Rain Or Shine...You Die

“Well that’s just bloody great.” you grumbled aloud no to anyone in particular but yourself since you were all alone in your room. Not to mention alone at home. You looked out the window from the window seat you were sitting on and, not for the first time, thought about how wrong the weather forecast had been. “I’m not trying to sound obnoxious, but the weather station has but only one job and that’s to at least predict the weather accurately. Like how hard can that be!? At least be right as you possibly can about your percentages and probabilities.” You say it’s going to be and I quote, ‘A 100% chance of a nice sunny day with a gentle breeze. It will be a great summer day to hang out with family and friends…’"

“Tch.” You click your tongue. They couldn’t be more wrong. Instead of what the forecast said today would be, you wake up to masses of dark gray clouds looming overhead. The air is cold and everything looks dreary and foggy. It’s like there’s no life outside and just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get worse, those massive bundles of ugly looking gray lumps start pissing down on the earth with its frozen cold liquid. Of course you can’t have the clouds pissing without a little thunder now can you? 

“Zeus sure can’t keep his pants on can he?” you scoffed. “That old geyser should really kick the bucket already.” As if on cue, the sky growled in a low rumble and then immediately after, lightning flashed across the sky. A crack of thunder on a summer day. “Wow. What a coincidence. The old fart must have heard me. Hope I don’t get zapped.” You remarked and plop a chocolate M&M in your mouth. “Well, anything’s better than being cooped up in here.” You sighed and slouched further into the window seat. 

You leaned against a pile of pillows and cushions and had a fuzzy blue blanket draped over your legs. You were comfy and warm, but absolutely bored. There was nothing to do and the sheer thought of nothingness filled you with a desire to do something. You turned your head to the side and glanced around your dark, messy room. It was filled with books, papers, stuffed animals, clothes (dirty & new), bags of snacks (empty, new & half eaten) etc. It was an endless pile of mess that somehow magically kept increasing by the minute. 

“I wonder how that happens?” you pondered and plopped the last choco M&M in your mouth and crumpled up the wrapper and tossed it aside randomly in your room just to prove the point that your room was a dump. A deep sigh escaped. “It wasn’t this bad before though. How on earth did it get so messy in a month?” Oh. The imaginary light bulb switched on in your head. The reason your room was a mess, and so were you, was because up until the day before yesterday, for the entirety of the month, you had exams one after another. 

Trust yourself when you say this, but being a high school senior is just absolutely brutal. It’s probably one of the worst years of your entire school life. Well that and being in college. Good God! Just thinking about heading off to college in the fall gives you the shivers, a fever, and worse a bloody headache that just won’t go away. It’s like there’s a great big stone placed inside your brain and it’s getting larger and larger by the minute. Eventually you’re going to get squashed like a bug by it. 

You absolutely loathe the very thought of having to slave away four more years of your precious youth, and maybe even more, just to get a good education and have a good job to support you for the rest of your life and not mooch off your parents anymore than you already are. Right, a job...the great world of an adult office worker...maybe you should become a vagabond. The name sounds cool like some kind of a superhero from a TV show or movie, but it basically just means you're a bum. A lazy, worthless, good for nothing, loser. Yep...that about sums it up. 

“Ugh!” you cried out and ruffled your forever bed hair. “This weather just totally ruined my mood.” you whined for probably the millionth time. You plop your face on your bent up knees. Your head’s turned towards the left and you look out into the cold dead world. You focus your gaze on the droplets of water that are stuck to the window and trickle down the surface of the glass. It’s as if the water droplets are having a horse race with one another and after one race is finished new droplets take their place and the race starts all over again. 

You see your reflection in the window stained with rain drops. It’s a clear reflection like that you would see in a mirror. Your gray lifeless eyes stare back at you with dark circles underneath. A result of all the late night studying or rather stress studying for the past month. There was also that late night gaming that happened the day before. It’s honestly a miracle that you still have 20/20 vision with all the “staring at the screen all day long” crap you do. You’ve got a pale face that keeps getting paler and paler no matter how long you stay out in the sun. 

Oh wait. That’s right. You don’t go out much in the sun cause you're a shut in and when of all days you’re suppose to go hang out with your friends at the beach and watch those idiots make a fool out of themselves by trying to pick up chicks or act muscular than the other surf dudes, what happens? The sky decides to piss on you that’s what. Well look on the bright side...there is none. 

Today was the only day you would get to hang out with your friends before you have to start packing and head to England in a week to see your grandparents and check out Cambridge. That’s right y’all. You’re heading to a university on the other side of the globe and it’s one of the best universities in the world. Yep you’re a nerd. A smart handsome nerd. Okay you need to stop sounding so obnoxious. You’re still kinda shocked that you’re going to be doing uni in England and not the states but your parents and grandparents kinda wanted it that way. 

Your parents were far too busy with their jobs and individual lives to spare even a second for you and now that they're on the verge of getting a divorce and moving in with their respective partners...That really sucks doesn’t it, but it’s not all bad. They’ve never really been around for you anyways and you’ve all but stopped celebrating each other's birthdays. Let alone holidays with one other. The last time your parents even celebrated your was...when you were 5. Yeah that’s right when you were five. That’s why with the divorce happening, neither of your parents wanted to really take custody of you, and since you were going to be an adult next year, they didn’t see a need to. 

It was fine either way. You didn’t want to be a burden to them any longer than you already have. Though sometimes you really wonder, did they ever even love you? You’ve always done what they’ve said. Always played the good boy in hopes of someday becoming a family once more...but in the end, it was futile. Your parents might not care much for you, but your grandparents on the other hand had other thoughts. They took custody over you and didn’t want either of your parents to get involved with you anymore than they needed to. 

They never really liked your mother to begin with. She was an actress in Hollywood. She had beach blonde hair with moonstone gray eyes. You got your eyes from here. Your hair on the other hand. You got from your father. Raven black hair and ocean blue eyes. He was the son of a duke and a movie director. How original right? A great disappointment to the family and you were the one to suffer their short lived love. Well it doesn’t really matter either ways. There’s no one who truly cares for you. Not your parents and certainly not your grandparents. They’re only taking custody of you for their prestige. To continue on with the family line. Having an honorable career, getting married to a British member of a prestigious family, having kids and then dying without truly living a life for yourself. 

But hey. At least you’re part of royalty right? Wrong. All the riches in the world can’t quench the thirst you feel inside. What you crave for more than anything in the world, is for their love...but in the end, no matter what you do, they will never truly look your way...and there we have it ladies and gentleman. The rain has most devastatingly destroyed you completely. “You know I might just use that for a story or something.” You pondered and bent to pick up the notepad and pencil that lay on the floor. You lazily wrote the thought down and after you finished, dropped the notepad to the floor and the pencil on top of it. Then you went back to looking outside in a daze. 

You should be grateful. You’re getting the best education that money can offer. Not to mention you got a full ride. You should focus on what’s important. Which is...what exactly? You enjoyed writing more than the medical field but had to choose the latter in order to not be another disappointment in the family. There was already one to many. “All this depressing talk is making me sleepy.” you yawned. You leaned deeper into the pillows behind you and pulled up the sheets. You grabbed your stuffed bunny that you had since you were 3 and dearly loved and shifted your gaze to the downpour outside. Maybe the rain will stop soon...then your mood might lift. Maybe this rain won’t make you hate your eyes more than you already do. Eyes the color of the ugly gray rainy skies. Cold...dead...lifeless...void of all love and happiness. At some point, you dozed off to sleep to the sound of the pouring rain. A dreamless sleep where it’s better to not dream of what if and rather just be by yourself. Always alone. Always afraid and always longing to belong.  

You don’t know how long you were asleep, but you suddenly jolted awake as if someone shook you by the shoulders. You rubbed your eyes and glanced around the room to see if there was anyone. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t anyone else and the house too was silent. “Great,” you huff and throw yourself back into the soft cushions, “just had a bloody nightmare and I don’t know what it was even about.” You glanced at the clock that lay upside down at your bedside table. You turned your head sideways to get a better look at the clock. It read 3:15. You slept a little over an hour. “Seriously? It felt longer than that.” you said with a yawn and stretched. “Damn this weather makes me lazy and sore all over.” as if feeling left out, your stomach gave a low growl. “And hungry no doubt.” Maybe you might make yourself some ramen. You looked out the window and the rain was still coming down. You could see puddles form in the potholes on the street. You honestly thought that the rain would have stopped by now. At the rate it’s going, you’ll end up having your own private beach to go for a dip. 

Suddenly something catches your eye. You see a lone black car coming down the road. It was weird that it was the only car that was out in this weather. The car drove into the driveway across from your house and even after a minute passed by no one came out. “That’s weird. Well whatever. Maybe they needed to prepare and get an umbrella. Heh. With all this rain coming down they’re going to be soaked before they can even make it to the front door.” Suddenly the door to the car opened and you saw two men in black suits come out. They didn’t take out an umbrella and slowly made their way to the door. “Men in black suits? Did someone just die?” They knocked on the door and after a couple of minutes you saw old Mrs. Anderson opened the door. The men and her spoke for a bit before she let them in. 

Obviously you couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she must have known them otherwise why would she let them in. But, what is this unsettling feeling you’re having? Those men for some reason didn’t sit right with you. You’ve known Mrs. Anderson and her husband Mr. Anderson ever since you were a kid. They were one of your favorite neighbors and you loved being in their company. Some might think otherwise like, “How can you hang out with old people? I mean they're old.” you hear an imaginary snarky remark play in your head and you just roll your eyes. 

The Anderson's were a whole lot more fun than hanging out with a bunch of whiny, bratty kids. You would always go over to their place and hear all the amazing adventures that Mr. Anderson had been on all over the world and Mrs. Anderson would make the best sweets in the entire world. You absolutely loved her honey spice oatmeal cookies. That’s right y’all heard me. Oatmeal cookies. They were the best and it felt like they were my grandparents. Even better than your real ones, but last year Mr. Anderson died and Mrs. Anderson was left all alone in that house with only the memories of her beloved lingering about. Afterwards you tried to spend as much time as you possibly could with her but now that you're heading to England...      

A grim expression settles on your face at the thought of leaving the home you adored to go to another one that you might never be able to call home. Suddenly the front door of her house opened and it was opened by one of those men. “Something’s not right.” you thought and saw the door to their car open with another man in a black suit stepping and this time opened an umbrella. Another person stepped out and  right away you saw blonde hair that stood out in this dreary weather. The blondie was also a guy and wearing a black suit and they headed into the house. I didn’t see Mrs. Anderson even when they went into the house and closed the front door.  

“Okay. Something’s wrong. Something’s definitely wrong.” You turn to your side and rummage through the beach bag lying on the floor that you had packed for the beach trip which got cancelled because of the rain. You pulled out your binoculars that Logan wanted to use to check out girls‒ahem, seagulls with and put them to your eyes. Maybe you were just over reacting and there was nothing wrong. But everything about those men in suits just seemed so...hostile. What? You look through the lens and all of a sudden a chill runs down your spine. “This...this is a joke right?” your voice quivered. You saw two of the men in black suits hold Mrs. Anderson while the blond guy stood in front of her. They were in the living room and Mrs. Anderson looked angry, but fearful at the same time. Suddenly the curtains were drawn and the whole scene was cut from your view.

You sat up rapidly. “What...the hell?” What just happened. You stood there for a second before you scrambled to the floor. “Where the hell is my bloody phone!? Damn this messy room!” you searched frantically.  You found your phone in the pages between a book. You quickly dial 9-1-1 only to hear no dial tone. You look at your phone. “No service my ass!” You put the phone in the pocket of your hoodie and run down the stairs. You threw on a pair of sneakers and were about to head out the front door when you stopped. “They’ll see coming if you go through the front.” You turned around and headed out the back door. 

The rain was still coming down so you put on your hood and cut through the bushes of your neighbors backyards. You were a good 3 houses down. There was no one in sight and you dashed to the other side of the street. As you made your way through the empty backyards to get to Mrs. Anderson, your thoughts were a muddy mess. “Maybe everything was alright. It’s all a huge misunderstanding. They just have had a little–POP!” 

You tripped and crashed to the ground next to the sliding glass door on her patio. You looked up horrified to see a body drop to the ground. “No...NO!” You cried out. A flash of yellow streaked across the sky. Illuminating the scene before you further. The figure with the blond hair was holding the gun. He turned to face you. A pair of icy blue eyes looked back at you. A pool of blood formed, the clouds cried bitter tears, and you lay frozen in place with that piercing gaze that starred right through you. What happened next is something that you’ll never be able to erase from your mind. That scaring scene and those 3 dreaded words that he spoke.

“Get him. Now.”