Paintshark

by Kingsley Pilgrim

  Elias turned around to his students, most of whom hung on his every word, for support to keep their school open, he looked at a few right in their young eyes and then turned back to ‘Big Man’ with his teeth clenched.

  “I admit to being a little selfish, ‘Big Man’, all I want is a decent future for my students which I doubt they’ll find in front of a TV voting for your trash shows, now if that’s it then I would like you to get off this property, you’ve made a terrible mistake coming here and I’m afraid you’ve had a wasted journey.”

  The whole school went quiet and ‘Big Man’ let the silence linger for a few moments before answering, his voice unable to contain the menace which had been lurking throughout their conversation.

  “I think it’s you whose made the terrible mistake, Mr Glaucas, let’s just hope you live to regret your decision.”

  “Is that a threat ‘Big Man’?”

  Big Man returned to the car’s backseat and waved the driver on, and as the blacked-out window began to roll up, he looked back at Elias coldly. “It’s a promise, Headmaster, I promise you will feel something when this is all over, we’ll be in touch soon.”

  The car drove with speed out of the school grounds and the students trying to keep it open cheered and clapped and banged on the car as it left. Elias Glaucas took a deep breath and looked to the cloudless sky as the kids patted their headmaster on the back, Denton sidled up to him and punched him gently on the arm.

  “Not bad, sir, it’s not everybody who can hold their own against the boss of the biggest Network in the country.”

  “I don’t think he was too pleased, Denton, he’s not going to take this lying down, by the way have you got your gym kit for P.E later?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Have you got a spare pair of pants?” Denton nodded. “Well I may need to borrow them…in fact too late.” Elias shook a little. “I know I do.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Game Show

  The woman and her boyfriend felt the cool breeze coming from the lake, their skins dry from the efforts of running.

  They ran hand in hand along the edge of the lake; the moonlit waters rippled slowly in rhythm to their strides They embraced and started passionately kissing, the girl broke free with a laugh and looked in his eyes, excited.

  “We made it, we made it to the lake, and we’re safe.” Her partner looked around. “I don’t see anybody else here; I think we are the first ones back.”

  The woman looked around also trying to see if there were any other people on the lakeside. “I think we’re the ONLY ones back and do you know what that means?” Her brown eyes grew with anticipation as the man finished her sentence.

  “It means we’re rich, we did all the tasks and stayed alive, and the others must be dead.”

  The woman kept looking, unsure. “Shame really, they were nice people.”

  The boyfriend cut in sternly. “It was them or us, honey, we made it back to the lake first, we get the money.”

  “So what happens now?” the woman asked dreamily.

  “Now? We just stay on this spot and wait for our money.”

  The girl jumped in the air with delight and began to run up the side of the lake with her man in hot pursuit. Grabbing her by the waist he playfully swung her around, the girl let out a joyous shriek and tried to wiggle free from his grasp causing them both crashing to the soft sand below. Play fighting around on the ground they managed to roll on to some stones which made the man yell, as some were digging into his back.

  This made the girl laugh and she put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. They both got up and carried on walking as the man picked up a handful of stones and began to throw them one after the other into the lake.

  The moon’s light reflected on the water as the stones skimmed its surface as the final stone left the man’s hand and rippled the water once more… As they turned around something landed by their feet, it made a clink as it hit the other stones, which scattered on the sand. The man looked into the sky wondering if it may have been dropped by a short-sighted seagull, but the sky was empty as the man looked up. The woman scanned left and right but she too could not see anything.

  Suddenly another stone landed near the same spot and this time they both looked towards the lake… the stone had come from the lake. Standing by the water’s edge and still holding hands, not a sound could be heard as they looked towards the water.

  With silent ease the small waves parted once more as another stone was hurled from the water, its aim was to be true as it struck the man in the middle of his forehead; he fell to the ground never to move again as his Companion Screamed and tried to revive him, sobbing at his side she shook his body constantly but to no avail.

  Something else broke through the water, a huge black slimy tentacle very long and covered in huge suction pads went for the girl, she stumbled backwards and tried to scramble away but the tentacle wrapped itself around her waist with ease and hoisted her up in the air. With her legs flailing about she bashed at the tentacle with both her fists in a blind panic and the realisation that she may not survive was upon her, the girl was high above the sea now and she couldn’t budge the tentacle as it gently squeezed her little waist, becoming more breathless.

  “WE MADE IT, WE MADE IT, YOU LYING BASTARDS!”

  Her small head was flung back and she was allowed one more hideous scream before the tentacle bought her crashing back down through the water and then the screaming stopped.

  No sooner had the calm been restored to the water’s surface another tentacle left the sea and slithered on to the beach, it probed around as if it was taking in the sights of the lakeside like a late night tourist before wrapping itself around the young man’s body, pulling him to the water to join his girlfriend.

  The image of the beach went back to picturesque in the moonlight until it was shattered by a shout.

  “PAUSE!” The events on the beach were being shown on a widescreen television to a selection of suited gentlemen sitting at a long table in the middle of a large well-furnished boardroom inside a towering skyscraper that seemed to blacken out most of the light in the sky.

  At the top of the table sat a man with an undeniably expensive suit and dark shades; he looked liked he was in his late forties or early fifties; he may have been older but kept himself in great shape. It was the same man who had been at the school earlier… Big Man. He shouted again at the screen. “PLAY.”

  The images on the screen continued. “PAUSE. PLAY. PAUSE.” He chuckled and pointed to the flat screen TV. “I like that voice recognition stuff, it’s pretty cool.” The man rubbed his face and his glasses moved up on to his forehead. “But I don’t like what I’m watching, so what are you telling me? The only people good enough to get eaten by the Leviathan are a spoilt footballer and his bimbo girlfriend? This is the reason why we’re losing viewing figures, nobody cares about the privileged or the rich getting killed, they want to see somebody or anybody put up a fight.” He stood and slammed his fist hard onto the table.

  “I WANT TO SEE A FIGHT OUT THERE!”

  An executive raised his hand nervously. “They passed all the personality profiles, and ratings usually increase when we have glamour models in peril, we haven’t collected the viewing figures from the south-east yet so it should be ok.”

  The young man grew in confidence when he spoke more. “Unfortunately, we’re still being monitored by the R.S.P.C.A after we put that crimson-tailed Scorpion in to fight with a giant Fern Beetle.”

  “That was a good fight too,” quipped the well-dressed man, he pressed a button on the phone next to him, which was the intercom to his secretary outside.

  “Melissa, do I still owe you two hundred notes for the bet we made on that fight?”

  A tired but young voice sighed and answered back over the intercom. “Yes, you do, sir.”

  “That will be all, Melissa.”

  He clicked off the switch and shifted his tie, while the young executive co
ntinued.

  “So you see sir, we can no longer have animals fighting each other as we’ll lose our licence, we have to rely on people fighting animals as that’s what the public wants, we all know last night’s shows weren’t all that great but we haven’t got people with superpowers down there so we have to use footballers, out of work actors, glamour models – in fact anybody who wants to become famous, we bring them on and let them fight. It’s only fair.”

  This made the head of the company stand up. “Fair? Is that what saw last night, a fair fight?” He walked over to the young gentleman. “In our show Leviathan we have a bunch of nobodies who have to make their way to a lake, being picked off one by one by a giant squid, and you call that fair?”

  The exec stuttered, “Well sir–”

  He was cut short by the boss who stood behind, coaxing him from his seat, and then rubbed his hands on his shoulders. “Did you see anybody fight back with that squid in what you think was a ‘fair’ fight?”

  “No sir, but–”

  The boss had turned him around and gently put his hands around the younger man’s neck.

  “Did you see a tremendous battle between man and nature last night?”

  “Sir please–” He began to squeeze his hands on the now trembling guy’s neck. “Did you see a fight which would have people talking for weeks?”

  He lifted his young employee off his legs with ease and with his hands clasped tightly around his neck, was choking him now while the others in the boardroom looked on in reserved horror, the man was beginning to lose consciousness.

  “Sir!” His voice boomed as he continued to choke the life from the exec. “DID YOU WATCH A DECENT REALITY TV SHOW LAST NIGHT?” There was nothing coming from the young man now. “WELL NEITHER DID I.”

  The boss with one hand threw the body of the man across the room into a rubber plant. “FIND ME A CHALLENGE; FIND ME TALENT NOW…OYLMPIA’S GOT TALENT…DO IT NOW.” Enraged, he placed his hands under the table and flipped it over causing the other suits to dart. “GET OUT, GET OUT GET OUT!”

  Everybody exited the room quickly to a succession of screams, until the boss man was left alone and started to calm down after taking some deep breaths, he bent down and picked up the phone up from the floor and pressed the intercom button.

  “Melissa?” Her voice came online as calm as ever. “Yes sir.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “That’s fine, sir.”

  He looked over to the body of the man crumpled in a heap on the rubber plant. “Could you send out a condolence package to Mrs Davis please? Usual stuff, flowers, sympathy card, that sort of thing?”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “Thank you, oh and Melissa?”

  “Yes sir?”

  “I know I still owe you two hundred notes from that bet….so would you like some tea?”

  “Why thank you sir, I would.”

  “Good, me too, and while you’re out there, could you bring me a bacon and egg sandwich as well… milk and three sugars with the tea.”

  The man looked around at the broken boardroom and the body of Mr Davis. “In fact, Melissa…best make it one sugar.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Teenage Sensation

  Gemma Glaucas was going to be in so much trouble, Elias thought, she had slipped away while he was at work.

  Elias sat in the bubble-filled bath with a glass of wine and wry smile, his daughter had tricked him and run him around her little finger once again, he could only chuckle as he wondered where she got her guile from.

  Maybe it was from hanging around her travelfast Auntie Kay, it certainly wasn’t him. What ‘Big Man’ called him earlier was true, he was a nerd, he had studied long and hard to become the youngest headmaster in the country, but it wasn’t without social sacrifice, when he was at college he never got invited to any of the crazy parties and on the few occasions he was invited he got the impression people were waiting for him to leave so the party could really get started.

  One person did like his quirkiness and his ability to spend over three hundred notes on a comic, yet not change his underwear for a week; his ex-wife, beautiful Scylla, his smile faded when he thought of her and the knock at the front door all but confirmed his smile’s disappearance.

  “JUST A SECOND,” he shouted down and fumbled at the towel rack for a clean one, another ring from the doorbell made Elias groan as he hurriedly made his way downstairs, the caller started to bang on the door.

  “I SAID JUST A SECOND.” The banging continued. Elias reached for the handle. “WHATEVER IT IS I’M SURE IT CAN WAIT.”

  He flung open the door to find Apollo and Mr. Tidy standing there. Elias twitched, unable to summon up any words, before slamming the door in their faces and running upstairs.

  “I bet you he ran upstairs instead of running out the back door,” sighed Apollo. Mr Tidy chuckled. “He’s a headmaster or something? No common sense some people, why do they always do that?”

  Apollo shrugged and took a step back to look up at the top windows of the house, he ran his hand through his hair and waited a few seconds before signalling to his colleague. Mr Tidy charged through the door and the two men walked into the hallway.

  “MR GLAUCAS, YOU’RE NOT MAKING THIS ANY EASIER ON YOURSELF, COME OUT NOW!” Apollo yelled. There was no answer. He smiled coyly and signalled to Mr Tidy to check the kitchen, and as his large companion did so, Apollo shouted again. “I’M NOT GOING TO WARN YOU AGAIN, MR.GLAUCAS.”

  The huge man came back out of the kitchen shaking his head. The two men knew there wasn’t going to be an answer and stooped down at the foot of the stairs and listened for a moment, their eyes looking to the ceiling, pupils flitting left to right, until they heard an expected creak from the floorboards above. Apollo did some more military hand signals to his colleague but they were wasted on him, as he knew the teacher was upstairs and didn’t need confirmation from a guy who looked like his hand was possessed.

  Apollo rubbed his tired eyes. “Are you ready, Mr Tidy?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then let’s go to work.”

  They ran up the stairs, adrenaline coursing through their bodies, running straight to the main bedroom, Apollo kicked open the door and found Elias crouched behind his bed.

  “Hey there, my name is Apollo, remember it for the rest of your sad little life, which by my watch is going to end in about five seconds.”

  Elias close his eyes and made no movement.

  “HA! I’m just messing with you,” Apollo laughed and then his face dropped. “No, really, we’re not going to kill you.”

  Mr Tidy clapped at this game as Apollo went to help up the cowering teacher. “But in all honesty we are going to beat you up…which by my watch is…now.” Apollo pulled Elias to his feet.

  Mr Tidy raised his oversized hand high and bought it crashing down hard into the stomach of Elias Glaucas, the impact made his head spring up like a very light kid on a see-saw, his eyes rolled to the back into his head like marbles, and clutching his tummy, Elias fell to the floor, forcing himself to breathe before he passed out.

  “You see that, Mr Glaucas? This is what happens when you think you know better.” Apollo’s voice was exceptionally calm as he stepped over to Mr Tidy to backhand Elias. Elias fell forward and Apollo lifted up his head using a chunk of his hair.

  “All you had to do was to sign over the school to ‘Big Man’, that’s all not a hard thing to do.”

  Both men were impeccably dressed and both were wearing shades. The second man had a tattoo of a lad on his arm with a tall hat and small cloak; he spoke again while Elias still was trying to catch his breath.

  “Let’s try and keep the noise down, shall we? I’ve heard this is a nice neighbourhood and we wouldn’t want to disturb them, would we?”

  “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

  “My name is Apollo and my colleague in the corner is Mr Tidy. I apologise for ruining your bath time, but I’m not going to ask you again, Mr Glaucas, you
know why.”

  Apollo spoke with practiced sincerity, it was no shock that he had done this quite a few times in the past, he had short blond hair as yellow as Aphrodite’s and teeth as yellow to match, he was well built and carried his weight well, the other man was known as Mr Tidy, a mountain of a man with exceptionally white teeth and a lovely smile, unfortunately it mostly appeared when he was causing pain to another, his skin was darker than Apollo’s but did not have any tattoos, a few rings adorned his hands and he towered over the wheezing Elias, who was now breathing slightly easier. He lay on his side and rolled directly beneath Mr Tidy, clenching his fist he shot up and aimed a well placed strike to Tidy’s groin. Mr Tidy shrieked in surprise more than agony and fell to his knees. Clutching his lower front. Running on adrenalin, Elias leapt on to the bed and raced for the bedroom door.

  Apollo swivelled round and grabbed Elias by the throat and with alarmingly ease threw him back in the direction he just came.

  “Back to bed, Mr Glaucas.”

  Mr Tidy rose gingerly and turned to the crumpled heap of Elias on the mattress, he raised his fists and yelled, his voice was loud and forever jovial.

  “Ha ha, a lucky strike from a funny looking man! Raise your head so you can take a pummelling from the ‘Mighty Mr Tidy’.” Apollo removed his shades, his eyes were a faint crimson, completely out of place with his own clothes and the décor of the bedroom.

  “Let’s not continue with the heroics thank you, as we are on a tight schedule this evening.” “As you are probably quite aware by now we are here under the strict instructions to bring Mr Elias Glaucas to the complex as he has an audience with the ‘Big Man’.” Apollo pulled out a slip of paper from a pocket on his top. “Here is my resume, should you deem that my colleague and I are unfit for this service, and if we appear to be under the influence of fine wine, could you please tick this box to show to our employer, thank you very much.”