Status: To be updated in micro-segments.
It's Only the Rain
Seven Heaven
They couldn’t have been human, but I didn’t know that then. The girl was whimpering. The boy looked alarmed, fierceness shining in his socket eyes.
‘Who are they?’ My own eyes flitted anxiously between the shy ginger and the panther set to pounce. I backed away from my brother, no longer certain I could trust him. Was this the day Mama had warned us about? The day one of us became corrupted? I felt inside my pocket for the knife, and found its hilt there, hard and reassuring. But then, another voice in my head spoke up, Taylor didn’t look corrupted. These other two didn’t look like monsters. They were nothing like the hulking shapes that loomed outside the windows at night, only visible where they blotted out the stars or eclipsed the moon, blocking the path to Heaven.
‘I found them,’ Taylor said, defensively. ‘I can’t let them die.’
‘You bring them food?’ I couldn’t help but sound betrayed. ‘We’ve had nothing but rabbits for weeks!’
‘I brought you a fresh blanket,’ my brother replied. ‘That’s harder to carry than tins of food.’
I avoided his scowl, choosing to look skyward instead, to salvation and to the space the towering monsters occupied. There was so much noise being made, mainly by me… The Other Ones must have heard it. I stare and stare, but the only reply is a cold drop of water, which lands directly on my forehead, where my fringe is messed up and plastered to my skin with sweat. Spurned by the sky, I looked back down and the bundle on the ground, and tried to implore the two. What should be done about them? Should I go home and tell Mama, or keep Taylor’s secrete? I couldn’t decide.
The rain picked up pace, and the boy pinned me with his gaze, so suddenly that I couldn’t avoid it. Almost all the potency in his eyes had dissolved. Almost all.
‘It’s only rain,’ he said innocently, and when he smiled, I missed the sharpness of his canines, and the way his irises glinted onyx. ‘It’s only water.’
‘Who are they?’ My own eyes flitted anxiously between the shy ginger and the panther set to pounce. I backed away from my brother, no longer certain I could trust him. Was this the day Mama had warned us about? The day one of us became corrupted? I felt inside my pocket for the knife, and found its hilt there, hard and reassuring. But then, another voice in my head spoke up, Taylor didn’t look corrupted. These other two didn’t look like monsters. They were nothing like the hulking shapes that loomed outside the windows at night, only visible where they blotted out the stars or eclipsed the moon, blocking the path to Heaven.
‘I found them,’ Taylor said, defensively. ‘I can’t let them die.’
‘You bring them food?’ I couldn’t help but sound betrayed. ‘We’ve had nothing but rabbits for weeks!’
‘I brought you a fresh blanket,’ my brother replied. ‘That’s harder to carry than tins of food.’
I avoided his scowl, choosing to look skyward instead, to salvation and to the space the towering monsters occupied. There was so much noise being made, mainly by me… The Other Ones must have heard it. I stare and stare, but the only reply is a cold drop of water, which lands directly on my forehead, where my fringe is messed up and plastered to my skin with sweat. Spurned by the sky, I looked back down and the bundle on the ground, and tried to implore the two. What should be done about them? Should I go home and tell Mama, or keep Taylor’s secrete? I couldn’t decide.
The rain picked up pace, and the boy pinned me with his gaze, so suddenly that I couldn’t avoid it. Almost all the potency in his eyes had dissolved. Almost all.
‘It’s only rain,’ he said innocently, and when he smiled, I missed the sharpness of his canines, and the way his irises glinted onyx. ‘It’s only water.’