The Backyard

The Backyard




Giggling, George plays in his sand box. George loves playing with his toy army men. Making them fight in his make-believe desert. On he plays until he notices a thing; this thing, it is formless intangible, it simply is a thing, a curious thing, a dark thing. The thing leads George to the hedge in his backyard where the thing seemingly hesitates for a moment, and slips under the hedge. George pushes past the thorn ridden hedge and chases after the thing. Suddenly, George trips and raises his head; to his surprise there is a door, a door which he has never seen before. The door is heavy and adorned with iron binding that resembles the figures of clawing fingers. George watches, as the thing then effortlessly slips under the door. George hesitates wondering where the door could have come from. George pushes slightly on the door but the door seems far too heavy for such a slight shove, so he braces his shoulder against the door and manages to squeeze into the crack he has created. As soon as George gets his whole body through; the door slams shut and engulfs George in darkness. He is in a small stuffy little room and the door refuses to allow him to exit. George, thoroughly frustrated, shuts his eyes tight in attempt to escape. George opens his eyes not to a small room but rather a vast immeasurable wasteland. The soil is black, damp and cold as the winter’s night. An unceasing breeze fills the air bringing chill to George’s bones.

Necrotic trees shake their empty branches at the dead sky that has neither moon nor sun. The sky itself is absent in color, George shivers as crows cry in the distance.

George begins to head back towards the door, but his limbs are frozen and he is forced to walk deeper into the wasteland before him. Every step against his will he fights until he is exhausted, yet he cannot rest because his body is ever urged forward by an unseen force. George’s mind, slipping its hold on consciousness, he walks into the land; where lost souls and nightmares roam like the beasts and birds of the earth. He is urged into the land which burns into his head as something to be feared. Unshakable anxiety grips his chest. The sensation threatens to break his mind and drive him to insanity.

Even on the verge of total mental collapse, his body forces him further and further into the wasteland. He passes trees and huge gnarled rocks that resemble plastic green peaks; bones lie everywhere the corpses of soldiers still gripping their weapons.

Just before George finally lapses into insanity, the remaining conscious parts of his mind grab onto something and he is brought back to reality. A shadow in the form of a man is what he awoke to; faceless yet humanoid. George again feels the burn of fear welling up in his chest but he feels something else; the presence of the man. It was without question now. He was the thing; the thing which he had followed through the door. George now had the capacity to move his body according to his own will. He once again followed the thing as it beckoned him. Past the tall green opaque peaks, George followed the thing onto a throne, to which the thing pointed and bowed. George stood dumbfounded. Finally his curiosity overcame his fear. He spoke to the thing,” what is all this”? The thing replied in a cool metallic voice, this is your kingdom my tyrant, and I am Cheney your Vice President.