The Pep Rally - Ch 1.


The Pep Rally

Chapter I - Sweet Dreams.

Johnny knew that his mother would be angry. She always told
him, "Now you get your sorry ass home before dark.", and Johnny had
always done what his mother told him, until tonight. Johnny spent
his last token, left the arcade, and started walking. It was dark,
and Johnny wasn't home. Johnny was scared, and although he didn't
know it yet, he was lost.
Johnny rounded the corner at a slow trot and started down the
alley. It was dark. So dark that Johnny didn't see the hulking
figure lurking behind the dumpster; until it was too late. In a
flash Johnny was knocked to the ground, straddled by the figure.
Johnny wanted to give the figure some money, but he knew that it
had all been spent on Q-bert. It didn't matter anyway, Johnny was
too scared to speak, or move. As the figure leaned over Johnny, a
large object slid off of the figure's back and landed with a thud
on the ground near Johnny's head. The object was a tremendous
burlap sack and as the figure opened the sack Johnny first
experienced the stench. An odor so foul that Johnny never forgot
it. How could he. That odor, that night, would haunt him for the
rest of his life.
Johnny looked up as the figure lifted a soggy yellow mass from
the sack. A cabbage. A very old, very rotten, very large,
cabbage. The figure forced open Johnny's mouth and crammed the
fetid cabbage in.
"Eat!"
Johnny did.
Then another cabbage. "Eat!"
And another, "Eat!"
At some point, during the next hour and a half, Johnny started
crying ... stopped resisting ... surrendered his will to the figure
... and started counting. He counted them one by one, cabbage
after cabbage ... eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight...
Johnny woke suddenly from his nightmare the same way that he
had for the last six years, with his mother slapping his face and
telling him that it was alright.
"Wake up sorry ass, you were having another nightmare. Its
alright."
But it wasn't alright.
It wasn't just a nightmare.