Strangels

I was sitting at a table, enjoying the slight chill in the air as I held my cup beneath my nose. The steam warmed the tip and the aroma of vanilla and honey made my mouth water. For the first morning of my retirement, I thought things were going well.

The first of them walked across the street and stopped a few cars down. She was beautiful in a way that I couldn’t have described the day before. All long, lean limbs and cute, captivating curves. I might not enjoy being alone, but it did make it easier to stare. Although as I looked at her clothing, an almost see through green sack of a dress with a pair of heavy, brown work boots and one spotted sock, I realized that everyone was staring at the woman.

When he friend appeared beside her, the woman at the next table gasped. I never asked if the gasp was due to him just appearing, and I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed him walking up, or if it was because the loose running shorts he was wearing left a portion of his anatomy hanging out down the leg. Honestly, I didn’t need to know. The man was so well built and gifted that I would have considered switching teams if he had asked.

I was lost in thought as a pair of children ran down the sidewalk. The little girl who was running from her brother came to a sudden stop when she saw the adonis standing in front of her. Her brother was distracted by the woman and did not stop. He plowed into his sister, knocking them both to the pavement in a tangle of skinned knees and bloody elbows.

As children often do, they began to scream and cry in response to their injuries. The whole of the little cafe’s patronage pulled their eyes from the visions of beauty to look upon the injured. The pair stepped toward the children, who ignored the beauties to focus upon their pains.

It might come as some surprise, but this is when things got weird.

The woman, her gown falling off of her to reveal far more than has ever been accepted as modest, knelt beside the girl and grabbed her face. She kissed the child full on the mouth before wetting her fingers in her mouth and then shoving one in each of the child’s ears. While giving the girl a double wet willy, the woman bent further forward and licked the blood from each of the child’s knees with a tongue that would have made an anteater proud.

The man, lowered his pants a bit around his bottom before squatting over the pursuing brother and lifting a single finger into the air. As he did, the sound of the gas he passed seemed to echo off the building behind me. I was aware of a car alarm going off, though at that moment I could not remember if it had been honking it’s warning before the fellow farted or not.

Both children were silent. The diners were silent. The passing pedestrians were silent. Even the cars were stopped at a red light. The only sound was that stupid car alarm.

The pair stood straight, and the sun reflecting off the windows illuminated them. For a moment, they were haloed in soft gold, then they each started walking in opposite directions. The children’s mother ran up to check on them and I looked back at the woman at the next table.

We made eye contact and I began to worry about her. She was pale, her lips a light blue, and I wondered if she would be able to keep her seat. Her eyes were wide and wild as she gulped like an old cartoon character. “The kids,” she whispered. “They were hurt from falling.”

I looked at them, and saw what the woman meant. No scrapes and no cuts. The boy looked nauseous and the little girl was wiggling her finger in her ear as if trying to dry it after swimming, but neither was bleeding anymore.

“It’s a miracle,” the woman said. Her words drew my attention back and I saw that she was clutching the cross hanging from her neck. “That was a miracle. They must have been angels.”

“Strange angels,’ I said, slurring the words together into a single unrecognizable one as I tried to make my brain and mouth work together after the spectacle. I licked my lips and cleared my throat before trying again. “Strange angels indeed.”

Parking

Karen and I lay in the backseat of my father’s old Explorer. Despite the fact that we were sticking together due to sweat, neither of us moved. We didn’t want to stop touching.

“I don’t know if we can continue this,” she said. “If my family finds out, they’ll kill you.”

I kind of shrugged with one shoulder. “I think you’re worth the risk.”

She was smiling as she looked up into my eyes. I had always been amazed by how bright her eyes were at night. It was like looking at a cat that was sitting out on the porch. “I think I just might love …”

The window exploded in as a large, dark hand grabbed Karen’s head and drug her off of me and out of the car. I jumped up and spun to look into a set of glowing eyes.

The door came off next in a screech of metal. I was so shocked that I didn’t move. The thing grabbed my foot and dragged me out.

Whatever it was, it looked like the pictures of the troll under the bridge in my nursery rhyme books. It lifted me up by my ankle as Karen ran up and started beating on it’s stomach with both fist.

“Run,” I yelled. “Go!”

After a second of her ignoring me, I realized that she was screaming, “No daddy. Stop.”

 

Pursuit

My lungs were burning. There was a sharp pain in my side. There was a dull ache in my head. I looked ahead and there was a black ring around my world. I didn’t know what the thing behind me was, but I knew I had to keep it behind me.

“This will be fun,” he said.

“My god you are cute when I’m drunk,” I said.

“Come with me and I can guarantee you are going to have a great night,” he said.

Now, that boy who thought I could be his man was nothing but a smear on the walls. Now, whatever it was that we found in the woods was chasing me.

When I tripped, the world just slowed down. I felt myself falling. I could see the ground coming up to meet me. I hoped that it would knock me out. That way I would be unconscious when it found me.

The flash of pain was followed by a warm feeling as blood ran down my face. I knew I was still awake. Now, all I could do was lie there listening as it came towards me.

In a Flash

The camera was one of the greatest inventions of all time. It allowed for a moment in time to be captured forever. It allowed for memories to be kept without fail. It allowed the world to look back and see the truth in things that would have otherwise been forgotten.

For humans.

For the rest of us, it created a way to be caught and known for what you are. It allowed for our unnatural actions to be recorded rather than rationalized. It was also forced us to see what we had done. To look back on things we might wish we had forgotten and know we would never escape them.

I don’t take pictures. I don’t like them to be taken; and if I see you lift that phone up and point it at me, I will rip your arm off.

Does that answer the question of whether or not you can take my picture since no wasn’t good enough?

Swim

Tommy slipped through the grass, doing his best to be quiet. He moved from behind a stump to a spot behind a thorn bush and then back out into the grass. Each step brought him closer to the water.

The wind was strong, blowing away what little noise he made. It also muffled the sounds of laughing, screaming and splashing from the creek.

Mary Ann’s friends had stayed for the weekend. Her lights burned into the night and he watched her and Sarah braiding each other’s hair. With weather this hot, there was no way that they wouldn’t have come down to the swimming hole.

Thirty more slow, careful step and Tommy settled in behind a multiflora rose bush that was almost as big as Mary Ann’s Beetle. He used a stick to move the thorny branches, pushing a few of them down to open a window through the bush.

The girls were there. On the rocks beside the creek, each of the four had placed a neat pile of cloths. His eyes widened as he watched his babysitter and her friends splashing each other. For a boy of his age, this was a dream come true.

He was so focused on them, that he didn’t hear the crunch of a heavy step behind him.

Ivory

The making of a magical item is always a process. While some like to say that magic is a subtle science, I know that it is truly nothing but an art. We bring together the unrelated and in doing so, make something new that can change the world. It is an art and I am proud to be one of the sculptors.

The guy on my table is some sort of celebrity. I think he might be the new weather man, but I really don’t know. For my purposes, all I needed was to hear him bragging in the bar about how those are his real teeth. The girl was impressed. She went to the bathroom to remove her panties and then drag him outside. He was in for a wild evening.

Now he is screaming despite the gag forcing his mouth open. If he doesn’t stop soon, I will have to cut out his tongue so that I can concentrate on my work.

It will all be worth it though. Nobody has made a cup out of human ivory in years. The enchantments will take months, but when I’m done I’ll have half of what I need for potions of youth.

Unfortunately for the weather man, he has to be awake when I extract the ivory. Poor sod.

Spring

I know now that it was my fault. I thought it would be alright. I knew that I looked good, but I never dreamed that something as simple as dressing up could have drawn them to me. I guess it must have been my own fault.

I don’t know why they singled me out, but they did. When the first one showed up, I thought she was just friendly. Paying a visit and being nice. After all, its a beautiful spring day.

When she touched me, I was shocked. What made her think that was alright? Why would she even think about it.

She did so much more than touch. I felt so violated and helpless. Then she just took off.

For a moment, I was thankful. Then I saw the others coming towards me.

***

“Dad?”

I looked up from the flower toward my son. “What?”

He pointed a finger at the bee sitting on the dandelion and asked, “I wonder what the flower is thinking when the bee lands on it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have any idea.”

Car Bomb

George stumbled down the hall, one hand on the wall and the other holding his stomach. With every step, his feet drug a little more.

“I’m not going to make it,” he mumbled.

The explosion rocked the hallway, and George thought the building might be coming down on top of him. Pain erupted in his guts like a volcano, burning and tearing at his consciousness. He felt his pulse hammer in his temples as he struggled to take another step.

***

“Don’t you think you might be a little dramatic in that description?”

Martin turned to look at his wife, Carla, and gave her a sheepish grin. “Dramatic is what sells stories.”

“Really? Drama about having the flu and not making it to the bathroom from the couch?”

Martin felt his face heat up from his blush. “This is supposed to be a crime story where the hero got shot in the gut.”

She nodded, looking at him with a skeptical smirk. “Right. Sure. And the fact that you had a little case of the flu last week has nothing to do with that description?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay Mr. Writer,” she said, a devious grin spreading across her delicate face. “Then what exploded in the hallway?”

Martin turned back to the screen and frowned. “Uhhhh. Car bomb?”

She laughed as she left her husbands office.

Cosplay

The sign above the booth was simple. Black letters on a white background. The masks and costumes looked the same as the ones being sold on either side. They all cost about twenty dollars each and they were all dedicated to the heroes and villains Marlene had grown up with.

“Be Who You Feel Like You Should Be,” she said as she looked at the table. “I like that.”

“I’m glad you do. May I help you?”

She looked up into a scruffy beard that covered a wrinkled brown face in thick patches. The booth vendor had different colored eyes and he wore a beanie with pretty convincing horns poking out of it. “I don’t know. I’ll know what I want when I see it. Don’t you think it should have been ‘Be Who You Want To Be’?”

“Naw. Lots of people dress up as what they want to be. I’m here to help you be who you should be.”

Marlene lifted on eyebrow but didn’t say any more.

***

She lifted the tiny brown leather outfit up and licked her lips. It was ragged with some kind of fake fur all over it. It was more than a bikini, but not by much and she wished she could have worn it.

“That one calls to you doesn’t it? It was made for you”

“Yeah,” she said, the sound of longing dripping off the word as she spoke. “I remember this from the first movie. I loved her character.”

“I have the matching boots. Why don’t you try it all on?”

“There’s no way that is going to fit me,” Marlene said. She looked down, frowning at her belly. “I don’t have the body for it.”

“There is a dressing room right here,” the vendor said, pointing over his shoulder to a little box with a curtail hanging around it. “Just try it on and see what I mean about it being made for you.”

Marlene bit her lip, but she couldn’t help herself as she headed behind the curtain.

***

The sword vendor yelled at Marlene as she grabbed the weapon off the rack, but he only missed having his head cut of because he fell down while backing away from her.

Marlene, conquerer of the barren wastes; warrior princes of the frozen horde, howled in rage. People looked at her and laughed before screaming and running to keep out of arms reach. She was no longer a cook who the owner kept in the back because he didn’t think she was pretty enough to be a server. She was no longer afraid to talk to boys. She would never again let them laugh at her. She was dressed for battle. She was a barbarian. She would chase them down and remove their laughing tongues.

The little old man watched her charge through the crowd. He scratched at the base of his horn, frowning at the itch from the stupid beanie, and wondered how long it would be before this one got shot. Then he knelt down, collected the yellowish coin that was lying beside her old cloths and popped it into his mouth. “Paid in full,” he said as he turned to begin packing up.

Stalked

I watch her walking. Her tennis shoes aren’t making any real noise, but she isn’t trying to be quiet. I don’t think she knows that I am following her. I am not that close.

In a block, she is going to turn down an alley. She always does. I turn a block earlier and hurry to be ahead of her. She will be in the alley for two blocks, I want to be at the second street before she is.

I am a half a block away when she turns back onto the sidewalk. Two blocks later, and she will be home. I keep my distance, tonight isn’t the night.

When she gets to her door, she steps back out and crosses her arms. She stands there, wearing a halo of light and watches me. When I get to the stairs, I stop and look up at her.

She nods and says, “You’ll do,” and walks into her house without shutting the door. As she steps in, she pulls her shirt up over her head and drops it.

I follow her, tripping on the stair as I see her bra come off and fly to one side. Her hair hangs down her back, covering most of it as she heads up the stairs. I shut the door, drop my pack, being careful not to let the contents clink so that they won’t scare her, and follow her up.

Her shoes are lying on the top step.

Her denim shorts are on the floor in front of the open bedroom door.

I walk in and she is lying on the bed. She is smiling and not wearing a gag. Her hands are extended to welcome me rather than being taped together. Her eyes look hungry. I don’t see any fear, and that makes me want to cry.

“You are so beautiful.”

I tear myself out of my clothes and join her. We are together, one instead of two, in no more than a few breaths. I kiss her, tasting something salty and metallic, like blood, and I am in heaven.

Her skin is cool, like the night air that blows across my back through her window, and it offsets the heat from my body.

When I see the fangs, I wonder why I didn’t notice them before. As I reach the peak of excitement, she bites me and I just don’t care.

The last moment of my life is the happiest one I have ever had.