A Good Reason To Be Afraid Of The Dark (FICTOID)

A depraved janitor made a bargain with the devil:  His soul in return for being able to kill people with impunity and never be brought to trial for it.

“Done!” said the devil, who lived by the rule that a fool and his soul should so be departed.

So the janitor became…a killer whale.  He collapsed in a heap on the quilt factory floor, knocking over canisters of dye. He tried to speak to the devil, but couldn’t adequately operate the orca’s mouth.

The devil could guess what he was saying, however.  “Now, now, no need to praise me,” he said.  “Just get yourself down to the ocean and start having fun.”

And with that the devil vanished in a =poof!=

The janitor cum killer whale would have kicked himself if he still possessed legs and feet.

But…the factory sat near the beach, no more than a mile away.  There was a drainage canal behind the plant.  If he could get there…

It took the transformed janitor most of the night to flop over to the loading dock, force it open, drop heavily on the rough gravel of the parking lot, then wriggle over trash and discarded wooden pallets to reach the canal and allow it to carry him down to the ocean.

The salt water stung his ten thousand wounds as he swam out into the ocean.

The sun will be up in a couple of hours, he thought, and soon after that, the tourists, completely unaware of the school of blue sharks closing in rapidly behind him.

© Buzz Dixon