The Individuals

Story#16: Nallagara

I don't remember writing this story

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Grey clouds floated over the land. Followed by some small cracks, rain began to fall.

Down below, a rugged old man ran along the old backroads. Urgency and fear painted his face. Feeling the rain hit him, he shrugged it off and continued forward. Clenched in his old, beaten, and tired hands was a 22 gauge shotgun.

Spotting a road to the side, the old man took the turn and began to make his way up the steep incline. As he made his way up, eventually, an old house came into view. Running to the center of the lawn, he stopped for a moment and pulled his shotgun up. Scanning around the area, he kept his finger ready beside the trigger.

" Excuse me,"

Suddenly swinging around, the old man saw a woman standing behind him. When or how she got there was a mystery.

The woman stood tall, even taller than the old man who was six feet. She wore a pink shirt that looked too small for her, jean shorts, and a seashell necklace around her neck. Her hair was short and brown, and her crystal-clear eyes stared directly at his soul.

Not once did she look frightened staring down the barrel of his shotgun, nor did she ever try to take it from him. She simply stood there and stared at him with a lukewarm smile on her face. The rain only ever seemed to fall around her.

" I'm looking for my missing dog." She told him. " Do you happen to know where it is?"

Remaining silent, he continued to stand there, his shotgun pointed at her head.

Almost on cue, from the forest several dozen feet behind her, from the corner of his eye, the old man could see a dog's bushy white tail stick out past the tree line.

" Oh, there you are Buefrid!" She uttered, not turning to look around for a second and continuing to stare at him. Whistling out, before the old man even knew it, the dog was sitting beside the woman's leg.

" Thank you for the help."

" By the way, you appear to be lost." She uttered, lightly petting the dog's head. " If you are, there's a place you could go,"

Pausing for a moment, the old man watched as she slowly swung her arm up and pointed back at the forest behind her. "...Nallagara."

" It's an old abandoned gas station out in the middle of the woods. It's a place where all go to eventually. A magical sanctum that tends the soul and where bad doesn't exist." She paused for a moment and stuck her hand out toward him. " Life doesn't need to be so bad, Nelson."

Slowly lowering his shotgun, the old man's eyes widened in disbelief as he watched dozens of bright, white figures enter his view from the sides and make their way across the yard toward the forest. The smiles on their faces and laughs told him that each and every one of them had found inner peace. As he watched them leave and disappear into the trees, a trembling feeling in his chest told him to go with them, to leave his life of pain and struggle behind.

" Would you like to go there?" He heard the woman ask. Despite what he wanted, he knew he couldn't do something like that.

Turning away, as a smile began to grace his face, he responded, " I appreciate the offer, but sorry, I can't. Not yet anyway. There are too many people who are counting on me right now. I'm sure someone like you can understand."

Without waiting for a response, he picked up his feet and started to run off down the driveway.

Pulling her hand back to her side, she shined a smile back as she watched him disappear down the gravel road. Once he was gone, without saying another word, the mysterious woman and her dog turned and began to walk away toward the forest.

Back on the road, the old man headed across the street to another house.

" Don't worry, Daisy... Don't worry, Columbia... It'll just be a little longer..."

Kicking open the front door, he swung his shotgun up and panned around. Almost on cue, from the dark trenches of a hallway across the door, he could hear the slimy and slippery steps of one of them. Out from the shadows, he watched as a small, gelatinous, gray pug waddled into view.

" Wait for me..." Taking a deep breath, the old man placed a finger on the trigger and began to open fire.

The End