Plucked from Obscurity
Flash fiction, 400 words. For Oct. 4 Iron Age prompt "The Infestation." Getting a little spooky this month!
Manly Manderson stared at the poster, befuddled. His face stared back, in all its handsome glory: chiseled jaw, shaggy mane, rugged physique. The poster held a place of honor on the theater’s wall of upcoming attractions. His time had come. He had a starring role in an action film. He was about to make it big.
It was just a pity that he couldn’t remember making the movie.
He thought so hard that his eyes squinted and lines etched his otherwise perfect brow. Lots of auditions, lots of rejections, lots of time for booze and self-pity. He remembered all – well, most – of it. But he couldn’t remember this. Surely making the film had taken some time. His poster version sported an off-brand military uniform, a gun, and an expression of alarm and determination. He was hounded by what he assumed were giant bed lice.
Maybe, thought Manly Manderson, this wasn’t him at all. Maybe he had a long-lost twin, a doppelganger, a him from another dimension. Maybe he was the doppelganger, and the real Manly Manderson was the movie star. His name was on the poster in big letters.
It didn’t help that they were everywhere, watching, in the corner of his eye, their sickly carapaces never quite seen, but too big for him to miss entirely. He didn’t know if they were real. He didn’t know if he was real. Plenty of people walked by, looked at the poster, smirked, and moved on. No eyes fell on him. No eyes fell on them.
The whispering didn’t help. Or was it scurrying? The sound was to Manly Manderson’s (or his doppelganger’s) ears like dried leaves over concrete, or tiny insect legs across the bedframe at 3 am. It made his flesh crawl but his brain heard words.
“We entertain. We are here. On the screen. We are everywhere. A cineplex is.”
Chitter, chitter. Skitter, skitter.
Manly Manderson turned from the poster and walked away. Maybe he wouldn’t see the movie. He didn’t like horror. Maybe the other Manly Manderson did. Maybe there was no other. Maybe he was just a face on a poster. He stayed at the bar that night until he could remember neither his name nor his address. When dawn came, he crawled into the shadows and joined their ranks. The face on the poster remained.
Chitter, chitter. Skitter, skitter.
The Pests’ greatest trick was convincing humanity that they didn’t exist.
Manly Manderson, LOL!
We both used movie posters lol.