IN FEAR, PETER RAN OUT TO THE GARAGE… got on his mountain bike, and peddled hard, away from his house. The images in his mind, of the fiery tallest building, were horrifying…

‘No! It can’t be me…’

But he refused to believe he was cursed – even though, over the ‘thought’ in his vivid nightmare, when he rode a flying beast, which was a horned African buffalo.

… it then respired fire out… that razed the tallest building in Perth.

Still going fast on the path to his school, Peter recalled his-prior enjoying the thrill-moment, aerial, riding majestically on the bull-dragon, and feeling unstoppable and unbeatable – until, the creature spat its venom of fire – and it annihilated the building, flying around 360 degrees, hot burning, till it rose above, like a phoenix from the ashes.

He was really thirsty – and realized he had forgotten, to bring along his 2 racquets, where he also left the last can of Red-bull drink in it, in the sports backpack – on the living room couch. He stopped his bike and cursed. Dropping and kicking his bike down…

… he walked a few steps, and sat…

… at a lonely bus-stop…

… tried hard to think positive, to keep being motivated. Maybe it was a good omen too – that he was ‘not’ going to his school-excuse for self-practice – maybe MS. KING WAS THERE, to ambush him along in the Infirmary… and attack him with a syringe, by sticking to his neck…

That woman too was going around badmouthing that he, Poe and Janey and – his father too – WERE CURSED. Where else… Peter then thought ‘maybe’ the CURSE WAS A SUPERPOWER that they each of them own – which the diabolic and deviant Ms King wanted to steal the ‘curse-power’ and deliver it to her master-employer – Principle Tom Harris.

Of 3 of them glowing, was the ‘way’ of them, TO STAY CONNECTED – he was ‘not’ sure about Poe – but – it had a magical-positive effect in him, that attracted…

… and it was the cause of the electrifying, and bonding magnetism that was now, happening ‘lately’ between him with Janey.

The one-armed boy was breathing easy, in pleasant thoughts and emotions – glowing in pink, of his ‘blind’ girlfriend’s favourite colour. But the tranquillity feeling was abrupted by blaring sound, of an ambulance, coming, and passing fast by him, while sitting alone in a bus-stop…

… Peter stood up at once, and had anxiety attacks again came back – of fear and guilt…

… 29 DEAD…

‘Am I going to be blamed for this too…?’

He saw the vanishing ambulance from his sight, as it turned around the bent. The sound of the siren faded…

… he walked in circles, and begin reasoning to himself, and then concluded…

… that he was ‘not’ in control of those devilish nightmares of his sleep – and he would ‘not’ take the responsibility or the blame, to the ‘actual’ reality’s fate, of similar coincidences happenings around in-real-life…

… he instantly switched his thoughts, to the invitation dinner by Janey’s mom, was brewing unease in his guts. Peter regretted going over to Janey’s house yesterday – and taking her out, skateboarding. Now, that gave dreadful reasons, for his inspector-mother to punish him.

“Why are all of these bloody-adults put in this world, to punish me!!?”

He yelled out at the lonely bus-stop… kicking his bike – and was then, accompanied by barking dogs, in the neighbourhood nearby.

… maybe these were selfish thoughts of him SELF-CENTERING HIMSELF, as he was constantly reminded of, too often – ‘what’ about Janey, WAS SHE IN TROUBLE – if his gift of THE SKATEBOARD TO HER, was found out by her parents?

His mind was so muddled, due to his lack of sleep – he was LOSING CONTROL OF HIS REALITY but he fought back hard… thinking simply of Jane Wilson – his ‘only’ trustworthy friend and girlfriend…

He desperately needed, to hear her golden-voice…

He glowed in pink when he called her cellphone.

By the 3rd ring, the blind girl’s voice in her reply, yelling…

“Hello?”

“Janey! It’s me – where are you?” Whispering, Peter pleaded, in desperation.

“Hi, Boyfriend! I’m WITH MY MOTHER in the Gucci store and we are shopping for some dresses. My mom intends to dress me up, like one of her childhood Barbie B-girl dolls, alright, SEE YOU TOMORROW!”

The one-armed boy didn’t know – what-was Janey angry and upset about… but he needed to ‘see’ her badly.

“Okay Gucci store, I’m coming over!” Peter ended the call.

<><>

“YOU! YOU DON’T MAKE A BIG SCENE IN PUBLIC!” demanded the doctor-mother in the Gucci departmental store, wagging her finger, over her blind daughter’s tantrum…

… like if, her B-girl can ‘see’ it.

Jane Wilson was fuming over her over-protective mother’s interference now – controlling, HER SENSE OF FASHION, and her mum wanted her to wear more dresses. Jane’s argument was, she spent half a day in school, wearing a skirt – and preferred wearing shorts and pants – FOR COMFORT-ELSEWHERE, like Alicia.

‘What’ made Jane lost her ‘cool’ was when Shelley Wilson badmouthed her best-friend – saying that Alicia was a bad influence on her, who had encouraging her to wear loud-colours… and her dreadlocked hairstyle…

… which made her look ‘wild.’

Shelley Wilson had also badmouthed constantly, of Peter Walker as her delinquent boyfriend, and his irresponsible inspector-mother – for his poor-up-bringing. She too had this habit saying out her thoughts – of being ‘proper and in-place’…

… and, by proving everyone was ‘wrong’ too.

One of the celebrity examples that Shelley Wilson drilled Jane with constantly – was the blind-singer Stevie Wonder – who, ‘her’ own parents while growing up had constantly played his ‘music’ in their house… and everyone loved Stevie, back in her-days…

…Shelley grew up, singing it like it was a 2ndnature – but, until in her teens, when she later saw the blind singer in MTV music videos, for the first time, of the 80s and later, in the 90s on the internet – she was appalled and horrified…

… the music industry ‘dressed’ him up in LOUD COLOURS, in the clothes he wore and the WEIRD HAIRDOS – so that the blind singer of the ’60s, was keeping up with the fashion, of the current times of the 80’s – to stay ‘relevant’ with the popular music, of the times.

That SHATTERED SHELLEY’S musical perception and illusion – that was laughable looking at the-singer… by today in social media, in present times standards…

“You are a blind girl, and you CANNOT SEE IT NOW, but they will laugh at you, when they see your photos ‘tomorrow,’ and judge you for your poor fashion sense ‘now’ – by then, it’s too late!”

“It’s always this B-girl BS with you, Mommy – ‘WHY’ CAN’T I LIVE LIKE a normal girl, my age?” Jane asked.

“To me, Jane, FIRST-IMPRESSION ‘MATTERS’ – and everything should be proper and in place.” The impeccable mother replied her back.

“So, you really LOOK DOWN ON BLIND PEOPLE – and guess what, which side of the family did I inherit this-blindness from? It’s YOUR SIDE OF THE FAMILY, Mom! All those glaucoma and cataract cases, with your seniors, in your family tree – be prepared, when it’s ‘your’ turn, Mommy – ONLY TIME WILL TELL.” Her blind daughter replied.

Dr Shelley Wilson was staggered a moment… and she got on her high horse, and argued back…

The one-armed Peter Walker was looking-in from the glass panel-window of the Gucci departmental store, at his girlfriend disputing with her mother, with some onlookers gawking. The conversation was INAUDIBLE FROM OUTSIDE – and Peter concluded…

… that it was about ‘him.’

Seeing Jane glowing paler and paler – left the ‘boyfriend’ uneasy to bear. He got on his mountain bike, and he hurried away into the heart of Perth City...

… for solitude in escapism.

<><>

DWANE ‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON IN THE SKYSCRAPER’S movie poster attracted him. Peter had watched the movie trailer in YouTube but was ‘not’ impressed by it, and he also read movie critics, saying it was a clear rip-off, from the ever-popular Die Hard, of the 80s.

But the one-armed boy needed the ‘distraction’ from his girlfriend-and-her-mother-problems – so, without being judgmental, he stepped into the cineplex, bought the ticket… and a set of popcorns-and-coke, stepped into the half-filled dark cinema hall, with his low expectations.

But Peter was blown away by the thrilling action run and, the performance of the bald-headed, Big-muscled actor – who played the hero, with A PROSTHETIC LEG who overcame the ‘odds’ despite being a handicap…

… maybe he WOULD RECOMMEND THE MOVIE to his quadriplegic twin, at home later – and Poe could catch it in Netflix.

He was pumped-up, and motivated when he stepped out of his ‘escapism’ of the cinema hall, into the ‘real-world’ – Peter walked in the foyer, to exit out of the cineplex, glowing in healthy pink…

… until he bumped into Alicia… with her older cousin, Lily Wang – who was on the phone.

“Hey G’day Peter… did you go tennis training with Janey?”

“No… she postponed it.” He sighed.

“Oh-okay, what movie did you watch?”

“Skyscraper.” He replied.

“Ugg! Another over-the-top CGI production from Hollywood.” Alicia remarked.

“No, it’s ‘not’ – It has a decent storyline, and pacing.”

“Oh, did it…? We just watched Crazy Rich Asian, it was heartwarming, and you should ask JANE OUT AND SEE IT – she will enjoy it.”

“I don’t watch Chinese films.”

“It is in English, silly!” Alicia snapped at him.

“Oh okay, I will probably go watch Crazy Rich Asian 2, the sequel then – unless if, Jacky Chan stars in it – see you around, Chinatown Wong,” Peter smirked.

The one-armed boy swaggered away.

<><>

NIGHT-TIME, AT THE WALKERS – THE INSPECTOR-MOTHER had returned home from her long, hour shift.

In his bedroom… Peter was watching South Park cartoon on Netflix and was laughing aloud with the character Eric Cartman, tormenting his Black classmate, for ‘not’ watching MCU’s Black Panther.

The door knocked…

At once, Peter felt sick in the stomach, of interrogation he had expected… regarding his visit over and TAKING JANE WILSON OUT, without her doctor-mother’s permission. He took a moment longer, unlocking the door – EXPECTING THE ‘WORST.’

Caroline Walker asked. “Have you eaten your dinner?”

Wide-eyes, the one-armed boy nodded. “Yeah…”

“Tomorrow evening, at 7 – we are invited to the Wilsons for dinner. You can grab an Uber ride with Poe, and you 2 go on first there – and I will arrive there later, after work.”

The inspector-mother turned her back and left. That puzzled that one-armed son, even more – or what?

He had ANTICIPATING THE FAR WORST – of his police-mother questioning if he was Jane’s boyfriend? It was all in the newspapers… he was sure she was a smart-cop enough, to at least, read the newspapers.

Maybe she ‘knew’ it – and that was the main topic to be, while the adults present, who would interrogate him, and Janey tomorrow evening.

Peter anticipated the main culprit, who would be present there tomorrow – Ms Diane King, the school counsellor, who had ‘poisoned’ the minds of the mothers, whose children she counselled.

But he had ‘no’ fear of her – she was the ‘real’ fraud, using her China-made technology, that projected holograms. Maybe, tomorrow evening was where he would expose the foul-play of this scammer, that con-woman was pulling – and his truth would be told to naysayers, and to regain the trust, of the non-believer mothers.

<><>

FOR THE FIRST TIME, IN THAT HELLISH WEEK, that previously woke Peter constantly up in dreadful nightmares in both nights, and even afternoon naps – the one-armed tween woke up that Friday morning without those, but…

… from a peaceful, restful and deep-sound slumber.

He felt ‘great,’ and was on top of the world – with his first pleasant thought of the morning, was of his girlfriend Jane.

He was anticipating meeting her at her house, that evening for the dinner invitation.

Then… IT WAS ‘SHOWTIME’… if those adults were to question him and Janey, led by the mind-poisoning Ms King.

<><>

WAKING UP HUNGRY, IT DREAMED OF JANE feeding it after school. The blind girl used to talk to him until he finished eating his chow. He ate wagging his tail, listening to her talking about her new school – unlike the previous blind-school, where he followed Jane, as her guide dog.

Piper looked at the chow bowl, half-filled, in the vet-clinic – but it HAD NO APPETITE for dried, processed food… but craved for an organic wet, juicy fresh-kill.

Piper was medium-sized in frame, for an Alsatian dog, but he looked bigger, as he was a mixed breed of Siberian huskie… where he inherited the thick grey fur. He looked at the other cages in the kennel, at bigger dogs… like the Bullmastiff, Saint Bernard, and Russian borzoi wolfhound… were LOOKING ‘AFRAID’ of him...

… even the Rottweiler, healing from his dog-fight injuries, was ‘NOT’ MAKING eye contact.

And, it used to be a riot-house, in the vet-clinic before – with yipping, bored toy dogs… and the occasional barking of bigger dogs – but – when the caged-canines saw a ‘new’ dog brought in… that was provoking to their marked territories.

… but, ever since Piper who was bitten by a black panther, was brought in 4 nights ago – the kennels have been dead quiet, and each dog, had ‘not’ been having its restful sleep or, they slept with one eye open – fearing of the bitten, infected dog with a jungle-wild, killer-instinct of a predator, in their midst.

But, a Portuguese waterdog, with half of her black, curly fur fallen off, from her bony body, suffering from cancer – and she was ‘not’ afraid of the ‘infected’ Piper. In pain, she yelped and howl, that she wished Piper, would tear her up to death, ending her painful suffering.

That heightened their fear auras, with those dogs, big or small – and their loss of appetite and sleep, in many of the hounds, quietly present… whimpering-softly…

… in the first couple of days, since Piper was brought to the vet clinic, the addiction for blood-sport was so strong – the guttural urge of killing humans, especially children – who were the weaker preys, and defenceless.

At 2:10 PM, that Friday afternoon – Anthony Wilson, was with his blind daughter, came to collect their dog home, from the vet clinic.

Jane approached the kennel cage calling his name, the clouded big dog saw her ‘glowing.’ The sickly and dying concerned, Portuguese waterdog sent a scent to the confused neu-bloodthirst beast – that reminded him, that it SHOULD ‘NEVER’ ATTACK his master.

Every dog was uneasy, whimpering at the anticipation – of Piper’s attack.

The infected dog then stood-down – and further sensing messages from every dog, that Piper could ‘not’ be loyal to any human-masters any-more – and should by hound-law – ‘not’ to be around humans too…

… and, he should run away, far away, as possible.

The cancer-dying bitch expired – after sending her last-dying message to Piper – of leading a life in solitude…

… as a lone wolf.