Congratulations on Entering a Flashback!

“Accompany me, if you will, into the depths...OF MEMORY!”

Lasercut will finish his statement in all caps, clearly proud of his perceived showmanship. You’ll do your best not to yawn, your desire to be courteous outweighing your desire to belittle the madman sitting before you.

“It all began in the Year of Our Lord Before Lasercut Ninety Eighty-Eight...” he’ll begin, pulling the two of you into the swirling gray mess that is the human mind’s concept of time.

Suddenly the two of you will leave his handsome, if spartan, office and be transported to a suburban neighborhood which looks a great deal more like nineteen fifties than nineteen eighties American. A great deal of that will be the young man dominating the flashback. He’ll be sickly pale and dressed in a v-neck sweater vest, playing with a chemistry set outside for no apparent reason. As he toys with the set he’ll produce what appears to be a highly corrosive acid, which will eat through the beaker containing it and spill on to an anthill, dousing the creatures in horrible melting death.

“Lasercut!” a voice will sound from off-flashback. The young man will turn, abandoning his now burning chemistry set and running towards an attractive older woman standing outside of a house. She’ll smile and shake her head. “Lasercut, are you sciencing again?”

The boy will look at his feet and stammer, “No ma. I were’t just doin’ normal kid stuff. Runnin’ and playin’. You know.”

She’ll shake her head and tousle his hair. “We’ll put you in the lie box later. Come inside and meet your cousin.”

Lasercut, smiling, will trot inside. He’ll rush into a living room where another older woman sits, sipping a cough of coffee. The woman will look very, very familiar. A young man will be seated next to her, dressed normally for the 1980s. He’ll be wearing a Cure shirt and have a bowl haircut and a frown on his face. His eyes will be a little red, as if he cried on the car on his way over. He’ll look like a sensitive boy, familiar somehow.

“Lasercut Montaghue, meet your cousin, Secretassassin Del La Monte,” the first older woman will say, and with her words the flashback will click into place and you will try to scream, but the words will catch in your throat, the flashback drowning out all sound, all future.

Congratulations on Entering a Flashback!