It was the kiss Alice had been waiting for ever since she
first saw him a year ago. When they met,
his smile caused her to pause. He had
never noticed her before, which made this moment even more surreal.
Marsh surrounded her as she walked away from his
compound. She held that moment, her
spirits lifted, but never saw what was coming next. The Heaven she felt quickly gave way to Hell. The world around her crashed as her eyes
caught sight of fire and screams filled the air in the distance.
Is that possible?
she thought, shock registering within her.
Her view was of a massive giant—ten times her size, hurdling himself
around the dirt roads, crippling and killing those in his sight.
My eyes are playing
tricks on me, she thought. But there
he stood and no amount of blinking made the vision disappear. She slunk from tree to tree, terrified, as
she checked on the wounded and hidden.
At every turn she expected to die, to be caught by his massive claws. Somehow she found her way to the
children. Four of them, playing in the
rafters, not quite aware of the doom around them. Quickly she pulled them close.
“Sssshhh,” she hushed them. They stilled themselves and listened to the
noises in the background. Horrific
sounds. Shrieks. Nothing a child should hear. She was concentrating so deeply on the sounds
that when a hand placed itself on her shoulder, terror ripped through her and a
yelp escaped her.
But it was only Hannah, sweet Hannah who would risk
everything for anyone with no hesitation.
“We need to get the key,” Hannah whispered, only a hint
of alarm resting in her throat. Her eyes
were dry, but Alice could tell she had been weeping. It was then she realized Hannah’s husband was
nowhere to be seen, and knew immediately what that meant.
The key. Never before had she hated their key system
so much. They needed two people to open
the box to get to the storm cellar key.
They both had to make the
short trek. Realizing it was safer to
leave the children behind than to risk their lives in the open, Alice padded
them into the surrounding forest.
“No matter what, stay hidden,” she ordered as she packed
the brush around the children.
Camouflage. She prayed with every
deliberate placing of a branch that no one would find them. And she and Hannah stalked away.
The garage luckily wasn’t far and through the broken door
they crept. In addition to the giant wreaking
havoc, guerillas had stormed the compound.
The garage lay ransacked, announcing their arrival and undeniable
presence, but the women knew they had no choice. If they didn’t get into the storm cellar,
they were dead anyway. And so Hannah
began to put in her combination when footsteps...
Footsteps! Noooo, Alice wailed in her head.
Hannah pushed herself against the dark corner. And Alice hid behind a tire. The footsteps seemed to lighten, moving away
from the building. Moments passed. Precious moments that could mean life or
death for the children.
She peered around to see through the shattered window,
and immediately knew she had made a fatal mistake.
Her gaze was met with a pair of crazy, bright eyes. And a barrel of a sawed-off gun. Both were aimed directly at her. Her stupidity had killed them both, and
suddenly she was glad the children had stayed behind. Maybe
they’ll survive, she thought.
In a moment, millions of thoughts reeled through her
head. The giant destroying the
town. The children. The kiss.
The kiss was her final thought as the world faded into blackness.
***
She awoke in a panic.
Alice’s bedroom slowly materialized around her. The clock next to her bed read 6:00 AM in
bright red lettering. And the
world? The world was still in one peace,
sleeping around her.
All a dream,
she thought. All a rogue nightmare.
The pace of her heart slowed as she realized she was
still breathing. Still alive. Her death wasn’t real. The children weren’t real. The guerillas weren’t real. The forest alit in flames, not real. The kiss wasn’t real, though it remained fresh
on her lips.
Every night the cycle of chaotic dreams repeated. Try as she might, she couldn’t get away from
the sadness, and every night it was some new torment. She couldn’t will it away. She couldn’t pray it away. And there she stayed, locked motionless in
her bed, awaiting the sun, because, try as she might, she couldn’t even will
herself back to sleep.
