It would be another day in Atlantic City, the crowds are beginning to wake and move about the boardwalk.
VENDORS are setting up their booths, preparing to sell their wares to those who have money to burn.
ANGLE ON - THE GOLDEN CHALICE CASINO
Exiting
through the doors and walking onto the Atlantic Boardwalk are MAX,
MAGGIE, FRANK & AQUA. Max is wearing pressed jeans and a white
t-shirt with a bulls-eye over his heart and written underneath it is 'HIT
THIS!' Maggie is dressed in black shirt and torn jeans. Frank in
a hot pink shirt underneath a black jacket and black pants, while Aqua
wears a cowboy hat, tropical shirt tucked into a denim skirt.
They look like they are ready for action. Walking with a purpose and scanning the crowds.
MAX He's not there.
FRANK He's got to be around here. Somewhere.
MAGS Hopefully he hasn't bolted just yet.
MAX He better not.
AQUA Well, we have only 88 more minutes to find him.
The car traveled on throughout tunnels unknown and passing worlds of
gone-by, should-have-been, the plurealities streaking past the windows all
different but still looking the same.
Suki was waking from a little
sleep. Her eyes flickering open like someone turning on a light
switch. She turned her head and spotted two gifts on the seat beside
her; she glanced around. She saw Max was up at the front of the
car chatting with Bishop, who was leaning up against the door to his
booth. Akimoto was stretched out on the seat in the back, and seemed to
be taking in the downtime with a nap as well.
The presents were
wrapped with tender care and a tear welled up in her eye. Though, she
knew it wasn't the sight of seeing the presents; it was the thought of
them being beside her that made her happy. She had found a new
family.
"Merry Christmas, Suki," Max and Akimoto echoed throughout the subway car.
"What's with the hat?" Trump asked Max. "Planning on putting the smack down on a couple of hookers?" Max looked at Trump and said nothing. He and that cat didn't see eye-to-eye on much, but it wasn't a hateful relationship. It was something akin to brothers who don't agree very often. "Looks good though," Trump added and he went back to licking his paws. Max smiled. Max had on a fedora; it had been given to him as a gift and he felt like he had to wear it. Suki had seen it at a store and picked it up for him. When she presented it to him she told Max, "You call me Shortround I will kick you."
INT . SUBWAY - DAY MAX, SUKI & AKIMOTO are on the platform. Max is leaning up against a pillar, smoking a cigarette. He is wearing a red t-shirt declaring "Pick Me Kirk!". Akimoto is dressed in a tropical shirt and torn jeans; he is sitting at bench reading a comic book. Suki is sitting on the floor; she is tracing patterns on the tile. SUKI I'm bored. How long are we going to wait here? MAX As long as it takes SUKI This sucks. We should be kicking butt by now. MAX Suki, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Akimoto looks up from his comic and flips a page. The action on the comic book seems to mirror what just went on between Suki and Max. Akimoto shrugs and goes back to reading... On the first panel is the sound of a train. Sound of a train approaching. SUKI Hope our car is on this one. MAX It could be. Akimoto looks at the comic book again and at Suki and Max and then he flips the page to see something hideous on it. Cut to Akimoto's eyes widening in horror. He drops the comic and grabs his sword. Camera pans into the comic book and onto a frame in which Max asks Akimoto: MAX What is it? Cut to other panel in which Akimoto turns and faces Max: AKIMOTO Something spooky.
Mags was in a sunny room with others; she was seated on the floor
with a cup of tea by her side and a deck of cards in front of her. But
they weren't an ordinary deck of cards; they were cards with some
symbols and other pictures on them. She was drawing the cards out and
looking at them and then putting them down as part of a pattern.
"What are you doing?" Kia asked.
Mags
looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. "If you have to ask then you're to
ignorant to know." Then she went back to draw the next card and look
at it. Pondering the implication of what the card was telling her.
"Now, now Maggie," a nurse scorned Mags. "We gave you those cards to calm you
down, we can just as easily take them away from you."
Mags looked up
at the nurse and cocked an eyebrow and added a wry smile to it, as if
challenging the nurse to come and do what she had threatened to do.
Maggie walked towards the door to the complex, still feeling uneasy that
something sinister was in the air. She took a precautionary glance, seeing
nothing out of the ordinary, and then proceeded to the door.
That's when she felt something hit her in the back the head. She paused,
momentarily stunned, and brought her hand to her head and felt liquid. The
impact was enough to stagger her, falling on a knee. Turning to see
Frank standing there; he had been hiding in the shadows, waiting for
her.
He looked at her and nodded.
How dare he, Mags thought, her body filling with emotion. After all I did for him.
Frank walked closer to her, his hands clasped behind his back. He was dressed in black, his killer wardrobe.
"Why?" Maggie asked.
"Because," Frank replied coolly. "It's my nature."
Maggie leaned forward to control her stance. She was like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching semi.
"Max will avenge me," she said.
"Not before I get him," Frank replied. He stopped 15 feet away from her.
She
was scanning around and taking in all her options. She knew that she was
caught off-guard, blindsided because she was taking things too slack. She
was caught off her guard and now she was paying the price.
"I hope you don't hold it against me," Frank said. "After all, you knew who I was in the beginning."
His face cracked into a vicious smile as he brought up the second snowball.
Frank slid back into the booth with a sly grin on his face. Max was
sitting there smoking another shitty smelling cigarette, his arm draped
around Mags. Angst sat on the other side next to Goner.
"What are you smiling at?" Angst asked him.
"I slipped the disc jockey a c-note and a song to play," he replied.
"Why?" Goner asked this time around.
"Because," was all that Frank said. As
the last song ended the haunting melody of the next one began. It started to
perk up the interest of the table. The tune began to wail from the
speakers and the dance floor cleared. Then the techno sound began to sneak into the haunting melodic tune. Which made the young
crowd seem to turn away from the dance floor.
"Care to dance?" Frank asked of Angst. She turned and smiled and held out a hand for Frank to take. Max
just looked a Mags and gave her a wink; she gave him a nod and they too
headed out onto the dance floor, as the haunting voice began to sing. Both couples took to the dance floor like nobility at
a grand ball. The crowd of 20-somethings stood around looking at the
majestic couples as they did their ritualistic movements on the dance
floor.
Goner sat at the table shaking his head, though he thought
Frank was cool for an old fart. Goner flagged down a waitress and ordered another round, his
head bobbing to the music.
"Fuckin' A, Frank," Goner whispered.
Mags
looked into Max's eyes and she was swept away into the pools of azure,
lost for a mere fraction of a second in his world. She began to spin
like a dervish, the scarves around her arm billowing out, and Max was
getting into the essence of the song.
He thought he owed Frank big time for this, because right now it was what he needed.
"I got a feeling that you are going to miss me," Max told Suki. Suki was
sitting on a bench facing the tracks, eating a bowl of cereal. She had
been hungry and this was the first quiet stop in a little while to grab
something nourishing.
"You're not going anywhere are you?" Suki asked back. "Aren't you?"
"Well,
just in case something happens and we get separated," Max said, beside her on the bench. He butted out a cigarette and leaned
back. "You know this journey we are on can't last forever."
Suki paused for a long while; a single tear streaked down her face, seeming more foreign than ever. "What do you mean?"
"Someday this will end," said Max. He took his thumb and wiped the tear from her face. "Life will continue and so will we."
Suki added, "I never really thought that it would eventually end. I always thought we'd be doing this forever."
"Forever is such along time," Max said.
"Yeah, but can't I just live the fantasy for now?" Suki said. She placed the cereal carton into the trash bin.
Max let out a chuckle, and then he turned to Suki and winked, "But we are having a kick-ass time doing so!"
The cool breeze enveloped him, though he didn't shiver for it was a
comforting one. Max stood outside on the patio and looked out over the
city below. He was sure he was home. For a little while at least, he
hoped.
His cellphone chimed. A haunting melody emitting. He answered it.
"Hello Max," the voice said. "Yes?" Max asked pensively. "Time is coming," the voice said. "Prepared yet?" "Yes," Max replied.
Excerpt from Sparkle_Lady's journal at Ghostbloggers: I haven't updated in a while. I haven't been nothng much at all. Stay in my room, listening to the gothic voices sing to me on my mp3 player. Nothing too exciting has been going on. Nothing until earlier this evening. I've been hanging out at a coffee house where a strange eccletic group of people been hanging out as well. I really don't know what to make of them but they seem to be a pretty eccentric bunch (wow look at me use big words I are edumakated! ;)) After school I like popping in and getting a cap or two and read up on the current events. It's a nice cosy atmosphere. Well anyways the crew that hangs up in the upper tier, I have come to know by their chatting: There is Max (tall handsome fellow with sandy hair), Frank (a middle aged fellow with jet black hair and always wears nice suits), Goner (a twenty something dweeb), Angst (a very pretty girl who could could be a debutante) and Maggie (a tough looking lady). I am sitting at a low table, pretty close to where they usually sit. I notice Goner always glancing at me. I am sitting there this evening and in comes Frank and Max. They go over to their usual spot by the window and they sit back and chillax for a bit. Sipping coffee and Frank reading the papers (he always has a stack of papers with him). Max is smoking a cigarette (a bad habit I know). I have been working up the nerve to try and chat with these guys... though we do say the occasional hello and how's it going. I am just about to stand up and make a move over there, I feel all queasy and nervous inside... when suddenly an elderly gentlemen strolls past me. He walks up to the table and Frank really is about to do something, when Max signals for him to stop. The fellow has got to be in his 40's maybe, looking dapper (but Frank looks more dapper)... he stands at the table and says: "Max Cube. We need to talk," and than adds as he scans the room and looks directly at me. "Privately". I drop my drink on the table, and Frank looks at Max and Max nods his okay. So Frank gets up and comes over and he helps me. "Let me buy you a coffee," he says to me like a father. After we gather the paper up, Frank leads me by the arm down to the main area and he buys me a coffee. But he's got this real concerned look on him. "Trouble?" I asked meekly. "No," Frank replies. "Something much much worse." Whatever that means.... oops got to go now. I will continue this escapade later on tonight.
Max drummed his fingers on the table. He had been sitting in the booth with a cup of coffee in front of him and a pack of smokes out on the table. His cellphone was beside the coffee cup and there was something playing on it. He had been glancing at the news every now and then on the hopes that something caught his eye. "Another coffee, sugar?" the waitress asked. Max nodded. "Anything on?" The waitress wanted to know what was on the cellphone. "Nothing as usual," Max replied. He was facing towards the window as the elderly waitress poured another cup of black gold. "Hoping to hear about some old friends." The waitress smiled and gave him a wink. Max took the coffee and sipped away. He was in the middle of another sip and that's when he heard it...
Steps formed from fractals coming together and disappearing as they climbed, towards what she did not know.
“So what’s the deal here, Max?” she asked
“Ah,
you’re going to love this Raven. It’s genius, even for me," he said as
more steps appeared and disappeared from the grid, which had rolled and
flattened as required. “Just watch out for Mor…”
The words melted
into the air, and the floor, and the walls, as Max disappeared and
Raven fell… no, slid towards an unknown destination.
Damn! What
now? She tried to right herself but things were changing too quickly,
pitching and rolling, so she relaxed into it. That’s better. Wonder
what Max was trying to warn me about?
“Good evening, Raven," he said, as he peered through the beaker that held a golden liquid.
She
looked out from her cage at the man in the white lab coat. Reaching
out, she touched the bars and brought fingers back quickly, as they
sparked in response.
“Cute," she said. “So what are you, the evil scientist?”
“No, no. Nothing quite so dramatic. My name is Morganfokker.”
“Well,
nice meeting you Fokker but I was in the middle of something.” Raven
looked toward the ceiling. So where’s the exit on this contraption? Wish
I had my slice.
As the thought came, so did the slice. She could feel it in her hand and she smiled. Ok then. Thought creates reality. Nice.
“I require you to tell me what Max has created,” Morganfokker said.
“No can do, Fokker.”
“It’s Morganfokker.” He frowned. Noncompliance was not what he expected and it disturbed him.
“Whatever.
So, like I said, nice meeting you.” She sliced the bars and flipped
the cage over Morganfokker when he opened his mouth to speak, thinking
stairs, then slide, as each thought transformed into reality and she
heard his voice fading into the distance.
Nice. I could use a
burger, and up ahead a diner appeared and she entered and sat down at the
counter, smelling the burgers on the grill and thinking, ”Where the
hell was Max?”
