Broken Monarch by Tom Schneider

Author:Tom Schneider [Schneider, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction & Literature
ISBN: 9781090250742
Published: 2019-03-16T22:00:00+00:00

Thursday, August 23, 1979

13

11:00AM, Glenn’s

On the nightstand a copy of The Catcher In The Rye. Glenn had no idea who had sent it to him or why. It came in the mail one day, addressed to him without a sender. Next to it a South of the Border ashtray with a half-smoked joint and a dozen cigarette butts. On the turntable played Sheep from Pink Floyd’s Animals.

A look of terminal shock in your eyes. Now things are really what they seem. No, this is no bad dream.

Glenn pictured Lindsey in his head. He wondered what she had been forced to do. He wondered why she had fallen for him. Did she fall in love with him long ago? Or was this part of the mind game? She admitted she worked for them. Maybe this was just part of the job. But he knew it couldn’t be. He knew she felt what he did. Their connection had to be real.

He worried he wouldn’t be able to break the mind control if he was activated. Knowing about it was one thing. He was coming to grips with that, but doing something about it was something else altogether. He had to trust in Lindsey. She held the key. At least he hoped so.

Pink Floyd’s, Dogs played now.

Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise. If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze?

***

Glenn sat on the couch with his feet on the coffee table, cigarette burning between his fingers and a bong on the table. The TV was playing the nightly news in front of him.

He dozed off before waking up in a ditch at the outskirt of a village in Vietnam. He struggled to his knees and looked around. The Jeep was flipped over in the road. He saw a body in the flames pinned under the vehicle. He rose to his feet and stumbled toward the village. A man came out with a straw hat, no shirt, no shoes, no weapon. Glenn opened fire and shot him down. A woman came out of the nearby hut screaming at him and he shot her too. Another man came running out with a rifle and he shot him in the head. Then a boy. A girl. He walked through hut after hut, killing everyone he found. When he got to the last hut a soldier was in it with his back turned. He aimed his rifle, the soldier turned and it was himself looking back. His second self pulled a pistol from his waist and they both fired.

***

Glenn woke again, this time back on the couch. He grabbed the bong of the table and filled the bowl. He lit it and slowly filled the chamber before taking his finger off the carb and releasing it into his lungs. He held it in a couple seconds and then blew out a cloud of smoke. He felt a rush come over him, stars flashed and filled his eyes.

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