Category: Writings
Every now and then I get the urge to write something. Check out my dabblings here.
Wednesday Words – Defeat
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Note on this piece: One of my WIP is a story focused on a group of super villains. Today, while pondering what to write, I figured I’d write a short story of one of them, The Blinding Skull. Who knows, this may wind up in the finished thing or just be a fun “extra.” Enjoy!
Defeat
By Grant Baciocco
No one realizes this, no one ever even thinks about it, but when you’re a superhero and you’re flying at super sonic speeds, it is really hard on your eyes. Think about it, the wind is whipping against your eyeballs at 786 miles per hour. That is rough on the eyeballs no matter who you are. It makes it hard to see where you are going and it dries out the eyes incredibly fast. Again, no one ever thinks about this kind of stuff, but The Blinding Skull did.
He had been sitting around pondering on how exactly he could make a name for himself in the super villain game by taking out Suprema, the most powerful hero in Daily City, when it had hit him. He was examining every scrap of paper he could find on Earth’s Mightiest Woman and it was a packing list that he’d procured from the inept doorman at the Tower of Good that gave him his first clue. The packing list, addressed to Suprema, read simply:
- EyeClear Eye Drops – 2,000 bottles
“What on Earth could she need 2,000 bottles of eye drops for?” He asked himself aloud. His skull glowing a bit brighter as he thought it out. “Perhaps that windbag Santa Ana had escaped from prison again. His hot wind power would certainly dry out one’s eyes.”
A quick search of The Impound’s prisoner manifest revealed that Santa Ana was still locked deep inside from the last time The Mighty Ranch Hand had captured him. So if that wasn’t the answer why, again, did she need 2,000 bottles of eye drops? He made a list…
- Allergies? – Suprema has no known allergies.
- Contacts? – Suprema is ‘the perfect human’ bad eyesight would make her less than perfect.
- Dry eyes due to crying? – Suprema is Earth’s Mightiest Woman? What could she be sad about? Heartbreak?
- Dry eyes due to ???
He was coming up empty until he looked over her stats on her Wikipedia Page. It read that Suprema was capable of ‘supersonic flight.’ She uses the drops because her eyes get dried out at the end of every supersonic flight!
His Skull grew incredibly bright now as his synapses began firing at full velocity. He sensed a possible chink in Suprema’s armor! Suprema’s only know weakness was a mineral called Red-Barrel. A gem so rare there were only two known pieces of it in the known world. Bother were in a lead lined safe in the Tower of Good. But there was a third. A third small piece was unknown to the world. It belonged to The Blinding Skull. It wasn’t enough to hold up in front of Suprema and make her lose her powers, but it was small enough to be ground down.
“Suprema needs eye drops because of her supersonic flight! If I ground down this Red-Barrel and slip into into eye drops and Suprema uses them, I’ll have defeated her for good!” The Blinding Skull cackled with delight and rushed to the elevator to his lab.
The hours ticked by, as did the days, as The Blinding Skull worked. Grinding, refining, pounding the piece of Red-Barrel into a size small enough to slip, unnoticed into a bottle of eye drops. Finally he was ready. He had an amount a he knew would do irreparable harm to Suprema the moment she placed a single drop into her eye.
He was still as he opened the eye dropper bottle and placed it near the small pile of fine Red-Barrel. He slowly, carefully, delicately, pick up the small piece of filter paper the Red-Barrel grounds were on. He slowly, carefully, delicately moved the paper towards the mouth of the bottle careful to not loose a single grain to the wind of movement.
Then, he sneezed.
He thought nothing of his sneeze until his nose was clear and he looked back at the now empty piece of filter paper in his right hand.
Then, he cried.
The Characters of The Blinding Skull, Santa Ana, The Mighty Ranch Hand & Suprema are ©Grant Baciocco/Saturday Morning Media
Forgive
As they walked along under the moonlight, they were both quiet. They were inches apart as they traversed the pavement, but they did not come in contact with each other ever. Around them the night’s insects made their noise. A few restless birds chirped here and there, but the only sound was that of their footsteps.
The silence between them though, spoke volumes. It had since day one. They were capable of some incredibly powerful silences.
He spoke first, it was barely a whisper. That’s all they needed. All they ever needed.
“I need you to do something.” he said.
She was quiet for a very long time. Several yards past underneath their feet before she even turned to her left to look at thim. They kept walking.
“What?” came her reply.
Again, the silence mounted as they continued down the path.
“I need you never to forgive me.” he said finally. “Ever.”
She studied him after these words left his lips. He continued looking down. She then looked forward as they continued to walk. She knew more would come. She knew he felt her question.
After a few minutes, he took a breath and then, “I need you never to forgive me so I will always know exactly how very lucky I am.”
After these words the silence crashed around them. Their footsteps now, on the ground, the only sound. They continued the walk. She said nothing for two minutes. Five minutes. Ten minutes.
He looked over at her. Her eyes were on the path but she felt his gaze.
Her lips tight. Without looking up, she nodded.
They continued walking into the night.
Drive.
Drive
By Grant Baciocco
It’s 8:50PM.
It’s currently 91 degrees.
All I want to do is drive.
I want to get in the car, stop for gas to make sure the tank is full and then pull out of this town and drive. Get on the freeway going any direction, it doesn’t matter. Every window in the car is down and the music is turned up. Not loud enough to go deaf, but loud. I want to drive tonight and I want you next to me. In the passenger seat, next to me, so that once we hit fifth gear and cruise control is set can rest my hand on your leg.
The tires spin and the miles disappear behind us. I don’t know how many, but as we pass over a hundred of them. As the miles pass so do any of our troubles. Soon it is all so far behind us both. I look over and you have fallen asleep. Your legs are up, out the window, feet near the passenger side mirror. The warm air caressing your toes as we continue to drive. My hand still on your leg.
I have no destination. I don’t know where we are headed or how long it’s going to take to get there. I just want to drive tonight. Maybe to the desert. Out towards Zzyzx. To the big open country where there’s just miles and miles of flat land. Where the warmth would continue to wrap around us, making us not need for heavier clothes. Or maybe we drive towards the mountains. Where, as we ascend, the air gets a little cooler. Raising small bumps on your skin under my hand.
Wherever we go, we get there in the early hours of the morning. Two. Three. I’m not sure. I finally come to stop in a clearing. A safe spot to pull over in the mountains or the desert. I get out of the car, you’re still sleeping and I sit on the trunk. I just look up. The sky is filled with stars. The one or two that we can see when in the city are replaces by thousands. Millions.There’s no moon on this night, just countless stars. Filling ever possible patch of sky that there is. It’s one of those skies where it’s so clear and there’s no artificial light that can bee seen anywhere around us. There before us is the entire Milky Way. The entire universe. Just us and it.
I hear the door open and I turn. You are groggy, but you shuffle towards me and climb up on the trunk. I wrap and arm around you and pull you close. No word is said. No word needs to be said. It’s just you, me and the Milk Way. What could you say?
We lean back against the back window and look up, transfixed. Listening to each other breathing and we pick out new groupings of stars and planets and who knows what else before us. Hours pass without us knowing and soon, to the east, the sky begins to lighten. We lie there and watch as the sun ushers the Milky Way away for another night. I look over and kiss you gently on the forehead.
I’m glad you went for a drive with me.
100 Word Wednesdays – Bowl
Bowl
By Grant Baciocco
Chester came upon the glass. Its curved surface distorting the items on the other side, but he was able to make out letters written on a large white object. He went slowly, sounding it out.
“Ne….new….news.” He said. He squinted, “News. News? What could that mean?” He was still and studied the word a little longer, hoping to put it into context. Nothing was coming to him. “News.” He thought again, “What could that mean?”
He decided a swim around the bowl might clear his mind.
The trip was short and then Chester came upon the glass again.