Floodlights

Fighting Egghead: A Prologue #2

As the crow flies up the river the setting sun reflects off the glistening water. Crow glides left and lets the sea wind push him inland over the town centre. The town centre is medium sized and filled with many shops and restaurants. As it goes over the big government buildings the crow starts to dive past telephone lines and much light industry and housing. The streets are modest and Crow settles down on a telephone. He looks at one house in particular. It is a terraced house with Yorkstone brick walls and newly fitted windows. Outside of the house sits a single small beige Fiat Uno car. There are two windows on the top level of the house. One is large and wide. The other is small and is the main magnifying glass to a box room. The lights are off and the boy is sleeping.

As the crow looks in he sees a child in a single bed. The boy is small for his age and looks younger than the seven years he has lived. He has short hair with a somewhat grown-up tramline effect around the sides.

"I was in toe, of course, when we went to the hairdressers. But he insisted on having something different done. It was a somewhat strange thing to choose. He's happy with it and so is the school. Still I don't know where he got the idea from." His mother always explains to other parents while picking him up from his friends' houses.

The time ticks past one in the morning and he becomes restless and squirming in his bed while he dreams.

****

The boy opens his eyes. He feels awake and alive. A techno beat is pounding in his chest. He doesn't even remember breathing. The boy looks around and all he sees is darkness. He is lying on the floor of his parents' bedroom. Then there grows an uncontrollable urge to run. One desire. One goal. He moves as quickly as he can, to reach the goal of getting to the light; to reach his mum and dad inside the lounge. Inside the lounge through a stain glass window he can see the light; he can feel the warmth. As he moves it grows. Like a feeling of excitement and hysteria the specter is behind him. Chasing him. It is not a physical presence that wants him. It is just a spirit. He knows he cannot let himself be caught so he tries to run faster. Yet as the boy moves, energy seeps from his body. The more he moves the slower he gets and the phantom grabs him. The boy only reaches the top of the stairs. Then there is just black.

He reopens his eyes. He is bound by invisible chains. His body, frozen still. The sky is black and filled with tiny dim stars. The floor is metallic and is a large floating platform cut into by a dark menacing abyss. Planet Earth is watching from a distance. There he stands alone, cold and naked. He doesn't have to breathe. There is no water in sight. Cackles of laughter echo around his ears despite the fact that it is space. It goes against the laws of nature. The cackles come from his nemesis. His face never comes clear. Egghead, as he is called, is a tall broadly shaped man with a bald head. He cuts the boy. The boy loses his penis. There is no blood and equally no pain. It has been taken and now is gone. He is then pushed over by his nemesis into the abyss. He accelerates downwards through the black abyss and his vision fades to black.