Blood Rain

It was raining today, which meant Sami had taken extra care getting dressed. She wore black knee-high rain boots, black tight pants tucked in with a black trench coat atop. She tied it all together with a pitch-black umbrella big enough for three. She could not let a single drop of rain touch her. 

Sami rubbed her eyes as she passed strangers, in her eyes they were all covered in thick, red all-consuming blood. Most people did not have the need for umbrellas, so when it rained her life looked more of a horror film than reality. The crimson gory scenes of the movie, that most covered their eyes for haunted her as she walked to work. Even if the blood wasn’t real on everyone else, her rain only consumed her mind and would only be a reality once it touched her it still felt real enough that it left her feeling haunted. 

But as long as she wasn’t caught with her rain, she would make it. Blood rain was only brought upon through killers, and if you were caught with blood rain, they would immediately jail you. It seemed extreme but here rain was holy and showed who you truly were. 

Sami used to have rain of water, she thought it was boring compared to others and now she found herself praying for those boring days back.

As she walked up the side street of her office Sami passed by a woman in a long sweetheart dress while she frolicked through the streets carrying a basket of wildflowers. Most beautiful women had rain of flowers and she used to be jealous, which was a pretty juvenile thing to be jealous of when some were blessed enough to have raining money, or even diamonds. Sami was just hoping for anything other than the blood that came a few days ago. 

It rained that day too as many days do here in Seattle. It was the morning of the worst day of her life that had started with a blissful walk of calming water rain and ended in a powerful pour of red thick hot blood coating her. She had first noticed it when she peered down the roof of her work building, and when she did that horrible thing, that unforgivable thing, she saw him lying all twisted and disfigured covered in blood not only from his wounds but from the rain pouring down. 

She looked at her hands then and the blood had soaked them with the rest of her body, and it felt fitting to what she had just done.

Sami had felt guilty the second she did that horrible thing. It was instant, and the thing about guilt it was worse than the blood. It was still thick and all-consuming, but it wasn’t just physical, it was so deeply rooted inside her she felt an ache the second she woke up. She felt it with every passing day more and more. When people stared at her too long, she wondered if they knew what she had done, it was a ridiculous thought and Sami knew that, but it felt real too. It didn’t matter if it was all in her own head, she was left in a permanent state of anxiety and fear.

It had been worse these last couple of days, but she couldn’t miss work. She didn’t want to put a target on her back, especially on days that it rained. No one stayed home while it rained, rain days were blessed. 

As Sami walked through her building’s revolving doors, she greeted the security guards showing a bright smile while quickly dropping her umbrella in the closet trash bin. She had an extra- or three in her closet upstairs and rushed up the stairs. The last few days she would have changed her clothing too but today she had a real reason to be dressed in all black, which only haunted her more. 

“It’s a shame isn’t it; you never know what someone is going through,” She heard her coworker Kevin whispering to Jessica his ass propped up on her cubical desk. It was not unusual for her coworkers to huddle around her cubical and she didn’t miss the comical tone in his voice. Everyone was sad about his death, well as sad as you can be when the kindest boss jumps hundreds of his feet to his death but still the office took it as an opportunity to gossip. 

Only Jessica who was usually the first to jump up with news looked different, she looked almost as lost as Sami was. 

“Jesus guys today is the funeral do we really need to talk about this here too?” Sami turns on the charm, her perfect work tone to hide the truth. She slams her bag onto the desk and sits next to Jessica. 

“Oh, please everyone knows you had a crush on the man, you must be crushed,” Kevin says and Sami can’t help the flush that comes across her face. That’s far from the truth, Sami never liked her boss. She was simply polite because she needed the job. She had ignored all his advances, and he was nice enough that when he asked for drinks after work, she figured there would be no harm. Now she wished she knew that would send her world into a whirlwind. 

“Hellloooo Earth to Jessica,” Kevins giggling to her. She had not realized he had kept talking to them, and she was just as lost in thought as Sami was. Sami moved back in her chair and studied her more, now that she thought of it Jessica had started to act different just a couple of days before the accident.

Could it be? Could he have done it before? Sami was lost in thought now studying her closely. Maybe she was just looking for an excuse to make herself feel better, or maybe it could be true. Maybe Sami got rid of a monster and saved more people than the one she hurt. 

Sami whispered towards Jessica; Kevin too self-involved in his own story he didn’t even notice. “Are you okay Jess? You seem different.” 

“Huh yeah, I’m fine.” Jessica responded. But her mind seemed to be worlds away. Sami recognized that look, Jessica was haunted. “I- I have to go.” Jessica abruptly got up and ran towards the bathroom. Sami moved her chair back to chase her when she saw the rose left behind in Jessica’s chair. She reached to grab it and flinched her hand away dropping the rose on the floor. It was covered in hundreds of tiny thorns that were barely visible causing Sami’s hand to bleed. 

Sami grabbed a tissue from her desk and picked up the rose running to the bathroom. “Jess, are you in here?” Jessica was crying at the sink. “Jess, I thought your rain was wildflowers what is this?” Sami asks coming close to put her hand on her shoulder. Jessica immediately flinches at her touch. “You can tell me if something happened, Jess because it happ-,” Sami is saying but Jessica cuts her off and sucks all her tears back in. 

“I told you I am fine!” Jessica snaps and struts out the door. 

But Sami was now more convinced than ever. And maybe her reasoning for proof was selfish she knew she had to get down to the truth- today. 

                                            ******

While everyone was at the funeral Sami had made an excuse that she forgot about some work she had to finish. She waited until the last person left the office and ran to the end of the building to her boss's office. She needed proof. She needed to know what she did was not her fault. That she didn’t send mixed signals that led to a man's death. She ransacked his office, and she left everything back the way she found it, but she did not leave a stone unturned. The closets and file cabinets, the desk and windowsills. But nothing was out of the ordinary. 

            Still, Sami couldn’t shake the feeling in her stomach. She slouched down to his desk chair and cursed silently. The only option left was his computer. Could he be dumb enough to leave evidence on a work computer? Yes. She immediately thought. He was far from dumb but too arrogant to think anyone would look. As many men who abuse their power usually are.

The only problem was the computer had a password she couldn’t crack. She typed endless passwords and was about to give up when she started to shake and the office door swung open. She sat stunned and caught, staring at the janitor who had about the same expression as she had on his face. 

She recognized the janitor from the night of the accident he was there when her boss told him he would loVick up the building instead. She had sworn his eyes were screaming something his mouth couldn’t. But he simply left and that’s when everything started going wrong. 

The janitor walked over to the desk and wrote something on a sticky note sliding it over to Sami. Now his eyes screamed, “I’m sorry.” When she looked down at the note “Bossman69$” was scribbled across, she looked up to thank him, but he was already gone. 

Saying a small prayer to the rain gods she typed in the words and grinned when the computer unlocked. 

It took probably five minutes to find what she was looking for, actually, she found much worse. There were pictures of countless coworkers of hers, most whom had been fired. Sami couldn’t help it she threw up straight into the waste bin next to his desk and quickly emailed almost every single photo to the police station. She emailed all except one, that one, she deleted from the computer but not before printing it out and stuffing it into her pocket. 

Sami ran all the way to the cemetery; it was a few blocks away and the sun left her sweaty and panting as she arrived. She looked through the crowd of headstones and heads and found the one she was looking for. She ran to Jessica not caring about the weird stares from everyone and the priest who continued his prayers to the rain while she grabbed her and ran to a far tree.

“Sami are you out of your mind what are you doing?” Jessica said with her eyes wide and her head full of rose petals. 

“Listen to me okay, just listen. I’m going to tell you something and I just want you to hear me okay.” Jessica stopped her fidgeting and wrapped her arms around herself, so Sami continued. “He told me to have drinks, I should’ve said no but I didn’t. We stayed late and we drank on the roof. But when I stopped drinking, he continued. He wanted me to keep going too, but I’ve never been fond of liquor and if I was honest, it tasted kind of strange.” Sami wiped the stubborn tears that left her eyes, but she continued. “He tried to kiss me, but I refused and tried to run. But he was relentless, we were at the edge when he was able to lift my skirt. I-I freaked out and I kicked him and fought as hard as I could. He was so strong, but he was also so drunk. I was able to make him lose his balance and I pushed as hard as I could. Then he fell straight off the side of the roof.” 

Sami’s tears were falling uncontrollably finally able to tell someone not only what she did but what he made her do. She felt the physical weight of the guilt slowly leaving her. Jessica was crying now too. And she didn’t need to tell her story for Sami to know it must have been similar to hers but with a worse ending. 

She took the crumpled-up photo from her pocket and handed it over. “We weren’t the only ones, and I emailed the others to the police, but I thought you should have this. If you want to tell the cops what I did you can, I won’t ask you not to I just needed you to know I don’t regret what I did. It wasn’t our fault and he got what he deserved.”

Sami began to walk away, but when Jessica reached for her hand, she turned her into an embrace. They both sobbed into each other. Sami felt the touch of the rose peddles on Jessica’s shoulders. They were still spiked but now they had way less than before. Jessica would always be changed by that day, and she would probably permanently feel like a guarded flower. But Sami only hoped that in time she could find that roses were beautiful thorns and all. 

Sami walked away; a burden lifted from her. Feeling more content than she had in days.

“Hey, Sami? What did your rain change to?” Jessica called out to her. 

“What do you mean?” Sami turned with a curious smile. 

“Well, you used to have water rain but you're all dry, so what did it change to?” 

“Is it raining?” Sami asked confused staring up at the bright sunny sky. 

“Umm duh, it’s raining Sami,” Jessica said matter of factly holding up tons of roses. 

  Sami smiled wide and turned to walk away feeling the warmth of the sun and the peace in her heart for the first time in a long time.