Friday

He had to give it to her, seeing how much true crime she absorbed daily as podcasts or television, and having lived as a woman alone since her divorce, it was granted that Eugenie White would simply freak the fuck out. Anyone, Terence saw, would lose their shit as their sense of home shelter and security became breached on an ordinary Friday night from a spot that seemed impregnable. The two windows of the living room, as did the one in the bedroom at the back of the apartment, possessed some rolled-down metallic shutters, but Eugenie never thought of using them, as it was quite unlikely that anyone would be able to threaten her home through a place other than her front door.

Therefore, the result of the knock was immediate and unsurprising. Eugenie’s glass of wine, which she had been holding up in her hand, went flying on the side and crashed against the wall under the clock, shattering in a million pieces. Terence knew he’d have to be careful with the debris that would soon populate this place, as this was only the beginning and he had some very delicate paw cushions to preserve. Everything became fast paced, so he opened his eyes wide and tucked his tail under his front paws, like one sits in a movie theater with a bucket of popcorn ready for a great time.

Eugenie lifted her head at the window in pure terror and, for a brief instant, she wondered. She wondered what it was, but this brief instant was short lived, as the black hooded shadow present on her balcony was undeniably there. Terence watched Barry take the measure of the fright he had just inflicted to her and quickly pull down the hood from his sweater to show his face, with on it the naïve hope that its familiarity would smooth things out. Sadly, Eugenie was too busy to see it, busy shrieking and literally rolling backwards in an inverted somersault from her couch so as to put a barrier between her and the sudden menace. Terence watched her hand stick out from her hiding spot and grab the cell phone she had left on the dining room table earlier.

Barry knocked again and mouthed the words “Ms White?” His face was drenched, white as the face of a ghost, glistening from the rain and he looked like he had been squashed by a giant’s shoe. He and Terence made quick eye contact and the cat softly lowered his lids, expressing a gratitude that Barry couldn’t have comprehended. You’ll be alright, Terence sent him a thought, in the end. I mean i think. Barry knocked again and Eugenie peaked from behind the L angle of the sofa, then she launched herself towards the coffee table to seize the small knife that she had used on her first half of a chicken nugget and she was on her way back to retreating when she froze. At last, she saw Barry’s face. She slumped on the arm of the couch with eyes eating her entire face, electrified by the sight.

“I’m not going to hurt you!” Barry explained from behind the window but, through the hubbub of the rain and hurls of the wind, it was impossible to hear. Terence was just very gifted at reading lips, it had always been a talent of his, especially in the English language, opposed to the Swedish gibberish that Eugenie was producing on her phone with her aunt and uncle. He hated Scandinavian tongues, goofy and cutting unpredictably in the middle of dialogue. Eyes back on Eugenie, he watched her get up from behind the couch armed with her knife and cell phone and this time, an expression of shock that had rarely seen a precedent on her face. She inhaled sharply as if she was going to shout but held her breath halfway there and then gurgled: “Barry?” Terence would have bet for a high pitch but this, this was low, a growl, a visceral sound.

It was, after all, the last word she would utter from her current dimension, about to shift into another. Her old life was over. “Ba-RRY?” It was also the first word o the rest of her life.

Although still drowning in the rain shower, water cascading from his forehead, shoulders, chin, the boy smiled at her timidly, nodding encouragingly, half smiled, half grimaced in anguish. Terence could tell he was struggling to hold himself straight and that his strength was diminishing. But something clicked in Eugenie at this very second and she was jolted up very straight and tightly as if anger and repulsion were batteries an invisible puppet-master hand had introduced inside her back. She became absolutely unhinged.

Fury conquered her eyes and reshaped her face into a twisted mask and she brandished the knife towards her unwanted guest, she started roaring, “NO, NO, THIS IS NOT OKAY, THIS IS NOT OKAY WHAT THE FUCK” and she took two steps in the direction of Barry, agitated the little phone in the air, “I AM GOING TO CALL THE POLICE YOU HEAR ME BARRY THIS IS NOT OKAY THIS IS NOT OKAY”

Barry comprehended the presence of the phone and what was at stake and it became his turn to panic right away, jolted upwards, and he raised his sleeved hand in rendition, the other one still pushed against his stomach, “no no no please” he shook his head in pleading “I’m sorry Ms White I can explain I can expl—”

“EXPLAIN WHY YOU ARE ON MY BALCONY YOU MOTHERFUCKER THIS IS NOT OKAY” Eugenie’s rage at the current event occurring in her life and specifically the main actor of it, a former student of Geography that she had been happy to see vanish from her days, had disintegrated her fear and apprehension at once and she ran to the window, shoved the phone in her pants’ pocket, drop the knife, drop the knife, Terence thought, which she did. She landed her hand on the knob and shouted, “YOU ARE RECORDING ME RIGHT NOW THIS IS ONE OF YOUR STUPID PRANKS OH MY GOD THIS IS NOT OKAY WHAT THE FUCK”

“No no nononono not a prank not a prank” Terence saw that perhaps, the boy had come ill prepared, to say the least, and had not anticipated the ample protest he was receiving from Eugenie, as he seemed to ponder things and attempt to adjust. Perhaps, as well, he was not aware of how little she desired to cross paths with him again, out of the entire crowd of her students present and past, and how not she wished to see him appear at her place of residence. Some misunderstandings and gaps in background information were to be expected.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“THIS IS NOT OKAY YOU HEAR ME THIS IS THE LAST DROP BARRY THIS IS NOT—” Eugenie opened the window with such an aggressive motion that Barry was caught by surprise and, in his predicament, lost his footing; unable to fight anything that was happening, he dropped in a tumble against Eugenie, who continued yelling, “HELP HELP HELPPPPP” but the storm was still booming, one lightning bolt after the other followed by great explosions between the dark clouds, and the drums of the rain against everything that was in its path cancelled all the other noises.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry” Barry’s fall pinned Eugenie under him. Terence was loving this. There was already more action happening right now in those few first minutes than in the whole previous year.

“GET OFF ME GET OFF ME GET THE FUCK OF MEE” she flapped her arms and legs and managed to un-tuck herself from him, rolled on top of him and slapped him in the chest. Yikes, Terence thought. “YOU YOU LITTLE SHIT, YOU LITTLE SHIT” and Barry choked on his breath and fell on one elbow, showing her the palm of his hand in another gesture of peace. The red color of the blood on the hand caught Eugenie’s eye, shining on his fingers, “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BLOOD IS THAT—” then she registered the presence of the same colour on her own jumper and recoiled violently, a gazelle realizing she leaped into the path of a lion, until she hit the half of the window that was still shut in her back, “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BLOOD IS THAT KETCHUP IS THAT—”

“Ms White!” Barry spoke to her, trying to catch a breath, desperate to sneak in some normal dialogue, “it’s real blood it’s my blood I’m sorry I’m hurt I’m sorry I didn’t know where to—”

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT BARRY MASQUEVERT WHAT THE—”

“I’m sorry” he whimpered, lost altitude on his shaky elbow, “Ms White I’m sorry I didn’t want to freak you out I’m… I have been shot by a gun and I’m really hurt I don’t have anywhere else to go”

Eugenie was breathless and exhausted by her own screaming. She squinted at him and lowered her tone, baffled and pissed off, “what the fuck are you talking about Barry by a gun that’s impossible that’s imposs— BARRY OPEN YOUR EYES” She saw his face go blank and his arm dissolve under his weight and, just before his head hit the floor, she slid back to him, grabbed him by the arms and, quite brutally, sat him up against the armchair behind him, “BARRY WAKE UP WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ON DRUGS ARE YOU—”

“It’s not a prank I promise Ms White” he squealed in pain, his eyelids batting like the wings of a butterfly, “I was shot like a rabbit and I fell from a building and then I was hit by a car and—”

“Swheeti-hie—”

“I’m going to pass out”

“What NO BARRY OPEN YOUR EYES OPEN YOUR EYES TELL ME WHAT IS HAPPENING”

“I have been shot I’m sorry that I came to your balcony I didn’t think—”

“What are you saying Barry” she wailed more, still holding him up as far as possible from her, “BARRY TELL ME THE TRUTH”

“I tried to help someone and they shot me”

Eugenie finally looked down at his huge and baggy sweater of a dark brown color and Terence heard a faint gasp escape her lips. She and Barry locked eyes in a much-appreciated silent pause for three very long seconds, during which she seemed to come to the start of an understanding. She opened her mouth very wide again and took a big gulp of air, but no sound came out. She repeated the motion with more air but hesitated once more “Oh my god then why—” she closed her eyes again, achingly, “why the fuck are you” she said, articulating the words very clearly, “here and not— BARRY OPEN YOUR EYES”

He winced in agony and wriggled to free himself from her grip, unsuccessfully, as her fingers were digging into the shredded skin of his bloody left arm, “I’m sorry I’m really trying it really h—”

“WHY ARE YOU HERE AND NOT IN A HOSPITAL” she realized she was yelling again, “why the fuck did you come here IF YOU HAVE BEEN SH—”

“I can’t go to a hospital Ms White”

“WHY THE FUCK NOT”

“Nooo please it’s too dangerous they’ll be looking for me”

“Dangerous?” her voice broke, from horror and confusion, as in Eugenie’s world, hospitals were nice places especially when it came to people wanting to be cured of their illnesses.

“They will find me there they—”

“WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY I mean who are they”

“Some” Barry hesitated, “Russians”

“Barry”

“Sorry sorry sorry I d d don’t know why I said that. They are … robots”

“BARRY YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND” she let go off him with an expression of decision on her face, something grumpy that testified of her level of fedup-ness, got up on her feet and produced her little cell phone from her pocket, wiped her sweaty brow, “let me call an ambulance, don’t worry it will—”

“Nooo” spread on the floor after being dropped like a bag of potatoes, Barry pushed himself up on his elbows and raised one hand towards her, “no please no don’t do that”

She mirrored his motion by pointing an angry teacher index finger back at him while she swiped on her phone screen with the other hand, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH BARRY SHUT THE FUCK UP NOW AND I WILL GO WITH YOU I WILL—”

“Nooo”

9, she dialed.

“Nooo please, not that, not that” Barry folded his knees and rolled on his side, raised himself enough to get back on his feet, legs warming up, little strands and twists of blue from the force of the bolt he was gathering, which would soon be propelling him upwards again. His eyes were glued to Eugenie and to her hand and to the cell phone, in consternation and disappointment.

Then, she dialed the number 1 and prepared to repeat the push. At the peak of enjoyment, Terence watched Barry shake his head, heard in his mind’s ear, “oh my god not that, not that” The boy closed his eyes and Terence waited. He had witnessed the phenomenon before, the bolt, and it was not something he particularly disliked. Everything dissolved in the cat’s universe as when one was going to sleep, the world of sounds around sucked in like they would have been absorbed underwater, and all turned blue, a cold sparkly blue, for what he knew would feel like the half of one second but which, for Barry, would open a bubble of stolen time allowing him to just, Terence thought, just… act faster. That was pretty much it.

The power filled up the room and reverberated into the walls, ejecting all the frames nailed on the walls in the air even as far as the entrance corridor, followed by a terrible crash that was Barry colliding into the bookshelves on the left of the couch and smashing them into pieces. Although Terence had not closed his eyes, it felt like it when the half of the bolting second passed, and time resumed its normal course.