Status: complete short story
CONTAGIOUS
Unexpected Encounter
She could feel the madness pouring from his skin, his fingers, his breath. There was nothing sane about this man that stood before her, nothing sane and nothing tame. His black wiry hair stuck out in every which direction, skewering leaves and trapping twigs in its grasp. When he spoke, his voice was soft and intense, giving strange emphasis to words that didn’t seem deserved.
“Your brother was a nice guy,” he spoke, the words drifting out of his mouth like smoke, eyes focused on her eyes, seeing through her, into her. Mellony Rose shivered as more words slithered from his mouth. “You shouldn’t walk in a park at night. Something strange might come and get you.”
Then he smiled, a loose kind of smile that let go of the limits of sane society and showed his true colors—crazy, wild, bright. It terrified Mellony to no end. Never in her fifteen years of life had she seen someone let go of all reservations before, madness oozing from every pore of his skin. Her trembling grew, and she escaped his limitless gaze, turning and beginning to run through the park, past trees and benches, not on sidewalks or paths but in a line for the park's gates, leaving the insanity of Rodger Kingslinger behind her.
Ever since her brother had died in the train wreck two months ago, Mellony had made it routine to go on a nightly jog through the park right at sunset to calm her nerves, get her thoughts away from wondering why her boyfriend had broken up with her two days before the accident, why her parents wouldn't talk to her, love her, anymore, why her brother had even been on a train in the first place and why he, of all the passengers, had to be the one to die. Why she'd had to lose her older brother that would take her places with his friends even though he was three years older than her and most brothers ignored their younger sisters when they got past elementary school.
Sometimes she'd close her eyes and she could still hear his laugh when she'd do something stupid like lose her keys when they were in her pocket, or when he’d find an old pair of shoes that had been lost for three years. She could see the two of them sitting in the sunny living room together, telling each other about their days, illustrating both the good and the bad.
“And when Roger crashed his car into the gymnasium, we just couldn’t stop laughing!” she could remember him saying, and she would laugh then, too, her mind conjuring hilarious situations from the comedy of life.
Yet these memories always hurt, in a bittersweet, aching way, so she usually tried everything she could to escape them.
On these nightly jogs she'd focus every part of her consciousness on her steady breathing, the thrum of her high blonde pony-tail bouncing against her upper back, the crunch of her sneakers against the gravel. But apparently she'd been too focused on the sounds of herself and not anything around her this night, for this night she'd gone farther into the park than she'd ever willingly go when the sun was setting and darkness was falling all around her, when the city was gradually falling into the lazy slumber it reaches every night after the sun sets. Before she knew it, her green eyes were looking up into the unnerving black ones of Rodger Kingslinger, the guy who'd once been her brother’s best friend, that is, until he went crazy about a year ago. She hadn't seen him since then, and well, let's just say that seeing him with the quiet unpopulated darkness around him and that madness oozing from him was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen, and had sent such fear into her heart that it drove away all sadness.
Now, as she jogged down the street towards home, safely away from the madness in the dark park, Mellony tried to find the good part of this situation. She'd been getting better at this since her brother's death, since after Nathan died she had to find some way to cope with the gaping, awful hole torn through her life, so she'd started finding positive things in life when it seemed to be filled with just negative. The fear had escalated her heart beat, made her run faster than she'd ever ran before, making it home in just three minutes instead of the usual six. The terror had also chased away all her sadness, all her questioning, replacing it with something she found to be worse—a trembling she couldn't stop, and a feeling of dread that wouldn't leave her heart no matter how much distance she put between her and the park, no matter how much she told herself that she'd never see Rodger again.
But no one can escape madness, once they've had a taste of it, no matter how hard they try.
“Your brother was a nice guy,” he spoke, the words drifting out of his mouth like smoke, eyes focused on her eyes, seeing through her, into her. Mellony Rose shivered as more words slithered from his mouth. “You shouldn’t walk in a park at night. Something strange might come and get you.”
Then he smiled, a loose kind of smile that let go of the limits of sane society and showed his true colors—crazy, wild, bright. It terrified Mellony to no end. Never in her fifteen years of life had she seen someone let go of all reservations before, madness oozing from every pore of his skin. Her trembling grew, and she escaped his limitless gaze, turning and beginning to run through the park, past trees and benches, not on sidewalks or paths but in a line for the park's gates, leaving the insanity of Rodger Kingslinger behind her.
Ever since her brother had died in the train wreck two months ago, Mellony had made it routine to go on a nightly jog through the park right at sunset to calm her nerves, get her thoughts away from wondering why her boyfriend had broken up with her two days before the accident, why her parents wouldn't talk to her, love her, anymore, why her brother had even been on a train in the first place and why he, of all the passengers, had to be the one to die. Why she'd had to lose her older brother that would take her places with his friends even though he was three years older than her and most brothers ignored their younger sisters when they got past elementary school.
Sometimes she'd close her eyes and she could still hear his laugh when she'd do something stupid like lose her keys when they were in her pocket, or when he’d find an old pair of shoes that had been lost for three years. She could see the two of them sitting in the sunny living room together, telling each other about their days, illustrating both the good and the bad.
“And when Roger crashed his car into the gymnasium, we just couldn’t stop laughing!” she could remember him saying, and she would laugh then, too, her mind conjuring hilarious situations from the comedy of life.
Yet these memories always hurt, in a bittersweet, aching way, so she usually tried everything she could to escape them.
On these nightly jogs she'd focus every part of her consciousness on her steady breathing, the thrum of her high blonde pony-tail bouncing against her upper back, the crunch of her sneakers against the gravel. But apparently she'd been too focused on the sounds of herself and not anything around her this night, for this night she'd gone farther into the park than she'd ever willingly go when the sun was setting and darkness was falling all around her, when the city was gradually falling into the lazy slumber it reaches every night after the sun sets. Before she knew it, her green eyes were looking up into the unnerving black ones of Rodger Kingslinger, the guy who'd once been her brother’s best friend, that is, until he went crazy about a year ago. She hadn't seen him since then, and well, let's just say that seeing him with the quiet unpopulated darkness around him and that madness oozing from him was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen, and had sent such fear into her heart that it drove away all sadness.
Now, as she jogged down the street towards home, safely away from the madness in the dark park, Mellony tried to find the good part of this situation. She'd been getting better at this since her brother's death, since after Nathan died she had to find some way to cope with the gaping, awful hole torn through her life, so she'd started finding positive things in life when it seemed to be filled with just negative. The fear had escalated her heart beat, made her run faster than she'd ever ran before, making it home in just three minutes instead of the usual six. The terror had also chased away all her sadness, all her questioning, replacing it with something she found to be worse—a trembling she couldn't stop, and a feeling of dread that wouldn't leave her heart no matter how much distance she put between her and the park, no matter how much she told herself that she'd never see Rodger again.
But no one can escape madness, once they've had a taste of it, no matter how hard they try.