Red Guitar - Short story by me

Re Guitar

There was once a man by the name of Steven Dumplo. He always seemed to be interested in music, although he never played a real instrument in his entire life. One day, when Steven was walking home from school, he looked in his pocket to see if he had any money to buy an electric guitar. He looked through the window of the store and noticed one truly amazing guitar. He stared at it with wide eyes. His hope was lost when he saw the price tag for four thousand dollars. Just as Steven turned to walk home the most out of the ordinary thing occurred. Four thousand dollars fell out of the sky. As he snatched the money on the road a car comes by and smashed him beyond recognition. Steven was later pronounced dead. A man appeared on the scene by the name of John Eden. He saw the money and grabbed it. As he looked across the street, the window with the red guitar caught his eye. He was in awe over this extraordinary guitar. He walked into the store and told an old man, the owner of the store, that he wanted to purchase the red electric guitar. The old man told John that it was unsafe and that it was cursed.

An old rocker owned the guitar, and had played the guitar until it possessed him to kill himself in a luxury hotel in Los Angelas. John listened quietly to the old man as he drew tears down his eyes, as he told the story of the cursed guitar. The man continued to tell stories of how many people had died while trying to posses the guitar.

Some have claimed to see the guitar in action. The guitar’s sound is fast paced, yet unmistakably warm feeling. Some people believe that the owner owns the guitar, but in fact, it is the guitar that owns the owner. A guitar like this can go a long way, to a point of self-destruction and paranoia.

"Although nothing serious has happened since…since..," the old man began to trip over his words. He continued, "Well nothing happened since the accident a minute ago, when the man found the money on the road".

The old man continued, "This guitar feeds on deaths and murders. Another death and this will be a shame. This guitar is very old, dangerous and not meant for an inexperienced person like you. And therefore I will not allow you to take this guitar". I know the way that old black magic works! I know, I know, said the old man angrily. "Yes, but mister, you do have it on sale" replied John. "Well, yes I do, but I am not selling to the likes of you". "I have the money I demand the guitar now". John’s eyes turned dark and fierce. He was not acting like himself. It seemed like he was being controlled by someone or something. Who it was he was, He was unaware. John seemed obsessed with the guitar. John decided to make the man give him the guitar even if it meant death. The guitar shone near the steel glass window of the store. John stood silent just looking at the guitar in a trance. Then John started yelling , " I want the guitar now! Give me the guitar now!" John screeched and raved on about the guitar. Little did he know the guitar would be the death of him. John pulled out a gun and shot the old man. He ran over to the window where he had seen the guitar. untouched and unmoved for years. John grabbed the guitar and put it in a black guitar case and left the store quickly. He went home to his apartment.

John arrived home and set his guitar on the floor of his bedroom. That is when the oddest thing happened. As he turned his head towards the kitchen he saw the guitar standing there. He headed towards the kitchen and picked up the guitar in shock and surprised at how the guitar made it from his bedroom to the kitchen. It was as if it had been following him. John noticed that the scratches on the guitar had disappeared and had the never been used look. John thought about what the old man had said about the guitar. It was then that he tried to erase the haunted image of the man’s dark pale face in his mind. Then John turned and headed for the phone, and almost panicked. He did not want to be the only one to see the guitars odd magic curse. So he called his girlfriend and told her to meet him at the old café. He needed to explain to her everything about the curse of the guitar before he went on stage that night.

As he talked to her, the old man’s voice crept into his head and asked " How does it feel John? How does it feel to be a rock star? Was it all that you ever wanted? Was it everything you hoped and dreamed for? Was it worth killing me for?

John shouted " Shut up, shut up!" Now everything faded and John woke up and had forgot he was on the phone with his girlfriend. It had seemed by then that she had hung up with all the frustration of trying to tell John to calm down. John then got dressed up in his stage clothes and grabbed his guitar and headed to the old café.

He tried to get through the front door but it was jam packed with lots of people.

John took a seat and sat down and waited patiently for his girlfriend Shannon to show up. It had felt like John had been stood up for a no show. Thirty minutes turned into an hour of boredom and now that boredom turned to anger. He was upset that she had stood him up making him look like a fool sitting there all alone. John wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on around him. He clicked in to a phase much like the one that had occurred when he was on the phone with Shannon and the voice of the old man that he had killed. "How does it feel John? How does it feel to know your loved one is dead?" John tried to ignore everything up to the point of when the old man mentioned Shannon. The old man spoke in his grassy eerie voice "She’s dead at ten o’clock". John woke up feeling afraid and panicky. He got up off his chair and ran out of the café and headed all the way across town trying to reach Shannon’s house. He got there just before ten o’clock which was a good thing. John went inside and saw that she had been brushing her hair nice and softly. John walked across the room to reach Shannon. She got up and turned around and said "what are you doing here?" John told her what had happened but he did not explain the ways of the cursed guitar. John lay down and closed his eyes and listened to the sound of his girlfriend playing his guitar. She played it nice and softly, until she tried to get the guitar off her. Until the strap of the guitar came off and went around her neck. It choked her in an instant, her hand was bleeding from playing the guitar for too long. John was already fast asleep by then and when he woke up he saw the body of her lying down on the floor. It was the most gruesome sight he had ever seen in his life. He grabbed his guitar and decided to get to the night show and destroy the guitar on stage and he could not refuse the money in all this. To him, sure his girlfriend was killed and he cared a lot about her, but now there was no turning back. Once he would step on stage he would have to face the music. John arrived at the largest concert in the world, he got up on stage for his final act of the show, which lasted twelve hours long for almost each song. The reason why he couldn’t stop was because, if he did, the guitar would kill him on the spot in front of fourteen million people. After the end of the song it didn’t matter if this guitar made him a star or even if it made him play better. He just wanted his old life back. John trashed the guitar so many times trying to make one dent into it but no luck what so ever. He smashed it against a wall and on the stage floor he threw it into the crowd. As he turned to head off the stage the guitar was right in front of him and he grabbed it again and shattered it into pieces. John received a big applause from millions of people. The reviews were excellent said his manager. John decided to leave the recording business- it just wasn’t for him. John got into his car. The seat belt clicked in for him as if possessed and the stearing wheel began to go on its own. John looked at the rear view mirror and saw the guitar in his back seat. John wasn’t watching where the car was going all he knew was the roads were too icy. And this was for sure the final ending of his journey. He went sideways off a bridge and into the icy waters. John struggled to get the seat belt off but by then, he had already swallowed too much water and drowned in the waters.

Ten years later an old fisherman in Portland, Maine was fishing and caught seaweed and to his surprise he saw a shinny red guitar. Which later he gave to his granddaughter Suzan and so the curse begins yet again.