Joshua

I first met Joshua at a party back in 1991.

Darren invited me to one of his soirées. I’d been to a few before but this one stood out. I didn’t recognise any of the guests, which was strange. Usually I’d know a few of them. But even stranger was the guest who stood alone in the middle of the room, just staring at the others.

For a second, I froze. I’d seen some shit in my time, but this was something else.
Something primal in me felt the urge to run. Just slowly back away, out the door, drive off and never look back.

Darren excitedly took me over to introduce me –

‘Charlie, I want you to meet my best friend in the world, Joshua!’ His smile seemed genuine and excited. The only one in the room.

Joshua looked…. incredibly different to the other guests.

I have no idea why he looked the way he did. Maybe he was born with a deformity. Maybe he was in some sort of accident. To this day I don’t know. He never spoke and no-one dared ask.

When I say he never spoke, I mean I dont think he could. He made noises. Like moans. His moans sounded painful. Strained. Sad. Like he was trying desperately to speak but just couldn’t. Each sound he made caused him to look upset.

His head… his head was so…. round. Almost like a football. And it was big. Maybe a third bigger than anyone else’s.
His eyes were large too, but they looked small in comparison to his head. And on closer inspection i realised he didnt have a nose or ears. Even with these features missing i could still tell he wore an expression of uncertainty. Like he knew he wasn’t supposed to exist.

His mouth was wide. Absolutely gargantuan. His thin lips spread across half of his head. Imagine a human Pac-Man. That’s literally the best way i could describe it.

He had a tuft of dark red hair with quite a prominent receding hairline, even though he didn’t look old. Although you couldn’t really tell his age.
He was short, maybe 4 feet tall and he was very skinny. Almost skeletal. But his stomach was bloated.
I could tell all of this because, for some godforsaken reason, he was completely naked.
But I guess, seeing as he didnt appear to have any genitals it didn’t matter. If he did, you couldn’t see them. A thick bush of black public hair covered his region like a natural loin cloth.

The other party guests put on smiles but you could tell they were all a little unnerved by his lack of clothing, along with his appearance. Their eyes grabbing sneaky peeks at him between conversations with each other.

Everyone else seemed friendly enough to Joshua but it all felt very… off. Like they were pretending to like him but their smiles were covering an uncertain fear.

Internally, I was shuddering. I was fucking creeped to the bone by this guy. But I had to be cool. I didnt want to be offensive.

‘It’s… great to meet you, Joshua’ I said as I held my hand out to shake his.

Joshua’s eyes! They bulged open, looking at my hand. He bared his grin and made a rasping noise as he started to bring both of his hands, with impossibly long nail-less fingers, up to grab mine but Darren quickly pushed mine away. Joshua looked sad and made a little noise as he let his arms drop.

Darren pulled me to one side, away from Joshua’s view.
‘Sorry, Joshua, we’ll be back in a second’ he said as he turned to whisper to me,
‘Don’t let him grab you, man.’
His whisper sounded almost angry. I whispered back, ‘Dude, who the hell is that? What the hell is that?!’

‘I’ll explain everything later. Did you bring your camera?’

‘Yeah, man, it’s in my car. Is he why you asked me to bring it?’

‘Kinda. As i said, ill explain later. Go grab your camera and meet me in the kitchen.’

I didn’t know what to say. Darren sometimes asks me to photograph his events. Nothing major. I think it gives an heir of importance to his guests who usually love it. I can usually make a few bucks selling them to the guests or to publications.
I went outside to grab the camera from my car. An old SLR that my dad left me. It was in great shape despite its age and how much I used it.

I sat in the car for a few minutes and smoked a cigarette, processing what I’d just witnessed. I let the ash fall into the footwell. It didn’t really matter. This car was a piece of shit anyway.

I guessed Darren wanted me to photograph Joshua. Hell, I would even if he didnt ask, just out of morbid curiosity.
I finished the smoke and took my camera inside.

Joshua was ‘talking’ to some more guests as they awkwardly tried to converse with him. His mouth was just so.. large. I could see inside it with ease. I saw Darren and asked to talk with him in the kitchen. I grabbed myself a beer.

‘Dude, you need to explain some stuff to me.’

‘Yeah, man, i do. But don’t worry. You’re gonna be happy I asked you here tonight.’

‘Okay, well, start with who…. what…. who is Joshua?’

‘Okay, so you remember that time I went to Thailand last year? Well, I was doing some great molly with this Russian guy. It was so fucking wild! Anyway, he took me to a special get together with his boss. This dude tells me he’s got an awesome business opportunity and wants me in on it.’

‘Okay?’ I hesitantly said. Darren carried on,

‘Well, this guy, he says he’ll pay me, and anyone that helps me, a huge amount to host someone for a couple of days and take some photos.’

‘So, what, some random guy you met on holiday brought Joshua here for a photo shoot?’

‘Yeah, that’s about the gist of it. There are a few other requests but we’ll get to that later. All I need to know is; are you up for it?’

I was very unsure about this. It all seemed fucking sketchy.

‘What is… he?’

‘I dunno, man. I guess just some deformed kid they found. He’s fucking weird but for the money I don’t care. Just don’t let him grab you’

‘How much money are we talking?’

‘For now, ill pay you two thousand dollars.’

I fucking choked on my beer.

‘TWO THOUSAND?!’ I coughed

‘For tonight, yes.’ He said as he stared dead into my eyes.

Despite my better judgement, my desperate need for money and not knowing what I know now, I replied,

‘You’ve got yourself a fucking deal, dude. Damn!’

—————

My job was simple; hang around the party and just take photos of Joshua mingling with the others. It was crazy simple, which, for the money was incredible. I think my mind was fogged with the promise of cash so much that Joshua’s oddities fell by the wayside. Still, as I took pictures of him I noted everyone’s unease.
I took a break to change a roll of film and chatted to one of the guests. A young woman in a purple dress.

‘You having a good time?’ I asked.

She took a moment to reply. Her smile seemed half genuine, like she was unsure of me.
‘Yeah, thanks…’ she looked down at her wine glass, swirling the drink within, her smile starting to fade.

I probed further.

‘Have you spoken much with Joshua?’

She looked up at me, her smile returning,
‘Yeah, kinda…’
Her eyes seemed glassy, as though she were tearing up. She wasn’t really giving me anything, which was a bit frustrating. I decided to go further.

‘What do you think of him?’

Her false smile dropped. Her eyes got watery and she pulled me to one side,

‘I don’t like… him. He scares me. I don’t know why I agreed to come tonight. Well, I do, but I’m not sure it was worth it…. I’m sorry, I’ve spoken out of line.’ She took a large gulp of wine.

‘No, no, don’t worry about it. I’m just the photographer. Wait, why did you come tonight?’

‘Same reason you came here, I’m guessing. You got paid to?’

‘Huh, yeah, but I’m the photographer. I didn’t realise the guests were getting paid too.’

‘Yeah. Darren paid me two hundred dollars to come tonight. It’s more than my usual night’s pay, and an easier gig, so I took it.’

‘Nice. Easy money. What do you do for work?’

She looked me dead in the eyes and took a moment to respond,

‘I work in finance.’

Her eyes looked into mine with a slight hint of confusion.

‘Cool, cool. Well, nice to meet you. I’ve gotta go take some more pictures.’

For another half hour or so I just took various photos of the guests milling around, drinking, talking. Joshua mostly stood in the same spot, watching the others. He didn’t eat anything. He didn’t drink. He just stood. Staring. With those big fucking creepy eyes.
At that point I didn’t really know what else i could do, photography wise.

Darren came over and offered me a beer. I took the chance for a break as he said,
‘We’re gonna change it up in a bit. Make sure you’ve got some film ready.’

‘Change it up?’

‘Yep. And I’m gonna pay you a little more, too.’

My eyes must have widened because a little smirk appeared on Darren’s face. I forgot to reply before he carried on.

‘How does another two grand sound?’

It felt like minutes before I replied, but it must have been almost immediate in reality.

‘Hell, yeah!’

————

Darren took me over to a tall man, who was standing alone, drinking a beer and watching Joshua.
This guy looked like your typical surfer bro, late 20s, tanned, short brown hair in curtains. But when Darren took me over to him it turned out he was Russian.

‘Charlie, this is Alexi. This is the guy who i met in Thailand and set up this… business opportunity.’

‘Very nice to meet you… Charlie.’

He slapped his hand heavily on my shoulder. It was a forceful hand. I immediately felt uncertain with this stranger. His sly smile didn’t inspire confidence, either.
He continued in his strong Russian accent,

‘I trust Darren has told you of our arrangement?’

‘Yeah, take some photos of the party and of… Joshua.’

‘Yes, very good. And we pay you for the work. I hope you like the amount?’

‘Yeah, it’s-‘ Alexi cut me off

‘Excellent! Now, I want you to take a few more photos for me. These will be… a little different. But the amount we have offered you is enough, yes?’

This wasn’t a question

‘Now, you may have noticed my boy, Joshua, is a little different?’ He stared into my eyes, ‘Well, he has certain tastes, too, you see. You must be prepared to…..’ He paused as he let his eyes wander for second, ‘Charlie, what is worst thing you have ever seen?’

I wasn’t really sure how to answer that. What was he asking? What was i going to photograph? I wanted to ask why the fuck are you asking me that?, but Alexi didn’t seem like the kind of guy you wanted to piss off. What the fuck had Darren pulled me into?

‘I once saw a dog get hit by a car. That was pretty bad.’

Alexi let out a huge, deep laugh.

‘AAAH HAHAHA!, Charlie, you are funny guy! Funny funny guy!’

Darren let out a little laugh too, accompanying Alexi.

Alexi continued, ‘Well, just make sure you… how you Americans say? Keep your eyes on prize, yes?’

I started to feel a knot in the pit of my stomach. But my mind returned to the sheer amount of money I’d get from this. Whatever I was going to take pictures of I highly doubted it would be worth leaving 4k for.

‘And Charlie, make sure you have fast shutter speed and good ISO for pictures. We want quality over quantity. Good man.’

Alexi walked off toward Joshua. Joshua looked up at Alexi like how a dog would longingly look at it’s owner. Alexi whispered something to him, clicked his fingers and beckoned for him to follow up the stairs. Joshua’s movement was slow and slightly clumsy. Like his body was weak and he could fall at any moment. But his long fingered hands took hold of the bannister as they walked upstairs. Quiet, frail moans escaped Joshua’s wide maw as he did so.
I made sure to take a few more pictures. His frail gait did fascinate me. His form seemed so alien.

I went to my camera bag to put some more film into my camera and helped myself to another beer. I noticed the guests seemed more lively since Joshua went upstairs. More laughter. More smiles. Like a psychological weight had been lifted

Darren spoke,
‘Hey man. You ready for the next part of the job?’

‘I think so?’

‘Cool. Well, finish your beer. We’re heading up to the wet room.’

————–

We walked into the large bathroom. It was well lit and newly tiled. Must have cost Darren a bit of cash. Leaning against the wall was Alexi, along with two other guys I hadn’t seen downstairs. They were quite large, one was shirtless and had a surprisingly chubby stomach, belying his thinner facial features. They stared at me intensely and silently.

I looked over the room. There was a tripod already set up, facing the wall the men were leaning on. A chair against the wall behind the tripod, and next to Alexi a small table with hand towels and what appeared to be a few glasses of milk.

‘Aah, Charlie! Set your camera up over there,’ Alexi said, ‘These two fine gentlemen are my good friends.’ He didn’t tell me their names. They silently nodded at me.

This all started to feel more suspect as the seconds went on. Joshua was certainly a weird aspect of the evening but these three guys, in a bathroom, with me taking photos, started to feel like I was going to photograph some weird porno. I was starting to reconsider the 4 grand.
Regardless, I set my camera on the tripod, took a deep breath, and prepared myself to earn some cash, no matter the strange.

Darren stood behind me. He was oddly silent while Alexi and his friends whispered amongst themselves. I could hear that they were all speaking Russian.

‘Hey Darren, did you meet all these guys in Thailand?’

‘Yeah.’ His reply seemed cold and emotionless.

Alexi clapped his hands loudly together and spoke at me,
‘Okay, Charlie! The plan tonight is simple. We bring attractive girl in to room, we bring Joshua into room, you take photographs. Simple. You good?’

Okay, so this was a porno. Cool. Weird, but cool.

With a little uncertainty in my voice, I replied ‘Yeah. All good.’

As i finished setting the camera up there was a knock at the door. It opened and in walked one of the women from downstairs. She seemed a little drunk but in good spirits.

‘Hello boys,’ she said in a strong valley girl accent as she stumbled in. She looked around the room as she wiped her dark hair from her face, ‘Wow, we doing a photo shoot? Cool. Maybe i should charge you extra.’ She snorted as she laughed.
Alexi and his friends glanced at each other with a slight smirk.

‘Okay, so which one of you do I start with? How about you, gorgeous?’ She played with the strap of her pink top while looking at Alexi.

‘Not tonight, beautiful. Tonight you will be with Joshua.’

At that the door opened once again as another unknown person beckoned Joshua in.
The girl, in a tipsy haze, squinted at her co-star.
‘Ew…the freak from downstairs?’ Her face scrunched up but then relaxed, ‘Whatever. A hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. What do you want me to do?’

Alexi beckoned at me to start taking photos.

‘I want you to shake his hand.’

The girl looked at Alexi, puzzled.

‘Okay?’ She said as she turned to Joshua and held her hand toward him.

I took a photo.

Joshua’s eyes widened, like he had never seen a hand before. A look of utter wonder and joy glistened from him as his mouth stretched into a huge smile. For the first time i could see his teeth. Many many teeth. Small and oddly perfect.
He slowly brought his spindly fingers up to the girl’s hand, caressing it. The girl looked uncomfortable and would periodically try to catch Alexi’s eye for, maybe, some confirmation that this was fine.
Alexi and his two friends stood close, within the frame of my pictures, with eager looks on their faces.
Joshua brought his hand up to her left forearm. I could see the girl was trying to suppress her discomfort and was probably imagining a better scenario, just to get through this.

Joshua’s fingers curled around her forearm as he started to grip.

‘Hey, that’s too tight.’ The girl exclaimed with an uncertain laugh.

Joshua’s grip tightened.

‘Hey! I said that’s too tight! You’re hurting me!’

His eyes widened and looked up into hers. He let out a long, breathy moan as he suddenly closed his grip like a vice. I heard a godawful snap as the girl let out a blood curdling scream!
Alexi and his friends carried on smiling, like this was what they wanted.
The poor girl was screaming and writhing to be let free but Joshua’s grip was locked.

‘Hey! Hey, stop!’ I shouted as I started to move forward and try to do… something. But before I could step away from the camera Darren gripped my shoulder.
‘Keep taking photos!’ He forcefully whispered at me.

‘What?!’

‘Keep taking photos or you don’t get paid.’

‘We’ve gotta help her!’

‘Let me rephrase that. Keep taking photos or they will kill you.’

Darren looked straight into my eyes with a cold, strained stare. A look that could be pure rage or pure terror. The poor girl’s screams in the background of this surreal and horrific scene. I felt terrified. More than I knew possible.
Within micro seconds I felt that gravity of this situation. We were in severe danger.

‘KEEP TAKING PHOTO!’ Alexi angrily shouted at me.

Hesitantly I went back to my camera. Sweat started to drip down my face.

The poor girl was crying in agony as Joshua pulled her closer to him. Her attempts to push him away did nothing. The once frail looking creature now horrifyingly strong.

In a traumatised haze I kept taking photos. My forefinger shaking over the shutter release.

Alexi grabbed Joshua to hold him back as he loudly beckoned to one of his friends,

‘Grab the milk!’

Alexi’s other friend held the girl’s other arm behind her back to stop her from squirming.

The first friend, joyfully laughing, held a glass of milk above the girl and started to pour it over her head as she desperately cried to be let go. Alexi held his hand over Joshua’s mouth as he strained to get closer to her. His grip never loosening.

I took another photo. A tear slid down my cheek as i shook with fear. I wanted to step in. I wanted to stop. I wanted to shout. But I was weak. I could sense Darren over my shoulder, keeping me focused.

The milk splashed over the girl’s head and down her face as she let out an animalistic cry. Joshua had a look of murderous lust on his face as Alexi held him back, and for the first time I heard Joshua speak through that enormous, gaping slit of a mouth,

‘Huuuungry!!’

I took a photo.

Alexi let go.

Within a split second Joshua’s entire mouth was around the girls face. His head twisted sideways so he could fit her in his jaw. His lips bared back as his long rows of teeth started to sink in.
The girl was still screaming, muffled from within Joshua, before he bit down with a force so powerful it crushed through her skull. The sound was absolutely soul crushing. A loud wet crunch that caused me to jump. Her screams ended instantly as her entire face was taken off in a single bite.

I took a photo

Joshua’s head pulled back, leaving a cresent moon shaped mass of flesh where the girl’s head used to be. The action was so quick that only now did the blood start to flow. And flow it did.
Alexi and his friends left the frame as the girl’s body dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Joshua knelt down to keep eating her as she convulsed in a post death seizure.
The blood was pouring from her head wound, spilling out across the white tiled floor and mixing with the spilled milk, as the ball headed monster began to chew down on her arms.

I…. took another photo.

I felt warm liquid run down my leg as my broken mind kept pressing the shutter release. Darren put his hand on my shoulder,

‘You can stop taking pictures now. Its over.’

I turned to look at him but I had nothing to say. All I knew was that in front of me a humanoid creature was devouring a person like a dog would chow down a daily meal. I kept hearing cracks of bone, the wet tearing of sinew and the loud chewing of meat. I didn’t want to turn back and look at the horror that was mere feet from me.

Darren carried on, ‘How about we-

‘CHARLIE!! That was pretty awesome, yeah?’ Alexi interrupted, ‘If your photos are good, we keep doing business. I cannot wait to see them. My comrades cannot wait either. If they approve, you will be paid even more handsomely.’

I was barely listening. All my ears could focus on were the creepy moaning and swallowing sounds coming from Joshua’s hunched over form. It didn’t help that there was a mirror on the other side of the room giving me glimpses of him. His spine pushing through the thin, liver spotted skin of his back as he leaned over the once living girl, still lightly twitching.

‘I… I… The….’ I stammered. Something i hadn’t done in 20 years, ‘W… Well, you’ll have to w… wait for them to be developed.’ Something I had no intention of doing.

‘Do not worry, my shaky little friend. We have dark room here!’

‘What?’

‘Yes! We have Darren build us one for the new business. Very good. Has everything you need. Let Darren take you while i finish up here,’ he said as he opened the bathroom door and beckoned us out. The door closed behind us but the sounds of Joshua’s meal was still audible.

————————–

I… was not okay. My vision was blurry. Tears were falling down my face even though I wasn’t crying. My hearing was weird. Fuzzy, ringing, pulsating. Even so, I could no longer hear the party or the guests. The house was empty of frivolity. It was empty of everyone.

Before I knew it, I was in a darkroom. Darren put me on a stool and handed me some water. He talked at me.

‘I know it all seems a little bizarre right now but you’ll get used to it. And the money.. Wow. You’re gonna be A-Okay.’

I took a sip of the water and looked up at him. I said nothing.

‘But you can’t tell anyone about this. You can’t call the cops, if that’s what you’re thinking. And I’m sure you are. I did. But you shouldn’t. Alexi is a powerful man. And those friends of his upstairs? You do not want to mess with them.’

I glugged down the rest of the water. It was obvious I was totally fucked. If I didn’t develop these photos, they would absolutely feed me to Joshua.

‘Fucking fine! I’ll develop these but I am not doing this again. You disgusting, murderous fucking prick! You always were a slimy little liar, weren’t you? Tricked me.’

‘You’re the best photographer I know. Simple as that. And I needed one.’

I sighed. And then I grabbed a small bucket in the corner to vomit into. This was it. My new, trauma riddled life.

And so I did..I developed all of the photos. It took me a few hours but it allowed me to focus. Until I came to the latest ones, of course. I kept shaking. Kept vomiting.

I… made a few small copies.

I guess I hoped that I could sneak them out to the public somehow. Maybe not now. But definitely in the near future.

As the evening drew on i finished developing. I could hear movement upstairs. I guessed the mess was being cleaned up. Joshua was probably being put to bed or some shit. Who the fuck knows.

A knock at the door,
‘Hello, little Charlie! Are you done?’

I opened the door and Alexi stood there, a gleeful look on his face. I passed him the pictures.

‘Aaah. Excellent,’ he said as he flicked through them, ‘You have done very, very well. We will pay you soon and we will call on you again for more work, yes?’

I didn’t reply immediately. A few seconds of silence filled the air as my mind tried to think.

‘What… what is he? Joshua.’

‘That is for another time, Charlie. We need get to know each other better first. For now, we are done. You will be called when we need you again. Now, go home and get some rest.’

I left the darkroom and passed by Darren on the way out of the house. I gave him a dissapointed look but didn’t say a word. He’d pulled me into this. He’d tricked me into being an accomplice to murder. Murder by… creature.
But I had two photos. Photos that would prove the truth.

A week later I would look at my bank account and, sure enough, there was fifteen fucking thousand dollars in there. My mind couldn’t comprehend it.
I’d been existing in a semi catatonic state and then suddenly my money problems were gone.
I didn’t rejoice. I didn’t smile. It felt wrong.
I did buy myself a Burger King for the first time in ages. The biggest one.
And I ate it in there, just staring into nothing as other people walked by. Blurs. Sounds.

A month later my phone began to ring.

Credit: ZoNeS