The (After) Life Of The Party...

Tick to the Blow

Then as it was, then again it will be,
And though the course may change sometimes
Rivers always reach the sea. - Led Zeppelin, Ten Years Gone.

I thought it was a clock at first. It ticked slowly, like the pulse of a dying man. All was still for a brief moment. my son slept soundly in my arms and the TV continued flickering ominously across his face. Then it started to hasten, the blood pounded in my ears and we were up, Bronx in my arms. No please God no.
The ticking is still increasing in speed as we get to the hallway door. Open goddammit! I keep trying the handle in vain, but it's jammed almost like something's holding it on the other side. Bronx stirs on the floor where I put him down.
"...Dad? What are you doing?" I give up and start to look for another way out. I don't know what's faster, my heartbeat or the ticking.
"Dad!"
"It's ok, it ok, everything's fine. We've got to get out of here though, I can't explain right now. Understand?" He nods, eyes wide in shock. I run over to the window. If we could just get to that tree...
"Bronx! Hand me your baseball bat!"
"Why?" "Just do it!"
He grabs it from its spot under the coffee table, and sprints to place it in my hand.
"Ok, stand back." I take one mighty swing at it, and the glass shatters like snow falling. The fragments crunch under my feet as I scoop Bronx up again and practically throw him onto the roof. "Run to the tree, then use it to get down! When you're there run as far as you can! Don't wait for me no matter what. Got it?"
"Ok!" He has to shout over the whirring of the machine still inside, that I'm certain will blow any minute. I watch as he jumps down off the roof and hangs onto the tree branch. He nearly slips and I hold my breath  but then he's down and he's running I swing my leg through the window frame and accidentally catch my hand on a sharp fragment. I can feel blood trickling down my wrist but that's the least of my concerns right now. On the roof I nearly slip on the tiles but manage to keep my balance and grab onto the same tree branch Bronx did, but I'm much heavier, and I fall down onto my ankle. I scream in pain. Got to go! got to go! Doing my best not to faint from the pain I limp out of the yard and down the street. Then it blows.

I'm flung a good 10 metres, and I feel a scorching heat biting at my back. I'm deaf for a minute. Turning, I see an inferno. Everything we owned was in there. Everything Meagan and I had dreamed of. Except two things. Bronx is at my side. I crush him to me, and he doesn't stop crying until the ambulance reaches the hospital. I'll never let them take him.