Paintshark

by Kingsley Pilgrim

  “Melissa?” His secretary answered, “Yes sir.”

  “Where is Apollo?”

  “He’s just finishing up with the teachers for the ‘Beetles Battle’.”

  “What are the ratings like?”

  There was brief silence as she typed out some figures on the screen. “Five per cent loss, sir.”

  Big Man played with the contraption again.

  “So the beetle show was a complete loss then?”

  “It would appear so, sir.”

  Big Man stood up and blew out a tired breath. “Ok Melissa, thank you and is Nayan out there?”

  “He is sir, would you like me to send him through?”

  “Yes please, Melissa.”

  A black man, huge in stature, entered the office. He was dressed in a uniform, he was bald and his face was scarred, his eyes tired and sad, and his unkempt beard spread around his face. Big Man could smell alcohol on his breath too. This was Nayan, head of security for Big Man.

  Big Man’s eyes flicked up. “Still thinking about your wife and kids I take it?” Nayan remained quiet. “Drinking yourself to death won’t bring her back, she’s left you and taken the kids with her.”

  “Can I help you Big Man?”

  Nayan’s voice was firm and hard but not threatening, Big Man held up his arms in a mock surrender.

  “Ok ok, I get it.” He showed Nayan the contraption. “Look at this, look at what my daughter gave me for my birthday, she got me a nose-hair clipper, can you believe that? A nose-hair clipper, what does she think I look like?”

  Nayan looked on unimpressed. “That’s very insulting, she obviously thinks I look like crap, what’s she going to get me next year? Mouthwash? Well I’m not keeping it.” He pressed the Intercom button. “Melissa, when is your birthday?”

  “It’s today, sir.”

  Big Man grinned and gave the ‘thumbs-up’ sign to Nayan. “That’s great, I’ve got you a present, Nayan’s going to give it to you now.” He stuffed the nose-hair clippers back in the box and gave them to Nayan, shooing him out of his office, Nayan left and shut the door behind him, there was a brief silence followed by an astonished shriek and then some swearing. Nayan re-entered the room as Big Man spoke on the intercom.

  “You’re most welcome, Melissa, happy birthday.”

  Nayan frowned. “What do you want Big Man?”

  BigM an reached for a remote control on the table and aimed it at the big TV screen in the corner, the image that came up was a news report on the evening’s earlier events at The Splash Wave swimming baths and at the Chicken Shack, involving Cassandra and Kimberley.

  “Do you see that, Nayan? I think I made these things, in fact I know I did.”

  “You made these kids?”

  “No, not the kids, dummy, just their powers.”

  “What did you do, Big Man?”

  Big-man shot a hard stare at Nayan. “Never you mind where they came from but I want them here, the blond chick almost melted a swimming pool and the other one scared every customer out of a chicken shop by changing into a monster, now they are the ones I want playing in my game shows.”

  Nayan remained silent and kept his stance.

  “Listen, I just threw a bunch of teachers in my underground prison and then released my special beetles on them and got one of the lowest ratings this season, you know why? Because people want to see a decent fight and these kids are going to give the viewers exactly what they want.”

  Now was when Nayan spoke up, his eyes squinted with interest. “What do mean?”

  “The police picked up those two girls and another guy, I don’t know what he does but if he’s hanging around them he might have a power.

  “Anyway, we took the boy earlier and put him in the Beetle Battle, if he survives, when he survives, we’ll see how it goes The police chief owes me a favour so I’m going to get the girls transferred here and throw them in the danger games A.S.A.P, what do you think?”

  Nayan slammed his hand down on the table, his eyes fully focused on his boss. “HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? YOU’RE GOING TO PUT THESE KIDS IN THE DANGER GAMES WITH YOUR MONSTERS? AND THE BOY? HE’S JUST A KID, AND YOU’VE PUT HIM IN YOUR DUNGEON?”

  Big Man seemed surprised at the outburst.

  “What’s the matter? We’ve put kids on the TV before on the singing shows and stuff and you didn’t complain then so what’s the crack?”

  Nayan threw his hands in the air in desperation. “THEY WERE TWENTY-ONE AND THEY WEREN’T FIGHTING YOUR MONSTER CLONES, THESE KIDS LOOK ABOUT EIGHTEEN AND YOU’RE GOING TO SEND THEM TO FIGHT THESE THINGS. YOU’RE SENDING THEM TO THEIR DEATHS.”

  Big Man grinned. “But think of the ratings and this is where you come in, there must be more of these freaks around, I’ve already got some spies sniffing around and I want you to spearhead this campaign to round up these power kids and put them in my games, the audience will do the rest.”

  Horrified, for a second, Nayan stepped back.

  “You’re not joking are you, you really mean it.”

  Big Man kept his sick smile. “Of course I mean it, I never joke about business, this is important stuff, if we hurry we can get them on for tomorrow’s shows.”

  Nayan turned to leave. “I want no part in this sick game of yours, find someone else to do your dirty work.”

  Big Man’s smile started to fade.

  “Nayan, you could be doing your country a service, by herding up these freaks and putting them on TV. The nation needs entertainment and together, with my games and this gigantic studio, we could give them what they want. Your wife isn’t coming back, your kids aren’t coming back, do something useful with your life, bin the booze and bring me those kids.”

  “GO TO HELL!”

  Big Man stood up slowly and remained weirdly calm. “You’ll be making a big mistake if you’re not with me on this, Nayan, I do have others I could use but a man of your talents is always handy.”

  Nayan was by the door when he turned around and shot a look at Big Man.’ “If you use any of my men to bring those kids here then I will quit.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, old friend.”

  As the security man turned the door handle Big Man shouted out to him, “NAYAN! Leave your badge with me and clear out your locker…you have no idea what you’re missing out on.”

  Moments later, Nayan sat on a bench by his work locker with his head in his hands, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and pressed his wife’s name in the contact list, and waited for it to ring, then it went to voicemail. Waiting for the beep, he spoke, “Hey there, just wanted to say hi and hear your voice, I miss you so much, haven’t spoken to you in a while and love the sound of you, in fact there’s so many things I love about you. I love your beautiful eyes, I love your laugh and every time I look at you I get a warm feeling inside.”

  Nayan pulled the phone away from his ear to wipe away a tear from his eye. “I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone, give my love to the boys.” He ended the call and opened his locker and pulled out a bottle of whisky, which was half-empty, putting the bottle to his lips he hesitated…before throwing the bottle against the wall, and as it shattered in all directions, Nayan dropped to his knees and cried his eyes out.

  It was a while before he got up and left with his phone held tight between his sweaty fingers.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Trial of Felcey

  Felcey slowly opened his eyes and wished he hadn’t. The last thing he could remember was being in the Police station with Kimberley and Cassandra and then he was led away and that was it. He raised his head and that’s when he heard the screaming from all around. Trying to straighten himself he realised he was chained and in some sort of prison. His hands were dry and not weeping, and he didn’t know why there was so much commotion. That was until he saw the contents in the two bags. That was when he knew struggling would be futile. The beetles crawling along his skin hadn’t started to burrow, yet the cockatrices in the
room weren’t paying them any attention. With disgust, Felcey bounced his body on the ground trying to shake off the little pests and it worked for a moment until a few more approached from his right-hand side.

  Felcey shook in agonising pain as the new beetles hurriedly began to chew down on the fleshiest part of his side, he tried bouncing along again on his bottom to shake them off but they held firm, he screamed and scrambled to his feet but he was chained to the wall by his hands above his head so could only stand and stare as more beetles clutched hard to his skin and bore into him. Felcey frantically pulled on his chain which kept him steadfast to the wall, the chains were long enough for his hands to reach his waist and he tried in vain to tear the beetles off him.

  Felcey’s body shook like a marionette’s puppet as more beetles tried to eat their way inside, the pain on his face mirrored by thirty other prisoners with beetles chewing through them as well, the Cockatrice flapped and chased at their six-legged prey, pecking away on the bodies of the men as they also tried to pull the beetles from their skin.

  Felcey pulled again at his chain and lifted his foot, somehow managing to grab at a beetle which was already halfway through his ankle, with both hands he pulled with hope and might and just about managed to hurl the insect across the room and into the waiting mouths of the Cockatrice, but that tremendous effort had tired him.

  Suddenly a hole opened in the wall just where the chain was fixed to, like a trapdoor it spat open and released more of the chain, after a few feet more appeared it slammed shut just as quickly, whether this was to help Felcey or was just a cruel game to appease the watching public at home was anybody’s guess.

  Falling headfirst to the floor, Felcey spun around and tried in vain to reach the beetles that were now biting away on his back. He crawled as far as the chains would allow, unable to roll along fully on the floor to crush the beetles digging deeper in his posterior.

  What little food Felcey ate that day was soon erupting from his lips as he vomited furiously on to the floor, it would have been more if his stepdad hadn’t eaten his dinner earlier.

  His eyes had glazed over as the pain began to take him, each beetle had tunnelled their way in to his body and then sealed up the holes behind them, the beetles moved slowly under the skin stretching it but not breaking the new patchwork flesh.

  By the time the tenth beetle was sewing up the skin, which was to be a new home until the danger had passed, Felcey had already passed out and ‘if’ and when he awoke, he would have insect company in his body for a while.

  Oram writhed in agony as the beetles began to bore deep into his skin. He wasn’t chained to the walls like some of the teacher prisoners as he was deemed ‘low risk’ by the Network and was free to walk around the cramped dungeon with ease. But this didn’t stop the Hustle beetles trying to hide in his body and even with supreme efforts pulling most of them free, it was the ones in his back where he couldn’t reach that made his cries of agony the most raw.

  Other prisoners like Jago, Faris and Aubrey tried to help him and others whose backs were also black with beetles.

  A Cockatrice ran up to the now fallen body of Oram on the ground, he was still alive but had given up attempting to remove more bugs from his body, more to do with pain than hope.

  The cockatrice begun to pull at a very big beetle on Orams’s right bicep and even though the bird was probably doing him a favour, the pain and desperation were too much for the prisoner and he lashed out with his other arm striking the creature square in the beak and sending it squalling along the floor.

  It picked itself up and headed back to the promising meal of a big beetle and once again began to pull at it on Oram’s arm. With his body now a sea of beetles Oram managed to haul himself up and grab the Cockatrice by its neck, the bird’s wings flailed rapidly by its side as Oram began to squeeze tightly.

  As the bird thrashed around in his grasp Oram’s tired eyes stared directly at the Cockatrice, the prisoners who weren’t already unconscious screamed at him to drop it or shut his eyes but Oram was oblivious to their shouts and remained defiant with his capture.

  The creature stopped pecking at him and its eyes which, were at the side of its head, suddenly drew forward to the front and its black eyes turned green. Saliva trickled down the side of his mouth as the man was unable to turn his gaze away from the eyes of the Cockatrice.

  Oram’s whole body began to tremble, but it was not the beetles’ doing,

  his mouth turned red, blood mixed with saliva, as he bit hard onto his tongue. He was convulsing now, shaking violently and still squeezing on the neck of the Cockatrice, but still the bird’s eyes bore directly into his. The Hustle beetles were still trying to hide in his flesh from the bird whose squawking had stopped as it was beginning to struggle free.

  Oram’s body was in spasm and finally the bird was released and flapped away to a safe distance as the now lifeless body of Oram flopped to the ground.

  The Cockatrice returned to him and finished off the beetles still scuttling along his frame, and this time Oram gave no resistance at all.

  Outside the prison door Apollo rolled around on the floor, his sides in agony from laughing so hard at the screams inside. He loved his job. Dandridge stepped over his boss and unlocked the door; five other guards with empty sacks followed him to round up the Cockatrice. Elias was unchained and gently lowered to the ground and led away, untouched by beetles or the Cockatrice.

  Apollo composed himself and burnt the remaining beetles to a crisp with a flame-thrower, chuckling along as he did so.

  It was a lousy night out for Aphrodite and she was happy to be back at home. She took a deep breath and sank back down into her hot bath, with her hand covering her nose she stayed submerged for a few seconds before rising up again with a huge splash. Her arms had grown more hairy since she was out with Sabrina earlier, they had left the club early as the music and the men on offer were poor.

  Flinging her hair back she looked around for an audience in the bathroom but there was none, reaching for and grabbing a towel she stood up and wrapped it around her waist, realising that her arms would be on show she threw the towel on the floor and pulled on her night gown instead and headed for her bedroom.

  Sabrina sat at her friend’s dressing table. “You smell nice,” she said as Aphrodite flopped onto her bed.

  “Why thank you darling, too early for my jim-jams do you think?”

  The girl nodded whilst handing her a towel and watched as Aphrodite tied it to her hair.

  “It’s just that school was so exhausting today and I’m so tired.”

  Sabrina gave a weak smile. “You were hardly at school today, neither of us were.”

  Aphrodite rose from the bed and slipped her arm through the other girl’s and gently pulled her closer. “You still worried about your arms?”

  The girl remained silent. “My parents have gone out for the night and I really want to show them my arms or at least see a doctor, they’re getting worse.”

  Aphrodite gave a little squeeze on the girl’s arm. “Are you upset with me for some reason?” Still no reply. “Have I been a complete bitch to you today?”

  “No.”

  “Do you hate me?”

  “No.”

  “Well listen to me when I say this, don’t tell anybody about this ok? I’ll sort it out when I see my dad.”

  Sabrina screamed, “WELL, WHEN ARE YOU? IN CASE YOU HADEN’T NOTICED I HAVE SCALES ON MY ARMS!”

  Aphrodite sucked in her lips and remained calm. “Just trust me, will you? I know what I’m doing, let me speak to my dad and see what he says, ok?”

  Sabrina nodded.

  “Cool! I could really do with some ice cream now, do you want some?” The girl scrunched up her nose whilst shaking her head. “More for me then,” Aphrodite said, clapping her hands. Her phone started to ring and vibrate.

  “Oh, I have to get this, could you get my ice-cream for me?” Aphrodite blew her a kiss as the young girl left the bedroom. S
he slumped back on her bed and shouted out to her departing friend, “Sabrina darling, can I have sprinkles on mine please?“

  Sabrina stopped to hear the request from her and then headed down to the kitchen. Aphrodite pressed the green button on the phone. “Hello you, wondered when you would call and what can I do for you? Yeah…yeah, I’ve heard of them…ok…do I know of any?…might do…why?…How much?…I can’t…Because I know her…she’s my best friend…ok…ok…I’ll try…I know

  …leave it with me…yeah…yeah…ok…bye.”

  Aphrodite threw her hands by her side and drew in a deep breath, she slithered down the side of her bed and sat spread-eagled on her bedroom floor, shaking slightly she groaned and looked to her ceiling, before shouting down to the kitchen. “SABRINA, LEAVE THE ICE-CREAM…WE’RE GOING BACK OUT.”

  Cassandra opened one eye and then the other, she still didn’t know where she was. It was a small room with a table and lying on the floor next to it was Kimberley. Cassandra went over to her straight away and shook her. Kimberley opened her eyes slowly and whispered, “Where are we?”

  Before Cassandra could answer, a huge flat screen TV slowly came down from the ceiling, it was so big it filled most of the room, the screen flickered and then the image of ‘Big Man’ appeared.

  “Hello ladies, allow me to introduce myself–”

  Cassandra cut him off immediately. “We know who you are, everybody knows who you are, you’re the Network boss, the ‘Big Man’.

  We would be idiots if we hadn’t heard of you…and you were at my school earlier.”

  Big Man cracked his knuckles. “Was I? I shut down so many schools today I’ve lost count. Who was your headmaster?”

  “Who is my headmaster, you mean?”

  Big Man laughed. “Yes, my apologies, what’s their name?”

  “Elias Glaucas.”

  The man was impressed. “Really? I’m not surprised that a strong, spirited man was your teacher.”