Different

It all started normal. Every day of every week, the same. Month after month, year after year. The same. It happened fast. The day the rhythm stopped, and his life was changed forever.

He was walking. His mind clouded with the events of the day. All the same. He checked his watch. It was the same watch he had bought ten years ago. The day he got the job. An ordinary job. Lots of papers, lots of work. Never changing. The job paid well, just enough to pay the bills and feed him. He didn’t own a car. He didn’t need one. He walked everywhere, every day. To work, to home, to the grocers down the street. There was no stop. He couldn’t stop. He knew he would get home eventually, he just had to keep going.

His favorite part of the day was walking past the park. The birds, chirping a tune to the sky. The trees, swaying like dancers on a stage. And the children, running and yelling and playing. But something was wrong, something was different. He stopped, nothing was ever different.

The ground was shaking, dust rising off the ground. The birds took flight, their song no longer beautiful. The trees were shaking, their leaves falling from their strong branches. And the children were screaming.

The ground cracked as the machine rose from the earth. The hand of a corpse, rising from its grave. The man yelled and dove behind a bench, shielding himself. A boom sounded from below him as a gas pipe exploded. Heat washed over him and smoke burned his eyes. His ears were ringing. Something was falling, and he looked up. A giant slide was tipping over, right towards him. He yelled as it crashed on top of him, stopping him from moving. He was stuck, and he could feel his wrist break.

In front of him, the dust cleared and he could see the park, his escape, right in front of him. Sitting there, its engine giving off and electric hum, was the machine. The man stared at it. A large drill was attached to its front, meant for tearing through the ground. It reminded the man of the monsters and beasts he would read about when he was small. The always scarred him, but nothing compared to the fear he was feeling now. What kind of monster is this? He thought.

Something was flying through the sky above him. No- not something - someone.

The girl is flying. He thought. He stared at her as she glided through the air. Like and angel. He frowned. Am I dead?

She landed on top of the beast-like machine. Wings protruded out of her shoulders, stretching into the sky. Blue eyes stared down at the beast, scanning it. Her hair red hair flowed down her back like a river.

Like blood. The man thought. A river of blood. The red hair woman laid a hand down on the machine. For a few seconds, everything was quiet. Even the trees seemed to be holding their breath. The man watched in awe as the metal beneath the woman’s hands seemed to melt away. After a couple minutes, the whole roof had been disintegrated to no more than a heap of red-hot steel.

The red hair woman wiped her hands on her pants and jumped down through the whole, into the beast. The man heard the sounds of a fight coming from the machine. He could hear the yells of pain as bullets tore through skin, as bones were broken. The man closed his eyes. How he wished for his simple life now. He would be home by now, if his life were the same. Preparing for tomorrow, the same, never changing. Instead, he was trapped under a slide hoping that the fight down below never came up to the surface.

The man heard the noises stop. But that doesn’t mean they wont come back. His mind whispered. You could still be next.

The beast lurched as the woman soared out of it, her red hair trailing behind her. She looked around, scanning the park with her bright blue eyes. The man was frozen in place. His mind was racing, sprinting through all the things that could happen to him. He couldn’t stand to think about what the red-haired woman could do to him.

She seemed to find what she was looking for. Her eyes locked onto it. She started walking towards it. Her pace quickened with every step. The man could see the flame in her eyes. The worst thing was, the thing she was looking for, was him.

“Are you alright?” She asked him, reaching for his hand.

“Yes.” He said, grabbing it. He was in shock after watching the woman melt the slide above him, only to ask if he was okay. Her hand burned. He could feel blisters sprouting over his skin.

“Sorry.” She said, blushing. He said nothing. He tried to say ‘thanks’ but ‘what just happened?’ came out instead. She laughed. It was a pretty laugh, unique. Without answering, she beat her wings and took off into the sky. The man watched her fly off until she was no more than a speck in the sky.

It took the rest of the night for the event to sink in. The man had saw a flying lady, and a giant drill-car and nearly died. It felt like a dream.

Something must have hit him in the head, because the next day, he quit his job. He took a different root home from work, too. And a week later, he adopted a child. They went to the park every day.

The man’s story is short, for he was no more than a prop in something bigger than himself. But it meant all the same to him. Something changed in the man that day. He could have died. He decided he was going to live his life to the fullest, and be what he could never be before. Different.