Dust- A collaborative tale

[covent]

Creeping out the downtown all female boarding house with Lester, Ana heard a match strike. Dread seeping through her, she turned just as Winston was taking a long draw. Throwing his head back, Winston, slowly blowing smoke from mouth and nostril, said

"Thought you could get away from me did you Doll?" Throwing a glance at Lester, he added "that your new squeeze is it Doll?" 

Lester was silently recalling events of the previous day. So surreal! He remembered struggling against the hawk, wind and dust wrapping around his head, the grit in his eyes, his ears ringing. So reminiscent of the Black back home. He remembered some heavily armed bloke called Winston  chasing them through the streets.  

Lester heard Ana say, “Followed us all the way from the wreck did you? Oh, and I am not “Doll’”

"Who you talking to Ana?" Lester asked. 

"Ah" drawled Winston "a dusty boy from dust bowl Oki. That the best you can do Doll?"

Lester grabbed Ana by the arm and they began to run again. Seemed to Lester, since he met Ana, he did a lot of running.

He knew he needed to be sensible, Find work here in Chi-town maybe or move on again. But all he really wanted was a drink. Even some of that **** moonshine would do.

[MonkMode]

Lester remembered, just before the great flu, hawks were following him.  Everywhere he went, some hawk would land nearby.

The hawks couldn’t have weighed much more than a couple pounds, but they stood fearless in Lester’s path, ready to fight, welcoming aggression.

Their moves were robotic, their eyes darted like super predators.

As luck would have would have it, as Lester stepped onto the balcony for a smoke, another hawk landed nearby.

Lester got about 2 feet away, and made sure to look out the side of his eye, in case the hawk tried to eat it.

[Oldcarpy2]

Little did he know, but the hawks were indeed robotic, not in a mechanical way, but they were in fact, zombie hawks, programmed to follow his every move.

By an unspeakable nameless horror from beyond space and time.....

[MonkMode]

As Lester got more confident toward the Hawk, he initiated a staring contest.

Nobody could beat Lester in a staring contest, he could go hours without blinking, so long as he could enter his trance state.

He faced the Hawk and they met eyes, every eye movement the Hawk made, Lester matched.  The action kept his eyes from drying out.

Lester and the Hawk kept dancing with each other’s darting eyes.

Lester completely lost track of time as he became entranced by the eyes of The Hawk.

[Oldcarpy2]

But then Lester noticed that the eyes of the hawk began to have slowly writhing luminous green worms behind them.

He was further startled when the hawk spoke to him, soundlessly, in his head....

[MonkMode]

Lester, I AM YOUR FATHER!

The voice was so loud and awesome, it impressed Lester.

Lester said you are super powerful.

The Hawk contorted its face so as to appear disgusted by Lester.  Then it vanished like a mirage of pixels.

Lester was so excited, he told Ana all about his surreal experience.

Then Ana said, you sound like a schizzo.  Lester became deflated.

[Oldcarpy2]

Ana said, "Lester, forgive me, but I'm beginning to think you are a bit of a jinx"?

[MonkMode]

“If that is how you feel,” Lester replied, “perhaps you should find yourself a new squeeze.”

Ana seemed reluctant.

[Oldcarpy2]

Ana was indeed reluctant.

That was when Lester noticed her deadpan expression and her jerky movements....and the slowly wriggling green luminous worms behind her eyes....he recalled the Hawks words.

"Lester, us Hawks .....we are reluctant servants of a nameless horror.. ah...no.I have said too much..ah...nooo"......

[MonkMode]

Lester then realized why the Hawk who appeared before him on the balcony looked disgusted.

Ana was his Mother!

Lester began to retreat from Ana but she grabbed his hand.

Lester yanked his hand back.  He needed to get out of this home ASAP.   Ana started screaming such filthy obscenities to make a sailor blush, but Lester tuned her out and bolted.

Maybe Chicago wouldn’t be a good fit for him after all.

He set his sights on Detroit.

He was determined not to go out like Oedipus Rex.