A Horse With No Name – Part 4

On with the writing!

I ran, and The Twin at my back gave chase with mindless determination.  The wind swirled, and arcs of violent red lightning crossed the skies above me.  I shuddered to think what such a bolt would do should it strike me.  

I had reached the edge of the tarps covering the village houses, and the thoroughfare I had bolted from what seemed an eternity ago.  We would make it.  We were going to make it!

The roan, without making a scream of protest or warning, died underneath me.  He crumpled to the earth, pitching forward and launching us airborne in the process.  The tiny soul behind me made as little noise as the horse had, and I rotated furiously to gather them up against me so I would take the fall for us both. 

Pain made stars explode behind my eyes, and we rolled for endless seconds after landing.  After the rolling had ceased, I cautiously tried to stand up.  Nothing was broken, thank all the heavens, but my small companion was moaning in fresh agony as their already broken arm looked even more battered than before.  I had no time for thought, no time for anything.  Head fuzzy with pain, I gathered them up once more and sprinted down the lane.  

There was no way I would make it in time. The Twin had arrived in full now, and the winds whipped up were scourging all the skin they could reach.  Lightning popped and arced, striking the long metal poles which jutted into the heavens next to every structure.  They heated to a cherry red glow, but held true as they had always done.  

The air simmered with the electric discharge, and breathing became difficult.  My heart began skipping every other beat, and it felt as though I was trying to run through knee-deep molasses.

The Twin had me in it’s grasp, and I would die here on the street, a few hundred yards from safety.  From my Anna.  My vision blurred as I sprawled forward, desperately scrabbling towards safety.  I couldn’t even feel the tiny person against me anymore. 

A warmth enveloped me then.  A brightly glowing halo surrounded the edges of my vision, and it didn’t hurt to breath or to move anymore.  Dying isn’t so bad after all.

My head lay against the warm dirt, yet it was not blowing about me as it should.  The wind wasn’t howling either.  I would’ve ascribed this to going deaf, but I could hear my breath against the dirt.  In and out, steadier than it should’ve been if I were dying.  I shifted, too tired and sore to really do much more, and out of one eye I saw the person I had given everything trying to save.

Nothing of this world met my eye.

To be continued…

Annafully,
Justin