Felixentric

Scene 29: Hale Satan

Felix turned a corner, peering down the stretch of a muggy, enclosed alley. The moist filth of a dripping garbage bin shot a horrid scent through his nostrils, first slamming him in the face and clinging to his innocent cheeks, then making his eyes tear up. It was dark there. Lamps were thirty feet apart and they weren't very bright. When he wasn't near one, he felt as if he were in a void.

A rustle erupted from somewhere inside the alley, almost as a cue for him to speak up. "Hello?" His voice was enveloped by the walls.

Another clank came, but he continued further.

But what if it was just a nightmare? What if he had never raised his stakes with Janette and his life was okay? What if his house hadn't really burnt down and he wasn't living with Quinn and he would wake up tomorrow with the forest all around him and a relaxing portrait on his spaceship-house walls? What if he'd been in a coma, nearing five years long? Hale wasn't really gone? Maybe dad wasn't either? Mom?

He wanted to call into the dark to see if it were humans or ghosts who answered; it would let him know where he was in reality.

But it was no use, because the first response he got was a cat's meowing. In the primary, he thought about a rib-showing cat scraping through the dumpsters. But then a form came falling through the sky in front of him and he flinched backwards with a yelp. He recoiled as Sass stepped forward, her eyes soft with a calm curiosity but intent with her naturally wide eyelids. He looked up to see that she must have jumped from a nearby window sill.

He wanted to yell at her, curse her for her sneaky ways, but he only manage a half smile and a sigh. "Hey, old girl," he whispered. "Come to save me from the evil forces?"

She meowed as if responding.

He took a step in her direction and expected her to run away as she often did when he advanced towards her, but she stood there and watched him come closer. She still stood, even when he was right next to her. She looked up expectantly, the ways animals do when they want you to scratch their necks or give them food. When he passed, she began to trail him. Like she had when she first didn't understand why Hale wasn't around anymore. Curiosity.

She trudged on. When Felix stopped, she stopped a foot away and when he continued, she maintained the same distance. Then she hissed at something and Felix's eyes registered on the outlines of a person.

"Hen, just go away," Felix whispered, but only quietly, because if it were a homeless man or anyone else, he'd feel pretty stupid. But if it really were Hen, he'd hear it.

But he was wrong. Hale was pacing around in the dark and walked into the little light stream with sweat running down his face. It looked like he was fighting the flu.

Felix groaned and threw his hands up. "Didn't I tell you to go away! I'm tired of this."

Hale's eyes were wide. "Felix..." He looked like he was shaking, cold or worn out. He looked like he had been caught in the rain or thrown into a washing machine. He held his wrist with one hand and shied away.

"I'm serious!" Felix got louder. "I told you I didn't want to see you anymore!"

"Felix?"

But Felix was tired of being reminded, tired of pitying someone who wasn't real. He swore Hen could come jumping out of the sky and hold a knife to the image's throat and it wouldn't mean nearly as much to Felix as it had a month or so ago.

"I didn't-." But there was something much different about the image then. His voice was a little bit deeper than usual and a lot more quiet. He wasn't a strong force in Felix's mind. Was he fading away?