The Silhouette (Alan Quinn and the Second Lifes)

by Thomas William Shaw

Peaches followed me into my room; probably to get some belly rubs. I thought to myself about the ramifications of Dad being home with Mom, getting along. There would be no more searching. Mom would stop drinking, hopefully. I wouldn’t have to keep up with my sad little journal any longer. Then I started thinking long term. Mom and Dad could settle here. Ashton, Kansas might be that small town I call home when I go off to college. I’d come visit every couple of months and notice how much older my parents had become.

  Of course, I was getting ahead of myself. I had to finish high school first. Perhaps, I had found a new friend in Vick. After all, I did show him who was alpha dog even if it was in an unorthodox fashion. LeCarre may have been on to something with me being the first person Vick saw when he woke up.

  My heart fluttered. More fantasies flashed in front of my eyes. I could possibly date Jessica LeCarre. We could dance together at school gatherings. One day we could have a family and grow to be happy, boring individuals together.

  Almost as quickly as my heart elated, it fell 1,000 feet down a dark hole. Jessica LeCarre’s father wasn’t human. He was a walking shadow in a human’s body. His very existence along with Lathon’s assured nothing about my life could ever be normal. There were no white picket fences or pleasant family dinners in my future.

  Who knows? Maybe I would live long enough to witness the entirety of the Silhouette population on Draio moving to Earth. They could take over Dahlgreen and change its name to Draio. Everyone could be at peace, allowing me to live an easy life.

  I waited for Lathon to appear. In the last few days, it was always when I was deep in thought that he would pop up to give me some useful, yet strange, advice. He never showed. It was nice.

  Peaches moaned, reminding me that I had left her alone on the floor. She made a noise that said, “Rub my tummy!” She was no longer a mnemonic that my Dad had run away. She was the constant vision of something new.

 

  A noise awoke me later in the evening. I hadn’t realized I had dozed off. Peaches barked loudly and began to wiggle vigorously. In result, I fell off the bed. It was beginning to become one of my least favorite routines.

 

  I crawled to my bedroom door to get a better listen, worried I was going to hear my parents once again having an awful fight, sending Dad back to his friends. The boards were creaking. I heard assorted giggles and guttural screams. What were they doing?

  I wanted to avoid remaining in the dark like their last fight and ripped open my door and ran downstairs.

  They were both on their backs in the middle of the living room with all fours sticking up in the air. Mom playfully made a mix between a puppy growl and a howl. Dad barked right back at her but a little less playful. He backed up ready to strike, but instead he walked over to her and licked at her face. It was just plain weird.

  Something shiny and red caught my eye from the back of the room. I followed the light glowing on the walls into the kitchen where I found the stone lying next to the kitchen sink. It sparkled like a crystal ball, but maintained warm, rosy warmth. What was it doing? I did what every other curious kid would do. I picked it up.

  My eyes shut. I was back in the land where the park, forest, and ocean met, but it was still completely empty. The sky above produced tiny fireballs that would land at my feet. Somehow, though, I was freezing cold. I had to do everything not to wrap my arms around myself to protect from the wintery blast the fireballs were creating.

  I admired the landscape. How could anyone live here without shelter or water or something resembling food? It was a sad, dark place. I wondered why I’d returned.

  Lathon appeared next to me. His presence alone intensified my emotions, filling me with hate, sadness, and happiness all at the same time. I wasn’t sure how it came over me.

  He said, “Do you realize what this place once was?”

  I shook my head, refusing to hear another word. I wanted to return to the real world, away from that hell.

  “This, my dear boy, was once my home. There were children here, an entire animal kingdom separate from your own, families, homes, and a wonderful castle to oversee it all. An entire world gone overnight, care to guess why?”

  My suspicions were too painful to process.

  “The government turned its back on the species who built it. The Silhouettes were locked into cages. The only ones allowed to live freely were me and one other female Silhouette who was granted the right to teach some of the children. They must have thought that translated as civility.”

  “I enjoyed every minute at first. It was nice to have my pick of the hangouts the rest of us used to play at. I was allowed to do whatever I wanted, but I had to give back. It was worse than slavery.”

  I turned to him, “Wh-wh-what did they make you do?”

  “Do not worry. I played it up to impress them, but I did nothing to threaten the lives of my people. It was, however, very painful to watch my friends be locked up and tamed like they were animals.”

  “Alan, none of what you see before you is real. This is just how you perceive the hologram created by Darius’ stone, but I do not believe you are ready to see what is left. The dream chasers are crafting a terrible plot. LeCarre and I spied on them while you were playing catch up with dear old dad. Speaking of that—”

  I backed up, ready to run if there had been any direction I could have gone in. It was an empty oasis.

  “Reese has been compromised. I cannot readily identify what they have done with him, but he is a killing machine. They have trained him to hunt down all of the Silhouettes that are hiding on this planet and execute them.”

  I didn’t want to believe it. I said, “That’s crazy. I mean, how many of you are there?”

  “Currently, LeCarre and I are the only ones living in Ashton, but there is a small tribe in what you humans call London, England. I will soon be going there to warn the others of the atrocious crime that has been committed against Darius. It is your job to see that your father stays in Ashton.”

  I wanted to bowl him over, “How exactly am I supposed to do that? I have school, Mom is excited to see him home, and—why must you ruin this for me?”

  “He has her under a spell. It has been carefully crafted since the dream chasers followed you to Ashton,” he said. “The way to keep him here is to keep the dream chasers in check. LeCarre will assist you with this. He is fully prepared to show his true form and take them out. If the fighting gets too heavy, you will be able to call for me and bring me back.”

  “How could we possibly keep them from leaving with just the two of us?”

  “If you can figure that out, I will gladly have you enrolled at the school that remains in Draio. We need new recruits.”

  With that he faded into dust, leaving behind a shiny white light that engulfed the area until I was back in the kitchen still holding the stone in my hand.

  The fridge opened up, startling me. I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. I could see him in my peripheral.

  Dad took a swig of orange juice from the carton, “What are you up to, Alan? Day dreaming again?”

  I spoke tersely, “Oh, you know, traveling to distant planets and joining another race.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  Dad laughed hysterically. I no longer felt comfortable having him in the house even if Lathon was making things up. At the same time, I wasn’t sure how the stone transported me. What was it and what kind of power did it hold?

 

  He stepped up to me. His hand was dangerously close to the butcher knife lying in the sink from the night’s dishes. He grabbed the stone out of my hand and studied it, “This is some kind of dream stone. I saw it in one of Darius’ earlier works. It is good to have one of these by your bed on a sleepless night. Dream stones can make you see and, well, believe anything.”

  Pretending to be clueless, I said, “Oh, can they?”

  “They also can cause you t
o get into a lot of trouble if you look too far into what you see.”

  “Trouble?”

  “Lots of trouble. The kind of trouble that can lead you to be horrifically murdered with this butcher knife.”

  With that, he turned his attention to me. We were in a complete stare down. He said, “Now, you would not like to get into a lot of trouble, would you?”

  I instantly realized that I was going to need Lathon’s help quicker than I assumed. Everything I witnessed in my vision was coming true before my eyes. But, just as quickly as I could have flipped a light switch, his expression went back to playful.

  He said, “A son of mine needs to lighten up, eh? Most of my dream studies are myths I either study or debunk. The dream stone definitely falls under the debunk category.” He lightly tossed the stone into his other hand, saying, “You look like you have seen a ghost. Come in the living room with your Mom and I, would you?”

  Dad walked out of the kitchen. Cautiously, I grabbed the butcher knife and threw it away in our trashcan. I didn’t want to give him an idea that would bring the killer out. I hoped I was being silly and falling prey to hallucinations, I really did, but I was starting to question who it was I was supposed to trust.

  Mom and Dad were in each other’s arms at the couch acting completely normal. Mom had a wide grin on her face I had not seen in quite sometime. In fact I had never seen them this happy outside of their wedding photos.

  She said, “Tomorrow, I want you to skip school. You and your dad are going to explore the town since he hasn’t really gotten a chance to see it with an expert,” she winked. “I want you two to have a day to yourself. I think it’ll be good for our family and especially good for you, Alan.”

  Dad nodded his head, “What do you say? We have not spent a day together in quite some time.”

  I thought about the town and the dream chasers and how hanging out with Dad could all be an elaborate trap. The whole idea sent my head into a spin, but I desperately wanted to spend time with my dad. It was something that I had been hoping for a long time. I loved spending those days with my mom, but I always was unhappy to know Dad hardly ever wanted to spend time with me. It at least felt that way most of the time.”

  “Well?” he said.

  The two of them smiled like excited six year olds finding out that the family plans to go to Disney World for summer vacation. Was I going to be the grumpy old dad to turn them down? I looked from left to right, from Mom to Dad.

  I had never had to question skipping a day at school so thoroughly.

  I said, “Sounds fun. Couldn’t have come up with a better idea myself.”

  They both cheered like they had won a horrible lifelong battle: the troops were coming home. I knew they were being silly, but it made me tear up. I was going to spend a day with my father like a normal kid. It was something I had been waiting for my whole life from the time we lived in Brazil to the short time that we spent in London. It was always what I truly wanted.

  What was the worst that could happen?