Dr. Pepper In The Trash
It was later than Sam usually stayed up. 14 minutes later actually. It didn't matter too much though. He had had a nap earlier that day, so rest was not his number one priority. As he changed into his more comfortable pajamas he gazed lazily down into his wastebasket. It had once been a tin container full of three different flavors of popcorn. But that was long ago, and for years now the can with the painting of the train on its side had remained a trash receptacle. In it he noticed a few things… Paper towels, wadded up… Empty 'Top Ramen' sauce packs… Some crumpled up papers, undoubtedly from a recent day at school… and one other thing. A Dr. Pepper can. Its pleasant red shone delightfully and the light reflected off of his wall lamp seemed calm and peaceful. The can also depicted the character 'Cyclops' from the recently released movie, X2. The can captivated Sam and he paused in the middle of what he was doing and stared at it blankly. He seemed to be in trance-like state. Finally he snapped out of it. He finished putting on his over-sized white t-shirt (a perfect garment for sleeping in) and sauntered casually over to his bed. He lazily shifted the covers so as to insure a comfortable night's sleep. It was then that he noticed a shadow obscuring the light cast on the bed. He froze. There was something big behind him and he didn't want to know what it was. He pulled together his wits and quickly turned around, eager to get over with whatever awaited him. He hadn't prepared himself enough. It was coming out of the trash can. The dark form swirled out of it and grew larger as his grotesque head reached the ceiling. It had massive arms that it held up in a decidedly hostile position. On top of all this its face was adorned with what seemed to be the visor of the popular comic - and now movie- character Cyclops. It grumbled a low sound barely audible but strong enough to send vibrations through Sam's body, which was pathetically small in comparison. The being suddenly leaned forward and its visor glowed a gentle red. It spread its mouth in a smile that should not have been so wide and the visor's light intensified. Suddenly a great red flash obscured Sam's vision and he realized he was now dying. It was over rather quickly. The being stared malevolently over the charred corpse before him. He floated eerily out of the room and through the door (not the doorway, the door itself). He left a sinister haze behind him. The creature entered the kitchen and rummaged through the trash bin there. He grabbed a Dr. Pepper can and his bizarre smile widened yet again. Then the can began to quiver and another being of the same strange classification began to emerge from it's small opening. The two beings acknowledged each other and quickly moved out of the house itself, obviously in search of more Dr. Pepper cans with which to create comrades and ultimately destroy the population of the world…
Sam looked in front of him. He saw his bed before him. It was not obscured by a large shadow. Yes, it had all been a fictional story brought to him by his imagination. He glanced at the clock. 10:15. Barely a minute had passed since he had stared at the Dr. Pepper can in the waste basket. He smiled to himself, amused that he would imagine such a story. Then a thought occurred to him. He pulled up his chair, opened up 'Microsoft Word' on the computer. And then he began typing…