One number was stuck in his head, one number that seemed so far off yet he needed to reach it at any cost, in any way and fast; he needed 100 more steps to get there, to his home, to her, to the woman that kissed away his tears, who held him when everything felt like it couldn’t be worse, now it was his time to do it by himself, to save her from the monsters that hid beneath her hospital bed, he was taking no risks, no cracks were to be stepped on- no back breaking, just 100 steps.
I knew it was a bad idea. I knew it was a death wish to even think about, yet here I am, in the sewers. Here I am looking for the creatures... they’re gonna kill me.
I walked down the miles of concrete pipe, my shoes full of water like sinking ships with each step. The stench of human waste deteriorating, the feeling of what little air there was being more suffocating than helpful, what a sorry situation. The only thing that could make this worse would be to bump into what I came looking for.
Just as I got to a junction within the pipe system I felt what seemed to be a wall hit into my back. Scratch that last comment, the only thing that could’ve made it worse was what I came looking for to bump into me, of course this would happen!
“Runt. What you doin’ ‘ere?” The gravelly voice of the creature ground in my ears painfully.
“Me? Pfff I just came to visit! Can’t I visit my family?” He huffed annoyed and picked me up to spin me around and face him.
“We not family runt.”
“Listen Rocky, whether you like it or not you took me in when I was 7 so yes I consider you guys family okay? And I need to ask you a few things so could you please put me down now?” With a grunt he dropped me into the murky gunge that coated the floor like liquid carpet and I stumbled into the mess. Great. “Gee thanks Rocky.” I grumbled and luckily he didn’t hear or took no notice as he plopped down into the water beside me, splashing me with yet more brown murky gunge.
“Talk, my silly little Runt” I smiled knowing that deep within his rough rock layers he could be a softie.
“So about my mum...”
“I knew they’d be coming for me, but I didn’t think they’d send you” He breathed a humourless breathy laugh as he looked at the little blonde girl with her pigtails that curled in random directions and ‘superhero’ suit that was made up of leggings and a black T-shirt with her own haphazardly drawn symbol on the front in white paint. He knew the little girl well, she was his eldest niece now 7 years old but short for her age.
“Uncle Fin, we just want you to come home, I pinky promise I won’t let them do anything that isn’t good for you”
“Good for me!? Your father has made me his science experiment! Since we were children he’s been screwing me up!” He shouted, his face reddening as tears started to stream from his eyes and he spat out each word with such venom it took the little girl aback.
“Uncle Finny... I won’t let him, I promise, please Uncle Finny? Just get off the ledge and let me talk to you, please...” tears welled in her own eyes, it was her father’s experimentation that made her what she was, she knew her Uncle’s distress to an extent and she could understand why it would drive him here to the top of the hospital building he’d been admitted to under insanity and instability charges from none other than his own brother.
“Fine. On one condition, you never let your dad near me again, do you promise that?” She nodded immediately reaching up to hug her uncle as the police burst through the door to the roof only to stop in their tracks at the sight of the man they were informed was insane and highly dangerous hugging a young child who didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable around him.
“Boys, false alarm” was the last thing said before the little girl and her uncle were escorted to the front desk and a mix up was reported, a week later the little hero’s father was dragged kicking and screaming to the police station and placed in a cell alone. “He can’t hurt us now Uncle Fin, I promise”
Will had been homeless for years, never being able to get a job or a home to call his own when the ice came in winter or when the floor burned in the summer under his scarcely covered feet. Being homeless in a small seaside town was difficult but where was it ever easy to be without a steady home and income? The small town did have its perks at times, being well known to many of the inhabitants he was welcomed into homes in the winter months, offered jobs that he would later be fired from for one reason or another, usually something to do with the fact that he had no steady home as if that made him less dedicated to work hard, as if that made it more difficult to hand over his weekly wage.
One sweltering summer’s day when the tourists and holiday makers were swarming in he sat beside the sea on a bench just watching the ebb and flow of the waves in the sunshine glistening. The white froth of each wave melting into the sand on contact like a dropped ice cream melting into the sweltering heat of the pavement.
Like the sea he had no home, here there and everywhere with hundreds of others like himself around the world like split off streams and rivers. The sea was strong and powerful, with the right circumstances it could go wherever it wanted and do as it pleased yet people still tried to destroy it, tried to make it submit to their material things and in that he found comfort, that even the water of each wave was not free, was being damaged and denied what was good for it by those with the money to pollute it, he found comfort in the fact that he wasn’t alone in his oppression by the system, that if the sea could seize chances to show what it was capable of then so too could he.
No money, no home, no real help but only the determination and patience of the waters he saw each day to get him through to the next big wave of opportunity he could ride until he found the one that would carry him to success.
The splatter of rain on hard gravel accompanied the clip clop of his trusty horse’s feet pounding the ground with great speed. The sun was finally hidden behind the clouds that let their heaven sent rain lash against his bare face.
“Onward Nimbus! To the castle of the sky!” He hollered, a smile pushing his cheeks up so that his eyes were almost closed as the rain danced on his brow. A neigh was his only reply as they made their way up the winding pathway that defied gravity, it could combat the forces of the earth but this pathway could never make Nimbus trot any slower than he insisted, his mind unable to comprehend the clear solid that was beneath his hooves.
Rain fell through the pathway leaving it dry for Nimbus to cautiously trot up while the clouds seemed to be in fast forward, pelting down onto the ground leaving Vitus and Nimbus behind at their own pace until the weary light grey horse gained confidence and his trot became a gallop once more, the clouds coming closer almost as fast as the beating of Nimbus’ heart at the exertion. “Almost there beautiful, just a bit further” Vitus comforted the horse he’d had since she was but a filly and felt her speed increase for a moment as if she could understand him, she surged forward with the top of the castle in sight and shook her head falling back into a slow trot at the top finally. “Knew you could do it Nimbus!” He praised rubbing the rain into her short hairs.
Vitus left his companion with some apples from his satchel and walked towards the once light turrets around the edge of the castle top that were dark with the rain, the colour of wet sand as if the whole structure were one big sandcastle itself.
For a moment he just stood there. He stood and he stared out onto the village below with its yellowed grass now swimming in sludgy mud and fire damaged houses, at first the heat had been welcomed, the sun with its brightness seemed like a blessing when it would become a curse like no other. For weeks there was no rain, for weeks the sun dominated the earth and sky, cooking the inhabitants and setting off fires wherever it wished like a cruel child with a magnifying glass. Vitus longed for the days when rain showered him in its cool embrace but the heat was relentless and continued to beat down on the earth without mercy.
“Thank you” It was but a whisper, barely a sound at all but he said it nonetheless as his eyes fell letting the water droplets fall over his skin and stick his slightly longer hair to his face giving the rain drops direct bridges from which to drop together, soaking him and his belongings only to leave a note for him to find later...
“For ye, child of the rain, we fall” -The Rain
