Bad Writing Chapter 3

Bad Writing

Chapter 3

The specter’s glowing yellow eyes glared at Harry. Its hollow voice boomed. “YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE!”

Harry Dingus tossed the PlayStation controller on the table. “You’ve been nagging me for a week. My answer is the same. No. Not a chance. Not going to happen. Find someone else.”

“YOU HAVE A DESTINY. YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE.” The apparition flared and faded, glowering at Harry.

“I’ve seen enough TV and read enough books to know it’s all bullshit. Who chose me? For what? For Why? And at the end, after years of pain, misery and suffering nothing will be different. I pass. Get someone else to defeat the Dark Lord or whoever the fuck it is this time.”

The ethereal yellow eyes dimmed and the ghost’s shoulders slumped. In a resigned voice it answered. “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Don’t bother!” Harry shouted at the specter’s back, as it floated through the bedroom wall.

Harry opened his hand and a glowing ball of fire burned in his palm. He tossed the fire ball up and down a few times and then closed his fist, extinguishing it. Harry sighed and went downstairs for dinner.

He plopped down in a stiff wooden chair at the huge dining room table. Servants in light blue uniforms scurried to and fro, filling glasses and adding food to the already overflowing table. Paintings of long dead ancestors adorned the walls. He glanced at his mother, the only other person sitting at the table.

“Where’s Dad?” Harry asked, stuffing roast duck in his mouth.

“He’s at the lab, working late on a cure.”

Harry stopped chewing. “A cure? For who?”

“For you, honey.”

“What do I need a cure for?” Harry demanded.

Harry’s mother dropped her soup spoon on the table. The clank it made echoed in the enormous room. She eyed her son. “The fire, Harry. We want you to be normal and ordinary, like everyone else.”

Harry surveyed the room and servants. “Mom, there are ten servants and enough food to feed thirty people and it’s me and you sitting here. Dad’s off in his underground secret lair cobbling together insane contraptions decades, if not centuries ahead of anything you can buy. And you talk about normal and ordinary?”

“Harry, we want what’s best for you is all.”

Harry wailed. “You should have thought about that before letting Dad store a vat of toxic waste in my bedroom.” Harry’s glared at his mother and shouted “I was only three when I fell in! I almost drowned!”

Mrs. Dingus blew out a deep breath. “We both apologized and you didn’t drown.”

Harry jumped to his feet. “Yeah, because I grew gills. I don’t want or need a cure. The answer is no. Just no.”

“Harry we can’t take the chance you might turn to the dark side.”

“The dark side? The dark side?” Harry screamed. “Take a look around you! If I haven’t already, I think it’s a safe bet I won’t.”

“Your dad and I can’t take the chance. You might overthrow us.”

“I’m going to Jessica’s” Harry bellowed at his mother.

“Find a girl that puts out, you idiot!” Evil Queen Lulu Dingus suggested as Harry stormed out of the dining room.