Thank you kindly for the reviews!
**= italics. My retarded computer refuses to do italics.
*~*~*
It Makes All the Difference Chapter One
*~*~*
Chris hurried down the sidewalk, the wind slapping his hair around as hard as one would expect a woman to slap her cheating husband.
*These analogies,* Chris mused to himself as sudden rain began to pelt him, *I cannot understand. I'm going crazy.*
The shops with their glittering neon signs cast eerie pictures in his eyes as the rain sopped onto him. A great night, he thought miserably, a great night with another letter. Too many letters and not enough stamps to hit on them. Couldn't his parents just leave him alone?
*Apparently they think that I'm going to give in and come home, and I'm going to remember something I didn't even want to know in the first place.*
The sky was dark and muddy, and the drops splashing onto his face didn't help. He was in a desert city, and desert cities didn't please him. This was the downtown, and the street was deserted, but the shops and mini clubs he passed were alive and hopping as a grasshopper, his grandmother might say. A grasshopper with a clock for a heart that ticks and ticks and doesn't die, even in the wee hours of the night. Wee. What a funny word.
Chris heard the groan of God above him: thunder. A few seconds passed between groans, and then the night was suddenly illuminated with a flashing light. Lightning. This storm was turning out to be a killer.
His motel wasn't too far away, only a few more blocks in this whirlwind of rain. Suddenly there was another flash of light, and then suddenly he felt heat on his cheeks, and suddenly there were screams.
FLASH!
Lightning. He stared across the street in horror. Lightning had struck a shop across from him and the night was suddenly aflame. It had happened so suddenly and with a vengeance he couldn't place. God's groans had turned into God's screams as sudden thoughts pelted him as he raced across the street blindly, a steel rabbit drawn to a steel carrot.
*It happened so fast!*
*God, my eyes! My eyes!*
*Allen! He's in there, he's in there, and it's on fire! God, Marie and the kids, they're home alone and Allen . .*
*I can't feel my arms . . .*
*Why doesn't he answer, goddamnit? I'm dying!*
*My legs, they're on fire, Chastity, I love you. .. *
Chris suddenly halted, feeling as if his head were afire. Rods burned in his mind and blurrily, he looked up, the fire from his mind merging with the fire in front of him, creating a super fire.
*Rodeo-Chedesky,* he thought dizzily, staggering to a car and hanging on for dear life as the rain continued to pour and the screams elevated and people rushed around in a daze and sirens came closer. *Rodeo-Chedesky merged into destruction . . .*
*God, what happened? No lightning rod?*
*There must be at least one hundred people in there . . . dear God, what if Greg's in there?*
*It's so hot . . . I can't breathe . . . somebody help me . . .*
*Hail Mary, full of grace, pray . . .*
* . . . thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . .*
*My legs . . . take care of Will, he's such a good boy . . . Dawn, please stay away from Ed, he's a bad boy . . .*
He felt choked, clogged on the thoughts that flooded into him, the thoughts that he shouldn't be privy to, the thoughts that were preventing him from breathing. He swooned forward, still clutching the car, rain still falling and hammering him.
He could barely breathe. No thoughts, not again . . .
*. . . I love you, O High and Mighty God, please forgive my sins. .*
*Let me live here, please, God, and I'll never lie again, just let me LIVE. .*
*I find rest now as I head into your loving embrace, take care of me, and hold my family tightly . . .*
He couldn't hold onto the car anymore. He couldn't hold onto anything. He fell forward into the soaked street. He felt feet around him, but no hands reached to help him down. His cheek scraped against the ground, he cried out in pain, and stared forward at the leaping flames in front of him.
*She said it would come back,* he thought as darkness spiraled up towards him. *She said it would come back and I couldn't run from it.*
The fire clashed with the darkness in his head, the Rodeo fire clashing with the Chedesky fire, and creating one halo of darkness that was not dark and light that was not light. He heard sirens, screams, and the thoughts suddenly stopped funneling into his mind, but he still had the heat, screams, and his own darkness. He couldn't stop it. It flew at him and he caught it.
*Ranger,* he thought and passed out.
~*~*~* ~*~*~*
Sorry it was so short. I hope you enjoy.
*~*~*
It Makes All the Difference Chapter One
*~*~*
Chris hurried down the sidewalk, the wind slapping his hair around as hard as one would expect a woman to slap her cheating husband.
*These analogies,* Chris mused to himself as sudden rain began to pelt him, *I cannot understand. I'm going crazy.*
The shops with their glittering neon signs cast eerie pictures in his eyes as the rain sopped onto him. A great night, he thought miserably, a great night with another letter. Too many letters and not enough stamps to hit on them. Couldn't his parents just leave him alone?
*Apparently they think that I'm going to give in and come home, and I'm going to remember something I didn't even want to know in the first place.*
The sky was dark and muddy, and the drops splashing onto his face didn't help. He was in a desert city, and desert cities didn't please him. This was the downtown, and the street was deserted, but the shops and mini clubs he passed were alive and hopping as a grasshopper, his grandmother might say. A grasshopper with a clock for a heart that ticks and ticks and doesn't die, even in the wee hours of the night. Wee. What a funny word.
Chris heard the groan of God above him: thunder. A few seconds passed between groans, and then the night was suddenly illuminated with a flashing light. Lightning. This storm was turning out to be a killer.
His motel wasn't too far away, only a few more blocks in this whirlwind of rain. Suddenly there was another flash of light, and then suddenly he felt heat on his cheeks, and suddenly there were screams.
FLASH!
Lightning. He stared across the street in horror. Lightning had struck a shop across from him and the night was suddenly aflame. It had happened so suddenly and with a vengeance he couldn't place. God's groans had turned into God's screams as sudden thoughts pelted him as he raced across the street blindly, a steel rabbit drawn to a steel carrot.
*It happened so fast!*
*God, my eyes! My eyes!*
*Allen! He's in there, he's in there, and it's on fire! God, Marie and the kids, they're home alone and Allen . .*
*I can't feel my arms . . .*
*Why doesn't he answer, goddamnit? I'm dying!*
*My legs, they're on fire, Chastity, I love you. .. *
Chris suddenly halted, feeling as if his head were afire. Rods burned in his mind and blurrily, he looked up, the fire from his mind merging with the fire in front of him, creating a super fire.
*Rodeo-Chedesky,* he thought dizzily, staggering to a car and hanging on for dear life as the rain continued to pour and the screams elevated and people rushed around in a daze and sirens came closer. *Rodeo-Chedesky merged into destruction . . .*
*God, what happened? No lightning rod?*
*There must be at least one hundred people in there . . . dear God, what if Greg's in there?*
*It's so hot . . . I can't breathe . . . somebody help me . . .*
*Hail Mary, full of grace, pray . . .*
* . . . thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . .*
*My legs . . . take care of Will, he's such a good boy . . . Dawn, please stay away from Ed, he's a bad boy . . .*
He felt choked, clogged on the thoughts that flooded into him, the thoughts that he shouldn't be privy to, the thoughts that were preventing him from breathing. He swooned forward, still clutching the car, rain still falling and hammering him.
He could barely breathe. No thoughts, not again . . .
*. . . I love you, O High and Mighty God, please forgive my sins. .*
*Let me live here, please, God, and I'll never lie again, just let me LIVE. .*
*I find rest now as I head into your loving embrace, take care of me, and hold my family tightly . . .*
He couldn't hold onto the car anymore. He couldn't hold onto anything. He fell forward into the soaked street. He felt feet around him, but no hands reached to help him down. His cheek scraped against the ground, he cried out in pain, and stared forward at the leaping flames in front of him.
*She said it would come back,* he thought as darkness spiraled up towards him. *She said it would come back and I couldn't run from it.*
The fire clashed with the darkness in his head, the Rodeo fire clashing with the Chedesky fire, and creating one halo of darkness that was not dark and light that was not light. He heard sirens, screams, and the thoughts suddenly stopped funneling into his mind, but he still had the heat, screams, and his own darkness. He couldn't stop it. It flew at him and he caught it.
*Ranger,* he thought and passed out.
~*~*~* ~*~*~*
Sorry it was so short. I hope you enjoy.