Sky Fallen- (1st Edit.)

Chapter Four:

||||| Saren Chapter Four:

The cold nips at my fingers as the rain pours down. I've never felt it before: We always watched the rain from the sky as it drenched the Earth. We'd never actually been hit by it. But, now it drizzles and drenches my skin, plastering my hair to my neck even with the jacket on.

With that, the girl's memories start flushing back, making my brain swell with foreign feelings.

There are memories of her entire life: Sand between hands and toes and her father swinging her around in the sun- Her secret lover at 16 in the stacks of the bookshop- Her husband at 19 between the thin sheets of her bed- A baby at 20 suckling her thumb- A car crash at 21- A star glimmering in the sky and then blood along the dashboard.

Her last memory wasn't of seeing me touch her arm and ask for her vessel, but of her husband and her father at her wedding. They were smiling, and pink petals blew in the breeze- Then, her very last image was of her baby sleeping in his crib.

Guilt, sadness, anger... That's all I feel.

" 'ey! Ya' need a ride?" an old man calls from his truck.

I wave him off. "No. Thanks!" I yell into the wind and rain. He kicks the engine and disappears in a huff of smog and water.

I've been walking this road for hours, waiting for some sign of the crash. There's been nothing until this sign appears: Welcome to Brookshaven, Chicago! Population: 1,523
Small town and no one notices you.

I walk up on a little diner centered by a shopping complex. Standing in this rain, I will take anything that comes my way. I splash through the puddles to enter through the diner door. Bells ring on the handle.

"Damn that wind! It's cold out there!" An old man says from behind the comic of a newspaper.

I shudder at the sudden warmth that teeths my cheeks. When I don't say anything, the old man looks up. I hide behind my jacket hood when his mouth jolts with surprise: He knows who I am.

"Do you know where I can wash up?"

The old man scratches his gray beard and avoids my eyes. He points to the back behind the bar.

I enter the laundry room where I throw my drenched hoodie in the wash. I hear the man pick up a phone. I then hear the wisps of his voice as he whispers and snips the phone back into place.

I slowly withdraw and look for a way out, but there's not back door, no windows, no anything.

The front door bell rings, and two sets of footsteps pound the ground.

"Where'd she go?" A voice says. I remember that voice from somewhere, but I can't place it.

I hear the creak of the man's bones as he points my way. I panic.

The footsteps proceed towards me, and I glance up to the ceiling covered in horizontal pillars. I jump up on the laundry machine, and with one reach, I'm pushing up between two pillars and shuddering from the weight of keeping still.

Two girls' bodies appear below me, and I fight my hardest to ignore the screams of the souls dying to get out from inside them.

"She's not in here!" They search around the room and pull the hoodie out of the washer. "I can smell 'er. WHERE'D SHE GO?!"

I take that moment to pounce down and land on both souls, snatch my jacket, and run outside before any of them realize what's going on.

The rain falls harder now as I run to the town square which is crowded with people carrying things out of the rain on the way home. I brush past, hoping to get by without being seen, but I bump into a boy and knock to the ground, to where it all ends.