| Mavis and George CHAPTER ONE : 1 It was like finding termites on the brow of Jesus. He fell to his knees, dropping wallpaper on the otherwise pristine fitted carpet. His eyes held their stare. A shrill old cackle came from the landing, chilling every sound wave it endured. Mavis had arrived. 2 She was tall, scraggy and held a stepladder to one side. The rigid corner dragging shades of dark along the patterns of carpet, a brush held neatly to its side. �Want a hand?� she asked in a voice infected with pleasantry - it was a strain to stop it sagging. Evil was bolted to it like a sidecar. �No� George said dryly, holding up his hands. �I�ve got two already�. 3 Mavis spears a bony finger at George. �Come� she said �I need your soul�. George�s eyes flicker away from their point of fixation. Midway up the wall in the cavity uncovered. They flirt back to it with a solemn stare. His words seemed to plop out of his mouth, breaking through a trance. �Why does God�have pornography?� George wiped a mini turret of sweat gathered on his head. Mavis looks up and sniggers. 4 �It was put there by the last decorators� Mavis explained. �You know�us�. Realisation dawned on George�s face. A smile failed to contain itself. �Stupid bastard ought to do his own wallpapering� Mavis reflected, sloshing more paste over the cracked surface. �Upper classes, eh?� CHAPTER TWO: Later that day was earlier that evening. A mound of confusion arose in George�s brain. How could that be � were the clocks wrong? Someone was lying and it wasn�t him � he was standing up. On some stepladders, loosely supported by the cold, unreliable hands of Mavis. �Mavis - Why do you want my soul?� �I�ve ran out of panini world cup stickers� she grinned broadly. He fell off the steps banging his head, blunting his brain further to a stump. Mavis howled with jagged laughter, cutting through the calm. A chandelier swung with muted violence; a picture seemed to shuffle across the wall to avoid its power. Everything seemed to relax when it receded. George�s arms craned his upper body from the floor. Concern crossed itself on his face and some of the colour melted away. �Souls�but �it�s dangerous! There�s big time collecters�the Devil� God�the Chinese Mafia�� �Are we gonna get this job done tonight?� Mavis snapped �I got the souls to collect�. Time seemed a blur of insignificance. They were standing before a perfect wallpapering creation. It seemed to glow. Without speaking Mavis grabbed her bag and slid off into the night. CHAPTER THREE: 1 George�s hand thumbed around in soft cracks. At the moment his entire life resolve was focused on a ginormous struggle by his standards, the loction of the remote control. But then he realised he didn�t have a television, so it wasn�t worth looking. He passed some time by admiring his wallpaper. �Fine�fine job� he thought slowly. �Should I do it again?� He drifted back to earlier in the day, the brush against the paper�lining up the patterns afterwards. The daydreaming exploded into a streak of horror. An air bubble stood bold and true. An air pocket? The family�s rich decorating skills were crumbling under his control. Handed down from generation to next - a baton of skill and fiercely guarded secrets. Never had they been so secure before the time of George � he had forgotten them. 2 Mavis collected souls deep into the night. When the long evening settled into morning she had four which she stuck in a book. None were much good, These people had lost their way in the middle of their lives, vibrant ones were the most prized souls. The ones that wanted to live. These were stale and flat like old pop. Taking depressed souls was like stealing decayed currents from the front of a vegetable stall. 3 The square blob on the other side of the wall goaded him; every glance pulled strands out of his web of family precision. �I�ve wallpapered over the television� he gasped, and a rock hit his inner pride. 4 �Give us your soul!� cried the haggard witch Mavis, her eyes sunken beneath the rim of her costume hat. �Give us your soul!�. Passerbys quickened their pace along the street. �I�ll look after you forever� her voice wavered in unconvincing tones. �Keep and never destroy. There are two paths to eternity, but people die before they get there.� A doctor looked at her strangely. �You alright?� he asked waving a handsignal behind him. Somewhere nearby, a car engine prowled into action. 5 �I�ve wallpapered the settee as well!� George clutched his head in disbelief, trying to release the grip of his agony. A distressed bellow of frustration, a spasm of self head hitting, then the redecorating started. 6 A shiver of fear struck Mavis� nose, making her brain rattle. Her wolf like eyes widened and fixed on the black car cutting through a shoal of pedestrians. In an instant the future uncoiled before her. All thoughts of souls faded. Her body had squeezed aside all reasoning, leaving the solid bones of instinct. Her jaw hung open dumbly for a spilt second before closing itself with a soft pop. How had they found her so fast? 7 �That�s better�. George relaxed, his paste splattered clothes sticking to the shabby setee. The television now revealed itself. Sitting proud with the wallpaper behind it. Somehow it looked sad, lifeless. A glossy pane to a dull world. �Aah�it�s off� he concluded, dozily. Now where was the remote? He slapped his head. His hand stuck there. 8 The car skidded leaving thin rails of rubber across road and pavement. The doors flung open. Three suited enorcers, boxy hardened men, arose from its inner chamber; evil glares stamped on their faces. Their hands clasped tightly wicked Chinese weapons. Mavis grabbed her small and unplesent bundle of belongings and pounded towards a back alley. The Doctor makes a flying swoop for her leg, whipping through the empty air, clamping on nothing. The retreating Mavis pants, her body pumping like a rusty steam engine (grating on crooked tracks). 9 More hard pockets of wallpaper hung on the ceiling like mutated stalegtites. Squinting, he made out the shapes. One was a square oblong, possibly a phone. Another quite clearly a houseplant and yes, as he feared, the remote control. The dull light shone; it was transmitting useless instuctions to an obscure corner of the room. He sighed and tried to get up. The seat resisited his movements, clinging to him in a tangle of fibre and wallpaper paste. He was tugged down then gave up the struggle landing clumsily like a rocket on elastic. From somewhere on his body fell an object to the floor. A strange remote control presented itself before him. 10 �Small time collector� the Doctor assesed �Maybe seven or eight. They�ll be in the bag�. Three hired machines of blood and muscle close towards their fleeing prey. 11 Mavis lobbed her bag of souls over the garden fence, her head snatched a view at the ungracous waddling of her pursuers, locking on them longer than intended. Bearing towards her, plump machines of death. Their muscles pumping furiously benieth their layers of fat. The fence bent as she forced herself over. 12 George was confused. He gazed through the thinly masked minefield of objects in the ceiling. The red light still blinkered. The houseplant seemed to sigh and the phone rang hollow, distant tones in his imagination. Then looked down at the new remote he automatically stretched for. The workings of his brain twitched and strained, resisted, then cracked, like putting pressure on twigs. �I must have picked it up from God�s house� the thought composed itself then drifted away. A blankness as the next shades of thinking formed, grey at first, then visable. �It must be his remote control�. He turned it over slowly and vacant realisation dawned on his face. �My God�he�s�got cable� CHAPTER FOUR 1 �Nice wallpapering� God commented, passing through the rooms of his house. �What was his name again? George? Well..I�ll see to him, maybe he�ll die just a couple of yards away from eternity, the others will be miles away�apart from the girl who did the kitchen�nice job�. �God�do you exist?.�no offence, but you just seem like a whacko� said the bravest butler in the world. �er�you�re fired� said his boss �Righto� said the butler, before realising ��shit� �Oh erm�before you go� God continued �you havn�t seen the remote have you?� The former butler shrugs unprofessionally, loosening his tie. �Is it important?� �Can�t be assed to go all the way to the set� �Damn�I�ll have to make another one� �You bought it from Dixons�and �can I have my soul back now?� �No�I collect them� said the wacko. �Fine� the butler sarcasted �I�m sure I�ll find another one� 2 Three lumps battered against the fence, half a mile away a television roared into action. It flung itself open to the workings of Gods vision. 3 George could see further than the eye of the sun. The galaxy stretched before him, a lush blanket of woven stars. The depths of Gods inner thoughts lay before him, in it, the corridors leading to eternity. �This is dull� he thought, then watched The Bill on UK Gold. 4 �Use the gate� the doctor suggested. His teeth clenched together like Comical fence moment. 5 go into the tv devil on the bill. 6 confrontation. Phone falls on his head. 7 God�s butler. Wacko. �stop calling me that�. �I�m bored of them� shrugged the devil �I�ve started to collect panini stickers� The devil weaved there way through the tight corridors. He took them to a catogue of souls, ut they never got paid for the wallpapering. �This is boring� said George �let�s go back�. Coda: Devils front room? Ending? |