Mischiefmakers: Dark Macabre by Maasi Smith

between its razorsharp beak, like a huge juicy worm it’s just snatched from its bur-
row. Using its knifelike claws, it clamps down on the penis while
slowly swallowing each bloody testicle.
The raven finishes gobbling. It tours the apartment as its eyes
glow with anger. It sees the damage the three men have done to
the once immaculate place. Suddenly, a veil of darkness gently settles over the apartment.
5
M
    eanwhile, Melissa and Sarah are on the other side of town,
enjoying a memorable conversation with young Sissy Put-
nam. Sissy is a runaway teenager who lives on the streets,
    and who sometimes sleeps under a favorite bridge with Melissa and
Sarah, but she’s finally going home. Originally from Abbeville, Ala-
bama, she’s a petite teen with little-girl freckles and a sunny smile,
but with a strong southern disposition. Her southern attitude and
high, squeaky voice always make for interesting conversation.
    After experiencing a few months on the streets, and hitchhiking
from town to town, Sissy has decided home isn’t all that bad.
The three women sit around in a moderately furnished motel
room, laughing and joking about some of the situations they have
savored.
“I said, ‘Please, Officer Stewart, she don’t know any better. Why
don’t you cut her a break? She’s from Alabama. You know things
are different down there.’ The officer snatched the gum, laughed,
and said, ‘Well, she needs to take her ass back to Alabama. This
is Newark. She can get locked up easily up here!’” They all laugh
as Melissa gives her comical recollection of one of their more
memorable moments. In her strong southern accent, little Sissy
Putnam speaks.
“Hell, I didn’t know y’all were so tuff up here. In Abbeville, they
just call your parents or somethin’ simple like that. That Indian
man called the damn S.W.A.T. team, all because I was stealin’ some
Hubba Bubba and a box of Fruit Loops. I had only been in the
city two days, and I was about to go to jail. That is, until Melissa
claimed to be an aunt I was visitin’. I know I told you before, but
I wanna tell you again, I really appreciate you bailing me out that
night. I had no friends and nobody I could call. I just would have
been shit outta luck.”
“It was no problem. You remind me of my sisters, so I had to
help you out,” says Melissa.
“So what made you decide to go home all of a sudden?” asks
Sarah.
“There is just so much going on in the world, so much hate and
killin’. I figured I could at least try to work things out at home.
Plus, too many people I meet are either dying or disappearing.”
“Like who?” asks Melissa.
“You remember Mr. Hurley, the guy who owned Bob’s Pizza?”
“Yeah.”
“He died a few weeks ago, and he was one of the first people
who really talked to me and made me realize that my problems
at home weren’t so bad. We talked for hours over some leftover
pizza. He even tried to get me a room at his house, but his wife
wouldn’t even consider it, so he just helped when he could.”
“What happened to him?”
“Lung cancer, all that damn smokin’, cigarette after cigarette. I
had to fight through the smoke just to talk to him.”
“Too bad. He hooked me up with some pizza a few times. Who
disappeared?” asks Sarah.
“This social worker lady I knew. She was also trying to get me
to go home. I had just seen her that morning, and they said she
disappeared. You must have heard about her. It’s been all over the
news. Seems like she’s from some well-known family, and they
think she might have been kidnapped.”
“Who’s she?” asks Sarah.
“Mrs. Garrison. And you know what made it even worse?”
“What?”
“She had just got married the weekend before she disappeared,”
responds Sissy.
Suddenly Melissa is struck with a collage of pictures flashing
through her mind. She sees a woman struggling with an unseen foe,
her clothing being stripped from her. Her body being struck down
to