3:30 A.M.

3:30 A.M

Marquisa sat beside him on a torn up mattress that probably
served as his bed. A cool breeze blew through the broken windows
that had been boarded up but were now ripped down by addicts
and hookers who wanted a place to get high. She met this man on
The Block two hours before and even though he smelled like he
hadnʼt bathed in a couple of days, the need to get high overrode
her common sense. She could deal with a little body odor if it
meant she could get a quick hit.

They found themselves buying six caps of crack and heading
to an abandoned house where they could get high without being
bothered. She had a half-smoked cigar that she had filled with
marijuana in her back pocket and she decided she would share it
with him after they had a couple of hits.

They entered the building from the porch at the rear of the
dilapidated house. He led her into the dining room area where he
lit a candle. Marquisa watched him with large brown eyes as he
dumped half of a cap into a broken car antenna with a piece of a
wired copper scrubbing pad that served as his makeshift crack
pipe…something commonly referred to on the street as a straight
shooter. He lit the end of the pipe, inhaled deeply as he sucked the
smoke into his lungs. She leaned forward anxiously with her own
straight shooter in hand as he exhaled the acidic smoke through his
nose. He handed her a cap and watched her as she opened it
greedily, dumping most of the contents into her pipe and striking
two matches to take her hit. She leaned back as she inhaled the
smoke deep into her lungs.

The man could see her eyes widen as the crack kicked in,
roaring through her body like a freight train. She exhaled the
smoke in a steady stream and smiled to herself as her mind took
off to parts unknown.

“Did you get it?” he asked while leaning back against the wall,
taking a deep breath, the scent of damp earth, rotted floor and
unlived house filling his nose.

Marquisa nodded slowly.

“Good.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slim
rubber hose, a spoon and a small packet of a substance that she
thought was heroin. “Here.” He tossed her another cap.

“Thanks baby.” She said while pouring the remainder of the
first cap into her pipe, and lighting another match.
“Iʼm gonʼ make you feel real good when Iʼm done.”

She took another hit, and then watched him as he prepared to
inject himself with heroin. She smiled again. Once he lapsed into
unconsciousness, she would through his pockets and take the rest
of the caps that he had on him. All she had to do was wait.

From the moment that he injected himself, something inside
her told her that something was wrong. She didnʼt feel right. It was
as if the very room they occupied was suddenly closing in on her.
She told herself that it was just her being high that was making her
paranoid, but she couldnʼt shake the feeling.

The man leaned back against the wall and let the syringe fall
from his hand. She struck two matches and lit the end of her
straight shooter, forcing herself to wait until she was sure that the
man was dead to the world.

She closed her eyes once again, savoring her high when the
man leaned forward unexpectedly and blew out the candle pitching
them into ice cold darkness.

In an instant, the very darkness that surrounded them grabbed
her throat, slamming her against the wall. Her mind didnʼt connect
with what was happening at first…and then she began clawing at
the blackness, trying to scream in hysteria.

She felt cold steel slice the side of her face, tearing flesh from
temple to chin. She fought hard, unaware that she had wet herself
as warm blood coursed down her neck and back. She scrambled
through the darkness screaming in terror as she tried to find the
door, but in her confused state, she lost her way and stumbled, her
foot going through a rotted piece of floorboard. The man was on
her like a black shadow, and in her last moments, she thought she
could see his horrible empty grin. A horrified scream tore from her
throat as he lifted his arm in a deadly arc and then brought it down
stabbing her in the chest. And then seemingly without thought, he
brought it up and then down, again…and again…and again.