These two deleted scenes are
dream sequences which would’ve helped establish some connective tissue between
two other books I was (and still am) excited about: No Magic For Luke Peters (The Luke Peters Series) and The Last Reich: Bringing Up God First (The
Last Reich Series). I, ultimately, decided that the first Kid Silver: Alone
novel wasn’t the best place for such things. I can establish my universe
elsewhere, but I still did like these scenes and didn’t want to see them die. I
hope you enjoy them.
– Matthew H. Jones, author.
Deleted Scene, Dream Scene #1
I dreamt of fire and blood. I
dreamt of men flitting through the darkness with guns in their hands as
explosions belched up into the blackened sky. Figures like tar covered panthers
mulled men, ripping into their bellies. Screams rang out into the night.
Bullets flew over my head as I raced across an uneven field. Jagged tree trunks
like broken shards of metal jutted up out of the ground, threatening to stab up
at my feet. Dead bodies falling to the ground, littered about like leaves in
the gutter. There was Elena at my side with knives held in her hands. Alongside
Elena was a girl with long, blonde hair. The girl with the long hair had a
rifle with a pull-down lever, an old style kind of gun. At the girls’ side,
there was a young man with red-ringed eyes. His hands were curled up into
claws. His teeth were bared, showing sharpened canines. He had a mouth like a
wolf. On my other side, there was an older, blonde boy with fists balled up and
set on fire. Up in the sky, like a star
spitting out lightening was another boy, flying. His brown, curly hair
shuttered and rippled with the heavy winds and his eyes were white pools of
fury.
We ran through the wind and the darkness, preparing for war and I
didn’t know who we were fighting, or why. A blonde man stood on the other end
of the field. He clutched a long sword in his hands. He wore a black serape
pinned back at the shoulders and worn, black jeans. Looped on his hips were two
gun belts holding a holstered gun on either hip. I thought he was Scotty for a
moment, though this man was full of scars and his face was worn and hard.
Another man came to stand at the
blonde man’s side, an old man with iron-gray eyes and iron-gray hair and a
crimson cane held in his hand. Another came to stand at the blonde man’s side,
a bald, African-American man with tattoos etched all over his face and bared
chest. The tattooed man held an ax in hand, engraved with a pattern I didn’t
recognize. Something like a living shadows seeped out from the darkness,
snaking forward and ameliorating into a mans’ form. A corn cob pipe wove its
way into his mouth. His eyes were black pools and his lips dropped into a
snarl. There were two more men stepping forward to the line. One of them was
bald with a mustache. He had a face like an old English boxer. He had scars
tracing across his ham-hock forearms. The other man wore a billowing, gray
cloak. He had his gray hood up over his head and all I could see was the bridge
of his nose and the tip of this chin. Dr. Sparks and Harry were standing with
men that we were going to fight.
The man-like shadow exploded into a
whirl of black tendrils snaking through the air, lashing towards us. Lightening
struck down from the sky as the flying boy punched down to Earth. There was an
explosion of dirt and the men across from us disappeared, scattering in all
directions. The old man with the crimson cane came out of the settling dust,
swinging the varnished length of oak like it was a sword. The blonde girl
stepped before me and blocked the old man’s attack with the length of her
rifle. She forced the cane down to the ground and then spun, driving the butt
of the rifle into the old man’s ribs. It hit hard and the old man fell aside
and the blonde girl continued onward into the cloud of roaring debris. The old
man wasn’t out yet, so I came with my fists balled. I hit him hard, but I
couldn’t feel it. I hit him again and saw his skull shatter. Still, I couldn’t
feel it. I couldn’t feel anything in this place.
There was another explosion. The
blonde boy with the fiery hands had made an explosion, tearing into the
slashing and screeching shadow man. There was another and another explosion,
sending more and more dirt into the air. Smoke billowed across the field,
driving a wall across my vision. Figures stretched their hands out at me and I
batted them away, growling like an animal. I was an animal and I wasn’t going
to be taken by anyone.
All the smoke and haze cleared and there was only me, Dr.
Sparks and Harry. All the rest had left and I didn’t know who they were or why
they were in a killing mood. My fake mob-father balled his hands into fists and
Dr. Sparks did the same. It was time for me to get ready for real combat. Harry
was the first to strike at me and I wasn’t surprised by it. I knew him and he
was about the fight, always about the fight. He swung on me and I bounded out
of the way, giving him ground. Harry pursued and Dr. Sparks came afterward.
They were both striking at me and I was batting their fists away. They were
attacking faster than I could defend or
get away. I was fighting their fight, I couldn’t fight the way they wanted me
to. If I did, I would be dead. I didn’t know, but I thought they were trying to
kill me. I believed they were.
Harry was the first to strike out
at me, smashing me in the face. I fell down hard into the dirt. Dr. Sparks
kicked me in the side. I couldn’t feel the blows, but I felt the fear. I was
terrified. They were stomping on me, breaking my nerveless bones. They were
hitting me hard while I was down on the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment