Aloft Beyond The Dumpster

Maybe that was it now. I could lay here and float off into the universe and die a happy death for a while. Before coming back as a bat or a ball of cheese. Worse ends. Worse dreams. 

Here’s a story. While I tumble. I tumble and I tumble and I tumble and I, tumble. 

Tumbling ain’t so bad. 

I’m smiling the biggest smile. 

‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ 

England appeared through the trees 

That can be the name of the story 

This story takes place in Korea though. 

Nine thousand years ago. We’ll say that. 

Back in those Normalish times. 

In a small town on the Yellow Sea. 

Nari had an odd tongue. It often fell out of her mouth. And the colour changed all the time. Sometimes a dark red, others a pale pink. 

It was hot pink the night she was taken. 

That night she snuck out of her family’s home and walked the quiet darkened streets towards the forest. She left a note on her bed just in case anything happened. She’d never done anything like this before. 

The note read: 

I’m at Kalbi Forest. Dalla invited me for a midnight picnic. New friends. I’ll be back before sunrise. 

Dalla was the new girl in Nari’s class. Transferred less than a year before the end of high school. 

Nari didn’t have many friends, but Dalla was already the most popular girl in her year. And Nari and her had become close. 

Nari didn’t know why. She was awkward. Short and skinny, she looked years younger than she was. She had a hard time speaking anything above a whisper. But the new girl liked her and everyone liked the new girl. For Nari this was her ticket to friends, new experiences, high school love maybe. 

She was scared. She wasn’t even completely sure if she wanted all of that. She’d been fine so far, on her own. But she knew she had to take this chance, or she would regret it. 

Nari slipped into her white running shoes and left through the back door. 

It was a moonless summer night. 

A strong breeze was blowing in from the sea and the cicadas were furiously alive. 

The air was warm, gliding across the pavement swirling up the streetlamps and into the bones of this little girl. Doing something naughty. 

The garden path was waiting. A short ten seconds to the street. Nari squeezed her fists and bit her tongue. Looking straight ahead into the darkness. She took her first step into the naughty. 

Shadows were playing tricks as she walked. 

As she reached the post office at the end of her street she stopped and looked in the outside mirror. 

She was wearing a white shirt that tightly fit around her growing breasts. Those breasts held by a bra a size too small now. Her black straight hair reached her bony shoulders, and was so shiny it looked drenched wet. Her face was small and delicate, not a pimple or scar, she wore no makeup, her bangs were swept to the right and fixed by a white hair clip. 

Nari gave herself a smile. 

Nari was good and Nari was kind. 

The streets held their breath as she walked. How could they be this silent? 

All these people were sleeping? Every single one. Not a single soul awake. 

When she arrived at the steps to the baseball stadium she felt her heart skip a beat, she grabbed her chest and let out a quiet cry. 

Her heart was racing. And the dark world was now spinning. 

Nari felt sick. She kept walking but with each step, she felt more alone and more afraid. 

Something was wrong with the world. Not her. The Earth had changed. 

There was evil here. 

Everything was. 

She backed up to the shutter of a coin laundry and froze in place. Her nails grabbed at the space between the dirty metal. She opened her eyes as wide as she could to let in more light. 

Something was coming to get her. She knew it. 

The vending machines dripped black. 

The square tiles of the house across the street played dead, in fear and cowardice. 

The black snake wire above her head swayed with excited terror. 

Something was coming to hurt her. 

Nari’s breathing shot faster, her head in agony, a crushing pain from the fear. 

Sweat stuck her bra to her chest and her thin shirt to her lower back. 

She pushed her body back into the shutter as hard as she could. 

What ever was going to happen, would. 

She closed her eyes and forgot time. 

And time forgot her. 

Nari was dead. 

Pasted up to that metal shutter, the story written from the first atom had her peeled off by some policeman the next afternoon. 

Poor Nari. 

Standing in front of her lifeless body was a being made of strange light. It had reached her finally. 

The body, the shape of a human, was one white glow. The head was different, shifting lava orange to a fierce eerie violet. 

A sound finds a way to the surface. 

“Nari.” 

The Light Thing called her name. 

“I need your soul.” 

“Nari I need your soul.” 

Nari held on. Nari did everything. Nari was fighting. 

This was the soul of Nari. 

No. This is Nari’s soul. 

Close to midnight a crow started cawing. Nari opened her eyes to The Gray molesting her body. Long slim fingers were inside her vagina, her anus and choking her throat. 

Nari’s soul was almost gone. 

The finger’s. 

No time. 

With the last of her energy. Nari cemented her legs to the ground and bit down hard, hard enough to cut straight through and amputate the wriggling knobbly stick. 

Abduction wasn’t easy. And this guy was new. 

Sucks. 

Nari was no longer scared. She wasn’t dead, anymore. 

The scene changed, the sea and the forest, we’re up on the hill. Nari? 

Suddenly a flash of glitter. Suddenly a white beam. 

There was a BLT or something. 

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato 

BLAT 

England appeared. The whole thing. 

Through the trees. 

‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ 

In my visions were moonlit lakes, velvet shadows. 

Little Brown Girl was safe. I had that. She could exist for a longer longer time. 

My time? 

My time in this time was done. 

I wanted out. 

I had to leave. 

The Nothing was calling. And I wanted to be free. 

Wild. The ultimate freedom. The lasting loss. The final win. 

Everything was speckled. Bespectacled. Shining pins. Colour. Color. 

The Fairy was here. 

Woah wey. 

“Woah wey.” 

I reached for her face. Caught it by her heart shaped ears and kissed her. You never know. 

After a second of hesitation, she opened her mouth wide and sucked my tongue to the back of her throat. 

“Let’s die.” 

“No, I can’t!” 

“Why not?” 

“I don’t know, I’m still young.” 

“Trust me, it’s all just the same chemicals over and over, and over and over.” 

LET’S CHANGE THE CHANNEL 

The frequency 

The Box. The Bleed. 

She sneezed her lips tight shut and let out a girly sigh. 

“Let’s go home.” 

I looked into her big black eyes. 

“Back into nothingness, forever.” 

What could be better than that.