3. Run, run, run!
“’BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP’!!”
Ash didn’t wake up. The clock that read 6:00 am had Ash laughing in his dreams.
The alarm stopped after a few minutes and it became absolutely silent in the drunken teenager’s room. The sun was trespassing through every corner it could find behind Ash’s curtains, striking him straight in the face. It felt warm and it made for a much more comfortable snooze.
To interpret his dreams you would need Dr. Suez’s brilliant imagination, but in a more realistic perspective Ash was reliving last nights’ journey. He couldn’t help but become the life of the party and challenge the host to a Beer Pong competition. Having won, he went on to wash down a bottle of Jack Daniels and continued to hit on almost every girl at the party. Of course, in real life he doesn’t remember how he got back at 2 am so his dreams were replaced with him dropping off a couple of attractive girls in a silver Camaro.
Ash was now shifting in his sleep, trying to screen the sun’s cover from his eyes, but he couldn’t escape its glistening veil. He began tossing back and forth, accidentally finding himself on the edge of his bed and falling off. Desperately trying to keep on his mattress he felt out anything he could grab onto, but to no avail. His failure finally led him to open his bloodshot eyes; he tried the best he could to vision out the time. It read 6:23 am.
“Ugh! Damn you Louie. Damn you and your morning exercises.” Ash wheezed very softly tasting nothing but last night’s mixture of god-knows-what. His face rolled up in disgust. Ash placed both hands on the floor and balanced himself upward. ‘Walking’ was something he felt he would never be able to do again after last night. He paced his way to the door and tumbled over nothing. He forced his eyes to stay open and shuffled his way to the bathroom, carefully.
After the most awkward shower he’d ever had he reached for his toothbrush but found his razor between his fingers instead. He glanced up at his reflection to find the devil staring back at him.
Ash spent about 20 minutes cleaning himself up and was finally able to walk straight, he made a leap for his water bottle and decided to finally head out hoping he might catch Lou on his way up.
“Looks like a nice day out. Lou might’ve gone for the gold today. Maybe I can still catch him.” Ash smirked and posed a runners position at the end of his driveway, afterwards shooting himself towards the regular route.
He wasn’t only 2 minutes in when he noticed a rumbling disturbance coming about 20 minutes ahead of him. The pavement underneath his feet began to shake simultaneously causing Ash to stop. “W-What the hell’s going on here?!” His voice shaken in bewilderment. “An earthquake in Philadelphia, especially on a day like this?” His face questioned the shudders that were becoming louder and louder, and noticed where the source was being held. It was on the same route Ash and Lou normally jog through every morning. Ash’s eyes suddenly lit up and he gulped. “Lou, you better be miles away from there buddy.” He began running towards the quakes, concerned for his friend. 6:47am.
Ash sped up, dropping his water bottle by accident. His feet were charging faster than ever despite the distracting tremors. He noticed parts of houses and trees scrapping their way downward, cars were being damaged from the splitting asphalt and birds were seen clearing from the source of disaster.
“Man, out of all the weird things that happen in my morning runs, this one takes the cake. And did it just get hotter all of a sudden, or is it just me?” Drops of sweat began zipping down Ash’s forehead. He squinted, trying to grab anything into his eyeshot. “I think… I see…” he couldn’t make out too much with the surrounding ball of light. “What is that?” Ash’s eyes dipped back in as he made out specks of movement from the area, which looked more and more like ants as Ash came further into view.
Only 10 minutes away from the area, the surrounding ball of light suddenly disappeared. What was left behind was a distorted shockwave that sent Ash aback a few centimeters, causing him to cease in his pursuit. “Holy crap! That felt very weird.” 6:54am.
Ash halted to grasp what he was first dealing with. If there really were people over there they may need his help. He insisted on dashing forward once more, it was the only way to make sure his friend Lou was dead or alive. As he took off towards the now-destroyed area, he began seeing things clearer, but what he didn’t notice behind him was that all the cracks and the rundown houses began reforming themselves. Everything was starting to re-evolve leaving not a single trace of proof to this colossal ruin. 7:01am.
The source of inquiry began un-rippling and it started to look brand new. Ash hopped right over a large chunk of concrete that he’d almost tripped over. He turned back to notice that it was gone and the large resulting pit was conveniently filled in. Ash slowed his pace and brought his head back towards his direction; he brought his hands and knees together and grabbed a short breather.
“I-I don’t understand…” his long awaited pursuit had been in vain as he stared straight up and saw nothing but the same old streets he’d run passed every morning. “Wha-…What the hell?” He coughed out in repetition. After his blank and dead expression, his eyeballs stopped ping ponging, and he finally just had to scream out.
“WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!!?”
7:06 am.
Ash looked up and down to see if there was anything or anyone that would explain his current situation. He doubled down at his feet and saw a few stains of blood but thought nothing of it.
“This is absolutely bullshit!” He began yelling to himself. “Did I run all the way here worried about you for nothing? Am I still drunk?” To his perplexing state he realized that one thing still didn’t add up. “Where are you Lou!?” His head was flying everywhere as he spun around at least 4 or 5 times. “Where is my head today? This all happened right in front of me.” Ash raced corner to corner and through the intersections of every street they usually pass but found nothing.
“Don’t lose it Ash, don’t drift away now.” Barely whispering to himself; he began wiping his entire face with the body of his sleeveless, teal-colored tank top. His anxiety was now smeared all over his shirt and over-tops his black polyester shorts.
He could’ve sworn he saw the repairs to the quaking earth fix itself, none of it made any sense. Worst of all, his buddy Lou was probably caught up in the middle of it. For all Ash knew, Lou could've been burnt to hell in the depths of the earth’s core.
Ash bent down at a crack he had seen before it was sealed. He rubbed the shear surface of the concrete afraid it would open up again. He kept his hand on the concrete and thought of something. “I’ll check back at Lou’s place. Maybe he made it back before all this commotion began.” He tilted himself back up, eyes stayed glued to the rough surface of the sidewalk. “It’d be a load off my mind.” He bolted off in the same direction he came, this time he paid close attention to anything unusual about the ground beneath him.
He must’ve looked over his shoulders over a dozen times, looking for the same yellow ball of light. He finally reached his neighborhood; his eyes couldn’t keep still as they inspected every single driveway and house among the region.
7:45 am.
“This is the last place he could’ve gotten too. You better be here you sonuvabitch.” Ash rang the door bell to Lou’s house. He hoped Aaron was awake by now.
“Yup, hold on!” A deep and petulant voice rushed the door as fast as he could walk. That was Aaron alright. Lou’s uncle from his mother’s side and his only guardian ever since he was 5 years old. He was usually up at around 7:30 am for work, and back by 8:00 pm for dinner and sleep.
“Oh! What’s up ‘Trash’? Lookin’ for my boy Lou this early in the mornin’?” Aaron came to the door half dressed holding an apple in one hand and a tie in the other. He was about the same height and size as Lou though he looked almost nothing like him; his black hair was the only thing that spotted the resemblance. He’d call Ash the ‘Trash’ because of a certain incident involving Ash losing to Aaron in one of their basketball games and him falling in their garbage bin by accident; although, that was 6 years ago.
“You can go and check up on ‘em, I’m runnin’ a bit late.” He stuck his second leg through the remaining leg of his fluid black slacks. Aaron had the television blasting and Ash couldn’t hear anything upstairs so he decided to run up and pan around for himself.
“Thanks man.” Ash skipped steps on his way up, forgetting to take his shoes off.
“No prob. But hey, you should really listen to the news man, it’s like they’ve got some kinda conspiracy going on.” Aaron didn’t mind the shoes in the house, since everything in the there was tossed on the floor like every other jacket at the end of the day.
How can’t I listen to the news, you have it blasting through the damn roof. Ash pretended not to hear Aaron as he made his way up the hefty staircase. He couldn’t help but overhear the systematic news anchors as they reported in with some incriminating info.
“…Another 2 victims from the streets of Holmesburg, Philadelphia found dead early this morning outside the steps of the St. Dominic Church, we presume the killers murdered them some time last night in, what it seemed to be, a fatal incident. The couple had stab wounds at about 8 inches deep through their torso and other unexplained areas on their body. This couple will never have the chance to pray ever again I fear, no; they will only know their last moments in this world as a brisk and colorless afternoon...”
These reporters get way too deep with someone just dying. Ash continued to scope out even a single clue of Lou’s whereabouts, even a missing bag would help. He already figured that Lou wasn’t upstairs so he searched down in the basement but to no avail. Ash tripped over a basketball as he came from the bathroom. I can’t believe he hasn’t gone missing sooner, under all this junk, there’s no wonder he’s lost. Ash has visited Lou’s place many times before but he was always surprised at how much of a dump the place could actually be.
7:59 am.
He returned downstairs finding the fully dressed Aaron sitting on the edge of his couch and finishing off his coffee. He paid close attention to the broadcast as he took another sip.
“…We advise everyone to be careful around the outskirts of your home. Please walk with caution and agility. Gather with any friends, and or relatives that you can collect to assure your safety. Until we can identify and arrest these killers, even walking across your own driveway is perilous…”
“Wow,” Aaron sang his awkward surprise in front of his nephew’s friend. “Can you believe that? It’s almost like we’ve got our own Jason Voorhees around these parts. You better be careful ‘Trash can’.” Aaron threw on his mocking expression and stared up and Ash trying to scare the 18-year-old.
“That’s not funny man, these killers are probably real, you should be careful too. And I told you to stop calling me that. If anyone’s the trash can around here, it’s you and your damn pig of a nephew.” Ash rebutted Aaron’s taunting by kicking the basketball that followed him from the bathroom. He then pointed out his open palm at the floor around them and kept special attention to the wall, there were even dirty pairs of boxers on top of the TV set for Christ’s sake. “Speaking of which, I gotta go look for ‘Pigpen’ right now. I couldn’t find him upstairs.” Ash was about to leave the dump back in Aaron’s hands when he heard something familiar.
“…sudden burst of earthquakes hitting dead center Mayfair this morning. Residents report the incident as an ‘Apocalyptic Wakeup-Call’. Could this be a first sign to Pennsylvania’s downfall? Evidentially, geologists propose that there is nothing to explain this sudden catastrophe and further say that there should not be any more disruptions from now on, cataclysmal or otherwise.”
Ash’s face took the expression of a terror-struck maniac. I knew there was something going on this morning. I knew I wasn’t going crazy. Ash slowly formed a half grin and continued listening.
“Although residents claim they heard the eruption, witnessing their own property in its demolition, evidence proves that nothing in the vicinity has been damaged. Our associates, along with detectives, are still investigating the scene in search for anything remotely related to the incident. Satellite pictures show no activity from the scene except for a teenaged-boy running to and from the area. Later reports show that…”
Wait, wait. So Lou simply ran through there and everything was fine? He ran “to and from” there? No way in hell is that true. It’s a cover up; someone is definitely trying to hide all of this. Ash couldn’t take it anymore he was going to go down to police station himself to report a missing Louis Crowley.
“Thanks for the help Aaron, if you see Lou can you tell him to call me?”
“You got it. Later ‘Trash can’!”
Ash dashed out and sang a similar phrase he would tell Aaron many a time before. “Go to hell, Aaron!” He kept a cheery face on while he sang his jingle back to Aaron, expecting a quick and loud response.
“I’ll see you there Trash heap!” Aaron tried his hardest to yell back at Ash as he was speeding away from sight. It was their regular send off whenever they’d see each other, it wasn’t meant as anything harsh but neither of them could stand to not poke fun at the other.
Ash quickly ran back to his place to grab his cell phone and switch from shorts to blue denim jeans, he threw on a slick and thin coral, red buttoned short-sleeve shirt over his teal tank top leaving the buttons undone. He then shot out of his house as fast as he could. I’m running a lot today, Jesus.
In the midst of this ordeal Ash found himself back to square one, even with his estimation about the cover up, it wasn’t enough to help him figure out why and who set it all up. Ash knew that he’d need a bit more brain power to figure out this entire mishap.
“They couldn’t have made it any harder for me to find you, Lou. First of all there’s that damn huge explosion, which no one can figure out. Secondly there’s that seemingly shady murderer that’s been lurking around Holmesburg. There could be a thousand reasons why you’re missing, man.” Ash didn’t like riddles especially long and confusing ones, he was more of the expert all-star. “I’m gonna have to grab my main man for this one."
8:26 am.
Ash continued to run quickly and efficiently towards Lincoln High. He stuck his hand in his pocket to fish out his phone. Ash punched in the 10 digits and hit ‘call’.
It took three rings to hear the person at the other side of the line.
“Hello? Stan Miles speaking. Who may I ask is calling?” Stan’s content and proficient tone of voice never failed to impress.
“Dammit Stan, you’ve had my number for the longest time, why haven’t you registered it yet?” Ash lost his definite reason for calling in the first place.
“I prefer not to keep the useless numbers available to me.” Jokingly, Stan struck him a good one before Ash could throw one first. Ash continued to run.
“Just listen, okay?” Ash disregarded the joke and returned to the task at hand. “It’s about... 8:30 in the morning.” Ash glanced at his watch. “I woke up a little late for my run with Lou and so he took off ahead of me. I went to follow him when I witnessed a kind of 'disturbance' on the path ahead.” Ash was taking every short cut he could find to get to his destination. “I went to check out the scene and see if Lou was alright, but when I got there there was nothing out of the ordinary and Lou had disappeared.” Ash was now clenching his phone. “I searched everywhere, man. I don’t know where the hell he’s gone to. Goddammit!”
“Alright Ash, I hear you my friend, just calm down.” Stan’s voice was disrupting from Ash’s side, it was almost hard to make out. “Where are you now?”
“Right now, I’m heading towards Lincoln.” Ash passed by a man wearing dark cloak with his hood covering his face. He was sitting down at a bus stop and waiting. Ash glanced at him for a good 3 seconds and then continued forwards, paying attention to his phone again. “I was hoping we could maybe meet there and collect our thoughts.”
“Good plan. I’ll meet you there with the car, that way we’ll have better mobility.” Stan thought of everything useful at this point and it was making Ash feel more at ease. “Try and explain more to me about what happened, I’m a little confused at this ‘disturbance’ you mentioned.”
Ash began thoroughly explaining the situation to Stan. His open shirt was flapping back and forth while his hair clashed with his vision; he had to brush them back more than 10 times to see in front of his face.
The tall 18-year-old individual, that ran while speaking on the phone, was out of sight at this point. The hooded man had finally decided to look up and stare back at the now-blurring Ash Dews.
“Uyyrhhhggggg!!!” The man made an unfamiliar moaning noise and rested his head back down, staring at the edge of the bench between his knees.
In a sudden delusion, his hands and knees began to appear transparent, the rest of his body slowly followed leaving the strange hooded man with no limbs to call into vision.
“’AUHH HAH HAH HAH!’” To this baffling occurrence, the hooded man let out a holler that gave the impression of a strong but faint laughter. A wisp of smoke covered the remains of the once visible man and was then blown away in the breeze.
8:49 am.
“’BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP’!!”
Ash didn’t wake up. The clock that read 6:00 am had Ash laughing in his dreams.
The alarm stopped after a few minutes and it became absolutely silent in the drunken teenager’s room. The sun was trespassing through every corner it could find behind Ash’s curtains, striking him straight in the face. It felt warm and it made for a much more comfortable snooze.
To interpret his dreams you would need Dr. Suez’s brilliant imagination, but in a more realistic perspective Ash was reliving last nights’ journey. He couldn’t help but become the life of the party and challenge the host to a Beer Pong competition. Having won, he went on to wash down a bottle of Jack Daniels and continued to hit on almost every girl at the party. Of course, in real life he doesn’t remember how he got back at 2 am so his dreams were replaced with him dropping off a couple of attractive girls in a silver Camaro.
Ash was now shifting in his sleep, trying to screen the sun’s cover from his eyes, but he couldn’t escape its glistening veil. He began tossing back and forth, accidentally finding himself on the edge of his bed and falling off. Desperately trying to keep on his mattress he felt out anything he could grab onto, but to no avail. His failure finally led him to open his bloodshot eyes; he tried the best he could to vision out the time. It read 6:23 am.
“Ugh! Damn you Louie. Damn you and your morning exercises.” Ash wheezed very softly tasting nothing but last night’s mixture of god-knows-what. His face rolled up in disgust. Ash placed both hands on the floor and balanced himself upward. ‘Walking’ was something he felt he would never be able to do again after last night. He paced his way to the door and tumbled over nothing. He forced his eyes to stay open and shuffled his way to the bathroom, carefully.
After the most awkward shower he’d ever had he reached for his toothbrush but found his razor between his fingers instead. He glanced up at his reflection to find the devil staring back at him.
Ash spent about 20 minutes cleaning himself up and was finally able to walk straight, he made a leap for his water bottle and decided to finally head out hoping he might catch Lou on his way up.
“Looks like a nice day out. Lou might’ve gone for the gold today. Maybe I can still catch him.” Ash smirked and posed a runners position at the end of his driveway, afterwards shooting himself towards the regular route.
He wasn’t only 2 minutes in when he noticed a rumbling disturbance coming about 20 minutes ahead of him. The pavement underneath his feet began to shake simultaneously causing Ash to stop. “W-What the hell’s going on here?!” His voice shaken in bewilderment. “An earthquake in Philadelphia, especially on a day like this?” His face questioned the shudders that were becoming louder and louder, and noticed where the source was being held. It was on the same route Ash and Lou normally jog through every morning. Ash’s eyes suddenly lit up and he gulped. “Lou, you better be miles away from there buddy.” He began running towards the quakes, concerned for his friend. 6:47am.
Ash sped up, dropping his water bottle by accident. His feet were charging faster than ever despite the distracting tremors. He noticed parts of houses and trees scrapping their way downward, cars were being damaged from the splitting asphalt and birds were seen clearing from the source of disaster.
“Man, out of all the weird things that happen in my morning runs, this one takes the cake. And did it just get hotter all of a sudden, or is it just me?” Drops of sweat began zipping down Ash’s forehead. He squinted, trying to grab anything into his eyeshot. “I think… I see…” he couldn’t make out too much with the surrounding ball of light. “What is that?” Ash’s eyes dipped back in as he made out specks of movement from the area, which looked more and more like ants as Ash came further into view.
Only 10 minutes away from the area, the surrounding ball of light suddenly disappeared. What was left behind was a distorted shockwave that sent Ash aback a few centimeters, causing him to cease in his pursuit. “Holy crap! That felt very weird.” 6:54am.
Ash halted to grasp what he was first dealing with. If there really were people over there they may need his help. He insisted on dashing forward once more, it was the only way to make sure his friend Lou was dead or alive. As he took off towards the now-destroyed area, he began seeing things clearer, but what he didn’t notice behind him was that all the cracks and the rundown houses began reforming themselves. Everything was starting to re-evolve leaving not a single trace of proof to this colossal ruin. 7:01am.
The source of inquiry began un-rippling and it started to look brand new. Ash hopped right over a large chunk of concrete that he’d almost tripped over. He turned back to notice that it was gone and the large resulting pit was conveniently filled in. Ash slowed his pace and brought his head back towards his direction; he brought his hands and knees together and grabbed a short breather.
“I-I don’t understand…” his long awaited pursuit had been in vain as he stared straight up and saw nothing but the same old streets he’d run passed every morning. “Wha-…What the hell?” He coughed out in repetition. After his blank and dead expression, his eyeballs stopped ping ponging, and he finally just had to scream out.
“WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!!?”
7:06 am.
Ash looked up and down to see if there was anything or anyone that would explain his current situation. He doubled down at his feet and saw a few stains of blood but thought nothing of it.
“This is absolutely bullshit!” He began yelling to himself. “Did I run all the way here worried about you for nothing? Am I still drunk?” To his perplexing state he realized that one thing still didn’t add up. “Where are you Lou!?” His head was flying everywhere as he spun around at least 4 or 5 times. “Where is my head today? This all happened right in front of me.” Ash raced corner to corner and through the intersections of every street they usually pass but found nothing.
“Don’t lose it Ash, don’t drift away now.” Barely whispering to himself; he began wiping his entire face with the body of his sleeveless, teal-colored tank top. His anxiety was now smeared all over his shirt and over-tops his black polyester shorts.
He could’ve sworn he saw the repairs to the quaking earth fix itself, none of it made any sense. Worst of all, his buddy Lou was probably caught up in the middle of it. For all Ash knew, Lou could've been burnt to hell in the depths of the earth’s core.
Ash bent down at a crack he had seen before it was sealed. He rubbed the shear surface of the concrete afraid it would open up again. He kept his hand on the concrete and thought of something. “I’ll check back at Lou’s place. Maybe he made it back before all this commotion began.” He tilted himself back up, eyes stayed glued to the rough surface of the sidewalk. “It’d be a load off my mind.” He bolted off in the same direction he came, this time he paid close attention to anything unusual about the ground beneath him.
He must’ve looked over his shoulders over a dozen times, looking for the same yellow ball of light. He finally reached his neighborhood; his eyes couldn’t keep still as they inspected every single driveway and house among the region.
7:45 am.
“This is the last place he could’ve gotten too. You better be here you sonuvabitch.” Ash rang the door bell to Lou’s house. He hoped Aaron was awake by now.
“Yup, hold on!” A deep and petulant voice rushed the door as fast as he could walk. That was Aaron alright. Lou’s uncle from his mother’s side and his only guardian ever since he was 5 years old. He was usually up at around 7:30 am for work, and back by 8:00 pm for dinner and sleep.
“Oh! What’s up ‘Trash’? Lookin’ for my boy Lou this early in the mornin’?” Aaron came to the door half dressed holding an apple in one hand and a tie in the other. He was about the same height and size as Lou though he looked almost nothing like him; his black hair was the only thing that spotted the resemblance. He’d call Ash the ‘Trash’ because of a certain incident involving Ash losing to Aaron in one of their basketball games and him falling in their garbage bin by accident; although, that was 6 years ago.
“You can go and check up on ‘em, I’m runnin’ a bit late.” He stuck his second leg through the remaining leg of his fluid black slacks. Aaron had the television blasting and Ash couldn’t hear anything upstairs so he decided to run up and pan around for himself.
“Thanks man.” Ash skipped steps on his way up, forgetting to take his shoes off.
“No prob. But hey, you should really listen to the news man, it’s like they’ve got some kinda conspiracy going on.” Aaron didn’t mind the shoes in the house, since everything in the there was tossed on the floor like every other jacket at the end of the day.
How can’t I listen to the news, you have it blasting through the damn roof. Ash pretended not to hear Aaron as he made his way up the hefty staircase. He couldn’t help but overhear the systematic news anchors as they reported in with some incriminating info.
“…Another 2 victims from the streets of Holmesburg, Philadelphia found dead early this morning outside the steps of the St. Dominic Church, we presume the killers murdered them some time last night in, what it seemed to be, a fatal incident. The couple had stab wounds at about 8 inches deep through their torso and other unexplained areas on their body. This couple will never have the chance to pray ever again I fear, no; they will only know their last moments in this world as a brisk and colorless afternoon...”
These reporters get way too deep with someone just dying. Ash continued to scope out even a single clue of Lou’s whereabouts, even a missing bag would help. He already figured that Lou wasn’t upstairs so he searched down in the basement but to no avail. Ash tripped over a basketball as he came from the bathroom. I can’t believe he hasn’t gone missing sooner, under all this junk, there’s no wonder he’s lost. Ash has visited Lou’s place many times before but he was always surprised at how much of a dump the place could actually be.
7:59 am.
He returned downstairs finding the fully dressed Aaron sitting on the edge of his couch and finishing off his coffee. He paid close attention to the broadcast as he took another sip.
“…We advise everyone to be careful around the outskirts of your home. Please walk with caution and agility. Gather with any friends, and or relatives that you can collect to assure your safety. Until we can identify and arrest these killers, even walking across your own driveway is perilous…”
“Wow,” Aaron sang his awkward surprise in front of his nephew’s friend. “Can you believe that? It’s almost like we’ve got our own Jason Voorhees around these parts. You better be careful ‘Trash can’.” Aaron threw on his mocking expression and stared up and Ash trying to scare the 18-year-old.
“That’s not funny man, these killers are probably real, you should be careful too. And I told you to stop calling me that. If anyone’s the trash can around here, it’s you and your damn pig of a nephew.” Ash rebutted Aaron’s taunting by kicking the basketball that followed him from the bathroom. He then pointed out his open palm at the floor around them and kept special attention to the wall, there were even dirty pairs of boxers on top of the TV set for Christ’s sake. “Speaking of which, I gotta go look for ‘Pigpen’ right now. I couldn’t find him upstairs.” Ash was about to leave the dump back in Aaron’s hands when he heard something familiar.
“…sudden burst of earthquakes hitting dead center Mayfair this morning. Residents report the incident as an ‘Apocalyptic Wakeup-Call’. Could this be a first sign to Pennsylvania’s downfall? Evidentially, geologists propose that there is nothing to explain this sudden catastrophe and further say that there should not be any more disruptions from now on, cataclysmal or otherwise.”
Ash’s face took the expression of a terror-struck maniac. I knew there was something going on this morning. I knew I wasn’t going crazy. Ash slowly formed a half grin and continued listening.
“Although residents claim they heard the eruption, witnessing their own property in its demolition, evidence proves that nothing in the vicinity has been damaged. Our associates, along with detectives, are still investigating the scene in search for anything remotely related to the incident. Satellite pictures show no activity from the scene except for a teenaged-boy running to and from the area. Later reports show that…”
Wait, wait. So Lou simply ran through there and everything was fine? He ran “to and from” there? No way in hell is that true. It’s a cover up; someone is definitely trying to hide all of this. Ash couldn’t take it anymore he was going to go down to police station himself to report a missing Louis Crowley.
“Thanks for the help Aaron, if you see Lou can you tell him to call me?”
“You got it. Later ‘Trash can’!”
Ash dashed out and sang a similar phrase he would tell Aaron many a time before. “Go to hell, Aaron!” He kept a cheery face on while he sang his jingle back to Aaron, expecting a quick and loud response.
“I’ll see you there Trash heap!” Aaron tried his hardest to yell back at Ash as he was speeding away from sight. It was their regular send off whenever they’d see each other, it wasn’t meant as anything harsh but neither of them could stand to not poke fun at the other.
Ash quickly ran back to his place to grab his cell phone and switch from shorts to blue denim jeans, he threw on a slick and thin coral, red buttoned short-sleeve shirt over his teal tank top leaving the buttons undone. He then shot out of his house as fast as he could. I’m running a lot today, Jesus.
In the midst of this ordeal Ash found himself back to square one, even with his estimation about the cover up, it wasn’t enough to help him figure out why and who set it all up. Ash knew that he’d need a bit more brain power to figure out this entire mishap.
“They couldn’t have made it any harder for me to find you, Lou. First of all there’s that damn huge explosion, which no one can figure out. Secondly there’s that seemingly shady murderer that’s been lurking around Holmesburg. There could be a thousand reasons why you’re missing, man.” Ash didn’t like riddles especially long and confusing ones, he was more of the expert all-star. “I’m gonna have to grab my main man for this one."
8:26 am.
Ash continued to run quickly and efficiently towards Lincoln High. He stuck his hand in his pocket to fish out his phone. Ash punched in the 10 digits and hit ‘call’.
It took three rings to hear the person at the other side of the line.
“Hello? Stan Miles speaking. Who may I ask is calling?” Stan’s content and proficient tone of voice never failed to impress.
“Dammit Stan, you’ve had my number for the longest time, why haven’t you registered it yet?” Ash lost his definite reason for calling in the first place.
“I prefer not to keep the useless numbers available to me.” Jokingly, Stan struck him a good one before Ash could throw one first. Ash continued to run.
“Just listen, okay?” Ash disregarded the joke and returned to the task at hand. “It’s about... 8:30 in the morning.” Ash glanced at his watch. “I woke up a little late for my run with Lou and so he took off ahead of me. I went to follow him when I witnessed a kind of 'disturbance' on the path ahead.” Ash was taking every short cut he could find to get to his destination. “I went to check out the scene and see if Lou was alright, but when I got there there was nothing out of the ordinary and Lou had disappeared.” Ash was now clenching his phone. “I searched everywhere, man. I don’t know where the hell he’s gone to. Goddammit!”
“Alright Ash, I hear you my friend, just calm down.” Stan’s voice was disrupting from Ash’s side, it was almost hard to make out. “Where are you now?”
“Right now, I’m heading towards Lincoln.” Ash passed by a man wearing dark cloak with his hood covering his face. He was sitting down at a bus stop and waiting. Ash glanced at him for a good 3 seconds and then continued forwards, paying attention to his phone again. “I was hoping we could maybe meet there and collect our thoughts.”
“Good plan. I’ll meet you there with the car, that way we’ll have better mobility.” Stan thought of everything useful at this point and it was making Ash feel more at ease. “Try and explain more to me about what happened, I’m a little confused at this ‘disturbance’ you mentioned.”
Ash began thoroughly explaining the situation to Stan. His open shirt was flapping back and forth while his hair clashed with his vision; he had to brush them back more than 10 times to see in front of his face.
The tall 18-year-old individual, that ran while speaking on the phone, was out of sight at this point. The hooded man had finally decided to look up and stare back at the now-blurring Ash Dews.
“Uyyrhhhggggg!!!” The man made an unfamiliar moaning noise and rested his head back down, staring at the edge of the bench between his knees.
In a sudden delusion, his hands and knees began to appear transparent, the rest of his body slowly followed leaving the strange hooded man with no limbs to call into vision.
“’AUHH HAH HAH HAH!’” To this baffling occurrence, the hooded man let out a holler that gave the impression of a strong but faint laughter. A wisp of smoke covered the remains of the once visible man and was then blown away in the breeze.
8:49 am.
3 comments:
I like these two chapters much more than the first two. most of the problems i had earlier have been resovled. I like the progression u didnt rush it but the action has appeared and is really interesting. I like the premise and i really like the way u mirrored these two chapteres in time. overall im excited to see where it goes keep up the good work.
Thank you sir. I actually hadn't thought of the 'time' idea until I started writing this chapter, and it made for a very interesting arc. I had the show '24' in my head when I was writing it. lol
I'm hoping to keep the action going. In this part of the series it really starts to point out each of the characters best traits.
I apologize for not writing the later chapters in the past two weeks. I got a little busy with exams an such. I'm hoping to make a comeback soon though, so please keep an eye out for the latest chapter.
trust me i understand i thinks its been a month since my last post hard to find the time :(
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