The place felt like a small garage, but the ice-cold air made that impossible. Nelson’s thoughts ran and spun like a crazy machine making chocolate bars on an assembly line.
“The Surreal Forces are coming straight for you,” Silverback barked the words on his call at sunrise that day, and they repeated and expired from Nelson’s thoughts as he slept.
Nelson’s head was sore from the hard pops. The red bumps burned and turned into hills that showered in his blood. His sight was damaged and, at best, foggy.
Nelson was freezing. He didn’t know how he had ended up there. The darkness was in multi-layered soundproof walls. There was no way to find a door or window to escape through, but that never mattered since he couldn’t reach anything, being zip-tied.
The horror sank into his empty stomach: he was easy prey, like a trapped squirrel; the Surreal Red Forces were a bizarre group. They were trying experimental physical and psychological torture. Even grimmer practices, he imagined, awaited, like the extreme tortures and punishments devised by humans many centuries ago. It was worse suffering, wondering what came next, than the punching.
Nelson wiped his feeble eyes with blood-stained fingers. The darkness and cold were quickly eroding his rationality. So he concentrated, using his senses of touch, sound, and smell. Boxes of different sizes were around him; he felt them with his shoeless feet. He deduced he was in a cold-storage room attached to a food-processing plant.
A temporary prisoner. Because Nelson did not doubt that the Surreal Forces would kill him if they got their ransom. The precious Owl Ring.
Nelson was thankful he didn’t know where the damn Scarlet Owl ring had moved to and who was responsible for taking it. The Boss didn’t have it. Bill and Silverback didn’t either. Where the fuck had it gone? Who watched him? Have they claimed the powers for themselves?
Bill, being The Boss’s executioner, had no friends. Bill was committed to being alone. Nelson was his sole family. Bill never supposed that Nelson would finally support himself without doing The Boss’s bidding. Nelson’s illness kept him close to his brother. The Boss was quick to offer any vulnerable or half-related kin illegal work. Bill always had Nelson, someone he considered entirely trustworthy to have his back, until the desert incident with Silverback and Ivory.
Was he in a manufacturing plant’s cold storage? A compact commercial freezer. The heat of the desert forsaken him. “Why?”
He was shivering and terrified of the Surreal Forces: No light, no warmth. No means. Day or night, survival would be depleted within 24 hours. The mysterious underground organization, the Surreal Forces, was a ruthless entity with no conscience. They were empty alien vases; they couldn’t ever have the growing powers that were the gift of the Scarlet Owl ring. If it were in the wrong hands, there would be unstoppable madness and the building of a disordered society.
Nelson nodded again to sleep.
Nelson became conscious after being struck with hot water on the face. He was awake and hurting as if a polar bear had mauled him. He was still breathing, grateful.
The Surreal Red Forces had come for him after Silverback promised to return the Persians. It was too late for the rare snakes. The mouse shot them dead. No more time for memories or regrets. The Surreal Forces had him fenced like a squirrel. What torture was left to endure, as if the home invasion wasn’t enough? “It’s for nothing. I need to find out where? Who’s wearing the Scarlet Owl? Nelson said.
“Nelson, wake up,” Silverback said.
Nelson prayed with a lukewarm, strained breath, unsure of his sight and hearing. He, after all, predicted this! Silverback hired Spade and Ace of the Mountain Gorillas to help with his rescue. “Persians, are they safe?” The threads of rationality remained sewn.
“Yes, but the Boss’s wife, sorry, was mauled to death by your snakes,” Ace said. “Spade shredded your snakes to save the venom after Mouse shot them dead. The Scarlet Owl ring was not found. The mirrored jewelry box you put it in is missing. ” Silverback also said, “Oh, we knew.”
Ace laughed as he put his helmet back on. “Cats need a lot of grooming. I carried the Persians on the back of my bike; Silverback wanted you loose. I’d leave you here to die with the cats. Hurry, let’s go before you get us all caught.”
Nelson wanted to rip the zip ties from his wrists and ankles, but he couldn’t move his head because it pounded and ached when he tried to struggle. He wanted to massage the hits on his head. His matted hair smelled like sour canned pineapple.
A beautiful bridge of light stopped him from fighting with his constraints. While Spade climbed back onto his motorcycle, Ace jumped out from the stacked boxes.
The roar of Spade’s bike awoke Nelson from the clenching cold. The depressive gray abyss. The motorcycle’s wheels cut into reverse, then pulled forward, sending it turning onto the gravel road. The howling music of engines crashed through a wall, and a door was made and opened.
Nelson fell over onto the cement. The force collapsed the wooden and rattan dining chair he sat on, and he fell onto his flat stomach, growling. Ace cut his zip ties with a hidden razor in his leather vest pocket.
Then Silverback slapped Nelson; otherwise, he would’ve blacked out, not to wake again. He was so low on sugar.
“What?”
“Relax. Spade said cats are purrfect and scratching at poles. I will bring you to them at your townhouse.”
“I want Bill to pay for sending off my snakes to The Boss, Silverback. Let’s find the Scarlet Owl ring and reveal the Beast of the Canyons.”
“Cola and chips. No nuts!”
“How about Pineapple? I am sure they can spare a few frozen pineapple pizzas!” Silverback had used his knife to cut the zip ties. In the light boxes, crushed and frozen pizzas were everywhere.
Nelson laughed. He couldn’t stand up, so he was lifted onto the back of Ace’s motorcycle.
Silverback walked closer to greet Nelson.
Nelson’s hands, neck, and feet felt dead, but the color was almost back. However, his head continued to experience irregular rhythms of vertigo. The chokehold from the zip ties caused them, but he managed to survive by rubbing his pajama pants and his shirt for warmth. “Their ugly fucking figures, they’d not appeared human, for sure. They had to be demon-masked, but it all seemed too natural. I know it’s absurd!” Nelson said.
***
“The bumps are bleeding. You look weak, so get some rest. It would be best if you had something more to eat.” Spade watched like a ceiling spider, and Ace gave him a fork and plate with another slice of pineapple-topped pizza, heated in the microwave, once they arrived at Nelson’s townhouse, but that’s not where they were.
“Not until I tell you about the Surreal Forces. I remember being dragged outside my doorway by my flannel pajamas and losing my slippers.” Nelson continued, “I thought I heard the gold Persians whining when I opened the front door. There was a strong tropical scent of pet-grooming shampoo, and a mobile pet van was parked on my street. They grabbed me quickly, knocked me out with one of the red clay pots that lined the side of the townhouse.”
Nelson wasn’t back home; he realized it would be a while before that occurred. Silverback was preparing for whatever the Surreal Forces had planned. They were back in the desert canyons. The abandoned motel.
The familiar meowing of their Persians was heard. Nelson adopted the idea that the Persians were depicted as brown with shiny eyes and tails, much like the squirrels found there in restaurant and retail parking lots. Silverback showed a video of them eating from their food dishes on his cell phone. His ex-wife was also there.
“You’ve agreed to go along with every order I give. Retrieving the Scarlet Owl ring is the only priority. And, if we must, fight the Surreal Red Forces. Bill has gone, it’s alright, he left a note. She’ll take them.” Silverback stared at the video as it ended.”
“The Surreal Red Forces have the Scarlet Owl?” Nelson asked.
“Not exactly. They’ve learned where it is, though. And will kill anyone in its presence.”
“Okay, on the condition that the Mountain Gorillas don’t go after my younger brother, Bill. He’s a bastard, that I won’t argue; and he deserves it. He tried to kill me as well. With your word, swearing on the powers of the Scarlet Owl. I fear it must not be freed, not to do evil. What are you and Ivory going to do with it when you get it back?”
“Restore the Utah Canyons to their earlier glory before the bloodshed and the Beast’s victims’ ghosts that haunt the desert. The Scarlet Owl ring unfolds the truth, and I’ll use it to save Ivory and me from the Gray Wolf and solve the maniac’s name of the Utah canyons. You are in, right?”
“Of course.” Nelson nodded.
“The Mountain Gorillas don’t give pardons. ” Sorry, you won’t ever get your snakes back.”
Nelson was feeling a bit better, and the pineapple’s sugar was helping, but he needed a doctor. “I got to see a doctor, Silverback.” What did the Surreal Forces give him? Was it permanent?”
“Dr. Rails, he’s going to pay a house visit.”
“My wrists ache like hell. How did you find me?”
“Better than not feeling them anymore. Oh, Ace was on ongoing surveillance.” Silverback said, then added, “Bill will alert The Boss. Bill tried to poison you, you know. Not only with the walnuts.”
“Why’d you have to slap me and put hot water in my face from your helmet?”
***
“Dr. Rails, can you fix these scars?” Silverback pushed his anxiety away and asked. Silverback stood beneath the patio umbrella. The Doctor walked around his outdoor hot sauna.
“I will not lie to you. The scars are a sign of healing; the ones in the middle of your forehead have settled in the deeper layers of your facial skin. I can cease further damage with an injection and then try surgically removing the scars and also treating the surface redness. It is tricky; you’re seeing me late. The injured tissues are already thickening. Damaged.”
The doctor took his fingers and traced along his face, examining it. He sighed. Well, I can cut into the scars, here and here, which helps them fade and, if lucky, be barely noticeable.”
“Indeed.”
“You should have come a lot sooner. My receptionist has yet to reach you by the usual number.” The doctor turned toward the canvas of art hanging on the privacy wall. “I’ll do my best. It won’t be perfect, and are you prepared for the grim pain? I mean, in the price. It won’t be comfortable physically either before or after plastic surgery. It will hurt in important directions.”
“Make me the same as before; I will endure whatever comes and accept the result.”
“As I said, it will be terrible for a few weeks. Take these oxycodone pills. Dr. J. Kisperr Rails turned his head back to the sauna and said, “I should report this incident in the desert. The guy’s name is Bill, you say?”
“These stay here on my face. ” Silverback looked down at his boots and then directly at Dr. J Kisperr Rails. It is worth it if it buys the roadmap to save our world from the Surreal Red Forces. Silverback said, “You care about your life in the Hamptons and won’t report anything.”
Celia Garza 