It was a horribly hot day in Laredo, and Darius couldn't even wear any clothes sitting in his home with the air conditioning maxed. Sitting on his porch, Darius felt like he was going to die, and was willing to let it happen if it meant no more humidity. But, just as his eyes were about to close, he heard the squeaking of a cart coming down the road, as Darius looked to see who or what was there, he caught a glimpse of what looked like a man wearing an all black suit pushing a lemonade stand sized cart down the side of the road. "What the...", Darius muttered to himself, "It's 105 degrees, and a born n' raised Texan can't even wear pants with the AC on, who is that?". Darius got up off of his rocking chair, slipped on some sandals, and slowly perued the unknown traveler at the pace that the heat allowed him to move.
"Hey! Hey! Slow down there, buddy!", Darius yelled, and it seemed to catch the man's attention, causing him to stop. As Darius slowly hobbled up to the cart, he noticed the finer details of the man, he was wearing an entirely black suit with a crimson tie and a black painted mask with reflective orange lenses in the eyes. "What can I do for you, sir?", the deep pitch of the man's voice shocked Darius, "You can share the secret on how you can wear all black on a 105 degree day.", the man stared at Darius for a few moments, "Hello?"
"Welcome, sir, to my moving merchant stand! I sell only the finest quality masks on this very Earth! So tell me, sir, how may I help you on this fine day?"
"One: the day isn't fine if I can't wear pants, and two: I said tell me how you can wear an all black blazer!"
"Would you like to see my assortment of fine crafted and hand painted masks, or perhaps any supplies that you may want for DIY projects around your home?"
"Fine. Let me see your 'fine crafted and painted masks'."
The man pulls a chest out of a cubby in the cart, places it on top of the cart, and opens it to show a very large collection of colorful and carved masks that resemble existing characters from films, as well as original designs. Admiring the masks, Darius frustraredly grabs one that looks like a prop from a Friday the 13th film and starts to hobble off. "Sir, you need to pay!" the man yells, "My time and energy is pay enough!" Darius yells back with a struggling breath. However, when Darius turned back around to give one more snarky comment, the cart and the man had vanished.
It was now past midnight, and Darius was still watching old western movies on his television from three decades ago. Just as the movie finished, Darius heard the squeaking from the cart from this morning again. He shot up from his old recliner to the widow only to see his dusty, old, deserted road, "Must be that I’m tired" he said to himself, slowly shuffling to his bedroom. Darius woke up in the middle of the night to his bedroom door creaking open,
'But, I locked my door." he thought to himself. Slightly afraid, Darius grabbed his rusted shotgun and went to investigate, and as soon as he entered the living room he could see that his front door was missing. "What the?" Darius muttered "How does a door just disappear without makin' any noise?", and as Darius approached the doorway, he heard the floorboards creak behind him. Darius turned around with the speed of someone half his age and yelled "If anybody is in this house, you'd best be gone before I blow a hole in ya'!", he scrambled to find and turn on the lights. When Darius finally turned on the lights, he set his sight upon the hallway to his bedroom, but it wasn't empty, standing in the dead center was the man. Darius felt a level of fear that he could never imagine and it caused the man to appear taller and lankier than what he actually was. Darius pulled on the trigger of the gun, but to no result, he checked the round holder to find that it was empty. The man slowly advanced, pulling four red and gold bullets out of his pockets and dropping them and the floor, making loud taps as they made contact with the old wood floor. Darius began to swing the gun at the invader like a baseball bat, only for the man to grab it mid-swing and throw it to the side, breaking an old coffee table in half.
Storming out of the front door, Darius was sprinting for the first time in a decade. By the time Darius looked back, his home was out of sight. He was lost. As Darius looked forward once more, there, sitting in the night, was his home. "I need to call the police", it was the only thought in Darius' head at the moment. He slowly walked back into his home and grabbed his wall mounted phone, but it fell down to the floor as it was just the yellowing plastic shell that held all of the wiring. At that very moment, the man turned Darius around, grabbed him by the neck, and threw him onto his back, cracking the floorboards. The masked man pulled an axe out of what seemed to be thin air and declared in his deep echoing voice "The unjust acts done by thee shall be judged by the great edge of me."
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"Hey, Dave? When do you think Dad is going to show up to his own birthday party?"
"I dunno. He hasn’t answered his phone in two days. Do you hear, squeaking?"
"Yeah, what is that... hey, who is that? Hey! Who are you?"
"Welcome, gentleman, to my moving merchant stand! I sell only the finest quality masks on this very Earth! So tell me, gentleman, how may I help you two on this fine day?"