The Gift: Day 07

Daniel screamed out, his exaltations of joy morphing into wails of pure agony as the power turned inward on him. He could feel his stomach sizzling and expanding outward as the wrath of the gift was unleashed and consumed his flesh. It was his payment in full for the acts he had committed over the last week. All the luxuries he had afforded himself were now being brought to account as he trembled and ignited into blue flames.

The lightning lashed out in bold searing streaks, catching the people in the crowd off guard. It made no difference that they had been influenced and brainwashed by Daniel and Helena. The gift simply acted out with a rage unchecked and unbalanced. Castleton Rock became hot, so hot in fact that days later people would stare with disbelief at the temperatures recorded by a thermographic satellite passing overhead at that moment.

Daniel's eyes boiled in their sockets, shaded white and then withered away into the dry heat of the unknown, leaving two very surprised black holes in his flaming skull. His heart exploded and ruptured his chest outward in a shower of ash. Helena was whipped backwards, her spine snapping in half as her decaying body failed her. With one final scream she was lifted into the air by a stray bolt of energy and then scattered to the winds in a cloud of human debris.

Jesse felt the heat cooking his skin as he rolled off the stage and into the crowd. He could hear people screaming and crying out as they burned alive in the carnage. He could smell the cooking flesh as lighting whip cracked out and took some of them in the face while other times drilling into their bodies and frying them from the inside out. He heard teeth chattering and the sounds of wet things boiling and then exploding. He felt ash flittering down on him as he tried to crawl away.

Daniel's body stood for only a few minutes more before an explosion of the otherworldly power ripped from his insides and rolled outward in a huge shockwave. The last fleeting thoughts of Daniels mind rolled with that tsunami as it swept through town, carrying people and cars away into the air. A white Ford F-350 spun high into the air, doubled over in a wild flip and then smashed through the facade of the Pizza Factory. The gas tank sparked and erupted in a searing ball of flame.

Jesse cried out against the chaos.

The Ferris wheel groaned as bolts gave way, shooting forth like bullets that punctured concrete and flesh alike. He wavered for a moment and then fell hard to the ground below. The mechanisms holding the super structure in place melted and bubbled, releasing the huge wheel to roll down Pine Street freely. It crushed the blacktop along with the dying people below and made it a hundred feet to the bank before collapsing under the strain of it's own weight. Steel supports and metal squealed in a death knell as the wheel crumpled and crashed into the fronts of the bank and the Pizza Factory.

Every piece of glass, from cups to television screens exploded in the fury of the rage. The paint on the houses superheated and peeled away under the intense temperature of the passing shockwave. Sewer lids shook and then shot sky high as the waterways and pipes beneath the city ruptured and exploded, their watery contents boiling to the point of vaporization. The trees on either side of the canyon blew sideways, their needles and leaves singed black in a mile radius around the downtown area.

On the highway, the wall of cars at either end of the city tilted haphazardly for a few minutes as people scrambled to get back from them. The first few layers of cars tumbled and fell over as the walls lost their cohesion and failed. Screeching metal and explosions rocked the canyon as the roadblocks collapsed into gigantic heaps of smoking scrap. From the safety of their homes, the world watched the spectacle of cars falling from the highway bridge, their windows flashing in the overcast light and then smashing into the dry riverbed below.

The wave of blue fire rolled up the sides of the canyon for a minute and then vanished into thin air as though it had never existed. The wind slowly died down and then all was silent as the world beheld the death of Castleton Rock.

***

It had left him behind.

The image of the pure light burning his corneas was still etched into his blind eyes as he felt around on the ground where he lay. There was fine ash everywhere like silky soot from an intense volcano. He figured that probably wasn't an inaccurate analogy. Daniel had been the weak point for the gift to erupt through, just like molten lava from a crack in the planet's crust. And like any volcano, all anyone could do was get out of the way. He knew that no one had been lucky enough to escape the blast of Daniel's final murderous act. He didn't know how he knew, but that didn't change the fact.

Still, he called out, "Hello?"

His voice echoed through the empty streets.

"Anybody?" he shouted and got to his hands and knees, feeling his way around, "Is anyone alive out there?"

Jesse's heart sank as he coughed and sneezed on the cremated remains of the good people of Castleton Rock. They hadn't deserved this. None of them had. He thought of his mother and father, both dead and gone. He thought of Diane Brewster and Tina Moss. He thought of Elena's parents. He thought of all the people who had been taken here because of what Madame Helena had allowed. He had tried to save them all and in the end couldn't save any of them.

Not a single one.

The memories of seeing people being lifted into the air by the lighting was frightening and horrific to him as he reached the curb and sat on the sidewalk. Jesse lamented the pointlessness of it all and blamed himself. If he had acted sooner, if had just killed Daniel when he had the chance, if he had only not gone to Madame Helena's in the first place...

"It would have happened to someone else," he whispered and then added, "Would anyone else have made the right decision?"

Jesse looked into the sky and saw only permanent night as the clouds burned away and the sun shone down brightly.

He waited.

***

When Elena had emerged from the sewer, there was already a huge crowd of people around her. Rather than risk being captured again, she quietly stepped into the shattered doors of the bank and found that the vault was open. Money had been scattered everywhere, a testament to the greed and carelessness of Daniel's regime. Elena had hid behind the corner of the teller's counter and watched through the window as Daniel and Helena addressed the crowd.

When the blue fire ignited and the lightning flared, she had been blown backwards and off her feet by the concussive power in the energy released. There were only a few moments for her to scramble into the open vault and then partially close the heavy door before the shockwave hit. When it did, the door heated and burned her hands. She had staggered back and then waited in silent pain as the Armageddon unfolded outside.

Now, after waiting a good fifteen minutes following the ear-splitting destruction, she pressed herself against the vault door and pushed. She feared it might have been sealed shut in the disaster, but was relieved to find it opening with relative ease. What she saw beyond the open door was seared into her memory forever. Everything was burned. The teller windows, the desks, the carpets, the mural of the Southern Pacific train on the wall... everything. She walked slowly over the broken glass and scorched furniture as ash floated in the air lazily.

Elena stepped out from ruined husk of the bank and into ground zero.

The city of Castleton Rock was gray with ash and black with charred storefronts and overturned cars. Fires smoldered from the partially melted tires as the soot wisped in the air like snow. The sun had come out and the clouds were parting away to reveal bright blue sky. On the side of the canyon rising above the main street she could see blackened trees covering almost a mile's worth of the forest going upwards to the ridge. The remains of the Ferris wheel looked like some alien skeleton under the coating of ash, twisted and gnarled.

She walked through the center of the gray world along Pine Street and saw the carnival was gone, blown to dust. There were black shadows burned into the pavement and walls of the buildings surrounding the divided street. Elena had no doubt that these black scars served as markers for where living people had once stood. When she had emerged from the sewer earlier, she had seen her parents in the crowd of people booing and heckling Jesse. Tears welled in her eyes as she accepted that they were gone, unwilling to let her heart break yet.

She dared not let herself do anything else.

Sitting in front of the ruins of the stage Daniel and Helena had been standing on before everything went to hell was Jesse. His mocha skin was coated with gray ash, his eyes bloody red. As she came closer, she saw that blood from his many wounds had soaked the ash and turned it a wet crimson black. His shoulders were covered with slash marks, as was his back. His shaved head was dotted with cuts and wounds. She put a hand to her mouth and looked at him.

She wondered if he was dead.

"It's over," he said, breaking the unbearable silence.

Elena took a breath, his voice startling her.

"I know," she whispered and sat down beside him on the curb.

His eyes made her feel frightened. She had to look away from the bloody whites and the ruined black mess of his irises and corneas. After a moment, she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Not really," he said and tilted his head towards her, "I can't see."

"How did you survive?" Elena put a trembling hand to his.

"I don't know," Jesse shook his head, and then after a moment, "Did anyone else?"

Elena bit her lip and looked around, "Not that I can see. I hid in the vault at the bank when the whatever it was happened."

"That was smart," Jesse said.

"All the people..." she breathed, looking around, "Our parents... our friends."

"Maybe they have peace now," Jesse offered, though it didn't console him in the slightest. Dead was dead. He wondered if any of them could have lived with what happened, what they had all done? Jesse could feel his heart breaking as the reality of losing his family began to take weight on him. Tears escaped his burned eyes and made clean streaks down his cheeks.

"Don't blame yourself," she said, he voice choking.

Jesse was silent in his guilt.

"You are not responsible for this, Jesse."

He could say nothing in his defense.

"You gave it your best shot," Elena said, "I don't think this would have ended any other way."

Jesse hung his head low.

"You're a good man," Elena looked at him as her eyes became glassy with hot tears.

"I knew you'd come after me," he said after a long silence.

"I love you," she said and ran a hand through her disheveled hair, "I couldn't leave you to face this alone."

"I love you too," Jesse's voice cracked as his tears became bloody, "I am so sorry."

"Don't talk now," she said softly and put her arm around him. Jesse leaned his head against her shoulder and allowed himself relax as it snowed ash in the afternoon sunlight. They sat there for a long time, alone yet together, and completely separate from the rest of the human race in a dead city. It truly dawned on them both that they now had only each other and no one else to rely on. And while the prospect of the unknown future was frightening, they found comfort in the fact they wouldn't face it alone.

"Did you get shit on?" Jesse asked as his nose crinkled slightly.

"I had to take a detour through the sewer," she shrugged.

"You need a shower..."

"So do you."

In the distance, there were sounds of sirens approaching as the police and rescue teams entered the town from the south.

"You know they'll never leave us alone if they find us here," Elena told him, "The only two survivors of Castleton Rock."

"Maybe we should leave then," Jesse suggested.

"We'll have to take the detour if we don't want anyone to see us," she said grimly, "You up for it?"

Jesse squeezed her tight and reached into his pant's pocket. He pulled out a set of keys that she immediately recognized as the ones belonging to her aunt's BMW, "I'm ready. Let's go."

They stood up and walked back to the open manhole in front of the remains of the bank. As Jesse sat down and prepared to lower himself inside, he grabbed her arm and said, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For coming after me."

Elena wiped a spot clean on his cheek and kissed him gently. She said, "You can spend the rest of our lives trying to make it up to me."

"Deal."

Jesse smiled despite himself as he realized the greatest gift all wasn't the one Daniel had been pursuing or the one he had been trying to earn by saving this town. It was the gift Elena Morales had given so freely and so willingly just by virtue of who she was. She had given him her heart and made love to him. They had become one person and in doing so become more than the sum of their parts. In the midst of having lost everything, Jesse was thankful and grateful for her. He was grateful to simply be alive.

He took a deep breath, grasped the iron ladder and climbed down into the darkness with her.

"Oh, and Jesse?"

"Yeah," he held her hand as they waded through the tunnels.

"I'm driving," she grabbed the keys from him.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

THE END