Storm - Part Three

STORM - PART THREE

The wind blew chill in my face. It was long before six o'clock. I reflected upon all the craziness that had taken place just twenty-four hours ago. I still wasn't quite ready to let myself believe that this was all vividly real. A part of me was still lingering in the dream-nightmare-world, where nothing was quite right. That part of me was quite willing to remain there.

I tried not to think about it too much. It was all still terribly confusing. I stood, instead, and waited for him. I could hardly manage it, but somehow I did. I put my mind on other things, all of them at the moment completely unimportant, irrelevant, to help me to bide the time.

It seemed an age that I waited there, standing on the dusty path, longing for him to show up. I searched up and down the road, but there was no sign. The road was empty. I looked to the east, and all I saw was the great spire of the Minster, mocking my loneliness. I turned away and looked towards the west, towards the blood-red sun, sinking below the horizon, as if into the grave. It chilled me....

"Annabelle."

I jumped...then slowly, turned. We regarded each other for just a moment, but he spoke again, urgency already straining his voice.

"It is time to go." He was dressed in a plain, dark cloak, beckoning me on. I hesitated, unsure of myself, then determinedly pushed all doubts from my head. I put one foot firmly in front of the other, and began to walk. He had turned, now, and was already setting a good pace down the road, away from the sun.

It was not long before I began to notice the clouds approaching. There was now an eerie silence spreading over the land like a dark shadow. It was the calm before the storm. I suddenly wondered what Athan must have been thinking right at that moment. He would be nervous, of course, and perhaps a little scared. He had lived out this scenario a hundred, perhaps a thousand times before. What if I failed him? He would have to go through it again, and maybe it would be another thousand times before I believed him! I could not fail. I had no choice.

We walked on.

Soon he was turning off of the broad path that we had been taking, and into a dark tunnel of trees and bushes, barely wide enough for us to pass even single file. I was stung and scratched many a time. But I pushed on, not letting this hinder me. I would not fail him. We would rescue his father, and he would be put out of his misery.

The darkness grew.

A rumble sounded in the distance. The last light of the sinking sun burnt the horizon a fiery red, like all of hell surrounded us. I could almost see the flames burning up the ground, reaching steadily towards us. I looked down at my feet, to try and take my mind off of the nightmarish thoughts that seemed determined to haunt me.

It didn't work.

At the sound of the thunder, Athan's pace had increased noticeably, and I suddenly found myself struggling to keep up with him.

"Athan..." I said as we hurried onwards, "you're going...terribly fast. Couldn't we slow down a little...?"

"The storm is approaching..." was all that he could apparently muster. I sighed, shook my head and followed after his footsteps.

Quite suddenly we emerged from the trees into a large field. He turned again, this time heading west along aside a little brook that ran at the bottom of the field. The water was strangely still, as though it knew of the dangers that were coming. Soon it would be a rushing torrent, sweeping all life from its path.