Flash Fiction

By Lugh

Crimson Lies, Sorbet Dreams, and the Sour Seraphic

The battle had ended; the living had fled. The dead lay in broken piles where they had fallen like so many toy soldiers a child had left behind to rust in the grass. Among them he flitted, trying not to stain his wingtips as he called each soul from the body. It was not a job he enjoyed, and not one he usually did, but Death needed help and he was not busy so he was assigned. Normally he spent his days at pleasant tasks and this... this... waste of humanity turned his mood sour. They had been at it all day, and needed to be done before night came. Death had been adamant about that. He could take a soul in the dark of night, but no other could, except those of darkness. The seraph shivered and looked again at the heavens. The fiery pit was descending lower in the sky. So many... and this was but one battle. When would the humans learn?

"It is done, Sir," he reported in a bloody uniform.

"Are you sure the boy is dead?"

"Yes sir, ran him through myself." The young lieutenant bowed low before the general.

"How many of your men remain?"

"Few sir, the rebels put up a much stronger resistance than we expected."

"And how many of their men remain?'

"Only one sir."

"Only one?"

"He was but a boy, unbearded. It would have been dishonorable to take his life."

"He is a rebel."

"He is a misguided boy."

"An example must be made of him."

"If it must be so." The Lieutenant nodded.

"Hang him tomorrow, from the gallows tree."

"Sir, tomorrow?"

"And what is wrong with tomorrow?"

"It's? seventh day. The priest will object."

"I decree he will swing from the gallows tomorrow."

"Yes Sir, but sir, it will be my last action for this army. I am going home."

"Do you think you can do as you please?"

The Lieutenant leaned forward and placed his hands on the Generals maps, "I have had enough of this war; I want to get home to my wife and my children. My eldest just became betrothed."

"Do what you must but I will see new fruit on the gallows tree by sunrise."

The Lieutenant nodded and moved away leaving bloody hand prints on the General's maps.

That night he bundled the very ill boy up and sent him ahead with his personal belongings to his home, and then he went to see the priest. He gave his last confession and took his last communion then stood beneath the gallows tree fully intending it would be he the General saw hanging there, but then one of his younger survivors rode up with a dead prisoner. The man looked much like the young man he had sent to his home. Together they stripped him down to the rags that was allowed for the fruit of the gallows tree and hoisted him up to the upper branches. Rigor hadn't set in yet which made the Lieutenant wonder how the private came about this volunteer for the gallows tree.

"He had fallen not far from where we found the boy, your sword had run him through, yet he lived, sir. He was asking after his son. I could think of no other. They look enough a like, and wouldn't the General get his panties in a twist if he knew his worst enemy swung from his gallows tree, and his son lived. He told me to give you this." The young man handed over a journal. "For the boy he said, then he told me to tell you to run, as far away as you can. There are people who will take you in. May I come with you sir?"

"You will be deserting."

"Yes sir."

"He will marry my Kait."

"Yes sir."

"We will win this war."

"Yes sir."

The two of them rode off toward the Lieutenant's home without a second glance back. A new war was begun, under the banner of the crimson handprint and there were rumors the General's men deserted even on the battlefield to fight against what they considered the Crimson Lie.

The pain only registered for a moment then it was gone. My eyes were closed and my head flooded with a wondrous dream. Pastel pink bunnies chased lavender giraffes through a lime colored grassland while a fluffy creamy yellow sun hung over head. In my dream there was no warmth, instead everything became colder and colder and soon more creatures came? from a frozen lake of blue raspberry a blue whale appeared and spit out a wooden boy who immediately marched over to me and took my hand.

"You must follow the light." he said sadly.

"What light, I don't see no light." I said in a panic as I tried to twist and turn to find this mystery light he was talking about that I needed to follow yet I could not move. The ground where I lay was quickly covering with the white icy covering now and I tasted it, pineapple. Pineapple? I looked back at the wooden boy, so where is Gheppetto? I asked him, perhaps a little too snidely.

"The light, you must find it and follow it, it is the only way out."

"Just leave me alone." I growled at him and did my best to sit up. I tried a different color and found a different flavor. This was the weirdest dream I had ever had, a whole landscape filled with sorbet and no way out. Maybe if I ate it all the light would be revealed. Painfully I moved and found myself face down for my struggles. There was something in my belly that shouldn't have been. I took two hands and began to pull on it. The harder I pulled the louder I screamed.

Screaming caused the sorbet to melt and eventually I was back where I last recalled being... on the battlefield. A youth stood over me. I was being taken prisoner. I should have looked for that light while I had the chance.

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