The girl in the leather jacket ran to me. She was spray-painted red on one side from
the marker dye of an old fire-alarm trigger pulled by me long ago, just before
this mansion beside us got baptized in the desert. The other half of her was a white mist of ice
cold anger and vehemence.
Katheena had some books hidden in her car, and Big Bryan had
brought a big rig to pull it out of the desert silt, after he kicked himself
some ass.
YOU NEVER
LEAVE A
FRIEND
BEHIND
EVER
AGAIN
I got up from my hands and knees at the corner of the
mansion as she reached me. I was about
to wipe my hands off on my pants but she wrapped her arms around me and
squeezed the breath out of my lungs, and I fell back on the ground with her on
top.
She whispered in my ear.
She said, “I came back to save you.”
I shivered from her cold breath, but I felt warm inside, and
oddly enough, down below.
How odd indeed, for that to firm things up, being all afraid
of ghosts and all.
I whispered back, “Joey was supposed to save you.”
She said, “He did his best.
Don’t blame him for what these bastards did to me.”
I exhaled.
It was all of the weight I’d carried for so long that
escaped in that breath.
Splotches of coffee on the floor.
Ya know.
+ + +
+ + + +
Tellesco ran over to us and he started to cry again. Jeebus in a reed basket, what the hell? He didn’t have the little girl on his back
anymore.
He said, “They coming for us!”
Big Bryan
rounded the corner with his heavy, metal rod hanging down from his hand. His silhouette from the light behind him must
have shocked Tellesco, because he sought to defend us at a moment’s notice.
Friggin guy.
Tellesco charged forth and tackled Big Bryan, and they
punched at each other and landed on the ground and wrestled.
Great. Now there were
two of us couples showing love to each other on the ground with the blue ghosts
and them purple robes fighting back around the other corner.
The little girl with the bright blue eyes stood before us as
I let go of Katheena and got up. She
said, “Leave my king alone!”
Big Bryan just
about shit his pants, but maybe it was the mud from the ground. He pushed Tellesco away and got to his
knees. He said, “Ghost!”
Tellesco crawled over to the little girl and got up in front
of her and he stood ready to fight again.
He was going to protect her as well.
Frigging guy.
Well, that says something about a person, doesn’t it?
But then the anger in his eyes dissipated. We could see it in the light from the
temporary lamp posts from the front of the mansion. He recognized Big Bryan.
He smiled.
And then he began to cry again.
Oh, for the love of---
Katheena shouted, and that made the air grow cold around us
all.
She said, “ENOUGH!”
The wall beside me grew frost on its surface. She seemed kinda pissed about something, so
we listened to her.
She said, “There are more coming! We need to get the fuck out of here. NOW!”
My leather jacket crinkled as it froze, and I just nodded my
head.
The little girl looked at Katheena and said, “That is what I
was trying to tell you folks. You don’t
have to be so mean about it, lady.”
Katheena frowned and looked down. She said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your ears, little
lady.”
Well, I don’t know about you, but when a couple of dead
folks are having a conversation in front of me, it creeps the hell out of me.
Not that it’s a regular occurrence…
The little girl stood before Katheena with her hand
outstretched, with a wall of blue flashes erupting in the night air. She said, “Hello, ma’am, I am Avison Talon. What is your name?”
I could see Katheena just about melt. She smiled and grasped the little girls hand
in her own, and she said, “ I am Katheena.
Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Avison Talon said, “Your hand is cold.”
Katheena said, “So is yours.”
Enough already. Time
to get the hell out of there. I said, “Bryan,
it’s really good to see you here and now.
I don’t know how you got here, but do you have a way to take us out of
here, and fast?”
Bryan shook his
head to clear out the muddled confusion of the situation, but as you might
recall, they guy could turn on a dime.
He assessed the needs, and he delivered the answer.
He said, “I got this big rig with cars all smashed up into
it, but I think it’s still drivable.” He
pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the big pile of smashed up cars.
I looked beyond him and saw the roof of a gleaming black
semi-rig.
I said, “Will it take us far?”
He said, “Far enough.”
I said, “We need to find Joey.”
You never leave a man behind.
God Help You.
God...
OK, sorry. This is about Big Bryan kicking ass.
Bryan said, “We
gotta finish up here.”
OK, sorry. This is about Big Bryan kicking ass.
Outta My Life
This is
DeadMau5 with Billy Newton
Big Bryan shook
his head. He looked at me, and he
frowned.
I had no idea about what the fuck.
Tellesco grinned.
Hah?
The little girl behind him got big eyes, and she stepped
back.
She said, “No, Mr. King.
We have to leave. Please, let us
follow this man here.”
Tellesco turned around and spoke to her in soft tones, and
Katheena grabbed my arm. My leather
froze again, under her icy grip. She
said, “He’s right. That is why I came
here. We have to make a stand.”
I looked down into her face and I just nodded.
I would follow her wherever she went. You know, I had always been amazed by her, even
after Lorelei went away.
Yup. Pussy whipped by
two ladies on either side of the ocean.
None of us would ever take the easy way out.
Damn.
Big Bryan
grabbed the heavy tire iron from the ground and ran towards the flashes of blue
light from behind the mansion.
He didn’t even know what was going on back there. Can you imagine doing that? He disappeared into the fight.
Huh.
Tellesco followed, and so did Katheena and the little girl,
Avison.
I was left standing there, looking about at the mess of cars
before me. There was a tractor for a
trailer behind the piled-up cars all wrecked and broken, and I felt like I was
broken as well.
What would you have done?
You would have run off into the night to look for Joey, and
I would have followed you, my friend. No
harsh, no blame.
But we, you and me, well, we would have to face each other
in the morning light, and it would be a harsh light.
OK, let’s go.
I knew you would follow.
I ran back there and turned the corner and saw a war going on.
I stopped and looked.
This is what I saw:
Them purple robes were firing their guns at the blue ghosts,
and some of them were shooting at the half-red girl in the leather jacket.
The blue ghosts were joining together in small groups and
flinging each purple robe up into the air and then smashing them down on the
cement. Others grabbed whatever was
nearby and using them as weapons. Metal
chairs were flung, and other things flushed from the mansion during its baptism
became projectiles.
The whole back yard was frosty with the presence of all
those ghosts, and the heat of gunfire from them purple robes.
I looked down at the ground and saw the bodies of those who
had been broken by the blue ghosts underneath their flashes of evaporation.
These ghosts fought: not for their lives which had ended a
hundred years ago and more, but for their escape.
They fought to protect their king, because that was their
redemption. They could finally leave
this trap, if they gave up the ghost.
Big Bryan swung
his metal tire iron at the heads and bodies of those holding their guns, and he
connected with each one.
Tellesco used his fists and his knees. He swept like he was a charger without rules,
to open a hole for the QB.
Katheena stood straight up and she took a deep breath in.
She screamed.
It hurt my ears.
The air dropped its temperature down to below freezing and
snow fell from the air itself.
I fell back, and the purple robes fell down as well.
All of the blue lightening strikes stopped.
Big Bryan hopped
about, collecting pistols, and he put as many as he could into into his
pockets.
Tellesco saw him do this, and he followed along, doing the
same.
But do you know, Katheena disappeared.
I was about to join in, but everything was already done.
Go figure.
Don’t look at me that way.
.
God Help You.
God Help Us All.
---weak willies out.
If You Know Love by
Molly Johnson
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