NAMELESS

He had watched the girl for some time now; through the dark toned glass. She loved walking a circle around her rug, like a zoo animal making their daily path.

Her dark hair had grown longer, the edges splintered and ragged. She had refused to have it cut, instead letting it tangle and droop lazily around her small face.

She sat on the bed and began mutely reading a children’s book that the nurse had given her. Her legs dangled just inches from the ground.

The room they had given her was rather large. They had thought that a child needed places to play. He still believed that she was no child.

The room instead forced a false innocence on her. A bed spread with pink squares and smiling flowers. Walls painted a cheery yellow. Colored boxes for toys neatly stacked in a corner. Framed photos of rainbows and horses dotting the walls.

He smirked. This room was too clean.

He sat down at a table, still facing the glass and began reviewing the nurse’s log for the day. What she had eaten, what she had said, any strange behavior that was noticed. All was standard, just like the day before and sure to be like the day next. One day she would slip, he knew it. They didn’t call in one of the top psychologists just to pamper the public’s opinion.

He lightly tapped on the cool glass top watching how she would read each page. Her small hand tracing the book’s lines, her eyes gazing deeply into its pages. Every few minutes the page would flip and anxiety would cross over her as if the split second was too long to wait for the next word.

She had been found wandering the local park alone. A woman on a late evening jog had crossed paths with her and was quickly disrupted by the exterior state of the girl.  Her only clothing item was a thin white dress. The girl’s bones were visible under her dirty skin, making her figure angled and sad. She carried nothing with her and would not speak. The woman had embraced her and told her she would take her to a safe place. When she had let go, she pulled back to realize that her hands were drenched in a ruby liquid. The whole backside of the girl was covered in blood.

Everyone wants to know what happened. What happened to that poor little girl? That poor little girl that the news painted as a tragedy?

He huffed, thinking of what he had heard over the last week. All of the ridiculous past stories that the world has discovered from the woodworks.

She was doing it again, staring at the blank wall. The book had been carefully laid on her bed and she had slowly walked over. She stood tall patiently watching the surface. Her hands crossed behind her back, left over right.

He noticed the time, five in the evening exactly. Every day she did this little ritual, placating herself for an hour with the wall. He had talked to her about in their sessions, but she would never budge. She would avert her eyes to his window and bite on the interior of her lips. She would ignore him from that point on, refusing to speak again until the next day.

But today he was ready for it. During her lunch hour a few days before he had had a projector rigged on the ceiling. He had known the change would alarm her, even if she showed no outward signs. So he waited until she would forget, having the staff explain that it was just another camera.

He pulled out a remote and clicked the projector on. He had set up pictures from the night she was found to project right in front of her. It was daring to do this to a patient and likely against some overall moral code, but he needed to get to her. To rip her open and expose the ugliness that he believed she had buried inside.

He dimmed the lights in the room and watched as her eyes widened. He could see the weariness ripple across her face. This was already more than he had hoped for.

Then, without warning, she let out a piercing scream.

INTO THE FIRE

Snail snarled. He circled around the chair, his body vibrating from Henry’s response; his eyes a cold, dark blue. Henry stared back at him with fiery, regretting how the situation had come to this. He closed and opened his fists under the tight plaited ropes.

“You stupid old man. You fool. What did you think? This would all go away? We would magically be on our merry ways, not taking notice that the deed was never done? ” Snail laughed. “Did you think we wouldn’t check? You did, didn’t you?” He shook his head, pulling his right index finger to his lips. “Not the dumb criminals you thought we were, huh?” Snail began touring around Henry again with a slow, forced paced, his dress shoes dragging the floor.

“What to do with you, what to do with you…” he murmured.

Henry felt a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. He had fallen in love with her, her smile, her careless ways. He remembered seeing her out on the beach dock last summer, her long dress floating in the wind profiling her beauty, her sense of lightness as she stared across the water streaked in the sunset. Open, close.

“I should just kill you, you know?” Snail draped his hands on Henry’s shoulders from behind, leaning into his ear. “But then again, my favorite punishment for these kinds of games is taking away what you most prize and then watching you, “ Snail sighed, “…watching you fall apart. Not able to enjoy anything in life anymore, so enclosed by the dreariness and the boredom that you kill yourself. Oh that is a fun game.” Snail pushed off his shoulders.

“But what’s your greatest prize, Henry? What keeps you ticking?” Snail was facing him again. “Tick-tock.”

Henry brought his gaze up to Snail’s bleak face, “No person has just one thing in life. I’m sorry if you do, you must live a sad and boring life.” Henry cocked his head.

Snail threw back his head in laughter, “You are truly a fool. It’s alright, old man, I already know the answer.” Snail pulled a chair up to face him. He plopped down, resting his arms on the back, flashing the head of his gun.

“I think,” Snail stared absently at the ceiling,” I think, you value your mind. I mean that is how you got all of this, right?” Snail stretched out his arms to the room around him. “This is what got her attention, what originally got her interested. How you two even managed to meet.” Snail bit his lip. “So, if I take your mind, your ability to think for yourself, I take it all, you see? Without your mind, you are not stable. Michael takes over as the sole proprietor and we will share in all you worked for while you slumber away unknowingly in a crazy house. That’s a fitting end for a genius, don’t you think?” Henry could hear the irony in Snail’s words. “Aren’t you going to ask me how, old man?”

Henry continued to look down at the tile; he knew how. He had invented the how just over two years ago. It had been intended to be a temporary memory loss pill, to help those forget tragedies or life altering events. It was supposed to help people; instead it killed them. It took away everything they knew, turning them to vegetables in a matter of weeks. The trials had been a public outrage and a failure for Henry. All of his work had been trashed and the pills sent to an incinerator. He had kept a bottle himself to use for future experiments. He had only told one person of where that bottle was kept.

“What have you done with her?” Henry asked softly. Open, close.

Snail put his hand under Henry’s jaw and pushed it up so that their eyes met again. Snail showed his white teeth, slick with saliva, he had been waiting for that question like a loyal dog for his meaty treat.

AT SUNSET

A swelling excitement was building in Darren’s chest. He watched as the sun began dipping behind the low clouds and the night air rolled in.

He could feel the crowd grow anxious, too. The ticket said, “Gates Open at Sunset.” Sunset was almost here.

An older man with a face full of whiskers eyed Darren while taking a long drag on a cigarette. Darren could tell from the pungent smell and bright yellow striping they were same kind Paul would steal out behind the gym sometimes.

The man nodded to Darren and held out the cigarette towards him. Darren gave a smile back and shook his head. He was already harboring a fake ID for this. He didn’t want to push the limit.

The man shrugged and turned back to the girl standing with him. A pretty blonde who was demanding some attention with her tight sweater mixed with a leather mini skirt.

From nowhere, Darren felt a hard nudge in his back and a hot breath on his neck.

“Don’t move, I’ve gotta 45 right in your spine. If you want to walk tomorrow, you’ll slip me your wallet and I’ll be on my way.”

Darren smirked and flipped around. “Well, maybe I’d believe you if you actually knew what a 45 was.”

Josh grinned and pulled his arms across his chest, “Touché, my friend, touché.”

Darren laughed and slapped Josh on the back, “Hey I’m glad you made it. I estimate,” he took a quick peek at the sun, “about fifteen minutes or so before we are in.”

“Well, I hope your estimating is a little off there. I’ve been holding it in since Alameda and, I gotta tell you, I’m close to bursting down there,” said Josh, tilting his head down low.

Darren rolled his eyes. “You’ll be alright. Nevermind that we are seventh in line to get the front seats, being first to the bathroom, that’s what really matters.”

Josh chuckled, “I can’t believe you are this far up. You must have been here, like what? Two, three hours early?”

Darren’s face gleamed, “Four hours, Josh. You know I’d do just about anything to see them up close. They’re the greatest band alive.”

“Yeah, yeah, greatest,” Josh lolled out. “You know, there is one great looking thing here.” He glanced over his shoulder at the blonde.

Darren snorted. “Like she would pay any attention to you.  You’re just a highschooler lucky enough for your parents to still fall for the ‘sleeping over’ lie.”

“You are, too,” Josh scowled.

Darren looked back over to the cigarette man who had pulled in the beauty close, whispering into her ear, making her let out sweet smiles. The girl reached into his pocket and pulled out some white pills and tossed them in her mouth. The man grabbed some for himself and followed it with a small bottle that he pulled from his coat. He down the dark liquid and tossed the bottle out on the grass.

Darren felt a mixture of disappointment and jealousy creeping into him. To just do as you please, no rules, no worries. He would have that freedom someday.

He heard a soft rumble that turned into a roar from the crowd. The sun had set. The gates had opened.

ELBERT PASS

The dark clouds swept low, touching the white horizon. The sun was but a dull bead sunk deep into their fluffy exterior.

His feet felt numb and weighted. Chunks of ice had frozen to the soles. The icy air slithered under his coat, inhabiting his skin.

His hands had turned to a deep blue. At least the burning pain had stopped. Trudging on in the snow, every turn had begun to feel familiar. Every heavy snow coated tree now looked the same.  He had been wondering for days in this godforsaken forest, searching for his last hope.

He paused for a moment, scanning the sky. It had been a bad idea; he knew it now.

They had started as a party of three. They had planned out their supplies, marked the stopping points, checked the weather countless times, and even acted out emergency situations. You would have thought the last one may have helped.

But this mountain was unforgiving. It unleashed an arsenal of Mother Nature’s hatred. Her relentless pounding of ice and snow. Everyone told them that it gets bad on the outer rim at Elbert Pass. But they didn’t listen. They could do it.

Just above the pines, a wisp of smoke curled into the clouds. His heart beat accelerated and a hot rush of adrenaline flooded his veins.  He desperately wanted to cry out, but the strength was not in him.

“Go,” he said to himself. “Push harder.” He recoiled the new fire inside his self and headed towards the smoke. If he could make it, at least the stories of the souls lost could, too.

REALITY

My heart was pounding.  My head was aching.

The cold concrete slid roughly across my bare feet. With each step, my legs became a greater weight.

The icy air slithered through the holes in my shirt, silently grazing my skin.

How did I get here?

Questions were racing through my mind. I had no time to find the answers. More and more empty holes were being created in my fragile universe.

I felt a swelling emotion coming up through my body. Starting at my toes, it pummeled upwards consuming every inch of me. The feeling expanded in my chest and begged me to let it escape.

Unwillingly, the tears began to roll down my face.  My body trembled as the swell completely took me over.  Tears blinded my sight.  My toes hit imaginary cracks in the familiar sidewalk.  I stopped.  I cried harder.

The past two days had been a nightmarish blur.  I was confused, but most of all I was scared.

I am not who I thought I was.

How did I get here?

My throat croaked as I let out a low moan. I slowly lowered the rest of my body down onto the pavement.

Did that really just happen?

I pulled my legs up to my chest and thrust my head into my knees.  I could feel my wispy hair swirling around with the wind. My eyes tried to focus on the crooked pavement.  I shook with a million emotions racing through me.

How?

My shirt smelt of a sweet scent, a familiar scent. My sister’s favorite perfume. That made me cry harder.

Is this the end?

It felt like it.

I wrenched my head back from my knees.

God, why me?

My body started wrenching awkwardly as if the emotions themselves were trying to literally pull themselves out and enter the world. The tears slowed as I gasped for air.

My mind began to move slower as my breathing became patterned.  I lowered my head all the way to the concrete.  I noticed the dark, white billowy clouds above me. They moved so slowly, so….quietly.

For a moment, I thought the sun might come out. But within that same thought, a white speck caught my eyes. It was snowing.

I watched the snow gently sway down from the sky. The specks sat silently upon me but were soon gone.  Their brief presence left small dark circles on my clothes.

How did I get here? That was the first question I wanted to answer.  A question with what seemed like infinite answers. My choices had lead to such a solution.

I watched as a speck daringly tried to place itself in my eye, but I was quicker.

How did I get here?