>C:
Black
>C:
It flashed interdentally, waiting for the operator’s next move.

The machine had been built to kill with two different catalysts. The wrong command line, like a password, would be the user’s undoing. The user had to use the correct command or their fate would be sealed before their finger lifted from the L shaped Enter Key. The second catalyst was the timer, which did not show a time, but had begun a five-minute descent regardless. If the user did not enter a command in the allotted time, the machine was to destroy itself, the culprit and building with it.

Someone was in the building. Angel or Devil, a presence had entered this holy chapel of salvation and awoken the Dragon. This terrible bomb had been built for the end of times, for the second coming. Only there was not Book of Revelations for this creature. No rules. No one to follow this beast into the darkness, but everything it named.

One thing held over from the Book of Relics. The Dragon owned everything it named, and all of it was to insult the God who abandoned the flock.

******

It was still night when God awoke. A beep came from her wrist. She looked down. Though built in appearance like a standard watch, the display had become a timer, counting down in exact calibration to the Dragon. This was it. The second, and final, coming.

She stared at the time and listened to every ominous tick of her timer. Though quiet, it filled the room.

2:01
2:00
1:59
1:58

With resolve she let her whole body relax back into her bed and closed her eyes on her barren room and world.

With her last exhale God whispered “Hallelujah.”

Alice also lived in a cheap apartment in the center of town where she lay awake. The hours spent on medication to make her drowsy, counting sheep, and drinking had done nothing to aid her tonight. So for now she had given up and was staring at the ceiling, wondering how early she could vacuum without incurring the wrath of her neighbors.

A warm spring breeze was picking up outside and, even though the windows were latched, the noise was keeping her awake. Through thin walls and badly insulated window frames came the sounds of paper and a single aluminum can rumbling through the parking lot at a snail’s pace. If she went outside now, she could, no doubt, pick up the can and prevent it from disturbing others in the complex. She did not budge. She knew the can only disturbed her. Alice sighed.

At the end of the bed a small dog stirred. It was an ugly, unkempt, and neutered mutt with one eye of a different shade. Alice could not sleep because the dog, whom she called ‘dog,’ was the only man to be in her bed for years. Her insecurity on relationships came to her now, in the middle of the night, to haunt and mock her insomnia.

Alice was alone.

From:

03.15.2011

Works in Progress

~~~~~~~

Bone deep weariness, its not even light out.  Already muscles scream in fatigue, can’t hesitate. Keep pushing forward, never a moment to breathe.  The trees whip past me in a blur, the browns of the earth blur with the green of the foliage.  Shadows loom, each a possible menace, a hidden attack so far yet unseen.  Dodging and weaving throughout the trees, leaping across rock to rock, not getting my feet wet as I flit over the stream.  I’ve lost you, the whispers of your absence pursue me, faster and faster I flee. Never able to escape them… or am I trying to catch them? Suddenly, with the rising dawn I find myself here, surrounded by trees this perfectly, gorgeously, unnatural circle.  Meadow? No, its to structured to be a meadow. Panting I stand there, waiting… with the dawn my answer comes. I stare out across the field, holding my breath I hear my heart drum in my chest, the blood pounding in my veins. I sway with breeze, barely able to stand when I finally gasp- movement. Is it? Can it be? Suddenly my heart picks up speed galloping out of my chest my hands are fisted at my sides as I squint against the suddenly bright morning.  The figure, you? Looms closer and closer.  Drawing a deep breath I close my eyes, trying to draw your familiar scent to me. Is it? When suddenly a sharp pain, I gasp, my eyes fly open.  A blade burns from my gut, I crumple. Trying desperately to see the face of my attacker I stare up, and the face is eclipsed by the final rising of the sun.  Gasping I shoot out of bed.  My heart is racing, I’m covered in sweat the sheets have been kicked off the bed.  Panting I try to catch my breath. It is a dream, a dream,  I have to keep reminding myself. He is gone, dead, no chance of reconciliation, or revenge…. he always had been a fickle creature.  Sleep gone, I climb out of bed.  Feel the cool hardwood on my bare feet.  It grounds me, drags more of me out of the dreams.  I stumble to the kitchen, dragging my tea pot to the sink.  As I fill it with water I look out the window.  Just the tiniest hint of dawn approaches, the light pink and gold just barely visible over the crest.  Frowning I stare at the sunrise. “Mmmmm is that coffee?” Sienna asks.  “Tea” I reply.  “You are up early, dreams again?” “Yeah, same one.” “Maybe you should talk to someone Aly” Sienna urges.  “Who? Who can I talk to about this? Just lay out on a couch for a shrink and tell them, ‘Well, you see I have been having these dreams, I run through a forest I have never seen, fleeing someone, or maybe chasing them. And I get to a meadow and my dead lover, or so I think that is who it is, crosses to me and stabs me, watching me bleed out?” “Well, maybe it would help! It’s better than you getting no sleep because of it.” Shaking my head, I hand her a mug as I turn back to the fridge to get the milk for my tea. “Not yet.”

~~~~~~~

Well that’s it… I kinda developed a few ideas from writing this which has led to me to off shoot into my current project.

Forgive them. They’re good ellas and they mean well.  ”Lo siento” in advance.

-N