Hell is Real

Chapter 18

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."-William Shakespeare

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The frequency of tornado drills is increasing. The coyotes have been acting strange. It seems the city is being prepared for something far worse than a tornado. Percy doesn't question it and puts his head down.

That was his first mistake.

At night you hear coyotes howling and deer screaming. At night you hear trains in the distance. At night you hear frogs. The worst nights are the ones when there are no sounds at all. It was late in July when this happened, when the corn stalks were knee high and the forest was as thick as ever. The smell of the lake washed over the town, the silence was deafening.

Everyone wakes with a start that night. They walk to their windows. There's no way to not see it and no way to ignore it. Fear creeps up through their bones.

Lake Erie, back on fire. Just as it had hundreds of years before. The flames licked up over the town, the smell of ash and soot covered the citizens. Nobody could do anything but watch.

It was exactly 2 AM. At three, they all fall asleep. Nobody can remember why. When they wake up in the morning, they can't see anywhere near the lake through the haze. Entire houses are engulfed.

New Year's Eve eventually hits. As the clock hits midnight, nobody can remember what happened to the lake. Leo can't remember finally visiting those mills. Nico can't remember the mines. Hazel doesn't remember why, but she goes along with the fact that she plants things. Nico hears the mines for the first time on January 1st, Leo hears the mills for the first time. They always know, they always fear, never stay up to 2 AM.

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There is a river that still stinks of ash and soot. The sun sets across it like blood spilling across the floor, and Percy can imagine that it is still burning. When had it burned before? He can't remember, but he can see it in his dreams.

Percy stood at the water's edge, stood there every morning and looked out into that water. He could see them, the shapes moving. He could see their gray silhouettes and their same, dead movements. They were always the same.

Nobody spoke about them, nobody laid their eyes on the water. They got in the same boats, sailed the same waves, never paid what was underneath any mind. They were scared, scared in the deepest parts of their soul. But you need to know something exists to be afraid of it.

Percy stuck his bare foot out, touched the green water with his big toe. The wind stopped the fog deepened, his heart rate intensified.

He took his foot back, put his shoes back on, walked off to school. Maybe another day, maybe another day...