The great celestial begin to fall below the curvature of the horizon; all life being drained from the sky above. Sensing his departure, his younger sister began to slowly fade into existence; if only for a time.
Although he had left, and taken his fiery warmth with him, she would let him rest.
“What the…”
Jamie’s voice trailed off.
“LORD HAVE MERCY!”, an old woman’s voice screaming from the patio.
Jamie dropped the knife to the ground and dashed for the patio door.
“He was joking. He would never. He would never he would never hewouldneverhewouldnever”, she chanted in her head. She knew things had gotten headed between them, but there’s no way he would-
She burst onto the patio to see her great uncle supporting his unconscious wife slumped against his shoulder while tears ran down his own face. He directed Jamie’s eyes to the ground with a shuddering finger, but she didn’t need help to find the source of the commotion.
Lying on the wooden tiles was her sister; surrounded by a pool of familiar red liquid.
Love explored is ambition ignited. Souls call to those near to be freed from their earthly bound, the wheel, the pendulum. It swings, I step. Again. Body aches, mind awake. Fires stoked, the hearth hums. It quiets against its will, waiting for the next moment to set ablaze. It begs, avail not. Not to burn, none in sight. The hound rests as ears raise, ready for the call. The chase, the wild. It’s body aches, but it must rest.
Ryan ducked under a branch and kept up the sprint. He had never seriously RAN a day in his life and his lungs felt like they were going to burst in the cold forest air.
Still running he turned his head to see if he could still see it behind him, but saw only darkness.
“Did I actually lose it?”
THWACK
Ryan crumpled to the ground. He sat there in dazed confusion, unsure of what had just happened.
“Did it hit me? Am I still alive?”
He felt his forehead and his hand came away spotted with blood. He looked up and saw the source of his attack; a thick tree branch that now sported several drops of red.
Remembering where he was he shook the fog from his head and climbed back to his feet. He didn’t hear it anymore, but he couldn’t see farther than a couple trees in the moon lit forest.
He didn’t dare check his phone to see what time it was or give away his position, but he didn’t have any service anyway to check on his friends. When it had crashed into their campsite they each had made a break for the tree line. He thought about Jenny and a tight knot formed in his stomach.
“The wildlife is more scared of you than you are of it.” Bullshit. He had never seen an animal like that in his life. Whatever that thing was had chosen him to give chase to as he ran for it. At least Jenny had time to widen the distance between him and that thing.
Regardless, he had to get back to the ranger station.
swip, swip
Ryan froze. He scanned him immediate area with his eyes, afraid turned his neck would be too much noise. His eyes locked back to the branch that had resulted in his stumble, and caught something flicking across it.
“Is that a tongue…..?”
He followed the shape up the tree, and found a red pair of eyes staring back into his.
I yelled for him to stop; but the act was in motion. What our middle brother saw as a gentle push, our youngest saw as cataclysmic.
It wasn’t the pain but the sick that triggered his eyes to burst with tears. Our middle brother instantly stuttered apologize to both him and myself, promising and crossing his heart that he didn’t mean to push him that hard.
I move past him to the youngest and propped him up, checking his body for wounds. His sniffling slowed as I consoled and him and pinky promised him ice cream we got home from the park.
I held his hand as we walked back towards our house. The middle brother held back for a moment, then shouted only one question.
“Is Dad gonna find out?”
Why must love be so hard to find? I don’t believe in star crossed eyes
Meant-to-be just seems so dull Soulmates are in truth such gull
But a truer love will there ever be? Perhaps the Fates waste not on me?
I must consider what it is I seek Just a hand in mine to keep?
I close myself but long to talk To share life’s all in common walk
Men of my life have proven trickster Many tears that fell upon my sister
I stir! How foolish that I feel this doom, Most bonded love from our mothers womb
So, she shrugged and turned with a smile For the truth had been there all the while
I had just killed a few moments fumbling with a cone cup when I caught Jason making his way over.
“Please don’t talk to me”, I inaudibly mutters as I walked away pretending not to notice him.
“HEEEY, Brian! Whats up man how’s your morning been? You see that invite I forwarded you for the company fly fishing team I’m looking to set up? Back in high-school I was actually a heckuva flying fisherman, but this just all in good fun! Ya know, get a chance to stretch the wings, maybe catch some-“
It took everything within my power to stand there, look him in the eyes, and not tell him how much of a tool he sounded like.
“Uh, nah man I guess I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll check it out but I’ve been pretty busy lately so we’ll see. Thanks though.”, I said turning to make my escape from the conversation. He wasn’t going to let me get away that easily.
“Hey hey hey, that’s all good brotha!”
He dropped his voice to a whisper and grabbed my arm pulling me closer to him.
“If ya wanna know the truth, I hear the boss has always wanted to be a pro fly fisherman. I figure that I’d take em out, show em the ropes, ya know. Try and impress the big guy a little bit, ya feel me?”
“That sounds like a plan Jason, I certainly, uh, feel you. How lucky the boss is to have a varsity fly-fisherman working for him.”
Jason either didn’t catch the sarcasm or ignored it.
“Well honestly I was on the bench a good bit, but that just means I was able to watch and learn! And for anything I don’t know, I’m sure I can WING IT! Ahahahah!”
At that I began walking back to my desk.
“Hey you know me man”, called to me.
“Have you ever known me to be afraid of flying too close to the sun?”
“… so I think I’ll have to stick with Aquafina for now on.”, Marley struggled out through her laughter. I nearly spat my caramel macchiato out onto table as I seized up myself in tears. I caught others side eyeing our noise in disapproval, but neither of us cared.
I had never laughed this hard in my life, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever held a conversation with someone for over a half-hour before. I had no idea how long we had been sitting in that Starbucks, but I didn’t even care to check the time.
Wiping the tears from eyes, I looked back at her to tell her a dramatized version of the time Molly kicked me in second grade, but something was off.
I rubbed at my eyes again and checked my contact.
“Ahah, I didn’t make you cry too much did I?”, Marley joked.
“Ya know what you may have just cost me a contact. Let me run to the bathroom and see how much money you owe me.”
We both giggled as I stood and pulled myself from her to rush to the bathroom. I splashed some water in my eyes and looked in mirror.
“….what the hell…”
A pink fog had developed around my head, just as I had seen with Marley. It wasn’t thick- only a few strands of pink fuzz orbited my head. I moved my hand through it but felt nothing. I was sober wasn’t I? I wasn’t dreaming? I pinched myself. Nothing. I slapped myself in the face. Nothing. I splashed more water in my face. I scoffed as I looked back and noticed the color had changed from pink to yellow.
What was going on? Did I mess up my eyes? I figured I must have rubbed them too hard. This was just an optical illusion, they was no other explanation. Regardless, I wanted to keep talking with Marley.
I walked out of the bathroom and saw Marley swaying a bit as she looked out the window. The pink mist around her head had turned a light shade of green.
“Yup, I’m blind now in my right eye, thanks for that.”, I said and took a seat.
Marley giggled and welcomed me back, and again her mist turned back to back to a pink. Marley must have caught me staring at the top of her head.
“Uh, is there something on my head? If it’s a spider just lie please.”
“Pshh, sorry my eyes are still readjusting I guess. You don’t notice anything, uh, different.. do you?”
“Different?”
“Yeah like, is there anything wrong with my head?”
Marley looked at me quizzically, and formed a fist as she knocked upon my head a few times.
“Ohmygosh, now I get it!”
“Wait really what is it?”
“You’re head.. it’s hollow.”
A rolled my eyes as she giggled, and I couldn’t help but just adore her even more.
I looked around the coffee shop and couldn’t help but gasp as I realize that everyone in the shop had swirly mist around their head. There were two men looking at a computer screen and appeared to be bickering with each other, and both of there little swirls were a darkening brownish color. A girl in the back reading a book by herself was crowned in green. Some middle aged aged guy watching himself twiddling his thumbs had blue.
“Hey Jake, seriously, are you good?”
I didn’t know. What was this I was seeing, and what in the hell did these colors mean?
“Yeah yeah, I’m totally good. Would you actually wanna get out of here and go take a walk? I think the light bulbs or something in here are messing with my eyes.”
“A man with high sensitivity to light bulbs, that’s so hot.”
“Ya know I thought you would think so? I’m also allergic to notebook paper if that’s your thing.”
We both laughed and walked towards the door. My eyes felt fine at least so I didn’t think I was going blind. As we walked out she grabbed my hand, and her pink mist intensified.
Either way I didn’t really care. I was in love.
None of the men had swords in their hands though- instead they chose to slap and punch each other. I watched as one man put another in a headlock, and slam him down into a nasty suplex.
I looked to my right and saw a man lying on the ground holding his stomach, and I seemed fo recognize him as someone in my army. I sprinted to him and squat down to try and help him.
“Sir, sir, are you alright?”
“Get out of here kid, do you not see that monster?!”
He pointed a band-aid wrapped finger towards a distant hill, and at it’s top stood massive human whose head was wreathed in clouds. His muscles bulged through the furs he wore, and he held a gargantuan Sports Authority baseball casually over his shoulder.
“Who is that?”, I asked, more in awe than fear.
“You silly boy, that’s Goliath! We have lost and need to get back home fast! His muscles are too big, and his bat is made of metal! He’s going to bully all of us if we don’t run!”
“No, he won’t, I’ll stop him”, I said confidently, surprising myself. I knew I should be scared of that guy and his bat, but if I ran away I also knew somehow he would bully us forever.
“Are you crazy kid? Do you not see how big he is? There’s no way you can stop him with that!”
He turned his band-aid-finger to my hands, and looking down to it I realize I had been carrying a slingshot in one, and a rock in my other.
Suddenly I felt powerful.
“Don’t worry”, I said. “I will beat him! He won’t bully us anymore!”
And with that I started running towards him. I’m not sure why, but in my head the possibility of defeat wasn’t real.
I felt the slingshot and rock in my hand, and with those there was no one that could stop me.
I blinked again, and I was standing at the feet of Goliath, looking up into his dark and angry face. The clouds that crowned his head turned dark and lighting cascaded around his eyes. Those eyes looked down at me, and he let out a laugh that knocked me down on my back.
“YOU WANT ME TO BEAT YOU UP LITTLE KID?”
For the first since I appeared on this battlefield, I suddenly felt doubt. He was so much bigger than me and I really didn’t want him to beat me up - I started to think that maybe it would be better off if I just went home with the others.
“Stand up”, a voice said.
I looked around me but there was no one else there. That voice was too quiet to be Goliaths.
“Stand and defeat him.”
My hands started feeling hot, and looking at them I saw that the slingshot glowed a bright red, and where the rock once sat was now a tiny ball of fire.
“Uhm”, I croaked, “Slingshot are you talking to me?”
“Don’t be afraid child, I Am with you.”
Without further words I understood, and got back on my feet.
“YOU STILL WANT SOME MORE HUH? GET READY FOR A HOME RUN!”
I picked up the ball of fire, and while it was scorching hot, I felt no pain. I set it in the sling and aimed it at the giants fat ugly head.
“YOU THINK THAT LITTLE SLINGSHOT CAN STOP MY -
I was tired of him telling me what to do. I was tired of him bullying my friends. I was tired of his stupid voice yelling at me.
I let loose, and the flame became a comet that penetrated through the storm cloud and out the back of Goliath’s head.
I blinked again - and saw my ceiling fan spinning.
