Appearances - And Other Stories from Behind The Mirror

Freak Lightning

‘Whaaat I’ve doooone...’
He barely moved his eyelids as the ringtone kept playing. He barely moved at all. Just sat there, motionless, apathetic, next to the shattered mirror. As if nothing was happening.
‘I’ll face myseeelf...’
No response. No reaction. No sound except for the ringtone – and the furious storm, of course, on the other side of the window.
He turned his ear toward it. Fat drops of water were pounding on the window ledge, beating it in. He smirked. He knew that if it rained long enough, there would come a time when there would be nothing left of that ledge. Just an outline of where it had once stood.
‘I’ll face myseeelf...’
Nothing. No response. No movement.
Then silence – as if the ringtone had been severed with a scalpel, the umbilical connection to the outside no more. He was on his own now. For a little while anyway.
ZANG...
A flash of lightning tore the night, casting shadows in the dark room. He turned toward the window and smiled, waiting for the thunderclap.
CRRRACK-SHHhhh...
He continued looking outside for a while with a grin on his face. The world behind the glass pattered along noisily, dripping away.
He turned away from the window and looked toward the phone. Black, smooth like obsidian, glimmering darkly on the coffee table. Funny how when the ringtone had stopped a moment ago, the whole world had stopped with it; the storm had been erased, even if for a brief moment; the rain had ceased, the wind had died down, and a lull had swept over the land like a silk sheet falling from the sky under the light of the moon.
ZANG...
The lightning bolt tore through the imaginary silk sheet and set it on fire. It burned instantly, in a silver-white blinding flash, like a magnesium strip, shedding light over the land. The lull was consumed, vanishing as fast as it had appeared, and the storm barged back stronger than before. The rain began to pound on the window ledge mercilessly. Clouds swept through the sky and collided with each other furiously. Thunderclaps latched onto the howling winds and rode them all the way to the horizon and beyond.
CRRRRRACK-SHHHHH...
This one hadn’t taken long to arrive. A couple of seconds only. ZANG... one one thousand... two one th-CRRRRRACK-SHHHHH...
‘I’ll face myseeelf...’
He did not respond. The ringtone was left to sing into the storm, falling flat with every verse. Flat on its polyphonic head.