Freeze Flash

Mr. Parker woke up to the sun’s beautiful rays shining through his window. He couldn’t wait for today, he was going on a picnic at his favorite place, Rocking Choral River. He made his lunch (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich) and he got his drinks ready, now all he needed was the picnic basket. He remembered putting in the attic after his last picnic. The manky, dark attic made him shudder just thinking about it. 

“Deep breaths.” he told himself. Walking over to the stairs he calmed down. He pulled the rope and let the rusty ladder fall. Slowly he climbed up the ladder into the darkness. He walked around the pitch dark room and tripped on a mysterious object. 

He flipped the light switch and saw an old polaroid camera. He stared at the camera for a second. After a while he pocketed it. He continued to look around a while and finally found the picnic basket. He climbed down the ladder and called a name.

“Lucy Lucy come here girl.” A grey and white Australian Shepherd ran around the corner and jumped on to Mr. Parker. Remembering the camera he pulled it out of his pocket and snapped a picture of Lucy. Suddenly Lucy froze and a blob of strange goo popped out of the camera along with the polaroid picture. The goo slid away under the door and when he opened the door it was nowhere to be seen. 

He turned around and looked at Lucy, “That was weird. Anyway let’s go now.” but Lucy didn’t move “Lucy are you ok?” He put her leash on and walked away. Soon the cord could not be pulled any further. “Alright you can stay here.” He was getting mad now and he wanted to get going, he unleashed Lucy and walked out the door. 

On his way to the river he pondered about what had happened with the goo and the camera. Why did the goo come from the camera and why did Lucy freeze when I took a picture. When he looked around he realized everything was frozen. The cars on the road, pedestrians on the street, and even the ball that the baby had thrown had stopped in midair. It was almost as if time had been frozen.

Mr. Parker walked over to the floating ball and tapped it from below. It floated up into the sky like it was in space. He took a picture of the floating ball and more goo popped out the camera and slid away. He looked at the picture and felt something hit the top of his head. When he looked around to see what happened everything was moving again! Strange he thought to himself as he continued his walk to the picnic spot.

When he got to the river he sat in his usual picnic spot. There were many people by the river today. One boy caught his attention, the boy was wearing a Ty Quan Do uniform and a black belt. He was whispering to his mom and pointing and Mr. Parker. Not too long after that the woman walked over to him.

“Excuse me,” she asked him “I was wondering if you could take a picture of my son with your polaroid camera.”

“Sure.” He told her

“You see,” she rambled “He just earned his black belt today and he wants something to help him remember this day.”

“No problem.” He interrupted. 

“Ok,” she said “He would like to have the picture taken on the bridge.”

“Got it.” he told her and walked away quickly to the bridge so she couldn’t continue talking. “Ok,” he told the boy “Give your best karate kick.”

“I don’t do karate,” He pointed out “But whatever.” He started to kick the air beside him and mid kick Mr. Parker took the picture. Everything around him froze as goo fell out of the camera. He took the picture from the camera and put it in the boy’s hand and took another picture. More goo dropped out of the camera and everything around him moved again, including the boy and his wild foot traveling through the air. The look of happiness disappeared from Mr. Parker’s face and in its place came pure horror. The boy had kicked the camera.

Mr. Parker watched as the camera fell off the bridge. Without thinking he jumped off the side and grabbed the camera in mid air. He heard “No wait!” and then he lost conscience. When he regained conscience he was floating in the Rocking Choral River about a mile away from where he jumped in. He continued floating with the current for half a mile. Next thing he knew he heard a rushing sound like water falling. Suddenly he came to his senses, it was a waterfall!

Quickly he started struggling against the current, but it was no use, the current was too strong. Using the strength of the current he began to swim to shore. Inches away from falling off the edge of the waterfall he pulled himself up and sat down. He was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep, but he couldn't. He had to find somewhere to get dry and warm before he caught hypothermia. He looked around for shelter and he spotted a cave. He walked over to the cave and entered.

“Well I see you’ve found my camera.” said a raspy voice from inside the cave.

“Your what? Oh your camera.” He said just realizing he still had the polaroid camera clutched in his hand. “I’m not sure you want this back,” He told her “It’s doing some strange stuff.”

“Oh goodness, you did not take any pictures did you?” she exclaimed 

“Yeah I did, why?”  he asked

“Sit down this may take a while to explain.” she told him “First you need to know that I am a witch. My name is Sabrina Ashbrow.  I made that camera… well I applied the magic to it. I did it back in my apprentice years. I was not very skilled and I made many mistakes. I meant to put just the time freezing aspect to it, but as you may have noticed every time you take a picture some goo comes out of it. That was a mistake. The goo is cursed to merge and take the form of the greatest fear the owner of the camera has. The goo then hunts down the owner until it is killed or until the camera is passed on to another person. When it is passed on it changes form and targets to the new owner.”

“So basically I’m dead?” He asked. “Or I will die soon.”

“No.”She said “Alright maybe, but you stand a chance.”

“Yeah how,” He snapped “You have sent me to my deathbed with your stupid messed up magic.”

“There is a spell,” she muttered “but you would have to learn magic to do it. It’s pretty complicated and the goo will never really die. It just stops it for a week at a time.”

“Well teach me anyway” He roared, and she did. Over the next fortnight she taught him all about magic, mostly the implosion spell.

“Just say Misce secundum artem and wave your finger like this” she said as she wagged her finger in the air making a complex shape. BOOM. “Whoops,” she shrugged “I’ll get a new pillow.” One day after Mr. Parker had just accomplished the spell for the first time they heard a big thump outside, the sound of a fallen tree. Then again and again.

“It’s here.” she said dramatically. They quickly walked outside, towering over them was a huge blob of goo shaped like a polaroid camera. 

“You’re scared of a polaroid camera” she laughed

“Only this one I mean it is trying to kill me. I don’t think I can do it.” Mr. Parker said. He was nervous. He didn’t want to die. 

“Yes you can,” she reassured him “Just remember what I told you. It has to come deep from your heart. You also have to freeze it with the camera to get a good shot. Now go blast some goo!” Mr. Parker ran to the big goo camera. He took a picture of it and shouted the incantation.

“Misce secundum artem” he yelled, but nothing happened.

“Misce secundum artem” he shouted, but still nothing happened. It has to come deep from your heart. He recalled Deep from my heart. 

This is for Sabrina Ashbrow the witch who taught me everything I know about magic and for Lucy my dog the only one who loves me. “Misce secundum artem” he screamed at the top of his lungs. In front of him a blinding light blew the goo into millions of pieces.

“Great job.” Sabrina Ashbrow rasped from behind him. “It really came deep from your heart.”

“Right time for me to go home.” He told her. “See ya around I guess.” He walked home, on his way back he got stopped by the boy still wearing his Ty Quan Do uniform.

“Hey mister,” he shouted, “I didn’t like the first picture. Can you take another.”

“You know what kid take the camera.” He said “Have your mom take your pictures for you.” He handed him the enchanted camera and walked home.

When he got home he pinned all the polaroid pictures to his wall. He wanted to remember his first adventure, hopefully his last.

Every now and then time would stop around him sometimes Lucy would randomly freeze, other times Cars and other people would freeze. Every time this happened he thought about the camera, the boy and the boy’s mom he gave it to . He felt bad about leading the kid and his mom to their doom, but it’s the thought that counts and the gift came deep from his heart.