Yesteryear Fiction

A Rorschach in Red and White
By Brian Middleton Jr.


I've got to end this quickly, he thinks, as the fist of the Brass Simian crashes into his face. He reels for a moment and then levels his opponent with a haymaker. It's too damn cold, and we definitely shouldn't be here. "Here" is the Forbidden Territory. Every man, woman and child knows that to be in this part of town is to invite certain death.
"You're not paying attention, hero" the Brass Simian snarls. "You would think that a man who calls himself 'The Vigilant Protector' would pay more attention." The villainous metallic monkey feints with his right hand and then cuffs his opponent alongside the head. Blood spills onto the snow covered land, decorating it like some red and white Rorschach painting.
"Go screw yourself," the Vigilant Protector says. He blocks another cuff to his head, and lands two shots to his opponent's torso. This is getting me nowhere, he thinks, realizing that the blows to the monkey's metallic body are doing more harm to his fist than to the stamina of his simian opponent. If there was one thing that the Brass Simian did not lack, it was stamina. When the Vigilant Protector had first spotted the evil primate, he had been pummeling seven cops just outside of the First National bank. The hero swooped in and started a knock-down, drag-out fight that had crossed seventeen city blocks, and was now clocking in at over three hours. Both combatants were bruised, and there was an ungodly amount of blood in the snow around them.
"Pay attention!" the monkey screams, wailing on the Vigilant Protector with his right and left fist. Blood spills from the hero's mouth and on to the snow. There's so much blood, he thinks, and his stomach turns sour. He nearly adds vomit to the bloody landscape, but reins it in. I have to end this now. There's only one thing to do, he concludes. The Kinetic Punch, a move that he had learned from a fallen friend, was his most powerful move. It gathered all of the energy that he would use in the next hour, and put it behind one great punch. It was a move that would leave him devastatingly devoid of energy.
He crouches into the ancient position, gathers the potential energy, and pushes off of his left heel, delivering a powerful punch to the face of his opponent. The Brass Simian falls to the ground, unconscious. I should really get out of here, The Vigilant Protector thinks. "But I haven't the strength yet," he says to no one. I'll rest, he thinks. "But just for a moment." He lays down in the snow, and gathers his strength. Eventually a noise catches his ear, and he again becomes aware of his surroundings. "When did it get dark out?" he asks. When he feels the twin pinpricks on his neck, he remembers that there was some place he wanted to be. As he feels the lips begin to suckle at his neck, he realizes that he doesn't much mind the cold.


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Brian Middleton is a Husband, a musician and a storyteller. His story, "Maddie and the Strange Train" was featured in Down in the Dirt Magazine. He has also self-published the fantasy novella, "The Clockwork War.