I turned to see the boy picking up the bottle of vodka, if he was only a product of my fucked up imagination how could he move inanimate objects around? If I search my mind, my mind tells me if it’s not real than it must be me holding the bottle, unscrewing the lid.
“It’s a lovely photo, tastefully done, you know, the one that your Gran took of you, it is in that box over there…..” the boy claimed quite merrily and pointed at the box closest to me. Without thinking I opened the box.
“You’ve cheered up a bit,” I pondered aloud.
“The time of retribution is near,” he giggled as I pulled a frame from the box. As I spun the picture around all I could see was a light blue wash, there was no other image, no picture of me on it. This concerned me greatly and I looked at the boy who paid my frown no attention, he began to merrily pour the vodka over the boxes by the door.
He opened the door and skipped down the hallway, pouring the whole bottle over the cardboard boxes. Then he turned to me as I peered out of the door to the bedroom, noting that the living room door was shut. “You cannot be in two places at once, not until you sign up for the club!” he said.
The boy sauntered back to the bedroom and without closing the door he talked again, his voice sounding more mature every time he paused for breath, something I had only just picked up on as his tone was positively deep and had a demonic edge. “Ricky is a great bass-player isn’t he? He rocked the Specials covers, Message to you Rudie, that was skanking……”
The fact he knew the music of the Specials suggested that this was not a Victorian born child as his attire might suggest, he was not a little boy at all. It suggested that he was, as I thought, a figment of my imagination but it seemed so real. “For real, you like The Specials?”
“Sure do, I like what you like and soon you will like what I like, we are the same Vinny, the same…..”
This got me back into a fearful state, I still could not detect what was my fantasy and what was real, “what do you like then kid?”
The boy produced a lighter from a pocket in his dungarees and slid his index finger over the wheel on top of it, “revenge!” he bellowed. Then he reduced back to a whisper, a joyful, almost comical murmur, “that bastard Daniel, he abused his children, his wife suspected him and threw him out. If only Rachel knew, but Vinny, she cheated on you, you want what I want don’t you, revenge on her too?”
I stammered as I made my decision, “I don’t want her to die…….” Still, even though I said it I was unsure of this decision; maybe I did want her to die.
“We all die here tonight, if you want us to. The events that happen tonight will bring a new lease of life to the curse of the crying boy, a generation has lost this story; they know nothing about it. When they find your picture unburnt it will breathe new life, new fear into the minds of the offenders. We live in a changing world, the curse needs updating shall we say? They need this Vinny, they need a vigilante story but they need something mystical because although the taboo has been lifted, people are still unsure how to react to the stories of child abuse. If you want this, you can have it, you can join us and be the new Don Bonillo,” he flicked his lighter and pressed the flame towards the boxes, fire quickly began to spread, “ah, schh, they’re asleep in there,” he whispered as he pointed to the living room door, “We wouldn’t want to wake them!”
I gave a heavy sigh as I looked at the door, imagining them knotted together in a naked embrace, I looked back at the boy, seen him for years on my Gran’s wall, crying. I had never seen him smirking. I snickered back at him, “no,” I whispered back, “we wouldn’t.”
“Then join us Vinny or die if you cannot handle it, it is your choice,” he uttered uncaringly as he found his way back to the wardrobe, closed the door slowly behind him and began to whimper again, just as he did before. I tried to figure it all out, perhaps the boy was right, I did know what was going on here. I looked the blank canvas and walked towards it as the flames grew higher and higher.
As I take my last walk I feel my skin getting softer, my muscles growing weaker, I can sense my mind returning to a juvenile state. My clothes have become baggy and slip away as I step out of them, naked.
8.
Now I am no longer Vinny.
Now I am no longer of this world. I live only as an image on a screen, but to those that continue to do wrong unto children I remain a threat. To them I am the stuff of nightmares; to them I am the evil spirit of fire that will finish them. I am the essence that will scorch their very soul. I am the modern crying boy and I cry out for revenge.
My mysterious image haunts its way through the world in a way none of my predecessors ever could, the fable rides across the superhighway, the social networks; share and tweet and like and copy and send, my image you bastards. It needs no newspaper boss, everyone that wants this sort of thing is publishing it, spreading it across the globe.
When the dark net is infiltrated by my viral tears that sick bastard that haunts my comrade will be the one that is haunted, until the fire engulfs his very soul. If you can resist the temptation to download me, you can resist the sordid act that you plan, my enemies….beware.
Remarkableman
1.
He thrust open the door to the warehouse, it came flying from its hinges and blew off into the distance. Smoke belched out of the disused storeroom as he gallantly stepped in and looked around. He disturbed the operations of the men inside and promptly took off into the air; flying towards the first man he saw, “Gotcha!” he whispered as he grabbed hold of the man by the scruff of his shirt and spun him around in the air. As he did this the second man had noticed him and come running over with a pistol grasped firmly in his hand. He ran straight into the path of his associate spinning and was knocked clean off his feet, dropping his gun and landing unconscious in a pile of old wooden crates left abandoned in the far corner.
Remarkableman kicked the pistol away from trouble with a swift sweep of his chic yellow boot as the others came at him. Using the first person as a defence he knocked them senseless, one by one; they did not stand a chance. The latter guy, who had time to analysis the tactic decided not to head towards the unyielding superhero rather run in the opposite direction, screaming for his mother in a most undignified manner.
Snapping a lethal star shaped metal ring from his utility belt the superhero sent it spinning from his hand and it embedded into the back of the head of the fleeing man, ceasing his cries. Remarkableman gave a belly laugh, “your mummy is not here today!” he said in his deep and heroic tone.
With all the crooks accounted for he scanned the room, looking through the walls with X-ray vision he clocked a small office at the top of a high rise mezzanine floor where a purple coloured hulk of a being was grappling with a beautiful young lady that he had tied up with rope and hanging over an empty lift shaft. She was screaming out the name of Remarkableman, for want of a better hero, crying for his help in a high pitched screech. He wafted his cloak and flew up to the mezzanine floor, smashing a hole in the concrete wall as if it was nothing but paper.
The purple titan looked shocked and held his ray gun at the colossal explosion of bricks that had just interrupted his actions of restraining the girl. “Not this time Remarkable Man, I have Maggie May and she will die if you take one step forward!” he claimed with a roar and then gave a pathetically corny evil-laugh to add to the effect.
Remarkableman quickly scanned the scene while Maggie May cried his name, “Save me Remarkableman, I am but a feeble and helpless girl!”
Our hero laughed a hearty and robust chuckle as he noticed the pile of bricks and concrete blocks conveniently held over his nemesis’s head in a roped bag. He looked up and from his eyes came two red laser-like rays which burnt the winch holding the bag up. Another evil laugh from the purple man saw the bricks come tumbling down on top of him as our hero bawled “You think I can’t beat you Violet Avenger? It’s a breeze….block!”
A scream of pain from the rubble was ignored
as the superhero appeared at the side of the open lift as the girl began screaming and falling into the shaft. “Going somewhere?” he asked as he caught hold of her mid-fall. She melted in his grip and gazed lovingly into his eyes, “oh Remarkableman, my hero!” she wailed.
Outside the building the police department waited for the return of Remarkableman and cheered when he landed from an open window with the girl held firmly in his arms. He released her and she stared into his gorgeous blue eyes, “thank you Remarkableman, how can I ever repay you?” she inquired, hoping that she might be, after years of rescues and liberations from the clutches of all his evil enemies fall deeply in love with her.
Remarkableman sparked up a cigarette and inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs, “do not meddle with these crooks again young lady,” he sternly advised, “stay in the kitchen where you belong!”
“Of course, I will from now on,” replied a convinced Maggie, “is the Violet Avenger dead now?”
“Do not worry your pretty little head about that Miss, I will sort him out!” he bravely announced as he whipped straight back up to the window he had previously smashed through.
Up there he scanned the area and noted the pile of bricks, about to burst them open, locate the body of the crushed super-villain and hand him over to the authorities he was taken aback by the fact that the bricks had been thrown aside and were now scattered far and wide. He gasped as he had the perception to realise that the Violet Avenger was right behind him. He turned with the speed of a train and gazed into the sights of his nemesis’s rather oversized ray gun. “Ha –ha!” roared the Avenger, “I have you now Remarkableman!”
“You hold the cards at the moment I give you that, but do you think that tiny ray gun could possibly harm me?” asked the hero.
“Oh no, it won’t harm you at all, ha-ha. This is a time transporter Remarkableman, it can break you down to your atomic particles and redispose them in another time of my choosing!” claimed the Purple giant, “Now, let’s see…. How would you fair in the time of dinosaurs? Or perhaps,” he stopped to ponder, “a time in a long distant future where the atomic bomb would have destroyed all mankind and left an insufferable world of radioactive poisoned air…. Yes,” he giggled insanely as the clock on the top of his ray gun turned through the years, “2014, that should do it!” and with that he pulled the trigger and blasted the deadly rays over the body of our hero. Gradually Remarkableman wearing a look of horror began to fade out of existence.
2.
Under total blackness she creeps surreptitiously, crouching at the corner. The earpiece advises “3.2 degrees southeast, move 6.3 horizontal then take 10.56 degrees northeast.”
“Affirmative,” she whispers and glides around the corner, shuffles along the floor slightly and uses the nano-suckers bonded into her figure-hugging stealth suit to climb the wall. Like a spider she awaits her next instruction, firmly glued to the concrete. “Target is 16.8 degrees northwest body-shot, turn 180 degrees left second target, headshot.”
“Affirmative,” responds the girl moving northwest along the wall she can now make out the shape of a large man, the infrared can pick up the vapour coming from his mouth as he crouches at a window aiming a rifle down to the street below. Stealthily she holds her right arm out and it extends to the barrel of a weapon. Precipitously a thin laser pierces out of the barrel and penetrates the man’s back. He gasps in shock and rolls over. “Target one eliminated,” she confirms, she spins on the spot exactly 180 degrees and in one swift movement takes aim with her laser.”
Suddenly and without warning a flash of light blinds her and then it goes black again, the infrared shows another figure, a hulk of man appears from nowhere, “Shucks!” he cries, alerting the second target who turns and shouts “What the fuck?”
The figure that mysteriously appeared on the scene exclaims, “It’s a bit dark in here, luckily I have my trusty torch!” He promptly pulls a huge cylindrical item from a belt, flicks a switch on it, bangs it on his knee and then flicks the switch again. The room is filled with light as the man’s torch flashes on. The target looks about him, sees a giant spider-posed female figure on the wall and turns his rifle upon her. He shoots; she springs downwards to the ground, rolls over to the target, only just dodging the bullet, her infrared visor is rendered her blind now that light fills the room. She grapples him as he points his rifle to the floor and shoots downwards. She spins away, unleashing her grip on him and he starts to run. She pulls her visor up, looks up at this strange figure; he is wearing a bright yellow skin tight suit with a very silly logo embossed on his chest, a darker yellow cloak and a facemask made from nylon, yellow as well with black hoops around the eye holes and go-faster stripes extending from the ears up to the forehead. He stands proud, with his legs wide apart, grinning, “Do not worry female, for I am Remarkableman!”
“You’re a fucking idiot!” she screeched at him.
“My trusty torch has added some light on the situation, I have assessed that you are in grave danger from that gunman, I saved you, you do not need to thank me; it’s all in days’ work for Remarkableman!” he bellowed in a corny deep voice, retaining the pose.
She seriously considered planting a firm kick to his groin but decided to give a mid-finger and chase the gunman down the stairs. Her earpiece requested “progress report Gen, what is going on in there?”
“Missed target,” she patched in, removing her infrared visor to the top of her head as the moonlight from the windows by the stairs gave her plentiful natural illumination. She leaped the first flight and then peered down the central gap of the staircase. She noted the target some five flights down, adjusted a small circular object attached into the material of her suit and flicked her fingers outwards producing a thin thread which hurtled down six flights and its hooked end wedged firmly into the metal railing. In an instant she pulled the thread taut and dove in a flashy downward spiral to land on her feet six flights below her original position.
“Missed target, how?” asked the earpiece in alarm.
“Some fucking giant banana appeared, cocked it right up!” she informed.
The target flustered and confused bumped right into her as he ran down the stairs, he cocked his rifle; she smiled and reached out for it. A moment before he pulled the trigger she bent the barrel around to face the target and he stopped his finger from pressing down on it. “Shit you bitch!” he announced.
She telescopically projected the laser barrel from her sleeve and fired it direct into the man’s heart but the man instantly and mysteriously flew over to the wall, smashing the bricks with his back. He stood haphazardly, stumbled along the floor as she looked at him in amazement and he made it to his feet and took off. She sighed, turned ninety degrees to her left and there was the giant in the banana suit, grinning at her, “I nearly had him!” she demanded.
“Do not worry your pretty little head about it young maiden, Remarkableman will save you!” he bellowed.
She pointed her armed arm at him, the barrel snuffled against his right nostril, “I should finish you right now!” she infuriatingly yelled.
The man flung his cloak around her body, “May I suggest that you get your clothes back on young lady, really!” he commented, covering her body and turning his head to overt his eyes.
“Who in the hell are you for god’s sake?” she sternly asked him.
“I am Remarkableman!” he announced loudly, “protecting America from evil and depraved criminals, serving my country,” he banged his arm over his chest, “saving the good and worthy! Although may I suggest young lady that your use of foul language, blasphemy and by the very fact that you seem content to walk around in your underwear will no doubt attract the wrong type of man…you were asking for it really!”
“You what?” she shook her head in disbelief, “I was not trying to attract any type of man, you stupid arsehole.”
The superhero looked down at her, “see that is your problem right there young lady, words like, well, like that one y
ou just used will only attract people like the man we just saw, bad men, you see?” He smiled as he said this, “You know ladies should not talk like this!”
She moved up to him, pushing him to the wall and in a threatening manner she cautioned him, “that man was not someone I intended to attract, rather he was my target for elimination and you just let him get away you dumb-fuck!”
“Tut!” he said, turning his head in disgrace.
“…..and what is more I will talk how the fuck I like, understand bozo?”
Remarkableman gave a deep sigh, “Lady, I feel that you need a good slap but I think under the circumstances, being that I am an ultra-strong superhero and you are but a feeble woman that I should take you back to your husband where he will reprimand you accordingly, I mean I would suggest to him that he clothes you more appropriately and resides you back to his kitchen where you belong!”
Gen slid to one side without taking her eyes off him, her fury was at boiling point, “Listen you bastard,” she pointed at him severely, “I don’t know who you think you are but you should be warned that you are treading on very thin ice. I am Gen-etic, a genetically cloned superhuman being, I have no family, especially I don’t have a husband, I am a warrior for good, a super-heroine of exceptional power and strength. There is no kitchen where I belong and if your chauvinistic attitude does not cease right now I will be forced to bury this laser-cannon right into your overweight belly and blast you back to the shit hole you came from. Now if there is any part of what I have said confusing to you I strongly suggest for the benefit of your life that you ask me right now…..”
Tales of Worrow Volume II Page 5