Into the Storm

The cold rain poured down on the outskirts of the small city of Olympia. A girl no older then sixteen was walking along the road wearing nothing but a pair of bright red skinny jeans and a faded over-sized Misfits t-shirt. She shivered as a cold gust of wind blew through the air as she sniffled. Big fat tears were rolling down the side of her face but the passing cars wouldn’t have been able to tell. To them it would have just looked like rain on her face. In fact most of the passing cars would have simply asked themselves why a young girl would be allowed to walk home in such weather, on such a busy road. Kelsi Mekei sniffled again and then slowly uncrossed her arms and wiped a tear off her face. Of course that did no good as another tear immediately rolled down her cheek to replace it. A passing car honked its horn at Kelsi and made her jump in surprise. College frat boys rolled down the window and shouted vulgar things at her which she ignored. She shook her head as her foot was placed on faulty ground and she slipped and nearly fell into the muddy banks on either side of the road.

Nearby a flash of lightning crackled as its static filled the air. Moments later a roar of thunder was heard as the storms intensity increased. Kelsi’s hair was plastered to her face and back and the material of her jeans was beginning to rub against her skin, irritating it. A yellow school bus drove by. Her school bus the kids had the window’s half open and shouted more vulgar things at her. There was a splash nearby and a banana exploded on impact with the asphalt. Obviously whoever had been aiming for her had missed, and she was quite grateful for that.

Ahead of her the road forked into two different paths. The school bus went straight ahead. While she approached it she deliberated. Would she go home and be a good girl? Or would she take a detour and end up in trouble again? The rain pelted down harder and the trees around her began to shake as leafs flew off and through the air. The sneakers that she was wearing were soaked and her feet were beginning to get cold and sore but none the less she took the detour. Maybe if she got home later than usual her father would be asleep and she could sneak in and have a peaceful night for once without having to take care of her alcoholic father.

At the thought of her father her mind began to wander. First, to why her father had become an alcoholic. You certainly didn’t wake up one day and say to yourself, “I think I shall go and become an alcoholic so that I can ruin mine and my daughter’s life.” Or at least a normal person wouldn’t do that. Maybe a twisted person would but not a normal person. Her mind wandered from her father to her mother and older brother; two figures that she had never met and she wasn’t quite sure why she hadn’t met either of them. If she thought about it carefully she couldn’t remember a time where her mother or brother had been in her life. She had searched the house time and time again for any evidence that she had even had a mother or brother but came up with empty hands. No one in Olympia remembered anything about her supposed mother which made her think she had never had one in the first place.

She looked up from the muddy ground to find herself surprisingly near the fork in the road. At the last moment she made a final decision and took the detour. Thinking about her long lost brother, which no-one could remember her having made her slightly upset. While other children has been out having fun and playing games on the street she had been caged up inside her house, cleaning up after her father. She was like a bird caged up. It just wouldn’t work forever. Maybe temporarily but not forever. After time she would need to stretch her wings and be free even for a short amount of time before she died of a broken heart.

Oh how nice it had been when she could finally attend school! It gave her the chance to escape from her hell house for hours every day. That was until summer came along then it was straight back to the house and the routine followed like that every year until she turned fourteen and got a job. Sometimes she would lie and say she had an extra shift here and there to escape and be with friends. Even if she did have to suffer the consequence when she arrived home to her angry father who as it turned out had received a phone call from her work asking her to come in.

His Point Of View
From my hiding spot in the bushes I watched Kelsi walk by. The rain was slowly but surely letting up bit by bit. Or at least that’s what it would seem like until the lightning flashed and the thunder boomed and the rain began to pound down again relentlessly. She walked out of view and I quickly darted out of the bush I was hiding in to the next bush. After getting slapped a few times in the face by the blowing branches I managed to dart into the bush. I cussed quietly a few times as I wiped the blood that was pouring out of my nose onto the sleeve of my sweater. Stupid branches, stupid wind I thought to myself as the blood ran down my face as I tried unsuccessfully to wipe it off. Kelsi walked out my view again and I darted out of the bush, trying to be quiet and stay unnoticed. This time I dared to stay out in the rain for a minute longer, hoping that the rain would wash the blood off my face and my hands.

I took a few steps forward, cautiously of course, to my luck though I managed to place my foot on what was more than likely the only twig in the whole area. It made a not-so-subtle snapping sound which I flinched back at. Please God, make it so she didn’t hear it, make the wind drown it out or something like that. I prayed. It wasn’t as though I was a strong believer in God in fact I was far from it. I was just praying for the sake of praying, but isn’t that what most people did?

They just prayed to someone or something because it would make them feel better. It would make them feel like someone was listening to them and that they weren’t powerless in a situation. If they prayed to this superior being, all their problems would go away. Like if someone died and they prayed to God to watch over the recently deceased it would take a load off their chest because they thought that someone would watch over them and all that.

Now poor Atlas if you ask me. I mean having to carry the world on his back. If he prays to God do you think that God would help with that? I don’t think so. So how’s poor Atlas going to overcome that? If you ask me I mean someone dying, yeah that’s a big thing and I’m sure that everyone within their life time will have to go through that. But carrying the world on your back, if you ask me that would really suck.

Now back to where I was before I got onto this whole talk about God and all that. I stepped on that stupid twig and it cracked under my foot and I hoped that she wouldn’t hear it. Well of course with my luck she did hear it. She spun around and when she saw me soaking wet, blood on my face she didn’t look mad, but she didn’t exactly look thrilled to see me either. Nervously I bit my lip as my eyes darted around and I waited, unsure of myself.
Kelsi’ Point Of View
Behind me I heard a twig snap before there was another crash of thunder. Poor soul who was stalking me. If they had only waited a second longer to step on that twig, they would have gotten away clean as a whistle. But now let’s face facts they didn’t wait and I did hear them. I spun around too fast for the person who had stepped on the twig to do anything or even move a fraction of an inch. To my shock when I turned around, I saw Aiden.

Aiden and I were similar I guess you could said. Neither of us had very good family lives but then again when was a family life good and completely smooth without any bumps? We both acted semi-similar but for some reason while I was a total outcast, he was one of the most popular guys in school. Yeah explain that to me! People often said it was because he was a guy and guys that did the whole “emo” look were to die for. While girls who did the whole “emo” look even when they weren’t trying, were complete and utter outcasts.

To me it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but then again to me nothing really did make a whole lot of sense. Aiden looked at me with an unreadable expression before he bit his lip and his eyes darted around nervously. I knew Aiden. We weren’t the best of friends but we didn’t hate each other. We both liked each other and knew it, but we weren’t dating. We had a, oh what’s the word I was looking for? A fling. We had a fling, simple as that. Only me and Aiden knew and frankly those were the only two people who needed to know.

My eyes studied him for a moment sweeping over his mess of black hair, zipped up blue sweater and black skinny jeans. He looked... concerned to say the least. I had long since stopped crying but my eyes were probably still red which meant that he knew, or he thought that I had been up to no good again. We stared at each other for a moment before he opened his arms and gestured for me to come to him. A smirk played with the corners of my mouth as I shook my head then opened my arms. It was a simple way of telling him that I wasn’t moving anywhere soon, especially in the way that I had come.

He rolled his eyes, making sure that I saw him before he took three strides and embraced me. I wrapped my arms around him and we stayed like that for a few moments until a crack of lightning made me jump and Aiden smile. He leaned in and kissed me softly on the cheek before taking my hand and intertwining our fingers as if walking in the pouring rain was the most normal thing to do on a Monday. The afternoon had long since gone and it was now early evening, or at least it felt like early evening it was just a little difficult to tell what time of day it was when dreary rain clouds covered the sky. In fact I wasn’t quite sure if the sun was still up. Without meaning to I rested my head on Aiden’s shoulder as we silently walk hand in hand

I had, known Aiden basically forever and liked him just as long. Neither of us were the talkative type but then again after knowing someone forever you were sure to run out of things to talk about once in a while and I guess this was one of those times. I let my hand wander down to my pocket when I gently felt for my switchblade. A wave of reassurance swept through me knowing that it was still there even after I nearly fell into the muck. I must have relaxed when I realized it was still their because Aiden gave me a funny look but didn’t say anything.

The rain was still pouring down but that wasn’t unusual in Olympia. I mean in the winter it rained almost daily! That’s right people, no snow just rain. Most people enjoyed that we didn’t get any snow but not me! I despised it. Personally I’d rather have snow over rain any day because at least with snow you can go out and do something! Rain makes everything dull and dreary and everyone gets fat and lazy and never wants to do anything! At least with snow you can go out and shovel it, make a snow man or have a snowball fight! To me anything was better than being caged up in a house, especially with an alcoholic father.
Aiden’s point of view

Silence, that’s all there was. Well there was the pitter-patter of the rain but other than that, silence. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before but I hate silence there’s just something about it that bothers me. It’s going to come and suffocate me. I’m just going to say this once if you’re laughing at me shut up. I don’t laugh at you because you’re afraid of something stupid like the dark so you can just shut your face. Yeah, that’s right I went there!

I wanted to say something, anything at all but of course I couldn’t think of something to say. I mean it’s not like I had to impress her she was already my girlfriend (if she asks though I never said that, she hates it when I admit we’re in a relationship) but I didn’t want to risk sounding like an idiot. I wanted to say something to comfort her or console her for having such a bad day at school but I had nothing to say. Things will be okay? Lie. Don’t worry everything will get better? Lie. Its okay I mean we all have bad days? Not a good thing to say, especially to Kelsi because I knew where that would lead us. Are you kidding me? I have a bad day every day...! I could already hear the echo of her voice pounding inside my skull, what she would say how she would freak out at me and trust me that would not be fun at all. Okay maybe it would be for you but it sure wouldn’t be fun for me!

Ahead of us I could see a half-destroyed fence of what I assumed was our destination. It was the graveyard and kind of a tradition I guess you could call it. Whenever either of us had a really bad day at school or at home, or we got thrown out on our behinds or something like that we’d always wander on down to the graveyard. Kelsi would wander on down and just look at the graves, just to look at them, the names and dates on the tombs and crypts. She’d maybe talk to one of the keepers and sometimes would even help out, just because she could. I’m just saying but Kelsi is one of a kind.

Me, I’d wander on down to visit dear ol’ mom and Uncle Dave and tell them what they were missing. Uncle Dave I never really remembered hanging around with but that was because he had always been trying to off himself and he never really managed to off himself. In fact he drove his motorcycle right into a semi on the highway. Then well mom, let’s just say that she had too many drugs to function properly anymore and well the drugs started affecting her big time. So once in a while I’d just wander on down and tell them what I’d been up too, don’t make fun of me lots of people do it and plus it gave me something to do when I got thrown out.

Kelsi’s point of view

After a few minutes I wanted to say something, anything to Aiden. Just to let him know that I wasn’t depressed or planning to do something stupid like off myself which I had attempted in the past. I didn’t know what to say though. I wasn’t a talkative person by nature and words often did fail to come to me, especially in times like this, which annoyed me to no end. I mean for real the one time I actually needed to say something to someone and I don’t know what to say or how to say it. How fair is that?? Ahead of us loomed the grave yard with its rotting fence. At one point in time it had probably been new and clean with only a tombstone here and there but now over the years the little fence had fallen apart and the grave yard keepers hadn’t done a very good job, especially with the burials. There were no rows in this grave yard just scattered graves here and there which made it seem more like a dump then it already was. The grave yard was still probably a good twenty minute walk ahead of us.

So on our way there I thought about why I was even headed there. It wasn’t just a bad day at school that made me want to go there it was because I was hungry for revenge. I wanted my classmates dead. I wanted every little stuck up popular kid who had ever said something rude to me buried and placed in that little grave yard. I wanted them all to suffer for what they had done to me. For making me go through years of hell while they got everything they wanted. Everything they could ever need was handed to them and none of them deserved it. Not a single one of them. They all needed to be taught a lesson. How was it fair that one person in the school got made fun of because of who they were, how was that fair that they had to put up with all the crap while everyone else got it easy. I bet that the rest of the school didn’t have to babysit their own father! I bet that they didn’t have to think about where their own mother was and what she was doing and why she had left!

As my temper rose, I squeezed Aiden’s hand tighter until he looked at me and then stopped walking. I was fuming over what? People who weren’t even worth my time! Why couldn’t I be like Aiden and not care what the rest of the school though and live my own life? I didn’t have it nearly as bad as he did, at least I could go home and not have to worry if I would get up the next day.

I looked at Aiden in surprise when he stopped. I was mad. I wanted to keep walking the last thing I wanted to do was stop! Aiden’s eyes scanned me for a moment, just looking at my face before I let go of his hand. He searched my face for a few more seconds with his adorable face before he pulled me up against him and kissed me. His kiss comforted me more than anything that he could say would. It reassured me and let me know that he would always be there; he didn’t need to tell me himself, his body actions did it for me.

All of a sudden I wanted to cry. Not just because I had a bad day. I wanted to cry for both me and Aiden. Aiden because I felt so bad for him, because he had an abusive father that wanted him dead and a mother who was gone. Compared to him I had it easy. All I had to do was babysit my father, not hide from him. I wrapped my arms around Aiden and he pulled me close. I sniffled and gulped like a little kid before the tears actually sprung from my eyes. Aiden didn’t say anything. I think we both knew that nothing he could say would be able to calm me down and there was no point in trying. The stupid tears started to flow and all I could do was hold onto Aiden while I cried for both of us.

Aiden’s point of view

Throughout my life I’ve realized that out of everything I’ve ever felt the feeling I hate most of all isn’t when I’m scared or sad. It’s when I’m helpless. It’s when you know about something that happened, like a family member who got into a car accident and they’re in the hospital in critical condition and all you can do is sit there and hope for the best. I hate that feeling. I hate it when all you can do is sit there and wait because it’s out of your control. I despise that feeling and something tells me that just because I have to stand here and watch Kelsi cry and not be able to do anything isn’t going to make me any fonder of it.

I already knew as the tears started to roll down her face that I wouldn’t be able to do anything but stand and hold her. I knew it, and that’s one of the many things that makes me hate myself. I hate being helpless and I know that most people do but after being helpless for my entire life you really start to despise it. I had to watch my mom snort cocaine and just watch her kill herself. I had to watch my dad beat her. I had to watch Kelsi get kicked out of her house at the age of seven and not be able to do anything about it, and not be able to even invite her into my own house because it would be safer for her to be on the streets then it would for her to be in my house. That hadn’t changed over the years it was still safer on the gang ridden streets where gun fights went on every night then it was in my house. In fact, during the summer I’d often spend my nights outside or at Kelsi’s if her dad was passed out. I’d do anything to avoid my own house of hell.

Kelsi’s point of view
After a while I guess I just ran out of tears or things to cry about. One or the other, or who knows it might have even been a combination of the two. I could still feel Aiden’s arms around me, which meant he hadn’t moved while I had cried at all. It made me want to say something, to thank him or tell him that I loved him, but my voice had deserted me. I pulled away from Aiden’s chest and looked up at his face. A slight part of my brain noticed that it had stopped raining and it was indeed dark outside but the majority of my brain focused on Aiden’s face.

He looked upset, and I wondered if I had upset him by something I had done, maybe the tears? I wasn’t quite sure but his dark eyes were filled with sadness. I bit my lip as I moved his wet hair out of his face. He gave me a quick smile before he resumed his distant expression. I stared at him for a few seconds longer as his arms dropped from around me and I took his hand. I followed his gaze and found that he was staring at nothing more than the clouds or the night sky. I pulled his hand gently, trying to break him away from whatever had him in a trance. He broke his gaze from the clouds and began to walk again but to me he still seemed lost in thought.

I racked my brains for something I could say or do to draw him away from his thoughts because I can almost assure you that they were of nothing good. We walked silently along the road as the occasional car passed. A lone gust of wind blew through the outskirts and I shivered as I realized how cold both me and Aiden were. We were both wearing soaking wet clothing and it was probably nine o’clock at night, if not later! My stomach growled and I realized that I hadn’t eaten in twelve hours; I wasn’t just hungry I was starving! We arrived at the little graveyard probably twenty or so minutes later, I ignored my stomach which was growling loudly now. I wasn’t sure if Aiden could hear it or if he was purposely ignoring me. The graveyard had long since closed but the rotten fence didn’t prevent us from getting in.

It’s not like we were there to dig up graves and ‘cause havoc. All we wanted to do was walk around a little bit and take a look at the tombs that was all. Aiden had remained lost in thought the entire time and without thinking when we got to the graveyard I let go of his hand I headed off towards a few new graves in the furthest area while he headed to his mother’s grave as usual.

I scanned the new graves carefully; they had both been buried recently-within the last couple of weeks. I recognized the names; they had been in the paper awhile ago. Both had died in a car crash when the driver lost control of the vehicle and ran it off a cliff. No survivors, it wasn’t a particularly sad story compared to some of the others that had been buried here but it was a sad story none the less.

I turned away from the new graves. I was finished here, I just wanted to take a look around and see if there had been any more graves put in. Call me morbid but I just liked to check, in case my brother or mother just happened to show up here one day. Also I preferred to spend my time with the dead rather than the living, aside from Aiden of course. It wasn’t anything personal it was just that it gave me more time to think and such.

I headed over to where Aiden’s mother had been buried. If I thought about it hard enough I could still remember the funeral. A little trail had been worn from the entrance to the grave since both me and Aiden visited here so often. He made a point to come and visit at least once a week, while I came once a month on average. I caught sight of Aiden. He had kneeled over his mother grave and was whispering some sort of prayer or chat. Just hearing his voice made me feel better. As I got closer I realized that he sounded angry and I realized that he was repeating a single word over again and again.

Revenge.

He repeated it a few more times before he fell silent and kneeled respectfully. I glanced around the graveyard once making sure that we were alone and that no-one else had seen Aiden and his little chat.

“Aiden, are you ready?” I asked hearing my voice for the first time that day. It sounded hoarse and tired. Aiden straightened up when he heard my voice and he turned to me. With that he took the switchblade out of his pocket and opened it and gave me an evil grin.
“I’m quite ready,” he said before he lunged at me.