Flickering Shadows

Confessions from Dylan (Chapter 18)

CONFESSIONS FROM DYLAN

Life was perfect for the month and a half after Amanda's and my chat.  We were civil to each other.  Without the anger creasing her forehead and the ice cold, hardness in her eyes, she was more beautiful then she had ever been.  Amanda learned that she could be happy without a man by her side.  By default, Dylan and I were closer than ever before.  Still, there were so many unanswered questions I had about him.  I started the questioning him that night on the roof.

           Dylan was humming another song I didn't know. "What is that you're humming?"

           "Oh, just something I'm writing." Dylan replied.

           "You write songs?"

           "Yeah, I have a band back home.  Or, had a band back home.  I don't know if we're still together, I haven't been home in such a long time."

           "What're you called?"

           "The Emo Unicorns." I burst out laughing.  Dylan didn't seem offended at all and laughed with me. "It's a little something we made up.  The song I'm writing is called 'Blue Eyes'."

           "Sing it to me?"

           "I don't know...It sucks still." 

           "Please?" I begged.

           "This is all I have, so far. The chorus is the only part I've really got down." After a second, he started to sing.

           "Wind blows through your jet black hair; Making it blow around everywhere; Shadows dance in the setting sun; that's alright because then we can begin our fun.

           "Your eyes are deeper than the ocean's blue' your smile shines brighter than the sparkling moon. I love you, and I'll never let you go. No, no, no.  I'll never let my blue eyes go."

           "That was beautiful." I told him. 

           "It would sound better if I had my guitar, and when it's finished." He blushed.

           "I loved it." I whispered.

           It was silent until I decided to ask him another question.  "Why are you here, anyway?"

           He took a sharp intake of breath. "Why?" he asked.

           "I was just curious, you've never told me.  If you don't want to, you don't have to tell me."

           He was silent for a long time before he spoke. His eyes were a million miles away, in a world I knew all too well. "I hurt people-my dad, to be specific." Dylan answered.  "He died of the injuries I gave him. It was concluded that I acted in self defense, and I was sent to a place in Colorado Springs.  I went home for a little bit, but then I was sent up here." His face had a dark shadow on it.

           "Oh," I gasped.  "Why?"

           "My dad always beat up on me.  That night he tried to go after my little sister and I protected her.  I broke his neck-by pure accident.  I hit just the right spot and...He was dead by the time he got into the ambulance."

           "We have more in common that I thought." I said.

           "Yep." Dylan agreed. He looked at me with nervous eyes.  "Lucy...I need to tell you something.  There's another reason that I'm here."

           "Go ahead."

           "I have this one job and..."

           I then saw a fire truck coming straight towards us, sirens blaring. We started to see people filing out of the hospital quickly.  "We need to go." I said in a panicked voice.

           Dylan and I sprinted down the stairs and outside before anyone noticed we were missing. "What's going on?"

           "Nurse set the place on fire; she fell asleep while cooking something."

           Fail.

           Everyone was gathered outside and people driving by laughed.  "I'm sure a bunch of mentally ill people outside in pajamas is really funny." I thought sarcastically.

           We were standing outside for an hour before the fire was put out.  It was cold for late May.  By the time we got back inside it was four in the morning. Contractors were already being called to fix everything the next day.

           Inside, it was a depressing scene.  The staff room was completely scorched and so was part of the infirmary.  It smelled like fire and a dark cloud of hung over the floor.  Windows and fans were set up to get it out.  A single nurse was being wheeled out of the place on a stretcher.  It was all a reminder of the fire I had set so long ago.  I could clearly remember it now:

           I was throwing matches on the house, after locking all the doors and dousing the carpets and walls with gasoline.  I'd dropped several matches inside the house as well.  Tatum and Tony insisted on staying inside, though I had pleaded with them not to.  I didn't want them to die as well, but if that's what they wanted, I couldn't stop them.  The house was ablaze by the time the police showed up.  It took them hours to put it out, and one badly burned body on a stretcher, and four body bags.

           I threw my face in my pillow to cover my screams.