Chapter Four (Rough Draft)

Finally anoter addition to my first other gender prospective story. I hate writing the beginning. So help me out.

It took several hours for the haunted feeling to stop leaving a chill along my skin and it took a few days for the man’s face to stop haunting my dreams. He became the man wielding the sword that lead to my impending death. Those dim stale eyes peered out at me from a pile of matted rusted colored hair. That dark skin painted darker and more sinister as my blood coated him. After a few weeks, I forgot what it was like to have a full night’s sleep. My nightmare didn’t return to the deli the day after when Ethan convinced me that the world wasn’t going to slip free from the foundations again, nor was he there the day after.  I found myself looking for him briefly each day as we stepped over Vin’s threshold. I searched for that bleak stare of hatred that had been so frequent in my dreams. And each day I was left wanting. It took a couple more weeks for the only other leading star of my late night saga’s to finally make her cue.

            The air was outlandish for the mid-November status. The airstream carried a warm breeze that snuggled close to the ground. Kids clamored to the playgrounds and blacktops soaking in one of the years last sun kissed days. Ethan dragged me along as a group of our peers had decided an impromptu bonfire at the beach was the best way to celebrate our prosperity. It had been promised to be an intimate setting with a small sampling of our friends, but as the heat spread and the flames of the fire reached closer to the sky, the small minuscule gathering had turned in a small mob of people. And as with any mob gathering, they brought with them the most teenaged thing possible. They brought the spirits. They brought with them the alcohol.

            Surrounded on all sides by the smell of booze and adolescent improvidence, I blanketed myself near the gentle waves of the ocean. The stable crushing of water pulverizing sand crystals was almost enough to drown out the social festivity that went on behind me. Halfway down the stretch of sand kids frolicked along the jetty’s, cackling girls giggled as their male counterparts threatened to toss their small frames into the nippy water. Searching my back pockets for my little sticks o’ death, I drained the smoke into my lungs and tried to clear the headache that had spread to cover my entire head.  The more adventurous kids splashed along the shore line, cocky boys let the girls push them into the water. Ethan had attempted to cling himself to the face of the first leggy blond that drunkenly staggered by. I had seen him inspecting the molars on a busty brunette thoroughly with his tongue about an hour after I had seen the staggering blond stager on to the next keg. Ethan wasn’t picky. Standing up, I threw the last remaining dregs into the water. The laughing grew closer and I could tell people were running towards me. The shoulder of someone taller and broader than I was checked me hard enough to drop my knees into the sand. My hands met with cool grainy sand as I attempted to catch my balance. Bits of sand splashed against my face as a few of the people kept running past, oblivious to my appearance.

“Rob what is wrong with you!” the voice rolled along my skin sending an electric chill. Goose bumps spread like a disease across my body as her alto toned flowed. I couldn’t help but be attracted to the worried tone that she carried I had grown so accustom to hearing it in my dreams. It was bouncier now. In my dreams she was a warrior, here, in real life, she was soft. Her lean legs were sculpted from teenage exercise and what looked like constant exercise. Still carrying the deep tan she had gained from the summer before hand, they were a deep bronze even in the night.

“I’m sorry…you’d think they had some kind of manners to them” her small hand reached down to help me out of the sand. As I ascended to my feet once again my eyes traveled up her as I was pulled gruelingly to a standing position and when finally solid on my two feet again, I wished I could burry my face back into the sand.

“Thank you…” I croaked out, and stepped into the light that shone off of the boardwalk in the distance. I heard a minuscule hiss trickle out of her mouth as my features hit the gleam.

“You’re…..welcome” the voice had changed. It still sang with a teenaged twinge but something darker hid under the notes as she started intensely into my eyes. Her eyes changed from a gentle chestnut to that of a bitter copper. The same eyes that had glared at me from behind the crumpling paper of the man in the diner.

“Are you okay?” I questioned. The space between us was so entangled with stress and animosity that I couldn’t understand.

“I’m…fine” she spitted. “We’ll I’m…..glad your fine.” And with a fluid flick to her body she turned to catch up with the others that had left me stranded on the ground, her skirt twirling even after her legs and stopped motion. She only glanced back once and her stare held even more venom than it had before.

What the flying hells-fire was going on. I gawked after her till I could no longer see her mid-back length dusky colored hair. A foreign chill hit me like a hammer which sent my clamoring for the heat of the bon-fire. But even as I took my seat on the muck covered bench the chill stubbornly clung to me.

“You look like someone just killed you’re puppy. You alright man?” Ethan meandered his way up to the seat behind me. The vivacious red head that trailed behind him sent him a wink and found her way to the nearest sign of life.

“You’ve been busy.” I jested.

Ethan shrugged it off with a cocky smile and didn’t attempt to argue.

“Best time of our life pal, gotta live it while you got it. And I intend to use every waking minute of my…youth…while I can still get good use out of it without pills.”

Chuckling to each other, I shoved Ethan off the seat he was on making him land with a soft thud on his a*s.  His face hit the light and shone off his tanner skin. It highlighted his features giving him the few years of aging and maturing he would need to fully come into the looks that would really make him dangerous to the female species. He already tripled my dating experience 8 to 1, I was…picky about the girls I chose to date. Ethan was picky to...in his own way; he at least demanded they have two legs.

“You sure you’re okay?” his blue grayish eyes turned to mine in worry. He searched my own azure eyes to find the lies he had grown so adapt to finding there. “You’re looking a little….blue and not in the sad kinda way”

“I’m…peachy. Just…peachy.” The majority of the party started migrating back towards the fire and I caught myself searching for the waves of bronze hair among the masses.

“Looking for Hailey?”

“How’d you guess?” I said dragging my eyes back to him

“Cause in five seconds you went from dreamy, to more blue, to dreamy again. I assumed it was a girl. Which one is she?”

Ethan’s eyes scanned the oncoming crowed with speculation searching for the girl that I had described to him in vivid detailing from my dreams. I saw him split and classify each female that came into view, secretly judging them. A few made him glance over twice but none that significantly caught his eyes.

“Brunette, blue skirt….that’s her.” Ethan’s eyes found her before mine. I saw the shimmer of the blue skirt she wore and everything else seemed to be in high focus. I was still surprised that he spotted her before myself. She traveled on the arm of two of her girlfriends who giggled to something witty and humorous she had said.

“Yeah…that’s her.”

As if she could feel our eyes staring at her she locked her gaze with ours. Directed towards Ethan was hardly a glance. She eyes danced over his features acknowledging his attraction, but they were quick to move to mine. The bitterness still clung to those cinnamon spiced eyes. They held in them an anger I couldn’t remember starting.

“Doesn’t look like she likes you much buyo”  

“Can’t for the life me understand why?” Scratching my head I ripped my eyes away from the girl and stared up to the sky, the moon was now blotted over with clouds and the humidity screamed rain.

“You sure she is in your league? I mean, I have all the faith in the world in you unquestionable charm with the ladies, but…she is pretty…..attractive Colin...I’m not trying to discourage you or anything…but really?”

His head tilted slightly to the side assessing her attributes a little more thoroughly. My fists clenched tight into my palms as I fought the urge to slug him. He shrugged his shoulders as he stretched before the flames letting out some of the tension in his back.

“Not my cup of tea, but good luck.” My confusion must have shown on my face. “What?”

“Not your cup of tea? What’s wrong with her?” It sounded defensive even to my ears. But I wanted to know what could possibly be found about her that Ethan would disapprove of.

He let out another shrug and leaned back on his arms in the sand. “I don’t know…physically there is nothing wrong that I can see from here…she just seems like the girl you would really need to invest time in. And you know me; don’t have that kinda patience for that kinda effort.”

He said it with a laugh that I knew was forced. He wanted the serious kinda relationship. He wanted the holding hands, the gentle kisses shared in intimate moments. And it was the fear that that kinda girl would never show up that kept him running to the ditzy no namers.

There was an instant crack of thunder and a flash flicker of lightning before the sky opened up around us. Water came down in sheets that doused the fire in a little under two minutes. What had been a blazing inferno not five minutes before, now flickered and sputtered its last few sparks of life before to overwhelming cool of the rain smothered the flames. The party goers raced off the beach as another round of thunder and lightning lit up the sky in a deep rumbling crescendo. Nature’s beating bass line roared through our ears chasing us away from the festivities. Handfuls of kids raced for the nearest cars that could be found regardless of who they belonged to. Ethan’s 2008 Chevy Malibu that I had originally arrived in filled to the brim long before he had reached the car himself. He sent me an apologizing look as he shoved himself into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition.

I watched him pull out of the lot before I turned in search of another ride. Half the cars were already gone, the few that remained had the last few stragglers itching to fit themselves in the already packed car. The few that didn’t have a chance of making the car ride hid under the ticket booths or the pavilion drapes that weren’t fully extended clinging to their cell phones hoping for the salvation of a parental pick up. Searching for my pockets my hands failed to come across anything other than soggy cigarette pack and a few moist dollars that clung to my soaked pants. Ethan’s car that had driven away had a small brown jacket that held not only my wallet, but on the inside pocket held my small LG phone. Great, just fan-flippingtastic. Trudging through the small lakes that were forming on the roads, I started my way towards my house almost two miles away.

It wasn’t so much the water that got to me, in total honesty the water felt refreshing against my skin. It was the feeling that something followed in the shadows that made me cling to the more populated streets. As more booms of sound and sparks of light filled the sky I was sure that in those brief instant I had seen the shadow of a person not far behind. Each time I convinced myself to have the courage to look behind, the emptiness of the street made me question my sanity. It wouldn’t be the first time my paranoia had gotten the best of me. The rain hadn’t let up much and my house was still over a mile away. A small elementary park lay in the middle between the beach and my house. Making a quick dash down the back street that would bring me straight to the playground, the light from the flood lights fixated on the school was a comfort.

The school was old. The surrounding town that populated the school was quaint. Split in two the small kindergartener playground that I had landed in was an eerie sight. Made to accompany smaller proportions, the already stunted equipment swayed in the wind and light up hauntingly with the lightning. The more adult like playground made a better shelter. The bigger slides and more intricate equipment would be good to relieve the constant pattern of rain.

The larger playground wasn’t any better than the smaller, the larger equipment casted bigger shadows and ebony corners. The slides became portals for demons to hide behind, monsters lurked behind every tree. Scrambling under the small hidden sitting area behind the largest slide I waited for the rain to start to settle.

The wind carried a gentle hum to it, an ancient tune that sang to something deep within me. It was gentle, yet told the story of something tragic and epic in nature. The sound so clear it seemed to be surrounding me from all sides. The voice of nature was feminine, a mild alto that reminded me of soil and fresh summer days. Each change of direction the wind took sent another melody and verse to the hymn my way. Soon the sound encased me into it and almost became lively. So close that my hands would be able to tangibly touch it.

Words became more distinct as time passed. Closer and closer till the sound was mixed with the gentle squeak that came with the billowing wind moving the swings behind me. Turning around the swings swung rhythmically in tune with the song. Some hidden behind a giant oak that had been planted decades ago that had sprouted to maturity long before me swung higher than others. Directly in the center swung the highest and was barely visible behind the wood.  The sound resonated from the swings, the climax of the song peaked as I peered from behind the oak tree. There swinging among the rain, nature took form in the image of a girl. Her brazen hair flung madly around her body like whips in the rain, her slender body bending with the wind as she flew to new heights propelled by the slim legs that propelled her with the force of the thunder that accompanied her singing. Her blue skirt swished around her like the ocean waves. Jumping swiftly from her wavering perch she landed with cat like grace on the ground. Wiping the mist off of her face I caught a glimpse of the singing angel. My heart dropped when looking into those familiar chocolate eyes that shone gold in the light of the thunder, singing in tune with nature was the girl of my dreams. Standing before me in rain pelted clothing and wind matted hair was Hailey.

She looked up and the electrified gold drained and slipped into a deep abysmal black. The languid motion to her body stiffened in seconds. She looked like a spooked feline with her hair puffed up ready to pounce. Her expression looked like her claws were ready to tear my face to pieces. A sudden crack of thunder sent both of us jumping towards each other colliding casual placing our lips intimately close. A sigh of warmth and pleasure escaped me. Despite the cold that came from spending a prolonged time in the throngs of the storm hadn’t reached her skin and she radiated heat. My sigh was met with a hiss of pure hatred. The sound could only be compared to that of metal hissing along the pavement as it is forced to breaking point. Hurdling herself from my touch she landed almost on the other side of the swings as if the wind had carried her there. Her expression moved from confusion to fury in milliseconds. Here I stood an almost 6’2” man trembling at the fervid glare of a 5’5” girl that had Mother Nature in her voice.

S**t.

Author's Note

PLEASE REVIEW. I really wanna try and make something out of this story, i have the middle done! its just getting the first grueling chapters done! Help is MUCHO appriciated!