_-^-_ Chapter X: Love and Guns _-^-_

Black asphalt flew under the night sky as stars twinkled in their vagueness. The road painted in white and yellow lines of life and law. The partial moon shone with the white of bone with gray craters pock-marking its solid surface. Darkness covered the ground as a bride's veil at her own funeral. The shadows converged around a solitary piece of metal and wire that flew across the night faster than the crow flies. These shadows skulked around this single piece of light in their domain of dark as an angry child when it is denied a toy. They wished to swallow this dark-gray bird of fire in one gulp and digest it into yet another minion of the night. Little did the shadows know that the ultimate darkness was the driver of this dark fire car.

This tragic clown who twisted the night to his own design paid no mind to these shadows for his mind was far from this stretch of road under the moon and sky. His thoughts and mind had moved across time and space to a point in time that tortured his mind with its promised faces and tortured his soul with his once felt life and love. The wheels that churned his thoughts about in the inner-workings of his gray matter where moving at a furious pace as a they drudged up long locked away memories that only now really meant something.

With his enhanced senses and his perfect remembrance of this certain memory, Aidan Paige was able to smell his memory, he was able to hear his memory, and he was able to see his memory. Images of Ferris Wheels flashed across his light-brown orbs, smells of cotton candy and funnel cakes wafted into his open nostrils, and sounds of happy couples and families flew from his mind into his ears in a torrent of perpetual thought and memory.

~

"Oh my god, I don't think I've ever had something that tasted this good," said a high, muffled voice.

"I told you so, I mean come on, you can't go to a fair and not have funnel cakes. It goes against tradition," said another lower voice sounding very proud of itself.

"Yes you were right love, happy now?"

"Very," responded the lower voice, who pulled the other towards him and met in the middle with their lips pressed together in a love felt kiss.

Their lips encompassed each other's in an embrace of flesh and soon their mouths were in a battle of tongues as they massaged and attacked each other. Their mind was momentarily blank from the feel of flesh against flesh and each other's tongue in their mouths.

Aidan and Chloe pulled away simultaneously and each took a calming breath, letting it out in a sigh. They pushed their hair-veiled foreheads together and closed their eyes.

"It's getting harder isn't it, to keep from going further?" said an out-of- breath Chloe.

"Yeah it is, I can't keep my hands off of you," said an equally out-of- breath Aidan.

"You know I want to but-"

"Shhh, there's nothing to talk about baby. I could wait for all eternity for you. Trust me, I can wait."

Chloe only nodded with her eyes starting to water. Aidan saw this and pulled her into a compassionate hug.

"Don't cry baby, there's nothing for you to cry about."

"I just want you to be happy," said Chloe through her tears.

Aidan lifted her head upwards towards him with his hand under her chin. He then went to work kissing her tears away softly from under her eyes and cheeks.

"I am happy Clo, I couldn't be happier. Please kill me now for I would die the happiest man on Earth. I'm happy because I'm with you Chloe. I love you."

"I love you too."

Aidan wrapped a warm arm around Chloe's slender shoulders and turned her moist face to the scene before her.

"So lets be happy and enjoy he night. We're at a fair after all, might as well have a good time."

Chloe nodded, wiped her moist face on her sleeve and turned her eyes towards the fair in front of her.

Lights were everywhere; there were lights in the concession stands, in the game huts, on the rides, everywhere. And people were constantly milling about the grounds with all kinds of different assortments of food in their hands or mouths. Couples walked here and there hand in hand and families walked about with children tugging on their parents' sleeves asking for a toy or to go on a ride or something of that nature.

An atmosphere of joy and happiness had settled across the flat blades of grass and in the hearts of the people in attendance. A smell of cotton candy and funnel cakes surveyed the area from the inside of people's noses. The sight of spinning metal and Ferris Wheels danced across the eyes of all. The sounds of happy couples engrossed in one another and families having an enjoyable time with one another slipped into the ears of the attendees.

Chloe and Aidan smiled at one another and set off along the Midway.

~

The rest of the night went like a blur of a speeding car for the happy young couple. They went on countless rides countless times. They ate all assortments of fair food ranging from corn dogs to cotton candy to even more funnel cakes. By the time that Chloe and Aidan left there were few people left and the fair was closing down. The abundant lights were out from the loss of power, the game huts were closed up, and the concession stands were stopping their flow of delicious fair food.

Aidan and Chloe however were still having a great time. As the lights behind them gradually blinked into nothingness, they were sprinting across the street hand in hand, dodging cars here and there. The aftermath of their hours of fun were apparent on their faces and in their throats for smiles of joy were plastered across their features and haphazard laughter escaped their lips and into the night, adding to the waning atmosphere of joy.

As they finally crossed the river of asphalt, they stumbled over the curb and fell to the grass in a swirl of laughter and grins. They rolled for awhile amongst the blades of grass in their happiness, forgetting about everything just knowing that this night was one of the greatest times that they had had or would ever have. After a few minutes of rolling around and sending bits of grass flying into the night sky and blowing into the stars, they stopped. They were both out of breath but wee still chuckling in a small way.

They moved close together on the front lawn of Wal-Mart. They held each other close and stopped speaking; just feeling each other's presence in their arms. The heat from one another's body mended together to make a quilt of love and happiness.

As Aidan and Chloe lay there with their bodies cuddled into one another, the world melted away. They were left to themselves in a green room of a splendor so great that it went on forever. Nothing mattered anymore for the young couple. Nothing could touch them in this moment. They were invulnerable and unbreakable from the world at this moment. They were literally in heaven on Earth.

Then, as quickly as the moment had started. . . it was over. They opened their eyes and looked at each other with love that filled their very soul, was the very center of their heart, and encompassed heir mind in rose petals.

Time stopped for a split second that only Aidan and Chloe felt but they paid not attention to time or life for they had each other. If they had pain attention, they would have distinctly heard a crow scream in the distance.

_-^-_

Aidan could barely stand it. Life had dealt him a fated hand. A hand where he was disillusioned to the fact that his life would end in happy ignorant bliss, but then, at his happiest moment of life, his fated hand had turned into flames and life had come crashing down, leaving death in its wake. Although life had broken him, the crow had come with tape to mend him.

And although Aidan knew that he had been given another hand after death, he still hated it. Life had taken away his love, his happiness, and yet he would long for it as long as he stayed in death. He would long for it in the world beyond as well, not ever being able to feel it again but only able to watch it from a distance. Watching Chloe marry another man and raise a family, watch as the world forgot him. It would be like death all over again.

These thoughts boiled his blood and his knuckles turned white in his grip, mimicking the moon. The anger in his heart pushed against its cage of his chest and fought to unleash itself upon the world. Aidan's foot floored the accelerator and sent his Firebird in a blur of perpetual motion. His anger fought hard to the point that it was pumping blood from the vantage point of his throat. It grabbed his vocal chords and expressed his anger in a long commanding roar that shook the air that rushed past the flying car and awoke creatures in the fields he passed.

Aidan screamed and screamed and screamed. Venting a miniscule part of his bottled pain and anger. Pain toward the life he no longer led and would never lead again. Anger toward hat very same life that turned its back on him and left him to fall into the arms of death, which embraced him in its icy grip.

In his red filled vision, Aidan came upon a new sight. Ahead of him, only a few miles across the flat landscape, a sat a small building with a single lamppost standing in front, bathing the building in a blinking, fading yellow light. The rage in Aidan's throat slowly descended once again into his chest, leaving his scream to the distance of the dark. His vision subsided to normal color and shades, leaving the red to the back of his orbs.

As the car got closer to the solitary building, Aidan was able to make out gas pumps sitting in the front of the building. He passed a glance to his gas gauge and found he was running on empty. Aidan smiled at the coincidence and decided to stop.

Aidan coasted into the gas station and parked alongside the pump. He stepped out of the car and heard the crow perch itself atop the lamppost.

'Hey boy, we don't have time to screw around. We have to get moving. Dammit get back here! We have to go! Do you hear me?!?' screeched the crow in annoyance.

Aidan stopped but didn't turn back and said, "Do not worry bird, I shall be done shortly."

Aidan started walking again and entered the dimly lit insides of the small squat building while the crow mumbled behind him.

'Stupid - ungrateful - sonofabitch.'

Aidan entered and the first thing he noticed was the smell of rotten food. In the dim, blinking light he saw small pastries and donuts molded over in green disgusting that let off a smell that curbed the appetite and caused any food left in one's stomach to come to the back of your throat.

Aidan turned from the green mold and looked for the owner of this wretched establishment. Hi dead eyes fell upon a boot that was propped against the back of the counter. Aidan got closer and saw the owner of the gas station, who was sitting in a lawn chair asleep. Aidan cocked his head to the side and wondered what miracle of science kept this pathetic being together.

Aidan reared his fist back and pounded into the top of the counter, leaving a large hole. The commotion of the breaking counter awoke the owner who stumbled to his feet with his found shotgun in his hand. He pressed the barrel of the gun into the chest of the intruder with wide eyes and shaking hands.

"Who the - What the hell are you?" said the frightened man, pressing the barrel harder into the other man's chest.

"Why, I am the holder of your strings meat puppet. I am the fear in your heart, the darkness I your soul, and the death in your mind," responded Aidan, spying holes and trail marks across the man's arm.

"You better get the hell out of here or I'll blow your fucking head off."

The man was still shaking from waking off a nod and from surprise from seeing Aidan there. The man was clearly terrified and Aidan might as well use that.

He thrust his right palm into the chest of the junkie, sending him into the wall behind him and with his left hand grabbed the falling shotgun out of the air. The man watched with wide terrified eyes as the tragic clown before him pointed the barrel at him, but then quickly turned it upon himself with the barrel pointed at his chest and his arm stretched to the trigger.

Aidan gave the owner a wicked sneer and pulled the trigger. The incurring explosion sent Aidan flying to the ground. The owner yelled at the sound of the gun going off and then shook terribly after the intruder had fallen to the ground. He hesitantly moved forward and looked over the counter at the man on the floor. He quickly vomited at the sight of the man's chest, which was destroyed in a jungle of blood and organs, giving sharp, red contrast to the white bone that shone in the dim light.

A crow flew in through a broken window and landed on a stand of donuts. It screamed in a way that hurt the owners' ears, which he quickly covered. His eyes grew to the size of baseballs as he watched the clown's chest begin to mend itself under the crow's scream. The sprayed blood that had flown across the room was now moving on its own and putting themselves back into his veins. His glistening white bones knitted themselves together and were soon covered by reattaching muscle and flesh. The crow finally stopped screaming, leaving the clown lying on the floor with a repaired chest and a white shirt with a huge hole in it.

The intruders' eyes snapped open and h gracefully got to his feet with his face inches away from the gas station owner's, a burning hatred in his eyes and grimace of anger on his painted smile.

"Save you life, don't waste it. Death can come at any moment in time, with fair warning or not. Drugs will never help you with this reality, only cause more pain," said Aidan, slowly moving back.

The owner began to weep in his hands and nodded feverently. He moved around the corner of the counter, went out the back door, got in his car, and sped off into the night. This left only Aidan Paige and the crow, standing in a run down gas station among molded pastries and the smell of gun powder. Aidan turned to the fading taillights of the owner's car and smiled. He knew that he had done well for the world of the living as he watched it from the realm of the dead.

'Are you happy now? Now we are even farther behind because you have a fetish for being a hero. Stupid prick,' said an annoyed bird.

Aidan just looked at the crow and shook his head. He looked at the shotgun on the ground and picked it up. He then reached behind the counter, finding dust-covered boxes of ammunition that he brought up to the top of the counter, setting them around the hole. He gather them up and carried them out before leaving his credit card on the counter for the gun, ammunition, and gas.

He piled the boxes of shotgun shells into the passenger seat and then loaded the shotgun with 5 shells. Aidan pumped the shotgun with a final series of clicks and sounds. He smiled sadistically at the crow and knew that although he had done life well earlier, now was the time to pay life back for his pain.

_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does. _-^-_