Hallucinations and Dreams Ch. 2
"See? When the air in a thunderstorm is heated to such high temperatures, it becomes a plasma situation because the lightning heats the gas surrounding it." Jim looked at me with a mixture of eagerness and frustration.
"Exactly how high?" He sighed.
"Really high, Darren. Really high." I nodded slowly.
"Ok, got it. But what about-"
Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! chimed the old grandfather clock in the corner of the caravan. I never got why my mother even bought that thing at the garage sale, but she loved it like her I loved my new iPhone 4G. Jim looked relieved, winking at me.
"Phew! For a moment there, I thought I was going to be stuck here explaining if cheese could be turned into plasma and what it would taste like after."
"Naw, I was just gonna ask if potatoes could," I joked. Jim grinned and pinched a cup of coffee from our coffee machine before leaving. I swept my books to one side with one careless brush of my hand. Opening the fridge, I spotted a bunch of chocolate muffins my mother had recently baked. It took a few moments to find right size of muffin (mum loved to make the bite-sized kind), but in the end I managed to pick the right one.
Grabbing the keys I locked the caravan door from the outside. Stepping into the field, I looked at all the people milling around, practicing lines, playing around, pretending to die a gory death as described in the script. I smiled and nodded as the actors waved to me. To them I was the little kid whose mum was one of the special-effects specialists, someone who could listen to them recite their lines and play pranks with during one of their breaks. To me they were the many older brothers and sisters who were always gullible enough to be tricked, someone other than my mum telling me about how 'that boring old man' directed with such horrible style.
At least that what they said. I had almost finished my muffin when I spotted my mum arguing, as usual, with the director of the movie, Kegan Stub. He was short and, ahem, plump, with tree stumps for legs. The cast and crew always referred to him as 'Big Stub.'
"Sara, I assure you, no parent would-"
"I don't care, Kegan! It's rated universal, so it will have universal standards. You wouldn't want the reviewers to review your movie lower than a 4, would you? You need it to make it back to the top." My mum's tone was like what the 'big guns' in movies used to insult the main character and that he better get lost fast before they squashed him.
When my mum used it, the poison was multiplied by 1,000. I swear it could even make Darth Sidious cringe. Unfortunately, Big Stub has the tendency to not listen to people.
"Well, I'm telling you that you needn't worry about the children. It is so mature that-"
"And I'm telling you that teenagers don't even need to know what the story is about to watch it. What will happen when they come home and tell their younger siblings?" I was about to sneak up and say 'Hi, mum' really loudly when they both spotted me. They both started talking to me, voices rising 10 decibels a second.
"Whoa, ok, that's loud enough, thanks." My mother and Big Stub fell silent while I continued. "Maybe you're looking at this all wrong. Isn't there a way to tone the goriness down a bit while still keeping the original idea?" I made it sound like I knew what I was doing. "Maybe you could put dead bunnies instead of skeletons, for example." My mother was glaring me down like those evil ladies who always distracted the hero and then gutted him like a fish, but 'smart-as-a-tree-stump' Stub was delighted. He shook my hand enthusiastically, then walked away muttering about Hello Kitty. My mum and I watched him go, then looked at each other.
"Bunnies?" she arched an eyebrow. I winked back.
"Haven't you seen the movie 'Revenge of the Bunny Zombies?" We both started laughing. My mother and I had made the movie when I was a little kid about mutant bunnies taking over the house of this little kid who'd taken care of them, then killed them in 'creative' ways. It was based on this kid down the road when we'd lived in an actual house that treated his dogs to 'special' whippings and poisoned their food. I don't what happened to him when he was a baby, whether the doctor was an evil scientist who wanted someone to carry on his evil work or if the kid was just born that way.
When we recovered, I told my mum I'd go and find out what Jim was doing and maybe grab a bite to eat before dinner. She said go ahead, and even gave me some extra pocket money. That's the best thing about my mum; she knows what you need even before you've had a chance to think about it.
I walked casually around the cans parked around the movie set. Most of the actors didn't have traveling caravans so they stayed in hotels nearby. The few that did (like my mum and I) were usually specialists of some sort. I whistled, feeling like nothing could ruin my day at this moment.
That was when it did.
Slam!
My breath left my body and I gasped as a dark shape leered over me. I blinked, then blinked again. A man with different colored eyes was holding me by the scruff of the neck effortlessly, but that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that behind him a tail of spikes swished from side to side, and if that didn't set your internal alarms off, I don't know what will. He narrowed his eyes, but I was mostly focusing on the group of spikes lazily hanging inches from my face. Then a harsh voice rang out.
"Dr. Thorn, you had your orders." Dr. Thorn turned slowly, like he didn't want to hear.
"I know them well, Lamia. But mother did not specify what we had to do to keep him detained. As long as he is alive, I should think mother would be satisfied."
"Mother will be satisfied when she sees this boy brought to her lair alive and fully functional. Anything less will result in consequences for you and you only, because mother favors me." Dr. Thorn growled and shifted so he was facing the voice, and I got a good look at the speaker.
A way too good look.
She was like Ursula in The Little Mermaid, but I was sure she didn't only want to harm Ariel. Her body was a swirling mass of tentacles, all slimy and gross. Her face wasn't much better. Her features looked like she frequently had fights with a meat grinder and always lost.
"Mother won't favor you if I say you didn't do anything to aid in the capture of this boy."
"Ah, but will she believe you?" As they tried staring each other down, I squirmed weakly. Dr. Thorn turned back and I got a look into his one-brown-one-blue-eyes. I stared back, wanting to show him I wasn't that helpless. Then the look in his eyes shifted and I found myself watching him thrash around in-grapevines? He was definitely screaming in fear.
I squeezed my eyes shut and, purely on instinct, imagined him really in the grapevines.
It happened in an instant.
"Argh!" the monster yelled, dropping me like a rag doll. I slid to the floor, then struggled to my feet. Lamia-Ursula no. 2-looked shocked and for a moment, no one made a sound. I struggled to stand, but Dr. Thorn managed-by pure luck-to grip my arm weakly. In a panic I pulled back, and my whole arm exploded with pain. I think there was a ripping sound but I'm not sure. All I know is I managed to pull myself out of Dr. Thorn's grasp and stumble back, by whole right arm bleeding from the shoulder to the wrist.
Then I forced myself to my feet with strength I didn't know I had and ran like a personal hurricane was chasing me. I didn't look back once.
I don't know why but I didn't run back to the set. I just felt this pressing urge to run away, like you get when you need to go to the bathroom and everything just doesn't matter. Hm, maybe I shouldn't have used that metaphor.
Anyways, I ran. I did cross-country whenever my mum and I could settle down long enough for me to join a club, and I was pretty good at it. This time, though, I ran faster. I didn't even know where I was going, just that I had to go where my legs took me.
They carried me all the way along a highway bridge and to a place called 'Long Island Sound'. I always thought it funny that the island was actually quite long and thin. I had slowed down to barely a jog now, running on reserve power. I really don't remember getting all the way to this valley with strawberry fields surrounding it and some sort of camp in the center. I only made it to the top of the hill with this huge pine tree overlooking the valley. It looked strong and beautiful, but right then I hardly noticed.
I just collapsed, falling to my knees and hitting the soft grass with hardly a bump. Just before I blacked out I noticed that despite it being nearly dark, two figures were walking in the strawberry fields and talking animatedly. They even laughed a couple of times.
One of them finally noticed me and my last look of them was their sneakers running towards me.