Fallen behind? Catch up here.
DOOM MAGNETIC!!! - CHAPTER TWO:
LEORIC
William Pauley III
Life is such a pussy bitch. I’ve heard people say life is good or life is unfair. I’m callin’ bullshit. Life isn’t anything. It doesn’t do anything. It just sits there and watches as other shit does things to you. It sits and eats popcorn while your baby sister is catcalled an approached by a creep while walking home alone in broad daylight. It picks its teeth as strangers pick up other people’s children, wondering how many days they’ll be able to live off the meat from a child so small. It struggles to stay awake while insurance companies, banks, and law enforcement loosen their belts and shove their dicks in the asshole of every middle to lower class victim in its path.
Life’s. A. Bitch.
I’m not really sure what’s come over me. I’m usually not so goddamn pessimistic, but today I feel like tyin’ up the legs belongin’ to every smilin’ face I see, hangin’ em upside down from a tree, and watchin’ as the flesh drips off their bones like melting wax once I set their clothes on fire.
I’m in a bad way, that’s for damn sure. And I’m not sure why, well, that is until I look down at my hands, my poor pitiful hands, wrapped around my coffee cup, and see all the blood and dirt that’s collected up underneath my fingernails. I’ve said goodbye to too many people. I’ve gone about as far as I can go without crackin’. It’s over for me. I’m done.
“I’m done,” I say out loud.
Lady Starman nearly chokes on her tea, places her cup down and dabs the liquid runnin’ off her lips. “What do mean?”
“I mean I’m fucking done. I don’t need this shit no more. I need to be free.”
“Free? Do you really feel like you’re a prisoner?”
“Yeah, I really do. In fact, sometimes I’m a prisoner both literally and figuratively cause of all this Starman shit. I can’t take it no more. Look at the way my hands shake.” I hold out one of my hands over the table. “My nerves can’t take it no more.”
Lady looks around the room. Seems our conversation has attracted some attention.
“Can we talk about this later?” she asks.
“Shit, no. There ain’t gonna be no later. Are you hearin’ the words comin’ out my mouth? I’m fucking finished with all this.”
Lady stares down at the table like a scolded dog, too afraid to make eye contact with her master.
“Look, I don’t mean to take it out on you,” I say. “I’ve just been through some shit these last few years and you’re the only one ‘round I can vent to.”
“It’s quite alright. I’m not exactly sure why it is you’re so angry, but I can respect it. I just hope you respect me and not raise your voice while we’re here, out in public, I mean. This coffeehouse is hardly the place for a conversation like this.”
“You wanna know why I’m so goddamn angry, Ms. Starman?” I ask in a voice just a hair above a whisper. I hold my hands up to show her how filthy they are. “You see these? Well, these hands are dirty because I just spent all night buryin’ my fucking partner. A friend of mine. She’s dead because of me. She’s dead because of all of this. And if you look closely at my jacket, I’m sure you’ll find the blood of the last friend of mine, who died not too long before Vonna did. I want to break the cycle. Get out before I destroy yours or anyone else’s life any more than I already have. Please, just fucking stand up and walk out that door and never speak to me again. It’d be better for all of us.”
Lady nervously stirs her spoon in her teacup. “Maundin, you know I can’t do that. I’m the third Master of Stardust. I’ve been sent to complete your training.”
“You’re not gettin’ it, sweetie pie. See, I get it. I know why you’re here. I know my place in all of this. But I don’t fucking want it. You understand me?” She looks away from me again. I dig my tongue into the corner of my mouth, my mind runnin’ a thousand miles per second. “I feel like Leoric.”
“Leoric?”
“From Visionaries. You know, The Knights of the Magical Light? Well, not so much the character on the show, but more like the action figure. I had a bunch of ‘em when I was a kid.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not following you. You feel like an action figure?”
“Yeah, what I mean is that in the store these toys always looked cool as hell to me. They wore helmets, carried staffs, and even had holograms of dangerous animals attached to their chests. I begged my mother for one, but she was always too damn poor to waste her money on shit like that. But then one day she just came home from work with like four or five of ‘em in a shopping bag. I was so excited, I don’t think I even remembered to thank her for ‘em. But when I ripped ‘em open and went to play with ‘em, I saw how fragile they were. They weren’t made well at all and it seemed like every time I’d move their arms or legs the wrong way, they’d just fall off. Then I’d have to spend the next thirty minutes or so trying to get them reattached. All of ‘em were like that, but Leoric was the worst, which always got me, cause he was supposed to be the fearless leader. What kind of a leader just falls apart like that?”
Lady bites her lip and looks into my eyes. “I’m sorry, Maundin. I…I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s probably best you don’t say nothin’ at all. Just go.”
Lady nods her head, dabs the corner of her mouth with her napkin, and stands up, lookin’ like I just ditched her on prom night.
“I have one small request,” she says.
“Shoot.”
“Let me show you something. One thing. If this doesn’t change your mind, then I’ll promise to leave you alone.”
I pull off my Stetson and run my fingers through my dirty, matted hair. I look around. People are standing at the counter waiting to order, others are sitting by themselves, reading a paper, or chatting with a friend. All normal lives. I guess my normal life can wait another five minutes or so to start.
“Okay,” I say. “One thing.”
Paid subscribers! The next chapter of this story will be posted on May 16th! Stay tuned for Wet Fuji.
Leoric
© William Pauley III, 2011
All rights reserved.
Share this post