Without any help from god: or, the price was low.

Shaping shadows with the flickering light from candles cast in the mold of a human spines, the tone of her blue skin was bruised dead with green and yellow sharing a history of secrets spoke softly. Pale with her ribs showing each well-earned breath. Reluctant in the corner of her bedroom, squirming, forceful as a darkness reluctant towards revelation and being trapped. 
   The walls lined with family photos showing a couple and their child. Her husband watching her, however, the one bar prison between her legs was a cage for both of them and he unable to have satisfaction watched her fight off pleasure and shame in equal measure. Ankles cuffed too and trapping inside her cunt the seven-inch vibrator that coiled around inside her like a snake that could never find its way Eve's heart. The ball gag in her mouth, and a blindfold over her eyes. Her husband chad cupped one of her small breasts and watched with satisfaction as she pushed against it. The muffled sounds of her tired breathing. He would typically leave her there for an hour, but he felt sadistic tonight,
   There was a knock at there door "I'll be right back, Jesse," said Chad. Then cracked the door and looked around the corner. "do you know what time it is?" said Chad. Razor had glass eyes, and plastic skin, and his face was frozen with a smile. "I saw someone in my room" his voice was cracking as a tear swelled in his eye and his father stepped around the door so their son wouldn't see his mother and closed the door behind him. "come on, show me," said Chad. "He was a skinny wrinkled and had a beard. And was standing in the corner of my room." said razor. The hall was covered with crinkling floorboards that were grey and walked clean of splinters over the last century. Razors door was cracked, and his father pushed it open and said "see buddy there is nobody in here." than Chad walked around looking in the closet and made sure the window was secure. "so let's get you to bed."
He tucked him in and told the child, "you have to quit doing this, no more lying. It has been ten nights of checking for boogeyman and your six now, Next time you see the boogeyman you tell him this is your house and he isn't welcome here." than chad walked to the door looking back at the plastic smile of his son and said. "kick the Boogeyman's ass buddy I know you can do it."
   When he got back to his wife, there was a small puddle of her fluids on the ground between her legs. He took the blindfold off and then the ball gag. "was it that old man he saw again?" said Jesse. "Yeah, but I took care of it." "I wish you would have got me; I really should have been the one to put him to bed." "I would have, but you looked like you were having fun and I didn't want to interrupt it." "I was," she smiled her wet hair sticking to the side of her head. "But, I am worried about him claiming to see that man every night, did you check his windows." "honey we have lived in this house for over ten years and we have no reason to worry; there is no one around for miles." "still take these handcuffs off my wrist I want to go check on him" chad reluctantly undid the cuffs on her wrists and ankles and lifted her off of the dildo of the prison. Her slight frame nearly weightless in his arms. She put on a shower robe and walked down the hall. Chad frowned and went to bed.
   "Hey baby, What are you doing." Razor was standing in the corner of the darkness with a blade of light from his door reaching him and showing his red pajamas from the back. "I was bad, so I put myself in time out." "what you mean baby why were you bad..." his mother walked over and picked him up in her arms laying him down in bed. And laid down beside him, "you weren't bad. Have you been seeing that man again?" Razor glass eyes turned towards her "he looks like he's starving. And I see him wandering around trying to find me...I don't know If he has eyes, but he is always getting closer." "well I will just have to see for myself. I will leave our door open and yours tonight And I will check on you through the night OK baby?" Razor layed back his head and his plastic eyelids closing over glass eyes, and he went to sleep.


The house was alive, and razor loved to play in it. The walls would change opening new rooms for him. He could see everything his parents did in the photographs that they thought were hidden. Jesse the stupid bitch he thought her light wouldn't go out for another century. Chad, well as long as Jesse was there his battery would keep going.
   His painted face and a plastic smile was eternal in it rage. Razor was little more than a teddy bear that came to life when it smelled blood. Something triggered and creepy that was hungry. He would sit in a room with all the walls sealed, watching his mother play with him. She would hug him and stack up the blocks, and he would knock them over.
   Grey wallpaper with gold swirls surrounded everything. He felt them longing, needing him, and it made him hungry. The way the still silence filled the house of anything but for her footsteps and her husbands. Razor said nothing; he didn't need a voice to be heard. Chad was content with his paperbacks. Telling his wife about them when his intellectual cup spilled over but mostly he would fill it and gorge himself to the last drop.
   The old man was standing next to him." how did you get in here," said razor. But the light with this ghostly figure pale and translucent so empty of everything but fire. Razor stared at him and said "You were not the first and you won't be the last." the old man was praying his gentle eyes and broken dark brown teeth showing before and after with a smile as he said "get out." then he got on his knees and began to pray.
   The prayer rope was red with olive beads. And Lazarus began counting one prayer after the other, but each was a repetition "lord Christ have mercy on me a sinner." it was in his heart and his mind. But he sat in the belly of the fish, Focused and fasting.


Jesse walked from Razor's room to Chad and said: "I was just playing with Razor and he disappeared, I thought he may be hiding but I checked his room, and Razor Wasn't there." "Just look around; it's a big house the rooms change; he's probably downstairs." Chad went back to reading his paperback. While Jesse took back and annoyed went down the hall with steady, focused steps and went through down the long Staircase descending in a spiral with dust in the blue light. "Razor!" she said aloud looking hopefully through each room of the living shifting walls and thought "this isn't right," then went to the window looking out where she saw the fog surrounded there house its green smoke the fog that imprisoned them, surrounding them but out there was a light unloving and unwavering on their front porch. Getting nervous, she went back up the stairs and said, "chad, he's not here." chad put down his book and went to her and said, "Where could he go?" "I don't know chad, but he is not here and follow me, I have to show you something." He followed trying to reassure her, but when he saw what she had to show him he didn't know what to think. "what is that?" "I don't know." The light was at their front door without an obvious source unchanging like kind of tear in space-time. Chad went to the door and tried to open it, "it's locked or nailed shut." said Chad. "I don't remember ever leaving this house," said Jesse. Chad screamed out his sons name going through the house the knickknacks and old photographs the phone that never rang. "what is going on?" said Jesse and chad didn't respond thoughts swirling in his mind about things he didn't remember, but felt he was starting to, and new perspective on the strangeness of there situation. "I don't remember living anywhere but this house...I don't even remember that being strange till now." Jesse said, "our son is missing, and I am going to find him." she went to a closet and grabbed a hammer. And went to the window and hit it as hard as she could she felt the bones in her hand and the skin between them and the mallet. But the glass was unbroken. She did it again and felt the hammer fall from her hand as she saw an older man holding a doll was standing out in the fog with a toy that looked like razor following him into the wilderness of green smoke that swirled and swallowed them just out of reach. Jesse just was wide-eyed and fell on her knees before saying. "He's out there Razor is out there." "how do you know?" "I saw him he was following an old man out into fog, only razor wasn't human he was a doll." than as if getting used to the idea before he could say it swallowing spit even though his mouth was dry. "honey" said chad "Razor was not made of the same stuff as us, I don't think he was human."


They had found the old man in the living room. The pale face was mournful before the praying hands that gently touched as he whispered, "Lord Christ have mercy on me a sinner." His robes lose, able to cover a man twice his size and were a faded black powdered with sand.
   Jesse said, "what do you want from us?" while chad ran his hands slowly through the spirit that was praying, and chad was unable to grab hold. "Jesse, whatever is happening is happening. And I want you to know I don't regret anything." "what can we do?" "nothing."
   They sat on the floor with there backs to the wall. "I remember things as they are happening." said chad as Jesse hugged her legs her knees just below her chin. "I feel like we have been here longer than we thought and maybe this is some kind of spring cleaning or something. Maybe we need this." "he took our son. And god knows what he is going to do to us." "He is an old praying man, in a house with walls that move. With a castrated man who handcuffs his wife with a vibrator. And they didn't even notice the fog that surrounds them while they playhouse with a doll." "what are you talking about chad? Do you not know how crazy you sound...this is our home. Our son is missing. And I have always loved you in spite of, oh god never-mind this all sounds fucking absurd out loud I get that, I really do."
   The room glowed with the light of the old man's prayer. The wooden wall seemed to fear it. While Jesse was trying to get her head around concepts that didn't seem new so much as uncovered Old ideas she had forgotten, but she clung more than ever to the memory of razor. To hope that she would find him but knowing that whatever was happening meant the end of how things were.
   She got up and walked back to the entryway of there home. Picking up the receiver of the phone and hearing no dial tone but when she was about to hang it back up there was a voice that came through and told her "I am going to destroy you!" she dropped the phone. Chad who had followed her crouched down and held his wife. "what kind of life have we been living." she said crying. "the one we had." is all her husband could thank to say.
   Then she saw his hands as translucent as those of the praying man. She tried to look him in the eyes, but there were only black holes in his sockets. He reached around hands passing through Jesse. "honey where are you... there is fire everywhere." she saw sweat start to form on her husband's skin dripping to the ground even while he was reaching for her. Red flames swallowed him, and he began to scream. She crawled backward on her hands, staring at him. While he was trying to shake off the flames yet his features didn't change from that of a man suffering. Over the next twenty minutes, she watched in horror as he burned. Fading till all that was left were his cries of pain, and even then they eventually went silent.
   She went back to where the praying man was, and she saw that he was bleeding from the center of each hand and each foot. Things were being uncovered in her mind at a dizzying pace. Strange memories of another life She could see scenes playing out in her mind. Herself pregnant and being beaten. A locked door and the name of a miscarriage. Razor was never born, she thought. "I remember chad and me got into a fight, and I had a miscarriage." Then she saw the fire on her fingertips. The translucent cobweb of her skin and she could see fields of bodies in a black night without stars burning in flames. There cries filling the midnight. She felt pain as this other world became more real than her home. As this place took away all comfort and solace and soon she was consumed by the fire that swallows all but the cornerstone block.



Epilogue

Lazarus stood staring at the doll with Its plastic face with dust and a tuxedo. Lazarus was tired after three days, no food or water. Three days of praying incessantly. Locked inside a room with a doll in a frightened women's house.
   "How did it go?" said Clare and then "is it gone." "I have done all I know to do. If I were you, I would burn the doll. But it should be safe even if you are looking for a keepsake." "no, no, you can have it. I don't want the thing." "very well," Said Lazarus his ancient eyes blue and green, each in contrast to the other.
   Lazarus picked up the doll and held it in one arm, its smile pressed against his heart. Clare's phone rang, "I don't mean to be rude, but can I get that?" she said, pointing at the phone. "By all means, go ahead," said Lazarus. Then he began to walk off towards the door and start his walk home. "Hey wait, said Clare, "Can I give you a ride." Lazarus tired eyes gentle and fierce as a lion said. "No, thank you. I should be on my way." "Well," said Clare, "thank you." he nodded and left. Clare walked to the window, still talking on the cellphone. When her friend asked if it worked, she said: "I won't know for sure unless it doesn't come back this time." It terrified her. Its lifeless eyes made to close when you laid it down would blink like it was alive even when it was sitting up. If you moved it from the room in the center of the house, it would always be there in its corner when you woke up. Sitting in its little red chair staring at all who entered the room. "when grandma passed I thought I would clean out the house, but whenever I tried to get rid of it, Well It would always find it's way back home." I was scared to throw it away after the last time." her friend didn't believe it but repeated she had been told, "It was in your room, wasn't it?" "yeah," said Clare "It was laying next to me, under one of my arms. I know that is impossible...but It did happen." her friend still not believing said, "So how did you find the guy again?" "father, Lazarus? Well, there was a church in town, he said they didn't do exorcisms, but he said he could see that there was fear in my voice. Told me that he would down that he felt he could." Clare hesitated." then said, "he wasn't born under the name Lazarus. He took that name when he became a priest because he was resurrected from the dead and made alive in Christ.
God, this all sounds so crazy." her friend laughed "It does." "Well, I will see you tomorrow, OK?" "are you OK honey? It sounded like your voice cracked." "I'm fine. Just need to go check on something." "Well, call me if you need me." "I will," said Clare. Then she quickly shuffled out of the house and looked down the road. Lazarus was a silhouette on the horizon. It is getting smaller every second. There was a cold wind blowing. And Clare felt eyes on her skin as she tightened the cardigan around her neck and watched in the distance as the little doll was carried away.
   She went to the room where the doll had been. Comforted by the fact it still wasn't there and just when she about said "thank god." she saw a locket hanging from the back of the withered old chair that she hadn't seen before. Clare walked over reluctantly and picked it up. It had a shine of gold, and indented letters that read LOVE IS FOREVER. Clare opened the locket and found a picture on ether side. One was a handsome man with a mustache and a bow-tie and suit the other was a thin mousey woman wearing antique clothing that made you think she had witnessed the civil war and she was holding a doll with a glass smile and eyes that looked like they were staring at the camera.

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