SMG4:// Exodus

Part 0: Eternal Return [Revised]

The storm came out of nowhere.

Only a few hours before – hell, a few minutes – the night was pure and silent. The moon hung over the night sky, blue as a sapphire. The darkness was so complete, so pure and permeating. The air was tinged with the faint whisper of road noise, coming like a soft hush to all those still awake. All the streetlights below my apartment were dim, letting only the deep, hypnotizing blue shine through my bedroom window.

Then, for only a moment, the sky flashes white. Lightning arcs through the sky like Valkyries riding into the dawn. Thunder hangs all around me like the beat of a marching army. I watch the great black ceiling of the sky shatter, destroying the quiet, piercing the clouds, and killing the earth.

It only took a moment. For all the time it took the sun to set, for the street below me to go still, for the clouds to roll in, and for me to drift off to sleep, it only took so much as a second for the dominion of the still night to crumble.

The first strike woke me up. It scraped me cruelly out of my bed and sent me to the window. The second struck a tree across the road. I swear I can see it in slow motion. The bolt slams into the trunk like an arrow, cleaving it into pieces. The force sends flaming splinters of wood everywhere; one hit the glass of my window in front of me. The tree stood there like a pyre, a tall torch in the crashing rainfall.

From the windowsill, I look over and realize my alarm clock isn't on. The power must have gone out as well. It was supposed to go off in a few hours. There would have been no way to drift back to sleep in time for it; besides, it isn't like this booming storm would let me. Frustrated, I grab my cellphone from my bedside table and turn on the flashlight. The white light floods my whole bedroom.

Gently, I open the door to my apartment living room. It's so dark, I nearly trip over my crutch. My leg has certainly healed, but I'm still halfway through Physical Therapy to walk on it right. It bothers me for a moment that a simple cut like that left me debilitated for so long. It took one cut for me to scurry away, to call for backup while my friend was putting her life on the line.

On the table, there are a couple of unfinished cards: Get Well Soon cards for my friends and a few Bereavement cards. All of them are late to their receivers. The two cards closest to me are for Mario and the Meme Guardians. There isn't really a point in writing them, since they've been on their feet since the day after the big fight, only suffering a few minor burns. After that, they've all been training like Olympians. I'd been discharged at about the same time, so they've been the only people I can visit regularly.

Underneath those, I find the bundle of Bereavement cards. They're all addressed to my friends in the police force. I gaze for a moment at Hal Monitor's grayed out face in the center of the top card before taking the bundle in my hands. At the bottom, there's a letter from the Vice Chief of the Mushroom Kingdom Police: FM. Since he died, there's been a power vacuum in the force with no clear successor. Peach recommended that she take over the force herself. I honestly would have preferred Swag or Chris or Sergeant Mark to... literally the only lady scarier than me. There hasn't been a planned date for his funeral yet, but Peach wants to have it soon, once Tari wakes up.

I search the table for a moment to find the last three cards, for Meggy, Melony, and Tari. These cards are the most worn out, filled with scratched out words and rewritten sentences. The only thing that isn't written over is a single sentence at the bottom of the cards: "Thanks for coming home." I shake my head, What could I ever say to them? Meggy and Melony are both still in the hospital, awake, but still healing.

The last one was Tari's. I wrote a whole essay for her, too much to read. The first few lines were about Callid. I was the one who started taking care of him after Finland, although I wanted to give him to Tari.