Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Toy

The Toy is a short story I wrote four or five years ago. It is inspired by "Toy Story" and the enjoyment I got from playing with action figures (G.I. Joes, superheroes, Star Trek, etc.) when I was a kid.

The Toy

Hank is falling from the sky.

How did he get himself in this kind of trouble again? He asks himself. The jump had to be a thousand feet above his head. The ground is coming at him quickly, and no parachute to break his fall.

Hank closes his eyes at the expected impact. He makes a soft “humph!” as he hits the earth. He takes a short shallow breath, and slowly opens his eyes. He survived. He gets up slowly, and looks around. The landscape is slightly familiar to the soldier, the ground softer than dirt or wood. He was lucky…again. The strange patterns of the terrain did not match his green camouflage pants or his solid dark green shirt. 

There she was, maybe a few hundred feet away. His brown eyed girl, trapped between two mountainous pillars, and surrounded by more than nearly a dozen sworn enemies.

No time to wait and no time to lose, Hank springs into action. She was beautiful as always, her long hair flowing, her big brown eyes sparkled in the light. He could see the panic and fear on her face.

The first two attackers fell easy enough, and with a roundhouse kick, three more thugs went down. All at once, five of the would-be kidnappers jump on top of the fighter, he dispatches them in a matter of minutes. Now it was just Hank and the ten-foot tall beast master.

The poor hero took two punches to the head and falls hard, then he struggles to his feet just in time to miss being pummeled by the evil creature, who had leapt in the air to crush Hank with both feet. This momentary shock stuns the beast and Hank quickly takes advantage of the situation. Seconds later, Hank stands over the huge foe, victorious. The skilled war hero, wipes the sweat from his smooth face, and turns to untie the beautiful damsel. He longs to finally get a chance to kiss her.

A booming sound comes from out of nowhere. A voice.

The sound fills the room like thunder from the sky. Hank feels his strength leave him, “Not again!” Hank hears himself say. What is this cursed voice and the spell it casts on the soldier? Hank lays on the soft, cold floor. He cannot move his limbs, he is paralyzed. He is not alone; lying just mere feet from him is the girl he risked his life to rescue. She looks at him, the fear is gone from her eyes, but she too is unable to move. She, the unnamed girl, the girl of his dreams, is helpless, and Hank can do nothing.

Night comes; the darkness creeps in the room where the dashing hero continues to lay. The worst part for Hank isn’t the fact he can’t move, this has happened more times than he can recall. It is the fact that once again he had gotten so close to the beautiful girl, only to be denied talking to her, or otherwise get to know her. Each time he manages to save her from impending doom, she vanishes from his sight before he can get a chance to ask her her name.

The lights come on, Hank can feel life coming back to his limbs. Now is his chance to talk to the girl. Maybe, ask the girl her name? Again, the brave soldier is denied. He feels the wind beating across his body as if caught in a vortex. The motion stops, almost as suddenly as it had started. Hank finds himself standing on a tall towering structure. He is overlooking the entire kingdom he has fought so hard to protect for these many years. “Why? Why, do I always end up here?” he can only ask himself in dire thought. His body is so rigid, even his eyes are frozen in position. Occasionally, he can detect shadows, or some kind of movement. It is large, with a full head of blonde hair. The large creature never seems to bother anything, it is just there lurking in the background.

Tonight, like all other nights, Hank will stand there in silence. Although, unlike most nights his body is turned in an unusual manner. He likes when this happens. He can see some of the thugs he had recently fought against. Like him, they too find themselves stuck in the same situation. The reason he likes this strange angle he now finds himself, is that he can see her. With her long flowing hair, her big brown eyes, just standing there, she looks so peaceful. “If only?” he thinks, again to himself. The misery of another lonely night goes by.       

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