Skydekkerix

I crawled onto hot, worn asphalt. Piles of ancient car wrecks surrounded me. Chunks of highway rained down nearby, shaking the ground. The rain stopped but the shaking didn’t. I heard stomping and metal twisting. I reached out and felt a tall malice picking its way through the wrecks. I knew it was a t-rex because I am psychic.

I ran towards a pile of cars. Stayed focused, watched the ground where I was stepping. Felt the malice speed up, taunting me with its mind. I leapt onto the roof of a sports car and slipped under the wheels of an SUV into a gap under the pile.

The menace hung over me and trapped my Vision to the gap I was in. I could sit up but the gap wasn’t long enough to stretch my legs out. There was enough space under a car to give me a limited view of the ruin beyond. I pushed my back up a bit further and the panel I was resting on popped. The t-rex roared.

A tiny silhouette moved in front of the space under the car. It stopped, then stepped under the car and into my gap. It was a small mutant about the size of my fist, with a bulbous beaked head and grey, oily skin. It held a nail in its oversized, skeletal hand. It kind of reminded me of that tweety bird cartoon character. Its eyes were filled with hate.

It climbed onto my leg and started stabbing it with the nail, unable to get through the denim of my jeans. I spoke “Tweety?” I said. “Can I call you Tweety?” I closed my eyes. “You do not care.”

“You do not seem to care.”

I opened my eyes. “Can you understand me?”

Tweety looked up at me, nodded, and continued to stab me. “Good.”

I pushed around the limits of my Vision. The malice hung over me like a heavy blanket. A fanged smile and a cage. I relaxed.

“Can you tell me if the world is broken Tweety?”

“Maybe you could. Maybe you don’t want to tell me. Maybe you do not know.”

Tweety was unresponsive.

“I do not know.”

“It feels like more things are broken. More ghosts. Less options.”

“People seem to be angrier than they used to be. You seem pretty angry.”

“I get being angry. I am angry almost all of the time. I don’t get being angry enough to, you know…”

The nail jabbed into my leg.

“Fuck”

I picked Tweety up and moved him away.

“Maybe I am just more angry than I used to be and it is effecting my perspective.”

Tweety moved around to my side and started stabbing my jacket. I didn’t care because I didn’t own it.

“Things seem to be worse when I am angry. As the king ails so does the kingdom.”

Tweety jabbed furiously.

“I am not trying to be arrogant I was just quoting a movie.”

“Maybe I am arrogant for thinking too much about big problems. Everybody wants to fix the problems that they see but the big ones are blocking my sight to the ones I can handle.”

The malice above me laughed. I heard a sharp twang of shame and then only the rapid grunting of Tweety.

“There is a t-rex in the way.”

I frowned and scratched the back of my neck. Watched Tweety for a moment. The nail was fraying the material of my jacket.

“You seem like a broken thing Tweety, but maybe you are not. Maybe you are meant to be this way. Psychics have as much of the answers as anyone else.”

The nail stuck through my jacket and scratched the side of my stomach. I picked Tweety up and moved him away again.

“Maybe less.”

I stared through the gap under the car. Tried to gauge the distance to the next pile of wrecks.

“Am I your t-rex Tweety?”

Tweety looked up again, crawled up the front of my jacket, nail grasped in beak.

“I think maybe not. I think I am something else.”

“I cannot tell if you want to kill me, or if you are playing a game.”

Tweety reached my neck. I placed him on the ground.

“I cannot tell if you love me.”

The malice grew angry, dust shook from the wrecks.

“I can only tell what I am.”

I whistled, shuffled around, started crawling.

“The world… Tweety… is full of many… t-rexes.”

I reached the edge of the gap. The malice coiled.

“Of many sizes. Everyone’s t-rex is bigger than they are. Now I must face mine.”

I turned back. Tweety was sitting cross-legged in the gap. His stare said death.

“I hope that makes sense.”

“Thank you for being here, Tweety.”

I turned back. Tried to figure out which direction to run. The malice laughed and I heard another twang of shame and then silence. I ran.