1317½ Chapter Nine: Mindshaker Meltdown

ACT I, SCENE I:  Introduction
It’s a world of cold, misery, and shadows.  It’s a world of darkness.  The trees wither and hover precariously between life and death.  The only birds in the air are the carrions.  The few standing structures are rundown and unstable, liable to collapse at any moment.  Standing on the cracked pavement outside of what’s left of 1317 ½, Scott, Chris, Jason, Cami, Arps, Greg, and Deanna stare at each other in silence, not quite sure where to begin.

ACT I, SCENE II:  Strands
Scott has begun to piece it together and the rest are catching up quick.  They all know what has to be done.  If only they have time to do it.  With a smile of grim acceptance and warm friendship, Greg, Chris, Cami, Jason, and Arps vanish.  Scott and Deanna turn to each other, the smiles fading.  From all directions, members of the Psycho Killer’s species emerge from the shadows, slowly closing in.

ACT I, SCENE III:  Drop In
Tom rubs his eyes.  It had seemed so real.  Too real.  Like hyper-reality.  Mid-rub, Greg appears, looking extremely agitated.  Tom and Greg run into the kitchen and start heating up the knives.

ACT I, SCENE IV:  A Change Of Reality
In the basement, hovering over his shrine, the Psycho Killer glares above him, seeing through the ceiling up to Tom and Greg.  In a fiery burst of hate-filled energy, the Psycho Killer explodes through the floorboards, showering Greg and Tom with splintered wood.  But they’re ready for him.  Tom jabs two red hot knives deep into the Psycho Killer’s eyes, boiling them in his skull and digging deeper, searing brain tissue.  Greg and Tom vanish immediately.  Seconds later, the Psycho Killer implodes in a crackling blue electrical surge that leaves no trace behind.

ACT II, SCENE I:  1317 ½
Back at 1317 ½, things are relatively normal.  The place is a little messy, but there are no bodies.  Everything has been cleared out.  Cami and Chris appear in the living room, gather their bearings, and begin to explore.

ACT II, SCENE II:  The Idiot Box
As Chris and Cami methodically explore their home, the back door to the storage room slowly opens and Johnson emerges.  He creeps slowly and silently through the apartment, pausing outside the door to Deanna’s room, where Chris and Cami are beginning their search.  As Chris and Cami exit the room, Johnson transforms into the Psycho Killer.  Chris lunges at him, but is brushed aside effortlessly.  Cami hits him hard with the door, knocking him down.  As he begins to recover, he looks up just in time to see Cami shoving the tv off the tv stand and onto his head.  The tv screen shatters with a pop, blood pouring out and down the Psycho Killer’s body.  Chris and Cami vanish, followed closely by the Psycho Killer in the same blue electrical flash.

ACT II, SCENE III:  MINDSHAKER MELTDOWN
It’s an unusually cold night in mid-April.  The streets are slicked with rain.  An almost imperceptible disturbance touches the air and Arps and Jason appear, a block away from their destination.  Number one.  As they make their way closer and closer to the brick building, they spot movement in the bushy trees guarding the entrance.  It’s the Psycho Killer.  Arps and Jason each grab bottles out of a nearby recycling bin and break them to form sharp, jagged teeth.  They attack with no mercy, slashing and stabbing.  The porch light goes on beside the doorway and Arps and Jason look up, in that instant vanishing.  As the door opens, there is a sharp crackle.  I look out the door.  Nothing’s there.

ACT II, SCENE IV:  Future Shock
It seems instantaneous to all of them.  One moment they’re in 508 or 1317 ½, or on some strange, hyper-real street.  That same moment, they’re together outside 508.  But everything is different.  Chris, Cami, Jason, Arps, Tom, and Greg can only stare in jaw-dropping horror and wonder.  The 508 house is magnificent, a glittering castle literally made of gold.  It’s beauty is so great that to look at it is to drop all shame or pretense at weep openly at your insignificance.  Then they see Scott, a broken, beaten man.  He’s at least twenty years older than when they left him just seconds before.

ACT III, SCENE I:  2018
Almost instinctively, they know that the heart of this apocalyptic nightmare is inside of 508.  In the basement.  The Psycho Killer’s shrine.  They storm the basement in a berserker fury.  They have no control of their actions, their movement guided by something otherworldly.  Or so it seems.  They tear the shrine apart, savagely, using any weapons they can lay hands on, and if there are no weapons, they use fists and feet and teeth.  The Psycho Killer appears momentarily, but here he is at the peak of his powers.  Tall, strong, and oozing dread and fear.

ACT III, SCENE II:  End Game
Back in the dark world, no time has passed.  The Psycho Killers are still slowly advancing, closing their ranks, moving in for the kill.  Scott and Deanna stand back to back, swinging the biggest tree branches they can effectively wield.  It soon becomes apparent that the Psycho Killers aren’t interested in them.  It’s something just beyond where they’re standing.  Something at the doorway to 1317 ½.  And then Chris, Jason, Greg, Arps, Cami, and Tom appear, blocking the exit.

ACT III, SCENE III:  The Dark World
The eight friends stand together as a dozen or so Psycho Killers keep coming.  And then, inevitably, the fight begins.  It’s a blur of fists, tree limbs, lead pipes, feet, blood, hair, bone, and screams as the battle rages.  Soon the sheer numbers of the Psycho Killer horde overpower the gang.  The Psycho Killers begin jumping through the door of 1317 ½, vanishing into oblivion.

ACT III, SCENE IV:  Parting Shot
Scott, Deanna, Tom, and Arps are down.  Unconscious?  Dead?  The rest are barely standing upright.  Three Psycho Killers appear out of the shadows of the alley, running at full speed.  They manage to snag Cami and Jason, too tired to fight or even scream, shoving them through the portal.  Chris and Greg react instantly, unable to intercept them, but in time to, without thinking, dive through the door, gone.  Tom and Arps have recovered and are close behind.  Tom dives through seconds behind Greg, but the portal closes.  Severed diagonally from head to toe, half of Tom’s body falls with a sickening thud to the ground, leg and arm still reflexively twitching and spraying blood for a few long moments.  Half of his head remains connected to his torso through a few strands of muscle, one eye staring into the sea of infinity.  Scott, Deanna, and Arps can do nothing but stare in shock and horror.  Behind them, a shadowy figure retreats into the murky black of the alley.

April 21, 2008