#jonathan long

It was Monday at the Long household, and that meant trash night. Since his lovely wife Susan had been the one to cook dinner that night, it was Jonathan's job to clean the kitchen. And of course, that meant it was his job to gather up all the trash bags in the kitchen and take them down the alleyway to the shared dumpster. Or at least, he thought it was shared. They had been putting their trash in it for five years, so if nobody had gotten onto them by now about it, that probably meant they were fine.

It was kind of chilly out tonight. Not that he was complaining though. Sure, it meant that they’d have to start bundling up soon, but it also meant that all the best holidays were coming up. In not too long he’d have to find a costume to wear and get the spooky decorations out from storage. Wouldn’t that just be a treat! And then he could get out the candy pot and make some of his famous (in his family’s eyes anyway) caramel apples! But he could worry about all that later. Right now he just had to focus on making sure he didn’t trip on anything on his way to the dumpster.

He really wished he had done this before the sun went down. During the night, this alleyway was as dark as the devil’s nostril. But at least this way they’d be getting rid of all the trash collected that day instead of having any left over. And since they’d be empty already, maybe he could scrub down those trash cans. They were probably due for a good wash.

He made it over to the dumpster without tripping on anything and whistled as he swung the bags up and into it. He turned to go back home, but something on the ground caught his eye.

There, lying in a puddle of green liquid next to the dumpster, asleep with his face against the wall, was a teenager. Small little guy, probably around Jake’s age if he had to guess. “Heya kiddo, I don’t think this is the best place to take a nap.”

The kid didn’t move one bit. Jonathan crouched down to the ground next to him. He wondered why a kid was out here asleep on the ground. Did he not have a safe place to stay? Why choose to sleep here of all places?

“Kiddo?” He reached out to shake the kid awake by the shoulder, but quickly yanked his hand away. It was like he had just dunked his hand into Lake Louise in January. “Holy cow you’re cold.”

He shook the kid’s shoulder again. He was starting to get real concerned. It just wasn’t normal for anyone, teenager or no, to be this difficult to wake up. And then there was the temperature thing. “Kiddo, wake up.” Still no response. Something was very wrong here, he could feel it from his liver to his bones. He flipped the kid over onto his back, revealing a gaping wound on his chest.

“Jesus Mary and Joseph!” Jonathan jerked back, his heart was beating a million miles a minute and his stomach felt like it was training for a gold medal in gymnastics. He was startled so badly that it took him a minute before he was able to realize that the blood coming out of the kid was bright green, just like the puddle around him.

Jonathan put a hand on his chest and started to slow his breathing. “Okay, wow. Okay.” He pulled himself off the floor and brushed the dirt off of his clothes. “Oh that just about gave me a heart attack. This is just a movie prop isn’t it. Well that’s absolutely terrifying.”

He studied the thing, taking in its whole appearance. Out of curiosity, he crouched down in front of it again. The white hair didn’t look plastic, and when he touched it, it felt almost real. Upon closer inspection, he could see the baby fat on its cheeks squish down where its face lay against the floor, its eyebrows had a real sense of depth to them and didn’t look painted on, and there was an unmistakable rise and fall to its chest.

“Pretty realistic prop huh, It almost looks like, like it’s breathing.”