The Maddening of David Black: Part 1

High above the crashing waves, high above the soaring cliffs, high above the trembling emerald turf- stood David Black. He leaned precariously upon a long lean frame, bent and gazing upwards. The screaming cliff mere inches before him drew no attention, he stared at the stars, higher than high above. The last crimson drops of sunlight left the dying veins of the day, and blackness came. They stood there, staring back, the eyes of an unknown beast. The distant drops of heaven’s heart blood. The shining diamonds of God’s crown.
Hands groped absently at the material of his pants pockets, his fingers caressing the chill form of car keys, the fleshy silk of a leather wallet. The wind danced across the long matted grass, tugging gently at his jeans and sweatshirt. The unseen hands of fate. The laughing fingers of eternity. The brief touch of reality.
Suddenly, the openness, the brilliant clarity through which he saw the world, through which he saw everything, stopped. It stopped. Once more the universes will was exerted upon him, he stared a moment at the stars, a blank bewildered look upon his pale features. Then the wind’s hatred of the un-movable was upon him, he started to fall backwards against the unprepared for howl of air. He corrected forward, and stared downward, into the gaping jaws of watery ebon death, and screamed. His arms pin-wheeled, he fell, he fell downward in such a horrifying arch that all he saw were stars. And nothing. White fire flared as his skull slammed against stone.

Black.

His brain moaned, he moaned. His mind willed itself ruthlessly to awareness, and he was aware. Above him, the satanic shimmer of stars mocked. Emerald pillars surrounded him, and bent in the wind. Mindlessly he leaned forward and glanced around. The grass laughing in the still angry air as he clutched his head. Cradling his face, he peeked through his fingers, inches away from him the edge of the precipice loomed still, around him, giggled the grass. A low, flat, black, scowling boulder glared at him, from behind, accusingly, as if blaming him for falling on it.
Carefully, he stood, staggering violently, his head swimming. He balanced himself and stepper away from the edge, towards a blue Honda. He leaned heavily on the cars hood, young face contorted as his stomach heaved violently. Eventually, his head cleared again, and the dry heaves stopped. He slowly looked around, trying to get his bearings.
He stood in a field, a wide open grassy field. The roar of the wind mingled with the crashing boom of the waves, meshing into an unearthly howl that suffused the environment. The blue Honda was unoccupied, he glanced around, desperately seeking another... he stumbled for the word.
Human, he thought to himself, another Human.
He stood there, staring around, until his fingers slipped absently into his pockets again, and contacted with keys and wallet. He withdrew these and stared at them numbly. Slowly, his eyes locked upon the Honda logo on the side of the key. He turned and dumbly held up the key, looking at it and the car in turn.
My...car?
He stepped up to the car, and slowly, with near instinctive reflexes, inserted the key into the lock and turned. He jumped away from the car at the unexpected, but strangely for-seen click that accompanied the opening of the locks.
My car...
He started to reach again for the door and stopped, turning instead to the wallet still in his hand. He gently opened it, slowly, he reached for what he knew was the drivers license. He drew out the plastic card and stared for a long moment.
David Black...slowly he reached up and touched his face, there was a goatee, just as in the picture. He pulled a single hair gingerly from his head, and inspected it in the cars dome light. It was black, same color as the man’s in the photo.
Am I... David Black?
He flipped open the visor, and looked into the small mirror. Than man from the license photo stared back. He, stared back.
He ruffled through the wallet, a picture of a woman brought no memories, but an old fishing license hit him like a tidal wave, images and sounds. Memories of a childhood that was not his. He stared at the LucidTech ID card, nothing. A half of a two-dollar bill accompanied the memory of a first kiss. Not his, though. It was like seeing someone else’s life, seeing it, knowing it to be your own, and being unable to accept how alien it seemed.
Eventually, a strange need overcame him. He started the car, and drove down the muddy road towards... something. As the car rumbled down the street more images came to him. He had been here before. When, he could not remember, why, was also a mystery. All that came was the image of a ship seen from the cliff. An oil tanker of some kind... or perhaps a fishing boat?
He shook free of the blurred image and drove.
The road turned more solid, and finally joined a paved highway. He could not remember the way, but by instinct he followed his unconscious urge. More images came, parties, fights, sickness, death, birth. Swirling and blurring in an unfathomable mist of his life. Behind it all, something lurked. Something that was not right. Something that wanted out, wanted out...wanted out.
A throbbing grew in David’s mind. A simmering stew of pain and confusion. Eventually, his vision began to fade, to blur. Until it came.
David shook away the misty headache, raising his eyes just in time to see an object in front of the speeding car... not an object, a man! The car screamed as David wrenched the wheel to the left. He looked out the window, and saw himself staring back. David grinned at David. David melted away, it his place stood a beast of untold darkness. Horns hung like hair from the creature’s skull, there was no flesh. Instead of teeth, fangs hung like icicles from the creature’s jaw. Cords of black muscle bound a humanoid frame upright. In the core of all that made David human, he knew what It was. It, was him.
David’s mind screamed in horror, screamed that it wasn’t possible.
In the span of half a moment, a lifetime of murder slammed into his mortal soul. His murders, his killings. He had never done such things! He would never! How could he! It was madness! MADNESS!
The car sailed from the road and crumbled against a tree.

Black.

Slowly, consciousness came to him. David Black raised his head from the deflated air bag and looked around.
“What the hell...”
He had just been at the cliffs, watching the sunset as he often did driving home from work. He sometimes brought his victims there before killing them. Now, he was somewhere on the highway home, his car wrapped around a tree.
Carefully, he extricated himself from the twisted remnants of the car. He took stock of himself. He seamed unharmed. Honda’s were safe cars. That was why he had bought one. Strong frames, performed well in all the tests. Good trunk space too. Oh, that reminded him.
He pulled a cellular phone from the dashboard. Nokia. A good phone, reliable. He flipped it open and dialed his triple-A number. While it rang he pulled the trunk release and lifted the lid open. He pulled a massive blue duffel bag from the trunk and began to walk into the woods with it slung over one shoulder.
“Hello? Yeah, hi, I just had a bit of an accident. Yeah, a little ways south of mile marker 52. Yeah, the coast highway. Uh-huh. Uh-huh, yeah one sec.” David grunted as he dropped the bag to the ground in a small gully. “Excuse me? No, I’m not hurt, just had to hike a little ways into the woods to get some phone service. Yeah, damn cell-phones, go dead all the time.” He carefully began to kick the thick leaves over the bag. “Twenty minutes ‘till the truck shows? Naw, that’s no problem, I’ll be back at the car by then. All right, thanks. Yeah, you have a good morning, too.”
Whistling, David Black began to walk back towards the road.