Story By : Mud
Directed By: Destiney Baxter
Tim was an average high school kid that grew up in middle
class America. Tim was on the nerdy side, lanky and awkward and kids around him
always picked on him for being a tad bit different. Tim didn’t pay much mind to
the taunts from his peers for he had another love that took his mind away from
this place. He knew that one day, this love would carry him into places far
away from here where people would worship and respect him. Tim was a musician
and he was a pretty good one at that, for Tim could pick up any musical
instrument and he had the ability to play it. Some called it a natural gift,
some called it a blessed talent, but Tim just liked to call it love, because
Tim really just loved music.
So every day after school Tim would rush home and spend the majority of the night
just playing his instruments and trying to write songs. He knew that he would
need the practice now, for when he got out of high school he was going to have a
set of songs made that he thought people would love enough to support him. He
would spend hours, writing and rewriting lyrics and riffs for songs that he had
in mind for the set all through his childhood and teens, this is what pushed Tim
away from friends or family that tried to get close to him. He became a recluse
because he would rarely pay attention to anyone else, other than the music.
Finally the day of graduation and ironically the completion of his demo album
had come and Tim couldn’t wait to leave his hometown behind. He had left from
graduation that day and went straight home to pack up his bags and head of to the bus station.
"We are going to miss you greatly son, but if you feel this is what you want to do then
we support you one hundred percent" Tim’s father had told him as they were
driving to the station. "Dad, I want to thank you for the support throughout
the years, and when I’m famous and rich, I’ll be back to support you!" Tim said
as his father rubbed his head and messed up his hair a little bit. The rest of
the car ride was silent and as they pulled up to the station Tim looked at his
father and said “well dad this is it, I will see you in the future!" His father
nodded his head and said "good luck son!" Tim shut the door and walked into the
bus station. He walked over the counter and said “I would like to buy a one way
ticket to los angles." She looks up and says "Eww why you want to go there, you
going to sell ya soul at the crossroads?" Tim looked at the lady with confusion
and replied "No ma’am, I’m going there to start my band and become a famous musician."
The lady laughed at how naive Tim was about the whole situation and sold him his ticket.
Tim loaded his luggage onto the bus, gave the driver his ticket and found
a seat on the middle of the bus. He knew this bus trip was going to change his
life. Tim decided to put on his headphones; he pressed play and wrapped his
hoodie around him. He leaned up against the window and closed his eyes as he
pressed his face against the cold glass. AS Tim slowly drifted off to the
beautiful sound of Metallica, people started to board the bus. The bus filled up
quickly and when the bus was full, the driver checked his mirrors, told everyone
his name, closed the doors and then started to drive away.
Tim opened his eyes and awoke with a
startle from the pothole the bus driver hit. He looked at the seat next to him
to find it was empty! Tim took off his headphones and started to stretch his
arms as the driver came over the intercom. "We are three miles from los angles
bus stop, so get ready this is our last stop." Tim started packing up his things
and got ready to leave the bus. AS the bus came up to the stop the driver opened
his doors and Tim walked towards the front to exit.
Tim realized that he was the only one getting off at the stop. He didn’t
think too much of it and walked down the aisle to the door. Tim exited the bus
with his luggage and walked over to the bench. Tim sat down and called up one of
his friends from back home and told him he had made it, and to go ahead and
asked if he could send his brother to pick him up. They finished their
conversation as Tim waited for his friends’ brother to arrive.
"Hey fuckface are you my brother’s butthead friend?" ” You
must be Stucco?" Stucco replied with a yeah and told Tim to jump in cause they
were in a hurry to get back to the house. Tim jumped into the van and they
started cruising down the interstate towards los angles, and stucco started to
ask Tim about his journey. "Well I believe I’m musically talented enough to
start a career in the music industry and this is where everyone seems to always
start!" Tim replied to all of stuccos questions. Then stucco laughed a little
bit and replied “Man you have no clue of how all this shit works, you are going
to get eaten alive out here! I mean are you truly ready to sell your soul for
fame?" Tim looked at stucco with a concerned look and said “I have no intentions
of selling my soul?" Stucco laughed as they pulled into the driveway “Were here
and we have to go over a couple rules before we go into the house.” Stucco
paused and with the most serious look screamed "THERE ARE NO RULES!!!"
Stucco jumped out of the driver seat and ran into the house without even helping Tim
with the luggage. Tim slowly climbed out of the van, grabbed his bags and made
his way towards the door. Tim didn’t know what to expect as he walked into the
house. There in the living room sat a couple of guys smoking cigarettes and
drinking beer. They look over at Tim and offered him a drink. Tim declines as he
walks towards the kitchen. Tim yells loudly "Stucco are you in here?" Then Tim
hears "I am in the den, come in here and met the roomies!" Tim tried to follow
stuccos voice and finally reaches the den, where he sees stucco and three girls
sitting around a dingy little card table. "Hey girls I want to meet Tim the
greatest musician ever, he has come to start his life as a famous musician!"
stucco says excitedly as he throws his arms towards Tim in excitement. "Let us
hear you play something" one of the girls said to Tim as she takes a sip from
her cup. Tim shrugs his shoulders and says ok as he throws down his luggage, he
pulls his guitar from his back and sits down on the floor.
Tim plucks his fingers across the strings creating a beautiful yet spooky long drawn
out sound. The notes become louder and Tim starts to sway as he sings his first
words of the song. Tim closed his eyes and almost gets lost in the song that
he’s playing. Tim opened his eyes only to realize the crowd had grown too three
times as many people. Tim smiles and calms down his actions just a little bit
and finished up the song quickly. As he quit strumming everyone stood up and
started clapping and cheering. They gathered around him telling him how badass
his song was! Some of the girls were re-singing parts to him and explaining why
that part of the song had made them instant fans. Then stuccos girlfriend grabs
Tim by the shoulder and pulls him towards the room as she says “We are going to
go talk, be back in a minutes." Tim follows reluctantly looking around for a
familiar face in curiosity of what was going to actually happen to him in that room of hers.
As she shuts the door and Tim turned around, there sits stucco and two of his friends
on the bed looking at Tim with excitement. Stuccos girlfriend walks over and
looks at Tim and put her hands on his shoulders and says quietly “Look I thought
you were a total lame ass, but obviously you have a real god gifted talent. I
don’t think that you need to give yourself over to a record label and get booked
until they take you to the crossroads anyways. I think you should join our band
and we should just go to the crossroads, I know how to get there." Tim looked at
stuccos girlfriend "Who the hell are you calling "lame ass" and what the hell is
the crossroads?" then Tim brushed off stuccos girlfriends arms from his
shoulders and turned around to walk out the door. "WAIT" stucco yelled as Tim
started to turn the door knob "Let me explain what she means man, we just want
to join your band and be successful with you." Tim turned around and said "I
don’t have a band, and whatever this crossroads is, I don’t understand it but
please explain?" and Tim set down on the floor.
Stucco jumps off the bed and puts his drink in the air "For the one of you in this room that
doesn’t know, I’m going to tell you a story about the crossroads!" Stucco looks
over at Tim "See there is a place where people go when they want the entire
world to know and support them. There is a place where a person can stand and
ask for anything they desire and actually get it, but nothings free in this
world right!" stucco looks around the room and continues talking "All famous
people have been there Tim and you will eventually make it there as well, but
the crossroads is where our world meets the underworld, its where Satan can
materialize into an earthly form." Tim interrupts with confusion "Whoa, wait a
minute, are you guys actually telling me that you believe I have to go to the
crossroads and sell my soul to Satan to be famous, sorry bro I’m already
talented and that’s what is going to make me famous." Tim stands up picks up his
belongs and asks for the direction to his room he will be staying in. Stucco
grabs Tim by the shoulders and says "you didn’t even let me finish my story bro."
Tim replies with a stern voice "I have heard enough, even if I believed you, I am
not selling my soul, it’s the only thing I have in this world, it’s what gives
me my talent, show me to my room please!" Stucco throws his hands up and says
"ok, ok, follow me" and they walk out of the room and into the hallway. Tim
follows stucco to the room he’s staying in, once they are in the room Tim puts
his bags down and ask stucco a question "Man if you guys believe this stuff why
don’t you go sell your soul?" Stucco looks at Tim and smiles "most of us don’t
have souls or already have sold it for something stupid, how do you think we
have this house and money. Anyways there are rules too it man." Tim looks at
stucco with a frightful look on his face and sits down on the bed "what kind of
rules you talking about?" Tim asked. Stucco set down on the bed next to Tim
"Think like if you want to be a famous painter you can’t be a person without any
painting skill, unless you steal the essence from someone else, get it, like if
you want to be a famous band you have to have at least one person with talent
enough to jam with Satan, that the rest of the band can feed off of." stucco
laughs a little as he finishes his sentence.
"I don’t want to be famous that way, I just want to play
music and still be me, I’m going to sleep it’s been a long, wild day today" Tim
says as he starts to take off his shirt. Stucco stands up and tells Tim "I feel
ya man, sorry to ask such a task of you, we all just thought that you knew this
is how los angles works!" Stucco walks out of the room and as he shuts the door
behind him Tim catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the back of the
door. He walks over to it and starts to look at himself in detail wondering why
he was going over this in his head. Would a record company really take him to
the crossroads, and why this isn’t more widely talked about if it was true? Tim
shrugged his shoulders and told himself that even if it was true, he had the
will and the skill so he didn’t need to bother worrying about things like this.
He flipped the light switch off, laid down in bed and stared off into the
darkness pondering all the things he had learned today.
When Tim opened his eyes he jumped up and realized that he was lying on
the backseat of the van "What the hell?" he screamed. "What’s going on?" Tim
asked as he looked around the van and noticed that the wannabe band members were
there with him. Stucco turned from the front seat and in a calm voice said "its
ok Tim, we are going to go to the crossroads and you are the talent and Stewie
will give his soul." Stucco slapped Stewie on the shoulder and Stewie looked at
Tim with a disconcerting face and smiled as he nodded his head. "I don’t care I
don’t want to start my career at the fucking crossroads" Tim yelled and kicked
the back of the seat in front of him. "Who even said I wanted to be in a band
with you pricks anyways, I mean I have only been in town less than 2 days and I
have already been shuffled like a joker in the deck!" Stucco looks back and says
“Tim that doesn’t even make sense, but look we are coming up on the crossroads!"
Tim looks out the window and sees the road that Stucco was talking about and
kind of set back down cause he could feel an energy pulsing through his body
once he looked at it.
The road started out as a single long black road and then shifted to
grass then fields then a barren place, a desert looking environment with no
plants or animals of any kind. As the sun beat down on the road, it cracked up
and dried out, one single road that stretched to the horizon. Stucco stopped the
car. There was a very calm silence, it was almost as if everyone was feeling the
pulsating energy that Tim was feeling. Stucco said in a calm voice "Tim all
roads in this town will eventually lead you here, now I will turn around right
now if you don’t believe or just don’t trust us, but I know you can feel that, I
know you know that this is real." Tim stared down the long black road as said
"to hell with it, if we are going to do this, the band is mine and I make all
the decisions on what we accomplish, does everyone agree?" They stopped paying
so much attention to the energy that was coursing through them and turned and
looked at each other. They all kind of smiled and turned and looked at Tim and
said "Hell FUCKING Yeah" and Stucco hit the gas pedal and turned onto the road
leading to the crossroads.
They had been driving down the road for about thirty minutes
and nothing but the same silence in the van and the barren wasteland staring at
them. Tim looks away from the window and says "Man stucco how long does it take
to get there, I mean is there an end to this road or what?" Stewie turns back
and looks at Tim and starts to explain “No man actually you just drive until you
see the tree, and once you see the tree that means that he has come to hear your
wishes, then you will find the crossroads!" Tim looks at Stewie and just kind of
laughs, thinking that he was just messing with him and turns to look out the
window again. Loudly from the front seat " THERE IT IS!" and Tim turns his head
to the windshield and notices a giant dead oak tree off on the horizon of the
road "No way Stewie, you weren’t twisting my nipple!" Tim says as he stares at
the tree growing bigger as they keep pressing forward. Right as the tree comes
parallel to the van, everyone in the van is feeling the pulsing energy increase
to a point that it takes their breath away. Tim grabs his chest and tries to
take a deep breathe, but only brings himself more pain as if he just inhaled a
fist full of broken glass and burning coals.
Stuccos girlfriend turns back and tells Tim to not breathe and just let them pass
through the gate and it will be ok, but Tim is fighting the growing pain and
confusion of why she isn’t breathless like the rest of them. The sound of a
large boom and the van comes to a shuttering stop and everyone starts to take
deep breathes again. Air fills their lungs like burning pokers they keep
inhaling as if they could catch up on the air that they had lost. "What the
hell" Tim said as he panted. “What the hell was that and why didn’t anything
happen to you Diane?" Stucco opens the door and jumps out of the van "Babe lets
explain to him while we wait at the crossroads" and Diane nodded and jumped out.
Tim and the other two members follow stucco and Diane out of the van and over to
the point where the road they were on met up with another road creating a cross.
The tree was nowhere in sight and the only thing any of them could see was the
meeting of the two roads and the sun blazing down from the big open blue sky.
Tim sits down and says "what are you going to explain, geez how much can you
keep me out of the loop?" They all sat around Tim in a circle and Diane looks at
Tim and says "all right, while we wait for him, I will catch you up on what I know!"
Diane starts to explain to Tim that she was raised in a little town in
Kansas. Where there were only fast food joints for work or becoming a housewife
were her only available options at the time. Her father was a shoe sales man and
her mother was a stay at home pill popper that could care less if the world even
existed, cause to her it didn’t. Diane knew she didn’t want to end up like her
mother strung out on pills and not knowing which way was up. So she worked a
part time job, finished school and took what little money she had and came to
Los Angles. The day she arrived in town she found an apartment and paid her rent
and bills up for three months so she had time to find a steady income to pay her
bills. After the three months had come and gone she still couldn’t find work and
came to the realization that it didn’t matter where she was, there were no
opportunities for her to advance in life. So she told her landlord the situation
and asked if she could do anything around the apartments to get enough money for
a bus ticket back to Kansas. The landlord told her that her that she didn’t need
to go home if all she wanted was a nice house and money. She explained to Diane
about how she can sell her soul to Satan at the crossroads and get anything that
she could think of, since Diane didn’t believe in god or Satan for that matter,
she picked up the offer.
The next morning when they awoke the landlord and Diane got into her car
and they followed the exact same route that Diane had taken to get to the
crossroads. Her explanation on why she didn’t feel the energy and could breathe
while passing through the gateway was because she had already sold her soul the
first time she was there. This was the case for Diane as well, for she had no
soul to feel the energy provided by the emotions of the universe. She was unable
to feel them for good or bad. Diane explained that they actually past through a
rip in the fabric of reality as we see it and entered into the outer brims of
the realm that holds hell. This is the only way that humans can physically talk
to Satan and exchange items of themselves for pleasures he can offer. Tim
interrupts Diane and says "You mean to tell me that we are physically in hell
right now, like we are dead or something?" Diane smiles and says "Yes we are in
hell but no we are not dead!" Tim interrupts again "And you have sold your soul
already, just for money and a house?" Diane raises an eyebrow "Yeah I was poor,
young and stupid and I didn’t believe in anything, let’s get over it, butt munch!"
Diane stands up and starts to dust herself off. She glances to the horizon where she
spots a car coming from the horizon. "Everyone stand up and get ready, here he
comes" Diane said as the group started to stand up and dust themselves off. As
the car got closer they all just stood there staring, the car was a 1976 Rolls
Royce with metallic purple paint and flames caressing the side the paint seemed
to shimmer in the sun and those flames seemed to pulse as if they were real. The
car finally pulled up next to the group and came to a stop. The windows were so
tinted that you couldn’t see inside, though that didn’t stop the group of kids
from trying to look through. The door cracks open and a tall, skinny Asian man
wearing a top hat and a brown suit that which looked like it was from 1876
stepped out. He shuts the door and looks over the faces of the kids and notices
Diane’s face "Ahh, I was wondering how you sluggish crew of rejects and misfits
found out how to get here." Diane steps forward drops down on her knees and in a
quiet voice she says "Hello sir, thank you for all the help you have offered me
in this world, in exchange can I offer you a soul for the talent to be given to
my band members. Tim looks at Diane and raises his hands in the air and says
with a slight laugh on his voice " What the hell Diane, Is this your pimp or something?"
Before Tim could laugh again at his sentence, the tall Asian man reached back and
slapped Tim so hard that he fell to the ground. Blood dripped from Tim’s mouth
and fire stung his cheeks. The tall Asian man leaned over Tim and in a deep,
sinister voice said "Boy I am the ruler of hells army, legions of dead spawned
tortured souls and you are on my territory, so you can either respect me or you
can feel my power" and then Satan smacks his cane against Tim’s head "You stay
down there you lowly dog." Bow before me for I am your deity. Tim starts to shed
tears from the pain of the cane as Satan turns and looks at Diane " you want me
to help these pieces of disrespectful shits like this, why would you even bring
them here?" Diane looks at Satan "Thank you sir for showing Tim mercy, But my
other members are showing their respect. It’s just Tim here doesn’t understand,
since he is the talent he thinks he doesn’t need a higher power to succeed in
life." Satan turns and grabs Tim by the neck and picks him up, "So you think
your so talented that you don’t need my help to be famous,” well show me" and he
puts Tim on his feet and walks over to the trunk of the Rolls Royce and opens
it. He pulls out a guitar and shuts the trunk, turns and walks over to Tim and hands it to him.
Tim grabs the guitar with an angry haste and throws the strap over his
shoulder "I am not going to sell my soul and share my talents" Tim turns to
Stucco "fuck you and your fucking girlfriend!" Satan starts to laugh "I’m
starting to like this pathetic excuse for a soul" and then Satan turns to
Stucco and offers a grim smile and then turns to Diane and spits fire and
brimstone at her feet, Diane says "Thank you for your offer sir" and steps back.
Satan laughs and grabs Stuccos face "are you ready to be this obedient?" and
spits in Stuccos face, stuccos smiles and says "yes sir I will heed your
blessings!" Satan turns and looks at Tim and laughs "Well you really must have
some talent if you have these fuckers ready to sell their own souls for you!"
Tim looks at Satan and smiles "I have no intention to give you something that
doesn’t even belong to me, see I believe in god, his guidance has helped me see
my talent and what he has to offer, these assholes drugged me and dragged me
here, so I could give a fuck what happens to them!" and Tim steps back and
starts to strum the guitar that Satan has given him. Satan moves back, takes off
his top hat as his long black hair slowly fell to his shoulders and leans
against the car. Tim looks over and says "Do you guys really want to do this"
and before Tim could even get his breathe in from talking the group members were
shaking their heads yes excitedly.
Tim starts to unleash a loud cry with the strings of his guitar and belts
out a song that he had been working on talking about this very subject of
selling your soul and changing everything you are to be part of something that
doesn’t even matter. As Tim plays his song the group and Satan sat back and
watched with admiration while Tim plays chords that people normally couldn’t
grasp on how to play. It was almost if Tim made sounds come from the guitar and
even impressed Satan a little bit. Tim suddenly stopped "Is that enough for you?
But really your opinion doesn’t matter because I am not giving you my soul" and
Tim takes the guitar from his shoulders and hands it back to Satan. Satan throws
the guitar onto the ground and walks up to Tim "I will take their lowly souls
and let you keep yours since you are the only one in the band that offers any
talent what so ever, but note this, your actions along this ride will set in
motion that I could take that little soul you contain right away from you
anytime, so you better make sure you aren’t taking things that could diminish
your pathetic soul" and Satan grabs Tim’s forehead with a grip that felt as if
it was crushing his skull.
Tim lets out a loud yell and a white mist starts to rise out of Tim’s eyes and it starts
to collect around Satan’s hands and then Satan pushes Tim down to the ground.
Satan lets out a beastly yell into the open sky and he raises his hands into the
air. The mist spreads from one hand to the other. The mist starts making a
diamond shape and slowly reaches down and grabs stucco by each side of his head.
It slowly moves from Satan’s hand into stuccos ears and stucco starts to scream
loudly and blood starts to drip from his eyes and his nose. Stuccos screams
become silent and Satan chants "Before the realm that has been offered to me, I
use my power through you lord in heaven to take what is yours and give what is
mine" and the mist turns to fire and Satan throws stucco down to the ground. He
repeats the same process with Stewie and Charles, as their bodies lie next to
each other; Tim comes too and looks over to notice that their faces and bodies
were completely burnt. "What the hell have you done?" Tim says as he tries to
stand up but falls back down.
Satan turns to Tim and sticks his face right into Tim’s face “You worm crawling lowly
dog, you will give me your soul willingly and without even knowing it, for
that’s what this town was created for, you just enjoy yourself while your new
friends here become their new embodiment. Satan stands up and walks over to
Diane and grabs her hand and starts to walk to the car with her and says "You
know I’ll be gentle now, but I won’t be when I’m taking
what I want from you!" Diane rubs her other hand
across the collar of Satan’s brown suit and says "Have what you will from me
sir" and they got into the car. Tim tries to regain his strength to get up and
get back to the van so he can leave this fucked up place when he starts hearing
cries and screams coming from the car. Tim started to cry because he knew what
was happening in the car and he tried to pick himself up again only to fall back
down in pain. As the cries got louder Tim rolled over onto his back and he
looked up at the clear blue sky "Father in heaven, if you can hear me please in
the lords name save me from this place, Please father I need your help" and as
Tim laid their praying he heard a noise come from stuccos burnt body. Tim
stopped praying and looked over at stucco and screamed "Are you ok stucco,
please give me a sign that you are alive!"
Tim looked back at the blue sky and tried to wipe the tears
from his eyes and he screams "Father that is in heaven, please send forth your
will and give me strength to escape this place, please father AMEN!" Then the
cries and screams coming from the car stops, then the door opens and Diane steps
out of the backseat. She had blood running from her mouth, her nose and from
in-between her legs and she walked over to stuccos body and sat down next to
him. "Diane what the fuck are you doing, help me up and let’s get out of here"
Tim screamed as he tried one more time to push himself up and this time he had
enough strength to sit himself up. The Rolls Royce turns on and starts to drive
away and Tim screams at Diane again "What the hell is going on with you! Diane
help me?" Just then Diane reaches down to stuccos face and starts to dig her
nails into his burnt skin and blisters, only to start ripping it off. Tim’s eyes
widen and as Diane starts pulling more of the skin off of stucco, he begins
puking. Stuccos arm raises into the air and he lets out a giant scream and as
stucco bends his arm down the burnt skin starts to fall off on its own.
"What the hell is going on Diane, please talk to me?" Tim screams and he starts to
stand himself up. Diane looks up at Tim and says in a calm, voice “please start
helping Stewie, for they are shedding their old shells and creating their new
selves" and she continues to rip the burnt skin from stuccos body. Tim looks at
Diane like she is completely insane and then begins to notice that parts of
stuccos body were she had ripped of the burnt skin, set un-burnt fresh skin. He
looked at stuccos face and it looked just like his face before the burning
except no pimple or blemishes at all. So Tim slowly walks over to Stewie and
starts to pull of the burnt skin only to reveal that it was a casing to the new
self they were becoming. They all pick each other up and help each other get
into the van and Diane starts it up, she puts it in drive and turns the van
around. They start driving back down the road towards the tree with an
uncomfortable silence in the van. When they hit the tree where the gateway sat
last time, only Tim felt the pain from before and lost his breathe again, and as
they passed through Tim took another breathe so he could remember this feeling
of pain, to remind himself, that in fact he did still have his soul.