Cruel and unusual Punishment

Three quarters of the way partially constructed the new police administration complex stood ominously over the ill-acquired land, resentment contempt and malice furnished the atmosphere casting a constant gloom that hung over head.  Despite its centrally located area vehicles and pedestrian traffic was almost nonexistent.  The pad locked gate and chain link fence topped with razor wire seemed almost unnecessary; as no one dared to trespass onto the ill-fated property.  Talk among the construction workers of bizarre and strange accidents circulated throughout the community.  Children that would normally find ways behind secured fences found elsewhere to create mischief.  Drug addicts and crack heads looking to steel what ever a construction site had to offer for their fix avoided the area like the plague; as did prostitutes and their tricks that normally had no qualms about where they conducted business also avoided the area.  All avoided the area except crazy Crilly who was prone to delusions of grandeur.  Most times he still considered himself Louisiana’s  most distinguished, and prominent top criminal defense attorney; that charged elaborate retainer fees that allowed him to live a life of luxury in the French Quarters as he greased the palms of judges, politicians  and other officers of the court.  When he was not rattling off verdicts from past cases, he seemed to suffer from multiple personality syndromes and other behavior disorders.   Frequently seen pushing his shopping cart from one area of the town to another, spewing racial insults as he went along, retaliation for his remarks was accompanied with bottles, or bricks leaving numerous scars concealed beneath layers of filth.   Pushing his cart to the police administration complex he stopped before the large pad locked gates that barred his entrance.
 "How the hell am I suppose to get to court," he snapped eyeing his wrist for an imaginary watch.  "Gonna be late again," he yelled ramming his cart into the gate.  "Gonna put them coons away for good.  Open the god damned gates," he ranted before the locked gate shoving the cart into it several times.  "I'll get somebody out here to open theses damned gates...somebody's gonna get these gates open," he said completely oblivious to an ever growing doom that he summoned with the offensive racial slurs he continued to hurl into the atmosphere.  "God damned conspiracy by them jigaboos an pick-ninnies keeping me locked out with affirmative action and civil rights...niggers ain't got any rights that us whites got to adhere to.

"You might wanna rethink that with your little feeble, jacked up twisted mind, and I know you better get your stinking ass moving Crilly," the voice said from behind. 

He was so emerged in his petty ranting he never heard the police cruiser arrive or the officer exit the vehicle; startled by the voice he spun around blinded by the headlights.  He flinched and attempted to shield his eyes from the cruiser's dome lights.  Seconds later, another cruiser arrived.  "Yo...Shields you alright man?"

"Yeah Hassan I'm cool...just this dirt bag over here with his shit.  I just ran his ass from outta the Armstrong plaza not to long ago.  He was messing with the vendors. Them vendors are gonna kick your ass if you keep calling them towel heads," Shields said agitated.

"They ain't from this country...they ain't got no real rights...they just sand niggers wit affirmative action...that's how they get in this country and ruin it."

"Ruin? Oh you gotta be shitting me," Hassan said stepping closer to the man despite the steady offensive odor reeking from him.  "Let me tell your devil ass a thing or two.  First of all as soon as that Mayflower bullshit ship rolled up all holy shit has jumped off. Native Americans slaughtered left and right.  Stealing their land all in the name of Christianity.  Ya slaughtered people that helped your devil asses to survive, and then your devil asses go to another  land and steal the people to do the labor on the land that your blood thirsty savages soaked in blood because you devils were to damn lazy to till the land yourselves so you enslaved the Africans.  See everywhere you devils go ya stir up shit and ruin an other wise peaceful existence all in the name of Christianity, and god.  Ya don't know how to live in harmony with nature or any other human beings; ya bring destruction everywhere ya go.  So don't tell me about anybody ruining shit...now get your ass outta here before you become a hospital case and then get locked up, and become a hospital case again," Hassan said with the intensity of an on coming firestorm.  Completely disconcerted appalled and shocked Crilly's face turned almost burgundy as speechlessness dominated him. However, with the on set of another personality anger began to well up in him, suddenly he over turned his shopping cart sending a loud clatter into the air and then stomped off grumbling beneath his breath. 

"Yo man you better come and get this shit before somebody else gets it," Shields yelled out with humor coating his words, "ya dirty bastard...no, make that ya racist dirty bastard."

"See man...what I tell ya...as soon as the moon is full it makes'em really crazy...six kinds of crazy.  I hate working at night when it's a full moon, or a new moon… all the freaks come out," Hassan said looking up at the sky.

"Yeah and that little dirty bastard has been running around here for as long as I can remember...spouting the same old shit.  I don't know how many times he done got his ass kicked messing with people…they gonna throw his in the swamp one day, and that’ll be it for his dirty ass."

"I'll tell ya one thing he's pushing his luck out here....he can keep messing around out here if he wants to, but I get a bad feeling about this spot, and I ain't looking forward to our district house being  here either," Hassan said with apprehension.

"Yeah I know that's right...especially after that guy getting accidentally hung and his body going missing...like the shit just vanished."

"Oh and don't forget about the bull dosser...that was some freaky shit too," Shields said with a shutter.

"And you know what else," Hassan said looking around as if afraid he would be heard by the unseen, "when I come out here to do a property check I get the strangest feeling that there's somebody here...I never see anything but it feels like somebody's watching me, and I don't mean like cameras. I mean like I can feel a presence," Hassan said glancing around the deserted site.

"Let's get the hell outta here...consider this place checked and let's roll."

"You ain't said nothing but a word brotha," Shields said making for the cruiser.

"Wait what about the nut job across the street?"

"Shit...man he's on his own...let' em come and get his own shit," Shields said getting into the cruiser with Hassan getting into his as well.  Crilly watched the cruisers disappear into the night before scurrying back across the street to retrieve his belongings.  "Affirmative action darkies running this great country...what's the world coming to," he said setting the cart upright. Within minutes, he was picking up his meager belongings placing them back in the cart, but as he was preparing to leave voices in the distance caught his attention.  Peering into the darkness he called out, "who's out there?" Again, he heard muffled voices.  "Bet them coons are in there stealing from the judges chambers...humph civil rights my ass...shoulda kept' em slaves that's all they good for anyway,” he said leaving his cart to search for an opening in the fence.

"Psss...Ned...over here," the disembodied voice said snapping Crilly's head around to see where it came from.  "Huh...what' da you say?"

"Over here," the voice came again more distinctively drawing him to the more secluded area of the site.

"Ned…over here."  Crilly followed the voice until he found an opening in the fence. "Finally...let's see what we got here," he said squeezing through the opening.  His eyes adjusted to the darkened area.  "So this is where the new court house is gonna be," he laughed to himself standing there gazing up at the unfinished structure, with windows and doors still waiting to be set.  As he stared on at the unfinished structure, a strange and peculiar sight flickered into view and disappeared just as quickly.  "What the hell?"  He shook his head and the images returned, and vanished as suddenly.
 "Damned jigaboos play’n tricks...come outta there I know you shiftless slaves is in there trying to steal."  Suddenly the translucent face of an old woman faded into view.  Her lips moved angrily disconcerting Crilly forcing him a step backward as his heart raced trying to gather his composure  Then other voices invaded his ears, "he's one of them," a disembodied voice growled.  He spun around trying to see where the angry words came from that seemed so close to his ears.  "Who's… who's out there?"  Fear began to creep toward him coloring the night with a malevolent air as angry voices continued to express their displeasure.  "That's it I'm getting the hell outta here."  Suddenly another face appeared illuminated by the intense full moon.  Hostility accompanied the full body that made itself visible fading into view beneath the scornful face.  Denser and denser the figure became causing Crilly to shutter as the hate-filled eyes glared at him before disappearing into the night.  "This was our land...these were our homes."

"Who is it?"  Then he felt a powerful force shove his shoulder almost knocking him from his feet.  Rising up through the building’s newly laid concrete foundation a dozen translucent figures marched toward Crilly then faded before his eyes.  Confusion unhinged the already waning sanity.  In attempting to flee, he ran screaming to the building's far end around the side of the fence.  In complete confusion, he had forgotten where he had come in at, and groped at the chain link fence while attempting to keep panic from over powering him again.  However, out of the darkness another powerful blow shoved him into the fence.  "Hey Ned how's it feel...ain't got master protecting you.  That's what you and the rest of' em use to say to me."  Crilly looked around wildly, "who's Ned," he questioned looking desperately through the darkness.  "Jus leave me along," he pleaded bouncing off the fence.   Immediately he set off running blindly around the building.  Another face appeared and disappeared again sending an uncontrollable fear through him.  "Help me somebody please,” he whimpered trying to run stepping on the shoe laces of the worn out boots he wore.  "What...What 'da want from me?"  No sooner then he finished his sentence his head snapped backwards almost sending him to the ground, “please...please."

"They just wanted to live in their homes in peace, but they forced them off their land and out of their homes," a faded image of an elderly woman said with anger as tears streamed down her face. Once more, the image faded from view replaced with another, a face that seemed unmarked by age.  The flow of time was different around it.  Another era emanated from it as it bore down on Crilly.   "You have some unfinished business with that one," the other face said looking past Crilly into the darkness, and then at Crilly again. 

"The way he died was horrible, but the way he lived was just as horrible.  How a human being could do that to another human being is unthinkable.  But we know you and your kind aren't human beings...you're a kind of a man, but one without consciousness,” the face hissed.  Crilly's heart raced in his chest threatening to explode.  He grabbed his chest thinking to himself that he was going to die of a heart attack," you’re gonna kill me I'm gonna die," he moaned as the disembodied voices conversed among themselves. 
"The dead like you don't exist in our existence like they do with the living," the scornful face spat indignantly,” looking past Crilly.  Then Crilly was suddenly grabbed by the scruff of his neck and drug backwards. 

I hope you have enjoyed this excerpt from the series "To Resurrect and Avenge" available at amazon and you can visit www.wix.com/soyinkaiyabo/chaoschronicals