As Kiran tried to console Elizbeth, Danny shouted upstairs, “guys, you’ve got to see this, you won’t believe it.” Danny spoke with such excitement, “it’s a red sky with a black sun, it’s the sky’s period.” Danny laughed as he said it. He couldn’t contain his excitement, with his belly feeling as if he had someone living in there with him.
Kiran and Elizbeth walked downstairs and seen the sky; the theme shocks them to their core. They both don’t know what to think of it, as Kiran quickly interjects, “what’s going on here then? A red sky, this is getting worse.”
Danny replies, “It’s a rare thing. And it’s so fricking cool!”
Kiran laughed, “ah, it sure is. I’ve never seen a red sky, it’s so surreal.”
Elizbeth was eye struck, “this is art.” She just couldn’t believe the sky was this creepy but beautiful, “you think I’m fitting in here, what do you think?”
“You’re on about the fact that you’re as pale as a bone. Well, you’re not wrong about that. But what a setting, never seen the sun set like this before.” Kiran was taken back by the moment as he looked at his family. He thought it was a good moment in a troubled time.
Danny was ecstatic, it felt like something new to him, Danny had thought that they were getting unlucky and needed to catch a break. Danny went on a tangent, “you see this, this could mean the suns rising for us. A red ambient sky like a broch. A sun that can’t even blind you! It’s a miracle!” Danny was full of joy with nothing else on his mind. He could only be thankful for spending the moment with his parents, “you are right mum! It sure is art, especially with the trees that blend with the sky.”
Kiran pipes up, “though them powerlines are not doing any good but otherwise it’s a living masterpiece!” he had never been into art, but he could tell this was special. Even the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up.
Danny had never pinned his dad for recognising good art.
Elizbeth spoke passionately, “maybe this is for us, you know, a sign of luck.” She could see that Kiran looked hyperbolic, she wanted to say something but went against her gut and just let the moment play out. As they were enjoying the view, Kiran began to run inside. Elizbeth objected, “where you going? Come on. We’re enjoying this time.”
“I’ve got to tell someone about this.”
Elizbeth guessed, “you speaking to the weird radioman?”
Kiran laughed, “I know what I told you about him but he’s alright, I promise you.” He pleaded his case, “look, this guy may give us answers we need.”
Elizbeth quickly responded, “or scare the living shits out of you.”
Kiran chuckled.
As Kiran went inside, Danny and his mother was staring at the sky that had one thousand cuts while embracing each other. They both couldn’t grasp at what they were seeing, Elizbeth thought that no earth should look like this, even if it was so beautiful. Elizbeth held Danny tighter like he was going to fly away. She rubbed her hands through his hair, thinking about how rough the last two weeks had been for him, Kiran and her. She wanted what was best for her son and that’s all she’s wanted since he was born. They continued looking at the majestical sky until Elizbeth seen flying creatures, she quickly told Danny, “Hey, look at them?” As Danny turned to look. Elizbeth spoke, “are they birds?”
Danny got PTSD from earlier and shouted, “they are bats, thank God they are far away from us! This is making the sky less advertising, what is going on with this place?”
Elizbeth replied, “like we keep saying, this is a nightmare and no one’s waking us up!” Elizbeth seen Danny’s reaction and knew she had been careless with her words. She tried to remedy it by saying, “you never know, we might make it…”
Danny interrupted her, “you really think that?” She lifted her head from the floor and looked in his eyes while he asked, “you really think there’s no hope for us to get out of whatever this is?” Elizbeth ignored him but he persisted, “tell me mum, without an answer - I’ll be thinking, panicking and won’t be in the right frame of mind for what we have to go through.” He began to grow frustrated with tears, “God dammit mum! I need an answer, am I going to die? are you going to die?!”
“Calm down son. We are going to get through this, there is no need for tears my son.” She hated to see her son this upset, she thought, never mind him thinking that he’s going to die. She continued to speak, “if we’re going to get through this son, we all need to be strong as a brick wall.”
Danny spoke with confusion, “so no emotions whatsoever?”
“No, of course not, I said, “be strong as a brick wall, not emotionless like a brick wall. Understand that.” She grabbed both of his hands and spoke with pure passion, “I know you’re strong and the reason why is that you’re my son and you come from my family. My grandma said humanity would be screwed if our DNA wasn’t in the world. I know it sounds silly but it’s true.”
“I’m sorry mum but I am confused. But I will try to be strong, just for you.” As they both continued speaking, the dog came running towards Danny, his smile grew to the size of a football pitch when he seen the dog. Danny and the dog ran towards each other like they were in a romantic comedy. As he arrived near the dog, Danny picked the dog up with both hands, lifted him in the air while saying, “damn! You’re getting big, boy, can’t be picking you up all the time.”
Kiran could see Elizbeth and Danny out the window as he was trying to get hold of the man on the radio. He was getting no luck and as he looked out the window, he seen the dog run to Danny. Kiran anger grew, and he thought what a prick the dog was and how smug it was being. Kiran couldn’t stand dogs; he thought Elizbeth would understand but clearly not. The radio was silent, Kiran even wanted to speak to a stranger. His mind was swirling with thoughts of if the man on the radio would be dead or if something happened to him. He gave it one last effort, “come in, hello? Does anybody come in?” His tone grew angrier, “please! Somebody answer?!” he waited to get a reply. The two minutes were up so in his frustration he grabbed the radio with his hulking hands and threw it like a soft ball, it smashed into pieces. He shouted, “God dammit, I am fucking sick of his place; get me out of here!” His rage continued as he walked to the window, it was if the dog had changed his mood. He looked out the window to see Danny’s face, the smile almost gave Kiran a happiness that didn’t last long, he snarled like a beast. As he walked away from the window, he felt a pain in his back that was comparable to Elizbeth’s pain. He wanted to tell Elizbeth, so he began walking to the garden. As he made to the living room, there was a knock on the door. Kiran panicked and shouted, “go away! We aren’t taking room at the inn!!”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Kiran heard a reply at the door, “hey, it’s me.”
He shouted, “who’s you?”
“You remember, don’t you? Can you not recognise my voice? What a shame, I always thought I had a distinctive voice.”
Kiran was getting agitated, “could you stop making jokes and tell me who you are!”
He heeded his words, “right, my name is Arthur and I’m the one who spoke to you on the radio, do you remember that?”
“Wow! Seriously?” Kiran’s face went from getting coal for Christmas to seeing Jesus on Christmas. The excitement made him open the door and as he opened the door, he shouted, “man, am I glad to see you – like - seriously!”
As Kiran took a pause for a second when speaking, Arthur interposed, “mate, have you seen it out there, it’s like god’s got the painters in, the sky’s that red. Have you seen it?”
Kiran laughed as he spoke, “of course, my son was the first to spot it.” Kiran seen the worry on his face, so he asked, “what’s up with you? you seem petrified?”
The man prepared to speak, “okay, here goes nothing. When I was outside, the things I seen, oh my god, it was if someone was creating a whole new world with nothing but howling, crying, moaning, living souls, dying souls, and blood. It was insane, no rhyme or reason. The reason must be chaos, nothing but chaos, everything I seen, heard and touched was rejoiced by chaos. They now have monopolization on this world, I believe they succeeded last night.” He stood tall hoping that Kiran wouldn’t find him crazy. He continued describing the sky while trying to get a peak of Kiran’s house. He could see a family living room, though he thought it was messy which was understandable considering the things that are going on. Arthur stepped closer to the door and turned to an angle so he could get a better look inside the house. His face dropped instantly. His mouth collapsed. The blood on the floor made him think that they are murderers, the next thought was the fact of them being bloodsuckers, that very thought made him squirm. He could see a white wall covered in blood, like the family was making a canvas but just didn’t have enough time to get proper started.
Kiran was getting suspect, he wondered why the man went silent suddenly. It was weird and he hated silent patches between anyone. The instinct to say something grew bigger. He began to think of something to say, anything to stop this silence. Until his eyes met Arthurs, he could see Arthur was looking in the house. Kiran turned around and realized that blood was all over the house. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten about the blood; he questioned his sanity. He prepared to tell the man what happened, “I can explain that.” Arthurs eyes regained focus on Kiran, “we were attacked by someone, a thing that used teeth, eyes that had no soul behind them - a face as pale as snow – and anger that weighed a ton of snow.” Kiran took a break for one second, but he hoped he was explaining it as best he could.
“You mean to tell me that you fought one of them biters?” as Arthur spoke, he could see Kiran’s face was confused, “you know, the bloodsuckers.”
Kiran replied rashly, “you mean a vampire!”
“Is that what you’re calling it, well, that’s not such a bad name. I’m taking it off you.”
Kiran laughed, “yup, my wife thought of it. Anyway, we shouldn’t stand out here; it’s way too dangerous. You want to come in?”
Arthur smiled as he spoke, “you’re a clever bloke, I’m going to take you up on that offer, mate.” They both walked in, Arthur was checking the house out and as he did, he noticed a CD collection with music, there were a lot of rap CDs, so Arthur scoffed out loud. Kiran noticed his massive bag but didn’t want to ask what was inside.
Kiran didn’t enjoy the scoff and rashly asked, “what is it?”
“It’s your CD collection, way too much rap. Way too much.” His laugh grew as he thought about it, “you do realize that you’re white, right?”
Kiran was confused, “what’re you on about, it’s great music!”
“Come on, you really listen to this?”
Kiran grow agitated, “I love it, what’s wrong with that?!”
“Okay, I’ll stop now, I can see its bothering you.” Arthur looked around the house, “where’s your wife then?”
“My wife is in the garden with our son, we were all just looking at the sky, still can’t believe the sky’s looking like that. it’s all too magical for me.”
They both walked towards the garden and as they opened the door Elizbeth seen a man with Kiran. She felt nervous but didn’t worry too much considering Kiran was calm as a gentle breeze on a summer’s day. As they got closer, she noticed Danny hid behind her like she was a shield. She told him, “Don’t worry son, it’ll be okay. Your dad doesn’t seem to be worried. Nothing should be worrying you.”
He wasn’t listening to her. He just couldn’t take it anymore; the feeling haunted him. The feeling of trusting another stranger again. He couldn’t even trust the outside, especially stressing about getting attacked, bitten to death or being traumatized by some craziness. He hid behind his mum like she was the last line of defence.
Kiran could see Danny wasn’t ripe for the way the world was changing. He looked at Elizbeth and spoke, “this is Arthur, the person I was talking to on the radio.” He could see Danny’s face peek out a bit more, “he witnessed the sky changing.”
Before he could finish, Elizbeth chimed in, “what? Really?” he nodded. She was in shock, “that must have been madness, how did you even comprehend it?” He was just about to speak but she questioned him like an unprofessional reporter who’s in love with the interviewee. “What living things were there?”
Arthur spoke, “I’ll tell you if I could get a cup of tea, no problem I hope.”
Kiran quickly answered, “of course! We are running low but I’m sure we have tea bags left, you know, it’s been a long two weeks.
As they all began to walk inside, Arthur laughed as he spoke, “oh, yes, I can attest to that.”
But Danny didn’t follow them, he was suspect of the man. He thought they couldn’t trust anyone. Danny kneeled next to his dog and said, “what can you smell boy, is he good? Or is he bad?” Danny realised he was speaking to a dog, he thought, the last two weeks were driving him mad.
He crawled to the door so he could spy on the man. Danny could see the man from the window, he just hoped no one could see him. He thought that the man was normal if anything, he seemed nice even. Danny wanted to believe the man was good, he just didn’t want to be delusional. Danny turned around to face the devils sky, though when he did, the door knocked. Danny shat it, “what’s that? Who’s that?!” He seen his parents were freaked out so Danny pounding heart increased.
Kiran shouted, “who is that?”
Nothing. Until a raspy voice spoke, “hello. I need your help; it would be kind if you opened the door.”
“What happened?” Kiran was sceptical, he thought, the last guy they helped turned out to be there worst day they could have ever asked for.
“I’m begging you, young sir. I’ve had a fight with some kind of monster, and it cut me up.”
Elizbeth rashly spoke, “let him in babe, he seems hurt.
(Maybe add a bit of a debate before Kiran willingly opens the door.)
With concern, Kiran opened the door. As the man walked in, Kiran could see the man was normal, he couldn’t see any cuts, but the guy did have long sleeves on. He thought the man was on the pale side but then again being pale isn’t illegal.
Danny seen the man step inside, he thought the man looked familiar, though, the face did not strike any familiarities. Until he looked at his trench coat, he remembered that the man who killed the dog was wearing that exact same coat. And as he realised, he said, “that’s the man who killed the dog, this is bad! I need to warn my mum.”