Trump Ace

Chapter Six: Of Monsters and Moods

AN: The first thing in this chapter is a rather long nightmare scene. And it is rather frightening (at least, I think it is). So if you’re easily frightened, I suggest skipping the nightmare sequence (it ends when the font returns to normal). Also, the nightmare sequence has a very similar nature to my one-shot “The Man In The Mirror”, so while writing it I found myself occasionally slipping back into second-person present tense instead of third-person past tense. I tried to catch all my slips, but please let me know if you notice something so that I can correct it. Also, I need to find a new actor for Kevin, as Field Cate is a little young (I didn't think he would become such a major character). And now, on to the story, and, as always, please read (review) and enjoy!

_____________________________________________________________________________

“I don’t use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.”

                                                                 -M.C. Escher

_____________________________________________________________________________ 

            Everything was fragmented, as if some unknown all-powerful force was flipping back and forth between two channels, unsure of which to choose, and she was caught in the middle. One was pleasant enough, she was sitting on an anonymous curb watching anonymous little girls play double-dutch. But there was something off about the rhyme...

            "One, two!”

            "I’m going to kill you!”

            The voice was gruff and menacing, and she had no desire to see the face it belonged to. She pushed against the door with all her might, knowing somehow that it was a matter of life and death. She shook in fear. Or, perhaps, the shaking was just the result of the reverberations from the repeated impact of his fists on the door. Squeezing her eyes shut, she silently made a desperate plea—she knew not to who, but it was the only thing left for her to do. She didn’t know how much more the door could take.

            She didn’t know how much more she could take. 

            The sun was shining and she was sitting once again on the pavement, out of immediate danger. While her mind quickly accepted this welcome change, her heart was not so easily swayed, and continued to beat frantically within her chest. She was suddenly ripped out of her thoughts by the playing girls’ song, which suddenly seemed much louder and direct, as if it was being blasted directly into her ears. In vain she attempted covering her ears with her hands to muffle the noise.

            “Three, four!”

            “Open the fucking door!”

            Her hands were no longer against her ears, but firmly pressed against the painfully flimsy plywood door that was all that separated her from the monster outside. The banging got louder and louder to the point where she was sure the door was about to give in. 

            But then it stopped.

            The curb again. This time she doesn’t find it nearly as calming. Actually, she doesn’t find it calming at all. In an attempt to break the pattern that seemed to be forming, she tried to make a run for it. But no matter how loudly or desperately her mind screamed at her legs to move, they wouldn’t budge. She was stuck. The only thing she could do was watch the jump-roping girls singing their painfully loud rhyme.