I rolled up to the abandoned barn...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Like a Bat Out of Hell
She was beautiful and perfect. Checking to see if anyone was watching, I hopped in. I pulled several wires out from underneath the steering wheel. I worked to find the gray ignition wire. Stripped the plastic from the it. Tapped it to the metal base. Where it started immediately. My foot hit the gas peddle as quick as it could. With the loud revving engine and the squealing burnout I was sure the owner knew by now his car had been stolen. The car was in pristine condition, with every turn and twist of the road she seemed to become smoother with each increase of speed.
I rolled up to the abandoned barn...
I rolled up to the abandoned barn...
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I couldn't help but stare it as I cut the engine. The barn was huge. It was tradtionally made of wood but the owners had to fix it up with more modern material due to the rotting and sections missing. When I was little and the building was newer, it was used often...but that was a long time ago. Now it just sits here as if here for looks, kinda like the Porsche I just picked up.
ReplyDelete"Idiot," I muttered under my breath thinking of the car's owner and the speed limits I broke to travel here.
I needed to focus. I was sent here for a reason, I was sent here to give a message...but to who? I wondered as I swung open the large red door and inside the darkness and creaking of the ancient barn.
A fluttering noise came from the far away corner in the barn. A beautiful white barn owl swooped down, scaring me as a loud shrilling screech passed my lips. The owl continued his flight, reaching a large broken window and passed through the massive hole.
ReplyDelete"You're here." I hear from behind me.
"Who's there?!" I ask already shaken by the owl's abrupt visit.
ReplyDelete"You already know who I am, my dear." The man's voice was deep-almost husky. He sounded about my age, maybe a couple years older. I relized I had heard his voice before...but from where was a mystery.
"I am just trying to fit the pieces together. All I want is to stop this wild chase you people have me on. I am getting really sick of this game, so tell me who you are and who you work for!" I felt angry the more I thought about all the crap I had gone through today.
"Paitence. Be paitent and you wil find all you need to know...and more."
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ReplyDelete"No! I want answers and I want them now." I pulled out the forty-five I had in my pocket. Aiming it directly at his chest I waited for him to speak.
ReplyDelete'wait!' he pleaded. 'just calm down! I didn't know you'd take this so seriously.'
ReplyDeleteI lowered the gun. He looked so familiar. Then he continued speaking.
'Jeez, you really don't remember me at all do you?' he waited as I searched his face.. it just wasn't clicking.
'It's me, Carl.. remember? Third period English? Ms. Doering's class...?'
I remembered Ms. Doering's class.. still drawing a blank on this Carl guy though.
'Me, Grover Hangabur and Jim Plowsky used to throw stuff at you in class. We used to tell you all kindza crazy stuff and you believed anything! Man, you were so gullible! This has all been a big joke! We didnt think you'd actually fall for it!'
I remembered him now. Now it all made sense... only now that I knew it was a joke, I realized I was in deep doo doo.
Well, I had no choice now. Not only did I despise Grover and his side-kick, Jim, he had seen me with a gun, knew that I had stolen a car and could potentially tell all of my friends that I had tricked into liking me who I really am, a poser. The question is, after pretending to be a bad ass for so long, would I be bad-ass enough to kill him? To pull the trigger? To watch the life drain from his eyes? Grover Hangabur would be hamburger, when I finished with him... assuming I could pull the trigger.
ReplyDeleteI heard two other voices laughing in the dark corners of the ancient barn. Then two shadowy figures emerged. I knew instantly that they had to be Jim and Grover.. those bastards!! I’d never killed a man before, but I knew what I had to do now. It was the only way. After what Carl, Jim and Grover had put me through today, I had just enough rage built up inside of me to pull the trigger. I played it out inside of my head.. it took only a fraction of a second to map out my course of action. First I’d shoot Carl, then Grover, then Jim.. wait… no.. after Carl, I’d shoot Jim and THEN Carl.. no then Jim.. oh wait, I’d already have shot Jim BEFORE Carl.. okay… I’ll shoot Carl first, then Jim and THEN Grover. Pleased with how flawlessly I’d mapped out my course of action, I was ready to execute my stratagem.. and also very pleased how I’d used the word ‘execute’ as a clever double entendre.
ReplyDeleteLost in thought, I’d nearly forgotten myself as Carl lumbered toward me with the other two men not far behind him; all laughing at my expense.
With every ounce of fury I could muster, I pulled hard on the trigger. I heard a pop and the slightest kick as I fired off the first round, then the second, then the third, in rapid succession. The men stumbled, seemingly shocked that I’d actually had the gonads to pull the trigger. The adrenaline rushed through me as, terrified but pleased with myself, I observed my prey. Carl staggered a moment, eyes wide in disbelief. He placed his hand to his chest where the slug had hit him, and held out his hand stained with blue… wait a second… blue blood? Was Carl an alien? The other two men came walking out of the shadows and into the light. One had a blue splotch on his sleeve, the other seemed untouched.
“Um.. you missed” The man without a splotch said. He looked at the blue splotch on the other man, then walked around to see the splotch on Carl’s brown leather jacket. I waited for Carl (if that was his real name) to fall down dead. After all, I’d hit him (or it)point blank in the chest. By all measures, he should be dead. Then the man with no sploch, whom I now recognized as Grover, began to laugh. The callous bastard! Laughing as his friend stood, mortally wounded! I fired off another round and hit Grover, point-blank in the temple. Alien or not, that should kill anything! Even the living dead are not immune to a shot to the temple.. but no!
‘Idiot!’ he roared, infuriated; and then he tore the weapon from my hand. “What the crap do you think you’re doing?”
I staggered backward. These beings with blue blood were impervious to even a shot to the temple! I was so terrified that I could feel myself trembling.
Then Carl smacked me in the head. “You didn’t actually think we’d give you a REAL gun, did you?”
Stammering back I dropped the gun in the saw dusted floor of the decaying barn. Decaying like these friendships I stared at. I had actually pulled the trigger on these boys I had once played in the dirt as children with. I had actually thought, for a brief moment in time, that it was FINALLY over. That their endless torment would be over. As I stumbled back I tripped on my own thoughts and embarrassment and landed next to where the now revealed paintball gun lay.
ReplyDeleteI slowly picked up the gun. As I quietly and intensely stared at Carl something in his face changed... a distant recognition. Grover and Jim shuffled in discomfort as they sensed the disintigration of Carl's confidence.
"Don't do it. We were just kidding around." Carl said uncomfortably. "There is a fifty fifty chance you grew out of your latex allergy. You don't know if it'll even work." he continued desperately.
I continued to raise the gun to my head. Time had slowed down offering a replay of my childhood. The early evenings of a once pleasant neighborhood with the boys nextdoor making mudpies in the dirt hills behind the vandalized and dicrepit barn behind mine not unlike the ones we were currently standing in. Then time sped up and almost like a bat out of hell memories swirled around me from middle school gems like kick me signs, fake notes from girls, spidwads in my hair, swirlies, pushing pennies... they swatted against my soul and dazed and confused it came to a crashing halt as Carl grabbed both of my shoulders shaking the now loose gun out of my hand.
Then i said "what the crap?!?!". I picked up the gun from the floor and chewed it. hmmmmmm, needs beer. (BOOM!) The gun exploded in my stomache, and cried like a little school girl for about ten minutes. Arnold Swarzenegger walks in and laughs. "hahaha, what a FEMALE!!!" I run at about 20 mph and headbutts him in the face. He crawls into the corner, assumes fetal position, and grabs his dogbowl and licks like there's no tomorrow. "Oh I'm so so sorry are you okay?" Arnold looks up with a sad look like a puppy on his hideous post-steroid filled face and says: "NO, I WANT A COOKIE!!!!"
ReplyDelete'Did you hear me, girlie man? I want a cookie!! and I mean now!!'
ReplyDeleteThe Governator barked sadly.