Musings From A Demented Mind by Derek Ailes, James Coon Read Free Book Online Page A

carriers.  My God, the carriers were beaten ad starved wretches.  Driven to the limits of the unknown, these ragged and forlorn beasts of burden were more animal than humans they vaguely resembled.
    I was to direct these spiritless zombies?  My stomach fought to upsurge and I gurglingly lost the battle into the pits.  I must find Mephistopheles and demand to be freed from this monstrous chamber of horrors.
    Receiving jumbled instructions, I slowly made my way out.  I hadn’t trekked long when I began to wish I had never started out.  I began running and then I saw I was involved in some odd cat and mouse game.  And I was the prey.
    Following me was a new, unspeakable, nameless horror.  Three large, red-eyed bats, dripping red liquid from their slit-like mouths were silently winging above.
    Exhausted, I stumbled past other souls lost in time, other decaying ruined mines, and pools of sulfuric slime.  Finally, I picked up a huge rock and braced myself to meet my tormentor. 
    A huge mastiff with three foaming heads appeared before me.  Was this to be the last thing I’d ever see?
    Suddenly, a cloud of acid smoke engulfed us both.  It passed quickly revealing that Mephistopheles had joined us.  With a wave of his clawed hand, the mastiff and bats slithered off. 
    “Why didn’t you remain at the quarry?”  he thundered.
    My head ached severely and I felt a warm ooze trickling down my neck.  I probed and found a large hole in the back of my head about the size of a bullet.  My mind throbbed painfully.  I felt pushed to inhuman limits. 
    “In the name of God!  What is this place to harbor such horrors as these?”
    “Surely you remember.  Or has amnesia set upon your mind?”  he said as the truth began to glimmer in my brain.  “Suicides are eternally damned to burn!”
    “I remember trying to kill myself,” I screamed, “but I don’t remember anything else after that until I woke up here.  Just where in the hell am I?”
    “You see, my friend,” he said, laughing hideously, “that is exactly where you are!”
    Silently, I went back with Mephistopheles following behind me to Quarry Eight to work for all eternity.
     

                         The Kick
     
    Marty watched as the clowns jumped out of the tiny compact car one after another after another after another.  He loved going to the carnival down in Connersville, Indiana.  This year they added a circus attraction.  He had never seen an elephant up close before and this year he finally had his chance.  His younger sister, Lois, laughed as the clowns collided into each other as one of them suddenly stopped to avoid crashing into one of the large elephants.
    Marty’s mom laughed.  He had never witnessed his mom having so much fun before.  He never could have imagined the circus would bring his mother so much joy.  Maybe becoming a clown would be a great career choice.  Besides, anybody could be a fireman or an astronaut.  He turned his attention back toward the clowns as one of them sprayed the others with a seltzer bottle.
    After the show, they sat down at the picnic tables set up near the small food trucks and ate hot dogs while their mom ate an elephant ear.  After they were done eating, their mom gave them some money to play some of the carnival games while she rested.  His sister tried throwing metal hoops onto some bottles while he threw some darts at some balloons in the hope of winning a small square mirror with the Superman emblem on it.  After finally winning one after spending several dollars, he walked away to rejoin his sister.  He could see her still unsuccessfully throwing the hoops.  As he got closer to her, somebody grabbed him and dragged him behind one of the trailers.
    “Let go of me!” Marty said as he struggled to get free.
    “Be quiet or I’ll cut you,” the man threatened.  He was a tall man dressed in raggedy clothes.  He had a cigar in his mouth and looked like he hadn’t