Andrew Mackay - Pink Symphony

“Stay there, girl,” Bonnie’s curiosity outshone the cat’s, which was a first in all the time they’d known each other. Jelly followed behind her careful not to draw attention to herself.

“Hey,” Bonnie said at the five-foot lump of skin burying its head against its stomach, “Are you okay?”

The creature moved its arms forward and covered its face. As it groaned and kicked across the dusty ground with its feet, its ape-like voice normalized into that of a human being’s.

“Sch… sch… gwup.”

The sand sticking to its sweaty skin as it rolled around.

“Whoa,” Bonnie held out her hands and tried to calm the thing down. “Hey, can you hear me?”

It removed its perfectly-formed human hands from its face. A scared and shivering man stared back at her – his face covered in pink liquid sprouting from his tear ducts.

A naked, male human being.

“Shaaa…” he gurgled and lifted his hand up, blocking out the light from the three suns. “Shaa—”

“—Here, get up,” Bonnie grabbed his hand and hoisted him to his feet. She took the opportunity to thoroughly check him over. Two arms, two legs, five fingers and toes. Overall, he appeared to be in excellent shape.

Bonnie’s eyes clamped on the one appendage that confirmed his masculinity. She looked at his face and tried to keep professional, “You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”

“Whu…” he said, scratching his beard and laying eyes on Jelly. “Wah!” He pointed at her, wanting to know what the furry little creature was.

“Oh, her? That’s Jelly.”

“Juh… juh…” he tried, closing his eyes, angry about his inability to replicate the sounds Bonnie was making. “Jeh…”

“Meow.”

“Meee?” The man repeated – utterly clueless – and shook his head in anger. He thumped his stomach with the underside of his fist. “Meee. Oww.”

Jelly looked to Bonnie for a reaction. This new human being was clearly insane, and probably quite volatile.

Bonnie chuckled to herself and extended her index finger. She placed her fingertip at her chest. “Bonnie.”

“Boh… boh…” the man said, fighting of the perturbation of the singing tree. “Boh… knee.”

“Yes.”

She clapped her hands together and gave the man the thumbs up. She lifted her index finger and pressed it against his chest.

“Ah,” he said, “Shaa…”

“Shaa?”

“Shanta—”

A pink tear rolled down his cheek. She flicked her finger over to his top lip and collected the liquid against her knuckle. “Do you know what this is?”

Jelly tore her gaze away from the man and looked at the tree. “Meow!”

WHUMP .

As the song slowed down the cavernous slit at the top of the tree coughed. Jelly squealed and spun her arms and hind legs around in the air in a fit of apoplectic rage.

Bonnie looked at her, deeply concerned. “Jelly!”

The confrontation between the two lasted exactly eight seconds. Then, the tree spat again.

WHUMP .

Jelly flew into a tizzy, thoroughly agitated by the noise. She extended her claws and made straight for the man standing in front of Bonnie.

“Maaaah,” she growled, intending to launch herself into the air and claw the man to death.

He grunted and held out his arms for protection.

“Bad pussycat!” Bonnie shouted at her as Jelly kicked her hind legs against the sand and jumped into the air, headed for the man’s face.

“Meow!”

The man’s attempt to guard his face worked. Jelly took a swipe with her extended titanium claw and tore the skin on top of his hand. He batted her away, sending her to the floor.

She landed on her infinity claws and scraped a lump of sand away, ready for a second attack. “Meow.”

WHUMP … The tree swayed around and coughed out a third and final sound. Jelly instantly relaxed and gave up her desire for blood.

She needed water, and the oceanfront looked suitably thirst-quenching.

“Shaaa—”

“—Meow,” Jelly snapped, cutting the man off mid-grunt. The stern look in her eyes suggested she wasn’t to be messed with. Her nose twitched over and over again as her whiskers began to vibrate.

The tree’s incessant humming of the tune came to a close.

Then, Jelly’s facial fur stood on end, as if having been rubbed by a balloon, “Meoowwuuurrr….”

Bonnie and the man couldn’t tear their eyes away. Something strange was happening to Jelly.

Her entire body shuddered continuously.

The tree began to subside and crumble apart.

The sky grew overcast with a milk-like substance.

Jelly’s whiskers tingled and sparked, lighting up. The intensity throttled her around, the air dragging her by the shoulders towards the shore.

“Jelly!” Bonnie ran after her. Ready to take out her Rez-9 and blast whatever was responsible for pulling Jelly to the ocean, she found herself at a loss. Nothing to shoot – no preventable action could be taken.

Powerless, Bonnie watched Jelly lift into the air, thrashing her limbs around and screaming for dear life.

“Oh, God …” Bonnie dropped her arms and witnessed the tree break apart and slink into the pink, bloodied ocean.

“Miyeeeww,’ Jelly let out a final squeal of terror fifty feet in the air. The invisible force released its grip and tossed her face-first into the water.

She threw her infinity claws in front of her face.

SPLOSH .

Helpless, Bonnie didn’t know where to turn. Perhaps the naked man could help?

“Hey, you,” she said. “Where are— oh, no . Oh no, no, no…”

She couldn’t believe what she saw.

His severed head rested atop the sand, opened-eyed. It looked as if someone had buried him up to the neck for fun.

She retrieved her Rez-9 from her belt and held it at the head, “Where’s… where’s the rest of your body—”

BOP !

An incredible forced slammed Bonnie from behind, throwing her chest-first to the floor. “Gah!” Her Rez-9 flew out of her hand and slid ten feet across the sand in front of her. “Damn.”

She pushed herself onto her elbows, expected to be blinded by the sun, “Help me.”

Instead, the shadow of something insidious crept over her face. Whatever it was scuttled in slow-motion toward her.

Bonnie kicked herself back along the sand, trying to understand the predicament she was in. “Jesus Christ, what the hell is that?”

It was an outrageous amalgam of flesh and skin, previously of human form. Measuring eight-foot high and around ten-foot wide. Twelve limb-like legs with stumps on each side working in unison to help it forward. A gaping concoction of gums and teeth opened up in the middle and let out a guttural, terrifying roar.

Seconds away from doing whatever it was it did to people like Bonnie, she decided she wasn’t sticking around to find out.

“ Jeez …”

She scrambled onto her front and crawled along the piping hot sandy surface. Her fists slipped with each grasp forward, slowing her escape down to a near halt.

The creature gained on her.

“Come on, come on…” she squinted at her Rez-9 firearm laying five feet away from her, “Gah, gah… come on .”

She made the mistake of looking over her shoulder. The beast jabbed the sand with its four front limbs and pulled itself toward her.

“Aggh,” she dug her heels into the ground and pushed the top half of her body back a few inches.

SWIPE! SWISH!

One of its limbs tore her inner-suit with its razor sharp talon at the end of its stump.

Six of its back limbs lifted up, ready to strike, leaving six grounded flesh poles to move forward.