Phantom Halo

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

creeps in this petty pace from day to day

to the last syllable of recorded time,

and all our yesterdays

have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

Out, out, brief candle.

Life's but a walking shadow,

a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage

and then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot

full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Do it again!

Put this where it can't be found.

Well, that'd be nowhere, then.

Quickly.

Neighbors are cooking bacon again.

Beckett!

Samuel!

It's Daddy.

Well, good morning, boys.

Do you smell that?

Nothing like the smell of bacon in the morning.

What is for breakfast?

Doughnut holes.

Where's the money?

What money?

Oh, don't bullshit me, Beckett.

I gave you everything I had.

Well, then we're fucked.

Heh. No, you mean you're fucked.

I'm fucked. You're fucked.

We're all fucked.

It's not about the pronoun, Beckett.

Where were you last night, Dad? You promised.

God.

I was doing the best I can to support you two boys

is where I was last night.

All right?

W-W-What's this, huh? What's this?!

No, wait. That's mine. You can't have that.

No, nothing is yours, nothing. You got that?

Do you think reading this shite

is any good for you and your brother, huh?

Do you?

Get dressed. You're going to be late.

Go.

I know you all,

and will awhile uphold the unyoked honor of your idleness.

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

who doth permit base contagious clouds

to smother up his beauty from the world.

What?

Go on.

When again he please to be himself,

by breaking through the foul and ugly mists...

Being wanted, he may be more wondered at...

You think those idiots are gonna notice?

That, when he please again to be himself,

being wanted, he may be more wondered at

by breaking through the foul and ugly mists...

They're not gonna tell if I miss a...

But you will know,

and then you'll lose focus, and you'll trip up.

Do it again!

Being wanted, he may be more wondered at

by breaking through the foul and ugly mists of vapors

that had seemed to strangle him.

You're good.

Heh heh.

But at your age, I was better.

Did you see that punk giving you the stink-eye on the bus?

No. Could've taken him.

Oh, yeah? Where'd you have taken him?

Right. This should do it.

You're good, but at your age, I was better.

The world is grown so bad

that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.

And since every jack's been made a gentlemen,

there's many a gentle person made a jack.

I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.

My secret mischiefs I set abroach

I lay unto the grievous charge of others.

And now they believe it.

And thus I clothe my naked villainy...

Heh... with old odd ends stole forth out of Holy Writ...

and seem a saint

when most I play the devil.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

Listen, just keep kicking him in the nuts.

Drag your keys across his face, and just keep kicking him in the nuts.

All right, you got this. You can do this.

Beckett, Miranda, are you ready?

All right.

It's late at night,

and you're walking down a deserted street.

Now start walking.

Oh, boy.

Hey!

You all will not be here to save her.

Look at me.

Let's do it again, okay?

Okay.

Kick him in the nuts.

Okay.

No!

Get his ass! I said no!

I said no!

No! No! Yes!

That's what I'm talking about.

You dropped this in there.

Ah, thanks, man.

I wish I had a bunch of women trying to beat the crap out of me.

Oh, you saw that, Little Larry? Pretty cool, huh?

Yeah. Well, I was watching the class.

I saw you take off that Darth Vader costume.

I thought, "Holy shit. That's Beckett Emerson."

Did you, now?

Those chicks are pretty hot, huh?

Uh, actually, a lot of 'em been through a lot, man.

Yeah. So you could take advantage

of their, uh, vulnerability. Know what I mean?

Vulnerability isn't hot.

Hot is hot.

You wanna hang out?

You know, I'd love to,

but, uh, I'm really busy, man.

Ah, yeah. I gotta be somewhere, too.

My next bus leaves in five minutes, so...

You're still taking the bus?

You were the super boy geek.

I thought you'd have a cush job

doing, uh, computer science or something by now.

Yeah. Well, yeah, I do have the perfect job.

Holy shit.

What do you do?

I'll have to tell you another time.

All right. Come on. Come on, man.

Look, listen. Come on, get back here.

I... I want to know what you do.

You were in a hurry, remember?

Not bad, 500 bucks and a snakeskin wallet.

You know the rules. No wallets.

It's snakeskin.

Come on, Beck.

All right, I'll burn it with the rest.

How much we gonna give to him?

A hundred, maybe two.

We gotta pay the rent.

Yeah, well, Rizzo can wait.

What, you want to move house again?

You know he's just gonna blow it all at the races

or on his drink, whichever he gets to first.

Hey, he wins sometimes, you know.

Come on, now.

Anyways, I figured out how to buy the house.

So, we make money out of money. All right?

First thing to do is invest in real estate.

If the house is worth 220K,

10% down is 22K.

With a loan at 4.5 interest rate,

we'd be paying less in rent than we are now. Dad would be set.

You're completely delusional.

We don't have shit to invest.

We just haven't tried to save enough yet.

No matter where you put it, he's gonna find it.

You're just pissed off 'cause he took your fricking comic.

You know, outrun time, that would be it.

Racing along like the Phantom Halo.

Then we could just disappear to another place.

There is no other place.

The Phantom Halo used his radioactive powers

to break himself free from the mud

that had trapped him for millions of years.

We're... We're not in the mud.

We're up to our necks in it.

You know, we could harness it like the Halo did.

You know, it's official.

That comic book is co-opting your brain.

What the...

How's my favorite little rats doing today?

Rizzo, what up, man?

You locked us out? Zip it.

Word's on the street your dad's in pretty deep.

How much you need?

All of it. The rent's late.

How 'bout 350?

How about I have my boy Ronnie pay you a visit?

And before you can count to 10,

he'll have all your shit sitting out on the sidewalk.

The hood could take their piece,

and you'll wind up empty.

Yeah. Move all that this way.

Ah, all of it.

My shoes sure could use a shine.

Fuck you.

Do not polish his shoes.

I only did that once.

I'll kill him.