The Mandela Catalogue

In The Tiles

(BACK TO DAMIENS POV)

I'm sat on my bed on the floor when I see Fox sit up quickily in his bed, short on breath.
"you Ok?" I ask.
"oh my god it was a dream." he says rubbing his eyes.
"what?"
"I had a dream of a traumatic experience of when I was a child"
I look at the floor trying to process.
"wait what happened?" I ask
Fox explains.
"shit was your brother OK?" I ask
"no."
"what happened after he got to hospital?"
"he... He died." he says
I look down.
"shit, that must have been so hard for you. I'm sorry" I say
"it's OK. but I saw the man he mentioned. He was in his room, but we was frowning." fox says.
"wait" I say
Fox looks confused
"the man, was he an alternate?" I ask
"I think that too, it's been bothering me"

I check the time.
"it's 5:30." I say getting up.
"uhhggg, I'm gonna go back to sleep." fox says laying back down.
"and I gotta get my computer ready for work." I say
"wait how do you work as an engineer online."

"there are other jobs I can work as, for example, I can construct robots now... " I laugh. I carry on, "I gotta do online school work as well since I'm still in college, also don't you have school." I ask.
"i'll set an alarm for 7am and if I don't wake up to it then can you wake me up?"
"yup" I walk out closing the door behind me.

____________________

(7:30)

I was doing school work, which was to construct a piece of technology. I was going for a robotic arm kinda thing that you could interact with.
Fox walks in with Bee and sits on the sofa with his laptop.
"right, I gotta head to work and get the shop open again. Would you look after
Max for me?" Michael says.
"OK, you should have Jackie with you incase. And pepper to fly back over warn me if something happens." I say.
"OK, I'll make sure to feed her, still got some bird food from when you had to leave town for a week." he says
"thanks Michael." I say

Michael leaves with Jackie and Pepper leaving me, bee and Fox.
I turn on the robotic arm, setting it as a fist. Then I fist bump it.

____________________________

(5 hours go by)

I finish with the work and stand up to stretch. I look over at Fox and see him procrastinating.
"you know your never gonna get anywhere if you keep watching YouTube while you work." I say over his shoulder.
"ugh" Fox says closing the YouTube tab.
"want me to make you lunch while I'm up." I say going into the kitchen.
"if you want, im not really bothered if you do." he says looking up at me.
"I'm gonna take that as a no" I say sitting down next to him.
"you not gonna eat anything?"
"no why?"
"cause it's lunch".
"I'm not hungry." I say looking at the TV.

==================
(Michael, Jackie and pepper)

Micheal gets in the van with pepper on his shoulder. Jackie gets in too.
It's a quiet drive for half of it until,
"so how long have you known Damien." Jackie asks, looking at Michael.
"huh? Oh... Well since he moved in I guess." Michael says, keeping his eyes on the road.
"how did you meet" they ask.
"well, when he first came to buy some random shit, he was just awkward and very anxious. So I started conversation with him the third day he came, to get to know him cause I knew he'd be less anxious." Micheal says smiling.
Jackie looks back at the road.

It was silence for a while.
They arrived at the shop, Micheal turns off the van and gets out. Pepper caws and Jackie slams the door.
"shouldn't do it so hard, could attract alternates." Michael says looking back at Jackie. He walks to the petrol station door and goes to unlock it. The door opens when he tries to put the key in and he steps back.

"oh shit." Michael says.
"what's up" Jackie asks
"somethings broken the door open." Michael starts whispering.
"WHAT?" Jackie whispers/yells.
"just slowly and quietly walk back to the van while I access the cameras, get the metal baseball bat from the boot, I'm gonna find and bust this motherfucker." Michael says.

________________________

(Michael and Jackie spent 2 hours searching the place 4 times but found nothing, they decide to sit at the counter and work for another 2 hours.)

"what time is it?" Jackie asks, sitting on the counter.
"it's 11:21" Michael says.
"thanks" Jackie replies and jumps off the counter to get a drink.
Jackie pauses.
"did you hear that?" they say looking at Michael.
"what-" Michael cuts off as they hear a banging noise.
It sound like something crawling in the ceiling.
"the tiles." Michael says grabbing the metal baseball bat.
The crawling gets closer and closer, eventually stopping at Michael and Jackie.
The duo steps back, waiting for attack.

It seemed like 30 minutes they were standing there for but it was only 15, silence for 15 minutes until.
"is it gon-" Jackie cuts off when a person jumps from the ceiling, Jackie and Michael step back as it gets up on all fours, it's arms and legs are slim and long, it's back was arched and it's neck was long too. Michael throws Jackie over the counter and jumps over, the alternate follows. He runs to the van while Jackie follows, he gets in and starts to drive.

Both Jackie and Michael hold their breath until they get out the petrol area, then they sigh.
"well that was eas-" they hear a thud on the roof.
Crawling noises, then the head appears at the top of the windshield. They scream and Michael stops the van and locks the doors.

The alternate had a surprisingly normal face for, well... An alternate. Long Brown hair, blue eyes. It's just the alternate part.

They see something shoot the alternate in the road, it slides down the windshield and onto the ground. They see a man, about 6'1. It what looks like clothes that a detective wears, in it's hand held a pistol. It looked like a human, until you look at its face. It had black, scribbled out eyes... And a large smile thf no human could have.

It slowly walks to the front of the car, picking up the body of the other alternate. It walks to the side of the road and drops it. I takes one last look at Michael and Jackie before walking away and disappearing, Pepper flies on the bonnet of the van. Michael opens the window for her and she hops in.

_______________________

(13:45)

"you got a pretty big mouth for someone who can't fucking write one maths equation WITHOUT PROCRASTINATING!!!" I yell at Fox
"DON'T BRING THAT UP AGAIN, THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS." Fox yells back
"IT DOES, BECAUSE YOU KEEP SAYING YOU CAN DO MATHS WHEN YOU CAN'T SIMPLY WRITE DOWN THE FUCKING EQUATION, THAT'S THE EASIEST BIT."
"MAYBE IT ISN'T FOR SOME PEOPLE!!!"
Pepper flies through the window onto my shoulder.
"on way. alternate. Smiling man." she says.
"good girl" I say giving her a nut.
"wait did she say smiling man? " Fox asks.

"yeah?" I say
"that's what we reffered the man in my brothers room as." he says
"that's definitely not creepy." I say standing up cause I hear a car in the driveway. I look out the window to see a very scared Michael and a very shocked Jackie. We wait a few minutes before hearing a knock on the front door. I look through the peephole and open the door.
Jack and Michael rush in.

"what happened?" I ask them.
They explain while sat on the couch.
"damn, you guys OK?" Fox asks
"yeah but we're shocked, I wouldn't think an alternate would save us, especially from its own kind as well. It just shot it and it slid down the windshield" Michael says.

We all have dinner and then call it a night.