Ivan's Mid-Life Crisis

Chuck has had us working on first lines over the last few weeks.  This week, we had to pick another person's first line and write a story to it... mine is the one below in a lighter blue... which turns out to be something totally different to how it starts out from being.  Enjoy.

Stevie Jennings approaches her baby blue Chevy Cavalier, and says to me, “This is Ivan. He’s undergoing a mid-life crisis at the moment. So be gentle, ‘K?”.

From the moment I looked through the passenger window of the car, I knew he had more on his mind than a mid-life crisis… it was the absolute, mother-fucker crisis of all time. 

Ivan appeared as though he had been dragged through hell by his toenails by Satan himself and had only just survived it. 

But I didn’t want to say anything as insensitive as that to him, so I stuck my hand out and to catch a feel of his aura and where he was at right now and smiled steadily at him, “Hey, Ivan, it’s nice to meet you.” The moment his hand engulfed mine for those few moments, I knew he had actually been to Hell! 

I could feel the heat of the Brimstone scorching my skin!

The screams of the damned almost deafened me!

And the one thing that I don’t think I could ever get out of my head was the hideous laughing I heard… it was the mocking laughing which was constantly there in the background of those few seconds.

As Ivan let go of my hand, he let out small groan – as though in pain – and yet he didn’t have a single wound on him.  I had noticed he had dark rings under his eyes and wondered when he last had a good nights’ sleep.

“Stevie, when did Ivan get a good nights’ sleep last?”

She glanced at his buddy and then back at me, “Um… I don’t remember… he arrived at my door a few days ago and he looked like shit.” She shook her head, “He’s been staying with me since.”

I led her away from the car a few feet, “And why did you bring him here?  I mean to me?”

A flash of guilt crossed Stevie’s face before she glanced to the ground and back at me, “I’m sorry dude, I shouldn’t have… you’ve got that psychic thing going and I thought you’d know where he’s been.”

“Yeah, from his handshake I know alright.” I looked over at the car worriedly, “I wished I didn’t, but I do.” I watched the poor guy in the car drop off to sleep on his own shoulder, “He’s sleeping.”

“Great!”

“No, it’s not… he dreams of only one place.” I said, “And you and I don’t want to end up there.”

Almost as quickly as Ivan had gone to sleep, he began screaming; thrashing, convulsing and fighting in his sleep as the inner demon tortured him in his own private little piece of Hell.

“Oh crap!  This happened the other day.” Stevie muttered, “Quick, we have to get him out of the car before he destroys another windscreen.”

As the words left her mouth, Ivan’s fists connected with the glass of the windscreen and it splintered in a variety of places as he bashed at it continuously.

“Ivan!” I screamed in his ear and his eyes snapped open, staring at me as I held him hard into the car seat, “Are you with me?  Are you here?  You can see me?”

“Yes to all three questions.” He muttered.

But I could see his mind was still swirling around in the Hell he had just been wondering around in.

“How did the windscreen break?  Did we run into something?” he whispered.

“No, you broke it … again.” Stevie rubbed the tips of her fingers along her brows and I could hear the pain in hers voice as she knew it was going to cost her another lot of money to get this fixed again.

“Ivan, would you like to tell me how you got a return ticket to Hell?  And why Satan is beating your head in all the time?” I asked.

“I can’t…” tears welled in his eyes as he pushed me away.

“You can.”

“He said he’d kill me if I told anyone.”

“Well, I know you’re riding the Brimstone Highway each time you go to sleep… so now it’s not such a big secret… let me in on why.” I undid his seatbelt, “Come on, get out of the car and let in on your bigger secret.”

Stevie stood back from her car, “I wouldn’t have done that if I was you.”

I felt the Powers inside me stir as Ivan get out of the car, warning me of just who had possessed him.

“Well.” His voice had changed to a deeper octave, “A sensitive little mortal… you’ll do for lunch.  And I’ll drag you through Hell like I do Ivan.”

This is when I smiled, looked up at Ivan, and Satan within him, when another voice (not my own came out of my mouth), “I’m not who you think I am.” I glanced at Stevie, and gave her one command, “Run.” And she obeyed by getting into her car and speeding down the laneway.

I turned my attention back to the man in front of me:  “Now, we have the day to ourselves, Lucifer… exactly what kind of fun and games do you have in mind for me?”

Lucifer turned a wide grin in my direction, “All kind, Michael, all kinds.”

Just A Little Taste of Fry Nelson - Book 3

This week, Chuck Wendig wants us to upload whatever we want to on his blog... in other words, what the hell are we working on besides the Flash Fictions?  Sounds good... Okay, here's what I'm working on and kinda stuck with at the moment... it's at a halfway point, and I don't know where to take it, so it stops suddenly.

But I have taken you back far enough where you kinda know what's happening.

A week later, Raven was let out of the hospital and she found she could turn her abilities on and off when she needed them.  However, her eyes stayed the luminous green; and her teeth were a permanent fixture of being elongated.  She became shy too smile to readily and really didn’t want to look at anyone for long periods of time unless she was working on a job – which she was yet to get back to.  Actually, Fry was hanging out to see what she was like on the job to see what kind of Hunter she was going to be.  Raven turned out to be a better Bounty Hunter than she was before the stabbing.

Angelina started her out on something simple, and had Fry partnered up with her as he could control her if he needed to.  They sat in her office chatting about the next case and she found Raven was very quiet and eager to get out of the place to simply hunt and rescue; and didn’t ask any questions at all.

“Okay, have you got any questions?” she looked at them both, “It’s been a while for both of you and I’m wondering if you’d like to ask me or Paul something.”

Raven stood and headed to the door, “Nope.”

Fry stood, “Will we need an upgrade of our programs?”

Paul smiled, “No.  You guys are okay.”

“It’s been a while, that’s all.” He asked before following Raven to the door and opening it for her, “Seeya’s .”

After the door closed, Angelina looked at Paul sighing as she leaned against the front of her desk, “I’m worried about her.”

“Aren’t we all?” He poured her a cup of coffee, dropped in a cube of sugar and milk and stirred it, “There you are.”

“Thanks.” She took the cup from him and took a sip, “I’m wondering if sending her out into the world on a case so soon is wise.”

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

It was late that night when the two of them were sitting in the car across from a club in Fortitude Valley waiting for somebody to come out.  Raven watched the doors without a sound while Fry searched the streets for anyone else they knew who might come in and wreck the assignment.

“You okay?” he asked and looked at her.

She sat still staring at the club, “Sure I am.”

“Don’t lie to me, Raven.”

She blinked, sighing, “I’m scared I’m going to turn out of control; and nobody – not even you – can snap me out of it.”

“I’ve been through some really bad shit before I found you again.  And we’ve been through a lot of shit since we rekindled our relationship…” he said, “I want you to know that if you do begin killing people that I will hunt you down and kill you.”

“What did you say?”

“That I’ll always be here for you.” He frowned, “What did you think I said?”

“That you’ll hunt me down and kill me.”

Looking over at her, Fry nodded, “That’s a given.”

She nodded, “I know.”

Two weeks passed by – as did a few jobs – and Raven became an asset to The Company.  However, she was asked by Angelina to submit reports on how their jobs went.  Fry was asked to do this as well.  Both of them handed in their assessments of each job and Angelina read them over with Paul to make sure Raven’s newly-acquired features hadn’t interfered with her job or her life.

So far it hadn’t.

But it wouldn’t be long until it might.

“I’m not sure how long she’ll go until her vampire side will kick in.” Paul said, “I mean, I clearly remember when I had the upgrades installed that I…” he looked to his hands ashamed he hadn’t told her this before.

His boss looked at him, “What happened, Paul?”

The programmer looked up, “I had really big problems adjusting.  Everything was a hunt.  I didn’t sleep for a while and I had so much energy to burn off I really didn’t know what to do with myself.”

She put down the paperwork she had been looking at then took off her glasses, “The vampire side of you kicked in?”

“No… the hunter side of me did.” He sighed, “Until the upgrades, I didn’t know we were hunters on my planet; and I mean, big-time hunters.”

“I see.”

“No, you don’t… we hunted massive creatures; bigger than the ones here.” He shook his head, “I wanted to hunt something big, but didn’t know what to do with myself, so I just delved into my work.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

Paul felt ashamed of himself as he looked down at his hands, “I thought you’d decommission me if you found out about the glitch in my system.”

Leaning back in her chair, she sighed, “I wouldn’t do that to you, you’re the best we have; and I don’t trust anyone else with my people.”

“Have I put The Company in jeopardy?” He looked up at her.

“Kind of… but we’ll have to look into Raven to be sure.”

“Okay.”

Fry hung up their landline as Raven walked down the hall from their bedroom, pulling the tie at the waist of her robe a little tighter.  She had just had a shower and her hair was still wet.

“What is it?” she looked at him.

“We need to go back to The Company… Angelina needs to get you in for some tests on the Super Computer.” He said.

A frown creased her forehead, “Is there a problem?”

“I’m not sure, she didn’t say, but I have a feeling she’s not at ease about you being this way.” He walked to her, “And I’ll come with you.”

“Okay.” She nodded and turned to get changed.

The chambers of the Super Computer had changed a lot since their last visit; which was when the place was self-destructing and falling down around them.  Paul was proud of what they had built this time around.  It was new.  It was beautiful.  It could cater for more than three snooze beds.  He loved this place.

Raven walked into the cabin where Paul was sitting waiting for her to arrive.  He had all her files out and tests in line to look into her programming and he was drinking a coffee – his second one – that morning.

“Hey, Raven, how are you feeling?” he turned from the computer screen as he pushed his disposable cup into a holder nearby.

She looked over his desk warily, “Fine.  What am I doing here?”

“I need to run some tests on your programming, mate… and see what your transformation has done to your DNA and see if we can tweak you a little to make it so that you’re not so hungry and angry all the time.” He smiled.

She looked at Fry before throwing them both a sullen glare and sitting down, “So, what’s going to happen?

Lovecraft's Dinner Party

Lovecraft was a brilliant writer who could scare you... he was the Stephen King of his day.  There was a story - a myth - that he was forever trying to find the doorway to Purgetory and Hell and open them to see what was inside them.  He believed there were other portholes to other dimensions and places through particular spells and curses we could use at the right times here on Earth.  
There was a rumour that Lovecraft had a dinner party once with a collection of around 10 people where he tried to open the door to Purgetory and thought he failed.  This was until all of the people from that dinner party died mysteriously - all but a 10 year old boy who was at the party who wasn't a part of the actual spell.  Have you ever imagined what went on at that dinner party?  I have.  And Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction for Halloween this week has given me a great chance to jump in and write about it!

Can you imagine being invited to a dinner party by a famous author, going with your Mum and Dad, only to come home with one of them different?

You know – different.

They weren’t your Mum anymore.

Well, I did… and I can tell ya how it happened.

This isn’t something I can tell just anyone, so sit down and have a slug of that Johnny Walker Blue there, and we’ll chat, eh?  Thanks for bringing that by the way.

It was around 1936 … or 37… I keep forgetting which… when Mother and Father were invited to Lovecraft’s house for a dinner party.  Well, they didn’t trust anyone to care for me – nobody did in those times – and so took me along to play with any other children there.

There were none.

Mother had mis-read the invite where it said:  ‘No children’.  She said I’d be able to entertain myself.  The author wasn’t happy, but he put up with me for the evening and ended up being happy about it; seeing I didn’t say much and didn’t get in the way.

Dinner was nice.  It was just like what we had at home.  Then, I was ordered out of the room a bit after having sweets and the cook took me to the library where I sat and read a bit before getting really bored.  Mr Lovecraft didn’t have anything to entertain children, but the cook had brought in some paper and pencils for me.  She was nice enough to let me in the kitchen after she checked on me once or twice and talked to me while she cleaned up. 

She was a bit like Mother, but spoke a little differently. 

Suddenly a scream cut the air from down the hall! 

We both looked up as she dropped a glass and it shattered on the floor, “Oh shit!” she bent down and began cleaning it up, glancing over her shoulder every now and then to the door.

I jumped down from the stool I had climbed up on, “Should I go and see…”

“No!” she shouted, “I was ordered to stay here, no matter what happened.”

“My parents are in there.” I had a really bad feeling about that scream, it sounded like Mother’s, or did it? Ignoring the cook, I raced out door, down the hall and to the front parlour where they were all gathered and peeked through the large keyhole.  It didn’t give me a good view, so I pushed the door opened a little and saw something I wished I hadn’t.

My Mother was on the floor convulsing.  Father had turned on Mr Lovecraft screaming at him, “What have you done!”

“Like I said, we were supposed to open a doorway.” The author was leaning against the back of large chair, “I just wasn’t sure which doorway.”

Father nearly belted Mr Lovecraft when Mother stopped convulsing and her eyes opened.  He looked over at her as she sat up slowly and she looked at him, “Can we go home now?”

“Definitely.” He turned from the writer and headed toward the door I was hiding behind.

I raced off down the hall to the kitchen where the cook was waiting.  I climbed up on the stool again and tried to appear as though I had been there the whole time when Father looked in, “We’re leaving?” I asked him.

“Yes.” He nodded, “Come on.”

I glanced at the cook who looked on the verge of tears as I followed Father out the door. 

She knew something was going on.

Within minutes of arriving home, my Mother turned on Father, slashing his throat!  I heard the struggles, the cries and final screams from my bedroom.

I knew she was coming for me!

Fighting back the tears, I opened the window, looked down and found the three storey drop to the ground too far me!  I didn’t know what to do!  My bedroom door opened… and there was my Mother, standing there, not knowing what she had done.

“I think your father’s dead.” Her dark silhouette said in the doorway in the most calm voice, “He’s not moving and I have blood on my hands.”

“It’s okay, Mother.” It wasn’t, “I’m here.” I wished I wasn’t, “I’ll help you.” I wanted to run away.

She wasn’t my Mother anymore.

She was so cold to me.  I loved my Mother, not this thing she turned into after that night at Mr Lovecraft’s house.  He’s now dead, and I’m the only one alive to remember this… and well, you.

Hey, we finished off the bottle of Johnny Walker Blue… want to go to the cellar and get another one?  I have quite the collection there… thanks… it’s not the only thing I have down there. 

Mother’s there too…

She’s hungry.

You do remember I told her I’d help her, right?

Yeah… we found our way to where that creature came from that possesses her and let another one out just like her.  It doesn’t like me… I’m not its type.

But you are.