Sunday, August 16, 2009

Horror Show

The authorities scramble throughout the night to capture the scattered escapees, and in the confusion Ricky makes his way through the swamps. Coming across the unconscious body of one of his fellow inmates who had been shot while trying to escape, Ricky relieves him of his clothing.

“This will have to do for now.” Ricky thinks to himself “I can’t be seen anywhere wearing this orange jumpsuit. It’s just not my color.”

At that Ricky hears the barking of the bloodhounds that had been sent to retrieve the escapees.

“Well now” Ricky sighs “we can’t have them catching up. Not when I’ve just started to have my fun.”

Thinking of how to keep the dogs off his trail, Ricky thinks back to all the myths and lore he’s read about the swamps and the spirits that inhabit them.

“The wil-o’-wisps!” Ricky exclaims as he recalls the ancient legends of the eerie lights that capture a weary traveler’s attention fascinating him and which leads him deeper and deeper into the swamps to his death. “That’ll lead the men and dogs away from me!”

Ricky grounds himself and attempts to formulate a spell to invoke the wil-o’-wisps.

“I call upon the ancient light,

who leads men astray in the night;

come do your worst yet let me be,

& lead my pursuers away from me!”

At first nothing happens, but then several small lights begin to form around Ricky. The lights swirl around him for a few moments and then float away towards the sound of the barking dogs. Ricky waits for a few moments listening to the sounds around him.

“Hey, over here!” one voice calls out “The dogs have picked up a scent!”

“This way guys” another voice commands, “..follow the dogs. Come on keep up now!”

Fear moves through Ricky and he scrambles for what to do next. As he stands still thinking of how to get out of this situation, Ricky suddenly realizes that the sounds of the hunting party are growing fainter and fainter.

“It worked” Ricky exclaims, “they’re moving away from me. Now to make sure they can’t find their way back to me.”

Ricky then raises his hands high in the air over his head and aligning himself with the energy around him commands the elements

“Spirits of water & of air

spirits of earth and flame

aid me in this task I dare,

raise a storm in the devil’s name!

Concentrating hard on his desire, Ricky’s eyes and hands give off an eerie red glow as the wind blows hard and cold across his body and clouds now begin to gather around the waning moon over head threatening to swallow it whole. Thunderclaps are heard in the distance and the darkness of the night is momentarily filled with flashes of lightning.

“That should cause enough confusion” Ricky figures “to keep them out of my hair for a while.” as the rain begins to fall in sheets over the swamps.

Walking throughout the entire night, Ricky makes his way to the outskirts of the city of Shadow Falls. Just inside the city limits he finds the remains of the abandoned Stardust movie theater. Walking towards the chained up door Ricky stops to look at the marquee and deciphers from the missing letters that the last movie to play at the Stardust was something called Horror Show in theater one and The Wizard of Oz in theater two.

Ricky simply waves his hand before him and the chain breaks apart from the door falling to the ground. “There’s no place like home.” Ricky casually announces walking inside.

Inside, Ricky begins to explore the theater for anything that could be of use to him. What little food he finds at the concession stand has long expired, so Ricky makes his way back stage where he finds some boxes labeled Frank and Rocky.

Ricky opens the boxes to find an assortment of strange clothing including a pair of gold sequined jockey shorts, feather boas in different colors, fishnet stockings with garters, and a leather vest.

“What da fuck kinda shit is this?” Ricky wonders aloud.

He then opens a box marked Brad and Janet and find a simple men’s button up collared shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

“Ok this is a little more like it” Ricky says to himself as he gets out of his wet orange jump suit and tries on the clothing he has found.

“Hey they fit.”

Rummaging through the boxes he finds a pair of shoes but only one sock. He puts the sock on and places the shoes on the floor beside him. Continuing to look through the box for the missing sock, Ricky comes across an odd assortment of props including a lighter, some dried rice, a water gun, and a newspaper. In addition he finds a notebook about an inch or so thick.

Foraging through the theather, Ricky finds a metal pot in the concession area and set it outside to capture some rainwater. While waiting for the put to fill up, Ricky gathers up several bricks and forms a circle with them. He then forms a small square inside the circle with more bricks. Inside the square he gathers some wood from a broken chair and uses the newspaper to kindle a fire. When he has enough water, Ricky cooks the dried rice he has found by placing the metal pot over on top of the bricks over the fire.

As the rice cooks, Ricky takes out the notebook he had found earlier and begins to flip through it reading passages at random.

“Looks like some kind of script” he says to himself as he continues to read “The Rocky Horror Picture Show….”

Flippin through the pages the next words he reads are Don't Dream it, Be It! Lyrics and music by Richard O'brien.

"Good advice." Ricky comments "but what do I want to be? Hero or Villian?"

When his rice is done, Ricky eats it as best as he can. He then finds a blanket and a makes a comfortable place for him to rest on the floor behind stage. Lying in his makeshift bed, Ricky contemplates his next move as he drifts into a deep sleep that will last many hours.

By late afternoon it appears that his fellow escapees are not so lucky; several of them die in the swamps while others are recaptured. Within hours, only a handful of the escaped inmates are unaccounted for.

Waking up well past dark, Ricky sneaks out of the Stardust Theather and heads towards town.

"Don't dream it" he whispers to himself "Be it!"


4 comments:

  1. "Don't dream it, Be It!" Sounds like the perfect mantra for everyone with ambition and dreams :-) What's up next?

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  2. Ricky has been a very fast learner. For a minute there I was imagining Ricky in those sequined jocky short and feather boa, taking to the stage with few high kicks. Ok I'm more composed now.....What trouble will he get into now......????

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  3. Well Ricky the occult has been Ricky's 'hobby' for a very long time. Whereas before he was ambitious, he now has the power to carry out those ambitions and he has a lot of knowledge to draw upon from his years of reading.

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