(A story from my book "Twisted American Fairy Tales")
The game begins!
The explosion expanded outward engulfing everything in its path.
I awoke screaming my fool head off. The sheets were soaked from my sweat and it took me a few moments to slow down my breathing. I grabbed my head. It felt like it was going to explode.
Explode? The dream, what was it about? I couldn't remember.
I looked at my little digital radio alarm clock. It was flashing 2:03. Great, the power went out! How long ago?
I threw the covers off, hoisting my legs over the edge of the bed. I reached for the nightstand to grab my watch It wasn't there.
What the... ? Explosion! Pain! Grabbing my head again, I fell back on my pillow.
I guess I must have passed out. when I opened my eyes, the clock was flashing 2:43. What was I doing? Oh yeah, my watch.
I rolled over, looking at the nightstand. My watch sat, almost smiling at me. I smiled back. It was one of those Timex watches, you know, takes a licking and all that. Well, that old watch and I have been through a lot since my ex-wife gave it to me ten years ago.
Ten years? Has it really been that long? Sarah left me about two years after she gave me the stupid watch. She said I was not getting her anywhere, the aspiring actress that she was. She took everything that I had, except for this stupid watch. I picked up the watch, tossed it across the room, and it slammed into the far wall with a thud. Takes a licking!
I glanced at the clock again it flashed a bright green 2:45. I stood up, walked over to the window, and looked out. There was a very thick fog rolling in and the street was empty, too empty. Sure, it was early, but I live near interstate 201. Where was everybody?
My head hurt to bad to think so I decided to go for a walk to clear it. I pulled on my jeans, my cleanest shirt, my sneakers, and grabbed my keys. I opened the door and walked outside. That's when things got really weird.
I closed the door, heading down the hall toward the stairs, on the far corner of the building. Somehow I didn't make it.
I awoke to the sound of a pretty voice talking to me. The problem was I couldn't understand a thing she was saying. I felt like I was in one of those really bad spy movies, where the hero is drugged or shot then taken to one of those stupid countries that no one has ever heard of. When he is there some evil doctor, scientist, or some other evil dude wants to take over the world or something.
The woman slapped me in the face, not to hard but hard enough to break the trance I was in. I opened my eyes and looked up at her. She was a pretty woman just as I thought. She had long flowing black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. She was a short woman, fairly thin and I believe she was Chinese, maybe Japanese, definitely Asian. She wore a long flowing dress and sandals. She looked rather young, 20 maybe 22. I was never very good at guessing a person's age.
When I opened my eyes, her mouth opened up like a floodgate. She just rambled on in her Asian tongue. Finally, I held up my hand to make her stop.
"Look," I told her, "I don't know who you are or why you're here. At this point, I really don't care. I just want to know where I am and how I got here."
She started to open the floodgate again.
"In English!" I screamed.
The woman just sat and stared at me with her little brown eyes. At first, I thought she was thinking of a lie to tell me, but as I looked at her, I noticed a tear escape done her cheek. She started to bawl like a baby. I felt like an idiot because she knew as much about what was going on as I did.
I sat up and crawled over to her. "Shhh," I whispered to her as I brushed the hair out of her eyes. "I'm sorry I yelled at you." She put her head on my chest. I held her there for a few moments.
I look around the room. The room was small with no windows, only one door on the far wall, and a mirror on the opposite wall. The only furniture in the room was a small love seat and a table with two chairs.
Finally, I looked her in the eyes and asked," How did you come to find me here?" She just sat and gave me a blank stare as if to say 'me no comprehend.' So I stood up and tried something else. I pointed at her, then at me, made a circle with my arms, and pointed at the floor where I was lying earlier.
At first, she just looked at me. Then, as if a light went off in her head, she stood up and started to act something out. First she walked over to the love seat, took off one of the pillows, and flung it over her back. Then she pointed at the pillow and then at me. 'I was the pillow!' She walked over to where she found me and slammed the pillow down. "Some one brought me here?" I asked, pointing to the door, me, and then the spot on the floor. She nodded. "Who?" I asked waving my arms, not knowing what signal to use. Then she held up four fingers and pointed at her left arm. "Four men?" I asked holding up four fingers and flexing my arm muscles like a strong man. She shook her head and said something in her native tongue I guessed meant "no." Then she held up four fingers and pointed at first one arm, then her second arm, and then at both sides of her waist. I just stood there staring at her like she was crazy. Then I repeated the gesture back to her and she nodded her head.
"So your trying to tell me some man with four arms brought me in her! Are you nuts or something?"
She looked at me and started to cry. I couldn't believe this. Where was I -- in the twilight zone? I glanced over at the Asian girl. She was crying again. I didn't go to her. Instead I went to the door and turned the knob. Surprisingly, it opened.
I walked through the door and into a small hallway with a door on each side and a large double door at the end of the hallway. First, I opened the door on the left and looked in. The door opened to a bathroom with a small stool, sink, and bathtub, but, oddly, no windows just a mirror over the tub. Then I opened the door on the right, which opened to a small bedroom. I think it was a bedroom, for all it had was a queen size bed with mirrors on the ceiling and three of the walls. Finally, I went to the double doors. At first I hesitated, I wasn't sure I was ready to find out what was behind those doors. "Screw it!" I said as I opened the doors.
The doors swung opened wide to a large room that had a circular wall all the way around it. On the wall were double doors just like the ones I was standing in. In the center of the room was a large circular tube that looked like the mirrors inside the other rooms. What's going on here? Where am I?
Suddenly, something touched my shoulder. I spun around fast, my fist at the ready. It was the Asian girl. I was in such a daze I didn't hear her approach. She turned her eyes down. I touched her face gently lifting her eyes back to meet mine. "What?" I asked. She pointed to the tube, then her eyes, and finally at me. 'So that's it! They use the mirrors to watch us.' She tapped my arm again. "More," I asked. She grabbed my arm and pulled me. I went with her.
She opened the door to the room with the bed in it. Then she went in, sat on the bed, and motioned for me to sit next to her. I went in and sat next to her. Then she pointed at me, at her, and at the bed. "Just a minute," I shouted shaking my fists at the mirror. "This may sound old fashion but, I would rather get my own woman. Thank you very much. Even if I do sleep with this woman you bastards are not going to watch." I slammed my fist against the mirror. "You hear me you. I won't do it. Ahh, my head!"
I woke up strapped to a chair. My legs and feet were bound so tightly that I couldn't move a muscle. I attempted to turn my head to the left, then to the right, but I could not move.
"Do not try to move. The bonds are self tightening," a voice said from behind me or was it inside my head?
"What do you want from me?" I shouted.
"We are just trying to correct our mistake!" the voice in my head echoed.
"What are you talking about? What Mistake?" I asked, trying to remain calm.
"Just watch the screen," the voice said.
I looked in front of me. A TV set I did not notice before came alive to show what looked like one of those Sci-Fi flicks. First it showed stars and then a planet appeared. Wait this is my dream! Then that planet is...
Suddenly, a glowing comet, the size of the moon, dives deep into the planet's core ripping a hole right through it.
Most of earth was gone.
The voice came again, "As you can see our ball utterly destroyed your planet. Sorry! So we collected all of your kind that we could before your planet went dead. Now if you do not like the mate we choose for you there are others...."
THE END
Read more Twisted stories like this in my book "Twisted American Fairy Tales"
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Reviewed by Chance Cas
3/8/2003
This story will definitely make the wise reader think about the damage we humans do when we wreck the ecosystems of the animals around us.
Snake Eyes and Boxcars, Part II is a collection of 14 sci-fi/paranormal stories and is author Jay Dubya's 13th story collection and is also his 33rd hardcover book.
Utterly Fantastic Occurrences is a collection of 20 science fiction short story novellas existing in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle and Nook e-book formats.
