See The Constellation

A brief introduction to a story I won't be writing. It's a good one, though, let me tell you.

Rachael stopped suddenly, her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. She exhaled in tiny puffs of fog that swirled around in the wind. Her sneakers crunched on the gravel as she bent down and sat on the railroad tracks with her back to her town. Her town. She liked the sound of that, it really was her town now.

"Not---possible. No---frigging---way," Rachael gasped, half-laughing. "I did---not just do that." She laughed for real this time and lay back on the cold steel of the railroad tracks. She laughed until she was out of breath once again and squeezed her eyes shut. She opened them again and stared at the sky, now full of tiny stars.

"That's Orion," she said to no one in particular, pointing out the hunter in the sky. She shivered; the adrenaline rush having worn off by now, she was just now realizing how cold of a night it was. She pulled her hands inside of her sleeves of her hoodie and pressed them to her mouth, but the overwhelming stench of gasoline made her feel sick.

Rachael looked back at the stars. They were like little candles in the windows of the universe, she thought, one for everyone who died tonight. That thought gave her more chills, this time down her spine, so she abandoned it. As she lay on the railroad tracks, surrounded by trees, alone, slowly shivering to death, the strains of a half-remembered song drifted into her mind.

How does it go? See the constellation, right across the sky... It slipped away, like water between her fingers. Rachael frowned. See the constellation, right across the sky...right across the sky...No cigar, no lady on his arm, just a guy made of dots and lines.

Rachael sang it quietly to herself, as the dull crackle of flames in the distance died down and she began to lose the feeling in her fingers. She pictured what someone walking up to her would see; a scrawny teenager covered in dirt with ragged, gasoline-soaked clothes laying on abandoned railroad tracks. She giggled. No one would find her here. She wouldn't be found until she wanted to be found.

She began to sing again as the sun came up. I found my mind on the ground below, I was looking down, it was looking back....

© 2010 Hipster Detective

Author's Note

It's an introduction to a story that occurred to me one night while listening to music (the song mentioned in the story, specifically-See The Constellation by They Might Be Giants). I would write it, but I'm too lazy. Plus, NaNo's coming up and I've already got a plot, so.... Anyway, suspenseful? Crappy? What do you make of it?