Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett

with red-rimmed eyes. He said thank you as he accepted the cup. And they sat together watching the dark shadows roll by.
    Then Adrian saw it. He turned to his brother. Antoine had his finger to his lips to tell him to hush. It moved like an animal. It had a strange stride. Adrian had to stare for a long time to accept what he was seeing. It stood on two legs and walked like a man. But its head was not a man’s. At first it seemed like a hat. Adrian squinted. The darkness was thick and the dust was still falling, so he felt like he may have been mistaken, but the creature seemed to have antlers.
    Bang! Bang! Bang!
    Someone pounded on the window. Adrian jumped back. His heart pounded as if it would leap out of his shirt. “Come on! I know you’re in there. I can see you. Let me in!”
    Antoine had the gun pointed at the glass. Adrian watched his brother move.
    “What do you want?” Antoine said.
    “Don’t leave me out here! Please let me in!”
    Antoine faced the shadow. He stared at the dark figure for a long time.
    “Whoever you are, leave us alone.”
    “You can’t leave me out here! Dammit, they’re coming!”
    “What’s coming?!” Hector yelled.
    “Oh, God,” Antoine gasped and backed away. “Everyone grab something! That broom, something heavy. Anything you can hit with!”
    “What’s going on?” Hector said.
    The shadow man left the window and ran swiftly down the street followed soon after by a pack of other shadows. The sounds of hooves pounded the pavement, shaking the floor and making the windows tremble. Some of the shadows stopped and began banging on the pane. There was no time. It broke open like the crash of a wave against the rocks.
    Shattered glass flew everywhere. Hector used his body to cover Adrian. A large shard slipped into the neck of Mr. Kim. He dropped to the floor and gulped for air as the blood gushed out of him. Antoine pulled Hector and Adrian to their feet and yanked them into the back storage room and locked the door behind them. The things thumped mercilessly against the door. Adrian and Hector pushed hard to block their entry. Antoine tried the back exit. It was heavy and locked. He shot around the knob several times until a big hole opened, then pushed the door into the alley. Antoine and Adrian ran out, but Hector slammed the door shut behind them, using his body to keep it closed.
    “What are you doing?!” Adrian said.
    “Run! I’ll keep them here for as long as I can!” Hector shouted.
    “You can’t do anything! Get out of there! Come on!” Antoine screamed and pulled at Adrian’s shirt, dragging him away.
    Adrian cried, “Helen, why?!”
    If he had remained for a moment longer, he would have heard the answer, “Because you saw the real me.”
    .
.
.
    *REPAIRS COMPLETE*

9.
    Adrian and Antoine ran until their lungs burned. Adrian’s side ached with pain. He stopped to catch his breath.
    *BREAK*
    >>
    >> opendoc /w process_data.fi
    # process_data.fi -- update data,
    # from hierarchical tree, sort
    # and process data
    .
.
.
parent = pop(hierarchy_data);
child_1 = parent->left;
child_2 = parent->right;
    .
.
.
    >>
    >> execute process_data
     
    Two brown boys chased by fast-moving shadows and something-like-hounds. The galloping hooves drove them onward. They raced into an empty lot. Old soda cans, trash.
Broken glass, everywhere.
People pissing in the stairs like they just don’t care …
    Red bricks that used to be a part of a building stood one on top of another. You could almost make out how the rooms were once laid out. Antoine knew this area well. He had been here many times with his friends for his nighttime sneak-outs to do God knows what ’til the break of dawn . Adrian had always helped him to creep back into the house. Their Dad never knew. If he had, he would have killed them both. In exchange for his silence, Adrian got the stories. The stories of who did what, when, and how. The stories of the music and the rhyme and the rhythms and the beats.