Flower’s Final Night
(Random 2-word prompt- free, cellar)
Flower scraped his spoon against
the grouting between the damp stones, an attempt to wear down the cement and
loosen an exit. Grinding and grating
echoed in the cell, metal against grit, and his effort sung an accompaniment in
his wheezing breaths. Rust and dust on
his lungs, he coughed, then continued with his never-ending task.
“It won’t work, you know,” muttered
the old man who was chained to the opposite wall. “Plenty have tried, none have succeeded.” He smacked his dry lips together. “Seen ‘em all come and go.”
Flower ignored him. The digging was the only thing keeping him
warm in this cold dungeon. And
sane. He needed hope. He was going to be beheaded tomorrow.
“You just gotta accept your fate,”
continued the man. His emaciated grimy body
had its dignity concealed only by a scraggly grey beard that stretched from his
chin to his knees. Moonlight, from the grate
on the ceiling, cast shadowy lines on his already lined and aged face. “Pray to whatever gods you believe in while
you can.”
Flower paused. “What if I don’t believe in any?”
“Well, you’re fucked then, ain’t
cha?”
Flower rolled his eyes, then
returned to his task. He traced a line
with the tip of the spoon along the underside of the stone he’d been working
on. He’d barely got anywhere since he’d
started several hours ago, and the scraping and scratching was becoming
irritating. He knew he was annoying his
cellmate; he was annoying himself. He
had blisters forming on his fingers. His
knuckles were chapped and cracked.
Bleeding. So were his lips. The constant dust dried the air, sucked the
moisture from his skin despite the dampness in the cell, and it hurt. But he carried on.
“Please stop.” The old prisoner groaned. “You’re giving me a headache.”
“I can’t,” said Flower. “Felix needs me.”
“Felix? Felix?! Is that your lover?”
“No.” Flower sighed. “He’s my cat.”
The old man cackled; it was loud
and witchy, gurgly and high pitched. It
echoed against the walls of the small chamber, bounced from stone to stone. It vibrated in Flower’s ears. And when the discordance died down, he was
disappointed to discover that it hadn’t shaken any of the stones loose and
freed them both. Or even just him.
“He’s only a kitten,” said
Flower, still scraping away at the wall.
“I’ve got a life to go back to.
It’s messy, but it’s mine.” He
stopped and turned around. The old
prisoner was staring at him, wide-eyed and incredulous, wrinkles furrowed in
deep trenches on his forehead and rippling along his bald dome. “Why are you here? What did you do?”
“What did you do?”
“Murdered the King
apparently.” Flower shrugged. “I didn’t, but the Queen...”
“Bah, who cares about that
rancid old cow!” The old man cackled his
disturbing cackle once more. “She stole
that throne!” His voice dropped to a
whisper. “There was a good King in
charge about fifty years ago, a patient and just King. And not that dead one you killed; a living
King who looked after everyone and put the country first. But she… she!
She!! She usurped the throne from
him.”
“Her brother? He was King first, right?”
The shackled prisoner
shrugged. As much as it was possible to
shrug with his arms chained up.
Flower studied the man’s
features; there was something familiar about his face. “I heard he was just as bad as her,” he said,
keeping his eyes on the man. “Worse, in
fact.”
“No! No!
No!” The old man barked and
screamed, face reddening, beard frazzling in anger, his eyes were fiery
pinpoints of rage at Flower’s insult.
“No! That’s not true! Liar!
No, no, no!” Spittle whipped from
his lips in frothy ropes, dripped down his chin, stuck to his whiskers. “No!!!
No!” The man struggled against
his chains, rattled his manacles.
“Lies! All lies!” He tried to get up, tried to break free, tried
to reach for Flower, but the strength of the metal rings holding him and the
weakness of the man’s withered frame guarded Flower from harm. “No, you filthy liar! Liar!
It’s not true! No!” The old prisoner’s strength waned, and his
voice waned with it. “No. No!
No, no no…” Shouts become
whispers. Bellows become murmurs. “No.
Liar… liar…” And the man’s head
dropped to his chest. His body hung
limp.
Flower tried not to make his
sigh of relief too obvious or too loud but sighed he did. He’d worried for a moment that his cellmate was
going to break free of his chains and strangle him dead, which may or may not
be a better way to go than his beheading tomorrow. But at least he now knew why the old man was
here, and who he really was.
He leant back against the wall
and looked up through the grating. The sky
was clear, and stars, tucked within the dark firmament, winked at him
conspiratorially. The moon sat in the
centre, full and luminous. Flower
studied its features, the craters and cracks across its surface, and wished he
was there instead of here; there was no way he was going to escape by digging
at the stones. It was futile. The moon was beautiful and free, roaming the
heavens amongst its kin; Flower watched as a shooting star scratched across its
pocked face… which was odd.
A black shadow appeared at the
edge of the opening above. A black and
white shape.
“Felix!”
“Not him again,” mumbled the old
man. “You talk about your boring old cat
too much.”
“No,” said Flower. He reached out his hand and twiddled his
fingers at the cat. “Look, he’s come to
see me. Aww! What a good boy!”
His cellmate grumbled something
under his breath, but Flower ignored it.
Felix meowed; it was a sad meow,
as if the kitten was unhappy with being abandoned.
“I’m sorry, lovely,” crooned
Flower; he wiped his eye with the back of his dusty hand. “Daddy’s not coming home to take care of
you.” His voice cracked against his
will. “Felix…”
“Argh, shut up.” The other prisoner’s chains rattled. “Bloody cry-baby.”
“Shut up yourself, you insipid
bitter turd!”
Felix meowed; it almost sounded
like the cat was laughing in response to Flower’s retort.
Suddenly the sky lit up. A dazzling white light consumed everything,
evaporated every shadow, obliterated the gloom.
Flower covered his eyes. Buzzing
filled his ears, and the luminance penetrated every fibre of his being. He could see it through his hands, through
his eyelids. It burned into his brain. He could hear the old man screaming through
the hum.
And everything went dark. The light disappeared as quickly as it came,
but the old man’s horrified screams continued.
“Quiet!” Flower blinked through the afterimages flashing
in his sight, and as his vision cleared, he realised it wasn’t just the light
that had disappeared.
So had the ceiling; the naked night
sky glared down at them. The wall had disappeared
too, the same wall he’d been digging into, blistering his fingers against, for
hours. It was gone. Vanished.
Freedom.
The old man must’ve realised the
same thing because his cries turned to laughter, then giggles, and silence. He was still chained to the opposite wall.
Flower felt something press up
against his leg. “Felix.” He picked up the purring fluffball and held
him to his chest. “Felix, my baby.” He kissed the top of his head. “You’re safe.” The kitten’s vibrations were soothing,
comforting. Warm. “Daddy’s here, Felix, Daddy’s here.”
He looked to the missing
structure. It hadn’t collapsed; there was
no debris on the floor, no loose stones, or dust. The edges were straight cuts, as if a hole
had been created with no thought to the material. Flower hadn’t seen anything like it.
A figure stepped into the cell.
“What…?” Flower’s mouth dropped open.
A tall green man, or at least he
assumed it was a man, dressed in a silver jumpsuit had joined them in the open
dungeon. The visitor had a bulbous and
veiny bald head, bulging big eyes, no nose, and a slit where its mouth should
be. It studied the people in the room, looked
up and down at the old man, who was glaring back, and then turned to Flower and
spoke in a flat, monotone voice, “Zerq comes from the stars to offer you
friendship.”
“The stars?” said Flower. “And who’s Zerq?”
The creature tapped its chest
with its three-fingered hand. “Zerq and
his people have watched your planet for eons from our home, Xerton, using our
quantum telescopy. We would like to
offer you a chance to come with us. A
new life amongst the stars, where you can learn about us, and we can learn more
about you.”
The old prisoner guffawed. “Ha!
You’ve got to be kidding me! A
new life in the stars?! What a fucking
joke!” His chains rattled and shook as
continued to laugh. “And space aliens? Right this moment as this fella here,” he nodded
to Flower, “is about to be beheaded in the morning with no chance of escape? It doesn’t make any sense. Ha ha.
Convenient! I wouldn’t come with
you if you promised me all the riches in the world! Or the universe for that matter! Ha!”
“Zerq was not talking to you,”
said the creature.
“Oh.”
Flower raised an eyebrow. “You want to save me? Take me away from here?”
“No,” said Zerq. He pointed, with a long spindly finger, to
Felix, who was watching the new arrival with curiosity. “Zerq was talking to the superior lifeform.”
Felix meowed in response.
“Yes?” The alien’s eyes narrowed as he spoke
directly to the kitten. “Are you sure?”
Felix nuzzled up into Flower’s
neck, then mewed.
“Zerq understands.” The green man nodded. “The offer is available to all present. Zerq would like to know if you want to accept
a new life in the stars.”
Flower could feel Felix’s
intense purrs vibrating against his body and realised that he didn’t have a
choice. If he stayed here, he’d be dead in
the morning, and his kitten would be alone.
His only choice was life or death.
“O… okay,” he stuttered. He chose life. “I’ll come with you.”
“And your friend?” said Zerq.
“Bah!” The old man shook his head. “No chance!”
Flower looked to his temporary
cellmate. “Are you sure? You’ve been chained up in this dungeon all
this time and you want to stay?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” The man’s eyes held defiance. “I ain’t moving.”
“Then it is decided,” said Zerq. His lipless mouth strained into the smallest
smile Flower had ever seen. “Welcome to
the stars.”
Everything went white, a brilliance
flooded what remained of the cell. The
world evaporated. There was a moment of
weightlessness, and then Flower felt ground beneath his feet, and he was
somewhere else. He held Felix close, and
as the light cleared, the endless sea of the universe, filled with new
possibilities and new experiences, a star for each, opened up before his eyes.
He’d chosen life.
The End? The
Beginning.
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