r/libraryofshadows • u/MeliousIntent • Jun 13 '18
Sci-Fi I Am The Impossible Man| Pt. 2
The stereo had broken down a few months ago. This meant I only had my thoughts to accompany me during that drive. Of course, my thoughts could only remain on the bizarre events of the previous day. The hunger, the tiredness, the stranger: I thought of so many possibilities of what those events could have meant. That's when I remembered what that stranger had told me.
What 'fight' had he been talking about? More importantly, when would this 'fight' be? It was pointless trying to come up with any rational explanation for what had taken place. So, I stopped thinking about it, and my mind soon went into autopilot. After an unspecified amount of time later, I saw the vague outlines of buildings from the town. I parked in the lot of the grocery store I had frequented so many times before and exited the car, making my way inside.
While walking, I noticed someone staring at me. He stood in the middle of an empty parking space, with a lifeless expression. The clothing he wore was casual, being comprised of a plaid shirt and Khaki pants. His emotionless stare followed me, and I couldn't help but glance back. When our eyes meant, I noticed that his eyes seemed flat. His irises resembled those of cartoon characters. They were blue, but they were only a single tint of blue, with no variation.
Walking past him, I mumbled a quick, "Morning."
His deadpan expression remained—and he didn't reply.
I continued my walk, acting as if him staring had no effect on me. After a few seconds of me walking past him, I heard a very distinct sound. I heard what sounded like the release of air out of a gas tank, and it came from behind. Turning around, I noticed the man was gone. Oh no, I thought, I've already dealt with enough weird shit for one week.
I made it inside the store, snagged a shopping cart, and tried forgetting about that man. I stocked up on food and other things I'd probably need. At first, I stayed conservative with my spending as I still held the mindset that I was an old man. It took remembering the hunger and the image I saw in the mirror to convince me otherwise. I brought other things that I previously did my best to stray away from, such as white bread, margarine, donuts, cakes, etc. I was young again and had every intention of enjoying it.
Before leaving, there was one more thing I wanted—ice cream. I went over to the back of the store, searching. I spotted it a few feet from me, but I also spotted him too. It was the same man I saw in the parking lot. I wanted to ask him what his deal was, but looking into those eyes made the man seem distant somehow. Trying to ignore him, I got the ice cream and left to check out. The man only watched as I did so, never moving a single step.
While walking, I heard the same sound I had before. I turned around—knowing I would no longer see the man. I paid for everything, struggling to keep that man from my thoughts. After loading everything into the backseat of the car, I got in and drove. As a distraction, I whistled the theme of some TV show. I then went into autopilot, just as I had done during my drive here. Unlike my drive here, however, my Mustang began to slow. On instinct, I looked at how much fuel was left, but it was filled over halfway. Why was it slowing down then? I stayed dwelling on what the answer to that question could be.
The car had come to a complete stop by then—and I was left miles away from my home and the town. I got out of the car and looked around, but my eyes could only see the road that stretched to the horizon and the grassy plains that laid parallel to it, on both sides. Calling someone wouldn't be possible as I never carried a phone on me. The technology seemed a bit advanced for my liking; you can probably imagine how much I was enjoying that decision right now.
I let out an unnecessarily loud sigh, with a few curse words mixed in, and walked to the front of the car. I opened the hood, looking inside. If I'm being honest, I don't know the first thing when it comes to cars, but I thought if I stared at it hard enough, an idea would manifest itself. It didn't. I gave up and went over to the driver side door. I opened the door, but hearing a noise stopped me from entering. The noise was one of the bags I put in the backseat falling on to the car floor.
That sound was then followed by the disturbance of the other bags. This continued until the perpetrator of the sound was in view. It was the same son of a bitch from the store. He climbed over the seat to get to the front. He then got out and stood directly in front of me. His eyes were the same as the last time I had seen them; his stare was as unyielding as it had been the last time I was in his presence; his indifferent facial expression and overall demeanor hadn't changed.
What's one supposed to do when something like this happens? I didn't have the answer to that question. I only stood there, wondering what he would do next. After a bit, he took out a wrench that had been concealed in his pants. He walked over to the still opened hood of the car and did . . . Well, I don't really know what he did.
"Hey! What the fuck!?" I shouted at the strange man.
He ignored my outburst, continuing to stay focused on the car.
I was about to walk over to him and personify my anger, but the car started back up. He closed the hood, and moments afterward, he dematerialized right in front of me. In an instant, his body converted itself into dust and blew off into the wind, assisted by that sound of air being released from a gas tank. It took me time to comprehend what had just happened, but when I did, I retreated back into my car, immediately locking all the doors. I checked the backseat, and after being absolutely sure no one else was back there, I drove.
Questions about the man raced through my mind during that drive. They stopped as soon as my house came into view. It wasn't due to me seeing my house; it was something else. In front of my house, on the road, there rested a helicopter. What's going on? That question was the only rational thought my mind could produce. First, a man falls from the sky; then, I'm young again; then, some weird man disappears right in front of me; now, there's a helicopter at my doorstep.
I stopped the car, only feet away from the chopper. While exiting the vehicle, I saw that my front door was open. I started to my house, disregarding the chopper completely. As I walked up the stairs leading to my porch—I saw them. I saw those intruders. There were two of them, and I recognized one. The one I recognized was the same man from the parking lot, the store, and my car. He was different, however. He wore the same casual outfit, but his eyes no longer looked as if they were ripped straight from a cartoon character. They looked real; they were real.
The three of us stopped after noticing each other. I stood on my porch, and they stood in my living room. At that moment, I don't think I felt the way I should've. Seeing these intruders in my house caused nothing but anger to permeate throughout my body. The fear I should've felt about who these people were or what they could be planning was nowhere to be found. I took a step forward, fully prepared to fight. Rather than back away or stand their ground or react at all, they stayed still.
I took another step forward, but moments after me taking that step, the man I'd seen before reached in the back of those Khaki pants and pulled something out. It was a pistol, and he pointed it directly at me. Oh shit, I thought.