LIGHTNING AND THUNDER

(9) Henry

I saw her through the window, I thought she was dead when I came, but when I saw her back rise, I exhaled with relief. I hoped she chose me. I needed her like I needed air to breathe. I needed her touch on my lips and hands like I needed sunlight to survive. I needed her as if I didn’t have her, I would shrivel and die, I would lose all hope and fade into the blackness of my mother’s basement. 

I ached and yearned for her. I wanted to burst through the window, scoop her up in my arms, and whisk her away to a safe place where no harm could come to her. But I know that would be bad, she would hate me, forever. I studied the curve of her shoulder on her bed; the moonlight gleamed on her strewn hair. I saw her arouse from her slumber and she looked around the bedroom, I melted into the shadows and she just shook her head. She stretched and she walked out of her room with a doubtful smile. I followed her from her rooftop, perching on the window outside of her art room. I had no idea she was so creative, she opened her closet, she pulled out a large canvas with a beautiful young man. I looked harder and it was me, she had drawn me! She looked at the picture and tried to hang it on the perfect spot around the room cluttered with other paintings. She took down a painting of a beach view, and placed my portrait on the wall.

I sighed with longing and I stroked the glass. She heard the doorbell ring downstairs and she ran to get it. I turned to head home but the hair on the back of my neck rose. I ran across the roof to the front of the house. I didn’t see a car, I made a mental note to drive Levis’ car back from the Parks parking lot. I saw the door hanging ajar, nearly broken off of the hinges. I gasped and jumped down from the roof onto her lawn, running into her house. I stopped at the doorway; a force was keeping me from entering. I pushed with all of my strength, but as I started to pant I smelled the pungent odor of magic, the faint smell of metal and an indescribable smell that meant a magical spell was cast on the house. I thought and none of Levi’s friends were witches, but there was one person whom I hadn’t met, I hadn’t met Levi’s aunt, she must be the witch. I yelled for Levi, but all I heard was a faint grunt. I screamed again, and I saw a giant winged figure with legs and arms with claws arched and poised to rip into flesh. I saw Levi run down the hall into the kitchen, she grabbed a giant butcher’s knife and she hurled it at the creature, it shrieked and it came into the light shrieking and roaring with the knife in its thigh.

 It was a Furie, the creature was a blood red color, with two back limbs and forearms, and it had two pairs of wings and a female head with black olive hair and eyes that gleamed like a hellhound’s. It grabbed the knife out of its thigh and threw its head back, and it roared with delight. I saw the wound close and I saw Levi’s eyes grow wide. She looked around for weapons, I screamed at her, she saw me and raced over to me. She threw herself in my arms and I bellowed

“Invite me into your house.”

She nodded and hoarsely hollered

“Come in.”

I pushed her behind me and I charged into the house. The Furie saw me and it flew towards me, its claws in front of her and ready for me. I somersaulted under it and it crashed into the wall. I reached into the floorboards, the ground becoming my portal. I reached and grabbed my club, my favorite weapon. I grinned at the creature. It roared and I saw all the rows of the black gleaming teeth. I closed the portal harshly and I lunged for the creature. I swung the club and I hit its wings and side, it collapsed to the ground, but still came up and stood. I hit it over the head again, it collapsed and I grabbed the knife it still had in its fingers and I plunged it into its stomach cavity, where the heart was, the anatomy of the creature was weird and complex, I was thankful for all the years of training. I stood away from the thing and its figure shriveled, a black hole formed in the floor and it sucked the soul into the underworld.