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10/17/2024
"The Alley Man" - A new painting for the spooky season, 9x12 acrylic on watercolor paper. As I was painting this, I kept thinking of a short story to go along with it, and it wouldn't go away. So I went ahead and typed it out. I've included it in the post below, but fair warning: if you don't like scary stories, don't read any further!
A Favor for the Alley Man
By Thomas Alan Sandage
As she walked past the open mouth of the alleyway, she thought she saw something moving in the darkness between the buildings, behind all the rubbish, dumpsters, and rats. She didn’t want to stop and certainly didn’t want to look, but something compelled her. Reluctantly, she stopped and squinted into the inky black shadows.
“Could you do me a favor?” A slow, shaky voice asked from the dark.
She felt a jolt go through her body. Her eyes searched the darkness for the source of the sound. Suddenly, standing before her, she could barely see a small, round, widely grinning face, almost glowing green in the dark. Its hands were held up inquisitively beneath its chin, long spidery fingers dangling and twitching ever so slightly.
She cleared her throat and tried to sound unafraid. “I’m… I’m sorry, are you talking to me?”
The face stood there, unmoving, grinning widely. After a moment, it spoke again. Slowly. “Could you do me a favor? Please?”
She had never heard the word ‘please’ sound so terrible before.
“No, I don’t think so. I’m just going to say goodbye now.” She tried to walk away but couldn’t make herself move at all.
“You have a little baby at home, yes?” The voice quivered a bit on the last word.
She felt her skin crawl back into the hidden corners of her body.
“What did you say?”
The alley man just grinned. Its teeth looked sharp. She tried again to walk away, to run away, but the impossible grinning face paralyzed her.
“A little baby,” it said, as if tasting the words. “Yes. A ssss-sibling, not your own leavings. A little boy, yes?”
She could only stare, trying not to conjure images of her sleeping baby brother in his crib at home, suddenly sure that this small grinning man could see right into her thoughts.
“I want you to do me a favor,” the alley man said with a quiver. “When you get home, I want you to enter the baby’s room. Get a safety pin from the diaper drawer… and pierce your brother’s flesh until you extract a drop of blood. From the arm, from a finger, from the tender little thigh… It doesn’t matter. Just one drip is all. I suspect this will also produce a few tears. Yes… blood and tears. You will do me this favor… won’t you?”
She stared a moment longer, her face twisted in disgust, trying to gather her swirling thoughts and fight away the growing nausea.
“You’re really sick, you know,” was all she could manage to say. She tried to leave once more, but her feet felt bolted to the ground.
The alley man spoke again:
“I should tell you… if you do not grant me this small favor, then I will come into your house, tonight, and I will slowly strip the skin from your baby brother’s meat… starting at his tiny toes and working my way up. I will find every single drop of blood his little body holds within it. It will take some time… because I know how to do it right.”
She felt her throat closing up, and tears welling in the corners of her eyes. The alley man’s mouth looked even wider and wetter than before.
“So… which is it going to be?” With that, the grinning face receded into the darkness until she could see no trace. After a few minutes, she wondered if it had ever really been there.
Finally, she was able to move again. With shaking legs, she began to make her way home.
On her walk, she had plenty of time to wonder what she would do once she arrived.
