The Scarlet Macaw

The moment I had been waiting years for was finally here. Wrestlemania. The showcase of the immortals was on the cards and we had front row seats. I was so excited that I could have wet myself. To see The Rock against Stone Cold in the main event, the event of a lifetime and one in which my best friend was here to see too.

Jamie Reynolds, my best friend since I was ten years old had been given permission by his wife to attend. They were closer than Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Inseparable and I hated it. To see him I was required to book time months in advance. He had no control over his life and could not see how controlling she was.

Over the course of this week, it was to be just me and him and I could not wait.

Walking down the hotel steps from our rooms we stopped for a wee. The plush carpet was a sign of wealth and a reminder that it was far too overpriced for what it was. A waste of money but an investment in friendship. If I could show Jamie what a great time he could have with his friends, then maybe, just maybe it could bring him back to the world of reality and away from the control of his wife.

Given that the hotel was crammed with others heading to the loo before going to the event, Jamie went upstairs and I stayed down. This was to ensure that we would both be able to relieve ourselves before arriving at the stadium.

After what seemed like hours but was in fact only minutes, I was back in the foyer, waiting. Five, ten and then twenty minutes passed. He was nowhere to be seen and I was beginning to get a little worried. Ringing his phone it went straight to voicemail and so I climbed to the next floor and after queueing once again, discovered that he was not there. Panicking, I decided to climb the stairs and check the next floor, then the floor after that, all the way to the top floor.

I knew that something was missing. The hallway was empty with no apparent rooms apart from a toilet at the end of the corridor. I walked towards it, yet it never came closer. As much as I moved, I couldn't reach the door.

Bursting into a run made no difference. It was still in the distance and so I stopped, turning back towards the elevator at the opposite end, yet it ended in the same predicament. It was like being stuck in quicksand. Every movement yielded nothing more than a burnt calorie. I was stuck in a position that sounded ridiculous and so I pulled out my phone to call Jamie once again.

The phone vibrated in the distance. He was here but then if that was true, why had he not called out? Was he around the corner, stuck in the same, whatever it was that I was stuck in and so I called out to him?

He called back, which was at first a relief but then what he was saying made no sense.

“The time is now. He will rise and take what is his. He will reclaim his spot in the world”. Seeing no reason to reply, I picked up my phone and called down to reception. A friendly voice responded, “The Principle, how can we help you?”

“Hi, yeah, it's Ben, err room number 66, I'm here on the top floor and well, I seem to be stuck. Can someone come up to help me?”

An unnerving silence filled the room as the receptionist replied, “The top floor? How did you get there?”

It seemed like the stupidest question in the world and therefore, I simply replied to say, “I walked up the stairs. I was looking for my friend and couldn't see him find him anywhere”

Hearing an audible clear of the throat, I was starting to feel a real chill that something was truly amiss. Something was wrong and the reply confirmed this.

“You shouldn't have been able to do that and I have to tell you now that we most likely will not be able to get you out of there. That floor is off-limits for a reason.”

“What do you mean off-limits?” The phone went dead at this point and re-dialling yielded no response. I was stuck. If there was an escape to be had, then it would need to come from my mind rather than any outside assistance.

Looking up I saw a shadow. Easily missed at first but after a few seconds of staring, I realised it was moving towards me. Slowly, very slowly but it was moving.

I turned to move away, whilst maintaining eye contact with whatever it was. A monster? Jamie? Something else? I had no idea what was coming, but I knew for sure that I needed to keep it in view.

I backed up slowly, yet moved no further towards the lift. I was treading water, maintaining distance from the creature, yet no closer to the exit. Walking away was keeping it at bay, yet I knew that it was something that could not be maintained forever.

I needed to see what it was; know your enemy. So I stopped for a few seconds but my breath quickened as I saw what emerged.

It was not what I had expected. It was humanoid in shape with legs but instead of arms, wings protruded from its side and what appeared to be a parrot's head emerged from its body. Bloodstains peaked out of its clothes, with pain etched in every footstep. It was almost as though someone had taken a parrot, chopped its head and wings off and done the same for a human, stitching the two together. Frankenstein's monster come to life. It was an experiment in fear, something that shot through my body and caused me to turn back before a horrible thought struck me.

Turning slowly towards the monster, I stared at the torso, the ripped clothes and belongings. The jeans were covered in a white substance but under those were unmistakable rips. Combining this with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers t-shirt and there was no other conclusion. This was Jamie. He had been lifted and shifted, combined with a parrot, and the same could be about to happen to me.

It was at this point that I noticed the cage in his left hand. A rusted gold cage that contained another bird. At first, I thought it was another parrot but the markings and plumage said something different. It was a macaw, I recognised it from the forests of Central America. Those deep dark forests in which Jamie and I had trekked through on our gap year. A simpler time and one in which I would have given my right arm to go back to.

I wanted to cry and run away but with each step, I knew that I was yet no further towards the exit. I needed a new plan, but nothing sprung to mind.

The situation continued for hours and hours, to the point where my legs were so heavy and the noises from my belly reached a deafening level. Jamie, or whoever he was, kept walking. The slow methodical nature of the rhythm in each stride drove me mad. There was no escape here but I had to keep going, as I knew that something would present itself and I could not give up. I could not throw in the towel.

At some point, the sun began to stream through the windows, lighting up the corridor and helping me to see clearly. We had missed Wrestlemania but that no longer mattered, with the life or death struggle that was in front of me taking precedence.

The creature stopped in its tracks at the entrance of the sun. It remained glued in place, unable to move further like it was allergic to the sunlight. At the same time, I began to move closer to the lift. It was almost as though whatever magic was keeping me in place had suddenly left that corridor and I could reach my destination. I dove into the lift and punched the ground floor number, praying that the lift would move quicker than the creature.

As the doors began to close I heard a scream from outside. It was Jamie, it had to be and whilst every instinct in my body told me to go, I needed to see my friend and so I stepped outside as a huge wing took hold of me and pinned me to the ground. I was trapped and this was the end. Or so I thought.

Rather than ripping my limbs off, the bird or Jamie, or whatever it was, dragged me down the corridor. Into the light of a toilet and away from the sunlight.

Squinting against the bright, iridescent light I was propped into the cubicle.

Unsure of whether to lower my trousers and relieve myself of the fear of the last few hours, or attempt to fight my way out, I was interrupted by the Parrot Creature. Dragging a chair over to the cubicle door, it placed the golden cage on the seat, whilst moving to the side.

The macaw stared through me as though it was attempting to figure me out. It was unnerving but not as terrifying as the screams from the other cubicles.

I knew that I needed to escape and so I stood up slowly, attempting to edge around the golden cage, but the macaw would not let me leave. Squawking at the top of its lungs, it let out an ear-splitting call that was greeted by Jamie. Not the monster but my friend. He was standing there, in front of the door, with dried blood around his neck and a look of exhaustion etched onto his brow.

"Where have you been?" the words tumbled out of Jamie's mouth as he kept one hand on the door.

"I've been looking for you and you spent the last few hours walking after me in this corridor! What the hell do you mean, where have I been? I've been looking for you and nearly dying in the process," I could not get over what he was saying, accusing me of leaving him.

Just before I continued, a voice floated overhead. It was cold and unemotional, similar to that of a supermarket announcement. "You are here because I need you here. You are here because I want you here.”

Jamie and I exchanged a look at this moment, a look of absolute confusion and terror. Before we could reply, The scarlet macaw opened the door to his cage and hopped out onto the floor. There it stopped to stare t us before flying up to the sink. Pausing for a moment before reaching out with its left-wing to turn on the tap, sliding into the sink whilst the warm water fell over its feathers. It was having a bath, turning every few seconds to nibble its feathers and ensure that every part of it was clean.

After a few minutes of this, the macaw jumped out and turned off the tap. Flying next to Jamie, it landed on his shoulder, before being taken over to the drier. It was an action that was completed instinctively. It was almost as if he had no choice and was being controlled by a will beyond that of his.

The macaw hopped down to his hand to ensure that he was in a prime position to soak up the heat. Raising his beak towards the ceiling he basked in the hot air whilst Jamie indicated to me to check out the other cubicles. If we could find the other voice then maybe we would be one step closer to the truth.

Turning my back on them I walked to the end of the row. With six cubicle doors, it would not take long to search them all. I would be done before the macaw knew I was gone.

The first cubicle was scratched with what looked like teeth marks on the sides. It had been hastily painted over, with the original colour poking out below the surface. It was empty, with nothing inside to indicate that it had been used within the last month. Dust had collected on the lid with deep brown marks etched into the sides of the bowl. It had not been cleaned.

The second toilet looked to be in similar condition and the same was true with the third and fourth. They all had a similar look of neglect to them. They were in dire need of a clean and I had no doubt that a story existed to cover all of this but as I walked to the penultimate cubicle, I cared not. All I wanted was to leave with my friend, to be safe and secure, and go back to my old life.

The fifth cubicle looked slightly different, as though it had been recently painted with a fresh coat of royal blue paint. No marks on the side. It looked to be the most well-maintained cubicle of them all. Care and attention had been provided here.

Knocking on the door out of some historic sign of respect, I heard a voice on the other side call out, "Come in. When you are ready to understand, come in and we will begin." An odd message to be sure, but curiosity was the greatest killer in the world and so I pushed the door open. Slowly, I kept my weight pivoted against my back leg, just in case what I saw required me to run.

There, sitting on the toilet was my father. A knitting needle in one hand and the wings of what appeared to be a giant bird laying over his lap. Specks of blood could be seen on the needle as he was continuing to sow them on the beast. The wings that must have been connected to Jamie whilst he was the monster of yesterday.

I was speechless. My father had left my mother years ago. Something that I had never received answers for. One day he was here and the next he was gone. Always obsessed with chasing his dreams, I knew that having a family was a struggle for him. A genius by all accounts, he had met Mum whilst at university, subsequently needing to drop out after she had discovered she was pregnant. People would say that they would always see him staring out of the window like there was a piece of his life that was missing.

"It's been..." my father started but I was quicker to the punch.

"Where the hell have you been? You were meant to take me to play football, yet you never came back, you left."

I could tell that he was taken back at this. Placing the wings carefully across the toilet seat he got to his feet, walking past me and knocking on the door of the last cubicle.

"It'll be a few minutes longer. I'm sorry but he has a right to know. He's my son after all and he should know before we move forward."

Stepping back into the cubicle, he gestured for me to sit down. As the floor was covered with water and blood, I declined, interested only in the story.

"I'm sorry. I know that you will have hundreds of questions but before I respond to any of them and get into my story, you need to know that I am sorry. I never set out that day to hurt you but the opportunity to finish my work was difficult to resist. I needed answers to my theories. To know whether I was right or wrong and so I followed my little friend here." My dad pointed to the cage where the macaw was back inside.

The bird moved its head to the side like it was looking into my soul, seeing who I was. It was unnerving and after a few seconds, I needed to move my eyes away, as I could no longer maintain contact with the creature.

"That day, when I went for milk, I was filled with a deep sadness. I knew that we did not need any but I needed to get a breath of fresh air and have the chance to stretch my legs and think. Not to simply head to the pub. I needed to get out and process everything. I had reached the limit of what I could achieve at home. With my pathetically slow laptop that the University reserved for its 'lapsed employees'. It was at this moment that the macaw moved to sit on my dad's shoulder, as though it was there to comfort. Some divine level of empathy showing through its wise features.

"I was a joke" continued my father with more than a little hate pushing through his speech. "My funding had been cut and cut again, to the point where my 'visits to the pub...'", his fingers quoted this part in obvious distaste of the stories he was forced to tell back then.

"…were nothing more than a smokescreen for the second job that I was forced to work."

My father paused again here and my patience with the matter was beginning to wear thin. I just wanted to know what had happened, why I was here and why the hell had there been a human-sized bird stalking me slowly down a never-ending corridor.

Sensing my frustration, the macaw flew to sit on my shoulder. It was unnerving yet soothing. A clash of emotions coming together to form acceptance.

"That Saturday I had the day off. A rare escape from the pressures of life. No wife in my ear screaming that I was a failure and no colleagues laughing at me as they saw how tired I was the next day. How my emails were riddled with spelling mistakes and how they could guarantee that their funding would be approved, whilst my proposals would be swept to one side. No. That day I was free.”

He continued, “Before I headed to the shops, I felt drawn towards the woods nearby to our house. Do you remember them? Where all the teenagers would take their bikes after school or at the weekend, but this day was different. As I rounded the corner, mist surrounded the area and no sounds of drunken merriment could be heard. It was empty and whilst it looked like the stereotyped opening to any horror film ever, I continued forward.”

He paused for a moment here, seemingly lost in thought.

Continuing, “Walking for what seemed like hours, I stopped at a tree stump to take in my new surroundings. I was lost. I was lost in a small area of wooded greenery less than a mile from where I had lived for ten years. It was a ridiculous situation, yet I was not panicking as for some reason, I knew that I was meant to be here."

He paused again before looking up and staring directly into my eyes as he continued.

"It was at this moment that I saw him (My father gestured to the macaw on my shoulder). He landed next to me on the floor, staring, without ever letting his gaze drop. I mean it was extraordinary. This bird that should not exist in England had found its way to the middle of nowhere, to land next to me in the fog, in order to stare into my soul, before beginning to walk, gesturing me with its beak to follow", my father finished here for the moment in order for me to say what he knew was coming.

"So you followed this bird, chose your work and abandoned your family? You left me with a story, an unfinished one at that and expect me not to be angry right now?". Sounding more confident than I felt, owing to the consideration that as I was speaking, my father grabbed the sowing needle once again and began to twizzle it around his fingers.

Pointing it directly at my face, he replied, "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think that I went through all of this in my head as I followed him, but really, that is not the question which you should be asking."

"What question should I be asking then, dad", dropping the emphasis on the dad, with as much venom as I could muster, given the seriousness of the situation.

"The question of what you should be asking is, did you feel bad about it? Do you regret your actions? Do you wake up at night in a cold sweat, knowing what you did?" Replied my dad, with pity in his voice.

Staying silent, I waited for him to continue, as the macaw squeezed my shoulder with increased intensity. Before he could answer, an unnatural scream emerged from the first cubicle and my father grabbed the wings and his kit, slamming the door behind him.

If there was ever a chance to escape, then this was it. Freedom was within my reach and so I carefully walked out of the cubicle, to see Jamie sitting in the corner under the dryer, which was still running. Small burn marks were beginning to form on his head. He had not moved since earlier. Like some sort of robot who was easily programmable and moveable, to the whim of some unknown force.

I grabbed his shoulders and tried to wake him from whatever trance he was in but it was no use, so I pushed him off the stool and onto the floor. He continued to lay there, unmoved by any of the events around him. He was a zombie and there was no way that I would be able to drag him out of that room, so I went to the mirror.

There on my shoulder was the macaw, unmoved by the situation, staring back at me, as understanding began to dawn on me.

"Can I ask you a question, macaw?", I asked, and from inside the cubicle came the answer.

"You may ask but there is no guarantee that I will answer."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Well, I'll start with the obvious question. Why my dad, why choose him?"

A pause of around five seconds took place before his response was delivered. "Now that is a good question. I chose your father because he called out to me. His hopelessness resonated across the world and rattled me from my tree. I had to respond as you see, my species is pre-programmed to hear the calls of the helpless. We hear their cry. Thousands and thousands, day after day, but we hear them. Non-stop, 365 days a year. We need to filter through each and everyone, ascertaining who we should and should not assist. It is our calling and your dad is qualified. His call resonated with me. A failed life and a desperate need for meaning".

"A failed life?" quickly responding and buying myself time to think.

"Yes. A life of regret and achievement missed. It called out to me out of the darkness and reminded me of my life. I wanted to do more. To write and not to listen. I wanted to see more but my family held me back and so I took note, travelling to your father, as I thought that we could save each other".

"And did you? Did you save each other or are you still searching for meaning?" I wasn't really sure if I wanted an answer to this question but as I had nothing else to ask, it was better than nothing.

10, 20, 30 seconds went past with nothing. A hole of time whilst I attempted to figure out what to say in order to fill the void.

"Did you hear me? Did you save each other or are you still searching for meaning?"

My dad emerged from the cubicle at this moment as I could see two wings pointing over the top. It was as though whatever was inside was stretching, getting used to its new limbs,

Sighing before he answered the question, my dad looked me in the eye, "We have now." At this comment, Jamie, sprung to life, holding the door shut, baring my escape.

With fear ebbing from each word, I responded, "What do you mean that we have now?"

"We need a genetic match to complete our research." Within a split second the cubicle opened and a human-sized macaw emerged from inside. Its wings were covered in blood from where my father had stitched them back on. It was quite an intimidating sight. Looking me directly in the eye, it said, "We need you, or more importantly, we need your body."

Shocked to my core at these words, I stared at my dad, "What the hell do you mean?"

"We need to conduct an autopsy to prove our theories correct. Your sacrifice will potentially help millions around the world, each day." My Dad replied with little sense of emotion left in his voice.

With panic rising in my stomach I turned to the door and remembered Jamie standing there. Arms folded. He was not going to let me pass and with my dad and the giant macaw closing in on me I only had a few seconds to act.

I punched Jamie in the face so hard that I could feel the fingers in my hand break, yet it achieved the action that I was looking for. Jamie fell to the floor, providing me with the opportunity to open the door and squeeze into the corridor. I was free.

Running to the lift I hammered the button for the ground floor and jumped for joy as the doors closed. I was free but what about Jamie? I'd left my friend behind to endure god knows what types of torture at the hands of a father than I had not seen in nearly a decade, but I couldn't go back. It would mean my death.

As I stepped out of the lift a red wing flashed across my eyes as it stabbed through and into my belly. I was not on the ground floor, I was back at the top with Jamie and my father flanking the giant bird. They were looking down smiling at me as I was lifted up and onto the hospital stretcher.

Pleading with them to let me go, I knew that it was no use. They wheeled me around the corner and into a room that had been converted into an operating theatre, slicing me from here to kingdom come but I did not die

Waking the next day to sunshine pouring through the window, I looked to see what the damage was. On either side of what used to be my body was two red wings. The wings of a macaw and whilst I had my head, my legs had been replaced by claws.

Screaming as my dad came into view, I heard him yell into the corridor, "See. I told you that it would work. Told you that we could turn animals into humans and this is but the next step."