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He holds the bottle of pills in front of me, almost mocking me with how close it is.
“You even know why you take these, kid?” he asks, chewing gum noisily, his jaw rhythmically chomping up and down. All I can think about is those pills.
“I need them,” I say, “please.”
It doesn’t matter right now that I’m tied to a chair with a mindless thug for company; it’s the pills I can’t live without.
“Well the Boss says you don’t need them anymore.”
“Who?” I say. I don’t understand. I don’t know why I’m here. And I don’t know why I can’t have my pills.
I got into the taxi, on the way to see Dad in the hospital this morning, was it four hours ago? Five? Six? It’s hard to tell, with no natural light and my head swimming due to the noxious stench of rotting fish. I didn’t even realise we were going the wrong way, not until we were right out of town, heading for the sea. I asked what he was doing, but he just laughed, and carried on towards the old marina. He came to a stop outside the boarded-up aquarium and a couple of thugs dragged my from the car and flung a heavy rope around me.
“You know, he’s not even your Dad,” he says.
“What are you talking about? How do you even know me?”
“You were adopted. Very special boy you are. And you’re not to take these anymore.”
He tips the pills on the floor and crushes then under a heavy boot, grinning as he does so, stamping them to dust on the hard concrete floor.
I jerk back in my chair as a pain shoots across my shoulder blades. Damn, I need those pills. He’s right though, this goon, I don’t know what they’re for. Dad always told me to take them, or very bad things would happen. I’ve been taking them as long as I can remember, part of my daily routine that I simply accepted, I never pushed for answers. Three a day, preferably with meals and I’m way past due. My gut feels hard, like I’ve sat around all afternoon drinking coke and eating marshmallows. Thing is, I’ve not eaten since breakfast, and it feels way past lunch. Way past the time for my pills.
I hear the door creak open, and then slam shut again.
“Ah, the Boss,” the goon says to me before walking across the room to greet him. He gets a friendly pat on the back for his trouble. I get the feeling that I’m not going to be treated so kindly. From across the room he stares at me, takes of his hat, and gives me a nod. As he walks towards me I notice a strange ‘clop’ sound. Looking down I spot a peg leg. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“So how ye doin’ there, young Tavis?” he asks, his head bent down to my level, all white teeth showing, with the exception of one gold molar.
“What am I doing here? How do you know my name?” I say.
“Don’t I get a ‘hello’, a ‘how are thee’?” he says, “I got a feeling we gonna be seeing a lot o’each other, now your Daddy in’t around to take care of you.”
“What do you know about my Dad?”
”I know he had a nasty wee accident. And I know that it could still get worse. A lot worse, I tells ye.”
He smiles again and pulls up a chair. With his hook hand.
“And you know, he in’t you real Daddy anyway.”
“He is!” I say, and as the anger waves over me I get a shock in my little toe.
“You see, Tavis me boy, we been following you for many a long year. Waiting for you to reach a certain, maturity, as they say.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I was there, Tavis. On that same Amazon river-cruise as ye folks, the real ones. The one they didn’t survive. Your Ma, now she were a pretty lass, she were pregnant, should probably never been there. But when we struck that rock, well, she went into labour.”
“No, it’s all lies!” I cried as twinges spread up my legs.
“You were born into the water as the boat went down. I cut the cord me-self. You slipped away though, out of my grip. But you were soon safe. With these guys.”
He turns to the goon, who flicks a switch. Dim light emits into the room. I crane my head, despite the pain in my neck, to see a large tank lit up. Within a number of eels curve around decorative pipes. As a flash lights the tank I see a spark in my fingers.
“Electric eels, Tavis,” says the Boss as his mouth curls into a smile that could only be described as maniacal.
“You lived with them for months. Under the water they fed you, and they taught you. Right up until you were rescued by that fool you call a father. You should have been mine. My own special boy.”
“No, it’s not true. You have to let me go. I need my pills. I hurt.”
“I’d like to do that. No, really, I would, but, let’s just say you’re important to my interests. And you’re important the way you are, or at least the way you will be.”
The goon, that filthy slobbering chap, jabs a needle into my arm. My head pulses, and I feel like it’s going to burst. Swear is dripping from every pore, only it feels thicker than sweat. “My pills,” I utter as a gasp at air.
“I told you, you’re not to take them no more. They were a, what do they call it? A suppressant. Stopping you from being all that you could be. Don’t you want to reach your potential? In’t that what they say in school these days?”
“I just want you to let me go!” I cry, my body arcing in pain as best it can when tied to a chair. I can feel every hair on my body standing on end, and I scream as an electric-blue bolt runs down my arm before fading out on my palm.
“That’s more like it, Tavis,” says the Boss, his eyes lighting up as he watches the horror I’m becoming.
I try to stay calm. As Dad always says, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then a tooth falls out. I spit it onto the floor with a whimper. Another soon follows it. My neck throbs, if my arms weren’t tied I’d dig my nails in and scratch it.
“You have to get me more pills,” I say as another tooth drops out of my mouth.
“And stop this? Ha, ha, ha! Don’t you know how much power an electric eel of your size would generate? One with such powerful human emotion?”
He gestures towards the goon again, and he opens a door. There are more of them inside, all dressed like pirates. Out they scurry, six in all, over to me, all ‘ooh’s and ‘arr’s along the way. They jab at my clothes with their cutlasses, swiftly removing my top and trousers leaving me in only my underpants. Two grab the chair from behind, and as much as I try to twist and turn I can do nothing to stop them dragging me away, out of the room, and into a lift which comes to a stop over to the tank.
The Boss looks up at me from the other side.
“You’re going in, me lad,” he says. “I don’t know how long ye got, as the tide’s coming in, and your kind don’t last too long in salt water. Didn’t you ever wonder why you’ve never been allowed to play in the sea?”
I didn’t. It was just another of those things I accepted. More bad things would happen. Just take the pills.
“See that up there,” he continuous as he points to an ingenious arrangement of pipes that opens above the tank, “soon enough it’ll start to pour in.”
A couple of the pirates drag an anchor over and attach it to the chair.
“No,” I cry, and I panic more than ever. The pain is almost unbearable. Electricity dances around my body. The lights above fade and flicker back on. They push me in, chair, anchor and all. The last thing I hear is a long, drawn out ‘arrr’.
And then the pain is gone. I sink to the bottom, and everything feels fine. The eels come to me, weave around me. I stop holding my breath, accept my fate. My neck bulges again and I feel it open as I breathe in water.
So that guy’s not just a nut. He knows about me, more so than I do, it would seem. It’s then that I see it, out of the other side of the tank. The biggest laser I’ve ever seen. The only laser I’ve ever seen, but that’s beside the point, it looks big enough to destroy entire countries. Continents even.
The Boss is looking into the tank at me. That wicked smile spreads across his face again and he bounces as if laughing. He points at me, then at the laser. He thinks I can power that goddamn thing? He thinks he can make me?
The pirates busy themselves checking the cabling from the laser. A thumb goes up as they confirm good connections all the way to the metal rods that hang into the tank with me. The Boss tugs on a lever and small fish fall into the tank. The eels quickly take notice and begin to charge, shocking them dead before feasting upon then. On a control panel near the laser, a needle flickers. The Boss rubs his hands together gleefully. But the needle barely moved. They need more than that, and I’m not going to give it to them.
He ushers to his pirate goons again. Two of them hold open the doors, and a hospital trolley is wheeled in by the others. Dad! I can feel the surge within my body. I can see the needle creeping forward again, but I’m powerless to stop it. But I must. Stop. Don’t let him win.
He’s got a knife. He opens Dad’s shirt by cutting each button loose, and lets the blade glide up his body, leaving a faint red mark before digging in beneath a nipple and letting a little red flow out. The needle begins to dance again, but once more I make it stop, remembering Dad’s words, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then I see the mallet and the surge inside me rises. One of the pirates smashes it down inches away from Dad’s ankle. I thrust my body forward, trying to escape the anchored-down chair, shaking all over, but all I’m doing is making the needle rise. Another goon wheels in a trolley full of sick instruments of torture. I can’t let this happen. Think! Even if I learn to control my emotions they’ve got me, as they’ve got Dad. Water’s trickling in from the pipes too, I can taste the salt, I swear.
So I relax. Put on a show. I’m in a tank, on display, so I play at the struggle. My eyes are always on the needle, maintaining a current to give me time. They’re just watching, mouthing ‘good’ and nodding their heads.
The other eels have finished their feast and are swimming around me again. The low charge I’m giving off with my faked rage appears to have summoned them. They swim close, against the ropes, easing them off me, wriggling me free. As the power in the laser rises The Boss turns to the panel to check the readouts. He thinks he has me under control. Then I strike. From out of the chair I shoot up and grab the edge of the tank. I pull myself up, and gasp at nothing. I can’t breathe. I cling on as the room blackens around me. I sense one of them is upon me. I blindly place my hands on a leg and pull the trousers out of the way to find skin before sending a maximum charge through him. His whole body shakes, but as I’m still in the water the power continues to charge into the laser. A hum emanates from it, so I flick my body up and out of the water, letting the crisped pirate goon fall in over me. Then air pours into my lungs and I can breathe again. With a shake of the head my vision returns.
“Too late,” says the Boss as he darts to the control panel, “we’ve already captured enough energy.” Pirates move for me as the Boss begins the firing procedure. I shock the first, but it’s too slow, I need time to charge again. I dive to the floor, my slick body slides between the legs of the pirates, and crashes against Dad’s hospital bed. From the torture trolley I grab something I couldn’t name, something sharp. They’re almost upon me again, so I slide towards the control panel.
The Boss’s finger hovers over the button. I thrust the weapon into a cable as his finger goes down. Electricity flows from the cable through my body as the hum of the laser dies down.
“Noooooo!” cries the Boss. Fully charged I approached him.
“No,” has says, again, “you can’t. You mustn’t. Look at the power I’ve given you. I’ve awoken you.”
“And I’m putting you to sleep,” I say as I place my hands around each wrist. His body glows, light shining through his eye sockets before I let go and watch him slump to the floor. I turn back. The pirates have dispersed, left the sinking ship, leaving only my Dad and me.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I approach him.
“Oh, my boy,” he says, his face broken by sorrow, “I’m sorry.”
“No Dad. It’s okay.” I say, wanting to put my arms around him but afraid of what it will do.
“I can get you more pills,” he says, “get you back to normal.”
“But this is me Dad. It’s what I am. I don’t want to hide it anymore.”
He weeps again, and so do I. As the tears roll down my face I feel calm, discharged. Slowly at first I put a hand on him.
“That alright?”
“You feel pretty good to me,” he says with a smile, and I wrap both arms around him.
“See, I don’t need those pills anymore, I can cope with this. What’s more we’ll save a fortune on our electricity bill from now on.”
“You even know why you take these, kid?” he asks, chewing gum noisily, his jaw rhythmically chomping up and down. All I can think about is those pills.
“I need them,” I say, “please.”
It doesn’t matter right now that I’m tied to a chair with a mindless thug for company; it’s the pills I can’t live without.
“Well the Boss says you don’t need them anymore.”
“Who?” I say. I don’t understand. I don’t know why I’m here. And I don’t know why I can’t have my pills.
I got into the taxi, on the way to see Dad in the hospital this morning, was it four hours ago? Five? Six? It’s hard to tell, with no natural light and my head swimming due to the noxious stench of rotting fish. I didn’t even realise we were going the wrong way, not until we were right out of town, heading for the sea. I asked what he was doing, but he just laughed, and carried on towards the old marina. He came to a stop outside the boarded-up aquarium and a couple of thugs dragged my from the car and flung a heavy rope around me.
“You know, he’s not even your Dad,” he says.
“What are you talking about? How do you even know me?”
“You were adopted. Very special boy you are. And you’re not to take these anymore.”
He tips the pills on the floor and crushes then under a heavy boot, grinning as he does so, stamping them to dust on the hard concrete floor.
I jerk back in my chair as a pain shoots across my shoulder blades. Damn, I need those pills. He’s right though, this goon, I don’t know what they’re for. Dad always told me to take them, or very bad things would happen. I’ve been taking them as long as I can remember, part of my daily routine that I simply accepted, I never pushed for answers. Three a day, preferably with meals and I’m way past due. My gut feels hard, like I’ve sat around all afternoon drinking coke and eating marshmallows. Thing is, I’ve not eaten since breakfast, and it feels way past lunch. Way past the time for my pills.
I hear the door creak open, and then slam shut again.
“Ah, the Boss,” the goon says to me before walking across the room to greet him. He gets a friendly pat on the back for his trouble. I get the feeling that I’m not going to be treated so kindly. From across the room he stares at me, takes of his hat, and gives me a nod. As he walks towards me I notice a strange ‘clop’ sound. Looking down I spot a peg leg. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“So how ye doin’ there, young Tavis?” he asks, his head bent down to my level, all white teeth showing, with the exception of one gold molar.
“What am I doing here? How do you know my name?” I say.
“Don’t I get a ‘hello’, a ‘how are thee’?” he says, “I got a feeling we gonna be seeing a lot o’each other, now your Daddy in’t around to take care of you.”
“What do you know about my Dad?”
”I know he had a nasty wee accident. And I know that it could still get worse. A lot worse, I tells ye.”
He smiles again and pulls up a chair. With his hook hand.
“And you know, he in’t you real Daddy anyway.”
“He is!” I say, and as the anger waves over me I get a shock in my little toe.
“You see, Tavis me boy, we been following you for many a long year. Waiting for you to reach a certain, maturity, as they say.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I was there, Tavis. On that same Amazon river-cruise as ye folks, the real ones. The one they didn’t survive. Your Ma, now she were a pretty lass, she were pregnant, should probably never been there. But when we struck that rock, well, she went into labour.”
“No, it’s all lies!” I cried as twinges spread up my legs.
“You were born into the water as the boat went down. I cut the cord me-self. You slipped away though, out of my grip. But you were soon safe. With these guys.”
He turns to the goon, who flicks a switch. Dim light emits into the room. I crane my head, despite the pain in my neck, to see a large tank lit up. Within a number of eels curve around decorative pipes. As a flash lights the tank I see a spark in my fingers.
“Electric eels, Tavis,” says the Boss as his mouth curls into a smile that could only be described as maniacal.
“You lived with them for months. Under the water they fed you, and they taught you. Right up until you were rescued by that fool you call a father. You should have been mine. My own special boy.”
“No, it’s not true. You have to let me go. I need my pills. I hurt.”
“I’d like to do that. No, really, I would, but, let’s just say you’re important to my interests. And you’re important the way you are, or at least the way you will be.”
The goon, that filthy slobbering chap, jabs a needle into my arm. My head pulses, and I feel like it’s going to burst. Swear is dripping from every pore, only it feels thicker than sweat. “My pills,” I utter as a gasp at air.
“I told you, you’re not to take them no more. They were a, what do they call it? A suppressant. Stopping you from being all that you could be. Don’t you want to reach your potential? In’t that what they say in school these days?”
“I just want you to let me go!” I cry, my body arcing in pain as best it can when tied to a chair. I can feel every hair on my body standing on end, and I scream as an electric-blue bolt runs down my arm before fading out on my palm.
“That’s more like it, Tavis,” says the Boss, his eyes lighting up as he watches the horror I’m becoming.
I try to stay calm. As Dad always says, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then a tooth falls out. I spit it onto the floor with a whimper. Another soon follows it. My neck throbs, if my arms weren’t tied I’d dig my nails in and scratch it.
“You have to get me more pills,” I say as another tooth drops out of my mouth.
“And stop this? Ha, ha, ha! Don’t you know how much power an electric eel of your size would generate? One with such powerful human emotion?”
He gestures towards the goon again, and he opens a door. There are more of them inside, all dressed like pirates. Out they scurry, six in all, over to me, all ‘ooh’s and ‘arr’s along the way. They jab at my clothes with their cutlasses, swiftly removing my top and trousers leaving me in only my underpants. Two grab the chair from behind, and as much as I try to twist and turn I can do nothing to stop them dragging me away, out of the room, and into a lift which comes to a stop over to the tank.
The Boss looks up at me from the other side.
“You’re going in, me lad,” he says. “I don’t know how long ye got, as the tide’s coming in, and your kind don’t last too long in salt water. Didn’t you ever wonder why you’ve never been allowed to play in the sea?”
I didn’t. It was just another of those things I accepted. More bad things would happen. Just take the pills.
“See that up there,” he continuous as he points to an ingenious arrangement of pipes that opens above the tank, “soon enough it’ll start to pour in.”
A couple of the pirates drag an anchor over and attach it to the chair.
“No,” I cry, and I panic more than ever. The pain is almost unbearable. Electricity dances around my body. The lights above fade and flicker back on. They push me in, chair, anchor and all. The last thing I hear is a long, drawn out ‘arrr’.
And then the pain is gone. I sink to the bottom, and everything feels fine. The eels come to me, weave around me. I stop holding my breath, accept my fate. My neck bulges again and I feel it open as I breathe in water.
So that guy’s not just a nut. He knows about me, more so than I do, it would seem. It’s then that I see it, out of the other side of the tank. The biggest laser I’ve ever seen. The only laser I’ve ever seen, but that’s beside the point, it looks big enough to destroy entire countries. Continents even.
The Boss is looking into the tank at me. That wicked smile spreads across his face again and he bounces as if laughing. He points at me, then at the laser. He thinks I can power that goddamn thing? He thinks he can make me?
The pirates busy themselves checking the cabling from the laser. A thumb goes up as they confirm good connections all the way to the metal rods that hang into the tank with me. The Boss tugs on a lever and small fish fall into the tank. The eels quickly take notice and begin to charge, shocking them dead before feasting upon then. On a control panel near the laser, a needle flickers. The Boss rubs his hands together gleefully. But the needle barely moved. They need more than that, and I’m not going to give it to them.
He ushers to his pirate goons again. Two of them hold open the doors, and a hospital trolley is wheeled in by the others. Dad! I can feel the surge within my body. I can see the needle creeping forward again, but I’m powerless to stop it. But I must. Stop. Don’t let him win.
He’s got a knife. He opens Dad’s shirt by cutting each button loose, and lets the blade glide up his body, leaving a faint red mark before digging in beneath a nipple and letting a little red flow out. The needle begins to dance again, but once more I make it stop, remembering Dad’s words, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then I see the mallet and the surge inside me rises. One of the pirates smashes it down inches away from Dad’s ankle. I thrust my body forward, trying to escape the anchored-down chair, shaking all over, but all I’m doing is making the needle rise. Another goon wheels in a trolley full of sick instruments of torture. I can’t let this happen. Think! Even if I learn to control my emotions they’ve got me, as they’ve got Dad. Water’s trickling in from the pipes too, I can taste the salt, I swear.
So I relax. Put on a show. I’m in a tank, on display, so I play at the struggle. My eyes are always on the needle, maintaining a current to give me time. They’re just watching, mouthing ‘good’ and nodding their heads.
The other eels have finished their feast and are swimming around me again. The low charge I’m giving off with my faked rage appears to have summoned them. They swim close, against the ropes, easing them off me, wriggling me free. As the power in the laser rises The Boss turns to the panel to check the readouts. He thinks he has me under control. Then I strike. From out of the chair I shoot up and grab the edge of the tank. I pull myself up, and gasp at nothing. I can’t breathe. I cling on as the room blackens around me. I sense one of them is upon me. I blindly place my hands on a leg and pull the trousers out of the way to find skin before sending a maximum charge through him. His whole body shakes, but as I’m still in the water the power continues to charge into the laser. A hum emanates from it, so I flick my body up and out of the water, letting the crisped pirate goon fall in over me. Then air pours into my lungs and I can breathe again. With a shake of the head my vision returns.
“Too late,” says the Boss as he darts to the control panel, “we’ve already captured enough energy.” Pirates move for me as the Boss begins the firing procedure. I shock the first, but it’s too slow, I need time to charge again. I dive to the floor, my slick body slides between the legs of the pirates, and crashes against Dad’s hospital bed. From the torture trolley I grab something I couldn’t name, something sharp. They’re almost upon me again, so I slide towards the control panel.
The Boss’s finger hovers over the button. I thrust the weapon into a cable as his finger goes down. Electricity flows from the cable through my body as the hum of the laser dies down.
“Noooooo!” cries the Boss. Fully charged I approached him.
“No,” has says, again, “you can’t. You mustn’t. Look at the power I’ve given you. I’ve awoken you.”
“And I’m putting you to sleep,” I say as I place my hands around each wrist. His body glows, light shining through his eye sockets before I let go and watch him slump to the floor. I turn back. The pirates have dispersed, left the sinking ship, leaving only my Dad and me.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I approach him.
“Oh, my boy,” he says, his face broken by sorrow, “I’m sorry.”
“No Dad. It’s okay.” I say, wanting to put my arms around him but afraid of what it will do.
“I can get you more pills,” he says, “get you back to normal.”
“But this is me Dad. It’s what I am. I don’t want to hide it anymore.”
He weeps again, and so do I. As the tears roll down my face I feel calm, discharged. Slowly at first I put a hand on him.
“That alright?”
“You feel pretty good to me,” he says with a smile, and I wrap both arms around him.
“See, I don’t need those pills anymore, I can cope with this. What’s more we’ll save a fortune on our electricity bill from now on.”
A deserved win indeed ... top-class, darkness mixed with humour.
Aye.
Aye.
That's a very good story!
If I could only but possess a tenth of your imagination....
Great tale and I do like a happy ending :)
Great tale and I do like a happy ending :)
Absolutely loved it. I wanted pirates when I set this topic :) Reminds me of a comic book, which is great. Made me laugh.
I think I'm correct in saying there's a dose of wry humour in this. I like the cartoonish quality - the henchmen dressed as pirates, the James-Bond-baddylike boss with his doom laser, the odd pun here and there. An outlandish and enjoyable entertainment.
Phew. Nice idea, but..i dont know. Theres something missing. Maybe a bit more description? Gawd, i hate commenting on your work.
He holds the bottle of pills in front of me, almost mocking me with how close it is.
“You even know why you take these, kid?” he asks, chewing gum noisily, his jaw rhythmically chomping up and down. All I can think about is those pills.
“I need them,” I say, “please.”
It doesn’t matter right now that I’m tied to a chair with a mindless thug for company; it’s the pills I can’t live without.
“Well the Boss says you don’t need them anymore.”
“Who?” I say. I don’t understand. I don’t know why I’m here. And I don’t know why I can’t have my pills.
I got into the taxi, on the way to see Dad in the hospital this morning, was it four hours ago? Five? Six? It’s hard to tell, with no natural light and my head swimming due to the noxious stench of rotting fish. I didn’t even realise we were going the wrong way, not until we were right out of town, heading for the sea. I asked what he was doing, but he just laughed, and carried on towards the old marina. He came to a stop outside the boarded-up aquarium and a couple of thugs dragged my from the car and flung a heavy rope around me.
“You know, he’s not even your Dad,” he says.
“What are you talking about? How do you even know me?”
“You were adopted. Very special boy you are. And you’re not to take these anymore.”
He tips the pills on the floor and crushes then under a heavy boot, grinning as he does so, stamping them to dust on the hard concrete floor.
I jerk back in my chair as a pain shoots across my shoulder blades. Damn, I need those pills. He’s right though, this goon, I don’t know what they’re for. Dad always told me to take them, or very bad things would happen. I’ve been taking them as long as I can remember, part of my daily routine that I simply accepted, I never pushed for answers. Three a day, preferably with meals and I’m way past due. My gut feels hard, like I’ve sat around all afternoon drinking coke and eating marshmallows. Thing is, I’ve not eaten since breakfast, and it feels way past lunch. Way past the time for my pills.
I hear the door creak open, and then slam shut again.
“Ah, the Boss,” the goon says to me before walking across the room to greet him. He gets a friendly pat on the back for his trouble. I get the feeling that I’m not going to be treated so kindly. From across the room he stares at me, takes of his hat, and gives me a nod. As he walks towards me I notice a strange ‘clop’ sound. Looking down I spot a peg leg. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“So how ye doin’ there, young Tavis?” he asks, his head bent down to my level, all white teeth showing, with the exception of one gold molar.
“What am I doing here? How do you know my name?” I say.
“Don’t I get a ‘hello’, a ‘how are thee’?” he says, “I got a feeling we gonna be seeing a lot o’each other, now your Daddy in’t around to take care of you.”
“What do you know about my Dad?”
”I know he had a nasty wee accident. And I know that it could still get worse. A lot worse, I tells ye.”
He smiles again and pulls up a chair. With his hook hand.
“And you know, he in’t you real Daddy anyway.”
“He is!” I say, and as the anger waves over me I get a shock in my little toe.
“You see, Tavis me boy, we been following you for many a long year. Waiting for you to reach a certain, maturity, as they say.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I was there, Tavis. On that same Amazon river-cruise as ye folks, the real ones. The one they didn’t survive. Your Ma, now she were a pretty lass, she were pregnant, should probably never been there. But when we struck that rock, well, she went into labour.”
“No, it’s all lies!” I cried as twinges spread up my legs.
“You were born into the water as the boat went down. I cut the cord me-self. You slipped away though, out of my grip. But you were soon safe. With these guys.”
He turns to the goon, who flicks a switch. Dim light emits into the room. I crane my head, despite the pain in my neck, to see a large tank lit up. Within a number of eels curve around decorative pipes. As a flash lights the tank I see a spark in my fingers.
“Electric eels, Tavis,” says the Boss as his mouth curls into a smile that could only be described as maniacal.
“You lived with them for months. Under the water they fed you, and they taught you. Right up until you were rescued by that fool you call a father. You should have been mine. My own special boy.”
“No, it’s not true. You have to let me go. I need my pills. I hurt.”
“I’d like to do that. No, really, I would, but, let’s just say you’re important to my interests. And you’re important the way you are, or at least the way you will be.”
The goon, that filthy slobbering chap, jabs a needle into my arm. My head pulses, and I feel like it’s going to burst. Swear is dripping from every pore, only it feels thicker than sweat. “My pills,” I utter as a gasp at air.
“I told you, you’re not to take them no more. They were a, what do they call it? A suppressant. Stopping you from being all that you could be. Don’t you want to reach your potential? In’t that what they say in school these days?”
“I just want you to let me go!” I cry, my body arcing in pain as best it can when tied to a chair. I can feel every hair on my body standing on end, and I scream as an electric-blue bolt runs down my arm before fading out on my palm.
“That’s more like it, Tavis,” says the Boss, his eyes lighting up as he watches the horror I’m becoming.
I try to stay calm. As Dad always says, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then a tooth falls out. I spit it onto the floor with a whimper. Another soon follows it. My neck throbs, if my arms weren’t tied I’d dig my nails in and scratch it.
“You have to get me more pills,” I say as another tooth drops out of my mouth.
“And stop this? Ha, ha, ha! Don’t you know how much power an electric eel of your size would generate? One with such powerful human emotion?”
He gestures towards the goon again, and he opens a door. There are more of them inside, all dressed like pirates. Out they scurry, six in all, over to me, all ‘ooh’s and ‘arr’s along the way. They jab at my clothes with their cutlasses, swiftly removing my top and trousers leaving me in only my underpants. Two grab the chair from behind, and as much as I try to twist and turn I can do nothing to stop them dragging me away, out of the room, and into a lift which comes to a stop over to the tank.
The Boss looks up at me from the other side.
“You’re going in, me lad,” he says. “I don’t know how long ye got, as the tide’s coming in, and your kind don’t last too long in salt water. Didn’t you ever wonder why you’ve never been allowed to play in the sea?”
I didn’t. It was just another of those things I accepted. More bad things would happen. Just take the pills.
“See that up there,” he continuous as he points to an ingenious arrangement of pipes that opens above the tank, “soon enough it’ll start to pour in.”
A couple of the pirates drag an anchor over and attach it to the chair.
“No,” I cry, and I panic more than ever. The pain is almost unbearable. Electricity dances around my body. The lights above fade and flicker back on. They push me in, chair, anchor and all. The last thing I hear is a long, drawn out ‘arrr’.
And then the pain is gone. I sink to the bottom, and everything feels fine. The eels come to me, weave around me. I stop holding my breath, accept my fate. My neck bulges again and I feel it open as I breathe in water.
So that guy’s not just a nut. He knows about me, more so than I do, it would seem. It’s then that I see it, out of the other side of the tank. The biggest laser I’ve ever seen. The only laser I’ve ever seen, but that’s beside the point, it looks big enough to destroy entire countries. Continents even.
The Boss is looking into the tank at me. That wicked smile spreads across his face again and he bounces as if laughing. He points at me, then at the laser. He thinks I can power that goddamn thing? He thinks he can make me?
The pirates busy themselves checking the cabling from the laser. A thumb goes up as they confirm good connections all the way to the metal rods that hang into the tank with me. The Boss tugs on a lever and small fish fall into the tank. The eels quickly take notice and begin to charge, shocking them dead before feasting upon then. On a control panel near the laser, a needle flickers. The Boss rubs his hands together gleefully. But the needle barely moved. They need more than that, and I’m not going to give it to them.
He ushers to his pirate goons again. Two of them hold open the doors, and a hospital trolley is wheeled in by the others. Dad! I can feel the surge within my body. I can see the needle creeping forward again, but I’m powerless to stop it. But I must. Stop. Don’t let him win.
He’s got a knife. He opens Dad’s shirt by cutting each button loose, and lets the blade glide up his body, leaving a faint red mark before digging in beneath a nipple and letting a little red flow out. The needle begins to dance again, but once more I make it stop, remembering Dad’s words, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then I see the mallet and the surge inside me rises. One of the pirates smashes it down inches away from Dad’s ankle. I thrust my body forward, trying to escape the anchored-down chair, shaking all over, but all I’m doing is making the needle rise. Another goon wheels in a trolley full of sick instruments of torture. I can’t let this happen. Think! Even if I learn to control my emotions they’ve got me, as they’ve got Dad. Water’s trickling in from the pipes too, I can taste the salt, I swear.
So I relax. Put on a show. I’m in a tank, on display, so I play at the struggle. My eyes are always on the needle, maintaining a current to give me time. They’re just watching, mouthing ‘good’ and nodding their heads.
The other eels have finished their feast and are swimming around me again. The low charge I’m giving off with my faked rage appears to have summoned them. They swim close, against the ropes, easing them off me, wriggling me free. As the power in the laser rises The Boss turns to the panel to check the readouts. He thinks he has me under control. Then I strike. From out of the chair I shoot up and grab the edge of the tank. I pull myself up, and gasp at nothing. I can’t breathe. I cling on as the room blackens around me. I sense one of them is upon me. I blindly place my hands on a leg and pull the trousers out of the way to find skin before sending a maximum charge through him. His whole body shakes, but as I’m still in the water the power continues to charge into the laser. A hum emanates from it, so I flick my body up and out of the water, letting the crisped pirate goon fall in over me. Then air pours into my lungs and I can breathe again. With a shake of the head my vision returns.
“Too late,” says the Boss as he darts to the control panel, “we’ve already captured enough energy.” Pirates move for me as the Boss begins the firing procedure. I shock the first, but it’s too slow, I need time to charge again. I dive to the floor, my slick body slides between the legs of the pirates, and crashes against Dad’s hospital bed. From the torture trolley I grab something I couldn’t name, something sharp. They’re almost upon me again, so I slide towards the control panel.
The Boss’s finger hovers over the button. I thrust the weapon into a cable as his finger goes down. Electricity flows from the cable through my body as the hum of the laser dies down.
“Noooooo!” cries the Boss. Fully charged I approached him.
“No,” has says, again, “you can’t. You mustn’t. Look at the power I’ve given you. I’ve awoken you.”
“And I’m putting you to sleep,” I say as I place my hands around each wrist. His body glows, light shining through his eye sockets before I let go and watch him slump to the floor. I turn back. The pirates have dispersed, left the sinking ship, leaving only my Dad and me.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I approach him.
“Oh, my boy,” he says, his face broken by sorrow, “I’m sorry.”
“No Dad. It’s okay.” I say, wanting to put my arms around him but afraid of what it will do.
“I can get you more pills,” he says, “get you back to normal.”
“But this is me Dad. It’s what I am. I don’t want to hide it anymore.”
He weeps again, and so do I. As the tears roll down my face I feel calm, discharged. Slowly at first I put a hand on him.
“That alright?”
“You feel pretty good to me,” he says with a smile, and I wrap both arms around him.
“See, I don’t need those pills anymore, I can cope with this. What’s more we’ll save a fortune on our electricity bill from now on.”
“You even know why you take these, kid?” he asks, chewing gum noisily, his jaw rhythmically chomping up and down. All I can think about is those pills.
“I need them,” I say, “please.”
It doesn’t matter right now that I’m tied to a chair with a mindless thug for company; it’s the pills I can’t live without.
“Well the Boss says you don’t need them anymore.”
“Who?” I say. I don’t understand. I don’t know why I’m here. And I don’t know why I can’t have my pills.
I got into the taxi, on the way to see Dad in the hospital this morning, was it four hours ago? Five? Six? It’s hard to tell, with no natural light and my head swimming due to the noxious stench of rotting fish. I didn’t even realise we were going the wrong way, not until we were right out of town, heading for the sea. I asked what he was doing, but he just laughed, and carried on towards the old marina. He came to a stop outside the boarded-up aquarium and a couple of thugs dragged my from the car and flung a heavy rope around me.
“You know, he’s not even your Dad,” he says.
“What are you talking about? How do you even know me?”
“You were adopted. Very special boy you are. And you’re not to take these anymore.”
He tips the pills on the floor and crushes then under a heavy boot, grinning as he does so, stamping them to dust on the hard concrete floor.
I jerk back in my chair as a pain shoots across my shoulder blades. Damn, I need those pills. He’s right though, this goon, I don’t know what they’re for. Dad always told me to take them, or very bad things would happen. I’ve been taking them as long as I can remember, part of my daily routine that I simply accepted, I never pushed for answers. Three a day, preferably with meals and I’m way past due. My gut feels hard, like I’ve sat around all afternoon drinking coke and eating marshmallows. Thing is, I’ve not eaten since breakfast, and it feels way past lunch. Way past the time for my pills.
I hear the door creak open, and then slam shut again.
“Ah, the Boss,” the goon says to me before walking across the room to greet him. He gets a friendly pat on the back for his trouble. I get the feeling that I’m not going to be treated so kindly. From across the room he stares at me, takes of his hat, and gives me a nod. As he walks towards me I notice a strange ‘clop’ sound. Looking down I spot a peg leg. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“So how ye doin’ there, young Tavis?” he asks, his head bent down to my level, all white teeth showing, with the exception of one gold molar.
“What am I doing here? How do you know my name?” I say.
“Don’t I get a ‘hello’, a ‘how are thee’?” he says, “I got a feeling we gonna be seeing a lot o’each other, now your Daddy in’t around to take care of you.”
“What do you know about my Dad?”
”I know he had a nasty wee accident. And I know that it could still get worse. A lot worse, I tells ye.”
He smiles again and pulls up a chair. With his hook hand.
“And you know, he in’t you real Daddy anyway.”
“He is!” I say, and as the anger waves over me I get a shock in my little toe.
“You see, Tavis me boy, we been following you for many a long year. Waiting for you to reach a certain, maturity, as they say.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I was there, Tavis. On that same Amazon river-cruise as ye folks, the real ones. The one they didn’t survive. Your Ma, now she were a pretty lass, she were pregnant, should probably never been there. But when we struck that rock, well, she went into labour.”
“No, it’s all lies!” I cried as twinges spread up my legs.
“You were born into the water as the boat went down. I cut the cord me-self. You slipped away though, out of my grip. But you were soon safe. With these guys.”
He turns to the goon, who flicks a switch. Dim light emits into the room. I crane my head, despite the pain in my neck, to see a large tank lit up. Within a number of eels curve around decorative pipes. As a flash lights the tank I see a spark in my fingers.
“Electric eels, Tavis,” says the Boss as his mouth curls into a smile that could only be described as maniacal.
“You lived with them for months. Under the water they fed you, and they taught you. Right up until you were rescued by that fool you call a father. You should have been mine. My own special boy.”
“No, it’s not true. You have to let me go. I need my pills. I hurt.”
“I’d like to do that. No, really, I would, but, let’s just say you’re important to my interests. And you’re important the way you are, or at least the way you will be.”
The goon, that filthy slobbering chap, jabs a needle into my arm. My head pulses, and I feel like it’s going to burst. Swear is dripping from every pore, only it feels thicker than sweat. “My pills,” I utter as a gasp at air.
“I told you, you’re not to take them no more. They were a, what do they call it? A suppressant. Stopping you from being all that you could be. Don’t you want to reach your potential? In’t that what they say in school these days?”
“I just want you to let me go!” I cry, my body arcing in pain as best it can when tied to a chair. I can feel every hair on my body standing on end, and I scream as an electric-blue bolt runs down my arm before fading out on my palm.
“That’s more like it, Tavis,” says the Boss, his eyes lighting up as he watches the horror I’m becoming.
I try to stay calm. As Dad always says, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then a tooth falls out. I spit it onto the floor with a whimper. Another soon follows it. My neck throbs, if my arms weren’t tied I’d dig my nails in and scratch it.
“You have to get me more pills,” I say as another tooth drops out of my mouth.
“And stop this? Ha, ha, ha! Don’t you know how much power an electric eel of your size would generate? One with such powerful human emotion?”
He gestures towards the goon again, and he opens a door. There are more of them inside, all dressed like pirates. Out they scurry, six in all, over to me, all ‘ooh’s and ‘arr’s along the way. They jab at my clothes with their cutlasses, swiftly removing my top and trousers leaving me in only my underpants. Two grab the chair from behind, and as much as I try to twist and turn I can do nothing to stop them dragging me away, out of the room, and into a lift which comes to a stop over to the tank.
The Boss looks up at me from the other side.
“You’re going in, me lad,” he says. “I don’t know how long ye got, as the tide’s coming in, and your kind don’t last too long in salt water. Didn’t you ever wonder why you’ve never been allowed to play in the sea?”
I didn’t. It was just another of those things I accepted. More bad things would happen. Just take the pills.
“See that up there,” he continuous as he points to an ingenious arrangement of pipes that opens above the tank, “soon enough it’ll start to pour in.”
A couple of the pirates drag an anchor over and attach it to the chair.
“No,” I cry, and I panic more than ever. The pain is almost unbearable. Electricity dances around my body. The lights above fade and flicker back on. They push me in, chair, anchor and all. The last thing I hear is a long, drawn out ‘arrr’.
And then the pain is gone. I sink to the bottom, and everything feels fine. The eels come to me, weave around me. I stop holding my breath, accept my fate. My neck bulges again and I feel it open as I breathe in water.
So that guy’s not just a nut. He knows about me, more so than I do, it would seem. It’s then that I see it, out of the other side of the tank. The biggest laser I’ve ever seen. The only laser I’ve ever seen, but that’s beside the point, it looks big enough to destroy entire countries. Continents even.
The Boss is looking into the tank at me. That wicked smile spreads across his face again and he bounces as if laughing. He points at me, then at the laser. He thinks I can power that goddamn thing? He thinks he can make me?
The pirates busy themselves checking the cabling from the laser. A thumb goes up as they confirm good connections all the way to the metal rods that hang into the tank with me. The Boss tugs on a lever and small fish fall into the tank. The eels quickly take notice and begin to charge, shocking them dead before feasting upon then. On a control panel near the laser, a needle flickers. The Boss rubs his hands together gleefully. But the needle barely moved. They need more than that, and I’m not going to give it to them.
He ushers to his pirate goons again. Two of them hold open the doors, and a hospital trolley is wheeled in by the others. Dad! I can feel the surge within my body. I can see the needle creeping forward again, but I’m powerless to stop it. But I must. Stop. Don’t let him win.
He’s got a knife. He opens Dad’s shirt by cutting each button loose, and lets the blade glide up his body, leaving a faint red mark before digging in beneath a nipple and letting a little red flow out. The needle begins to dance again, but once more I make it stop, remembering Dad’s words, ‘breathe slowly, think carefully before acting’. Then I see the mallet and the surge inside me rises. One of the pirates smashes it down inches away from Dad’s ankle. I thrust my body forward, trying to escape the anchored-down chair, shaking all over, but all I’m doing is making the needle rise. Another goon wheels in a trolley full of sick instruments of torture. I can’t let this happen. Think! Even if I learn to control my emotions they’ve got me, as they’ve got Dad. Water’s trickling in from the pipes too, I can taste the salt, I swear.
So I relax. Put on a show. I’m in a tank, on display, so I play at the struggle. My eyes are always on the needle, maintaining a current to give me time. They’re just watching, mouthing ‘good’ and nodding their heads.
The other eels have finished their feast and are swimming around me again. The low charge I’m giving off with my faked rage appears to have summoned them. They swim close, against the ropes, easing them off me, wriggling me free. As the power in the laser rises The Boss turns to the panel to check the readouts. He thinks he has me under control. Then I strike. From out of the chair I shoot up and grab the edge of the tank. I pull myself up, and gasp at nothing. I can’t breathe. I cling on as the room blackens around me. I sense one of them is upon me. I blindly place my hands on a leg and pull the trousers out of the way to find skin before sending a maximum charge through him. His whole body shakes, but as I’m still in the water the power continues to charge into the laser. A hum emanates from it, so I flick my body up and out of the water, letting the crisped pirate goon fall in over me. Then air pours into my lungs and I can breathe again. With a shake of the head my vision returns.
“Too late,” says the Boss as he darts to the control panel, “we’ve already captured enough energy.” Pirates move for me as the Boss begins the firing procedure. I shock the first, but it’s too slow, I need time to charge again. I dive to the floor, my slick body slides between the legs of the pirates, and crashes against Dad’s hospital bed. From the torture trolley I grab something I couldn’t name, something sharp. They’re almost upon me again, so I slide towards the control panel.
The Boss’s finger hovers over the button. I thrust the weapon into a cable as his finger goes down. Electricity flows from the cable through my body as the hum of the laser dies down.
“Noooooo!” cries the Boss. Fully charged I approached him.
“No,” has says, again, “you can’t. You mustn’t. Look at the power I’ve given you. I’ve awoken you.”
“And I’m putting you to sleep,” I say as I place my hands around each wrist. His body glows, light shining through his eye sockets before I let go and watch him slump to the floor. I turn back. The pirates have dispersed, left the sinking ship, leaving only my Dad and me.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I approach him.
“Oh, my boy,” he says, his face broken by sorrow, “I’m sorry.”
“No Dad. It’s okay.” I say, wanting to put my arms around him but afraid of what it will do.
“I can get you more pills,” he says, “get you back to normal.”
“But this is me Dad. It’s what I am. I don’t want to hide it anymore.”
He weeps again, and so do I. As the tears roll down my face I feel calm, discharged. Slowly at first I put a hand on him.
“That alright?”
“You feel pretty good to me,” he says with a smile, and I wrap both arms around him.
“See, I don’t need those pills anymore, I can cope with this. What’s more we’ll save a fortune on our electricity bill from now on.”