Masquerade of Madness: New Reality

Sue and Crystal stood silently gaping. This was not what they expected on their way home from school, especially not in the abandoned district of town.

They looked around for anyone suspicious that could have hurt this unexpectedly beautiful person. Sue quickly scanned the half-demolished and dilapidated buildings, but saw nothing, or preferably no one of interest. Crystal kept her attention on the street, deteriorating with cracks and potholes, and she spotted two homeless men coming their way.

"Hey, Sue, we have guests!" Crystal spoke with sarcastic caution, pointing down the street.

"Yeah," Sue answered and stood up straight, examining the approaching men. One had a limp and grinned with missing front teeth. His clothes looked more like rags, covered by a shredded long black overcoat. Still, his confidence portrayed that of a commanding presence.

The other homeless man appeared to be much older. He hunched over, swaying from side to side and laughing wildly, conveying the sense that he was drunk.

Sue quickly took a defensive position, in case they had mugging on their mind, or worse. The men stopped short. The "sway-er" turned his head down, adjusting his hat.

The homeless man with the limp examined the two girls. The one had long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. She had extremely light brown eyes and fair skin. She wore what he thought was a school uniform, a blue poncho that hooked at her black tie. The poncho had a school's crest placed on the left breast. Her black skirt stopped right above her knees. Boots covered the rest of her legs, revealing only her kneecaps.

He took notice that she also wore a strange, light-silver glove. Her palms were open, but the glove covered the rest of her hand, including her fingertips. The other hand sported an ordinary black leather glove that covered her whole hand. She formed a fighting position with her fist drawn. He did not blame her.

Now the other girl had long red-orange hair and dark brown eyes. She wore a pink jacket that matched her short pink skirt. Her brown boots skimmed the edge of her kneecaps, too.

Students, the homeless man thought. Good, with everything going on, that some young people can still be interested in getting an education.

The girl with the orange hair called out, "Hi, my name is Crystal, and this is Sue," she pointed to the black-haired girl and continued, "Did you see what happened?"

Sue looked dumbfounded at her friend and whispered, "Don't call them closer or tell them our names."

Crystal giggled with delight. "They're just a couple of old men. Lighten up and besides," she looked down at Creed, "where should we hide him?"

"Why?" Sue asked, staring at her quizzically.

Crystal took one look at the old man approaching, then turned her gaze to Creed and whispered, "So no one can marry him but us."

Sue gulped, "Hmm, we can't do that. I'm pretty sure it's against the law."

Crystal threw out her arms and yelled, "What law?" Then she turned to face the man with the limp, who had stopped walking.

He laughed and greeted the girls. "Good evening. Yes, we did see what happened. It was quite the sight. But I highly doubt you will believe us."

Crystal squatted down, tired of standing and not wanting to reveal anything. "That's okay. Did anybody else see what happened?"

The drunken one began to murmur to himself.

The other answered, "I do not know, truth be told. You will have to ask the ones that hid themselves away in those buildings. By the way, my name is Baxter, and this old drunk fool is Louie."

Louie turned to face the street, yelling, "I know you saw it. We aren't crazy!" Trying to suffocate a surge of hiccups, he stammered but went on, "A ma-an, no-o, a demon fell and landed from the sky. I watched it fall." He pointed to the sky.

Baxter smiled apologetically, not wanting to scare the girls.

Sue's mouth hung aghast. "Sir, I think you had too much to drink."

Louie spun around laughing, and then spun again. "No, no, sweetheart, there isn't enough booze or firebird whiskey to make me forget. I may be drunk, girly, but I'm no fool."

She looked over to the other homeless man, pleading for help.

Baxter spoke up. "I saw it, too. This is the first time I saw an angel before."

Louie pointed to Baxter, and with his slurred speech, he screamed out, "Now you and I know that is no angel. It's a demon, I tell you. It's a demon, a demon!"

"Now, Louie, calm down, you drunken fool. You're scaring the young ladies."

"No," Crystal replied, "I'm fine."

Sue looked down at her. "Are you crazy?"

"No! You calm down, Baxter!" Louie threw his bottle of firebird whiskey, nearly hitting Sue. She fell to her knees and began to cry.

The old men turned to look at her. She held her head down, letting the tears slip away. Baxter, now a little upset, yelled at Louie, "Now look what you did!"