Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Ricky's Descent

Wednesday morning, Ricky casually walked around the exercise yard among the other inmates, contemplating his life up to that point.

“Hmmm” Ricky thought to himself “life in the big house isn’t that much different from life on the outside….at least for me.”

Continuing to review his life Ricky recalled his earliest memories struggling to grab hold of a memory…any memory…of his mother. Brenda Mason had died when Ricky was only two years old. He never knew how she died or under what circumstances, so he was left in the care of his alcoholic father and a succession of women who moved into and out of his life. The women his father brought home always seemed to resent Ricky’s presence, with the exception of Lucille.

Lucille was a tall, fiery, red-head that shared Ricky’s interest in magick and the supernatural. She bought him his first deck of tarot cards and showed him how to cast candle spells and fix mojo bags. Even more she really seemed to care about both Ricky and his father and she kept Ricky’s father from hitting him. Lucille was the only positive influence in Ricky’s life.

Unfortunately, Lucille was killed by a hit-and-run driver one night while walking along the road from a convenience store back to her home. They never found her killer.

“People come into your life whether you like it or not,” Ricky thought “and leave just as suddenly as they came, and sometimes you never know how or even why…The people who are supposed to care about you don’t, and enemies often come disguised as friends.”

Ricky began to think about how he was often the target of his father’s drunken rage, which only got worse after Lucille’s death. Like many children who grew up in abusive households he was a below-average student with very few friends. Even though he had a general interest in magick, the few spells he had attempted only seemed to half-work. Ricky recalled a particular spell he had cast as an older teenager that worked too well. Having grown bitter towards his abusive father, Ricky decided to use magick in an attempt to hurt his father like his father had hurt him.

Ricky stole one of his father’s shirts and fashioned a small poppet in the likeness of him, stuffing it with bitter-weed. So that there would be no confusion he wrote Thomas Mason in big bold letters on a piece of paper tape which he stuck to the doll’s chest. He then impaled the doll’s heart with nine pins while wishing ill upon his father and reciting the names of nine demons. He then hid the doll under the covers of his father’s bed.

Thomas Mason came home drunk that night while Ricky was fast asleep. Thomas awkwardly made it to his bedroom, took off his clothes and threw back the covers to climb into bed. Upon seeing the doll, he promptly died of a heart attack. The following morning, Ricky found the body and destroyed the poppet before calling 911.

Luckily Ricky’s 18th birthday was only 6 months away, so he didn’t spend a great deal of time in foster care. However, through his foster family, he was able to obtain a job working on the Power’s Family Estate as a general maintenance man and driver, owing to his natural gift for fixing gadgets, cars, and small appliances.

Ricky considered it a lucky break. The job came with a small furnished one-bedroom apartment over the garage behind the Manor, he was able to use the pool pretty much whenever he wanted since only Mr. Powers lived there and his son, Matthew, only came home from college on holidays and summers. The cook was always giving him food and he had no other bills, so he was able to pursue his interest in magick and witchcraft.

However, within just a year’s time Ricky’s luck turned sour as it seemed to always do and he found himself serving a 25 to life sentence for the murder of Matthew Powers, his employer’s son.

Ricky was still lost in his thoughts when he vaguely saw a dark figure out of the corner of his eye coming toward him quickly.

“I told you I’d be back to get yo ass, mother fucker.” screamed Billy Pyatt, the inmate who had attacked him in Wicca 101 the previous week.

Knocking Ricky to the ground, the two men wrestled with each other.

“..and now you’re gonna get what you got coming to you.” said Billy wielding a shank. Billy had been patient in making the shank for a week and a half. Each day he saved the clear plastic wrap from his meals and wound it around a toothbrush. He then used a lighter to super-heat the plastic melting it all together. Finally, he found a rough patch on the concrete wall in his cell on which to sharpen the plastic to a fine razor’s edge.

“You’re crazy, man” yells Ethan breaking away from Billy, who also scrambles to his feet.

It wasn’t long before the two combatants found themselves surrounded by the other inmates, shouting at them and shoving them ever closer towards one another. Paying no attention to the screaming men around him Billy Pyatt continued to taunt Ricky with the shank.

“Oh man, I can’t believe how much I’m gonna enjoy slicing you up!” taunts Billy swiping at Ricky with the shank.

Dodging the swipes as best as he could, Ricky tries to reason with Billy.

“Listen man” explains Ricky “let’s talk this out…just you and me”

“Talk? You wanna talk?” Billy asks with the look of someone who is accustomed to being a bully. “Dude, you are so weak?”

“Where the hell are the guards?” Ricky thinks to himself.

Billy takes another swipe at Ricky and comes extremely close to slicing him up, but before he could deliver the fatal blow, Ricky feels a sharp pain at the back of his head and just before everything goes black he sees another officer come up behind Billy and strike the back of his head with the butt of his rifle.

An hour later, Ricky awakes in a dimly lit windowless call. He had heard about solitary confinement from the other inmates but this was Ricky’s first time in what was known as the hole. He looks around the room where he sees nothing but a filthy toilet against one wall and a dingy mattress on the floor in the corner…no sheets….no pillow…and no blanket.

The next thing he notices is that he is completely naked. He knew the reason his clothes were removed was to keep him from using them to hang himself, but Ricky couldn’t help but think the correctional officers were, at least subconsciously, sadists.

Ricky did the only thing he could do, he crawled on the dirty mattress curled up in a ball and cried himself to sleep. A few hours later, he awakens to a bang on the metal cell door.

“Wake up ass-wipe” the guard yells sternly as he slides a tray of food through a slot in the bottom of the door “…supper’s here.”

Ricky goes over to the slot and pulls the tray aside.

“Hey, officer” Ricky calls out “officer…why am I in here?”

“Fighting is not tolerated in the Palmetto State Penitentiary.” came the guard’s reply.

“But I wasn’t fighting” Ricky explains “I was attacked, I was just defending myself.”

Ricky waited for a reply but none came. He finally gave up and took his tray over to his mattress where he ate half his baloney sandwich and drank his orange juice as he thought about what he was going to do with all this time on his hands.

The first few days Ricky filled his time mostly by jerking off and sleeping, but his body quickly lost the ability to entertain him and he found him self jerking off less and less and sleeping more and more. As he sunk into depression, Ricky began to remember the last lesson in which he had sat in on in the Wiccan Studies Class. He recalled what Ethan said about magick being channeled through the individual from the Higher Self. Ricky recalls what he’d read about meditation when he was younger and resolved to begin practicing it in order to find his Higher Self.

For the next few days, Ricky began to practice meditating by simply sitting in a comfortable position and focusing on his breathing. Inhaling deeply, Ricky held his breathe for a count of three seconds, slowly exhaled and then waited three seconds before inhaling again. Repeating this pattern of breathing Ricky began relaxing his entire body beginning with his feet and ending with his head. Ricky allowed all extraneous thoughts to fade away as he focused on nothing but his breathing and the gradual relaxation of his entire body. Eventually, he came to a point where both his mind and body were completely relaxed.

After a few days, Ricky was able to come to this place of complete relaxation more and more quickly. One day as he was meditating, Ethan opened his eyes and found himself standing up inside his cell.

“What’s going on here?” Ricky asks himself. “I don’t remember getting up...and why is it so bright in here?”

Confused, Ricky walks over to his cell door. He raises his fist to bang on it and call a guard for help.

“Hey!” Ricky yells “hey guard.” Ricky begins to bang on the door but his hand goes through the door.

Ricky is shocked, but curious about what’s going on he slowly tests the door moving his arm through it and bringing it back several times.

“Holy shit!”

As he slowly begins to understand what has happened, Ricky turns around to see himself still sitting on the floor in meditation.

“Astral Projection!” Ricky exclaims “I never could do it before.”

Ricky takes the opportunity to walk around his physical self taking in his own form from all sides as he continues to think about what is happening to him.

“It must be the combination of sensory deprivation, exhaustion, and the meditation.” Ricky thought to himself.

He finds that in this place his senses are heightened, colors are more vibrant, and sounds are clearer. Comfortable with the idea of being outside his own body, Ricky decides to do some exploring.

Moving through the various cells he spies his enemy Billy Pyatt masturbating.

“Hey asshole..” Ricky asks Billy “Remember me?”

However, Billy is unable to see or hear Ricky. Ricky goes over to Billy as he continues enjoying himself. Ricky raises his fist and punched Billy only to have his hand go through Billy.

“Some other time then” Ricky whispers as he walks through the wall. Ricky continues walking though the walls of the prison until he finds himself outside the prison and beyond its walls.

Enjoying his freedom, Ricky moves deeper and deeper into the swamps. As he walks along he hears the croaking of frogs, the chirping of birds, and the various sounds of nature. At one point he walks up on an alligator. At first his human instincts to flee kick in but then he remembers that his body is safe inside the prison.

“This astral projection is great and all…” Ricky thinks to himself “but I wanted to find my Higher Self.

He continues his walk.

“Hello” Ricky half-jokingly calls out “Higher Self, are you out there?”

At that, Ricky is drawn to a particular spot in the swamp where he sees a vague outline of large human/animal hybrid with glowing red eyes. Believing that he has found his Higher Self, or True Nature, Ricky approaches the entity.

“Are….are you my Higher Self?” Ricky asks the being, which simply stares back at him.

“I was told that if I could find my Higher Self I could make things happen, change my life…can you help me with that?”

“Hmmmm” Ricky thought “I remember reading that spirits are all around us and want to help us but they can’t because of our free will. It seems like I remember that you have to give the spirit permission to act in your life in order for it to help you.”

“I Ricky Mason” he says “invite you into my life. I grant you permission to act in my life to bring about my wants, needs, and desires.”

With that, the shape moves towards him and for the first time since leaving his body Ricky wishes that he was back in his safe cell. He tries to back away from the shape but finds that he is transfixed by the glowing red eyes before him. The shape moves into him and Ricky is overcome by a rush of powerful energy. His astral body which before had appeared to him as a transparent duplicate of his physical body now glows with an eerie red aura. Looking into a nearby puddle, Ricky sees that his eyes are now glowing red as well.

“I’ve done it!” Ricky exclaims to himself triumphantly “I’ve attained the Holy Guardian Angel.”

Ricky decides to return to his body in order to test his theory. Just as the thought enters his mind, he finds himself instantly back in his body.

“Whoa, whatta rush” Ricky mumbles excitedly.

Standing up and stretching his muscles, Ricky thinks back to how Billy Pyatt had tried to kill him days earlier, and testing his theory Ricky focuses his thoughts on Billy directing all his hate at him.

In his cell Billy “Bad-Ass” Pyatt is just about to achieve orgasm, and it is the last one he will ever have. The sound of Billy’s screams fills the entire ward.

Ricky moves over to his cell door and listens as the CO’s run down the hall and throw open Billy’s cell.

“What the FUCK happened here?” one guard screams.

“What is it? Ricky yells “What’s going on?

Ricky can hear now that the other members of his cell block have grown curious as well and are yelling to the guards for information.

Ricky hears a guard who voice he doesn’t recognize call for assistance on his radio…

“This is CO Belk.” the officer speaks into his radio “We have a situation down here. Billy Pyatt is dead, his cell is covered in blood.

“What?” the voice on radio replied

“It looks like he’s been torn apart by some animal……”

Ricky stops listening to the remainder of the conversation. Billy’s death had confirmed for him that he now has the power to be reckoned with. He decides to strike while the iron is hot and to use the confusion going on around him to seize the opportunity to escape his prison.

Closing his eyes, he visualizes the prison as a large chunk of Swiss cheese. As he concentrates the walls around him begin to vibrate, only a little at first, and gradually they shake violently forming large holes in the walls and floors throughout the prison. Alarms sound as prisoner after prisoner begins to escape out of the holes created by Red-Eye under the direction of Ricky Mason.

Standing at a large whole in the wall outside the prison Ricky pauses then turns around to take one last look at the prison.

“Behold, I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds.” Ricky whispers as he turns back to the hole and escapes into the night.


5 comments:

  1. This Ricky is one dangerous fellow. I take it brian will be going after him after he escapes?

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  2. The police aren't equipped to take down an empowered individual like Ricky...looks like I'll have to go after him.....

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  3. So now you've got me hooked, my friend!! Can't wait to read the next installment!

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  4. Deb, did you read all the chapters or just this one? I'll be testing you.....

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  5. With Ricky's new found power all Shadow Falls will be at his mercy. What a mess he has created.

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