the cutter

He had the old razor resting in his hand. The tip stained a rusty brown color from all of the previous times it sliced his wrist. Each cut as deep as the last evenly spaced up and down both of his arms. His reflection shone back at him from the blade; saw his bald head, eyes that were completely black, and the scar that went from his chin to just below his nose. That was the only scar on his body that was not done by his hands. That scar was the one that started it all, which made him finally snap.

Just after his mother died, his girlfriends, brother confronted him in school. After the death of his mother he would only go by his middle name, David. He felt it showed weakness and his sister needed someone strong. The bell to leave finally rang and he was tackled as he walked toward his bus. Her brother kneeled on top of his chest, knocking the wind out of him, with a sharp, hooked blade. David didn’t say a word or move an inch as the cold steel went into his upper lip then yanked down past his bottom lip until both were parted. Her brother walked away laughing. He lay on the cold tile of the hallway as crowds of students rushed past him. He looked into his loves’ eyes and reached for her ankle as she walked by. She looked down on him with pity, kissed his bloody lips and waved good bye as if it was the last time she would ever see him again. The only reason she did not help him up was because she was afraid it would embarrass him even more.

He was a senior whose grades were not all that great any way so he dropped out that day. He was not ashamed that the boy who cut him was two years younger then him. He saw it as a wake up call to leave. That day since he missed the bus he decided to walk to a local thrift shop. He had ten dollars in his pocket as he walked into the small store. At the back of the store they had antique books on sale. A faded red leather one with no title caught his eye. He opened it in an attempt to see the title but instead all that he saw was a blank white page with the center cut out. In the cavity there was an old straight razor, its handle was blood red with a silver skull on the center. The eyes of the skull were made of onyx. He turned the book over slightly so that the razor would fall into the open palm of his right hand. It went from his hand into his pocket in the blink of an eye. He then grazed through the various clothing items until he found a black shirt that had a flaming skull in the center of the chest. He brought the shirt up to the sales counter and paid the two dollars for it then headed for home.

When he finally got home, he saw his father passed out in the musky old recliner that sat in the living room. The television had the volume turned up a little louder then usual with a basketball game on. On the coffee table sat his fathers pain pills that he had to start taking when he broke his hand at a shoe factory he worked at before he lost his wife to cancer. He was depressed about his recent loss and hardly paid attention to what he did any more. He set his hand down on a conveyor belt after it turned on and from the tips of his fingers to his wrist got stuck. The damage wasn’t that bad but he pretended it did so that he could keep getting the pills. He became addicted, not to the pills, but to the numbness and darkness the pills brought. He thirsted for it like a man in the desert thirsts for water. It drowned out the pain he felt for his dead wife. The most he ever took were four pills at a time with half a pint of vodka. It ensured him a dreamless slumber every night.

David turned the television off and headed toward his room. He thought he heard his father waking up but it was just his imagination. He closed and locked his door behind him as he moved toward his bed. Before he sat, he caressed the old razor in his pocket. He sat with his back against the wall as he pulled the razor from his pocket. It looked brand new although the small imprint read nineteen hundred. He opened the razor and saw that it was mirror polished. He pulled up the sleeve of his left arm then dragged the blade across the tight skin. A thin red line appeared on his arm. He expected that but what happened next was what shook him. The blood flowed out rapidly and he feared that he might die. In an instant the blood stopped and turned black his ears started ringing. He blacked out. Without realizing it he had just released a demon that hadn’t been around for at least fifteen years.

While he slumbered, the beast took over, transforming his body so that it resembled its true form. In place of his head a skull with spikes appeared, his arms were turned thin and claws came from where his fingers were supposed to be. The beast opened up the window and ran toward his girlfriend’s house. When it got to her two story house it jumped up onto the roof. The first room that came into view was her parents’ room. It had been over a decade since the last time he was able to torment humans through their thoughts. He would search through their minds looking for the way that they wanted to die least then magnify it by a thousand.

With a swift kick he shattered the window and ran in. The noise had awoken her father and the man ran toward the beast. He stopped short when he felt his eyeballs swell and then they popped. He fell to the hardwood floor and felt his heart ripped from his chest. The pain was excruciating and he fell asleep. In reality all that happened was he tripped and bumped his head on the floor. Her mother tried hiding under the blankets but the beast wouldn’t allow it. It shredded through the blankets and her bare stomach. The cut was so deep that her intestines fell out. It pulled them out and hung her from the ceiling fan. She had bumped her head against the headboard and fell asleep. The beast rammed the door down and laughed at the sight of a large German shepherd running at him. When the dog got close enough the beast brought both of its skeletal hands together crushing the dogs head. It killed the dog and advanced into her brothers’ room. He sat at his computer desk with his pants around his ankles while he pleased himself to two women showering together. Noise canceling head phones were over his ears so he didn’t hear the beast creep up behind him. It transformed one of its fingers into a bone machete. He brought it down hard splitting the boys’ head. It peeled the two pieces apart causing blood to spray the room. The beast put some of the blood onto its index finger and painted a smile on its skull.

Even though that really killed the boy his parents’ would find him lying down with traces of vomit around his mouth. They would then assume that he choked on it and died. The final room the beast entered was hers. It had Beth painted in pink letters across the top. She wasn’t hiding, just sitting on the edge of her bed. At the sight of the beast she screamed. It brought a single finger over its lipless mouth to signal that she needed to be quiet. The beasts’ mouth creaked open and in a raspy voice said, “He loved you. All that he had to look forward was you. He tried killing himself tonight but instead he woke me from my long slumber. Let him know if you want to. Except for your brother the rest of your family will be fine. I killed him and psychologically scarred your parents. By morning they won’t remember a thing and will find your brother dead of natural causes.”

After that the beast jumped from her open window and headed back to David’s house. He woke up covered in blood with his clothes tattered. He had no recollection of the night before but had the sudden urge to see his girlfriend at school. His alarm clock read five-thirty so he washed the blood off, got into fresh clothes and started walking to the school with a classic rock station playing on his walkman. When he left his father was still asleep in his recliner. He knew she would arrive at seven o’clock on the dot so he had plenty of time. He sat down in her spot and ignored the cars that zoomed past along with the looks people gave him. She saw him as she was pulling in and stopped her white pick-up truck in front of her normal spot to let him in.

The day before she was going to ask him to help her paint the truck different color was when her brother pulled his stunt. She realized that what happened the night before wasn’t just a nightmare when she saw her mother crying over her dead little brother. She didn’t miss the little tyrant and was still unsure about what the beast said about David trying to kill him self. There was no visible bruising on his neck; he would never touch pills because of his fathers’ addiction so he must have cut. She couldn’t tell because he wore a hooded sweatshirt. What she could see was that instead of the normal storm-cloud grey that his eyes normally were they were entirely black with dark bags under them. She didn’t tell him about the night before, just held him tightly. She decided to skip that day to be with him. He closed the door and they drove off. They had a lot of catching up to do because communication had stopped when his mother died. She wanted to talk to him but was nervous because he had changed a lot since the death of his mother. Her eyes stayed on the road while his stayed on her. He started the conversation, “I love you Beth. Your brother hurt me that day.”

They were stopped at a red light so she put her hand on the back of his fresh buzz-cut and kissed him. She always loved the contrast between her light blond hair to his jet black hair and storm-cloud grey ones. She was sad that she wasn’t able to see them anymore. “I love you too, David. Someday my name will be changed from Ryan to Hartford. I know that he did and not just physically. He died last night. He caught a stomach bug and choked on is own vomit. I don’t miss the little prick.” The two had been going out since freshman year and her little brother had always tried to break them up. He wanted Beth to go out with one of his friends not caring that the two were truly in love. It never bothered David much because he knew that Beth was the one for him. “So you still want to get married after high school? I wasn’t even sure if you still loved me. That’s good to know about him. He was more of an annoyance then anything else. When he cut me, the pain was more then just physical. I felt worthless, like a piece of shit. In all honesty I wanted my mother. That day I went to a small thrift store and stole an old razor. When I got home, I tried cutting but fainted at the sight of my blood.”

She held him tightly while they just sat there in an abandoned parking lot for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, the beast inside of him observed ongoing life on the outside of the truck. Dozens of people walked past the truck not caring about anything. Most of them were strung out of their minds on drugs. It remembered how easy it was to alter the minds of people who were high. It enjoyed torturing them, making them scream out at pain that wasn’t there and shed tears. It has lived for well more than a hundred years possessing those who used his razor. He was trapped inside of it on the first day of the year nineteen hundred. Although he could hurt people physically, he preferred raping their minds, searching for the worst way the victim would want to die. The couple cuddled with Beth’s head resting on David’s shoulder. Her eyes were closed but his weren’t as he watched four boys mug a little girl. The boys looked like they were around ten or eleven and the girl looked six or seven. They stole the dollar in change that she had and walked away with smug looks across their grimy faces. David memorized every single one of the faces. The largest of them had a baseball bat the swung loosely in his hand.

The girl sat on the sidewalk with her head buried in her hands. He shook Beth awake so that he could go comfort the little girl. He stepped out of the truck and walked up to her. His shadow went over her and she looked up. He handed her a ten-dollar bill and her swollen eyes lit up. She said thank you to him and started to walk away. He stopped her and gave her a hug. They sat in the truck until the sun went down. She drove him home and gave him a light kiss. Her fingers rubbed his head while he ran his through her long silky blonde hair. They kissed once more, this time more passionately, slipping each other their tongues. He got out of the truck and waved goodbye as she drove on down the road.

He came home to his father in the same state that he left him in. The television was off and the sound of his fathers’ shallow breathing filled the room. The bottle of pills that was full when he left was now down to three-quarters of the way full now. He sighed as he walked past his sleeping father. He wished that he could have at least one night where he could sit down and talk face to face with his father. He went back into his room and made sure that the door was locked. The beast inside called him to the razor. It was hungry for the fear of humans. It put the thought of the little girl into his head and made him feel guilty for not stepping in. The razor was already in his hand so he made a quick slice hoping to stay awake long enough to feel the pain but the second the blade left his flesh the beast was out.

The beast jumped out of the window with the scent of the cowards still in its nostrils. That night it got lucky, the four punks were hanging out in an alleyway with their latest prize, an old woman’s purse. She was stubborn at first but was persuaded when the large boys’ bat came down on her hip. They left her lying on the sidewalk laughing with big grins on their faces. Little did they know that night was their last. They were huddled next to a dumpster dividing the money that was in the wallet. Silent as a mouse the beast crept up behind the young boys. The boy who held the bat was the first to see the beast. He wasn’t able to say anything because the beast was already deep inside of his mind looking for his worst fear.

The beast laughed at what he was about to do. The boy had a deep fear of insects, mainly roaches, maggots and worms. He lifted the bat but dropped it when he saw worms crawling under the skin on his arms. He tried to scream but instead when he opened his mouth roaches crawled out of it and his nose. Then his fingernails fell off and maggots crawled out. He fell to his knees and began crying. The other boys just saw him choking and falling to the ground. They weren’t able to turn around because barbed wire nooses came from the fire escape above their heads and pulled them up. Their bodies spontaneously combusted and all that was left were charred skeletons. The police would later find all of the boys’ dead of heart attacks in the bottom of the dumpster. The beast left the boys alone and slipped back into David’s room.

It went back into its razor and let David sleep. David woke up and ordered a small sausage and mushroom pizza. He then went into the living room surprised to see that his father was up and moving. It had been a long time since he had even seen his father conscious. He gave his a father a hug. The hug felt odd somehow, like hugging a corpse. His father had a glazed look on his face and a bottle in his hand. David became worried but wasn’t surprised when his father picked up a full bottle of pills and swallowed them with a swig of vodka. The bottle dropped from his hand, he clutched at his chest and then he fell to the floor. David called for an ambulance even though he knew by the time they got there his father would be dead.

The paramedics showed up before the pizza but David didn’t leave with them. He stayed home and watched television while he waited for the pizza. When the pizza finally came he paid the money and set it in the fridge. He slept in his fathers’ old musky recliner that night. The next few weeks were a blur to him but he knew that he cut at least twice a day. The beast was having the most fun it had ever had in its entire lifetime. Dozens of people had lost their lives and countless others had gone insane.

Beth tried to be there for David when his father died but couldn’t because he had isolated himself and wouldn’t answer his phone. One day she was finally able to get a hold of him. He was completely out of it and didn’t seem to recognize her. He was silent until she said there was another boy that she was involved with. A friend of a friend that gave her the attention that she needed. He didn’t cry when his father died but he turned into a waterfall when she told him that they were over. She gave him one last kiss and held him tight. She left him alone even though she knew he’d probably kill himself. She regretted letting him go the instant she walked out of his apartment. She had forgotten the night that her brother died, not thinking that instead of David dying that night it would be her.

That night David truly wanted to die. He grabbed the razor and cut straight from the palm of his hand down to his elbow. Before the beast took over, he saw that he had missed where he hoped to cut. The beast knew exactly where to find Beth. It got into her house and slit both of her parents’ throats. It then ran into her room and smashed its rock hard hand across her face. It said, “After the death of his father you were all that he had left. He loved you but you didn’t care. You found yourself a new love and left him alone. Tonight he almost succeeded in killing himself but tonight you are the one who is going to die.” With that hooked chains came out of the wall and floor. Two of the hooks went into each of her feet, two for her hands and one through her bottom jaw. The chains pulled tighter and tighter until her body was ripped to shreds. The beast put her back together and asked her,

“Do you know how badly you hurt him?”

“Yes I do. I still love him. Things just will not work though. The next time you kill me make sure it is quick and that I actually die.”

It grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her out of the window. She landed head first onto a tree stump. The fall shattered her skull granting her peace. The beast took his time to go back to David’s house. Now that David had nothing, the beast would make him aware that it was inside of him.

When it got back, it woke David and forced him to go into the bathroom. The razor was in his pocket. On the way there his hair had fallen out and his eyes had gotten even darker. He was shocked when he looked into the mirror for the first time in a while to see his eyes weren’t there but only shiny black pools. He saw the beast standing next to him in the mirror. It started to talk first,

“You are all alone now. I killed your girlfriend; your father killed himself and all the scum bags that you ever wanted dead are. If you kill yourself, I get freed for good to torment the wicked.”

“I wanted that to happen the last time. If you get rid of the bad then ill do it after I eat.”

‘I can’t kill the innocent.”

“Then we have a deal.”

The beast smiled and went back into his razor while David ate the cold pizza. He ate it fast and drank the rest of his dads’ vodka. It was the first time he had ever drank but he knew at that moment why he had never touched the stuff. It burned like acid and did not sit well with the pizza. He threw it up but felt the alcohol start taking effect. He took off his shirt and sat down in his father’s recliner.

He had the old razor resting in his hand. The tip stained a rusty brown color from all of the previous times it sliced his wrist. Each cut as deep as the last evenly spaced up and down both of his arms. His reflection shone back at him from the blade; saw his baldhead, eyes that were completely black. He laughed as he brought the razor up to his own throat and finally ended his life. Blood flowed down his chest as the beast was released and his life was brought to an end