The Alley

Name’s John. I just left my company mandated AA meeting I have to visit each week after being awol or drunk at work for almost a month. You are probably wondering why I wasn’t just fired, it’s because they know and understand.

About two months ago, my family and I were on a trip to visit my parents and were on our way back. It was a long trip, and I was getting tired, the rain was falling in a soothing rhythm, to a point I drifted off for a second… that second was all that was needed, as I swerved into incoming traffic. I managed to pull a side, but it just made us crash in a tree… I should’ve stopped and switched with my wife… They both died in that crash.

While walking home, I decided to take a short cut through a street I rarely visited.

As I was walking along the street, I heard a low sob coming from a dark alley. I looked down the dark path, every ounce of my body yelling me to get back, but my mind just pushed me with a “worst case, you’ll end up same as your family” and I stepped inside.

The moment I stepped inside the dark alley, the world around me turned to dark void. A voice from nowhere and everywhere, low and husky. “Who do we have here? Who has stepped within my net?” I look around but see nothing, see no one. “Oh, you won’t see me unless I say so.” A hiss and scattering sounds can be heard.

“Who are you?” I still look around, hoping to see something. “John, my name is John.” The voice closing in. “Hello John.” Fear fills my body as the talker is still unseen to me. “John. How common, how boring. Do you know where you are?” John shakes his head.

“This is the world of end. A world that exists past life and death, past light and dark. This is where gods come to die.” Skittering around, the voice speaks. With nothing to supress the sound, John expected an echo, but the lack of walls, made it disappear into the void. “Yet you are no god. Just a lowly human. Never seen anyone reach. Tell me human, what is something you wish, but cannot have?” John thinks back on so many things, but then images of his drinking come to mind. “I would like to be able to see and embrace my family once again.” A clittering laugh comes to Johns ears. “Come by tomorrow. I will bring the dead for you to meet.” John looks up. He wishes to speak, but a slam of something unseen, slams him back. He pops out back on the street he was before, the alley no more activating as the door to void.

“What the hell?” I wonder, sitting on the street, mere seconds after I entered that place. I glance around, trying to see if anyone saw what happened, but the streets were deserted. “He said he will bring them back.” I tried walking back into the alleyway, but the gate or whatever was there before, is not there anymore. I try to grasp at walls and at air. Spending few minutes, I end up giving up and leaving, thinking, hoping, that the voice was real, and its promise was not a lie.

Day passed; the work was as bland as it has been the last few months. John visited my AA meeting, I skipped the part about the alley, thinking they would call me drunk or mad… don’t know which would be worse.

I ended up near the same alley. Frozen in uncertainty, John stared down the alley, wondering if I should return. Fear and doubt taking over, prepared to leave, I heard a voice “Daddy?”

Without a second thought, I dashed into that alley way. The mere sound of my voice brought me to tears. When John crossed the veil of darkness, he saw her, he fell to his knees and sobbed as his dead daughter ran up to him with a hug. John held her as tight as he could. “Hi Bunny, Daddy missed you.” She hugged him back.

“Hello John.” The voice chimed in. “Today I brought you your daughter. As you wished.” John looked around, wanting to thank the voice. “Come tomorrow, I shall bring you your wife.” Tears falling down His face, he thanked the air, but only and evil chuckle was heard from the master of this void.

Sitting for hours, John talked to his daughter. Asking how is she, where has she been, what she has been up to. He inquired about so many things. His Daughter told John everything she could. Few words came out as scrambled, as meanings and ideas he was not supposed to know or hear. “It is time for her to return.” The voice said. “I need more time.” “Come back and you shall be granted more time” Voice said.

John’s daughter got up, gave another warm hug. “We miss you so much daddy.” Before he could respond, same blast as the one from yesterday, pushed him out of the alley. Not rushing back, learning his lesson from the day before, he got up and walked home, a smile on his lips as he managed to talk to his daughter, John though was lost to him forever.

The next day passed him bye fast. Joy filling his life just from meeting his daughter.

Day passed just like before, and John stood in front of the Alley once again, waiting for a voice to come calling for him. No sound came, impatiently John walked forward, and once again passed the veil of void. “Jill?” john looked in awe as his Wife stood there, waiting for him. “Hi John.”

He hugged her, kissed her. “I’ve missed you so much. I love you so much Jill.” Tears flowing down his face. “But how can you be here?” Jill looked at him. “Well, when ⟊⟒⌇⏁⟒⍀⍜⟟⎅ got us out of ⟒⌰⊬⌇⟟⎍⋔.” Words again lost to him, blocked by a higher power. “At first we did not know if we should trust and follow, but he promised to bring us to you, to rejoin our family again.” Her face contorted as she wept, caressing Johns face. “We took the chance to see you.”

“How is it the place where you are?” Jill shook her head. “I cannot tell you. Even if I did, the overseers block the knowledge from spreading.” John slouched. “But do not worry, we are fine.” Jill smiled a warm comforting smile. “I am so sorry.” John said. “I should’ve been more careful.” She patted his head. “It is not your fault. We both should have been better; we both should have remembered to switch places.”

They kept talking for hours. Telling old stories, laughing at past anecdotes. He could spend a lifetime with her, and he would still wish for more. “It’s time.” The voice said. “Can I come again?” John asked, Joy returning to his life. “Yes. Come tomorrow and see them both again.” Hope and meaning returned to his life, John left, awaiting the next meeting.

Everyone saw his spirit return. People at work resumed talking to him actively, the AA meetings had become a joy to visit, telling them stories and how his life has been going better. He became a man he was before.

He stood in front of the dark alley once more, proudly and filled with hope, he entered the dark alley once more. He entered it for the last time…

“Bunny, Jill.” He said with joy as he saw his family. The moment he looked at them closer he knew something was wrong. “Are you alright?” He started to feel uneasy. “You killed us.” Jill said. “You didn’t protect us.” Their daughter chimed in. “Wh-what. B-but.” He tried to get a word out. “You failed us, you Murdered us.” His wife came closer, hate in her face. “All you had to do was stay on track. You had to stay awake.” She jammed her finger at him. The pain grew stronger and stronger each time she did.

“You are the reason I will never grow up.” His daughter said. “You are the reason I will not become what I was meant to be.” Fear and sorrow filled his mind. “Bunny, listen…” He tried to interrupt. “I am not Bunny. You deprived me of my life, you don’t get to call me that.” Her gaze hard and pointed.

“I told you to rest before we left. I told you to not drink the day before.” He felt his misery coming back, building up more than before. “I… I…” the more he tried to speak, the less his words would come out. “You failed us. You failed as a protector, as a husband and as a father.” Both of them said at the same time, cutting him down where he stood.

“Wh-wh-why?” he asked, brought to his knees, solemn in this world of void. “Because I made it so.” The voice came from nowhere. “Why?” a loud chuckle came from nowhere. “Because I feed upon your misery.” An audible slurp could be heard. “And I love it when it comes in fresh, so I brought you up, just to slam you back down where you were.” He slumped down.

“They were never here?” he looked at his hands. “I never got to hold them again? Hear them, feel them?” laugh echoed in his head. “Who would want to come out of afterlife for you” The laugh grew deeper. “You are a failure, a disgrace, a murderer of your own family.” John’s eyes went bleak and soulless. “Such delicious misery.” The voice boomed. “Wh-wh-why did you do this to me?” “Why do you feed, breed and raise your cattle? You are just insignificant food.”

The voice came closer. An image of a dark skinny creature crawling around came into view. “I feast upon nobodies like you, I grow stronger. I did not lie when I told gods came here to die, I’ve killed so many of them, I’ve lost count. They all gave up on humanity after seeing your wars and crimes.” The creature came in closer. “And people like you are what bring them to the end of their rope and to the deepest part of misery.” John looked up. “People who become waste of space, who betray their only job of protecting their family.”

The mouth of the creature opened up, preparing to swallow John hole. “But don’t worry, John. I will fulfil my promise.” The mouth smiled. “I will reunite you with your family.” He swallowed the motionless John. “I will reunite them with you within me.”