It’s been a long time coming, but this is the final chapter of Running, a short story I’ve been writing over the past 4 months. It’s only four chapters and the final one took me about 3 months to finally sit down and finish.
Why did it take so long? I think that writing is hard, and writing fiction can be even harder. The ending is what scared me the most, finding the right way to tie things up, to give it meaning and closure. It’s hard to bring yourself to end something because of insecurities about how well you can do it.
Beside my Jack Bauer super-short satire story, this is the first real work that I’ve started and finished. I’m proud of it and already have another idea for a longer one down the road. I’ve also got a full-length novel in the works, but work on that has been few and far between.
So this is the last chapter of Running. It’s been so long since the first three chapters were posted, I’m sure most of you forgot about them, and a lot of you had never been here at that time.
If you want to read the whole thing, here are the links to the previous chapters. Then you can come back and read this final one.
Running
—–
Rain began to fall again.
The old man turned away from the light and looked at John once more.
“Come with me son, you will find what you are looking for through that door.”
Somehow, John felt he should know what the old man was talking about. It was on the edge of his mind, the answer just out of reach. He peered into the doorway and once again felt the warmth overtake him, the smells of comfort just inside.
“Many have found their way here and have saved themselves from the hideousness that pursued you to me,” said the hobo, in a voice more pleasant by the minute. “Come, take my hand and let’s escape that foul thing together.
“You don’t have much time.”
John took a step towards the old man. “What’s in there?”
“Only what brought you here, what you were longing to find.”
The source of the light stood silently waiting, something John slowly realized, apparently unable to travel further into the dead end of this alleyway. Or else it was recharging for another blast.
Perhaps this was the only way he could escape it, by trusting this old man’s words. He looked into the room and felt relief coming from it. An end to his agony.
John just had to step over the threshold.
Yet as he lifted another foot to move it closer to the door, the warmth from the light grew more intense and unsteady. The constant stream of light was suddenly fluctuating. John peered sideways at the miniature sun that seemed to hover in the alleyway and he sensed something he hadn’t noticed before.
The light was flickering more now and John’s eyes were finally opened. He realized for the first time since he crashed his truck that he knew what was happening. He became calm, his head cleared of all worry and fear.
There was weeping coming from the light. A sorrowful weeping, meant only for him. His own eyes became filled as he stared at the glowing orb before him.
John looked back to his left, spotting the old man creeping towards him slowly and suddenly a brief cloud of shadow passed over the bum’s face like a flash of lightning. But it wasn’t quick enough for John to miss what was there.
Darkness. Death. Evil.
The man lunged again but this time John knew he could do him no harm. He raised up his bloody arm, which had become strong once more and extended his palm outward.
“Stop.”
John’s words halted the hobo in midair. He hovered there, inches from John’s face and suddenly transformed. Claws had exploded from his fingertips, his teeth suddenly yellow and long, eyes blazing with black and slimy scales covering his skin.
“I will not give in to your kind words old man, for they are filled with nothing but lies.”
Pulling his hand back towards his body and then thrusting it forward as strong as he could, John’s newfound power flung the evil one back through the door, blood curdling screams from the dark creature echoing down the alleyway and filling John’s ears with intense pain.
The door slammed shut and disappeared from the wall entirely. It was as if it had never been there. It was as is he had never been there.
John turned and walked towards the light, which had stopped throbbing and was steady once more. The phenomenon was more clear to him now. The unbearable glare that had scared John before was now inviting and comforting. He could see the sphere floating inside the light, hovering just above the ground by some supernatural means.
John fell to his knees in front of the light and cried. He cried like he never had before, emptying all his sorrow and pain in the form of tears that splashed on the ground and were dried up by the light.
“Forgive me, please…I will never run from you again.”
The light grew brighter and enveloped John until there was nothing left of the ugly street, of the alley way or the town. He was encompassed in pure brilliance and his pain drifted away…
* * *
John was driving down the road again, his agony gone and strength filling his soul.
He had been running before, running from his life, from his problems, from his responsibilities. Instead of relief, he found pain and angst in his escape, but no other choice was evident to him. To continue his old life would have been too hard. He was giving up, tucking tail, running.
The tears that had been running down his face before the crash were results of the fierce battle inside of him, one that spurred him forward even though he wished he could return from where he was escaping. He was a weak man though and kept the direction of his jeep pointed west.
Yet even in his utter dark moments, where the highway and the desert had raced past him in the twilight shadows of evening, he somehow reached out with a final hope, that something or someone could help him go back. He had no idea where it came from, but out of the depths of his soul the plea had escaped him.
“Please…I need you,” he mouthed the words, which came out as almost silent whispers.
And then the light had appeared.
John rolled the windows down in his jeep and took in the brisk, early morning desert air. The wind blowing through his hair lessened as he slowed the vehicle down and pulled off the side of the road.
He checked the traffic both ways and then hit the gas as he turned the keep around and headed back home.
—–
I hope you enjoyed this little story and leave any thoughts you might have on it. Did it mean anything to you? Did it make sense?
Congrats on finally finishing, I’ll have to go back and read it all in its entirety when I have some more free time. It is a big undertaking to not just write something, but then to share it publicly – so kudos to you man.
Nice job Mikey. Very thought provoking.
Scott’s last blog post..Assigned Reading; Esquire
I re-read the whole thing, and it’s awesome! The idea of running from where we are instead of letting what is most powerful in us overtake and handle our circumstances… very cool!
Thanks babe