Rip

A peculiar sound boomed all around us at that very moment—our moment of contact. It almost sounded like something was ripping through the sky above us.

The two of us stood in silence for a moment, both of us trying to figure out what in the world we were listening to when something caught our eye.

Above our heads was a blinding white light.

I let out a scream as I quickly realized the light was getting bigger as the sound was getting louder—whatever this thing was, it was headed right for us.

My hand still in his, Death jumped into action, leading me running down the narrow alleyway for my life. My free hand clung to the pearls around my neck suddenly feeling I might use them all up in one fell swoop. My legs struggled to keep up with Death’s long stride—I had never been the best athlete and the long skirt I was wearing did little to help me any further.

The gloom and darkness of the alley quickly disappeared as it was bathed in the light of the monstrous ball still rushing toward us at a deadly speed. Rats and spiders fled from the light as we continued to run, the noise becoming so deafening that I truly believed my ears might start to bleed.

The impact was cataclysmic.

The ball of white light crashed, a clap of thunder with a wave of power sent both Death and I flying through the air as if we were nothing more than rag dolls.

I hit my head on something that caused my world to go black for just a moment. Desperately blinking the stars from my eyes, I felt Death crawl to me and lay on top of me, his hand covering the back of my head that was already sticky with my blood.

We remained like that—both of us lying on the filthy ground, him on top of me, our clothes scorched from the explosion, and our faces covered in dirt, blood, and soot—until the world around us returned to silence. We could hear the sound of people screaming and crying out in the distance but the alleyway remained as silent as a tomb.

I shifted beneath Death and he quickly crawled off of me, both of us suddenly uncomfortable with the closeness of the other.

“Are you hurt?” he asked the obvious question. I could see him roll his eyes at himself as his fingers explored the cut on the back of my head. He clicked his tongue but assured me, “It's not too bad. Head wounds always look worse than they really are.”

“Well it must have been pretty bad,” I pointed out as I glanced down at the pearls still hanging from my neck. For the first time, I had witnessed the power that Lord Death’s pearls—one had vanished from sight telling me that the head wound could have been and should have been a lot worse.

We stayed still for a moment, both of us clearly shaken by what had just happened—what we had just survived.

Looking back down the alley from the  way we had come running, I gasped in horror, covering my mouth to try to stop myself from crying out.

The ball of light—or whatever the monstrous thing had been—had found its target.

“Kira’s tea shop,” I found my voice and made no effort to try and stop my voice from shaking in horror as my eyes took in the sight of the wreckage.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

And just as soon as I made a character that I loved, I killed her off... I managed to do a fair share of writing today but I'm still not at my goal. Hopefully I'll hit the halfway mark tomorrow!

 

a.r.w.