Shadow Splay

            “And if you look the left, you’ll see one of the giant rabbits that is indigenous to this area. The rabbits have been known to grow up to 5 meters tall, and like to eat small trees. Let’s be on our way before it becomes curious about our little tour van, shall we?” the tour guide droned, exactly as he had for the past 3 hours. Jerald had thought that a vacation to Mastaglia would be full of adventure and chaotic escape from his dull day-to-day life, but his tour guide seemed hell-bent on keeping the dullness in life. The grey uniform, the monotone voice, the one arm that was missing, it was all so painfully boring. This was his second day in Mastaglia, and he was the only one in his family that had dared venture out of their motel today for the guided tour of the nearby forests and warlord mansion. Yesterday’s daylong forum on invisible slugs had drowned the enthusiasm and hope from the wife and kids, so they had opted to stay in the room, order pizza and watch HBO while Jerald went on this tour.  Maybe they got the better deal out of it, he though to himself. 

            A small boy giggled in the corner of the tour van. Had Jerald not been tuning out the guide by now, he might not have heard the voice at all. As it was, he wasn’t even sure that it wasn’t just his imagination. He looked around, trying to see if there were any kids on board. “No, why would there be?” he said to himself. Sighing, he relaxed back into his seat, and continued to not listen to the tour guide moan about the exotic foliage squelching under the wheels of the vehicle. Then he heard it again. This time, Jerald was sure that he heard a little boy giggling from a corner of the van. Since the touring agency obviously didn’t put any effort into insuring tour quality, the windows were caked with filth, and not much light got in, except for what came through the windshield. Regardless, the back of the van was very dark. Most people just made it a mobile nap spot, but there seemed to be a kid back there that was thrilled to the gills to be there. Curious, Jerald unbuckled his seatbelt and scooted backwards to see what the kid was doing.

            The giggling got more emphatic as he drew nearer to the back of the van, though no one but Jerald seemed to notice. They seemed to have been lulled into a trance by that tour guide’s voice, if you wanted to call it a voice and not a torture device. When his back hit the back of the bus, Jerald looked around to find the kid. He saw nothing at first, and was a bit confused. Then, in the passenger side back corner, he saw a butane lighter, and he noticed that someone had crudely drawn a cat with a ludicrous smile in the corner, where only shadows really were. As he looked closer at the cat, laughter exploded in his head, and he was sucked into the lighter before he could manage to scream.