CHOOSE YOUR OWN MINDFUCK: A Night in Eighth Block Tower (B3)
Bedlam Bible fans! Explore the Eighth Block Tower! Choose your fate! New posts every Tuesday and Friday. September '23 through December '23. Don't succumb to the huummmmmmmmm...
You’ve decided to stay in the car…
“Look, Gale, I’m just gonna level with you,” you say, feeling somewhat embarrassed. “I just got out of jail hours ago and the first thing I did was buy a gun so I could rob somebody. I’m not sure why my brain works this way, but it seems I’m trying my damndest to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Now I managed to talk myself out of the robbery, but I know it’s only a matter of time before I do something stupid and get locked up again. I have a feeling if I walk inside that tower tonight, that trouble’s gonna come sooner rather than later. I need a night, you know? So, I’m just gonna take a night and chill the fuck out.”
Gale wrinkles her nose and gives you a look that could make a dog whimper. “What the fuck are talking about?” she asks. “I just asked if you wanted to check out my friend’s band with me. You’re acting like I’m trying to recruit you to go on some murder spree!”
“I just know myself,” you insist. “It’ll start off innocent enough, but something will happen, always does… someone will say something to me, then I’ll say something back, next thing I know I’m doing 2 years for aggravated assault.”
“Jesus,” Gale says, opening the car door and stepping out onto the sidewalk. She’s almost as tall as you. You look down at her feet to see she’s wearing a pair of heavy black boots with six-inch heels. “Now that you put it that way, I think you’re right. This is where we go our separate ways.”
You nod. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing ya then,” you say.
She rolls her eyes. “Not likely.”
She walks away. Just before she enters the front entrance of the Eighth Block Tower, you call out to her. “Thanks again for the ride!” Without looking back, she lifts her left hand and extends her middle finger, then disappears inside the building.
You let out a deep sigh, then crawl into the backseat of the Oldsmobile. It’s spacious, as far as cars go, but you still feel cramped up inside it. It’ll do for the night, you think, adjusting to the contours of the seat, hoping to find a position that’s comfortable enough to remain asleep for a couple of hours at least. Unfortunately, there’s one thing preventing you from even closing your eyes—the spring. The end of it is sharp and tears into your skin no matter how you angle yourself against it. She was right, you think. This fucking sucks.
As you writhe about atop the seat, a glint of bright light beams down through the sunroof and catches your eye. The moon—it’s full and big and as bright as you’ve ever seen it. You can clearly see the details of its every crater, and you notice too for the first time the series of cracks that run through its lower right side, as if broken, seconds away from bursting into tiny shards. Despite its many flaws, you still find it breathtaking, and its beauty is enough to push the troublesome spring right out of your mind. You lay there admiring it for so long that you nearly fall asleep, but something rattles you wide awake.
Gunshots. Six, seven… ten… they just keep ringing out, one after another.
You lean forward and peek outside to see if you can locate exactly where they’re coming from. After nearly a full minute of searching, you finally discover the flashing lights up on the rooftop. Every flash is followed by a resounding boom. The gunshots are coming from the roof. No doubt about it.
Immediately you think of your partners in crime. Have they run into a bit of trouble?, you wonder. Or are they trying to kill one another and make off without splitting the loot? That sounds about right. Then again, it may have nothing to do with them at all. Perhaps it’s one of those crazy residents you’ve heard so many stories about.
Whatever it is, you’re suddenly feeling very exposed inside this beaten up Oldsmobile. There aren’t even windows to keep the crazies out, rendering the locks completely useless. If somebody approached you with malicious intent, you’d be a sitting duck.
At least you have a gun—though somehow knowing that doesn’t make you feel any less anxious. You decide it’s best to leave the vehicle.
But where will you go? You could take your chances up on the roof. It may pay off. There’s a fire escape on the side of the building you could easily climb to get up there.
Considering this option has you fantasizing something wicked: Suppose your old pals from the prison got into a little spat over the cash… things would turn sour pretty quick. You see them up on the roof, splitting the cash, then one of them suddenly realizes the pot doesn’t have to be split at all. The gun. A bullet in the right place is surely worth tens of thousands of dollars, right? A shot fires in the night. Then another… and another. Something’s wrong. Now the two of them are shooting at each other. But what happens when the night falls back into silence? Sure, maybe one of them finally gets the other, never to be seen again. But… what if they both end up taking a bullet or two? It’s possible they end up injuring each other so badly that you’d be able to swipe up that shoebox full of cash and get away, without a chance in hell of them ever catching up with you. But how long has it been since you parted ways with them? Ten minutes, maybe? You know it hasn’t been long. It’s possible they haven’t even made it into the apartment yet.
— To climb the fire escape, click here.
— To enter the front entrance of the Eighth Block Tower, click here.