The Death Artist

He was a beautiful kid that Eugene,a beautiful kid. He had a smile that would just light you up...and he almost made it through childhood with his normal mindset,but normal wouldn't be a feature of Eugene's life.His dance with the devil started when he was seven.That's when something bad happened to Eugene,something that ended his fairytale world and cracked his mind in a few places. Eugene's sister was born. He was fourteen when the second disaster of his life hit him right in the face. Eugene got acne....and as simple as that,the final strand of his tenuous connection to reality was severed.

A sense of complete freedom washed over him. His delusional mind immediately erased the possibility that he could be wrong about anything. He felt as though a five inch thick wall of glass had formed around him, insulating him; A vague swirling wall that filtered out the ugly world and it's denizens...except in school...

One day in English lit,Eugene's teacher used the word"Saucy"in a book review she was reading.The class roared with laughter and adopted the word;It was used as an insult of the highest order. Eugene, with his dark obtuse presence,embodied the word and so it stuck.Mr Saucy would follow him the rest of his life...if he let it.

By the time Eugene graduated from high school,his own perfect reality was gathering in his mind.He refused to even consider any form of higher education.He was light years ahead of his classmates in terms of understanding.He was a leader,they were sheep,that fact was self evident...in his mind.The world however, did not reflect Eugene's superman self image.The only job he could find was as a dish washer at a Mexican restaurant near his home.His boss laughed when he heard Eugene's nick name,he was thinking how cool it would be to use"Mr Saucy"as his restaurants new advertising logo.

Then came the big event.Eugene's town sponsored a very popular basketball team.His boss always advertised at their games and the biggest game of the season was that night.He needed someone to attend wearing the restaurants new packet of salsa costume.It would be a great time to bring out the new costume he'd ordered.Eugene needed the extra pay and,after all,no one would know it was him in there anyway...so he volunteered.

When Eugene arrived at the civic center that night,his boss was waiting with a Huge blue bag containing the new costume.He was in a hurry so he rushed Eugene into it and zipped the rear entrance shut.Eugene never did get a look at the outside,let alone the front.He was now a packet of salsa with a perforated screen for vision.Only his arms and legs stuck out of the big white packet.On the front of the costume,in big red letters,was the restaurants new logo..."Mr Saucy".

As Eugene circulated through the crowd he heard taunting and laughter.His paranoia kicked in and convinced him it was the same humiliation he'd endured when he walked down the halls of his high school.It was every bit as hateful as he'd endured in those halls.He heard every demeaning insult he'd heard in school from these Strangers...and they said it with a smile.Eugene saw it for what it was,an assault on his inner child,his dignity,his life.At that moment,he saw himself for the first time...a lone palm tree...on a tiny island...surrounded by an ocean of anxiety...he could hear the tiny fading voice of little Eugene past...lost in the darkness...engulfed in that ocean of anxiety. Out of desperation he retreated to the men's room to gather himself and escape these crazy evil people.

Eugene's hallucinations held complete sway over him as he entered the center's public restroom.Even there the occupants flooded him with their light hearted insults,all in the name of fun of course.Eugene perceived it quite differently.This final wisp of delusion joined all the others and the last small bubble of sanity burst...then his thinking adjusted to Crystal clarity as His reality[the perfect one]kicked in..

He was struck by an epiphany...No one could possibly identify him while inside the costume.He smiled as he pulled his right arm back into the costume and unleashed the 9 millimeter he'd taken to carrying...The gun was inside his costume,where no one could see it...and since he was the 'never do wrong' hero in his reality,he saw nothing immoral about eliminating a few of these low life's...and at this point,everyone was a low life to Eugene. He relaxed and made a game of it,dancing and posing and acting silly,all the while selecting his first victim...who he promptly shot in the face...producing a cloud of red mist.The crowd was stunned.He shot the second one in the back of the head,for a balanced effect;It appealed to the artist in him.That's when the crowd finally panicked and ran.Eugene pretended to panic and ran along with them,giggling like a young boy all the while..He was hidden and safe,and felt more alive than he had since...Well,since he was seven years old.

Eugene walked along the corridors of the civic center selecting his targets as he went.Then,as he loaded his spare clip,he thought about how angry his boss would get when he saw the nine bullet holes he'd made in the new costume.Eugene smiled again...there would soon be nine more.A fragment of a memory floated into Eugene's delusional mind and hung there like a small black cloud.He saw his next confabulation in that cloud and found his way to a row of seats his high school classmates used to sit in.Almost as though time had slipped,there they were...a little older...a little richer...and still low life's.Eugene went into his act,posing and dancing in front of them.His smile dissolved into a thin line as he put their deaths in order.Who would die first,second,and so on.This,after all,would be his first piece of death art...or sculpture.He felt a sense of purpose in it...whatever it was.Then he saw her,at the very center...Audry,the girl of his dreams,the girl who rejected him,The girl who humiliated him,the girl who...This was perfect...and what a coincidence,nine of them,nine bullets.He would be sure and aim true.

Without further adieu Eugene shot the guys at either end in the stomach, he wanted them to die slowly.He wanted sound effects while he worked...and their body's blocked escape so the rest couldn't run away and spoil the first poetic vision of what he now knew would be his life's work.Eugene took careful aim,shooting each in a slow death part of their body as he worked his way toward the center...where beautiful terrified Audry awaited her fate.

With the chorus of moans and screams from her dieing friends as background,Eugene finally reached that center.He wanted the irony of shooting sweet Audry in her heart...revenge for destroying his.He could still feel the pull of her beauty as they locked eyes through his viewing screen.A smile split his face when he saw the dawning of recognition in her eyes.She opened her mouth in a silent scream and his smile became a grin...he fired....and strolled away to who knows where.

Eugene found his niche in life,his first time was a blood bath from beginning to end.His"Butterfly effect"had completed it's cycle and all was calm again.It had produced a death artist of the highest caliber.

Over time,the massacre faded from public view as these things tend to do.The crime was never solved;No identity,no clue who could have done such a thing.Occasionally,we hear about spree killings in various places,killings with no rhyme or reason.Killings that remain as mysterious and anonymous as they are senseless.Some however,are clearly the work of people with a knack for what they do;People who've found their calling in life and pursued it.Planning,organizing,and executing people en mass as an art form,people even the devil respects.

When I was a boy,my father always said"Find something you love to do,do it with all your heart,and the rewards will follow"...that bit of sage advise has been handed down father to son for generations.

I honestly cant recall if I ever passed it on to Eugene.

Sure hope not.

... ...feed your head...

Please Rate...I have a fragile ego :)