Through Glass

by Rebecca Ethington

  My hands moved from the fabric of his shirt, wrapping around him until I found his back where his shirt had already lifted from my desperate clawing. My hand fanned across his lower back, his lean body hot and smooth to the touch. His lips pressed against mine while his tongue dragged across my lips as his hand slid down my spine and the rippling pressure shook through me.

  A deep, needy groan spread from my toes, rippling through my body wildly as my own hands wrapped around his arms in an attempt to bring him closer.

  Instead of moving closer, though, he moved away as his lips left mine. The loss of contact leaving me gasping and panting. My body seized and tightened as I longed for the perfect drug that had just been ripped from my grasp.

  “You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that,” he breathed into me, his words labored as his lungs tried to regulate his breathing.

  “I think I have some idea,” I said, my words separated by my unstable breathing.

  I tried to focus on finding my breath, in making my lungs work properly, yet not really caring if they did or not. My heavy breaths mixed with his and he pressed his forehead to mine. My own emotions remained jumbled inside of me in the firework of an explosion that had spread through me at the kiss. The heat only growing in my desperation for more.

  “I wanted to take you to Sadie’s. I wanted to kiss you then,” his voice whispered against my skin, the heat from his breath enticing me back to him.

  “Why didn’t you?” I reached up, my fingers brushing against the rough growth on his face.

  I asked the question, but I didn’t wait for an answer. I didn’t really care to hear it. I couldn’t help it, I wouldn’t wait. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his; once, twice and each time he met me with pressure and desire that only matched my own.

  “I was seventeen and really stupid,” he breathed between the kisses that I littered over him.

  I could agree to that. Stupid was one very accurate way to put it. I’d had the opportunity to let his stupidity dwell inside of me, but I didn’t. The electricity and need that still thrummed through me made it impossible for me to care.

  I moved in his arms, my head angling enough to coax his lips back up to mine.

  I felt his breath, shaky and heady against my skin as he contemplated; no, as he tried to control himself. I didn’t care. I listened to the need inside of me and pressed my lips against his, the deep groan that flowed from his throat only deepening my desire for him.

  His arms reached out and pulled me into him, but the action was too much and my body fell off the barstool in an uncomfortable and highly embarrassing display.

  I caught my footing quickly. My body straightening as his arms came to catch me.

  I panted as I looked at my toes, as the beating of my heart slowed, before slowly raising my head to look at him.

  The dark pools of his eyes drew me in, the sparkle deep and mischievous. Yet, the wanted desire he had held before had faded somewhat, the fall breaking the spell between us.

  He smiled once and lifted my hand again, his eyes shining brighter than I had ever seen them as he pressed his masterpiece—my wrist—against his lips. A small kiss sealing the intimate moment.

  I could see in his eyes what neither of us really needed to say.

  This was only the beginning.

  “Go get ready, Lex.” He pushed me away from him gently with a smile, one I couldn’t help returning. “I’m taking you on a date.”

  I turned from him slowly, even though my heart begged me to run back into his arms.

  “I’ll be right back to pick you up. I just need to grab your gift from my room.”

  I nodded numbly as I made my way up the stairs, the sound of the front door closing loud in the quiet house.

  I walked into my room slowly, pressing my back against the door as it closed. The excitement over what had just happened was still trying to leave my body.

  My hands reached up slowly to press against my lips, the taste of him still heavy on the now tender skin. My mind ran over the kiss; remembering every word he said, the feel of his lips against mine and the scent of him against me. I replayed them over and over, waiting for my heart to settle, for the need I now felt to slow down. However, it only seemed to speed up, the heavy desire tensing inside of me as the joy at what I had just done filled me.

  I had kissed him.

  I looked up slowly, my nerves jumping at seeing Cohen standing in his room, his hand against the glass of his window as he watched me in my revelry. My hand dropped from my mouth as I looked to him, surprisingly unembarrassed at being caught savoring the memory. Any other time, I would have been, but no, this felt too natural to warrant embarrassment.

  I met his eyes as he smiled, his lips puckering as he blew a kiss to me. My heart turning to mush at the action.

  I took two steps forward in eager anticipation, my legs practically vaulting me onto my desk in a desperate need to open the window, to talk to him again. It was all silly really. He would be back in only a few minutes and then we would leave for his art show.

  My hand touched the metal clasp to unlock the pane when a blood wrenching scream opened up the air. I jumped at the sound, my already sensitive nerves reacting to the terrifying sound. The scream cut through the bright spring day and let every happy feeling I had felt for the last five minutes evaporate into the bright sunshine.

  Except there was no bright sunshine, not anymore.

  Everything was quickly darkening, like the sun was setting; as though the sun had fallen from the sky. The shadow of dusk creeped over the houses and lawns, giving them a dark grey cast of night. Shadows stretched before disappearing while the glittering gold of the sun disappeared as the line of darkness came closer and closer.

  I looked to Cohen in confusion as to why everything had gone dark, but he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were focused up in silent horror at something I couldn’t see, something above the house where I knew the sun to be.

  Where the sun should be.

  Something was wrong. I could see it reflected in the open-mouthed horror that had covered Cohen’s face. My heart beat wildly in encroaching fear as I twisted myself against the window, pressing my face against the glass in my desperation to see what had happened.

  I pressed my cheek against the window to look up, I didn’t see the sun; I could barely see the sky. My shaking hand flew to my mouth as I watched blackness, darker than ink, cover the wide expanse of blue above us. It spread over the bright sky like a thousand spiders with their angular legs cutting into the blue, wiping it from existence.

  The legs crawled through the brightness of day, cutting into it with jagged motions that crawled over my skin, sending ice over my spine. The black grew and spread, the jagged legs taking away the brightness of the world, leaving us in the dim light of a moonless night; the world cast in shadows of blue and grey.

  I couldn’t take my eyes from the horror of the world outside. My mouth opened in silent terror; any thought of screaming had been immediately drowned from the fear and confusion that circled through me.

  I watched it, trying to figure out what was going on. Nothing that I was seeing made sense, nothing was right. I froze, fighting a need to run toward it; to hide, to scream, to fight the faceless villain that I was sure had caused this nightmare. It wouldn’t help and so I simply stared at it, wanting to find an explanation, but I already knew that I wouldn’t find one.

  In only a matter of moments, the sky was gone. A moving wave of black covering the world above us as the pulsing black mass surrounded us in an orb of silence.

  Silence.

  The black had sucked the birds from the sky and taken the wind from the trees. In the stillness of my room, the absence of sound was only intensified. I stared out as the light continued to fade, leaving us in the darkness of a cloudy night. The houses looked like haunted trees across the motionless world. My eyes adjusted quickly, bringing the world around me into focus until only the shapes in the distance faded
into the darkness.

  I kept my face pressed against the glass as the silence washed over me, as my pulse beat loud and heavy in my ears. I waited for the blue to return; waited to wake up from whatever nightmare I was trapped in. It was the only explanation I could think of, the only thing I could grasp onto. I didn’t wake up though, and I knew, in the back of my mind, that all of this was real.

  I watched the black, unable to look away, or to even move, before the silence was cut apart by the sound that would come to haunt my world.

  A high pitched shriek rang through the silence, the sound a grinding buzz in my ears as I gasped in fear at its sudden arrival. I covered my ears in a panic, desperate to get the awful noise out of my head as I curled into a ball on my desk, my head pressing into my knees. I pushed hard against my ears, but the sound didn’t leave. It only grew until it vibrated inside of me, moving through my bones as it congregated inside my skull.

  Everything rattled inside of me as the vibration continued, the shriek growing right beside it. It grew until it became a pain, a rippling heat that covered my bones and took away my desire to move and my ability to focus beyond the noise that seemed to be coming from inside of me. My body ached as the sound rattled through me, my mouth clenching as I cried, as I tried to cope with the pain.

  I stayed curled in the ball; my body aching and writhing as I tried to manage and to move beyond it. I couldn’t. I stayed still, clawing at the sound vibrations while lying on my desk as my eyes scanned the sky, waiting for everything to end.

  The sound grew as the darkness began to seep lower into the world below. The silky black of the sky above our heads darkened as it rippled like the waves of an ocean. The ebbs and flows moving over the sky like water before it pooled and began to fall. Thicker than rain, slow and steady, the sky dripped thousands of drops of black; the color smooth and shiny as the black rain moved and fell. The dark fell onto us, bathing the pristine streets in liquid smoke, covering what little I could still see in a smothering blanket that only promised death.

  The sky had begun to bleed in ebony streaks.

  My heart beat accelerated, the sound in my ears adding to the screech that sang with the rain that fell on top of us. My fear peaked as I watched it. My body shaking as I fought to move, to get away, but my body wouldn’t respond. I watched as the black hit against my window, leaving black streaks of what looked like oil against the pane. Drop after drop hit the window, streaking the glass as the terrifying screech that had filled me evaporated.

  The pain that had filled my body slowly left, leaving me numb with residual pressure as I lay still, watching the sky fall on top of us from my curled position on the desk. My chest heaved as I caught my breath and control over my body slowly came back. I lifted myself slowly, my body aching as I slid my feet onto the windowsill, with my face pressed against the glass as I watched the drops of ink seep from the sky. The mass of them was growing until they became something more and cut through the air with the wide brim of a sail.

  It was no longer just the black rain that floated gracefully toward us. There were now black masses floating like wispy smoke, dancing through the air like an elegant gown. The black ribbons fell through the already darkened sky, making the black that surrounded us more oppressive, but strangely, I didn’t care. I didn’t care about the dark anymore. I didn’t care about the vanishing sun or the way the sky had bled. The fear I had felt vanished and all I wanted was to sit here and watch the dancing blackness fall from the sky, wishing I could be among them. It twirled and spun through the air as it fell to the ground, swirling down on top of us.

  I watched the ribbons of darkness fall, mesmerized by their beauty, by the calm serenity that they brought to the suddenly dark world. My body loosened as I watched them, my breathing slowed as everything relaxed. I didn’t know why I had been so afraid only a minute before. The darkness was beautiful. I smiled as they continued to fall, the darkness taking away what little I had been able to see, only to disappear against the earth in a splash of smoke and sparkling tinsel.

  Cohen’s grandfather was out amongst them. He stood in the driveway, a rake in his hands as he watched the glitter fall through the air. I watched him as they fell around him. He smiled at their beauty.

  I wanted to be with him. I wanted to dance amongst the fans of black and feel the smoke against my skin. I reached my hand toward the clasp on my window, desperate to touch them. I froze in awe with my hand soft against the lock of the window as Cohen’s grandfather extended his hand out to let his fingers touch the silky smoke that danced before him.

  His fingers grazed the surface of the smoke ribbon, the black glittering around him like a dozen falling stars. It moved through his fingers and brushed against his skin until it disappeared at the same time that the high pitched screech I had heard before filled my ears. I jumped at the sound while the relaxing bliss I had felt mere seconds before vanished as panic took over. It called like a bird, the terrifying sound tensing in my muscles. Cohen’s grandfather didn’t seem to hear the warning call. He moved his hand into the sheet of black before him and, with that one touch, the smoke was gone, the solid body of a monster taking its place.

  The scream broke free from my throat as the creature erupted from the smoke. The large, black mass of the thing hovering over the withered old man below him.

  Staring at the monstrous black being, I wasn’t sure if I was seeing a man or an enormous bird. The top of its head and the reptilian wings that adorned its back were feathered with shiny, jet black spikes which looked more like the blades of a knife. The wings erupted from its back in large masses of dark, shiny metal; the jagged edges cutting through the darkness around him. The spikes and sharp lines of the wings were like that of a bat, yet they were somehow more medieval, sinister. The body and the face of the thing seemed almost human except everything that should be normal wasn’t. The creature’s skin was black like ink and shimmering as though it was polished steel in the darkness. The same razor like feathers that adorned its back jutted out of its face in odd places like he had been stabbed multiple times.

  The arms of a man shot forward from the monster, but instead of fingers, five long, golden talons flashed before its long arms. The talons curved dangerously through the air, the bright color looking beautiful against the sunless night of the world.

  The gold glinted as the monster’s arms jut toward the old man before him. The screech in my ears grew as Cohen’s grandfather’s screams joined them along with a dozen other terrified yells that filtered down the street and through the glass of my window. I jumped at the noise, my body moving out of habit while I pressed myself against the window as I watched in horror at the scene that unfolded below.

  The screech grew and then the creature’s arm moved, swinging wide in a blur of movement. The flash of golden talons and a wide arch of blood were the only images before nothing was left except a black circle of ash where Cohen’s grandfather had stood.

  I froze against the window, my blood turning to ice as I looked at the grey circle of dust on the sidewalk. I just stared at all that was left of a man, a motionless heap of ash amongst the dancing ribbons, unable to process through the numb shock that controlled me. The numbness stretched through me as the faded screams of more victims filtered into my ears. They came, more and more, my mind filling in what I couldn’t see. The flash of talons, the arch of blood.

  The creature stood over the ring of ash before it arched its back, its human mouth opening in a screech that cut through the air, the joy it felt at having taken a life terrifying me. I jumped at the noise, my breathing picking up before I, too, began to scream. My own terror mixed with the lost lives on the street below

  Cohen’s grandfather had disappeared, burned into a pile of ash by what my mind could only register as being a monster. One touch and he had vanished; now nothing more than a ring of ash in the darkened world. The hell that was falling from the sky.

  Everything inside of me shook as I screamed. Terror mixed
with an insane desire to run, to fight back. I fought the desire to open the window, to attack the monster for what he had done. My fear and anger mixed together until I was having trouble breathing and my eye sight began fading in and out as tears along with panic swept it away.

  I couldn’t tear my eyes from the ash, even though I could hear the poundings of Cohen’s fists against his window. I could hear the muffled voice of his own screams as they mixed with mine in my ears.

  My fists joined Cohen’s as we screamed, the ribbons of death continuing to fall between us and what was left of Cohen’s grandfather. They weaved themselves through the sky, blackening the darkness into a solid mass of ink, their numbers increasing until I could no longer see the spot where Cohen’s grandfather had stood.

  The black that fell from the sky was taking over. Snatching up what little light we had been left with and seeping it away into nothing. I watched them multiply as the thought I refused to acknowledge weaved its way to the surface of my mind.

  The black, the monsters, whatever hell that had opened up on us. It was killing everything that was outside.

  No.

  My mother had taken my brothers to the skate park. My family was outside.

  “NO!” I screamed as I hit my hands against the window. My tears streaming down my cheeks as I pounded against the glass. My anger bubbled up beyond what I had ever felt. I screamed at the blackness that surrounded me while, at the same time, needing to get out of this room; to fight them, to save my brothers. I screamed as the monster turned from Cohen’s grandfather, its movement slow as it turned its black eyes to me in warning.

  I screamed as my anger melted into fear, my heart clenching until my scream vanished and the evil glare froze me in place. The look that the thing had given me shivered through my body before the monster vanished from sight. It left me alone with the terror and blackness that inched closer and closer, threatening to push through the glass and take me with it.

  I looked away from the smothering black of the sky toward Cohen. My heart caught in my chest at seeing him staring at me, barely visible through the blackness that was swallowing us up. His hand was still pressed up against the window. His face was streaked with tears while his eyes were as wide and scared as I felt inside.