I won't give up though. My hopes are to be published by next year and to that avail I'm going to force myself to write daily. Today I give you Where dawn broke. It's a short story about a young man coming to claim his destiny from a roller coaster. I hope you enjoy it and as always please comment.
Where dawn broke.
I swallowed hard as my throat closed up. The air was silent, save for the thumping my chest. This was it, I thought as I walked tentatively to the edge of the gate. No one around for miles, and why would there be? Just before dawn in the middle of nowhere. I was more likely to find Bigfoot than a pedestrian. Who I really hoped to find was myself.
I walked slowly, taking pained steps to reach out for the gate. Don’t be electrified. Don’t be electrified. I chanted over and over to myself, whispering in spite of myself. My skin felt electric as I touched the cold metal but there was no shock. I climbed hastily, clumsily, up the side of the gate and as my feet touched the ground I knew there was no going back.
I took a deep breath, took the world in as I caught the eye of The Spiral. How you caught the eye of several tons of inanimate steel; I didn’t know but I felt like I was in it’s grip. They called this place the happiest on earth but I didn’t feel that standing here. I hadn’t felt that sensation in months but regardless I soldiered on with life.
Move Justin, move. I told myself this over and over again as my pained steps became more painful on the approach. I could feel The Spiral calling out to me. I wondered how many other people felt it’s call? On average, several thousand people had to ride this ride daily but just how many of those people had heard the haunting call of The Spiral?
That didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that it called out to me.
“I did call out to you, my child.” A voice ran through me. Like the trumpet of a billion horns, it shook me to the core and I gave pause, stopping just a short distance from the metal. I could feel it pulling at me, urging me to come closer but then suddenly fear rushed over me.
“Y-you called me. Why? Why me?” I didn’t know why I was asking questions. I thought the second I crossed the gate that I had made up my mind but now fear grips me.
“You’re one of my children, Justin. I just simply called to bring you home.” My name sounds foreign at it’s mention.
Justin. Who was Justin anyway? Just another run of the mill outcast, closeted, white trash, twink. No one would miss Justin when he was gone. But that wasn’t the part that scared me. It was the word home.
I had never known that word to be a comforting thing but here in the presence of The Spiral I felt it calling to me. I felt it in my blood, my very being. I just didn’t know if I was really ready to go there.
“It’s time, my child.” I swallow hard again. I’m panicking. I can’t do this. I can’t go.
I say these things over and over to myself but I don’t budge an inch. I can’ move. I feel the pull of The Spiral grow stronger and I shout. “Wait! Just wait! I...Will I still be myself when I go?”
The pulling stops and it’s silent for a few seconds. I stand there trembling, being pelted by morning dew as it comes to rest on the blades of grass around me.
“My child. You have never been yourself. Why be fearful now when your destiny comes calling? Was that not the reason you answered my call?”
My trembling stops and I’m silent for a few seconds. I let it sink in as I try to let go of my apprehensions. I look into The Spiral, past the loops that seem to go on for infinity at the grey gold sky behind it. I knew what I was getting into when I discovered a simple roller coaster was a Genie Loci. I knew what was coming when I heard it calling out to me. I know now that I have to do this.
“Okay. I’m ready.” I reach out to it but there’s no need. I feel it’s pull on me as the dawn breaks on the horizon. I rise into the air by it’s power and I feel myself shattering along with the sky.
I go shooting through The Spiral. Through time and through space. I become everyone, no one, and then finally myself. It’s power surges through me and I want to cry. It’s all I ever wanted in life. I feel myself being born again and before I realize it, I feel myself die.
I come out the other side of The Spiral anew. Justin is dead and all that remains is the hero, born where dawn broke.
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