Covered in sweat and blood, Jones wandered through the darkness of the city. He made his way to a small apartment near the ghettos. He stumbled up the stairs leading to the upper floors.
Near the third floor he fell back against the wall and held his side. He relaxed his body and slid down the wall into a sitting position. Blood oozed from his chest and arm. The dust covered his spear arm and was slowly eating away at it. Jones’s chest moved quickly with shallow breaths.
This is it. Jones thought.
He heard footsteps. A teenage boy stood in the stairwell, frozen in shock, staring at him. It was his son. His real son, his flesh and blood. Not the step son he’d tried to kill.
“I made my way back to you, champ.” Jones said before letting out a painful cough. His body fell forward and his chest burned from the bullet wound.
“Dad… Christ. Wait… Was… Was that you? On the tv? The thing that attacked the hospital?” The boy said, eyes wide with fear.
“Go get your mother.” Jones commanded.
“No. I’m calling the police.” The boy said. He tried to walk past Jones to the stairwell.
“Don’t do this, Blake.” A delirious Jones cried. Jones reached out and grabbed the boy’s leg with his gauntlet fist. The boy took his other leg and kicked Jones hard in the jaw.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” Blake said with dark eyes staring down at his father. Jones laid flat on his stomach with tears welling up and blood continuing to soak through his shirt.
Blake ran up the stairwell and away from his father. The dust he had been keeping inside left his body. It covered him from head to toe. As it solidified around his legs and arms he found the strength to stand.
He stumbled at first, but planted one large boot down hard against the metal stairwell. Jones stood up tall as the dust solidified around his body, stopping at his neck. He covered himself completely. Jones clenched his fists.
…
“I can’t believe you forced me to come here.” I said while clawing at the collar around my throat.
“I didn’t force you to do anything, and why are you dressed like that?” Danny chuckled.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “You’re wearing a collared shirt and khakis.” Danny was amused.
“Isn’t this how church people dress?” I asked, confused. Danny just laughed. The upstairs of the church youth building looked like someone’s attic. It had wooden walls lined with light bulbs. Tables and couches all over the place. There was a tv where a group of boys were playing video games.
I saw Mar and Emily sitting down on a loveseat past the bar. Emily was wearing a white blouse and black pants. Her blonde hair hung loose and just barely covered the edges of her glasses. Mar was wearing a white dress, and had more makeup on her face now than I’d ever seen within fifty miles of her in the five years I’d known her.
“Woah. This is the first time in my life I’ve seen you wear something other than a band shirt.” I mocked Mar.
“You should talk. Which accountant did you steal that off of?” Mar laughed. Danny started to laugh again.
“I think you look nice.” Emily murmured.
“Thank you, Emily.” I said.
“Will the band please come downstairs!” An older man yelled from the stairwell. All at once Mar and Emily stood up and Danny followed them as they walked towards the stairwell.
“Hold on, I thought Mar was the only one doing stuff?” I asked as they walked away. Danny looked back at me with a big smile and shrugged.
“What? Didn’t I mention that we’re all part of the band?” He smirked as he walked away.
As they left me behind I decided to stay sitting on the loveseat. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the wall. The cacophony of chatter in the room drowned out my thoughts.
Until I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes, and sitting next to me was Amy Bates and her friends.
“Hello, Amy Bates.” I said sarcastically.
“Hey Jacob!” She said very enthusiastically.
Standing up next to the love seat was a girl I’ve never met before who was very short and had bright red hair, and an Asian girl who was a sophomore. I looked past Amy and held out my hand.
“I’m Jacob.” I said with apathy.
“Courtney.” The Asian girl said, ignoring my hand.
“Sarah.” The red haired girl said, enthusiastically shaking my hand.
“What can I do for you?” I asked Amy Bates.
“So Danny canceled our date. Do you know what that was about?” Amy Bates said.
“No idea.” I said with a smirk.
“Crazy right?” She exclaimed.
“Crazy.” I remarked sarcastically.
I will pay you back for this, Danny. You will rue the day you crossed me.
“So what have you been up to? Why didn’t you go to school last week?” She asked me.
It always amazed me how such a stupid girl could be so involved in everything. She was a varsity cheerleader, she was president of student council, president of other various smaller organizations. She was on the academic team with me, did softball and track, and she had trophies in all three. She was so clearly a moron, and yet she was seemingly good at things.
“Family stuff.” I lied.
Lying in a church. You’ll burn in hell, Jacob.
“Huh. Hey, do you and Danny wanna come to a party this weekend?” She asked me.
“What kind of party?” I asked back.
“Oh just me and a few friends getting together.” She explained calmly. “Courtney and Sarah will be there.” She gestured towards her friends and they nodded.
“Can Mar and Emily come too?” I asked.
“I don’t know… I don’t really know them.” She responded in an unsure voice.
You don’t know me or Danny either.
“I don’t think Danny would be willing to go if they can’t.” I explained.
“Oh… Well then sure.” She said, then grabbed my phone off the arm of the loveseat.
“What are you doing?” I asked, more than a little alarmed.
“I’m putting my number in so I can text you the details.” She said cheerily while typing away on my phone.
“Everybody downstairs!” The older man hollered from the stairwell. Amy quickly finished then tossed the phone back to me.
Everybody coalesced into a crowd near the stairwell. It slowly disintegrated as they made their way one by one down the stairs. I watched and waited for the crowd to get smaller.
…
I undid the top three buttons on my collar as we walked down the sidewalk. The sky was a pale blue as the sun descended behind us. I kicked a rock and sent it flying down the pavement as we passed by a chain link fence protecting a park.
I walked on the far side of the group, closest to the fence. Emily stood to the right of me, gently brushing her shoulder against mine when she could. Mar stood next to her. Danny stood closest to the road and seemed to be lost in thought. It was getting colder by the second. I untucked my shirt as a car whizzed by.
“You guys sounded great.” I said with a smile.
“Really?” Emily looked over at me with a smile.
“Definitely.” I said with certainty. Emily smiled.
“We should go to the park.” Danny spoke up.
“It’s getting kind of dark, don’t you think?” Mar replied.
“I want to watch the sunset from the rocket ship.” Danny said stubbornly.
He was talking about a giant metal structure in the shape of a rocket ship at the park. It was separated into four sections, each one higher up in the rocket ship, and each one getting smaller as you went up.
“I’m down.” I said while grabbing the fence and throwing myself over.
I landed on the grass on the other side with a soft thud. I smiled at the others through the holes. Danny stepped past Emily and Mar, and grabbed the fence as he hauled himself over. His climb wasn’t near as pretty.
Mar was next. In a second she was over the side. Emily had the hardest time climbing, but she made it down pretty easily.
“We have to run if we want to make it there in time for the sunset.” Danny said, bursting into a run.
Mar started laughing as she chased after him, throwing off her sandals to run barefoot. Me and Emily ran after Danny. By the time Mar got to the rocket ship ahead of us, Danny was already half way up it and climbing higher.
She yelled something up to him, then hopped up onto the ladder. I was gasping for air by the time Emily and I got there. I gestured to Emily to go ahead of me. Soon we were all on the top floor of the rocket ship, it was such a small platform that we were basically squished together.
We stared through the tiny thin metal bars that made up the sides of the rocket ship. No one made any noise as the sky in the distance turned a cherry red, and then to a reddish orange.
The shadows of buildings and trees became like living shadows dark and foreboding as the light kissed them. My hand started to hurt as I was forced to sit on it and my neck ached as I was forced to bend my head in order to just sit in the structure made for kids.
I looked out and saw the clouds turn wispy and thin as they moved past the now bright orange sky. No one said anything as the red and orange and yellow colors faded away to nothing.
Only tiny sparks of light remained as we occasionally looked at each other. Finally, all of the world went dark. The park became ice cold as the heat of the sun left us. I started to shiver.
“Well that was nice.” I said in a hushed voice.
“Yeah.” Emily said just as hushed.
I heard Danny sigh.
I heard Mar mutter something under her breath.
I saw the flicker of streetlights as they each lit a tiny slice of street along the town. I felt the calm of the dark, and no one wanted to make a noise and disrupt it. I think we all knew it would eventually end, but no one wanted to be the one to ruin the moment.
For the first time in a long time the shadow of death that hung behind me since the day I was first born, the thing that hung behind every memory and every positive feeling and every possible chance at a normal life, for the first time that specter left me.
And it waited for me at the bottom of that ladder.
…
Mar and Emily left to go their separate ways. Only Danny and I walked side by side down the sidewalk. He lived just one block down from my house. The orange light of the street lamps was the only thing illuminating the way for us. Danny kept his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. He looked down at the sidewalk with a solemn look.
“Been a while since we were last alone, huh?” I said.
“Yeah.” He responded after a moment.
We continued to walk in silence through the cold black night for a long time before he finally said something.
“You know… This… This whole thing sucks. It always sucked.” He suddenly stopped mid stride. He turned to stare at me, his ice blue eyes piercing my soul. His face showed no sign of levity. “I remember back when you started chemo in sixth grade. You came back bald and complained about it for months because everybody could see the scars.” He said. I saw tears form in the corners of his eyes. He sniffled a bit and rubbed them.
“I remember being little kids, you know. It felt like we had forever. Like we were going to be immortal.” His eyes never looked away. “I… I pray for you every night, Jacob. Every single night. Because I don’t want to lose my best friend… I never wanted to lose my best friend…” He looked up at the moon for just a second. Staring at something beyond just the sky, beyond the darkness that I saw. “Jacob, you can’t give up hope.”
He wiped his eyes one more time and we continued our walk down the sidewalk. Eventually he went off the other way. I took a moment before walking home. I took deep breaths and leaned against a streetlight. I let the world stir around me. The wind blew and moved my hair around, cars echoed in the distance.
My mind flashed through different memories in my life. Mom and dad, happy and wishing me the best. Mom brushing my hair and singing me songs, calling me little monkey. My cousins playing tag on Uncle John’s farm. Danny and I playing video games.
My mind snapped back into place as the memory of a giant stone fist colliding into my face flashed. I jumped and screamed into the cold empty night as I relived the moment where I fell limp in that hospital. I could remember the feeling of not knowing what to do and how to respond. The feeling of utter helplessness.
My feet were heavy like lead as I marched to the front porch. Mom was on the couch watching tv as I entered the front door. Dad was sitting in the recliner. The room was completely dark except for the blue light of the tv. It illuminated Dad’s glasses as he sat and stared blankly. I didn’t say anything as I walked past them.
I marched straight to my room and threw myself against my bed. I spend an eternity unmoving, staring blankly as my ceiling fan spins endlessly above me.
I just wanted to have fun.
