Don't Look Back

Don’t Look Back

            “If I don’t make it back just run.  Promise me you’ll grab your mother and run.  Don’t look back. Don’t wait for me. Just go.  If you hear him try to hide.  Just go. Promise me.”

            “I Promise dad.  I’ll keep her safe.”  The boy said staring up into his father’s eyes. 

            “No keep YOU safe.  They want boys like you. They will try to take YOU not your mother. If you can keep her safe too do it but if not you run. You hear me. Run.”  Those were the last words his father ever said to him.  They heard the screaming only moments before they heard the singing.  The three of them joined the horde of fleeing people crowding the street.  His mother’s blonde hair started to come out of her hair tie as she ran alongside his father. 

            The crowd of people began to come slow and try to reverse.  As they got closer to the front of the herd they could see that Greed was standing in their path with Lust at his side. People began to stream down the side streets in an attempt to avoid one of the Sins.  Greed simply smiled and let them rush past him.  The boy’s father guided them to the right following the smaller crowd. 

            “Remember what your father told you.”  His mother screamed over her shoulder as they ran full out up the once busy New York street.  The normal organized chaos of Times Square drowned was drowned out by the screaming.  They continued to run East hoping to the subway may provide some form of escape. 

            “Dad look out!”  The boy stopped short and turned the other way.  Sloth quietly stood next to a statue of  Whoppi Goldberg that was standing guard outside of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.   His father never had time to react to the warning.  Sloth raised his head and locked eyes with the boy’s father.  The boy’s father stood paralyzed.  The boy grabbed his mother’s arm and ran in the opposite direction.  The boy began to tire as they turned South on 8^th avenue running down to 39^th street.

            They ducked into an adult book store to catch their breathe.  The boy saw others running down the street being steadily pursued by Greed and Lust.   His mother covered his ears as soon as Lust opened her mouth.   He had to pull his mother further into the store to avoid the pink beam that sliced through the side of the building.  They were both showered in debris.  A small beam fell on his arm and he lost feeling in his left hand.  Videos from a top shelf fell onto his them cutting his mother on the forehead. 

            He crawled out of the debris to check the street.  He found it clear of all but a few people now running north.  He went back and grabbed his mother and they began to run north as well. He cradled his arm to himself as he ran, the numbness had worn away leaving only pain in its wake.   His mother hair completely free of its constraints ran clutching the bag she had all of their most prized possessions in.   That was when they heard the singing. 

            “All you have to do is run.  Just promise me you’ll run.”  Wrath sang as he strolled up the block to music only he and his victims could hear.   “If I should claim a victim….” People fell to their knees before him frozen in fear unable to continue.  Tears streaming down their faces.  “I pray that you’ll forgive me.” The boy looked back.  Wrath was no longer on the street the boy could no longer hear the singing. 

            “I told you not to look back right.”  Wrath said with a chuckle as he sat atop the street light above the boy.  The boy shook with fear and then his mother grabbed him the arm and began to pull him along again.  His eyes began to glaze, his vision blurred then …

            All I saw was blonde hair and a hand bag swinging as she screamed past me.  She was joined by two other women screaming for help.  They ran so fiercely that instinct took over and I joined them.

Don’t Look Back by Miguel

Leads directly into a scene from the MisEducation of A Minor. 

-Manny L. Birch (Author)