The dog ran into the backyard As the stars lit up the sky He saw a shadowy figure The dog waved and said "Hi!"
The figure turned toward him Its eyes glaring red A dark voice said, "Who goes there?" He walked out from the shed
"Let's play! Let's play!" The dog exclaimed As he started to run The black figure with white stripes said, "So you wanna have some fun?"
He lifted his tail and sprayed A foul, green-glowing gunk The dog ran away into the night As he yelled, "Screw you, skunk!"
With the night comes darkness, but also stars. With pain comes joy, but also scars. With dreams come obstacles, but also lessons. With life comes sugar, but also lemons.
With the sun comes clouds, but also rain. With growth comes failure, but also gain. With loss comes anguish, but also scars. With the night comes darkness, but also stars.
I wish I didn't have to be here.
I struggled with all my might as the tentacles pulled me down into the trash pile below, ready to swallow me whole right then and there.
I had been volunteering at the landfill for almost a week now. It's not like I had a choice; I had had several misdemeanours and two felony convictions. "Now get a life," I remember the officer's last words when I left prison to finish my sentence with community service. I ended up choosing... this.
All around the landfill, there was nothing but big white and black plastic bags, creating a disgusting, patterned, and dull mound that smelt horribly of decomposing organic matter, chemicals, spoiled milk, excrement, and just about every other unpleasant odour you could think of.
Every single day I could feel my nose being invaded like a foreign army invading a peaceful country. I pulled my trusty bandana over my mouth and nose; it was far from the first time I had used it to block out the unpleasant smell.
It wasn't pleasant, but I still pulled through - until one day it turned deadly for me. "Randy, what the hell is this hissing noise?" I asked my coworker who was sorting through garbage bags not too far from me.
He walked over to my side. Then, right at that moment, there was what sounded like squirming and boiling water or melting plastic. I looked down at the garbage pile and noticed a green liquid leaking from one of the garbage bags, then some tentacles rising out of the garbage, like an undead octopus.
Before I could react, the tentacles shot up out of the ground, wrapping around my neck and legs and squeezing them like a stress ball. I grabbed the tentacles, trying to pry them loose from my neck in a desperate attempt to free myself and clear my airway, but to no avail.
Suddenly, I was yanked up off the ground, head facing the sky. As the tentacles began to pull my body down towards the pile of garbage below, I could feel the pressure on my neck and legs, my head starting to become dizzy and my body beginning to weaken.
I looked over at Randy. "Randy, help," I barely managed to choke the words out. But Randy just stood there, grinning.
"So long, Jordan," he remained motionless.
I thought about all of the crimes I had committed. From that time I shoplifted to the time I assaulted an old man and committed fraud. And all of the trouble I had caused my family and the people my crimes had affected.
As I saw the world around me go black, I wished I wasn't at that landfill. I wished I could start over.
I wanted more money For me and my honey So we could be more wealthy And we could eat more healthy
Food is too pricey to buy And so that’s exactly why I crave a better situation To keep up with inflation
One week it was $1 more Then the next, another four Goddamn bananas and meat! Why can’t life just be more sweet?
Last month I made $5004 Now I made one thousand more But my rent was once two thousand… Yikes! Now it’s at three thousand!
Financial freedom is out of reach. Goddammit.
Riley Andersen’s teeth chattered as she walked behind. The temperature was 26 degrees Fahrenheit, and it certainly showed around her; the air was bitterly cold against her body even with a bulky jacket and hat, icicles hung from the trees like sleeping fruit bats, and the ground was covered in snow that reached as far as her ankles with every step.
Then Riley froze on the spot as she saw a doll-like figure scurry past her. The smile on her face faded, her teeth chattering even more now and her heartbeat suddenly speeding up.
It had been just a day since the teenager had returned to Minnesota on a two week long trip during the Christmas holidays, revisiting the state she used to call home before she moved to San Francisco. She had felt almost every emotion imaginable, and spent the days before the trip recalling bittersweet childhood memories and planning her return trip to make it one to remember.
But this was not something she had planned for. “Rat!” Fear cried, taking refuge on Anger’s head.
Inside the mind of Riley was “Headquarters,” a place where all of her emotions controlled her everyday actions. It had become quite the crowded space, with a total of nine personified emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, Embarassment, and now Nostalgia.
“Hey, get off of me!” the short-tempered red man demanded as his head burst into flames, setting Fear on fire and sending him running. Beside them, Disgust cringed, at both them the sight of the rat.
“Oh, no, not a rat!” Anxiety panicked. “What’s gonna happen? What if we get rabies?”
“Okay, okay, calm down, people!” Joy ordered as she extinguished Fear’s flaming butt. Let’s not think about that.”
With that, Riley calmed down and took a look around the corner, investigating. In the snow, she saw, seemingly lifeless, a cowboy doll. Woody. He was a classic example of a toy that was purely handmade, with his hand-painted face and a stitched vest and hat.
Riley noticed a pull string on Woody’s back. “Hey there, partner!” Woody said, in a robotic but enthusiastic toy voice.
Riley stared at Woody for a few seconds. Then, at Ennui’s command, Riley shrugged her shoulders and walked back into the house.
“Hey Meg, look what I found!” she addressed her friend, who turned around to meet Riley’s gaze. Meg was Riley’s former best friend, who she grew up with while still living in Minnesota. They were still close, having kept in touch ever since Riley moved away. This was despite Meg making a new best friend and Riley angrily hanging up on her one day as a result, but they had long forgiven each other.
Riley pulled the string on Woody. “Somebody’s poisoned the waterhole!”
“Oh my god, is that a Woody doll?” Meg cried in excitement. “Remember when we used to play with my Woody doll when you would come over to my house sometimes? And you would bring your Jessie doll?”
“I had a Woody doll too when I was growing up,” Riley responded. “But I don’t think I remember it ever coming alive?”
“Excuse me, what did you say?” Meg replied, both amused and astonished.
“Uh…”
Riley blushed. “Oops!” But Meg laughed, and so did Riley.
And with that, both Riley and Joy smiled, knowing that this trip surely would be one to remember.
“Alyssa, don’t do it!” Jake pleaded.
As Jake stared at the ticking bomb, he tried wiggling and squirming tirelessly to break free from the ropes. But the uncomfortably tight ropes, bounding him tightly to the table like a python strangling its prey to death, refused to budge. He couldn’t even feel his legs or his feet, and his mind told him right away, There’s no getting out of this one.
“This is my revenge for you breaking my heart.” Alyssa laughed, sounding like a maniac choking on a bagel.
And revenge it sure was. “I had no other choice,” Jake insisted, his voice somewhat slurred and stumbled.
“I loved you,” Alyssa cried, tears beginning to roll down her face. “I loved you with all my heart. I thought we had a future together, and THIS is how you repay me?”
“Alyssa, please HEAR me, or we’ll both be dead in five…”
But before Jake could finish speaking slower than a sloth, she shoved a napkin into his mouth, gagging him and muffling his speech. “Just shut up. I don’t want to hear your excuses,” she scoffed.
“Fee finufes!” Jake managed to weakly utter through the napkin.
As he stared at Alyssa, his facial expression softened, defeated and hopeless. He thought of the happy memories they had had together. He thought of the day that he was driving to Alyssa’s house, licking his lips in anticipation of the delicious chicken dinner she and her parents had prepared for him. He recalled waking up in the hospital, having no recollection of being t-boned and suffering life-altering injuries.
Then he noticed the bomb. He was immediately distracted by the various colours of the bomb - the sleek white and silver of the bomb itself, the blue wire, the green wire, the red wire, and the red numbers counting down from two minutes remaining, to one minute and thirty seconds.
One minute.
Finally Jake felt the napkin slip out of his mouth. “Save me, please! Have you thought about our families? My parents will grieve for life, and yours will either grieve you or watch you rot in jail!” I pleaded, desperately. “Think of them, think of US, not yourself for once!”
Thirty-five seconds.
Alyssa’s facial expression softened, but she just sat still. “Please, Alyssa. You know I’m not a man who’s suited to be the father of your future baby. But I have connections. I’ll help you find someone else. We’ll both be happy again. We can both move on from this. You just have to give it a chance, Alyssa.”
But Alyssa still sat there, a sad expression on her face. Twenty seconds. The beeping on the bomb suddenly began to speed up, and Alyssa suddenly clutched her head and tugged at her hair.
As the bomb beeped like an emergency alarm that was in a calm panic mode, Alyssa felt her heart beginning to race, her breath accelerating. Her mind flashed back to the day she left the therapist’s office and Jake congratulated her on beating her struggle with depression. She thought of her parents smiling as she shared a long, romantic kiss with Jake. She thought of the day she went to visit Jake in the hospital after his car crash, only to be told that he had suffered from a brain injury and was paralyzed from the waist down.
She remembered the looks on the faces of Jake’s parents as they accepted that he would never walk again. Then she snapped out of her flashback, clenching her jaw and gazing down at her pant pocket.
Ten… nine… eight… seven…
She pulled a key out of her pocket. She could feel her eyes watering and her fists clenching as she held back the urge to scream. She ran over to the bomb and cut the red wire. The timer froze and the bomb died down. Two seconds to spare.
Finally, she bent over and started crying. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Please just untie me,” Jake gently requested.
Reluctantly, Alyssa obliged. As soon as the ropes were freed, Jake twisted and turned before falling off the table and to the ground weakly, his legs and feet completely numb, no feeling in them whatsoever. He could feel Alyssa picking him up and squeezing him with all her might. Her sobs filled the room, and little drops of water stained Jake’s button-up shirt.
All Jake could do was breathe as he returned the embrace. But deep inside, with every breath, Jake felt peace.
The flying foxes were everywhere Winged bats in the night As they swarmed the gun-toting poacher They were quite the scary sight
It wasn’t just the thought of rabies Or their scary faces Or the strength that came in numbers It was the their teamwork and how they faced it
The doomed poacher thought to himself “Why’d I get into this” as he was swarmed
