Once there was a man. It was a common man, you know, black eyes and hair, wears t-shirt and paints, medium stature, the kind of man we just see passing by on the streets and never pays too much attention. This was, until he discovers a very unique apparatus that changed his life forever. And he also discovered that, by that apparatus he was supposed to die. This strange piece of machinery was discovered in a very special zone where everything is possible. There's a thin line between our dimension and the dimension where every dream of man comes true. A zone where either you stand and leave or you can never leave. Ever. This is what they call…

The Twilight Zone

Presenting "The Sad Destiny of Edgard Lent"

Written by Ricardo Pagliaro Thomaz

Based on a Flash animation created by Ricardo Pagliaro Thomaz

It was a fine afternoon and Edgard Lent was walking in the streets of some very known city, when suddenly, he discovers a very strange green kind of device. It wasn't something you see everyday, but the engineering was rather simple. It had the shape of a boomerang and had a button in the middle of it. You just had to push the button. So Edgard was walking and luckily he stopped walking immediately before almost smashing the device on the floor. He kneel to grab it and kept walking holding that strange thing on his hand, wondering what was the purpose of a so simple machine.

While he was walking, someone in a building had just being busted by some regular burglar. But who these characters were and what they came to be is irrelevant to the story, once that the metal safe was dropped by the window of the 10th floor and flying directly to Edgard's head. But poor Edgard was not aware of the danger and by a stroke of pure luck, he just pressed the button and immediately felt somewhat strange. This feeling of his was like time was passing in slow motion, and he could just see the bottom of the metal safe scratching over his head while he jumps to the other side afraid of being hit by it and lies down on the ground. When he turns he can see the safe hitting the ground violently after the time-effect passes by. In an act of pure instinct, he had just escaped the safe and avoided his death. Relieved, he cheated death first time and realized that it was that control that helped him avoid the safe, otherwise, he would be already dead. But unfortunately, his luck wasn't going to last forever.

Happy with his new discovery, he decided to test the reliability of that strange tool. He grabs a small rock and throws it in a poor old woman that lives in the 5th floor. The old woman gets real mad at her aggressor and throws her beautiful vase with a vulnerable and helpless plant to defend herself. That woman also shows herself like a very potty mouth old one, spitting every kind of curses against Edgard. In the very instant that the vase reaches the very top of Edgard's head he manages to press the time-control device once again to gather time enough to step aside and avoid the vase that flies violently to his head. The woman's retaliation attempt proves to be ineffective and she decides to move on. Once again Edgard has cheated death.

Now Edgard was all full of joy, walking the streets thinking that nothing bad could ever happen again with him, because he had the control. There was an angry dog all alone that was running towards him. He squeezed the button on the control and suddenly, time started to run slowly and he could jump the dog from bite him or doing him any harm. Almost the same time a loose bullet was passing right in front of his face, so he turned that device again and dodged the bullet easy as that. It was a miracle. Suddenly Edgard started to think he was a blessed soul and that the angels gave him that device as a gift, so he kissed the control. He has just cheated death two more times, making it four times. It was his lent before what was coming. And he was feeling happy.

But, as everything ends in this world, his luck was about to change, as it suddenly starts to pour and rain. Edgard, feeling himself powerful with his godly device, decides that someone special like him doesn't need to get wet on the way home, so he makes the rain falls in slow motion so he doesn't get all wet. But as his fascination for his new super-power grows, Edgard starts to forget simple things. And as he forgot that with rain comes thunder and lightning, as he was walking happily in the streets lighting strikes him. But it wasn't only a mere strike. As the rain was pouring slowly, so was the lightning, bringing Edgard agony and pain, shocking him in a way he never felt before. And so, death started to strike upon him, as after the lighting's long strike he lies in the middle of the street, his hair all messed up, trying to recompose himself and figuring what happened that very moment.

Dizzy, dazed and confused, he walks the streets like a wino coming from a bar after got drunk by a thousand beers. Wondering why his powers didn't make it that time, he didn't notice that he was passing over the town's bridge. His actual condition didn't allow him to reach a perfect balance of his moves, so suddenly, he stumbles in the right side of the bridge and starts to fall. Afraid of dying, he starts to push the button desperately over and over, in a sudden attempt to get the control of things again.

After many attempts he finally manages to slow time once again. Relieved, he thinks that he's safe and that would be a nice fall on water. But as he was falling on water, he didn't count with one of the most dangerous creatures of the sea: a blue shark comes out of water. Edgard tries desperately to escape the shark but time is passing so slow that he can't manages to escape, and so, as an irony of destiny Edgard slowly falls right into the huge mouth of the shark, being swallowed by it. The poor man finally found his sad destiny in that strange and awkward zone, his resting place. The zone that people calls…

…The Twilight Zone!

THE END

Note: if you liked that story and wishes to see the original animation, please, be patient. Hopefully I'll manage to finish my personal webpage and put a link here to it, so, stay tuned! Thanks for reading.