside the car as air rushed in to fill the vacuum created by a disappearing man.

Gabriel blinked, rubbed his eyes, and continued to stare at the now empty Crown Victoria.

When he realized another car was coming up behind him, he drove away.

____________⚡_______________

As he headed back to the indoor shopping mall where he worked, he couldn’t help thinking about the Black and Blue Wasteland.

When Gabriel was growing up as the only male child of Jacob and Sarah Granger’s four progeny, he idolized his older cousin, Michael. At the age of sixteen, Michael was one of the founders of a garage rock band called ‘Angels of Creation.’ Gabriel loved a surreal song written by Michael called The Black and Blue Wasteland.

He remembered asking Michael once where he got the idea for the song. Michael told him, “I dreamed it.” After a contemplative pause, he added, “It’s a bruised expanse.”

For some reason, Gabriel found that funny. They both had a good laugh.

“Wouldn’t it be cool,” seventeen-year-old Michael had asked, “if you could just banish your enemies forever? Just by looking at them...”

Gabriel was only fourteen at the time and he didn’t have any enemies, but he just nodded and agreed with his beloved cousin.

Michael ran away one month before his eighteenth birthday. No one was terribly surprised. Every Granger knew that Michael's father was an abusive alcoholic who constantly harangued Michael. Gabriel also knew that Uncle Joe hit Michael on occasion.

Gabriel always felt certain that Michael would eventually make a triumphant return from either Hollywood or Nashville, having just signed his first recording deal. Either that or he’d end up on The Voice. Gabriel never doubted he would one day see his favorite cousin again.

He often thought of Michael, but he hadn’t thought of that strange song in years.

He kept telling himself that he did not see Alan Jones turn black, then blue, then disappear.

He knew that was exactly what he did see.

____________⚡_______________

A few days later, Gabriel called his sister. He didn’t have to engage in much small talk before Carrie brought up the subject herself. “Have you heard? Guess who turned up missing?”

He should have been dumbfounded by the question but, of course, he wasn’t. Gabriel knew she was talking about Alan Jones. He broke a sweat instead of answering her.

“Alan Jones,” said Carrie. “They found his car in a drive-through at a Burger King, with the engine still running.” Carrie’s tone changed from one of excitement to one of derision: “I don’t know if you know or not, but he shacked up with some slut he met at Kickers.” Lit Kickers was the local singles bar where Carrie met Jones, many years ago. “Well, she was frantic when he didn’t come home.” Carrie sounded excited again as she said, “The police don’t know if he just walked away from his car for some reason or if there was foul play involved.”

For the first time, Gabriel was comfortable injecting something, saying, “We can only hope.”

A silence played out long enough that Gabriel felt compelled to ask, “What?”

“I know how you feel about Alan,” said Carrie. “That’s why I called to tell you. I figured you could use a good laugh.”

“Um, Sis?” He smiled. “I called you.”

“Whatever.”

Gabriel thoroughly enjoyed Carrie’s vengeful glee. He joked, “So, what do you think happened to him? Peruvian hit-men or butt-probing alien abductors?”

Carrie laughed. “Either works for me! As long as he stays gone!”

Gabriel hoped along with her. He didn’t understand how he erased Alan Jones from a Burger King parking lot and he certainly didn’t know if it was permanent or not.

As it turned out, it was as permanent as death.

____________⚡_______________

The next few days, Gabriel obsessed about banishing Jones into the Black and Blue Wasteland.

He wondered if he could do it again.

One morning, as he drove to the Mounds Mall where he was employed at the Verizon store, he nearly eradicated a total stranger. Sitting at an intersection, waiting for the light to change, he saw a man walking down the sidewalk and sang, “🎼🎵 I hereby banish you into—”

No! he thought, cutting himself off. He couldn’t do it to someone he didn’t know (and therefore couldn’t judge.) Alan Jones definitely deserved his punishment. But for all Gabriel knew, this pedestrian was a saint.

The light changed and Gabriel drove on.

Later, at work, he had to stop himself yet again. A customer came into the store who absolutely reeked of body odor. Gabriel was disgusted. He wanted to ask the guy if he’d ever heard of deodorant.

And in his mind, he got as far as, 🎼🎵 I hereby banish you into the Black— before his conscience interrupted him yet again.

All day long, he couldn’t stop wondering if he still had the power to make someone vanish. But he didn’t want to hurt someone who didn’t have it coming.

Finally, as he finished up his shift for Verizon, Gabriel suddenly realized there was someone who deserved a black and blue reckoning.

____________⚡_______________

The next afternoon, Gabriel sat in his car, parked on a tree-lined residential street outside the home of his Uncle John. He weighed the evidence again, carefully giving the condemned man’s case one final review.

His father’s alcoholic brother had been in jail twice because of D.U.I.s, and yet he was still known to endanger the public by driving drunk. He cheated on his wife, Gabriel’s aunt Mary, until she caught him in the act and divorced him. He stole money from Gabriel’s dad. His own mother disowned him, right before Grandma Granger died.

Gabriel’s father called John a ‘pathological narcissist.’

But his worst crime was what he did to his son.

Uncle John was a trucker and, at the time Michael vanished, he was on a long haul out west. That certainly didn’t change the fact, however, that Uncle John drove Michael away.

On more than one occasion, Michael lamented, “My dad hates me.”

Gabriel became increasingly incensed as he reviewed all of John Granger’s many sins.

There would be no clemency for the condemned man.

His heart pounding with righteous rage, Gabriel got out of his car. The federal blue ranch house where his Uncle John now lived with his latest skank had an overgrown lawn thick with dandelions. As Gabriel stalked down a cracked sidewalk up to the front door, he had to avoid a circling bumblebee.

He didn’t know what he’d do if this didn’t work. Maybe he’d spit on his Uncle John, if he wasn’t able to oust him from existence.

A splash of cold fear took the heat off his anger. He knew he could never do that. Gabriel was frightened of his Uncle John. He vividly recalled his father repeatedly telling the story about how John once attacked a man in a bar with a broken beer bottle.

If this didn’t work, Gabriel would beat a hasty retreat.

His anger spiked again as he muttered, “This had better work.” Like Alan Jones before him, Uncle John was someone who deserved banishment.

Gabriel rang the front doorbell.

He wiped sweat off his palms onto his denim pants. His mouth was dry. His armpits were wet.

Gabriel wondered if his Uncle John’s girlfriend would answer the door. If she did, he wasn’t certain what he’d do.

He was having second thoughts and feeling foolish for coming here. Just as his anger was collapsing, destroyed by oncoming embarrassment, the front door opened.

Standing behind the glass storm door was a shirtless, scruffy looking man wearing red sweatpants: Gabriel’s Uncle John.

The moment Gabriel saw him, the righteous fury reignited.

When John saw Gabriel, his face narrowed with suspicion. Without opening the storm door, he asked, “What the hell do you want?”

Glaring at Uncle John with unmasked hatred, Gabriel loudly sang, “🎼🎵 I hereby banish you into the Black and Blue Wasteland!” 🎵

Before Gabriel’s incredulous eyes, his Uncle John’s body— including his red sweatpants— became jet black. It was like looking at a living photographic negative, with the pupils of his gaping eyes appearing bright white.

Just as quickly as he turned black, Uncle John turned blue.

Then he disappeared, with a crashing clap of air.

John Granger had vanished.

Shaken, feeling no sense of triumph this time, Gabriel hurried back to his car and drove away.

____________⚡_______________

Gabriel heard nothing about his Uncle John’s disappearance from anyone in his family. John was so estranged from everyone, no one clued in on the fact he was missing. But Gabriel knew he was gone.

Sometimes he felt guilty about what he did.

Other times, remembering his beloved cousin, he was proud.

____________⚡_______________

A week later, Gabriel was having a really bad day.

It started when he woke up and discovered his cable television had been shut off because he didn’t pay the bill. He knew he was overdue, but he didn’t realize he was in danger of disconnection. He called and argued with a service rep, to no avail. He needed to pay the entire bill, not just the past due amount, and he wouldn’t have that kind of money until his next paycheck.

So, for at least another week, his television would remain dark.

That made him incredibly surly.

Then, on the way into work, he accidentally spilled hot coffee on himself, staining his shirt. He was already running late so he couldn’t go back home to change.

When he arrived at work, his boss gave him grief all morning about the stain. On his lunch break, he walked over to Marshalls to buy a new shirt.

Just after lunch, already in a lousy mood, Gabriel reacted poorly when he saw Ricki Hamilton saunter into his store. He rushed over to her and snapped, “What are you doing here?”

Ricki was Gabriel’s ex-girlfriend, the person he generally referred to as ‘the psychotic bitch-whore from hell.’

Ricki flatly told him, “I need to borrow fifty bucks.”

“What?!?” He couldn’t believe her gall! He hadn’t seen her in three months, not since they broke up. Two weeks after they split up, however, Gabriel believed, “You slashed my tires!” He couldn’t help sounding shrill. “Are you out of your freakin’ mind?”

Ricki’s catty face wore that expression of indignation he recalled so well. She told him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Like hell, you don’t! Two weeks after we broke up someone came over, in the middle of the night, and slashed my tires! Between the towing bill and the new wheels, you cost me two hundred bucks! And you have the audacity to come here and ask for money?!?”

Only one other customer was in the store at the time, a tall Latino buying a cell phone, assisted by Dave, Gabriel’s manager. When the customer glanced over at Gabriel, Dave shot Gabriel an evil glare.

Gabriel knew he was being too loud. He was having trouble controlling his temper.

Ricki retorted, “Whoever it was that slashed your tires, it wasn’t me. Maybe it was your other girlfriend.”

That made him even more incensed. He had no other girlfriend. Ricki’s jealousy was one of many reasons he broke up with her.

She was crazy. By their third date, he realized she was a lunatic. The only reason they continued dating for three more months was because she was also crazy good in bed. Lowering the volume of his voice, he hissed, “I’m not going to discuss this with you, Ricki! I’m working!”

Now she did the other thing he always loathed so much: she shrugged off what he just said as if it were trivial, saying, “Then give me fifty bucks and I’ll go.”

He didn’t intend to do it. It wasn’t premeditated. He acted in anger.

The words were out of his mouth before he ever realized what he was singing, “🎼🎶 I hereby banish you into the Black and Blue Wasteland!” 🎵

He was glaring at her as he sang it, meeting her eyes, and he was only mildly surprised when those eyes turned black, her pupils turning white.

He took a step back as Ricki turned bright blue.

Behind him, Dave squealed a sound that wasn’t exactly a gasp or a shriek.

Ricki disappeared.

Gabriel felt suddenly sick. All his anger was instantly chewed up and swallowed by shame.

Behind him, the customer was screeching, “Did you see that? Did you?!?”

Dave sounded almost like he was choking as he exclaimed, “She disappeared!”

A blush heated his cheeks as Gabriel turned around to look at his boss.

Both Dave and the customer were looking right at Gabriel. He made eye contact first with one, then the other, first Dave, then the stranger.

As before, it happened very quickly.

First, Dave turned black.

Then, as Dave turned blue, the customer turned black.

The customer turned blue as Dave disappeared, with a smacking plop.

The customer then disappeared, with another gushing whack, leaving Gabriel alone in the quiet store.

He gasped, unable to breathe, frightened out of his mind. He didn’t banish Dave and that Latino guy! Why did they disappear?

He shook his head, insisting, “This can’t be happening!”

He looked around the store.

He was undeniably alone.

Gabriel didn’t know what to do!

As he stood there, indecisive, a couple— the man in a business suit, the woman dressed casually— entered the store.

Gabriel looked up and met the woman’s eyes.

“No!” he shouted, still looking at her, as she turned black, then blue.

The man screamed when his companion disappeared— uttering a staccato cry of astonishment— and Gabriel reflexively looked at him. The man turned black, then blue, and then exited reality.

Gabriel had never been so terrified, so rattled, so mindless with horror as he was when he realized he couldn’t shut it off! He assumed he needed to sing the words to effect banishment but now he understood all it took was a look!

Panicking, Gabriel fled the Verizon store, desperate to get away.

The indoor mall was particularly busy today. Everywhere he looked, he saw shoppers.

He caught the eyes of a woman, then (Oh, God, no!) her young curly-headed daughter, sending them both to the Wasteland. When he looked away from them, he met the eyes of a tall black man wearing a Colts jersey, who immediately turned even blacker, before becoming blue, and then winking out of existence.

Other patrons saw these disappearances. Two women screamed. Voices were raised all around him. Somebody behind Gabriel shouted, “Did you see that?!?”

He hurried in the direction of the closest exit, down past Finish Line, Marshalls, the Dr. Tavel Vision Center, Great Clips, and the MCL cafeteria. As usual, several elderly people were seated on benches outside the cafeteria. With just a fleeting glance in that direction, Gabriel caused three septuagenarians to disappear.

At that moment, Gabriel fully understood for the first time that eye contact was required to affect expulsion.

He stopped and looked down at his own feet, sweating, gasping. His pulse throbbed so loud, it was difficult to hear his own thoughts.

He remembered meeting Alan Jones’ eyes, Uncle John’s eyes, Ricki’s eyes. He remembered them all.

“Dear Jesus! Where’d they go?” shrieked some old man. More people were coming out of stores. A large lady exiting the Bath and Body Works loudly exclaimed, “What’s going on? Where’s Molly?!” Other names were shouted. Gabriel barely heard the rising commotion.

Keeping his head lowered, he suddenly lunged like a sprinter out of the starting blocks, setting a brisk pace for the exit.

“Hey!”

He made it safely past two old people outside the MCL. He saw their lower bodies and they didn’t turn black or blue, which was all the confirmation he needed.

“Hey, YOU!”

Eye contact was the key. If he didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, he wouldn’t—

Gabriel was grabbed from behind by somebody strong. He was spun around and, without thinking, he looked up into the eyes of the mall security guard, a burly redheaded man with dark suspicion on his face.

Gabriel watched rosy cheeks and green eyes became black, then blue.

A little group of people had gathered and when the guard vanished, there was a collective scream.

Rattled, harried, Gabriel lost control of himself. He looked at them all, rapidly swinging his gaze from one set of eyes to another, turning slowly in a circle to also look at those standing behind him. A wave of black rolled through the people, followed by a wave of blue, then multiple smacks of air, sounding like people applauding. Finally, there came a wave of silence, caused by vanishing voices.

Over twenty individuals were wiped away in a matter of seconds.

Gabriel ran for the doors.

On the way out of the mall, he met more eyes and discorporated more people.

When he finally made it outside, emerging into the bright afternoon sunshine, he immediately ran into a plump blonde woman, whose hair instantly turned black, then blue.

As the woman disappeared, Gabriel realized she was pushing a baby carriage.

He began to cry, thinking he just orphaned a child.

Gabriel started to move on, to rush to his car, but he hesitated. He couldn’t leave this baby alone, unattended! He didn’t want to send it into the Wasteland, God knew he didn’t, but in this insane situation it seemed like the only humane solution!

When he bent over the carriage to look into the infant’s eyes, the child was sound asleep. Weeping uncontrollably, Gabriel grabbed the baby carriage and gave it a violent shake, shouting, “WAKE UP!”

“Hey!” squealed some female.

Gabriel was focused on the child, who woke up and started to cry. He looked directly into the infant’s eyes, but they were still shut, even as the baby bawled.

“GODDAMN IT! OPEN YOUR EYES!” He gave the carriage another vicious shake.

“What are you doing?!” Abruptly, Gabriel was pushed roughly away from the carriage.

Moments earlier, three females who just arrived at the mall— a mother and her two teenage daughters— piled out of their van just in time to see Gabriel attack the baby carriage. They didn’t see him make the blonde mother disappear. Now, acting as concerned citizens, they confronted Gabriel… and were promptly banished into the Black and Blue Wasteland.

Once they were gone, Gabriel reached inside the carriage and physically pried open the baby’s eyes.

He was touching the child when it turned black. When it turned blue, the baby’s flesh became bitterly cold. Yelping, Gabriel withdrew his hands.

The infant disappeared.

Crying louder, Gabriel hurried on to his car.

He managed to make it to his vehicle without eradicating anyone else.

Getting into his Chevy, he yammered, “I thought it was the words that did it, but that's only part of it!” He realized in each initial incident— Alan Jones, Uncle John, and Ricki— he had looked upon all of them with hatred in his eyes. “And now I can’t shut it off!”

At the same time he thought, Loathing eyes are the gateway to the Wasteland!, he glanced up into his rear-view mirror.

As he turned black before his own gaze, he realized his fatal error. Looking into the mirror was a spontaneous act.

When he turned blue, he experienced a terrible chill.

Disappearing— having his molecules ripped apart— was the most painful experience imaginable.

What came next was even worse.

____________⚡_______________

“There he is!” someone shouted.

Gabriel knew he was in danger, even before he saw the mob.

Anger was eternal in this place. He could feel it.

He stood up and looked around.

The sky above the Black and Blue Wasteland was actually purple— one great, vast, heavenly contusion. He could see stars up there, billions and billions of stars, suspended in a violet void of deep space. There was also a sun above him, slightly larger than normal, set at high noon— a big, black ball of energy with a blue corona. Blackened heat beams created a desert swelter that topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit. An ocean of deep blue sand corrugated the landscape in every direction, as far as the eye could see. Tall dunes were still being formed and reformed by swift, arid winds.

The illumination here was somehow purposeful— a harsh, vindictive glare. And yet, despite the bizarre quality of the atmosphere, Gabriel could clearly see (nothing but sand) for miles and miles.

He looked down at himself, a human being painted in two colors, black and blue, with a few subtle shades in between. His flesh was black, and his clothes were blue. He had blue hair and blue fingernails.

The heat was stifling.

“GET HIM!”

Gabriel turned and his heart stuttered when he saw the approaching mob racing down the side of a distant sand dune.

Dave Hendricks was out in front, Gabriel’s former boss at Verizon, now dressed in a black and blue suit. Right behind him were the woman and her two teenage daughters, the three would-be saviors of the baby in the carriage. A quick scan of the crowd— the Colts fan; the redheaded security guard (now blue-headed); the couple who came into the store— and Gabriel spotted the chubby blonde woman who mothered the infant. She was carrying her child now, since her baby carriage was still back on Earth.

Uncle John charged toward him with frightening speed, roaring, “KILL THE BASTARD!”

Alan Jones echoed the sentiment, screaming, “RIP ‘IM APART!”

Drenched in the sweat of total terror, Gabriel fled.

His ex-girlfriend Ricki shrieked like a banshee, “DON’T LET HIM GET AWAY!”

Moving was difficult in this sticky heat and these shifting sands. Twice Gabriel lost his footing and fell to his knees. As he ran for his life, he realized that there were no trees here, no rocks, no footprints from other beings.

This blue desert was pristine, a truly barren wasteland.

The shouts of his pursuers grew gradually more distant, and Gabriel dared to hope he was getting away. Still, he called up one final burst of energy and ran even faster, climbing a steep hill of blue grit.

When he finally crested the sand-mountain, it immediately dropped away on the other side. Gabriel lost his footing, fell on his butt, and plummeted pell-mell down the slope, into a deep valley. At the end of his helter-skelter slide, his body began tumbling end over end. Blue sand slam-blasted his eyes, nose, and mouth.

Finally, Gabriel rolled to a stop.

Not far away, some freakish woman screamed, “Dibs on his eyes! I want his EYES!”

Sitting up, coughing sand, his eyes stinging with terrible pain— he was almost willing to give them up.

A man yelled, “You did this to us, you devil! You goddamn demon from Hell!”

Gabriel had enough sense to brush off his arm before using his sleeve to repeatedly wipe his face. After more pain and a great deal of tears, he was able to clear his eyes of sand.

He looked up, expecting to see the rabble approaching, ready to pounce on him, hungry for vengeance.

Instead, he saw a black and blue ghost.

Even here, under the furious dazzle of the purple sky, he recognized his cousin. Michael hadn’t aged a bit! He looked exactly as Gabriel remembered him (except his pale pink flesh was now black, and his long brown hair was now blue).

Following Michael was his own mob and right out front was someone Gabriel recognized: Ezekiel Underwood, the lead guitarist of Angels of Creation, Michael’s old rock band. Ezekiel was still wearing his letterman jacket from Southwood High School (now black and blue, instead of the traditional red and gray.)

Gabriel suddenly remembered that Zeke also went missing, just days before Michael’s disappearance. He also recalled how Michael and Ezekiel were always squabbling. Both teenagers had big egos, and they both were perfectionists about their music. But Zeke always had the edge when they argued, just by virtue of having a calmness that came from having a loving family life. Michael, on the other hand was always suffering Uncle John’s abuses and he had a lot of bottled-up rage just waiting to be displaced. Too often he aimed his anger at Zeke.

Gabriel was horrified to realize that Zeke must have been the very first person to be ostracized to this godforsaken realm. After practice in Ezekiel’s garage, the other band members would often leave while Gabriel and Ezekiel continued their seemingly incessant squabbling.

One night many years ago, Michael— an Angel of Creation— had looked upon his fellow Angel with loathing and had intentionally sung the words that would banish Ezekiel to this waterless Wasteland. Then, by accident (or other acts of willful intent), Michael erased more of his enemies from the real world… before falling himself into the trap set by seeing his own reflected gaze.

Michael created this hateful place… and then fell prey to it.

Gabriel felt like he might vomit. Clutching his gut, he moaned, “Oh, Michael, no!”

His older cousin (who was now his younger cousin because he was clearly stuck at the age of seventeen) somehow heard Gabriel, even though he was easily two hundred yards away. Gabriel realized that the dry wind was gusting so fast that it should be howling, and yet it was making absolutely no sound.

Michael stopped running, looked in Gabriel’s direction, and immediately saw him. “Gabe?”

Michael’s hesitation cost him his life.

The murderous mob fell on him.

Gabriel was stunned by the savagery he witnessed. The people attacking Michael were like raging beasts. Michael’s face was repeatedly clawed. Black flesh bled glowing-blue blood. His blue hair was ripped out in chunks. In seconds, his blue clothes were torn off his black body. A berserk woman shrieked, “EYES! HIS EYES! I’VE GOT DIBS ON HIS EYES!” She lunged for his face, gouging at his optical sockets with long, blue fingernails. Several people held Michael’s body while another group grabbed his limbs. When Gabriel heard bones snapping, he looked away, sobbing uncontrollably.

Michael Granger screamed and screamed and screamed until his throat was torn out.

For a while, the mob continued to growl and slaver and snarl like a shrewdness of rabid apes.

Finally, the crowd left behind the blue-bloody pieces of Michael and shambled away, splitting apart, going off in different directions. The brisk wind was already silently erasing their footprints in the sand.

Barely aware of what he was doing, Gabriel ran over to the remains of his beloved cousin.

Black body parts and blue blood melted into the sand, quickly dissolving. In seconds, every trace of Michael was gone.

“THERE HE IS!”

Turning around, Gabriel saw his own mob had found him. The rabble raced toward him, led by the rapist, his pathological uncle, and the psychotic whore-bitch from hell.

He turned to run away… only to have his ankle grabbed.

Gabriel shrieked.

He looked down and saw Michael pulling himself out of the sand dune. Gabriel’s cousin looked up at him with deranged blue eyes.

Gabriel realized Michael had changed. He was clearly seventeen, frozen forever at exactly the age he was when he last stood on Earth, but his eyes looked older. His eyes looked ancient, like he had been in this Wasteland for an eternity.

Gabriel looked back at the mob that he had created and when he caught the gaze of his evil Uncle John, his horror was confirmed. John was also older than when Gabriel banished him, infinitely older.

The aging was most especially ghastly in the curly-headed girl from the mall. She was barely four feet tall, clearly only nine, maybe ten years old, but her eyes were that of an old crone.

Time passed differently here in the Wasteland. While Gabriel was only minutes behind his last victims, they had all been waiting on him for thousands of years, their rage and madness growing as they longed for revenge…

Michael climbed up Gabriel’s body, dragging himself to his feet, squalling, “We can’t die here, cousin! They’ve been chasing me forever!”

“THERE HE IS!” came an enraged voice.

Gabriel looked over Michael’s shoulder and saw his cousin’s mob had reassembled. Led again by Ezekiel Underwood, they rushed en masse toward Michael.

Michael looked behind Gabriel and exclaimed, “You brought dad!” He cackled like the bedlamite he’d become. “You brought dad!” Michael laughed and laughed and then abruptly stopped laughing, and said with some of the old meanness, “I would have banished him myself if I had the chance!” Gabriel saw the hatred in Michael’s eyes, and he was stupefied by how ugly it was.

Michael lovingly embraced Gabriel, cooing, “Oh, sweet Gabe! You were always so good to me!”

The cousins were quickly surrounded.

Two mobs converged and moved in for the kill.

For Gabriel and Michael Granger, Hell was an eternal Black and Blue Wasteland under an angry purple sky.

If you enjoyed that horror show ☝ ... check out this more mundane tale of murder! 👇 It actually might be good for a laugh or two. 🤣🤣

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