Dead On

The man in black roughly pushed Luke forward onto the shag carpet that covered the orphanage’s lobby floor. Luke’s chin hit the ground and pain shot through him. He tried to spin around, to get a good look at his attacker, but before he could do so the man was on top of him. The mystery man grabbed Luke’s hair, pulling then quickly letting go allowing Luke’s head to slam onto the ground. Luke could feel hot blood trickling down his forehead. The man half snarled, half gurgled and spit onto the ground, narrowly missing Luke’s cheek. Before Luke had time to think, the man had produced a length of twine from his pocket. He started binding Luke’s hands behind his back. Luke squirmed, but failed miserably, as he could only move his feet. The man, done binding Luke’s hands, had moved onto his legs. Now Luke couldn’t move anything. He was stiff as a board, and almost as dead as a Thanksgiving turkey. The man switched positions, now putting more weight on Luke’s upper back, rather than his lower. He started shoving a lime green cloth into Luke’s mouth. Luke almost tasted blood, as the cloth was pulled back, tightening on the corners of his forced smile, and tied around his head. The man, now off Luke’s back, had pulled on the twine binding his hands. Luke stumbled to his feet, looking bedraggled and ghoulish, right as two people jumped out of the nearby broom closet. Luke lokked down expecting another beating, but instead a huge, white flash filled the room. Then another and another. Luke counted six flashes before the room was filled with its normal shade of darkness. When Luke’s eyes adjusted, he took in his surroundings. Luke didn’t believe what he saw. Two boys lay silently laughing on the floor, one of them holding a bright yellow, Kodak disposable camera. Weakly, sound returned to their voices, and hideous laughter filled the room. Luke was shoved against a wall, and his attacker joined the two laughing boys on the other side of the lobby, with a lower laugh than the other two screechers. Anger had returned to Luke for the second time that day, like an old friend coming back for more. The three laughing idiots were Jacob, Andy, and Dave.