I Forgive You, John

John is one of the biggest Hollywood actors of the eighty’s, starring in almost every big box office movie at the time. He is tall, fit, in his early thirties, and has very desirable facial features. He possesses an incredible ability to memorize scripts and has a tongue so sharp, he could cut paper with it. He had a knack at convincing anyone, including the big movie studios, to do his bidding and get what he wanted, even without the help of his manager. He owned the most luxurious condo in the most expensive part of town, the meanest-looking street-legal car, and had multiple partners. He was living the dream.

After another day of filming his latest movie ends, he tells the director how he wants to redo a few scenes with some changes he’ll be making to the script.

“John, I am sorry, but we need to stick with the script as it was written. We can’t be doing any changes right now so late in the production,” says Marlon, the director.

John looks at Marlon in the eyes as if he just insulted him by being denied his request. His face transforms from a smiling snake to a hungry tiger.

“What are you talking about? This is my movie, and, like all my movies, I make the changes I want. Why do you think they all make it big? ” says John.

As he is yelling at Marlon, the crew that remained on the set is witnessing the event. John looks down at the short, chubby man and bends his body down, bringing his head to Marlon’s height. When both their eyes meet, John grabs Marlon by his shirt with his fist, making Marlon’s collar tighten around his neck.

“And if you ever say no to me again I’ll make sure you are never hired by any studio again, ever!”

John screams while violently shaking him back and forth. Marlon trips on his chair and falls backward, hitting his shoulder hard against the concrete floor.

John looks around and notices everyone staring.

“You all saw he tripped on his own chair, the clumsy chimpanzee. Keep your mouths shut or it will cost you your jobs,” he yells out.

Everyone’s heads simply shifted downwards, as if they never saw anything happen, while Marlon is trying to sit upright while dealing with the pain on his shoulder. John walks back to Marlon, squats down and says to him,

“Try anything stupid, you little monkey, and I’ll make sure you regret it.”

Marlon, terrified, simply nods quietly, gets up, and walks away.

“And tomorrow we’ll be making those changes I told you about,” John shouts at him.

John tends to be a cruel person, but that day he knew he had gone too far. He starts to worry about what happened and what possible actions Marlon and everyone else that was there could take. Unfortunately, John is the kind of person that would forget about his indiscretions rather quickly. As he is exiting the building, he is greeted by three very skinny women with exaggerated features that he brought earlier to wait for him while he did his magic in front of the cameras. He kisses the blonde, Gina, while he wraps his arms around the redhead, Darlene, and the brunet, Shana. The threesome starts complaining about how he made them wait for him all day and how bored they are. He tells them not to worry, that they are going to have plenty of fun now. They all jump in his car and drive off. While speeding way beyond the limit, John pulls out his coke stash from the glove compartment, spreads some of the white dust on the side of his index finger, and takes a hit, giving him an instant jolt.

“Hey! You girls want some of this? I feel like sharing today.”

“Well aren’t you the nicest guy ever? It almost worries me that you are being so giving today,” says Gina, while sharing the party favors with the other two.

John laughs and starts messing around, not paying attention to the road. The car starts veering to the left while he is distracted with fooling around and annoying the girls.

“Watch out!” Gina yells as they are about to crash with a truck coming the opposite way.

They start screaming and John reacts just in time to miss the truck. Back in their lane, John starts laughing maniacally.

“You should’ve seen your faces. I had it under control the whole time,” John claims.

“Yeah right! You looked like you were about to shit your pants,” Shana teases.

After arriving at the ‘Club Spearmint’ they get out of the car at the front. John throws the keys at the valet.

“One scratch and I’ll kill you.”

The valet is used to being talked down by the rich and crazy, but John struck fear in his eyes. Perhaps he felt like he meant it.

John walks in the club doors and is immediately greeted by his manager, Sheen. He is as tall as John and very slender but not week looking. He sports a 5 o’clock shadow, a red leather jacket, jeans and always using thick sunglasses, indoors or outdoors. He is the only person John does not lose his temper with. They both give each other a very fraternal hug. John trusts Sheen with his life.

“Thought you weren’t coming at all, Johnny.”

“Sheen, come on man, you know I don’t like it when people call me Johnny.”

“Alright, alright but listen, we need to talk real quick about what went on today at the set.”

“You already heard about that?” John asked, rather surprised.

“Looks like we handled it but John, we gotta be a careful buddy. I already had to pay a few people to keep their mouths shut. You know I know you are the best of the best and fuck ‘em all if they ain’t gonna let you have what you want but we need to tone it down a bit when it comes to getting physical, especially with the directors”.

John listens to Sheen carefully, but at the same time, he wants to forget and just party for the rest of the night. To distract Sheen from the conversation, he pulls Darlene, the redhead, and swings her towards him.

“Hey Sheen, this one is just like the color of her hair, a real firecracker. why don’t you take her for a spin there and see if you like her.”

Sheen forgets in an instant what they were talking about. They smile at each other, he pulls her to sit on his lap and they both start a conversation out of thin air. John is glad he dropped the subject and calls out for a waitress to bring them drinks and shots. Shana and Gina keep John company, entertaining him while they have one drink after another the rest of the night.

After a long night, the venue is closing, and they all exit the club and walk to the parking lot at the back of the building.

“Damn John,” Says a very intoxicated Sheen, “You still need to get to the studio tomorrow, you think you gonna make it?”

“Sheen, you know I can keep this up all night and still do all my lines perfectly. I’m gonna go back to the Condo with the girls and get extra physical,” says John while winking and grinning at them.

"Oh John, you are such a pig," says Darlene.

John starts laughing and looks at Sheen for validation but notices him acting differently all of a sudden.

"Yo, you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost out of nowhere?"

Sheen smiles nervously, nods, and places his hand tightly over John's shoulder.

“Hey, I totally forgot to give you something. Take the girls to your car and meet me at mine.”

“Can’t this wait till tomorrow?” John asks.

Sheen insists.

“Well, I mean, it could but I really feel I should give it to you now, you know, wanna get rid of it since it ain’t mine and don’t wanna lose it.”

After John turns on his car and has the three women get in it, he walks to Sheen’s car.

Sheen is already behind the wheel and, as John approaches, he just opens the trunk.

“Hey, buddy, why don’t you go back there and grab that box and then close the trunk, will ya?”

John looks hesitant as he finds the situation weird. As drunk as he is, he feels Sheen is suddenly acting suspicious but he walks towards the back of the car anyway. For some reason, Sheen parked in a very dark corner of the parking lot and only one light post is lighting the car. When John gets in front of the half-open trunk lid he hears something running and making noises behind him. He turns around to see what is going on but there is nothing.

“Did I just hear kids?”

Sheen gets impatient and yells out of the window “Hey, hurry up. I’ve got things to do in the morning.”

John opens the trunk and sees a box wrapped in brown paper sitting by itself. John asks Sheen what the box is, but Sheen stays quiet. He stares at the box for a moment and hears giggling and running again, making him turn around to look once more but nothing is there.

“Take the damn box already, it belongs to you,” says Sheen.

John grabs the box, closes the trunk, and walks back to the driver’s side. Sheen looks at him very sober and very serious.

“So that box, a girl imma say her early s came by my house and rang my doorbell. When I opened the door, she just asked if I was your manager. I was gonna tell her to fuck off but something overtook me, man. I don’t know what it was, but I just said yea. She showed me the box and said to give it to you, and tell you that it is a gift from your biggest fan. After I took it, everything went dark for a few seconds and then I could see again. She freaking disappeared into thin air… Anyways, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

And before John could say anything about it, Sheen revs up his engine and takes off, almost squashing John’s feet with the tires.

“What the hell is wrong with him? And what is up with this stupid bo..”

John suddenly freezes while holding the small box with his right hand and staring at it. He starts hearing multiple figures giggling and laughing while running all around him. John cannot move his body but is able to see these figures surrounding him and starts sweating profusely and suddenly, Shana reaches to his shoulder. He breaks from his petrification and slams Shana to the ground.

“Shit, John! What the hell is your problem?”

“I am sorry babe! Here, let me help you up. I don’t know what came over me” John responds, realizing he is becoming more and more physically aggressive lately.

“Nah! I’m done with this night and your stupid ass. I’m leaving.”

“But you don’t have a car,” John reminds her.

“That is what a taxi is for, dumbass,” Shana says in a mocking tone while vanishing into the alleyway that leads to the main boulevard.

With Gina and Darlene waiting, John makes haste to his car and drives off to the condo. The girls know their way in the building so they go ahead and John exits the vehicle last, grabbing the box from the back seat. Intoxicated and stumbling the whole way, he finally makes it to the girls who are waiting for him to open the door.

“Come on Johnny! Open the door already, I gotta pee,” says Gina.

John grows enraged when he hears her call him Johnny.

“I told you to not call me that.”

He grabs her by the neck and shoves her into the apartment. She can’t stop and keeps stumbling backward till her legs hit the living room couch, falling back on it. Darlene runs after her and jumps next to her. The two of them are so drunk they can’t help but start laughing and tell him to stop getting so mad. Gina and Darlene go to the minibar and serve themselves some vodka to wash down the ecstasy pills they have been saving. They both take a glass and a pill to John.

He sits on the couch and places the box and a mirror glass on the coffee table and cuts 9 lines of the white powder. He fashions a straw out of a hundred dollar bill and inhales three lines consecutively and then lays back, staring at the box. The ecstasy starts kicking in and he turns his head to look at Gina and Darlene jumping on his bed in his room but, instead of hearing their voices yell and speak, he hears the giggling and laughter of children playing. Everything starts slowing down but everything gets visually scratchy, like white noise. He turns to the box and sees it bleeding what looks like blood from the bottom. He gets creeped out by what he is witnessing and grabs the box to toss it. Suddenly, after lifting it from the table, there is no blood, but he also notices there is no sound, no noise. John walks around the apartment and can’t find the girls. He is alone.

John tries to keep calm and decides to sit back down on the couch. He looks at the brown paper-wrapped box and notices something that wasn’t there before, some sort of writing in red. What he sees paralyzes him completely.

The paper wrap on the box read: “For John, from your biggest fan… Joany”

John starts freaking out and his heart starts pumping hard and erratically. He starts sweating profusely again like he did at the parking lot. He grabs his phone and tries to call Sheen but there is no signal. He tries to get out of the apartment but the door is jammed. He screams and grabs the skin of his face with his nails and fingertips, pulling hard, trying to make himself feel pain in hopes of waking up from this nightmare. The laughter of children gets louder, and at the same time, screams of a suffering child mix with all the chaos. John sits on the couch, closing his eyes and covering his ears with his hands but it doesn't help mute the noise. He lets his hands drop and opens his eyes and starts screaming shrieks of madness.

Suddenly the noise stops and he looks at the door down the hall. Someone is opening it. John’s nerves break out as the door opens. To his surprise, it is Marlon who comes in. Marlon looks around as if looking for someone in a vast space and locks eyes with John.

“Hey John, come on! We made those changes to the script you wanted. You were totally right! This will make the movie a lot better. We need you on set to film immediately.”

John stands up as if nothing happened minutes ago. He walks out the door and into a movie set. Marlon, sitting on his director’s chair, yells:

“Action!”

John becomes confused and asks for a line.

“Line!”

But no one responds. A spotlight is pointing at his eyes and he cannot even see Marlon. The light is getting brighter, blinding him, and he tries to shade his eyes to see what is going on. Audible clicks are heard as every other light starts turning off one after the next. He is looking around as darkness engulfs each area that was lighted. Finally, he looks at the big light and it shuts off. John is in complete darkness.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

The screams of children begin sounding again, along with clear chanting.

“You killed me. It's your fault, John. You killed me.”

John cowards down, lifting his hands above him as if pleading for his life.

“I didn't mean to do it. I really didn’t mean it. It was an accident… it was an accident… It was an accident.”

John had a good idea about what the voice was talking about. He drops to the floor in a fetal position and cries his eyes out. The screams stop once again and a spotlight flips on right above him. Another spotlight is pointing straight at him from a farther point. He looks at the light source and sees a small silhouette walking towards him. As it gets closer to John, he is able to clearly see a child wearing a blue t-shirt and shorts with white sneakers and a red cap. John recognizes the kid and drops on his knees, shaking.

“Joany?” he asks while his eyelids open as far wide as they can.

“Big bro, you know I’m your biggest fan, right?”

“Yes you are, and I know it.”

John starts sobbing uncontrollably. Joany looks at him with a kind smile and says:

“John, it’s ok. I forgive you. I know you didn't mean for it to happen. But now we can be together forever. Here, hold my hand. Let me help you get up.”

Joany pulls his older brother by the hand and they both stare at each other.

“Come on, we need to walk that way.”

John looks in the direction Joany is pointing to.

“Towards the light?”

“Yeah! Come on, let's go!”

Held by each other's hand, they both walk toward the light and fade away into the darkness.

Police are all over the condo. A cop is interviewing both Darlene and Gina.

“We don’t know what happened. He suddenly got all aggressive with us and he slapped Gina. We pushed him back and he fell to the floor and we left. We don’t know what got over him. We came back to check on him and...” Darlene tries to explain, unable to finish her last sentence.

Two other cops are staring at the couch in the living room.

“Man, this is sad. I’ve seen a lot of things, but this is really getting to me,” Says the cop standing to the left.

“I know… but at least he finally came out with it. That case was dropped due to lack of evidence, but everyone knew what happened at that ledge,” says the other cop.

A detective enters and observes the scene in the living room. John was dead, his cold body still sitting straight on the couch. His lifeless eyes were wide open still staring at the door. His wrists slit. All the blood had drained off his veins. The detective looks at the clean mirror glass which had a missing shard from one of the corners. Next to the glass was an ordinary cardboard box. The lid was opened and inside was a photo of a young John and a younger boy. The detective puts on a rubber glove, grabs the photo and looks at the back of it, and reads something written in pen.

‘My big bro with his biggest fan… Me!’

Right beneath, the names "John and Joany". Next to the box was the brown paper wrap with the words "I killed him" written in John’s own blood.

Outside the condo, between the blue and red lights, the girl that gave Sheen the box, Joany’s childhood friend, who took the picture those many years ago and witnessed the horrible incident, looked up at the apartment’s windows, watching the commotion. She smiles.

“Joany, now they all know the truth. Rest in peace.”

THE END