Go Back Where You Come From - Prologue (sci-fi)

Roy Jenkins sat on his porch and waited for the light show over at his neighbor's place.

By Sgt. Frances Johnson (https://www.dvidshub.net/image/1457687) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The light shows had started about a year after Ben had moved in, so they had been going on for five years now. In all that time, Ben never talked about them, and Roy had the feeling that Ben's divorce had more than a little bit to do with those lights. That was not a subject he broached though. He had never seen such a cold burn in a man's eyes as Benjamin Levi's when the subject moved in the direction of those subjects. You would never had thought that a fat little Jew could look so mean, but that was an area that Roy wasn't willing to see any closer.

When Ben had moved in, there had been no such look in his eyes. Ben had been friendly and outgoing, a real pleasure as a guest and a host. Roy had been shocked and intrigued to find that Ben and his ex, Aria, had been in the porn biz. Ben as a producer and Aria as an actress. Ben was smart and funny, and surprised Roy by having been a Gulf War Marine. Aria was funny and bubbly, and while Aria had been a little on the flaky side, there was no indication of sluttiness that Roy had picked up on. Roy had even gotten a foretaste of Ben's cold eyes; Roy had asked him about Aria working as a pornstar during their marriage. Ben said he had put an end to that as a matter of fact as soon as he even thought they might be serious. Ben then lightened up and made a joke about washing off the dirt of the past but staying out of the mud in the present.

When the lights started showing up the next year, Ben's eyes went from happy to suspicious to wary to cold in a matter of weeks. Ben and family had stopped visiting and stopped inviting Roy over. Roy wasn't even sure when the lights had started. It was just a matter of a full bladder in the early AM that allowed him to see the lights over Ben's place that first time. The lights didn't show up every night, but they did show up at least twice a week, and always between three and four in the morning.

It was a sad thing for Roy when the visiting had stopped. It wasn't just that Ben and Aria had been such fun people to be around, but their daughter Sarah was a living joy. She had been six when they first started coming over. The girl was pretty in the way that mixed race children often are (Aria was Asian of some never stated nationality). But past that she was never sad, always exuberant, and always laughing. She had made Roy her "uncle" on the family's second hosting of Roy, and none of the adults was displeased on that score, especially Roy.

The lights had steadily eroded that, too. The Levis came over less frequently, bickered more, and Sarah became paler, smiling less and less often. The first time Roy had seen the cold burn in Ben's eyes fully, Aria had started hinting about the lights. It was also the first time that Roy had seen Ben threaten Aria.

You are going to shut your mouth about that. We are going to deal with that, and we aren't running this time

He took her arm, and they had then left abruptly. Their divorce had come about two years ago. Sarah had stayed with Ben. Ben had mentioned tersely that Aria had gone back into porn, but not to say anything to Sarah. It came to Roy that he hadn't even seen Sarah in about a year. He had run across Ben and daughter in town. Sarah looked like a war refugee in her eyes, and clung fiercely to her dad. Ben had been dismissive, but Sarah had run to Roy and gave him a long hug.

You don't have to be my uncle anymore. It's not safe

That had broken Roy's heart. Roy considered the possibility there was molestation going on, but he was a good judge of men, and he thought Ben would kill anyone, including himself, that harmed his daughter. There were also the lights to consider. There was definitely something wrong with that.

Now he sat on the porch waiting to see if the show would come tonight. Ben's place was not quite a mile away, across a long slope of a valley; a creek gully ran through both properties. Ben's place was a little more downhill than Roy's place, and the placing gave Roy an excellent view.

The lights did start, but less than two minutes after they had started, a thunderstorm of gunfire had broken out down that way. Roy had served in Vietnam as a young man, and he had hunted all his life. Roy recognized 12 gauge and .223, and although he couldn't distinguish the caliber, there was also some deer rifle going off over there. The lights went out, but the gunfire continued. He could start to hear men shout, and the most ungodly wailing of some sort.

By Master Sgt. Kevin Wallace (https://www.dvidshub.net/image/1035719) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Distinct shouts could be heard in breaks between the wailing, and sometimes over it.

Got him

One down

LEFT LEFT LEFT

Finally, Roy began to hear shouts of cease fire amidst the unearthly keening, which hadn't stopped.

Roy started for the phone to call the sheriff: he suddenly felt that would be a bad idea, the kind of quasi-fear that starts in your gut and shoots into your brain when you are about to do something that you know, without reason, that will turn out badly. Instead, he continued listening to the screams that were made by no man.

Those broke off with the final blast of a shotgun. Roy could clearly hear Ben yell.

Fourth dimension, my ass

Roy's gut told him that Ben had finally dealt with what was hurting his daughter.