JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Chapter 6

The Harp

Midnight:

   The floor was quiet. The floor; consisting of the bottom level of the underground complex, that is. The bottom of the huge beanstalk was deserted and around the giant child, the 12 guards were in languid, slow, but constant movement around him. The giant ignored them and was sleeping fitfully.

   ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Four silencer shots rang out and four guards dropped to the ground.

   The remaining 8 guards were on instant alert. They closed ranks and held out their guns. "Who's there! What the fuck is going on? Show yourselves!" yelled one guard.

   ZAP! ZAP! Two more guards fell over.

   "SHIT! Who's doing that! Where are they?" yelled a guard. The remaining six were scanning the area frantically, and waving their guns around erratically trying to pinpoint the sniper.

   ZAP! ZAP!

   "Hit the alarm! Call for re-enforcements!" yelled another.

   "I'm on it!" The guard trotted over to the alarm and unsnapped his walkie-talkie out of its pouch. He lifted the radio to his lips as he reached the alarm He reached out to push the button.

   Just before he did, at the last possible second, Jack turned around and ruthlessly shot the three remaining guards at close range right in the chest. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! The three men didn't suspect a thing and never had a chance. They were down and out before they even realized Jack was pointing his gun at them.

   "You can come out now!" he called. "They're all asleep!"

   Brian and Justin emerged from their hiding places that they had been waiting in still dressed as guards unless anyone suspected anything. Brian was behind some crates and Justin was in plain sight on the second stairwell. They both came onto the floor and holstered their tranq guns.

   "Thanks guys! You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that! If I tried it by myself tho, I would have been dogpiled before I could get everybody!" Jack made his way over to them, making a quick detour to a fire station to get an axe.

   "No problem Jack. Thanks for being on time," Brian answered, "Nice shootin' Sunshine!" He too, grabbed an axe.

   "Not just a pretty face!" Justin bragged breezily.

   You're right! We can't forget that luscious ass of yours," Brian returned, leering lustfully.

   "Will you guys cut it out!? We're in a hurry!" Jack huffed out hastily. He ran up to one of the ropes that was securing the child's arms and began chopping. "Wake up, Corin! Wake up! It's time to go home at last!"

   The giant awoke from his fitful sleep at once. "Jack! You've come to visit me again! Did you say home?"

   "I did indeed, my boy! And you must help us get you free!" Jack made short work of the rope he was working on and moved up to the one laying across Corin's neck. It wasn't a strangulation hold but it was keeping his head down.

   Meanwhile, Brian and Justin were working on ropes of their own, one near the torso and one on a leg.

   "Hurry Jack, hurry!" begged Corin fretfully. Now that rescue was so close, he could taste it.

   SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! The ropes were chopped through. The three men started in on more ropes. Meanwhile, Corin was able to move a little now. He lifted his big head off the floor for the first time in years and used his free arm to untie his other one. Now he was able to sit up. He took Jack's axe gently away from him and said: "Allow me."

   And he used it to slice through the remaining ropes as easily as if we were to use a knife to chop and slice a thin strand of string. In another few moments he was brushing the remaining ropes from him and he was standing on shaky legs at last.

   "Free! Free at last! Oh, thank you Jackie!

   "Your welcome sweetheart! But hurry along with you now! We're still not out of danger! Not while Stockwell has the harp! You must climb the beanstalk home and get your father! Send him down to help us!"

   "I will Jackie! I will! And I'll tell him that you helped me! Don't worry!"

   BEEEEP!!! BEEEEEP!!! BEEEEEP!!! An alarm buzzer began to sound. Their activity had been noticed at last. The skeleton crew began to scream and run around like panicked ants.

   "Hurry Corin! Hurry!" yelled Jack.

   Corin lumbered and toddled his way over to the beanstalk and began to climb. In a few minutes he was at the portal. In another minute he was through and gone. He was safe.

   However that is not the case for our heroes. They were surrounded by beefy, angry guards. They were arrested, disarmed and held at gunpoint. (Not tranqs!) And soon they were faced with the ugliest, angriest face of all.

   Stockwell.

BJBJBJBJBJBJBJBJ

   When Stockwell saw the big empty space where there was once a captive giant he let out a fearsome roar. He was apoplectic with rage.

   "How DARE you let him go! He was MINE! You've ruined everything!"

   "What are you talking about!?" yelled Brian, "He was never yours! He was a CHILD! A child belonging to some father! Some father who must have been going out of his mind with..." he faltered as his mind flashed to a baby photo in the shining castle whose name would soon be Gus. Oh my God! If anything happened to him... "My God! What happened to you! You weren't like this back in Pittsburgh! Now...Now you're just an ogre! You're a monster!"

   "Oh yes, Pittsburgh! Oh my, let's talk about Pittsburgh! Where I was supposed to be mayor! Everything was going swimmingly until YOU came along!"

   "What on earth did you do?" Justin asked Brian.

   "Tell ya later!" Brian said.

   "So now I'm NOT mayor! So I was going to be a factory owner and rich! Then I found all this and I was going to be VERY rich! I WAS very rich! And then you had to come and stick your nose into everything AGAIN! You stole my goose and all my money last night! Don't you deny it!"

   "First of all, Theodore is a person! Granted, he's annoying, monotonic, mindlessly boring, opera loving...OW!!" Here he received a sharp jab in the ribs from Justin. "Oh right! Where was I?"

   "Mindlessly boring..." prompted Stockwell in a jeering voice.

   "Oh dear God! Don't get me started..."

   "I can't get you to SHUT UP!" screamed Stockwell.

   "Uhhh...well, anyway...he's a person! Not a goose! And you were holding him in prison like a condemned man! After we RESCUED him...he GAVE us all your money! We tried to stop him but he was the one who insisted on screwing you over! And from what I've seen, it serves you right!" Brian yelled.

   "From what you've seen....yes, it all seems to hinge on that, doesn't it!? You know my secret now and since you took my goose, you will take his place! A nice long session with my harp and you won't remember anything....about anything!" He sounded insane.

   "His name's Theodore!" growled Brian.

   "His name doesn't matter! By the time I'm finished with you, you won't remember your own name, much less his! Enough talk! Take them away!!!"

   "You're plan won't work!" Jack blurted, fighting against the brainwashed, beefy, bouncers. He was desperately stalling for time.

   "What do you mean?" snarled Stockwell.

   "Why do you think we rescued Corin? He's the lynch pin of your whole scheme. Once the harp finds out, she'll be free of your bondage. She'll never agree to hurting us. Not only that, she'll be free to stop this whole mass mind control. You'll be ruined. You're finished!"

   "I guess she'd better not find out then! And as for now, I do have control! Gag them! And don't let them speak a word in her presence! Take them away! Take them to a room on the second level!"

   Jack, Justin, and Brian found themselves tightly restrained and handgagged with the guards' smooth, leather gloved hands. They could only grunt indistinctly as they were dragged away toward the stairwells. Jack slumped in defeat. If only Corin had gotten home a little sooner.

   But now it was too late.

   Handcuffed and gagged they were dragged across the floor, up the stairs and to a door two flights up.

   The guards flung them inside the small room. The room was disorienting, small and completely white. It was perfectly round with no corners and the ceiling was domed. There were nothing on the white walls and there were only white cushions on the floor.

   Brian, Justin and Jack were gagged tightly with white rags and then shoved together in a jumble on the floor. The lights were switched off and it went from pure white to blinding black. There was only the light of the door now. And into the light of this door, popped Stockwell's angry face like an ugly, evil jack in the box.

   "The harp's on her way down! I sent up a loyal guard to fetch her!" he said nastily as if that would make an impact with them. When it didn't, he grew enraged and pointed a remote a pressed a button.

   From an unseen location, a recording started and a movie began to play. And then an astonishing thing happened. The movie was bounced off all the walls and then rebounded and suddenly there was a strange 3-D effects and the action began to take place in the midst of the room and it was as if they were in the midst of the movie!

   Brian grunted as if to ask: "What's this?"

;   "You're probably wondering what this is," Stockwell said gleefully, "I do hope you won't enjoy! It's the series finale episode of Queer as Folk! And it`s stuck on an endless loop!"

   "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" All three of them screamed. Of course, translated it was muffled MMMMPPPHHHS!!! But you get the picture.

   "I'll leave you to your final thoughts....and this for a few hours before you never have to think again!"

   Laughing in evil triumph, Stockwell slammed the door and locked it, leaving them in relative darkness and with that horrible recording playing in the midst of them.

   "We have important news to tell all of you," said recording Justin next to recording Brian in matching suits with maroon ties, "We've decided not to get married."

   Justin screamed in agony. He hated this particular plot twist with a passion.

   "Well.....how the fuck do you return a water buffalo?" whined recording Debbie in what was a vain attempt at comic relief. It failed miserably.

   Jack groaned as if there was a pain in his stomach. He had never even seen this episode or series but even he could tell that was a groaner.

   Normally, Queer as Folk was Brian and Justin's favourite program. They loved watching the sexual exploits and misadventures of the Liberty Ave. gang. Right up until here.  Then they agreed with the public consensus that the ending was the worst thing put on the airwaves. Disappointing, pointless plot twists, aimless and stupid dialogue and a vague and soul-crushing ending, this was the one Queer as Folk episode that truly sucked donkey balls.

   As each line of terrible, terrible dialogue played out, Brian and Justin screamed afresh as if they were being physically tortured. As it was they could barely stand replaying the events that were...well...replaying out before them. It was nightmarish, soul-crushing, and spirit torturing, and as painful as if they were on the rack or some other horrible torture described in an Edgar Allen Poe story or other gothic novel.

   At one point, Brian finally struggled his way to his feet and charged the spot where he thought the door was. However, the fact that the only light was coming from the recording and that they were now in a round kind of holodeck, had disoriented them all completely and every time he tried, he smashed his shoulder into the wall. After several attempts, he gave up and slumped to the floor of his prison cell next to Justin in tortured tears.

   For 3 hours and three cycles, they endured this horrific mess. They were mentally tortured and wrecked. Finally, the lights turned back on and the recording mercifully stopped. They sighed in relief.

   But the relief was short-lived. Stockwell came in with a guard. The guard was holding something under his coat and it appeared to be struggling.

   "Why am I being treated in such a manner?" a muffled voice was saying, "Release me at once!"

   Stockwell checked. "We're clear. Put her down."

   The guard took the thing out from his coat and put it down on the floor in front of the three terrified captives.

   The harp was a gold, handheld affair. Each string gleamed like the finest gold as well but surely, that couldn't be. Could it? Along the wider, curved back was an ornate carving of a big bosomed woman and her graven arms rested along the top of the harp. Or rather, they would have had they not been held hands on hips. Her beautiful face was carved out in anger.

   "I'm not going to ask again. Why was I summoned here, and in such a manner? I have never before being treated in this way! What is the meaning of this?"

   "We're...uhhhh.....in a deep level security section of the dungeon. The men before you are very dangerous men, which is why they're tied up so securely. I instructed my man to take you under his coat to keep you warm. It's rather chilly down here," Stockwell invented wildly.

   "MMMMMPPPPHHHH!!!! MMMMMPPPGH!!!!" the three men struggled and screamed through their gags just as wildly. (No! No! He's lying!")

   "Dangerous, you say?" asked the harp, narrowing her eyes, at Stockwell or at them, the captives could not tell.

   "Oh yes!" said Stockwell, waggling his head like a bobble head doll, "Dangerous and violent! Liars too!" he said, giving them a vicious and vengeful smile. The three captives just narrowed their eyes at him. Dammit! He had a lot of nerve.

   "They don't look violent," the harp said, looking them over carefully. The three men nodded frantically. "And you have them so securely restrained and locked in this dungeon. What do you need me for?"

   "They're too far gone for rehabilitation. I need you to...take care of them," Stockwell said meaningfully.

   "I've told you before not to take my powers lightly. Using my music the way you do, will lead to serious repercussions for you. I suggest..."

   "But Stockwell had lost patience. "And I suggest that you do as you're told! Remember, I still have that brat tied up! Just do what I say and he won't get hurt!"

   "The harp lay her arms across the top and said sorrowfully, "It always seems to come back to that, doesn't it? Fine. What do you want this time?"

   "Lobotomise them!" Stockwell yelled with finality and then slammed his way out. The three prisoners and the harp were left alone together.

TBC