The Window

The Window.

A short story from the mind of iQ Wingfield

This thunderstorm is incredibly strong. It’s rolled into town seemingly as if it were born here; the rain is pouring, and thunder is shaking the house. A young man comes running down the stairs at the side of the large home barely covering himself from the rain as he makes his way quickly to the large barn doors adjacent to the house. Stopping under the overhang, the young man partially swings open one of the large barn doors to find his father scrambling around in his lab. Just before he could utter a word his dad belted out,” Grab the magnetic ring, Son, and place it there please”. The magnetic ring was on a table to the right of the door, standing upright and slowly spinning on an opposing magnetic stand. The young man grabbed the ring and hurried it to the central platform in the lad. His Father was typing typing typing away at his computer as the lightning began to closer and closer. With every strike, the room lit up bright as day. “The containment field is active Son, we have to release the liquid mercury now, put on your safety goggles and step back Son”. He belts out just before lifting the 30lb. pail of liquid mercury. He lifted the pail to the side of the outside containment ring and began to pour it into a spout just as the two internal rings began to spin. The liquid mercury began to ride the flow of energy and spine like a gyroscope. The liquid began to emit a brilliant light, and the magnetic ring beneath it all began to levitate from the platform when suddenly a lightning bolt crashed through the lab's skylight striking the outer ring. The rainstorm vanished…thrown to the floor by the lightning the man gets to his feet and stumbles to help his son up. The room is dead silent, except for the sounds of energy fluctuations in the room. Now at the center of the lab is a massive swirling circle of energy like he has never seen before. He walks around to the front of the lab and is stopped in his tracks by what he can see. Inside the swirling circle of energy is a completely different world. The energy swirls were giving off short bursts of lightning as if it were unstable. The window’s outer edge began to shift colors and the power cords connecting the center platform began to glow and pulse, the machine drew massive amounts of power as the window stabilized. The young man grabbed his father's hand tightly as they both realized that something was moving on the window's other side.

On the other side of the window looks to be some kind of lab, much more sophisticated than the lab on this side. A large part of the wall is blown out and they can see the world outside. It’s destroyed. Buildings burning, explosions the place is a war zone. There are fighter jets ripping by and other aircraft all over the city. The window began to flutter again then three long gray fingers reached out. It just hung there for a second, then the window started to expand, and the lightning around it began to grow into the room. The hand turned into an arm as the being began to step through. The being stood at the center of the swirling circle of energy and fixed its eyes on the scientist and his son. The Son took a deep breath, and the being began to walk towards them, the being’s back began to glow, and a force began to pulse from the being’s back. The being is extremely tall, standing at just over 7 feet, and it is wearing some kind of biomechanical suit with circuitry embedded in its skin. The being raised its right hand and pointed it toward the scientist and his son; the father pushed his son behind him to shield him from the being. The being’s hand began to change into what could only be described as a cannon; the weapon began to hum and glow as the being aimed. Suddenly, a blast that sounded like thunder going off in the room rocked the being from the left side, the being was knocked back towards the window, bleeding badly with most of its arm blown off. The scientist looked to the front doors to see his wife standing there, racking her shotgun. She takes aim and fires again, blasting at the being with her 12-gauge rifled slugs until she is down to her last round. The being is directly in front of the window, the wife takes aim and yells out, “This last one is a hot one MF “Then she fires and burns a whole right through the being with her emergency dragons breathe round, sending the being’s burning body back into the window.

The son pops his head out from behind his dad and says, “Mom!” She lowered her weapon and said, “Dinner is ready, and you, Sir… turn off your toys, and what do you want to drink?” The entire barn blacks out as the window loses power, the husband walks over to his wife, gives her a little kiss on the head, and says, “I’ll take an old-fashioned Mamabear, it’s gonna be whiskey for me.” The son locks the barn door behind them, and they all head inside out of the storm. But back in the barn…. The being’s arm begins to regenerate under the light of the lightning.

Fin…