Too High, Too Far
Guest Piece
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Guest piece inspired by “The Rooster” / Part 1 of eXis
Author: L.E. Mullin
Too High, Too Far
Roosters don’t fly, I keep telling myself.
Roosters don’t fly.
But they do. They get a few feet off the ground. They shake their wings in an awkward way, usually to hop onto a fence or a roof. But the thing is, they don’t fly too high, they don’t go too far.
So what did I see last night, the edge of its wings shining against the darkness? I’ve been running away for days.
I woke up with an impossible headache and a gun in my right hand. There was blood all over my shirt and my pants, but not my shoes. Did I change my shoes after I did what I did? The gun had been fired, but there was no one there. The blood isn’t mine, but there was no one there when I woke up, at the foot of the oak beside the river.
What did I do? Why am I running, if there’s no one chasing me?
I know no one in this county, and if there was a witness to what happened, I don’t know how to find them. Perhaps they’ve already told the police, if they exist. But if they did, why haven’t they found me yet? Why hasn’t anyone found me yet? Why isn’t anyone—
Oh, yes. The rooster.
I can only see him at night. Flying. Flying too high for a rooster. Impossibly flying. Are you my only witness, you ugly, deformed bird? If you could talk… Well, I think if you could talk, you wouldn’t be chasing me. You would’ve told the police. So I cannot ask you what happened. What I did.
I can only keep escaping. I started sleeping during the day and walking at night. Because I only see my chaser at night, and I fear that if he finds me sleeping, he will tear my eyes apart.
Maybe I deserve it. I wish I knew. Maybe it was self-defense, whatever I did. But if it was, why is this creature flying behind me at night?
There’s a small town a few miles ahead. I can see its lights. If I keep walking, I’ll probably be there by dawn. But I’m tired. And I just saw it, once again, behind me. It was just a moment. Its dark silhouette against the dark, starless sky.
Maybe I should stop. I’m tired. Too tired to keep walking. I need to sleep. I don’t want to, but who knows—maybe I deserve what’s coming to me.
Yes, maybe I deserve to get some sleep.
About the Text
Too High, Too Far turns the rooster into a witness and pursuer of guilt: a figure that hovers over the protagonist’s path. The piece rests in doubt —or in a lie— and L. E. Mullen keeps us there: is this a crime, a punishment, or just an exhausted mind replaying the same scene? With very few elements, this piece builds an atmosphere of paranoia and fatigue where the real horror is not remembering and still feeling guilty. It’s brief, unsettling, and it stays in your head after you read it.
Gon Vas
About the Author
L.E. Mullin I’m Uruguayan, and I’ve been writing and drawing comics since 2011. Right now I’m working on a series called The Flight of The Condor, which you can read for free every week through my Substack mailing list.
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Love this one!!! one of my favorites!
I agree that was an interesting outcome for the prompt. I would never have put the specter of a rooster in that spy position. Cool thriller chicken story. 🙃
I first learned about the chickens that fly… well - flutter. My parents lived in Kansas at the time, in a suburb of Wichita, not too rural… I visited. The houses were close together and the yards were fairly small. The neighbor had chickens in their yard and a tall fence. But every day you would see the chickens wandering around in the street. They looked like a gang coming my way. Why?
I found out this particular breed loves to roost in the trees. They would flutter up into trees near their coop and on their way down they would flutter over the fence and into the street. Every day the neighbor would have to collect his chickens and herd them back home.
My brother keeps chickens in his suburban back yard, and the fence is low… but not one chicken hops the fence to freedom. Maybe he researched the breeds, I don’t know. It’s good his chickens don’t escape the yard because there are a surprising number of predators around… fox, raccoons, hawks…