Infinity Smashed: Ten Years to Vanish, Part One

Another freebie, totally unrelated to Foolathon.  It's also possibly the most depressing thing I've ever written! :D

Ten Years to Vanish
Prompt: Stuff100 'Years,' H/C Bingo 'atonement'
Word count: 12,726
Summary: It takes Biff ten years to learn how to disappear.
Notes: First of all, the cave of light is a real place; it exists in my hometown.  Also, this story involves graphic violence, suicide gone wrong, dysfunctional family dynamics, and general disturbing imagery.  Consider yourself warned.

Ten


Biff is six when he sees the vanishing act on TV.

He doesn’t remember much of the rest at all, or even the magician, but he does remember the courageous assistant.  She climbs into an enormous box, still smiling even as the magician shuts it in her face.  The magician spins the box around, drives swords and stakes through it, kicks it off the platform, but when he opens the box, it’s empty.  The pretty assistant has escaped, vanished—until she appears in the audience, waving and smiling her brave smile.

Biff knows that he’s interested in the wrong person.  He should want to be the magician, the one with the fancy name, the swords and the stakes and the power, the one who gets all the applause.  But he’d rather be the nameless assistant.  She’s the one who disappeared.

( Read more... )

--Continued in Part Two

Infinity Smashed: Ten Years to Vanish, Part Two

Ten Years to Vanish
Prompt: Stuff100 'Years,' H/C Bingo 'atonement'
Word count: 12,726
Summary: It takes Biff ten years to learn how to disappear.
Notes: First of all, the cave of light is a real place; it exists in my hometown.  Also, this story involves graphic violence, suicide gone wrong, dysfunctional family dynamics, and general disturbing imagery.  Consider yourself warned. Also, Part One is here, and you should read that first.

( Read more... )