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“Chronicles of The Eclipses”

-“What do we have to fear but fear itself?” –Former President Theodore Roosevelt

**~Sweat, Blood and Tears~**

He paces softly in front of the four sitting men, gazing at them with interest. They had just been called from the café under Vincent’s order. Now as the four of them sit there under his gaze, Brian gulps, fidgeting nervously.

“I called you all here because I have a proposition. Your first task is about to happen and I want to make sure you are all ready for it.” Vincent stops pacing, standing before Howie. “You made it seem like killing was a breeze for you. That seemed so smooth and quick, the way you held that knife slicing that victim away.”

Howie gazes guiltily at the floor boards, his conscious throbbing into his sanity. He sees Vincent stop before Nick and A.J. nodding and stands before Brian with a smile across his face.

“I have thought of this task for you all very carefully and am quite happy with it. I’m sure you’ll all make me proud. Now…” Vincent leans back on his office desk, gazing at the others with a smirk. “Your task deals with blood. I hope you all have strong stomach’s because it is a necessity for this.”

A.J. gulps, shaking his head: “What…what do you mean about that?”

“I mean…” Vincent smiles slowly, “That you all will visit the sacrificial place hidden beneath the lower floors of this office.”

Nick gasps, exhaling slowly, his eyes trailing over to Kevin who was standing near the entrance of the room distracted with his own personal thoughts. “Sac…sacrificial place?” Nick croaks out, getting shivers from the sickening image.

Vincent chuckles softly, locking eyes with the four men. “Many of the corpses that are killed during initiation times are sent down there. Usually I have some of the men in such fields clean and bury the bodies, but today boys. Yes today, you will do the honor of cleaning up that room for the next initiation time. All the supplies are there, just simply make sure the room is left spotless and you will move on to bigger and better things.”

A.J. frowns, slumping back into the seat: “No…no that can’t happen. That’s sick. I’m not doing it.”

“Ohhh…wait. Did my ears just deceive? I know you didn’t just say you wouldn’t do it now did you?” Vincent approaches A.J. quickly pulling out a magnum and shoving the cold metal in the center of his forehead. “Maybe you should think about that answer before something deadly happens to you.”

“You can’t force me to do what you want!” A.J. barks out, pushing the pistol away as it goes off, firing in the air.

Brian cries out and ducks to the floor, shaking in fear as the sound of the bullet goes off. “Oh God!! Holy…”

Nick and Howie bolt in their seats, gasping as A.J. exhales slowly, shivering from the popping sound that erupted. At the sound of the gun going off, he tipped back in his seat, over turning the chair as he lands on his stomach, throwing his arms over his head as a shield.

Vincent smirks, gazing over at Kevin near the threshold of the office: “Kevin before you get your day off today, I want you to take them to the sacrificial place. And report back to me when you’re done.”

Kevin nods and awaits the men as Vincent smiles, locking his pistol in place. “Well, don’t just sit there men, you have a job to do. Now go.” He grumbles, rolling his eyes.

A.J. shakily stands up, inching his way over to Kevin while Brian looks up from the floor, slowly standing up. Nick bolts out of his seat, almost tripping over the over turned chair and A.J.

The five men gaze back at Vincent who simply waves his pistol happily in his hands: “Well go now. You don’t have all day now.” He leans back on his office desk, watching the men disperse his office.

Kevin sighs, leading the four men down the dimly lit hallways, dark silhouettes hover around the corners and ceilings as they slowly walk, almost marching down what seemed like the green mile for them all.

A.J. glances over at Nick who gulps and whispers out: “I wanna go home.”

“Well you can’t.” Kevin growls out annoyed, turning to face them. “I told you this already, stop wishing that.”

“Screw you man, I don’t have to stand around here and follow your orders! The hell with this!” Nick seethes out, his sneakers scraping against the cement ground as he inches back.

Brian gulps, “Look Kevin, Nick’s got a point. I don’t wanna do this! What was that guy’s problem back there! Sending us to clean out some morgue! We’re not his slaves!”

Sighing Kevin gulps: never turning around to face them: “This is a gang Brian…nothing seems right cause it isn’t. But I can’t do anything to change it.”

“Yes you can!!! Hell you’re leaving out of here after you drop us off…” A.J. breaks out, grabbing the tall man by the arm.

“With regulations Alex.” Kevin intercepts, cutting the man off. “I might be outside but it wouldn’t make a damn difference cause I’ll be watched everywhere I go. Do you know how long it took me to gain the leader’s trust and how long I’ve been waiting to see the outside in the daylight, to walk the streets and not have to do a task, to not sell or deliver something? Over two months! Do you know what I missed out in two months?!” He cries out as Howie stands feet away, watching them all quietly.

Brian shakes his head as Nick scuffs the ground.

“What’s that man?” A.J. whispers.

“My wedding anniversary.” Kevin calmly murmurs out, his eyes hidden in a cloud of overwhelming sadness that seemed to pulse out.

Nick sighs, “I’m sure she forgives you man. This isn’t your fault.”

“It is really Nick? Cause I do have a choice in this you know. I could flat out die and get this over with. What do I have to lose right? Cause either way I’m screwed.” Kevin gulps, roughly wiping away a stray tear that leaked from the corner of his left eye.

Brian exhales quietly, locking eyes with his cousin: “That’s not true. I’m not giving up. If we got in, we can get out.”

Howie presses his back against the wall across the group, stepping out of the dark shadows around him. “This place functions like a family. The only option of leaving besides death would be betrayal.”

The others gaze at him confused suddenly remembering he was with them.

“Betrayal…yeah that’s real nice. To go up against one of the top leaders of the gang and simply betray him would go well with him.” Kevin grumbles out, leading the men down a row of wide cement staircases, the cement bricked walls seem to close in on them as they quietly descended further into a dark room. Kevin pulls out a flashlight, lighting the way a few feet in front of him, leading the men down another dark lit cement hallway.

“What do you mean by betrayal?” A.J. whispers out to Howie, following the man closely.

Howie glances to the voice, his eyes failing to see anything but mere shadows of the men hidden in the mass black darkness the hallway provided. “You know, disobeying the leader in some way.”

“And you don’t think that will get us killed?! Have you seen how fast he is with the gun? He’ll blow your brains out before you have time to react!” Nick shakily responds, following Kevin into a large open arch doorway.

Brian gazes at Howie curiously and smiles: “Somehow I get the feeling you know more about this than any of us could get.”

Howie shrugs his shoulders, simply sending a quick encouraging smile towards the man’s way as he steps through the arch gray cement threshold.

“This is it.” Kevin whispers, shining the flashlight towards the open wide circular room.

Nick gasps, clutching his stomach quickly as the smell of decay and blood invaded their nostrils.

A.J. begins gagging, covering his nose at the horrific odor.

“Dear God…” Brian whispers out horrified as Howie pushes his way between them.

Howie could feel his jaw drop open at the sight before him. His eyes take in each sickening detail carefully, observing closely the bodies that lied scattered and some piled upon each other. Limbs were strewn around the bricked grey ground, the dry blood stained everything from the ground, to the walls, the bodies some cut up in bits while others remained intact.

Among the bodies, each was nude and mainly made up of young teenage boys. The very few females that were killed seemed battered and bruised beyond recognition before the actual initiation would have taken place. The bodies of the deceased seemed slowly rotting as the rancid smell of rotting flesh invaded the atmosphere around them.

Howie gazes at the four men besides him as they all seemed too stunned to move or even talk at the moment. Howie gazes around the room to see that the circular room was much higher than what the little flashlight was able to capture. The walls seem to reach up to a good ten stories in length seeped in dry blood.

“We…should get started then right?” Howie whispers out, breaking the odd silence around him as the others seemed stunned.

“N…no. No way am I touching or getting close to that.” Nick stammers out nervously, backing out of the arc threshold.

Kevin shines the flashlight on him and points to the ground a few steps below them. “Yes you are.”

A.J. drops to his knees, his hands grip the dirty ground. “I feel sick.” He moans out, his body heaving as he begins to cough repeatedly.

Howie rushes over to the man, gently patting him on the back: “Hey A.J. you’ll be ok? We’ll need your help in cleaning this place up ok.”

A.J. shakes his head, steadily standing up. “No. No you don’t get it. I have a weak stomach for all this. I…” He begins to gag, regurgitating the breakfast he had that morning.

Kevin cringes and descends down the three wide round stairs, his feet touching the bricked grey ground. He inches his way pass a decaying hand, its fingers curled as flies swarm over the dry blood landing on it for feeding.

Brian watches in sickening horror as the sight around him, dropping to his knees as tears flooded his eyes “I can’t do this…oh God no! I can’t do to this.”

Howie sighs out sadly, gently making his way over to Brian who was beginning to sob quietly, fresh tears staining down his face.

Nick sniffs slowly, shakily stepping down the first step. “Where’s the stuff to clean this up?” He chokes out, fighting the urge to keel over and vomit.

“In a closet, just pass this part.” Kevin indicts to a back iron door, locked with a padlock.

Brian wipes his eyes, standing up with the help of Howie as he watches Kevin reach the back door. “Why would he have us do this?”

“Cause he’s an as…” A.J. begins but is cut off by Howie.

“Cause he can. He’s the one in the charge, unless you want to go up against him right now?” Howie gently whispers out, heading down the stairs blindly in the dark.

Kevin shines his flashlight on the padlock and quickly pulls out the keys given to him to open it. Snapping open the padlock with the key, he pulls the creaking heavy door open and exposes the flashlight to the interior of the closet. Finding more flashlights, he turns and shines his flashlight on Nick who seemed lost and petrified standing in the middle of the dead corpses around him.

“Catch!” Kevin calls out to Nick, tossing a small flashlight towards him. Nick catches it with ease and clicks on the item, the small florescent light beams out, splashing the corpses with bright golden light.

Nick gulps back the bile rising in his throat at the clear details of the mutilated bodies around him. Kevin grabs three more flashlights, tossing them each to the remaining men. Howie and Brian catch theirs safely while A.J.’s flashlight lands among a sunken rib of a corpse a few feet before him.

The others watch him curiously as he stands up and spits on the ground, trying to take the taste of death out of his mouth. “Hell no.” And he reaches over, snatching Howie’s flashlight from his hands.

Howie growls out: “Wait. What am I suppose to use now?”

A.J. snorts, pointing to the open decaying ribcage where the flashlight was last seen. “Good hunting.”

Howie glares at the man, watching Nick and Brian shine their flashlights on him and the rotting corpse feet away from him.

Kevin rummages through the closet, pulling out a box of new latex gloves and water sprayers, along with towels, mops, and floor cleaning materials to rinse the blood stains away.

“The bodies…where are we gonna put them?” Brian nervously whispers out, shakily heading down the stairs behind Nick.

Kevin nods, “I’ll take care of that.”

Howie watches Kevin bring the needed supplies on the front platform. Howie grumbles, taking a pair of latex gloves and sliding them on quickly.

“One of you gotta shine the light over to that body so I can get the flash light out.” Howie hisses out, shooting a glare at A.J. who simply held a smug look across his face.

Nick nods and steadily shines the light around. “Ummm…ok, but which body?”

Howie looks around noting a large pile of scatter bodies all near each other that could hold the encased flashlight. “Wonderful…this is just great.” He begins cursing, running a hand through his thick dark hair.

“Try the first body down there, when Kevin threw it, it would most likely have landed there.” Brian croaks, holding his stomach as it rumbles and groan out in pain. “Eghhh…I’m getting sick smelling all this.”

“Well then we should hurry up. The faster we’re done here, the faster we can get the hell out of here ok?” Kevin murmurs, the smell not bothering him at all.

“The bodies…are there body bags for it?” Howie whispers out, heading down to the first decaying body Nick’s flashlight was shining on.

Kevin looks from the assortment of supplies and nods: “Yeah, I’m gonna go get that too. Guys, let’s start alright.”

The others groan and nod as Kevin rushes over to the closet, pulling out a cardboard box with black body bags neatly folded and tucked in.

Brian gulps, watching the cardboard box drop before him.

A.J. slowly opens the box and screams out as rows vast insects fly out, swarming out above them. He drops back, landing hard on his behind as the insects swish pass him, buzzing and flapping out to freedom.

Kevin smirks, shaking his head: “Don’t be such a bit…”

“Look!” Nick cuts him off, shining the flashlight on a lit body where Howie was heading to.

“What?” Brian steps up to him as Kevin dust off the bodies bags taking them out of the box.

“I, I thought I saw something…down there.”

“Down where Nick?” Brian whispers out, watching Howie kneel before a corpse whose ribs seemed torn open and exposed, the flies fluttering around: landing on it.

“Pass Howie. It looked like two big eyes.”

Kevin straightens up alarmed, shining his flashlight pass where Howie was. “Nick, are you sure you saw eyes?” He nervously whispers out.

A.J. narrows his eyes, glancing around, shining the flashlight around the area. “What are you talking about?”

Nick gulps, “I saw it. Like cat eyes. Big and shining.”

Brian turns to Kevin: “Please tell me Vincent doesn’t keep pets here.”

“I don’t know. I never seen the tiger he owns.” Kevin rattles off, sending shivers down the men’s spine.

“Did, did you just say tiger?” Brian croaks out, watching Kevin nod.

Howie gulps, looking around as he slowly pushes his gloved hand into the exposed ribs of the corpse to find the item he needed. “Yes.” He smiles, pulling out the flashlight and shining it on Kevin.

Howie steadily stands up to see the look of utter shock cross Kevin’s face. “What…what is it?”

Kevin whispers out, “Don’t move.”

Howie begins teasing up, gulping: he catches A.J holding his flashlight shakily in his hands. “What’s behind me?”

“You…you don’t wanna know.” Nick chokes out, an expression of horror crosses his face, his bright sapphire orbs shot open in fright as Brian glances over to Howie.

“Be careful man.” Brian whispers out.

Howie not liking the sudden distill mood that clothed the man, quietly whispers out: “What’s behind me guys?”

“Walk quietly back here Michael. That’s all you need to know.” Kevin whispers out calmly, not wanting to frighten the man anymore than he needed to be.

Howie gulps, frowning: “Dammit, just tell me the hell is behind me.”

Kevin shines his flashlight pass Howie as Howie slowly turns around to see nothing but light hitting a wall. Confused, Howie turns on the flashlight in his hands and shines it around the wall as well, finding nothing.

“I don’t get it. Why are you all looking like something was behind me?” Howie whispers: turning back to face the others but feels the air in his throat stop short. He shines the light on the large beautiful striped animal sniffing him, inches away from jumping him and tearing him apart.

“Oh God…we need to help him.” A.J. whispers out: guilt flooding him suddenly.

“Yeah well he would have been fine if you didn’t take his flashlight away.” Brian grumbles.

“Hey! I wasn’t the one that threw it. Kevin was the one who threw it, blame him!” A.J. gets aggravated as Kevin frowns.

“Guys…” Kevin hisses out, “Now isn’t the time to arguing. We need to get rid of that tiger…now.”

“How? I’m not jumping in there!” A.J. cries out in alarm as Kevin glares at the man.

“No. You stay here. I’ll go help him out.” Kevin whispers, taking a step down to the ground. He shines the light on the tiger that was slowly approaching Howie with each step.

Howie gulps, shining the flashlight on the tiger’s yellow orbs, taking a step back with each move the tiger made. “Please…let me live.” He chants out, licking his dry lips as the tiger roared and begins growling, its massive paws crunch down on a corpse in the way as it rears closer to Howie.

The other three men watch from the platform as Kevin searches through his belt to find his gun holster and pulls out his magnum.

Howie watches Kevin, silently thanking the man for wanting to help as the tiger continues to approach him.

Kevin holds the trigger and pulls the trigger as a quiet click echoes in the room.

“Holy…” A.J. whispers.

“It’s empty.” Kevin mumbles out shocked as he holds the gun pointed to Howie.

Howie whines out in fear as the tiger picked up pace on him, ready to devour its next victim. He watches the others in fear as the three men on the platform watch in horror useless in helping out.
~*~

“It’ll be fine Coral.” Arianna paces in the bathroom slowly. “This is just a big mess.” She sighs, settling down on the edge of the porcelain tub.

Coral wraps her arms around herself, burying her head within her arms, shaking gently: “It’s just the look on that man’s face. Its like he knew something more, how I wish I could know what it was before he killed himself.”

“I know Coral. But we already know the consequences of entering this from the moment the idea was passed. We just gotta hope Howie can pull this off.”

“Well easier said than done. Who knows what’s going on with him as we speak.”

Arianna smiles sadly, “He’s probably regretting the idea, that’s what.”

“And can you blame him?”

“Not at all.” Arianna whispers, crossing her hands together on her lap. “I heard about the next task.”

“For us?” Coral sits up from the toilet seat, curiously gazing at her partner.

“Yup. Looks like we get to go outside and sell some drugs. I always wanted to work in the field of medicine and now I get to do just that.” Arianna teases out, getting a small grin from Coral.

“Well we get to leave this place for once which is good.” Coral sits up.

“Yeah, seems that although this group doesn’t stay a day at any place, we’re pretty lucky we won’t have to head out anywhere for a while. I heard Vincent saying this is the best spot he found so far that connects with all the United States water base ports. Transferring drugs from this area is more accessible then say Texas where we would have been heading off too.” Arianna explains, picking on a small scab on her right leg.

“Well that’s good to hear. You seem to have pricked an interest in the leader’s heart.”

Arianna frowns, shivering: “Thanks a lot, now the lunch I had is starting to come back up.”

“Your welcome.” Coral giggles, before continuing. “This gives us more time to explore and find out about this place. What about their ultimate drug: Pandora’s box?” Coral glances over at Arianna who exhales.

“Well that seems to be the most recently used drug so far that has made this gang survive. If I can just find out where they make it, we can stop more production of it before it’s sold out even more to the public.”

“True, but you’re asking for a miracle Ari. People are gonna find the next closest thing that comes close to Pandora’s box chemicals for a lift.” Coral gets up from the toilet seat, wearily glancing around the room.

“So where’s the journal?” Arianna smirks, watching Coral pull out a black leather bound journal from underneath her shirt. Tossing it to Arianna, she takes a seat back and watches her open the book, scanning down the journal.

Smiling, Arianna reaches for a pen thrown in the sink’s cabinet. “Mind if I jot down a few ideas?”

“Na, go ‘head. Have fun, just remember to keep it clean, this is going under a case and it has to written properly.”

Arianna rolls her eyes, “Well where’s the fun in writing proper if what we’re facing doesn’t fall under normalness.”

“That’s the only rule girl.” Coral giggles, exiting the bathroom. “I’ll go see what’s on the radio or something. I can’t stand being in silence too long, it drives me crazy.”

“Aight and if ya hungry there’s a menu on the counter.” Arianna calls out as Coral nods and closes the bathroom behind her as she exits.

Curiously, Arianna flips through the first two entries scanning them over as a smile crosses her face. Tapping the pen in her hands, she quickly heads the paper and scribbles down the ideas racing through her head about the recent events she herself witnessed.

-May 17th, 2003 4:14 PM *Rented bathroom equipped with the nice furnish apartment* ‘Third Day’

-So it begins…

I would like to wake up with a man besides me who doesn’t feel like he’s about to end his career with one major move. I want to wake up with him holding me telling me ‘Everything is going to be ok.’ When in reality, we both know that’s not true.

Today my partner came to me crying her eyes about seeing a deranged man kill himself before her. She claimed he was crying out to kill him already, that what we’re doing being in here is crazy and to run out while we still can. Well, thanks like we didn’t know that. Gee…how thoughtful of that man to be so considerate about our safety when there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it at the moment.

Bare with me, this is the first time I’m writing in this journal. I gave my partner a break on this cause I was dying to see what she jotted down. Errrr…perhaps the word ‘dying’ shouldn’t be used here after all, that’s like calling the tea kettle black. But I decided to give my opinion on the whole ordeal we’re facing. It’s time to hear my voice, tell you what I’ve seen and what I want happen.

I saw too much already. I killed a man and guess what…I don’t feel guilty. And if I had the chance to do it all over again, I would do leave it the way it is because he deserved it. No, I’m not cold blooded, just strong about what I believe in. No, I’m not a killer ‘cause he was asking for it and would have killed me. And no, I don’t have nightmares about him because I’m happy. I’m happy he’s gone from the face of this earth and I would kiss the fork that ended his life if I was to celebrate my victory. No, I’m not insane, just not all there…there’s a difference you see.

As for the leader…my, words can’t comprehend what a beauty that man is in my eyes. The stories are all true, every man that is in the gang is a God given splendor to look at. If I wasn’t so intact with my respect, I would have screwed some of their brains out by now. But I chose to withhold…for my own personal reasons. But there is more hidden beneath all that glamour and attractiveness they all have. The leader especially is demented. Demented meaning he would kill in an instant without a thought, without a moment’s rest if he could.

Part of me wants to give up and get leave this hellhole already, I’m tired of being locked away, driven around to sell drugs, looked at like I’m some sex slave to some of the men here. I want out…but I can’t. I just started and the more I stay here, the more I’m starting to scare myself. I’m losing it I think, though that should good right since I’m seeing death all around me.

The other day my partner and I sold our first batch of drugs. Yup, that’s right, went right up to the directions given and entered some building guarded by a man that should be shot in the face with the way he looks. *shivers* The building reeked and the hallways were filthy but we followed the orders and left, not knowing what exactly was in the box we dropped off. My partner believes it could some of the infamous Pandora’s box or chemicals used for it. Well whatever the case, we did it. Now I heard we might have to sell the stuff tonight which if you can tell I’m thrilled about it…

I’ll end it here. Cause if I write anymore, the rest of it might be edited out for viewer’s sake. So this is it and if I get out of here sane, I better get a raise that will be let me live with hot servants beckoning at my every call.

Codename: Ana signing off for now

Smirking, she closes the journal and dumps the pen in the trash, sliding the journal under her shirt as she exits the room.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**