Young Writers Society

Sixteen year old Gregori was left to himself this late morning at his house where he lived with his single mother. Today she was out at work and so he spent a silent session by himself looking through his desktop and making sure that his downloads didn’t take up too much storage capacity. Gazing at all of his downloaded updates through his computer he opened file after file but felt rather bored and isolated in his own house. A small candle almost out of its supply of grey wax flickered gently just next to his desktop as he searched through his file database trying to work out how to spend an afternoon at eleven o’clock. “Come to think of it,” He thought to himself. “I haven’t went around exploring the outer portions of town for some time now.” “I could use a stroll into the outer rings with some of the guys.” He left his room and walked towards the entrance of the house to fill his lungs with fresh air as he opened the door to welcome a moderately strong sun that didn’t singe his black trench coat. It was a weak heat outside with a sky coated in wispy white clouds that covered almost every portion of the sky but the sun.

Gregori smiled gently to welcome a decent new day. It seemed bright outside and he could almost feel the activity of the other inhabitants of Parma, Ohio bustling in town and driving to work this fine Friday during spring break. He thought of his two good friends and what they might be doing. Around his close friends he often went by Satanist, as he was also called by them ever since he was touched by Anton Lavey’s writings and grew to identify with the name. He was the small time leader of the other fifteen year olds in the trio with short and fedora clad Matthew as Sperg, and Jason as Shooter named so for his reluctantly admitted addiction to first person shooter games. They were close friends with each of their own individually fiendish qualities, but despite that Gregori often recalled the many memories they had together as chums fighting, debating, or just chilling somewhere off. Now he felt to himself that it was time for a new adventure and so he pulled out his phone from his black trench coat to round them up with their contacts. He had a place in mind for all of them to visit.

Searching through his Galaxy Note 8 he kept his friend’s contacts at close hand, and first pulled out Sperg’s contact coming to an updated avatar of a hooded furry picture on his friend’s icon. He wasted no time phoning him and came through the call to hear a faint chewing sound as Sperg must have been filling up on some snack cakes. “Oh yes.” Gregori heard. “His edginess is reaching out to me.” The speaker delivered Sperg’s voice. “So what do you have in store for me?” “You’ve got time don’t you?” Satanist spoke to him. “This better not be a bad time.” He remarked. “On the contrary.” Sperg responded while on speaker. “I’ve been dismally bored and could use something to fill up this empty hour.” Satanist pursed his lips about to respond and spoke. “I’ve got a place in mind for us to visit on the outskirts of town, we haven’t gone on one of those journeys in a long time.” “Last time we got at the dead end of a road but I’m thinking today of somewhere different.” “Are you ready to come along for a little something extra this day?” He asked his friend. “Oh yeah, I guess I’m available.” “I’ll just get a good pack ready and I’ll be off on our little quest.” “Meet me at the park in like an hour.” Satanist instructed him. “You don’t have to bring any money or anything.” “Will do.” Sperg responded in agreement.

He hung up and reached for Jason’s contact who insisted on being called Shooter. He left his profile picture empty as he didn’t have an inclination to “show off” like he believed Sperg sometimes did. Gregori called and was left waiting for half a minute as he dialed Shooter’s contact. He came across a rustling sound through the speaker as Jason lifted his phone to his ear on the other side. “Oh yeah.” He spoke. “Guess who just showed up on my little parade.” Jason spoke. “It’s pretty good to hear from you dude how are you doing?” He asked. “Not much has been happening.” Satanist responded. “I’ve got an inkling to call us all on a journey to a closed place at the edge of town where I’ve been only once before.” He explained. “You’ve got anything up with you now?” He asked. Shooter sighed. “Oh yeah man, I’ve been a bit busy recently so I’m pretty much undecided on if I want to roll along.”

“What’s up with your schedule then?” Satanist asked his friend Shooter. “You just finished up crushing your uncle’s tobacco supply didn’t you?” “You should be available to go for an outing.” Shooter scoffed at his friend. “Like honestly, he’s a chain smoker but he doesn’t even grow that much of the brown tobacco stuff.” Jason was referring to the small plot of land that his uncle owned towards the outskirts of town. The fifteen year old sullen was sometimes put on doing chores for his recluse uncle and this time he completed one of his chores early. “I mean, I guess I could come along for whatever this is.” He spoke to Satanist. “I’ve got some hours on hand and I should come if like, Sperg’s coming too.” “You’re gonna come to me in the park just like last time?” He inquired. “Yes.” Satanist responded. “Should I bring anything along?” Jason asked him again. “Just your phone if you want, and an open mind for what we will witness.” Gregori explained. Shooter thought to himself again. “Okay then dude, I’ll see you there.” “Later.” He hung up.

Satanist watched as Shooters profile came off of his phone’s homepage. He nodded to himself. “Well that went better than I would have thought.” He considered to himself. “I guess we’ll all go on this little trip in due time.” He turned back into his house to pack his phone, a small bundle of his doodles on paper and a charger. The park where he wanted to go was on the right hand side of two blocks down from his street, Dentville avenue. It was a modest little place with a lawn of green grass, benches, trees, and a few lamps that turned to a faint haze during the night. He had been there many times before and it was fairly close to his friend’s residences. “I’ll see how they’ll react to the neat little place I have in store for them.” He thought to himself as he packed his items into a small grey and black backpack that he kept for a smaller load. He glanced back at his computer that was on screen saver satisfied with the order of files that only took up a few megabytes of his storage capacity after he had thoroughly checked them. Satanist placed his iconic pentagram necklace over his head for the journey and grabbed the house keys that his mother gave him with trust for safe usage as he made it out the door of his house locking the entrance behind him.

It was a brief walk down the street with a gentle wind blowing through his trench coat before he made it to the entrance of a large opening with flowerbeds, a lawn, and a basketball courtyard that sat beside several avenues. Satanist looked from the distance at the park and approached a few seats and table where he saw his friends in their large black trench coats leaning back casually. “Oh yeah, his lord edginess finally arrived.” Shooter commented. “Good thing that it’s been under an hour this time.” Sperg was on his game controller besides his overflowing backpack trying to beat an especially tricky level of Galaga. The weather in town carried a tamed heat with gentle winds as it flowed through the three young men. “Good thing we’re all gathered together for the journey that is about to commence.” Satanist started as he stepped by his associates. “It’s going to be at least thirty eight minutes before we get to that open to the public studio that I have in mind.”

Sperg sat leaned forward rapidly pressing his game controller with indifference. “Yeah, I guess I could go see something colorful and original.” He remarked. “People come up with different things all the time to show off.” “I’ve got a full pack so I’m ready for anything.” Sperg motioned to his overflowing backpack that sat behind him. “It’s not the marshy basin with the art student statues about half an hour away?” Shooter inquired. Jason liked to watch the game and birds that skidded across the marsh and he would throw a few rocks to scare them into motion. “Not this time.” Satanist responded. “That was a few too many times ago.” “I’m talking about the local art museum just down by the alley.” “It’s also a studio that is open for an exhibit, I think it’s time we had a visit now of all times.” Satanist explained. “The local art museum?” “But we haven’t had any goddamn money for like a month and half now.” Shooter protested. “I’m not really stoked about visiting to see a bunch of finger paints on a wall.” “Oh don’t you worry, this one’s free.” Satanist responded. “And more so it’s right down some way across this street, it's not that far.”

Sperg and Shooter looked at each other with consideration as they wondered how much of a walk it would be. “Is it past like two meets three neighborhoods down southeast?” Jason asked. “Cause I might have been there before.” “Oh no.” Satanist responded. “I know this area, I’ll be leading the way this time.” His friends sat up on their feet to follow their maestro as Sperg slipped on his over sized backpack to lag behind Gregori turning down Sullivan way. Sperg and Shooter started on their way with playful expressions thinking they would come witness something they could make fun of for several days on end. Satanist usually had good plans in mind for them as they had their frequent free days after school hours. “I’ll bet they keep some scrawled dick and balls as their signature form on these paintings.” Jason muttered to his friend right beside him snickering in amusement. They continued down Sullivan way, meeting the pleasant weather outside and shuffling in their sneakers and boots.

Trekking by a few shops in two plazas that they passed while on the way to their friend’s hidden destination, Shooter spotted a few discount stores where he would go buy pellets for his BB gun. “This better not be as long of a trip as you said.” Jason muttered to Satanist in front of him. They were now present at a road in a rather desolate area of small storage sites by a highway on an overhead pass. “Hey dude don’t worry about it just yet.” Satanist stated. “We’ve barely just started on the road.” Shooter groaned loudly in exasperation. “Fine then your high and mighty!” He barked. “We’ll go on your invasion right into the spooky places in town.” Jason dragged his feet along. Sperg passed his hands sideways here and there humming a beat to himself. “This may be a real leg killer so far, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun on the way!” He exclaimed, folding his hands sideways from his hips as if playing an accordion humming some obscure song under his lips. They continued on an avenue that they turned left on from Sullivan way passing by a few fast food joints, the reminder of which made Sperg rather hungry. So far the long walk was not that demanding but they still had a long way to go. The continued onto a walkway that passed by several trees marking the entrance to another neighborhood that was sloping a little bit down.

They passed by an abandoned construction site where Sperg started panting rather heavily. Next they entered the neighborhood of a small suburban area that was not so familiar to them all. “We haven’t been here too often before, have we?” Asked Shooter. “I barely recognize this hole.” A small enclave of trees just by them had a small party of squirrels that Jason snickered at thinking about the time when he went “hunting” with his BB gun at the forest by his uncle’s property. They stopped by a small bench that was out by the side of the avenue for a brief rest. Sperg set down and shifted through his weighed down backpack to collect something in particular. “Oh yeah dude.” Shooter observed him reaching for his backpack. “You better have packed enough of your twinkies for the road.” “Oh it’s not quite that.” Matt responded. “Some extra hot cheetos from the liquor store?” Shooter suggested. “Nope.” Sperg shuffled through his backpack a little longer and set out a small speaker with a handle to show his friends. “Why don’t you look at this sweet little thing I got at a discount?” He showed the little boombox to his friends. “It’s audio is connected through wifi and can play any song off of my phone.”

Shooter leaned over and looked with his eyes slightly widened. “Now when did you get that?” He asked. “Oh, it was around a week ago.” Sperg answered. He searched on his phone for the wifi and connected to it in an instant with a small beep off of the speaker. Matthew searched for a suitable song and started playing something by one of his favorite tracks as it boomed out into the air. Satanist turned his head. “Oh dude, not that.” He grimaced at the vaguely rock-ish song that was playing off of the speakers. “Let’s change it to fallen angels.” Sperg passed the phone to him. “Alright then don’t keep me waiting.” He stated. Satanist searched to find a particularly strong and potent metal song that he would have liked them to hear. They started on the road again as Sperg carried the speakers by his pack with a latch, and with a loud song playing by the outer portions of Parma it provoked a few heads of suburban dwellers to be pointed towards their direction. “I think that’s enough of playing something this loud.” Matthew turned it off with a sound that registered that he took it off wifi connection. Shooter sighed as he placed the boombox back in with the rest of his belongings. “Don’t worry guys, we’re getting closer.” Satanist reminded them as they continued down the road still relatively easy on their feet.

The nearly noon sun continued to give off a steady hue as they walked by the edge of the neighborhood to find a road with sidewalks that entered a crowd of trees. They were walking faster now as Sperg continued to pant over the large pack he was carrying and Satanist stepped in his upright posture slightly over the height of the rest of them. A motorcycle party had passed them leaving a prominent roaring of the engines trailing by them as they continued onto Daly road. “There must be a faster way to the place.” Shooter remarked. “We’ve been roaming through town for thirty minutes now.” “I’m getting thirsty.” Sperg passed his friend an icy bottle of water from his many belongings contained in his pack. “Oh yeah.” Jason flicked his hair back as he leaned to drink the water. “That’s the way I like it.” “Isn’t that pack a bit heavy for you Sperg?” He asked as they continued. “Oh don’t be corny dude, not at all!” Shooter eyed Sperg who reached for his slipping trilby, panting and leaning slightly from the overbearing weight. Soon after five minutes the trio came across another neighborhood bearing a neighborhood watch sign.

“Oh no, oh no.” Sperg groaned. “This is no good, a lot of nasty nancies are going to be peeping at us through their windows.” “Let’s turn back.” Sperg was concerned at the mere appearance of the sign which would have warranted at least some mild concern. “No wait.” Shooter began. “I think there’s a shortcut through here.” “I think I remember the place that Mr. High boots in front of us wants to take us to.” “Let’s just skid along here all quiet and we’ll get there faster.” “I bet it’s a shorter way to get there.” Jason stated. Satanist stopped dead in his tracks. “No way.” He started. “You can’t be careful enough around some of these psych-ward mamas here.” He explained. “I don’t want to take chances, let’s turn around this joint.” He started walking to the left as Shooter stood speculative. “Are you sure about this dude, I swear that this lot ends quickly onto another main road.” Satanist turned his eyes back on both of them. “Believe me.” “This is a no go zone, it isn’t a shortcut anyway.” “Just follow my lead.” He continued to their left as the other young guys followed him.

They continued away from the main road that they were just on until they entered a biking trail that was led by a pathway of trees. They entered and embraced a cooler shade as they continued down the trail that held them. Sperg slipped out a small dollar store bouncy ball and striked it against the pathway as they walked along. The cluster of trees sat by in a short depth as they stepped along the paved walkway. They stepped aside to allow several bikers to pass them. There was a small stream that glistened and let out gentle flowing sounds as they walked along at a gentle pace. “Hey dude, are you sure there’s an art museum way out here?” Jason asked as they walked by the thickening grove of trees. “We’re past the main area of town.” Satanist let out a cunning smile while striding in front of the both of them. “Oh don’t worry about the location.” He started. “This place is an exceptional rarity.” “A true hidden gem.” He explained. After walking for eight more minutes they arrived at a small bridge over a long dry ditch that wasn’t nearly as menacing as much as a small and soothing ray of light passed over it’s surface. “We’re finally here.” Satanist nodded in satisfaction. “This is the promised land.”

Shooter turned his head sideways, seemingly confused and shrugged. “A ditch?” He asked. “Seriously, I wasn’t expecting this but this sure is a better place than an open studio.” Satanist motioned for them to follow him as he climbed down into the ditch that lay under the massive bridge carefully so as not to slip on the rocks that jutted by the side of the pathway down. Jason hopped along the rocks as they reached the bottom while Sperg carefully dragged himself along with all of his supplies while hanging onto his trilby. The journeyers stood on the bottom witnessing the massive bridge caressed on all sides with colorful and elaborate pictures that seemed more new than they were faded. Kicking a few used cans on the rocky surface they stretched their necks to see a mass of graffiti stained on the surfaces up to the fronts of the bridge like runaway ivy. “Huh, so this is what you meant by the ‘art museum’.” Jason remarked. “Hey, there is a hella’ lot of pictures here.” Matthew commented. “Seems like it's the place.” Sperg and Shooter stood with a sense of fascination at the columns and walls of the bridge adorned with the extensive artwork.

“Now this is pretty damn cool.” Shooter pointed at the neon pictures that ran all across the ditch. “I’ve been here only once before.” Satanist explained with a cool expression on his face. “And all the master artwork is still good as new.” They ran over the large rocks at the bottom of the ditch that was a dried up river in the spring season to come closer and examine all the art pieces. Jason pointed to a large obscene yet vivid work that featured a large anthropomorphic male and female genitalia hugging each other with a strange expression on the vulva’s eyes. “Oh that is something.” He chuckled to himself. “Seriously, I can’t believe you took us all the way from town to see graffiti central.” “This place is actually pretty lit.” Gregori nodded his head in response. “Everything is scrawled here still clear as day.” “I knew you wouldn’t be disappointed.” Sperg was studying a large mural depicting a picture of Jesus lifting his hands surrounded by thick clouds and ferocious, demonic looking people wearing vintage clothes. “Quite the interesting material.” He scrawled into a small notebook as if he were an archaeologist.

The area was completely desolate except for the three newcomers and they continued to survey the vivid artwork that lay around the area in keen interest. Shooter placed his hand on the dried surface of a giant fox grinning with sunglasses and a fedora holding a giant slightly greenish colored bong. The light passed through enabling them to see the entire spectacle with great clarity. The sprayed artwork was highly detailed and unusually good while very little of the area contained faint etches or bloated letters. Jason turned to observe a large picture of purplish green flames emanating from a bald monk with slightly blue skin that floated over an opened sunflower while meditating. “I have to hand it to you dude, this is pretty cool.” He slapped Gregori on the back with approval. “Almost worth coming out all the way here for.” Satanist nodded back. “It was my pleasure, I wouldn’t want to waste your guys time on some bullshit.” “This is the way that underground murals are supposed to be done.” He looked to behold the massive and diverse engravings that took over the whole bridge, content with his taste in contemporary art.

Sperg examined finely drawn red crystals and diamonds in a giant blue hand and pulled out his grocery store camera to take pictures of the close details on the nails. “The amount of effort that went into creating these murals is spectacular.” He commented. “Not your usual spot.” There was a rich variety of pictures that covered the walls all in proudly conveyed details. Some of it was certainly what we would call "trippy". There was a screaming character over the ceiling that rode a plane while passing a forest that had a snow capped mountain. Another area contained a black hooded character wielding a scythe that bore a large flaming river by some inner city buildings that attracted Gregori’s particular interest. He pulled out his doodles to study the quality of this Grim Reaper like depiction and try to imitate some of it on the notepad. Yet more of the area contained some macabre details and what seemed to be a giant rainbow colored waterfall over some marsh frogs and other animals. They spent the rest of the hour looking over the adorned walls while Shooter threw a few dirt clods at the picture of the wide opened mouth with a glassy eyeball.

Afterwards Sperg pulled out a giant bag of jumbo blue colored marshmallows and they sat down to snack on them. “What’s the point of eating marshmallows without a campfire?” Shooter asked. “I still got my lighter just in case.” He threw an empty spray can on the other side. Satanist leaned back over a few rocks to stretch his legs. “These people certainly got a gig going for them I should say.” He explained. “These high society productions must have taken a good few months to create.” Gregori eyed the entire side of the wall one more time as a set of cars passed overhead. “There’s just one thing I don’t really get.” Shooter began as he chewed the marshmallows Sperg brought. “How do they get some of these sprays on the ceiling?” “It’s not like they can just jump up to reach it.” Satanist turned to him. “I’m pretty sure they use assembled ladders.” He answered. “There’s not that much of it on the ceiling.” He pointed upwards. They were all just chilling as friends. It was a pretty good occasion.

Satisfied that they had seen enough of the high end cave drawings, they lifted themselves up over the rocks to get back on the trail and make their way home. It had been a good afternoon spent at an unassuming yet bright spot looking at scrawled Graffiti. Even though it was a somewhat long walk here and back, their journey to come across something mostly undiscovered made every step worth it. They had all the time in the world and were content to have spent it wisely this time around.