A Halloween treat for Blondie_54
Title: Silence is Golden
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2055
Prompt:
blondie_54, I hope your Halloween is fun and filled with laughter and good cheer. My thanks to you for participating in The Halloween Challenge and to my beta,sparky955 for her guidance and help with this.
Napoleon was four when he met The Silencer for the first time.
They were staying at his Uncle Gus’s house in upstate New York and he was bored out of his mind. Uncle Gus and Aunt Mildred had no children and they lived in the boondocks, well away from anyone who did.
Napoleon tried to entertain himself, but it was hard. They didn’t have any neat toys and Napoleon had played with everything he brought. His sister was still a baby and he wasn’t going to hang out with her.
He wandered as much of the house as he could, although his mother kept a fairly close eye on him.
There was one room upstairs which was forbidden from him. Mama told him there was a valid inside. He didn’t know what one of those was and he was intensely curious, but his attempts to learn more were always crushed by one of the adults.
One night there was a late autumn storm and it woke Napoleon from a sound sleep. For a long moment he listened as the wind beat against the house, making it groan and creak as if in pain. A sharp crack of thunder sent him under the covers as the rain increased even more.
It was all too much for Napoleon. If he had been home, he would have been braver, but he wasn’t and he was scared.
He climbed out of bed and started to walk to his parents’ room when he saw that the door to the valid’s room was slightly ajar. His eyes widened and the lure was too much.
Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he crept closer to the door and pushed it slowly open.
It smelled bad, like one of his little sister’s diapers and Napoleon wrinkled up his nose. He was about to leave when he spotted movement. There was someone in a bed… someone who looked a little like Grampy, but older. Yet it wasn’t the bed-ridden old man who caught Napoleon’s eye. It was the man sitting on Grampy’s tummy.
“What are you doing?” Napoleon asked, his voice shaking slightly.
The figure cloaked in shadows turned towards him and lifted a finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhhh.”
“But--”
“Shhhh!” The figure turned back to his task, leaning close to Grampy’s face and sucking.
“I’m telling!” Napoleon cried out and the figure moved, faster than anything Napoleon had ever seen, but not fast enough. Napoleon was out of the room, slamming the door behind him and racing to his parents’ room.
He never got there. The next morning he woke up in his own bed and to a house of mourning. Sometime during the night, his grandfather had passed. No one could understand it, but Napoleon knew.
The next time, Napoleon was 14 and he thought he had the world on a string. He was smart and considered one of the slickest guys with the girls. He didn’t share his foolproof formula with any of his rivals, for it really wasn’t his to keep. His secret was that he listened to the girls. He noted when they wore something new and complimented them, even if the color was a bit wrong. Being the big brother to a very chatty little sister helped.
Likewise, the teachers liked him. He was polite and was fastidiously clean. He did his homework, he participated in class and successfully hid the fact that he was bored out of his mind. However, he knew that in order to escape this place, he needed good grades in order to get into a good school. There was even talk of sending him to medical school if he wanted. He had the mind for it, but not the interest. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.
He was reading a library book about military strategy out on the swinging porch chair. It was a fall afternoon, warm, but with a tinge of cold around the edges. The leaves were past their prime and his family had harvested their garden. The scarecrow stood there, looking a bit lost now that his job was been taken away.
“Look, Napoleon, look!” His little sister ran out onto the porch and twirled about in her princess dress.
“You look fine, my lady,” he said, bowing and knowing his mother was standing behind the screen door watching him. “Now you just need a dragon.”
“I don’t need a dragon. I have you.” She laughed and waved a wand in his direction. “Are you coming trick or treating with us, Napoleon? Mama’s taking me.”
“No. I need to stay home and protect Dad.”
“You mean the trick or treaters. He’s mean to them.” His father was not a fan of passing out candy. If he had his way, every kid would be sent packing with a crisp apple. It was not what most kids wanted dropped in their bag on Halloween night.
Afterwards, Napoleon was going to wander over to the school’s harvest dance and see what trouble he could get into. More likely, he’d be the one to who would keep his friends out of it.
The night wind was sharp and cut him right to the bone. Napoleon regretted giving his jacket to Mary, the prettiest girl in the school, Even though she was going steady with Stuart, Napoleon’s rival, he had a feeling it was exactly the right thing to do.
He hunched his shoulders and walked faster. A warm bath and bed were going to feel doubly good tonight. He kept well off the pavement and onto the shoulder of the road. The roads were unlit this far out of town except by the moon and it was busy playing hide and seek with the clouds. There was the smell of snow in the air and Napoleon knew winter was close at hand.
That’s when he saw the car half resting on the guardrails. It was a treacherous curve and one every local treated with respect. He ran to the spot and looked inside. A couple were inside and he struggled to get the passenger’s door open. He was able to pull a girl free from the crash. That’s when he recognized the jacket.
“Mary?” He cradled her face and tried to brush the blood away.
Her eyelids flickered and she smiled up at him. “Hi, Napoleon. I sort of messed up your jacket.”
“Don’t worry about that. What happened?”
“Deer. Stuart swerved to miss it. Stuart?”
Napoleon looked over to where his classmate laid, then his eyes widened. There was a figure scurrying out from the shadows, more one of them, than anything else. It saw him and a sly smile crossed its lips as a cautionary figure lifted to its mouth.
“Shhhh!” It crawled up onto Stuart’s chest and leaned close.
“No!” Napoleon shouted and looked around for a weapon, but it was too late. Stuart’s body fell back lifelessly and The Silencer started moving towards the girl. “I won’t let you.” He blocked the creature’s path. “You’ve already taken him, can’t you leave her, please?”
“Perhapsssss.”
Then a blinding beam of headlights came around the corner and squealed to a stop. A man piled out. “What happened?”
“Auto accident. We need some help.” Napoleon glared at The Silencer, who hissed and vanished. He grinned at his victory, not realizing that, in the end, The Silencer always won and would come back to steal her from him on their wedding night.
At 34, Napoleon had seen just about all there was to see and done twice as much. He’d travelled the globe, wine and dined women from Shanghi to London to Hoboken and for much of it, Illya was at his side, always faithful and always ready.
Now his partner lay broken and bleeding from the plane crash. Everyone else on the plane had already perished. Napoleon struggled against his own pain to try and organize some shelter from the cold autumn wind. As if teasing, a few snowflakes drifted down from the cloud ripped sky.
The lean-to wasn’t much, but it protected the campfire he made. There was enough food for a couple of days and Napoleon was sure he’d gotten a message off. There would be a search party, so it was going to be his job to make sure they both survived long enough for it to arrive.
“Napoleon?” Illya whispered.
“Yeah, partner, I’m here?” He was at Illya’s side in a heartbeat.
Illya waved his uninjured hand. “What happened?”
“Bird flew into the engine, I think.” Napoleon offered him some water, but most of it dribbled out of Illya’s mouth. “You need to drink, Illya.”
“I know.” Illya winced as he sat up. Napoleon tried again with the water. He was more successful this time. “Did you get word off?” Illya’s voice sounded stronger.
“I’m pretty sure I did. It won’t be long now.”
“I’m not going to make it.”
“What are you talking about? Of course, you are going to make it. You still owe me a dinner for escaping. You think I’m going to let you welch on that?”
“It hurts to breathe.”
“I know. You broke some ribs. You’ve had worse. You just need to hang in there.”
“Something else, too, I think.”
“Yeah, probably.” That’s when Napoleon saw him, skulking in the shadows, a finger to his lips. “No!”
“What’s wrong?” Illya looked slightly alarmed and he scanned the bushes.
“It’s…” He pulled Illya to him. Protectively. Confused, Illya cried out and went limp. Napoleon tossed wood on the fire, sending it into the night. “You aren’t having him. He’s mine.”
“Napoleon.” Illya’s voice was muffled. “I don’t think this is the time or the place.”
“You can’t have him.”
“Who are you arguing with?”
“I don’t know what he’s called - I call him The Silencer. I’ve seen him every time someone has died or is about to. He climbs onto their chest and sucks the life from them.”
Illya smiled weakly. “I guess that’s better than calling him The Sucker. On my behalf, I thank you, but if it’s my time--”
“It’s not. Go away!” Napoleon waved off the creature, but it moved closer. He put himself between Illya and it.
“Shhhh.”
“No, not this time. I won’t be silent. I know what you want and you can’t have him. There are a half dozen people in that plane all dead - you’ve taken them, but you are not taking him.”
“I will.” The voice was a soft hiss.
“You won’t.” Napoleon was adamant. “Not today. Not ever if I have my way. Take me instead.”
“Very well.”
The Silencer’s lips curled into an evil grin. “I always win… in the end. “ In a flash, he moved and knocked Napoleon onto his back. “Mine.” He leaned close and began to suck the living breath from Napoleon. Helpless to resist, Napoleon could feel himself fading. At least Illya was safe.
Then, in a blinding flash, air rushed back into his lungs and the weight crushing him to the ground was gone.
Illya was standing there, swaying slightly, but securely holding a long thick branch. The Silencer lay in a stunned heap a few feet from them.
“Perhaps, but not today,” Illya shouted, “Do you hear me? Not today!”
“Hello?” a voice shouted back from the night. “Napoleon? Illya?”
Napoleon grinned and he got shakily to his legs and came to stand beside his partner. “We’re here!” Softer, he said. “Both of us are here.”
With a snarl, The Silencer crawled back to the shadows to hide until its next opportunity. “I will return,” it hissed and vanished.
“You saw him?” Napoleon asked.
Illya dropped to his knees and grasped his side with a wince. “Sort of, but I trust you and knew you’d never lie to me about something like that. I saw something on you and figured knocking it off was a good start.”
“He’ll be back.” Napoleon helped him back into the shelter of the lean to.
“Probably, but we’ll be ready for him. Both of us will be ready for him.”
They had beaten The Silencer this time. With any luck, they’d do the same next time. And the time after that… and the time after that. Some things were worth fighting for.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2055
Prompt:
blondie_54, I hope your Halloween is fun and filled with laughter and good cheer. My thanks to you for participating in The Halloween Challenge and to my beta,sparky955 for her guidance and help with this.
Napoleon was four when he met The Silencer for the first time.
They were staying at his Uncle Gus’s house in upstate New York and he was bored out of his mind. Uncle Gus and Aunt Mildred had no children and they lived in the boondocks, well away from anyone who did.
Napoleon tried to entertain himself, but it was hard. They didn’t have any neat toys and Napoleon had played with everything he brought. His sister was still a baby and he wasn’t going to hang out with her.
He wandered as much of the house as he could, although his mother kept a fairly close eye on him.
There was one room upstairs which was forbidden from him. Mama told him there was a valid inside. He didn’t know what one of those was and he was intensely curious, but his attempts to learn more were always crushed by one of the adults.
One night there was a late autumn storm and it woke Napoleon from a sound sleep. For a long moment he listened as the wind beat against the house, making it groan and creak as if in pain. A sharp crack of thunder sent him under the covers as the rain increased even more.
It was all too much for Napoleon. If he had been home, he would have been braver, but he wasn’t and he was scared.
He climbed out of bed and started to walk to his parents’ room when he saw that the door to the valid’s room was slightly ajar. His eyes widened and the lure was too much.
Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he crept closer to the door and pushed it slowly open.
It smelled bad, like one of his little sister’s diapers and Napoleon wrinkled up his nose. He was about to leave when he spotted movement. There was someone in a bed… someone who looked a little like Grampy, but older. Yet it wasn’t the bed-ridden old man who caught Napoleon’s eye. It was the man sitting on Grampy’s tummy.
“What are you doing?” Napoleon asked, his voice shaking slightly.
The figure cloaked in shadows turned towards him and lifted a finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhhh.”
“But--”
“Shhhh!” The figure turned back to his task, leaning close to Grampy’s face and sucking.
“I’m telling!” Napoleon cried out and the figure moved, faster than anything Napoleon had ever seen, but not fast enough. Napoleon was out of the room, slamming the door behind him and racing to his parents’ room.
He never got there. The next morning he woke up in his own bed and to a house of mourning. Sometime during the night, his grandfather had passed. No one could understand it, but Napoleon knew.
The next time, Napoleon was 14 and he thought he had the world on a string. He was smart and considered one of the slickest guys with the girls. He didn’t share his foolproof formula with any of his rivals, for it really wasn’t his to keep. His secret was that he listened to the girls. He noted when they wore something new and complimented them, even if the color was a bit wrong. Being the big brother to a very chatty little sister helped.
Likewise, the teachers liked him. He was polite and was fastidiously clean. He did his homework, he participated in class and successfully hid the fact that he was bored out of his mind. However, he knew that in order to escape this place, he needed good grades in order to get into a good school. There was even talk of sending him to medical school if he wanted. He had the mind for it, but not the interest. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.
He was reading a library book about military strategy out on the swinging porch chair. It was a fall afternoon, warm, but with a tinge of cold around the edges. The leaves were past their prime and his family had harvested their garden. The scarecrow stood there, looking a bit lost now that his job was been taken away.
“Look, Napoleon, look!” His little sister ran out onto the porch and twirled about in her princess dress.
“You look fine, my lady,” he said, bowing and knowing his mother was standing behind the screen door watching him. “Now you just need a dragon.”
“I don’t need a dragon. I have you.” She laughed and waved a wand in his direction. “Are you coming trick or treating with us, Napoleon? Mama’s taking me.”
“No. I need to stay home and protect Dad.”
“You mean the trick or treaters. He’s mean to them.” His father was not a fan of passing out candy. If he had his way, every kid would be sent packing with a crisp apple. It was not what most kids wanted dropped in their bag on Halloween night.
Afterwards, Napoleon was going to wander over to the school’s harvest dance and see what trouble he could get into. More likely, he’d be the one to who would keep his friends out of it.
The night wind was sharp and cut him right to the bone. Napoleon regretted giving his jacket to Mary, the prettiest girl in the school, Even though she was going steady with Stuart, Napoleon’s rival, he had a feeling it was exactly the right thing to do.
He hunched his shoulders and walked faster. A warm bath and bed were going to feel doubly good tonight. He kept well off the pavement and onto the shoulder of the road. The roads were unlit this far out of town except by the moon and it was busy playing hide and seek with the clouds. There was the smell of snow in the air and Napoleon knew winter was close at hand.
That’s when he saw the car half resting on the guardrails. It was a treacherous curve and one every local treated with respect. He ran to the spot and looked inside. A couple were inside and he struggled to get the passenger’s door open. He was able to pull a girl free from the crash. That’s when he recognized the jacket.
“Mary?” He cradled her face and tried to brush the blood away.
Her eyelids flickered and she smiled up at him. “Hi, Napoleon. I sort of messed up your jacket.”
“Don’t worry about that. What happened?”
“Deer. Stuart swerved to miss it. Stuart?”
Napoleon looked over to where his classmate laid, then his eyes widened. There was a figure scurrying out from the shadows, more one of them, than anything else. It saw him and a sly smile crossed its lips as a cautionary figure lifted to its mouth.
“Shhhh!” It crawled up onto Stuart’s chest and leaned close.
“No!” Napoleon shouted and looked around for a weapon, but it was too late. Stuart’s body fell back lifelessly and The Silencer started moving towards the girl. “I won’t let you.” He blocked the creature’s path. “You’ve already taken him, can’t you leave her, please?”
“Perhapsssss.”
Then a blinding beam of headlights came around the corner and squealed to a stop. A man piled out. “What happened?”
“Auto accident. We need some help.” Napoleon glared at The Silencer, who hissed and vanished. He grinned at his victory, not realizing that, in the end, The Silencer always won and would come back to steal her from him on their wedding night.
At 34, Napoleon had seen just about all there was to see and done twice as much. He’d travelled the globe, wine and dined women from Shanghi to London to Hoboken and for much of it, Illya was at his side, always faithful and always ready.
Now his partner lay broken and bleeding from the plane crash. Everyone else on the plane had already perished. Napoleon struggled against his own pain to try and organize some shelter from the cold autumn wind. As if teasing, a few snowflakes drifted down from the cloud ripped sky.
The lean-to wasn’t much, but it protected the campfire he made. There was enough food for a couple of days and Napoleon was sure he’d gotten a message off. There would be a search party, so it was going to be his job to make sure they both survived long enough for it to arrive.
“Napoleon?” Illya whispered.
“Yeah, partner, I’m here?” He was at Illya’s side in a heartbeat.
Illya waved his uninjured hand. “What happened?”
“Bird flew into the engine, I think.” Napoleon offered him some water, but most of it dribbled out of Illya’s mouth. “You need to drink, Illya.”
“I know.” Illya winced as he sat up. Napoleon tried again with the water. He was more successful this time. “Did you get word off?” Illya’s voice sounded stronger.
“I’m pretty sure I did. It won’t be long now.”
“I’m not going to make it.”
“What are you talking about? Of course, you are going to make it. You still owe me a dinner for escaping. You think I’m going to let you welch on that?”
“It hurts to breathe.”
“I know. You broke some ribs. You’ve had worse. You just need to hang in there.”
“Something else, too, I think.”
“Yeah, probably.” That’s when Napoleon saw him, skulking in the shadows, a finger to his lips. “No!”
“What’s wrong?” Illya looked slightly alarmed and he scanned the bushes.
“It’s…” He pulled Illya to him. Protectively. Confused, Illya cried out and went limp. Napoleon tossed wood on the fire, sending it into the night. “You aren’t having him. He’s mine.”
“Napoleon.” Illya’s voice was muffled. “I don’t think this is the time or the place.”
“You can’t have him.”
“Who are you arguing with?”
“I don’t know what he’s called - I call him The Silencer. I’ve seen him every time someone has died or is about to. He climbs onto their chest and sucks the life from them.”
Illya smiled weakly. “I guess that’s better than calling him The Sucker. On my behalf, I thank you, but if it’s my time--”
“It’s not. Go away!” Napoleon waved off the creature, but it moved closer. He put himself between Illya and it.
“Shhhh.”
“No, not this time. I won’t be silent. I know what you want and you can’t have him. There are a half dozen people in that plane all dead - you’ve taken them, but you are not taking him.”
“I will.” The voice was a soft hiss.
“You won’t.” Napoleon was adamant. “Not today. Not ever if I have my way. Take me instead.”
“Very well.”
The Silencer’s lips curled into an evil grin. “I always win… in the end. “ In a flash, he moved and knocked Napoleon onto his back. “Mine.” He leaned close and began to suck the living breath from Napoleon. Helpless to resist, Napoleon could feel himself fading. At least Illya was safe.
Then, in a blinding flash, air rushed back into his lungs and the weight crushing him to the ground was gone.
Illya was standing there, swaying slightly, but securely holding a long thick branch. The Silencer lay in a stunned heap a few feet from them.
“Perhaps, but not today,” Illya shouted, “Do you hear me? Not today!”
“Hello?” a voice shouted back from the night. “Napoleon? Illya?”
Napoleon grinned and he got shakily to his legs and came to stand beside his partner. “We’re here!” Softer, he said. “Both of us are here.”
With a snarl, The Silencer crawled back to the shadows to hide until its next opportunity. “I will return,” it hissed and vanished.
“You saw him?” Napoleon asked.
Illya dropped to his knees and grasped his side with a wince. “Sort of, but I trust you and knew you’d never lie to me about something like that. I saw something on you and figured knocking it off was a good start.”
“He’ll be back.” Napoleon helped him back into the shelter of the lean to.
“Probably, but we’ll be ready for him. Both of us will be ready for him.”
They had beaten The Silencer this time. With any luck, they’d do the same next time. And the time after that… and the time after that. Some things were worth fighting for.