Book of Aurelio - Chapter One

Rain continued to pour down over my body.  If I were in a more settled state of mind I would have been in awe at the force of it, the sheer amount of water falling from the sky and the cacophony of it hitting the earth and the trees.  But I wasn't in a settled state of mind.  My memories of the past... fifteen minutes?  Hours?  was fragmented and disappearing like dreams upon wakening.

I remembered my chest was on fire and it felt like a great weight was upon it.  I remembered shouting; strangers and my sister.  The smell and taste of plastic; the high pitched whine of a machine.  I remembered someone hitting my back every few seconds.  ... Eight-one-thousand... nine-one-thousand... WHAM!  ... Eight-one-thousand... nine-one thousand... WHAM!  I don't recall how long I was being hit or how many times, but the last one exploded through my being.  I felt every muscle in my body spasm painfully.  Every joint in my skeleton cracked and my spine popped.  I smelled ozone.  Every nerve was on burning.

And suddenly I was here.  Wherever here was.  The next thing I remembered was being soaked to the bone as I stood on muddy ground.  A brief stroke of lightning lit up the area momentarily, searing the vision into my mind.  A forest?  A bolt of lightning struck nearby and my whole world lit up again; but not as strongly as the one that brought me here.  I was thrown off my feet face first into a shallow pool of water.  "Fuck!" I sputtered.  Fucking strike me down or leave me alone already!

I was exhausted.  I just wanted it to stop.  I briefly thought for a brief moment to just stay there.  I was hurt.  I was tired.  I don't know what was happening.  I don't know where I was.  Why I was.  My wife... I decided to give up.  I felt the muscles in my body relax and I lay my head down and closed my eyes.

I don't know how long I was asleep.  But apparently I was because I woke up.  Every muscle in my tired body ached and I groaned.  It was still storming like the gods wanted to drown me.  I wished they did.  But the lightning and thunder was less.  There was actually time to count the moments between flash and sound.  My tired mind tried to remember the correlation of that and distance and quickly discarded the thought.  No time.  Time to stand.  Stand up, Leo.  STAND UP!

I heard myself growl with the effort managed to push myself up and staggered onto my feet.  I felt my knees tremble and forced myself to stand to my full homo sapien height.  Lightning flashed somewhere to the left of me up where the land rose.  ...Six-one-thousand... seven-one-thousand... eight- I heard muted rumble.  Uh, it's farther than before.  

I began trudging up the small rise, mud squelching between my toes.  I frowned and looked down.  I saw my bare feet.  I also saw my bare penis.  I grunted and filed the observation away and continued.  Why am I moving? I thought to myself.  Where am I even going?  After a few minutes I crested the rise, my feet probably being cut to shreds on unseen rocks.  I also filed that thought away for later.  Moving is better than not moving.

A blast of wind hit me and I smelled... ocean?  I frowned and after a few more steps I stopped and waited while I was both being assailed by the wind and drowned by the rain.  I felt a small voice say Cold.  You're a little cold, Leo.  Another flash of lightning flashed and revealed an infinite rolling field of black and was again swallowed whole by shadow.

I kept my eyes down to where I assumed the ground would be and waiting for the next flash.  seven-one-thousand... eight-one-thousand... nine-one thousand Flash.  There was no ground.  Instead there before me was a sheer drop abruptly ending upon sharp pointy rocks and then an angry ocean.  Hm.  It's not the fall that gets you!  It's the sudden stop!

I stumbled back a little and fell onto my butt splashing mud every where.  What now, Smart Guy?  I lifted my face towards the rain and laughed.  How about dying?  We die now?  It's pretty cold.  We always liked the cold but this is a little too cold.  For the first time I noticed my breath frosting the air.  A part of me patiently wanted to wait.  Just a little bit more.  I sighed.  I felt my body signaling that it wanted to urinate.  I shrugged and just let it go.  The rain will wash it away.  My body said it felt relieved and I felt a little triumphant.  At least I could answer that problem.

My body started shaking more insistently now and I swore.  Move, Leo.  I stood up again and peered into the blackness waiting for another flash.  Almost a minute went by.  Please, please, please.  I need information.  Please... Flash.  I quickly glanced left to right.  Beach.  Wooden boats.  Wooden pier.  Wooden... buildings.   Then about the same level as the cliff I stood in the distance I saw a tall stone structure.  Lighthouse?  An unlit lighthouse.  A Darkhouse.

I grunted and started moving in that general direction.  Better than nothing.

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