The Crooked Man

Making Amends With The Dead

It didn't take me long to get back home. I got a scary gut feeling as I parked the car and got out, staring at the house. There was a feeling here I had never felt before. It was full of pain, sorrow, regret, mostly agony. The clouds covered the sky and that's when the rain started to pour down. I walked up the steps and slowly unlocked the door to my house. I stepped inside, allowing the door to creek shut behind me. I took my shoes of and layed my keys on the counter, like I had just gotten home from word. I headed upstairs, running my fingers over the aged wood on the banisters, feeling every ounce of labor and care it took building it. I walked into my room and let the door swing open, lightning flashes visible from the open window. I shut it softly and sat on my bed. I ran my hand through my hair and opened the small compartment in the wooden dresser that I hadn't touched since I'd moved in. It was Mark's. I saw a small piece of paper inside and scribbly writing almost unreadable.

          "I recalled the rhyme of the crooked man. All he could do was live in a crooked house, with a cat and a mouse just as crooked. I was the same way. Everything I wished for ended up crooked. My dreams, my love, even my family...How did the crooked man live? Was he sorrowful in the depths of despair?...Such life has no meaning. The hospital, my home, it followed me every where. Writing wouldn't settle my heart. In the end, my festering heart wen..." The bottom half of the page was torn but the back read: "Mine is an empty existence. I have nothing to leave behind. Not even words." There were no more words to be read.

I slowly got up and walked out following the dark to the very back of the hall. There was a small scrap of paper lying in front of the door on the left. "All I need is a smoke...I'm outta cigarettes..." The room was one I had never been in before, it was always locked. Now the handle was gone, I just pushed it open. The room was messy. Books on the floors and chairs knocked over. Mirrors smashed, lamps broken, and walls cracked. I walked in and felt the hatred welling up inside it. I picked a black notebook from the floor and placed the scraps of paper inside it. Another piece in the back read: "All I need is a smoke...But I'm outta cigarettes..."  The notebook had a name: Mark Atlas. I heard the eery sound of laughter and cringed walking out of the room and into the one across from it. I took two steps inward until I was standing face to face with the crooked man. His head was down and he seemed to be crying. "Crooked Man...I'm not going to end up like you...but, he's up there, isn't he?" I said, looking to the attic ladder. "Then I'll be going. And this will be the end."

The crooked man charged at me and I pulled out my gun and proceeded to shoot him. I shot and his cries shook the room. I lost my balance but I managed to jump back up and dodge his attacks, shooting him again. We played tag around the chairs till I finally got to him, ending it all. "As much pain as I've been through...As agonizing and bloody it may seem...I'll keep living. So leave now!" I watched as the crooked man faded from this life and the heavens seemed to shine down from above.

It lighted my way as I climbed the ladder to the attic. I reached the dusty wooden floor of the attic and stood, staring beyond the dark and into the light shining brightly through the back window. "...Mark..." I whispered as I saw the figure of his body hanging from the ceiling, a rope around his neck. His crooked neck.

"Mark, you detested me. Even though we've been through very similar lives, you hated how I lived so comfortably with it...You wanted to drag me down, bring me into agony with you. The people I've met on this trip, you tested them as well. Sent them through your trial, but they failed. I promised Elizabeth I would destroy the crooked man for both our sakes, and I have. He brought you down too Mark...he was you...A conscious entity you built to distribute your trials. To keep people from ending up like this, and deep down, you just really wanted to be saved too, right? So, you called me? No, that's wrong. You wanted to help me too...to tell me...'don't come the way I've come, don't let it get to you'...So, thank you. Nothing will make you suffer anymore. Where your going...it's a good place. So...now you can rest in peace now...all of you."