Columbiana

1. Strawberries in October

Parodic audios of punk rock streamed through Strawberry Mansion with the faint smell of autumn crisping the breeze. An abstract structure of beckoning Willows, classic Pine trees, picket fences laced with rose vines and scattered leaves. It was the ideal, ordinary fantasy for a newlywed family. Strawberry Mansion was no stranger to ordinary.

“I’m ready! I’m ready!” Little Billy yelled as he skipped stairs, running down to his mother in the kitchen. “I’m ready to go Mom. Let’s go!” Little Billy full of eagerness, wanted to go trick-or-treating. The neighborhood was already blazing with green and red neon lights, ghosts and witches. His mother squatting down, smiled at her son with a glistening admiration in her piercing, grey eyes. “You are the most handsome little pirate I have ever seen.” Touching Little Billy’s chin in gracefulness, she sighed. “Alrighty then! Go grab Mommy’s broom out of the living room. I just have to make the dinner table before we go.” “Yes!” Little Billy yelled with excitement. Dinner time was the last thing on his mind. He was ready to go on a sugar hunt.

2. Puddle Jumping

6pm struck earlier than Mom had expected. Three more hours and it was bed time. Billy was overflowing with treats and still, major energy. “Thirty minutes left Son.” She called out to the tiny pirate. “Okay”! He yelled back in joy. Billy would visit the remanining cookie cutter houses on the block before returning home.

He skipped through the puddles in his bright yellow rain boots. As he plopped into another puddle, he suddenly stopped in fear. Staring at the figure at the end of the block, under the only street light flickering on and off, this costume had been the creepiest of them all.

A long black cloak. Long, skinny fingers and long, pointed toes folded up towards its knees. Billy wanted to run but he could not move an inch. He looked down at his yellow rain boots and into the puddle beneath him. He closed his eyes and counted to ten. The regular routine. It always seemed to work. He could hear his mother calling out in fear. Getting closer and closer by the second. “Billy!...... BILLY!” He opened his eyes to a pair of feet standing adjacent in the puddle with him.

3. Columbiana

It’s toes were almost as tall as he was. He slowly looked up and saw the darkness quickly covering peripheral. The cloak wrapped around his body like a caterpillar in a cocoon. He screamed in disbelief. Just before his Mother could get close enough to grab for her son, Little Billy and the shadow, disappeared into the puddle of water. “NOOO!!! BILLY! BILLYYYYYY!” The cries of a mother’s tears were like no other! Others stood, shaken, eyes bulging, holding their loved ones and friends. They could not believe what they had witnessed. Billy was on his way to the deepest, darkest, dimension. Columbiana.

Grey, black and white spread across Billy’s vision in the foggy, mist. A fire roasts the corner of the room, to what looks like an unfinished, concrete basement. Shivering in sweat and fear, Billy panicks as he hears a door open in the dark. He hears the sound of boulders as the strange image steps closer towards the cage Billy is chained in. It bends down and leans in close to get a better look. The cloaks hood falls back, exposing the creatures enlarged brain.

Scaly, wrinkly, wet skin and big, yellow, beady eyes stare into the helpless childs soul and with a deep sound of gurgling, speaks out. “We EAT children down here.” Billy screamed and the evil creature of Columbiana let’s out a laugh in a shriek of panic.

4. Fading Away

“Four hours and twenty four minutes! I’m not crazy! I know what I saw! That puddle. That puddle right there! He disappeared.” Billy’s mom cries out to the police officer under the big elk tree in her front lawn. Bystanders watched and verified the mothers statement to other officers.

“It’s not a report I can process with valid explanation or evidence ma’am.” The officer explains. “A puddle is not going to help me locate your son. Is there anything else you can tell me that may be suitable for this search? Is there anyone that may want to harm you or anyone in your family for any reason? Any enemies?” The mother stands in a blank daze. She can’t seem to fathom what has happened and there is no other way to explain the grisly details that took place only a block away from her home.

Her son was missing. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t even blink for god’s sake. She slowly turned away from the officer and entered into her home.

This was very out of the norm for the small town of Strawberry Mansion. The residents couldn’t believe what they had witnessed. Little Billy was all over the news and the grim like sillouette that stood amongst the crowd was a threat to the now, not so ordinary town.

Columbiana was full of darkness. No color. Not a shade of yellow, red, green or blue. It was no place for a child. No place for anyone of the beautifully colored Earth realm. The puddle had evaporated. Nobody had ever seen or heard of Little Billy’s whereabouts ever again.

Hours, days, weeks and years had passed. Strawberry Mansion was now considered a haunted neighborhood. It soon became abandoned within the next year. Others still wonder of the mysterious puddle.

Be careful where you step. You might enter another world. Another dimension. Maybe even COLUMBIANA.