REPUS - Volume 1

REPUS - Volume 1 - Issue #1 "...And Then They Came" Preview

        This is a preview of a monthly "word comic" that I'm doing called REPUS, which I won't reveal what's it about so I won't spoil the story. I don't have enough time this month to write this down, but I can show what I've got so far (listen to the song to get pumped...just for anything):

SOMEWHERE IN CHICAGO

I did not imagine my day going like this – Mark and I, Lucas, running from some beast-like thugs from school. Although, they weren’t a couple of thugs. No. Thugs wouldn’t be throwing fireballs out of their hands, would they?

How the hell did I end up here?

 

A FEW HOURS AGO:

My day began as any other. I woke up to sound of my damn alarm clock on my bedside table. EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH!!! The damn thing wouldn’t stop until I hit the snooze.

 “Five more minutes!” I mutter to myself, and I toss back to my sleep.

It wasn’t the EHH, EHH that woke me up that last time. I got something worse - a nightmare:

My eyes fluttered open to see three grown men huddled together from the far end of an abandoned warehouse. There was barely any light to luminate the room. There was only one light in the middle of the room, but it flickered every so often. Beyond the flickering light, I couldn’t see anything but a void of darkness.

Out of the darkness, another grown thug came out, gloves on his hands soaked in blood. “Sir Rocko, he ain’t talking,” he said.

“Wipe off the blood, clean the floor, and beat the shit out of him again,” Rocko said.

I didn’t like how I saw this Rocko-guy. Even if I barely caught a full-view of him, the shadows cast onto him helped me realize this guy was serious. His face had scars all over them, like he got into millions of bar-room fights and didn’t care about the hospital bill. His buff physique didn’t help either, or the fact that he was smoking. This guy has scary written all over his ass.

“But sir...”

“I said beat the shit out of him, Marty,” Rocko said. “Or do you want me to demonstrate it on you?”

Marty immediately shut up. “Will do, Sir,” and he walked back into the darkness.

I couldn’t help myself. I needed to see what lied beyond that sheet of darkness. So I went for it.

As I walked forward, it felt like I was leaving the world as it slowly went away from me, being wrapped in an infinite shade of black. Every now and then, I would stop to see how far I went away from where I once stood, with the flickering light as my guide. It worked out well for a while, until I looked back for the tenth time and found nothing. I was surrounded by the dark, with probably no way out.

I tried running back, but I couldn’t tell if I was going to find that light. Everything around me felt the same. Every turn didn’t look different. It was as if I was on an invisible treadmill. It felt like an invisible treadmill.

“Okay,” I thought to myself. “I need to wake up. This charade needs to stop.”

...Nothing.

I willed myself harder thinking “Wake up. It’s a dream!” over and over again. I slapped myself in the face repeatedly to will myself to wake up once again in my bed. I got so hopeless I prayed to God to hear the annoying EHH, EHH, EHH of my alarm clock.

“God, please!” I said on my knees, pounding the floor in anger. “Wake me up! Get me out! EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH!!!”

I felt so suicidal. So alone. So helpless. So me.

Then, I heard voices fading in.

“Speak up, you sack of crap!” It was Marty, one of Rocko’s goons.

I looked above me. I could see a tiny speck of light coming from beyond my left. I stood up and found Marty beneath an old lightbulb. He had his gloves off, and now his fists had blood on them. He was beating up someone, I was sure of that, but he was blocking my view of the guy. Whoever he was, he sure took it.

“You know how Rocko works,” Marty said, wiping the blood of his fists with his shirt. “All he needs is an answer, and he’ll leave you guys alone. So, be that ass-y superhero you are, and give us an answer.”

The guy said nothing.

“That’s it!”

Marty threw the most brutal punch I’ve ever seen, if that was even possible, even for a guy like him. BAM! “Ungh!” The guy’s thrown off to the side, and spews out blood, like it was just Flem.

I feel the punch on my face. My skull feels like it just hit a rock. It’s painful, but I made sure not to whimper, especially with the fact that if I do, I’m gonna end up in that chair.

“Come on, you piece of crap,” Marty said softly, like he was talking to a beaten-up puppy. “Just tell us where your leader is, because we need his head on a stick.”

“N…Never…you…BITCH!”

       I paused. That guy sounded like me for a second. Actually, he sounded like me for the whole sentence! I tried not to make as much noise as possible, as I tried to catch a glimpse of the guy in the chair, but one of the damn guards was blocking me.

        “Alright, you,” Rocko said. “I’ve had enough of this bullshit. Marty!”

Marty handed over something small to Marty. CLING! A switch-blade.

“I am tired of you not talking, you little punk,” Marty said as he cleaned the blade. “So, I am going to ask you one more time…WHERE THE HELL IS YOUR LEADER?”

My Voice-alike’s head moved up, only revealing his hair. He breathed, and then coughed “Screw you, you little shit.” He spit a mouth-full of blood all over his face.

“THAT’S IT”

“UNGH!” The man and I scream in unison. I looked down and didn’t see any mark on my stomach, but I felt intense pain, like the life of me was draining out.

I only had a split second to remember what I was doing – making sure to not get noticed.

“Who the hell is that?”

“Crap, someone saw us!”

Marty stared into my eyes. I saw my dream death within. “What are you waiting for? Get the bastard!”

They lunged after me. I didn’t know what to do. I dashed back into the darkness, only to hit a wall and fall flat on my back. My spine hurts, and my head has a huge lump on it, surely bleeding.

Suddenly, a big hand grabbed me up. It was Marty. He clenched his fist, ready to surely pound the hell out of me.

“You are so dead,” he whispered to me with an evil smile.

I prepared for the worst as time began to slow down before my eyes just as that pEHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH, EHH!!!

Thank that stupid alarm clock.

REPUS ISSUE ONE: APRIL 2015