That's What He Said

The Black Sky

The following is a story I wrote for my writing class, so feel free to ignore. But if you like it, or even i you hate it, leave comment.

Jackson’s eyes opened with a start. He could barely see a foot in front of him. Ash and smoke were everywhere, stinging his sensitive eyes. For the moment, he could not remember what had happened, then, in an instant, it all came rushing back.

The fire.

The smoke.

The crashing boom.

Laura.

“Laura,” he spoke out loud, realizing he had been separated from his beloved in the blast. “LAURA!!” he screamed, though the only answer in return was the thunder of running all around him and the screams of the frightened and wounded.

“What’s happening?” a voice screamed. “What WAS that?!?”

“…came out of the sky…a burning fire…”

“LAURA! ANSWER ME!” he called out again. The darkness concealed all from him, as the dust swirled around him. Something ran into him hard and tendrils of pain snaked up his large back. His legs were numb and as he gathered his large mass up, he felt the blood trickling from his lower leg. Every step set off an inferno in his muscles, but he couldn’t stand the fears boiling in his thoughts. He had to look for her.

He lumbered off in the direction he thought they had come from. His long neck reaching high into the sky failed to penetrate the veil of grayness surrounding him. The sun had completely disappeared behind the ashen fog. Every breath was a battle for air amidst the particles of still-burning rock.

What had begun as a picturesque outing among the grass had turned disastrous. It had been Shelly who noticed it first, turning her spike-laden body to face the midday sun.

“What is that?” She had exclaimed, thrashing her tail up and down in apprehension. Jackson and Laura had turned their slender necks away from the delectable brush they had been snacking on and stared at the twin fireballs in the sky.

“Well,” Jackson attempted to explain calmly, “that is obviously the sun, then the other one…I don’t know.” The quiver in his voice was obvious, and his own tail began to twitch. His tail always twitched when something bad was about to happen. And a Brontosaurus always trusts his tail. “We should probably get going.” He began to plod away, but Shelly ran towards the flaming sphere.

“You gotta see this thing. It’s just getting bigger and bigger and—“

Jackson shook the thoughts from his mind. The images were burned into the back of his eyes, but he tried desperately to shut them out. Shelly had been caught in the blast, but Laura wasn’t as close. She could still be ok. She could still be…

And then he saw it.

Or rather, he almost tripped over it. Despite the hulking size, the body was nearly invisible in the chaos. He bent down, tried to get her scent, but all he could smell was the raw and burnt flesh where the flames had torn the skin and melted bone. The legs like tree stumps were twisted and broken as the body had flown through the air and crashed to the ground, impaled on a low tree.

“No, no, no, no” he pleaded helplessly, the tears streaming from his eyes, falling over the lifeless behemoth at his feet. The fires raged around him as he fell to the ground, lost and alone. The menagerie of creatures running from the flames paused only for a moment to watch the beast shake with silent sobs before resuming running for their lives.

As the flames grew more intense, the flickering light cast upon the cold, hallow-eyed face. From the shadows, the details took form and, in a whisper, Jackson made audible his one wish:

“It isn’t her.”

Jackson screamed in hope and sorrow, hugging the unmoving mass beneath him, the destiny of his love again lost to the winds of fate. He turned his head toward the dark sky, knowing that beyond the fire, beyond the ash, lie the immortal sun, and he prayed.