MAGENTA SHADOWS preview

 

Young woman. Purple hair earlobe-length. Champagne satin lingerie. Laid on her side. Arms behind back. Wrists cinched together with hot pink zip ties, their slack like the darting tongues of famished lizards reaching for orbiting flies. She’s dawning on the reality of her whereabouts; the ridged plastic floor of a large windowless van. A medium-large figure lurches out of the shadows behind her, walking in a crouched position toward the woman’s head. The figure cradles and strokes the young woman’s face, eyes open but unable to settle on a spot which to stare, lightly gasping in registers that could denote either paralytic fear or amorous seizure. The figure’s long hands are gloved, the material of the digital coverings reflecting the crackled marble squares found in a QR code. The figure’s head bobs in and out of the shadows, body rocking in synch with bumps in the cratered road. The figure’s face is concealed beneath a skull-tight mouthless ski-mask… its color a snow of magenta gradients. Van ceases motion. Engine shuts off. Side door opens, groaning at a slug’s pace. A new figure steps into the van, a bit larger than the first, wearing dark blue wide leg jeans, a lava grey casual jacket, and a Mickey Mouse gas mask, its features palette-swapped to resemble blackface. The first figure removes one hand from the side of the woman’s face to ferret around in the pocket of their resin black pullover hoodie. The first figure hands the contents of the pocket over to the new figure, who slips the objects over each pair of hands. The new figure kneels in front of the bare midriff of the young woman, who sucks in her gut, tensing the muscles in the hope they’ll inherit the lacking give of wire cables. The new figure throws thirteen stiff punches directly into her stomach. When the act is done… when looking in the mirror to wade in the shifts between vain admiration and morbid wallowing… the woman will be able to read two words imprinted on her midsection by a pair of brass knuckles; “GOOD NEWS”.

PLAYLIST

NCP / SDP