Runaway Train (Preview)

Chapter 1

The lasting wind made the grass rustle around me as I stared out at the afternoon sunset. The light from the lone star stretched across the sky after only making its appearance these last couple of hours. The subtle smell of rain was still lingering in the air from the fierce storm that had passed through, only to bring the world back to a calm state. Yet none of that changed who I was now. I was still Hayden, an angsty young adult that had just graduated from high school only a few hours ago. I had gotten lost in my thoughts and somehow ended up sitting on the massive hill that existed in the centre of our small little community. The whole time, the additional weight of my high-end compact camera kept my eyes looking for photos until now as it sat in both of my hands.

I lived for photography and loved the idea that I could capture a moment in time that I could review at any point for the rest of my life. It was indeed a unique spectacle that I felt some people took for granted. Although I wasn't by any means a professional. I was just another amateur with a camera, but that wasn't going to be for too much longer since I had a burning desire to hone my skills. The only obstacles that were in my way were the other members of my family. I was your typical run-of-the-mill high school graduate. I had shaggy brown hair, usually with a beanie or some kind of hat, which only matted my hair down when I took it off, and that was but one of my many pet peeves.

Truthfully I didn't feel like I had any real defining facial features. My eyes were hazel brown and hidden behind my thin-framed glasses. Then when it came to my wardrobe, I was again like everyone else in the summer months. Plain beige cargo shorts, a black graphic tee that usually had some sort of a camera pun on it like don't lose focus or I shoot people. Then continuing with my personal life, I didn't have any form of a romantic relationship. I never dated in high school, even though I was single and ready to mingle for the last eighteen years of my life. That being said, I did find myself kissing a friend during a ninth-grade end-of-the-year school dance. At the time, she was my crush and made my heart want to burst through my chest, only to find out the next year that she simply disappeared, never to be heard from again. We had ended up being close friends, but she didn't even bother to tell me where she was going when she left.

Yet all of that was behind me as the sun moved further down the horizon's edge. There was a mountain range off in the outskirts that overlooked the small town. The rocky spires were popular tourist attractions and an excellent place to escape to since you could walk for miles out there until eventually tiring yourself out. I would have loved the freedom to go and do that. Yet, at the time, that wasn't what had captured my attention. Instead, I was looking at the sun halfway behind the rock formation, giving me the perfect photo opportunity that I had been waiting a vast amount of the afternoon for.

Raising the camera and placing the small viewfinder against my eye, I framed up the shot before clicking the little button. Taking the photo, I captured the melancholy moment before lowering the camera back down to look at the LCD screen on the back. It looked like many of the photos that I had taken in the past. An undersaturated piece of trash that, in a way, captured the sadness that had found residence in my soul. Then again, I was always beating myself up about things like this since my self-confidence was lacking by far. As much as I loved photography, I didn't believe any of the images I was capturing were special, let alone any good.

However, what I generally failed to notice in the photos was the colour that it did capture. In the picture on the screen in front of me, the sky had a pink and orange tint. In a way, it may have been the best photo I had ever taken, but because of my saddened emotions, I was unable to see it. Although I couldn't look away from the camera for a few moments, getting lost in the picture. That is until I heard a set of footsteps coming up the hill behind me. Unfortunately, these were footsteps that I hated to hear because it only meant one thing.