THE DEVIL’S PLAYTHINGS
Published by Nicholas Kee
Copyright 2014 Nicholas Kee
Thank you for checking out my short story. Feel free to drop me a line, contact info is at the end of the story. All spelling and grammar errors were left in the book on purpose. I know I will have more feedback if I have errors (My evil plan mwahaha) I’m also a starving writer so I can’t afford an editor! Please feel free to review the book.
Chapter 1
The day the rapture came was the day the devil came to play with us, the poor souls left behind. I still remember the day it happened. I was sleeping at my apartment when the sounds of millions of trumpets announced the departure of the heaven bound, followed by the slamming of thousands of suddenly empty cars and trucks crashing into buildings, cars and yes people. Then the wailing of us, the hopeless as we realized all the stories were true and we were screwed.
I could hear the screams of injured people outside so I ran outside to see if I could help. Barging through the faded green front door I looked upon utter chaos. The sky was blood red but not a cloud was in the air. People were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I witnessed looters running rampant, smashing windows and taking as they please.
I ducked out of reflex as a jumbo jet screamed over head and smashed into one of the skyscrapers with a huge explosion. I was slapped by the shockwave and toasted by the heat that followed. Injured people cried out in pain and the bodies…so many bodies strewn across the ground. The smell hit me next, human urine and excrement, from bodies voiding. I gagged several times as I gazed in horror. Looking to my right I could see numerous car accidents and fires as well as explosions booming off in the distance.
I turned to my left to see a woman pulling herself out of the window of a wrecked car that had been t-boned by a driverless truck, the skin on her legs peeling off like cheese being run over a grater as the sharp glass caught it. She fell to the ground and pulled herself up and ran to the passenger side of the car and pulled a girl of about 10 years old out of the wreckage. She started to scream for help. I ran to the woman to see if I could help. Blood pulsed from a large gash in the girl’s thigh, with every gush of blood her skin turned grayer as the sidewalk turned crimson in awful designs. I applied pressure to the injury and looked around for help, but none was coming, it was every man for himself.
I held them both mom and daughter as the girl slipped into unconsciousness. Her eyes gently closed, her breathing slowed and she gasped once and stopped breathing, a lifeless ivory doll tossed aside. The mother wailed like a broken siren and ran madly into the surrounding chaos and disappeared into the smoke. I never did find out their names.
I sat in stunned silence before walking slowly back into the apartment, closed and locked the faded door. I sat on my floor for a while sobbing and listening to the chaos while trying to wipe the blood off my hands. I don’t know how long I sat there before inspiration struck me that I needed protection from looters and other unsavory characters so I walked into my tiny backyard and started to tear the wooden fence down. With a hammer and some nails I boarded up the windows and barricaded the doors.
I felt pretty secure since I transformed my apartment into a mini fort and I had some weapons, martial arts training, and some supplies. Weapons included a couple guns, some knifes and a katana. I filled up my bathtub with as much water as it could hold, just in case the water supply stopped. I don’t know how long I stayed in my apartment just trying to shut out the chaos before the earth shook and it sounded like the world was being torn apart.
Not long after the earth stopped shaking everything with a reflective surface (TVs, mirrors, puddles) flashed to life with his huge horned head staring straight at you. He was huge; his feet were cloven hoofs his body was a dark red and covered in thick black hair. He was also nude except for a loincloth the better to show his bodybuilder’s type physique. His voice sounded like boulders churning in a whirlpool, deep and sinister.
He told us all to abandon hope, God and his son were gone and it was his time to rule the earth and her people. The thing that was the worst though was his announcement that there would be games for his pleasure. The lucky contestants whose names were picked, would play a new version of hide and seek.
He called it Soulless. The contestants had to evade a demon that was hunting them, and they had to evade it for 24 hours. If anyone was alive after the limit they were free to live without ever fearing being called to play again. He ended his broadcast with the ominous words “welcome to my playground.” After his words every reflective surface went dark again but only for a while.
It was the next day when he broadcast again. “Hello playthings, today is the lottery for the first ever game of soulless! If your name is called remain in your home, one of my minions will be picking you up shortly.” He then picked up a black bowl and reached his arm into the bowl up to his elbow, which seemed crazy as the bowl was only about a foot tall and Lucifer had to be about 12 feet tall.
He pulled out a scrap of paper and read a name. He continued reading names until there were 20 contestants, a mixed group of men and women 10 for each gender. The poor souls called to play were from all parts of the world. One by one they appeared on stage as if by magic, a small ugly creature holding each of them by the elbow. After the last contestant appeared on stage, Lucifer looked upon the group of wretched souls and smiled an over sized toothy smile. His fangs looked like they belonged to a saber tooth lion, however they did match the over sized horns upon his head.
“Welcome to the playground my little playthings heh heh heh. As you can tell we walled off a large section of Las Vegas. You will be given 4 hours to find a good hiding place. After four hours I will send my demon, Deathclaw to find you and eat your souls. He pointed up to the sky above the arena. There floating in the sky was a big digital sign that read 24:00 on it. You must survive 24 hours to gain your freedom. There are no rules other than to do whatever it takes to survive. Now go, playthings scurry and hide.”
The big floating timer began counting down. The view panned out showing a giant gate King Kong would disapprove of and beyond, the arena. The gate opened and most of the ragged group ran or walked through the gates. A few people approached the devil and pleaded and when he just sat and smiled they wailed to their Gods and begged for salvation. After about an hour Lucifer lost his patience and started grabbing the poor souls 2 at a time and tossing them through the gate, those big muscles were not just for show. After the last man was tossed through the gates closed with a final an ominous “Boom” that echoed through the empty arena.
The screen on my TV went black after that. I’m not usually the praying type but I tried to pray for those poor souls. A few hours later the TV blasted to life with a roar and there standing in front of the gates was the ugliest looking evil creature I had ever seen. Its head looked like a misshapen, brown potato with leathery looking pointed ears that swiveled back and forth like an alert dog. The brow was large, its black eyes set close together, and the creature had no nose just two holes flat in its face. Its mouth and jaw like a piranha’s that would clack ominously at random times. Its body was that same potato brown color as the head. Thick muscles bunched here and there, waiting to be unleashed.
Its arms hung below its knees like an ape. Unlike an ape the hands ended in long claws that looked capable of knocking off a bears head with one swipe. The feet also ended in long black claws. Lucifer came up and gave his prized pet a pat upon the head, it ignored him while sniffing deeply towards the fence. The fence went transparent and the few people who stood by the fence went running and screaming. The devil restrained the beast as it howled and tried to chase the contestants.
Once the people had fled from site the fence opened and Lucifer released his pet. The beast went flying through the gates its clawed feet kicking up clods of dirt as it went. The view on my TV stayed a bit behind and above the demon as it hunted the contestants. It wasn’t long before the demon found its first victim. The overweight elderly man was panting raggedly while he ran as hard as he could.
The poor man saw the beast coming up behind him and he started to moan as he ran. The demon easily caught up to him and picked him up its claws digging into his sides. At that instant the view cut out but you could hear the man’s screams and wet slurping noises. The sounds were horrifying and they froze my blood. The screams cut out with suddenness but the slurping sounds continued for a few minutes longer, then they too stopped. The view started again the man’s body looked shrunken and shriveled, empty of life and soul.
The Demon sniffed the air and ran off on the hunt again. Throughout the day and night the process would repeat itself. The demon would catch a person, the view would blacken, and the screams would begin and end. The view would come back to life and the beast would continue again leaving an empty human shell in its wake. Before the 24 hours ended the demon had finished all of the contestants. Lucifer appeared on screen again and with a toothy grin said “No winners today, tune in next week!” The view faded to black again. That was the first ever game of Soulless. God save us…..please?