The Key Chased the Blade

Simon and I hurried down the street, but he had to stop for a moment and adjust his hearing aids. "They're ringing like crazy. It's actually hurting," he said. He ended up turning them off and putting them in his pocket. I'll figure out what's wrong with them later, he signed. God. I had a really bad feeling about this.

Simon let me lead and I followed the sound of the woman crying. She was singing actually, but I could practically hear the tears in her voice. For some reason it made my chest felt tight. I couldn't really breathe either, but I kept going anyway. We went through a couple alleyways and the sky darkened from its slate grey to an ugly bluish black. Jesus. What were we in, a horror movie?

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Yeah, definitely a horror movie.

It began sprinkling. I pulled Simon's hood over my head and kept going. I heard the lady's wailing even closer now; it was so close I was expecting to see her at any moment. Simon looked at me worriedly, he didn't really know how near we were, but I kept my eyes focused on the cracked street and didn't give him any hints.

There was a heavy aroma of the rain in the air, along with something else I couldn't recognize. It smelled bad. I hated the smell of rain and it smelled even worse with that other stench. I turned down another alleyway, and I went down it until I saw a path to the right that the singing was loudest. If I turned this corner, I swear, she would be there-

But then the sound stopped.

I turned the corner and looked at the dead end. A large clock was hanging on the wall in front of us, the hands frozen in time on 7:23 AM. That's when I saw what was making the other smell.

"Jesus!" My hands flew up to cover my nose and mouth and Simon grabbed my arm. There were birds with nooses around their throats hanging from the roof to the side of the clock. They were rotting, already eaten away by flies. Jesus Christ. What the - what the hell?

Simon's grip on my arm tightened and I looked over to him. He was mortified, deathly pale, and his eyes were wide with terror. I grabbed onto his arm and hauled him out of there. I couldn't stay there any longer. I could still taste the stench of the rotting flesh in my mouth. Jesus Christ. The rain began pouring down. Jesus freaking Christ.

I pulled him all the way back to the park and we slumped down on the merry-go-round. I felt the water on the wet metal seep into the seat of my pants, but I didn't get up. God. I couldn't even function. My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding against my ribcage. Jesus, I didn't know what to think.

Simon put his hearing aids back in his ears, but he didn't speak. His face was twisted in pain, God, that was the worst I'd ever seen him. His hair was stuck to his face from the rain and his clothes were half-soaked, his grey eyes just huge and scared. Jesus. I didn't know what to say to him.

We should get out of the rain, he signed. His horrified eyes locked onto me and I could barely read his trembling hands. God. I could hardly say anything back, much less sign to him, so I just nodded like a total loser.

We quickly took cover without another word.