FICTION | MASHUP | FANTASY
A Hell of a Sacrifice
Part 12 of A Hell of a Bedtime Story — Tommy finds clarity and strength when all hell breaks loose in suburbia.
Once the dog purse hit the ground and released the demonically possessed puppy, all hell broke loose. Like the murderous bunny from that British movie Rae’s dad had allowed them to watch once, the hellpuppy didn’t dally.
It dashed from one of the armoured soldiers to the next with fierce determination. Today, death came like the tides, and it swept through the silent suburbia with the seething rage of a wildfire. At least it was mercifully swift. Like the Rabbit of Caerbannog, the hellpuppy didn’t toy with its prey but went straight for the throat.
The scene unfolding before Tommy’s eyes differed significantly from that movie. The men and women that had arrived with his mum didn’t wear chain shirts, nobody presented the life-saving Holy Handgranate, and his nightmares would undoubtedly last longer than a week.
Tommy had reacted as usual and just stood there, paralysed by fear. His gaze was fixed on his unconscious mother and the strange orange glow emanating from an ugly, clawlike amulet around her neck. It moved slowly as if trying to scratch markings into the ground.
A part of him loathed his mother at that moment. Despite all the fierce authority she wielded in the past, and her ability to paralyse people with her menacing stare, she hadn’t turned out to be a Marmee or Beverly Crusher. She hadn’t displayed miraculous strengths when her child was in danger.
His mum certainly hadn’t sacrificed herself like Lily Potter. Unexpectedly, the iron maiden, as Rae’s dad called Director Fletcher, had just fainted. All that glitters is not gold. He found that an oddly amusing metaphor at the end of a short life, but then, they had called him a weirdo since kindergarten.
Tommy had to admit to himself that he also loved his mother at that moment. Before she collapsed, Tommy had seen the fear in her eyes. Seeing her vulnerable like that had revealed the humanity under her hard shell. Rae’s dad would have joked, “The robot has a heart, after all.”
The thought of his best friend moved something in him. As far as he could think back, Tommy had been afraid of many things: narrow spaces, extreme heights, crowded spaces, the bullies at school, vast, empty spaces, and the motherly bully at home.
Everything had been bearable, thanks to Rae. She was his hero, and Tommy her unlikely sidekick. Rae, one of the scrawniest girls he knew, had always corrected him and said that he was the brains to her brawn. She was as quick-witted as brave.
There was one thing he had never been afraid of. It was, therefore, no surprise to him that he suddenly jumped into action and threw himself between the hellpuppy and his best friend. Rae had stood up to all his bullies. It was time to repay the favour.
Tommy felt free from fear for the first time in his short life when the snarling hellpuppy came at him with its bloodied muzzle. Unafraid of death, he smiled. It was time to meet Grandma.
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If you don’t know the infamous “killer rabbit scene” from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, here’s a coaching session. (Warning: somewhat graphic.)
This is a response to Jonathon Sawyer’s Monday Mash-Up №23. I hope you found the Easter Egg I hid for you, Jonathon.
Prompt #2: explore a character's phobia -> 2 points
Constraint: An unlikely sidekick (1 point)
Constraint: The tide (1 point)
Constraint: A unique writing method (the clawlike amulet tries to scratch
markings into the ground (1 point)
Constraint: The colour orange (1 point)
Hardcore Constraint: the Hellpuppy is in a seething rage (2 points)
Literary Device: exaggeration, hyperbole or internal monologue (5 points)
Tally 1 point
Sum: 14 points“Oh my gosh! Did he just kill Tommy?!”
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