Let Not the Fire Burn

A clocktower chimed ten times in the distance. Thane Henley lashed a broken sword to the stump that used to be his left hand. He took a deep breath and stepped cautiously into the darkness. He slowly made his way down a road with burnt-out, wrecked cars and melted, bent streetlights littering either side. A full moon was all the light he had to make his way across the scorched landscape. The last chime of the clocktower still echoed out, never quite ending and seemed to be calling to him. As Thane made his way towards the sound he felt as though he was being watched. He neared the tower and could see doors open with people beckoning him in. He wasn’t sure about entering and his hesitation cost him as by the time he realized that he was being chased, it was too late. He pumped his legs and swung his hand and sword-hand as fast as he could to get away and make it to the doors, but just before he could cross the threshold he was hit from the side by one of the unseen shadows.

“Mooom!’ Yelled nine-year-old Thane from his bed having just woke up from his dream, ‘I have to tell you something!”

Thane’s mother, Leanne, rushed into her son’s room to see what was wrong. “What’s the matter, son?” She asked, holding him tight.

He squirmed away. Despite nobody else being in the room, he was starting to become embarrassed of her doting ways. “Mom, stop.’ He said coldly, ‘This is important.”

His mother sat back and listened while he told her about the dream he knew was more than a dream. Something he couldn’t explain told him it was a vision of a future. A future that was best to be avoided at all costs. When he finished, he was nearly in tears. Not from his fate in the vision, but because of how earnestly and impassioned he was telling the story.

His mother didn’t take it that way, however. Upon seeing his tears, her first reaction was to hold him tight again and reassure him, “Oh honey, everything is alright. It was only a dream.”

Thane pushed her off him. As a child of nine, and even with more force than he intended, he hurt her feelings more than her body. He quickly tried to apologize, “Mom, I’m sorry, but I ne-”

“No, I’m sorry.’ She cut him off abruptly. ‘I’m sorry for raising such a rude little boy who can’t appreciate a mother trying to comfort him in his time of need. Now I suggest you go back to bed and think about how you treat people. And maybe in the morning you’ll forget about this dream and be in a better mood.”

Thane let out a sigh. He knew when his mother used guilt against him it meant she was no longer receptive to listening to what he had to say. His only option was to do what she asked and hope she would come around eventually. So, he kissed her goodnight and went back to bed, but he couldn’t sleep. He spent every hour until morning waking in a panic that he was going to miss one of the signs.

When he finally got up for the day, he was exhausted, but he was able to keep going on his drive for answers alone. He knew he would get no help from his mother and his father was away on a business trip, so he’d be no help even if he believed him. “I guess it’s up to me.” Thane mumbled to himself as he began to write down everything he could remember in his school notebook. It was summer so he wouldn’t be using it for a while anyway.

While his mom went to work for the day, he used his time to search their small rural town for clues to what might the source of the end of the world in his vision. He started by riding his bike two blocks over to Main Street, the street he assumed was in his dream because it had the most cars. When nothing instantly matched up, he moved to A Street. There, he saw a sign for “Moon Towing” and another for a bar that had a sword on the logo. He didn’t think a tow truck company or a bar had anything to do with his vision, but he felt he was getting closer.

Before he could get to Washington Street to continue his search, he heard a car honk behind him. His mother had gotten off work early and came out to look for him. “Young man!’ She started in on him as soon as he had his bike loaded in the trunk. ‘Do you have any idea how worried you made me? I was terrified something might have happened to you.”

Thane tried to plead with her and explain the importance of what he was doing, “Mom! You have to believe me. The fate of the world is at stake.”

Leanne shook her head and laughed. “No, sweetie, it’s not. You ate too much pizza and played too many Nintendo games before bed and had a nightmare. We’re home. Go upstairs and wash up for dinner. And I don’t want to hear anymore of this “vision” nonsense.”

Thane grumbled to himself but did as his mother asked. By the next week he had almost forgotten about his vision entirely and by the time summer was almost over, it was out of his mind completely.

It was nearly his tenth birthday, as well as about time to return to school and with that came his yearly eye exam. His mother had to work again, and his father was still out of town on business, so their neighbor was tasked with taking him to and bringing him home from his appointment. He had never gotten the eyedrops that made his eyes dilate before and actually thought the cheap sunglasses they gave him were fun until he got back outside into the sweltering heat. It must have been the hottest day of the summer and the sun was beating down on them and those cheap sunglasses didn’t do much. The eye doctor, like most of everything in their town, was only a short distance from their house. Distance didn’t seem to matter though, as within two blocks the car was T-boned at an intersection.

Thane’s ears were ringing, and he could still barely see because of the eyedrops. He stumbled out of the car wiping a trickle of blood away from his forehead. He looked down at he left hand and saw a jagged piece of metal sticking out from just behind his wrist. His head was killing him, and the ringing wouldn’t stop. Without knowing what else to do, he took a deep breath and stepped forward into the semi darkness caused by the sunglasses that surprisingly hadn’t fallen off. The heat around him made it feel like the world was on fire. He could see the white shirt of his neighbor, Mr. Luna, through the darkness and he began to move towards him. The older man was on the ground not moving. The sound of sirens started to replace the ringing in his ears as his head started to clear he began to realize what happened. He could see people yelling at him to come to them. By the time his head cleared enough to figure out what they were saying it was too late. He rushed to get out of the street as fast as he could, pumping his legs and swinging his arms, good and injured hard. He was just about to the safety of those on the side of the road when Mr. Luna’s car exploded ending his mother’s world.