9/11 Short Stories

The sign blinks and beckons at Alyssa from behind the misty sheet of rain. In bright pink flashing fluorescent it says:

It was summertime. The refreshing breeze that blows and the heat of the sun gives me a pleasing pleasure. I heard people singing, dancing and drinking. It was my Mom 50th birthday. All our relatives and friends are here to celebrate. Everyone is boisterous and relish. I was startled when heed 10 missed calls on my phone. My phone rang again, and I didn't delay picking it up. It was my Sister-in-law. She told me that my Fiance is seriously infirm. I was distressed, petrified, and bewildered about what I heard. My body abruptly, shivering, and I felt contrite regarding what happened to him. I planned to go back home, but He insists not to. I moan every night and restless during the daytime. My mind is devastated, I can't envisage, and I can't

I sat on the bench waiting for the bus. I shoved my hands into my pockets. The bus is late. It's now quarter to 11. The bus was supposed to come at 10pm. I let out a sigh and gave up.

Becca weaved around the drunken crowd standing idly in the middle of the sidewalk and caught up with her family. The nightlife soundtrack of laughter and sirens had been slightly lowered with the rain this evening and the street lights were dimmer than usual. Becca enjoyed the new atmosphere and shared her giddiness by marching through every puddle that dared come in her path. Life was good, but she missed her home, and this city was a constant reminder of how much unlike it was to where she grew up. Stars and open sky and trees were home; there were no stars in this place. In midst of her splashing, a rumbling interrupted and stopped her; its source being the pit of her tiny belly. Her parents turned to her and laughed.

As her heart stutters out weak, agonizing beats, she sees the distorted figure once again. She strains her eyes with the last remnants of her strength, but once she recognizes who the figure is, she wishes she hadn’t. Ignorance truly is bliss; she thinks, as her life slips away. She realizes who had caused her to fall—who had caused her to die?

An immense pressure bore on her confused mind, feeling like a lost soul in the depths of hell. Her vision swam into focus as her eye adjusted to the dim light, coming from some crack in the wall, but only for a minute, before it dwindled like a dying star, brining darkness once more. The world around her was like a distorted night sky, gyrating across rippling oceans waves, lit by the moon.

The clouds came in overhead darkening the ground underneath where the travelers lay to rest. The snowfall that followed them was a beautiful dancer dressed in all white with a black knife behind her back. They did not know of a single man who still had all his fingers and toes for the dancer was spinning and spinning with her knife out wherever she pleases. She was brutal in the cruelest way and careless way. She was killing the men one by one. She would not rest until summer came. Sometimes they would look up at the sky and hate with all their heart how beautiful she is for she is a monster of the worst kind. The ones that greet you with kindness and beauty and leave you with nothing but your own rotting flesh. They would walk forward in

She found herself, her eyes steady to the horizon, her face aglow, bright, with the last amber rays of sun before dusk beckoned the stars. A reddish beam streaked though the boughs of the great Cotton tree in both brilliant and shadowy beams. Fern trees hung before her like giant emerald curtains and from them drops of water dangled like diamonds on a necklace. The branches of the Guaguos danced, falling upon each other in a virescent mosaic and above the birds warbled. She walked amongst the dripping oranges, and golden pineapples; the pomegranates which hung like broken shards of sunrise from sprawling branches. The wind roared through the leaves, and coiled around her feet. Looking up she saw a flock of Red-billed tropicbirds floating upon grey clouds blowing over from

An eruption obliterated the silence; quickly followed by an eerie pause. A gentle hum lingered about the air. The night’s serenity was vanquished and all tranquility lost. Flashes of light littered the sky. Eyelids fluttered to life and her body shuttered. The past few nights followed this pattern. There was no escaping the reality of tomorrow.

“Once upon a time, there was a girl of wondrous beauty, with eyes of gold, hair soft as silk, lips red as roses, a bright smile of sunshine and a voice that flowed as smooth as a river. Even with all of her beauty, she remained separated by the rest of the world. She was lonely and lovely, and none dared to talk to her for fear of losing themselves in her golden eyes. Equally as enchanting was her voice, leaving her words to pour out in a wonderful melody like a song that threatened to entrance those that listened. Because of this, she was left to talk to herself, as others feared too much of becoming enthralled by her words to listen.

The grass whispered under his body. He put his arm down, feeling the sheat of fuzz on it, and far away, below, his toes creaking in his shoes. The wind sighed over his shelled ears. The world slipped bright over the glassy round of his eyeballs like images sparked in a crystal sphere. Flowers were suns and fiery spots of sky strewn through the woodland. Birds

His fingers flowed across the piano keys like a ballerina, so elegant and graceful. His gaze was lowered to where his hands spun the melodic notes and I could make out the dark, black lashes on his eyes lined perfectly with one another. He appeared calm, serene, at peace. No frown marked his forehead, no desire tugged at his lips. He was simply sat at the back of the common room, slipped into his own world of beautiful music.

She was alone, making her way home on a beautiful summer’s night. The colour filled skies and the warm breeze persuaded her to take the long way home. Walking through the empty, lifeless streets. With every small step she took she smiled. Everything was falling in to place. Her life was back on track, she found him. The man of her dreams. The person to make her feel alive, to show her she hadn’t been living. Smiling as she walked further and further down the motionless streets.

Their signals created a lovely dance of alien starlight cast adrift in the inky night.

Her ears rang. Everything burned in an intense wave of heat in an instantaneous flash which then dissipated just as quickly. Noises of panic, muffled, as if an ocean was between them. And sounds had filtered down into a monotonous high-pitched, screeching drone. Utter chaos beneath a veil of tranquility.