The Wall [Featured Story]

Chatper 14

There was a panic throughout the small town, which awoke Scott from his slumber. He felt the cruel and incessant itch of multiple mosquito bites on his feet and ankles, joining the ones on his ass from the night before. He scratched them uncontrollably reddening and breaking the skin. He stood up still scratching, bleary eyed and with the foul liquid still lingering on his palette, he peered out from behind the make-shift blind. Pulling back the black plastic sheet nailed to the window frame he looked out into the street. With the stingingsun flooding in, his squinting eyes saw a crowd.  Some were running, others just walking a quick pace. All the street was heading in the same direction though, the town square.

Scott looked around the room for his clothes with another question reverberating in his mind why am I naked? Not a lot of details remained about his night drinking at Roy's as was often case in that particular cantina. He found his jeans and hurriedly pulled them on followed by his crumpled grey t-shirt and brown boots in between scratching his bites and coughing. He quickly checked that he still had his meagre possessions then made his way down the stairs.

He rubbed his boots together as he walked in order to try and quell the irritation of the bites but to no avail. He emerged out of the door and in the blinding light of the street, his eyes took a moment to adjust and pick out anyone.

'What's going on' he said to the first person he could grab.

'I don't know, something bad,' he excitedly said without breaking stride.

Scott followed the path and pace of the excited mo,b towards whatever site he was about to see. He emerged into a hushed silence on the main square where it seemed the whole town had congregated, and immediately it was apparent why.

A man had been had been strung up against the virgin walls of the church. The building was now no longer as white as it was the previous day. The man was hanging by his neck from a rope which encircled the church steeple. Steel nails fixed his legs and arms to a crude misshapen cross in the same fashion as the deity depicted inside. He was hanging high, belly sliced open letting his entrails fall to the floor. The rancid stench attracted every stray dog, and flying insect in the area while scavenging birds were watching on waiting for their time to feed.

His face was almost unrecognisable as human, holes where his eyes once dwelled, his nose could have only been cut off with a dull blade, and his skull smashed leaving his head deformed. His limbs twisted and broken, naked, this gruesome monument was on show for all to behold. Scott looked up instantly recognised this mutilated mystery figure, those toes, those gruesome twisted toes and those curled yellow toenails.

It was the beggar he had shunned the day before, looking down as he sighed a surge of guilt swept through him over the way he had behaved towards him. Blood trickled down the high white wall leaving a crimson trail to the mess of innards below. Upon his chest had been carved a crude letter J. The crowd rumbled as they looked upon this horrific spectacle, Scott knew who was responsible for this. The beggar was not the first and definitely would not be the last body to be found with a J carved into it.

He tried to steal a glimpse forward through the swelling mass of people, he could see a small group of Policia standing in front of the body. Some were busy shoeing away the pack of stray dogs while others looked up unsure what to do. He could also see Betty with child in hand berating them which was a pretty bad idea for anyone. Luckily they were too preoccupied with the horror above to react with any aggression towards her.

He ambled forward seeking a familiar face in the herd, all were mesmerized and scuffling for a better view of the show. Bodies pressed tightly against Scott's as he pushed his way forward. The heat built with every step he took further into the frantic masses. Each step further into the frenzied excitement.