Sinners Rapture

A short horror story

My time card slid into the antique card puncher. I buy the weirdest things from the little shop on the corner. The owner, older in years but not in spirit, gives me little knick-knacks for free. Sometimes, an item isn’t worth anything, and she lets me take it home.

The time card puncher, or whatever it is called, is red on the top with bits of rust aging it. It belonged to a factory about 9 miles from here. Rumor is people died there. Not from an explosion or accident, but from a serial killer.

I don’t pay any mind to rumors, but this one is fascinating.

After a late shift, everyone clocked out but one man. He lingered with his work, hoping to make some extra money. Five hours after his shift ended, he clocked out on this very machine I hold.

He didn’t leave. Instead, he punched six more cards after him. He stormed into the lunchroom, where his co-workers sat tied and gagged. Needless to say, he killed them. I will skip the gory details because those matter the least.

The real horror happened after.

He left the corpses strewn across the tile floor. Grabbed his empty lunch box and headed home. He had to cross under the Marble Lane bridge, which he did every day, but not this late.

The clock struck 3am as he entered the messy tunnel. Lights flickered, creating an eerie gray mist. Graffiti lined its walls. The cement had chips and holes from top to bottom. A bit of water dripped in from the rain a few hours earlier, forming a small puddle.

His uniform was untouched by the deaths he caused. Only a speckle of blood on his left hand gave away his misdeed.

While whistling a tune that went: da dum da da dum, da dum, da dum. The lights went out.

Most people would stop dead in their tracks, afraid to push forward. Not him. The lights came back on, interrupting his whistle.

Under the aura stood masked figures. Halloween was over, but the tall burly looking fellow wore a werewolf costume. Fake fur and teeth shone in the overhead light like it was brand new. The other fresh out of the box costume could be an angry clown, but most say its demonic smile didn’t come with the mask. Instead, it was the reflection of the thing inside it.

“Hello? You seem to be blocking the exit.” He reached for his freshly used murder weapon. Keeping it tight behind his back to keep an element of surprise.

There was no answer. Nothing but stillness from brave or possibly crazed body blockers.

He disappeared that night and people say those things in the tunnel were demons. Satan sent his minions up from hell to take the life of the most evil man our town ever saw.

Like I said, it’s just a rumor.

The little red box fit perfectly in my satchel. I say goodbye to the kindest woman I know, planting a kiss on her forehead.

It rained earlier, but I missed it. Darn. I love the rain. It washes sins from your skin. Almost like God forgiving you from heaven.

The tunnel under the highway hasn’t changed much. I live in the apartments on the other side. It’s a shortcut that some wouldn’t dare take.

Lights flicker as I take care to avoid the potholes deepened by time. I whistle a tune to the beat of the metal box, knocking against my thigh.

Da da dum dee da dum, dee da, dum da…

A black mist rose from the ground as the tunnel went dark. I kept moving forward.

A bright flash caught me off guard, but the halogens returned soon after. Halloween is over, but two masked brutes stood before the exit.

“Cute. You aren’t as terrifying as I hoped. I mean, werewolf and demonic clown are kinda basic.” I cackle as I remove the machine and punched card from my satchel with the blood from the kindest woman I used to know on my hands. She put up a good fight, bless her heart.

Redirecting my gaze to the entities before me, “But yeah, I did the six. I punched the only card left, but I did it six times.” I hid my anxiousness behind a shrug and a slight tilt of my head.

I hold out the proof of sacrifice and wait.

The two figures twist their heads sideways. Bent neck brutes smiling wider and wider.

“I will take that as a yes. Let’s go to hell.”