BRUCIE

SIX

It was the most horrendous pain he had ever felt since the accident that nearly took his soul from his body. He sat back on the couch; motionless, lost to the very world itself except the pain that made him know that he was not entirely gone. Brucie had an exceedingly powerful urge to scream but simply could not open his mouth. His jaws felt weightless as did the rest f his body and a stream of eerie voices; spoken in words he could not understand slowly filled his head. When his vision had finally returned the voices died down and the room was unrecogniseable in an odd way. The entire place appeared to have been tinted red in the pupils of his eyes and there was an unfamiliar growing hunger in his stomach The weight of his limbs had returened but the pain had faded so fast it seemed as if it hardly had ever been felt at all. Lameer's deep sobbing tone had returned but she was no longer in his line of sight. He felt his whole body shift to a stand and his head made a slow left pivot to where she had been crawling towards the kitchen cupboards. In a sudden burst of speed he felt his whole body break into a mad sprint and as if watching a terrifying horror movie, he saw his skinny arms roll her onto her back. He screamed within himself as he had no control of his bodily functions, but a maddening idea of what they were compelling him to do. He felt her hands tighten around his neck as his head involuntarily thrusted at her horrified face with his teeth snapping at each miss. Although the hunger in his stomach was growig stonger he could not shake the horror from the five word in his operative mind "I'm going to kill her." The words were on a loop in his head and with each attempt to sink his teeth into her flesh, they grew louder and louder until they were the only things he found himself saying.

He wanted to apologize, he wanted to break free of the satanic trace as her shrill screams taunted the evil spirit to try harder. Brucie loved his life and for a fourteen year old he had alot more living to do but at the moment he wanted it all to end Seeing Lameer in pain, struggling, hearing her scream and staring into her beautiful pink eyes that have now been corrupted by tears and fear, he wished he was dead. He tried to shake his head, move his lips, do something other than try to kill her but it was all in vain.

Neither of them knew how it had happened, only that when it did they were both glad. Brucie felt the weightlessness return and as he collapsed onto his back he caught a glimpse of the face that had saved her. His hazel eyes were filled with sadness and rage above a broad nose that sat comfortably above a neat goatee that surrounded his mouth. Although it was only seconds before his entire world became darkness again, Brucie was happy within himself and he gladly spoke in his mind "Lameer - you are safe."

The darkness had suddenly became nothing but light and he found that he was in control of himself once again. He felt refreshed and an overwhelming sense of joy and freedom as he walked about the abyss of light. He drew a halt in his stroll at the sights that were before him and he smiled for what felt like an eternity. The glasses were on his face again and he held the hands of two eautiful young women; the one on the left much younger than the other. Marcie was wearing the same violet outfit she had worn the night they talked about Lameer on the roof; her hair stopped behind her at the centre of her back. His mother was dressed in the same red dress she had worn on his seventh birthday and despite how she had probably aged; it fitted her nicely. The old man on the otherhand had worn the same white shirt he had always been in since the day he returned from the war and Brucie loved it. He felt weightless as he ran to them and embraced the warmth of their bodies and once again he knew within every inch of his being, that they were a family.