While it is dark outside (Chapter Three)

Chapter three: damaged and incomplete. 

(To read chapter one, and two, just scroll down).

Chaos is everywhere. Jaime is looking at me, waiting for me to react, to do something. To help, to yell, to cry or to crawl into a ball and zone out. Something. Anything. But I just stand there. Taking it all in. Chaos. Chaos. Chaos.

"Thomas?". Her voice is distant.
"We have to help him" I say.
"Who?"
"The man, in that seat". I stare at him, he is unaware of everything around him, he is screaming as he tries to free himself of the pressure of the seatbelt, completely unaware that is he does that, he will fall.

I don't say anything else to Jaime. I just start running toward the plane. I stumble into a body, but I don't stay to look at it, I just continue running until I am in front of the crash. I look up.
"Sir!.... Sir!" I scream. "Stop that". He takes no notice of my voice, he just continues to struggle. "Sir!" I scream again. I look at the broken plane. I can make my way to him, climb trough the broken seats.

"SIR!" Jaime's voice is right behind me, "We are gonna help you, but you have to stay still".
The man hears her voice and stares at us terrified.
"Don't move!" I tell him.

I start to climb, adrenaline pumping my whole body. I'm not sure how I mange to do it. When I finally reach him I manage to stabilize my legs between two seats. I finally look at him closely. He is around 45 years old, he is a handsome man, in a very expensive suit. He sorts of reminds me of my father. The last time I saw him.

"It´s stuck" he says to me. His voice is rough. There is blood in his hands, but I can't figure out where it is coming from. I look at the seatbelt and notice that it is stuck in his own belt. "I can't breathe" he says to me "it's too tight". I have to get him out. Now.

"Ok" I say to him. "You have to try to hold on into this" I say to him and point the seat to his right. "And put your left foot here, so you don't fall when the seatbelt is no longer supporting you, ¿ok?".
"I don't think I can do it".
"Yes, you can" I say to him.
"No, I can't. I can't.... I can't feel my legs". He stares at me waiting for some sort of confort from my part, like "oh that's normal", "no, that doesn't mean anything", "I'm sure you will walk again". But I can't.

"Ok, then" I say to him. I asses the situation. I look around me and I see a pink scarf in the seat next to where I stand. I take it, move slowly and put it carefully behind his back.

"Jaime!" I scream.
"Yes" she screams back.
"Do you see a policeman, or firefighter, or anyone that could help us here?"
She looks around her. It isn't until this moment that I notice that something is missing in this hell. A sound. A very common, scary, but at the same time conforming, sound. A siren. An ambulance, the police, someone. There is only screaming.
"I don't see... I can´t, there is just... NO!" She screams.

I sight heavily. Ok.
"So, this is what we are going to do, the moment you are free, I'm going to pull you with this towards me, but I need you to help me, use all the strength you have in your arms so you can reach this seat, and then we will find a way to get you down. Are you in?" I ask.

He just nods. His breathing is slowing down. He is so pale. I can't wait any longer. I wrap the ends of the scarf around my hands.

"The seat belt is stuck to your belt" I say to the man. "Try to release the lock in your belt. Carefully" I say. With trembling hands the man stars to unbuckle his expensive accessory.
"There" he says with relief.
"Now, grab the seat with one arm, and with the other your gonna open the seatbelt. And I'm going to pull you toward me. At the count of three". He grabs the seat, his knuckles are white.

"One, two..." I steady myself for the next move, ready to pull him.
"Three" I say. The seat belt clicks, I pull with all my strength.

I hear Jaime screaming. I look down, still holding the man. And I see something is missing, something very important. His legs. I am holding tightly to the upper body of the man. I stare at his face, searching for something. But he is pale. Not breathing. Gone. Like the rest of his body.

He was cut in two, how did I not notice that? How was he still alive, and breathing... and talking to me? The strength of my arms give up and I release what is left of him. I see him fall, the rest of his body following his other half.  How? How? How? I keep asking myself. How was he cut in two? How was he kept together? How?

I don't want to stay here any longer. Carefully, I start to climb back down. I don't trust my legs and arms to function the way they should. When I am in the ground, I see his body. Jaime is kneeling beside him. Her hands in her face.

I walk towards her.
"We should have waited for help" she says. "You should have waited for help. You killed him".

What? I feel something familiar rising inside of me. "You killed him" she says again.
Anger, that is what is building inside of me. I was trying to help the man. No one was coming. And he was cut in two. How was I supposed to know that?

She stands up. "We should have waited for help!" She screams at me. "It´s all your fault. You let him die!" She slaps me hard.
I feel so angry. Something is taking over me.
"You useless bastard! You are just like your father!" She says and she slaps me again. "You are a mistake! A mistake!"

My arms and hands jump right in front of me, towards her throat. They start choking her. But she is still spitting words filled with venom. I put more pressure and I close my eyes.

"Thomas" she chokes out. "Stop" she says. "I can´t.... breathe". Something hits me in the back. I open my eyes and I see her, below me, her head resting in the pillow. I recognize that pillow, how did we get here? Her lips are turning blue.

We are home. I am home. I release my grip and jump backwards. Jaime starts coughing, filling her lungs with air. I look around me. We are at our room. What just happened?

It hits me. It was dream, I was dreaming. It wasn't real. There was no plane crash. No severed man. It was dream. Except, expect the part where I chocked Jaime. Her hair is in her face, she is touching her throat, her breathing is slowing down.

I was chocking her. I almost killed her.
I. Almost. Killed. Her.

To be continued....

C.L.S.A

Mary-go-round (Chapter three)

"Mary-go-round"

By Carla Sierra Arzuffi

Chapter three: "Sweaty baby pig"

Tom had written the book, old Tom, my old Tom, how could I have not noticed this earlier?
It was just there, so obvious to notice. My mind was racing a thousand miles per second trying to recover every bit of information I could remember about this book. I could remember the story almost perfectly, but I wanted to remember what old Tom had said to me about this book. I couldn't remember.

I felt blocked, the silence of house, as dawn was creeping into the windows made me shiver, I didn't feel safe here. I took the book and managed to hide it inside my clothes, placing it close to my stomach. I didn't want anyone to see me getting out of old Tom´s house, so I again used the back door.

I started my way home, hiding in the bushes, if anyone saw me, they would think I was crazy, I looked suspicious, so when I was finally near my block I walked right into the street and tried to look normal (happy).
When I finally stood in front of my house I felt relived, but just a few seconds, because the moment I crossed the front door I started to panic that my family would notice something was "off" with me. And yes, something was definitely off with me.

I tried to creep silently into my room but before I could climb the stairs my mom spoke.
"Mary, is that you?"
Her head popped into the living room, she was wearing her usual "#1 mom and wife" apron, which only meant she was cooking dinner.
"Oh, it is you" she said with a smile "I was beginning to get worried that you wouldn't come for dinner" all I could do was make my biggest effort to force a crooked and false smile.
"Of course not mom" I answered.

"Good, I want you to help me with dinner, Im almost done, Im making homemade vegetables pie, it is going to be delicious. Come come" she said as she disappeared into the living room.

I quickly took out the book from my now-sweaty-from-panic clothes and I stuffed it below the nearest couch.

I helped my mom with dinner, then I had to sit trough the whole event while my dad, mom and sister chitchatted about their day. They where eating slowly, every chew seemed like a thousand years to me. I was lost in thought when my dad spoke to me.

"Honey are you okay?" he asked.
I shifted in my seat, "Yeah dad, sure, why?"
"Well, I was talking to you, did you hear me at all?"
Of course I had not heard him.
"What is wrong with you?" my sister asked "You are sweating like a baby pig"
The words baby pig made me chuckle a little, it was all just so fake and irrational, why couldn't she say: Like a pig. She had to turn everything into a cutsie performance.
They where all staring at me.

"Im sorry" I managed to say "I guess Im not feeling that well, maybe I have the flu or something"
This seem to settle them.
"Oh the flu, my poor baby" my mom said "Im going to make you my homemade flu syrup, and by tomorrow morning you will feel better", everything  my mom did was homemade.

After dinner my mom pampered me, made me take a bath (I guess I really needed one, I was soaked in sweat), she made me drink her magical syrup and I was sent to bed early.

I just sat there, in my room, waiting for everyone to go to bed so I could recover the book. Finally at around 11:00 pm I heard my dad turn off the lights in the hallway.
I waited another twenty minutes or so and then I carefully went downstairs. I was relived to find the book was where I had left it.
I tipped toed back again into my room.
I sat in bed and opened the book.
If I was going to find the answers to this awful, confusing mess I knew I had to read the book all over again.
I made myself comfortable and started reading:

They were all lost souls, they all knew each other, they where all trapped. The fair was always as it was. The games, lights, food and characters where always the same. Although they were all tired and restless they did the same thing, over and over again. Jaime was in charge of the mechanics, Kate was in charge of the food, Nestor was in charge of the tickets, and so on and so on. They couldn't change their routine, because if they did, terrible terrible things could happen.

As I was finishing the first paragraph and recalling the first time I had read it there was a loud "crack" at my window. I jumped. The book fell into the floor.
A few seconds passed as my breathing got higher and higher, and then there was another loud "crack".
I could feel my heart in my ears, methodically racing, boom-boom-boom-boom.
I slowly got out of bed and approached my window,
There, standing in my lawn, was him.
Him.
"Peter" I breathed out.

To be continued. 

If you want should  read the other chapter just scroll down, as easy as that. Badaboom.

C.LS.A

The “Tynooza finite” (Chapter three)

The “Tynooza finite”

By: Carla Sierra Arzuffi

Chapter three: The Ally

You can’t tell or read Tyler’s life on a usual straight-chronicle-story-telling, because Tyler was not what you could call a “usual” person, he was very unusual, and so is his story. 

Amanda was an expert in getting away with things. She knew the ultimate secret of how keeping parents at a short lease. She gave them what they wanted and what they expected, parents don’t make questions if they don’t see the need to ask them. To them, their kids got along just fine, they were good kids that got good grades, did their chores and respected them. That’s all they needed, and that’s all that Amanda and Tyler have them.

The truth was, Tyler was afraid of getting his parents involved, he didn’t knew the extent of Amanda’s craziness, who knew what she could do to his parents if they knew the truth. This was a battle he had to face alone.

Amanda’s room (wicked lair) was a mystery. Tyler never was able to get inside, not even catch a glimpse. He wanted to know what happened inside so maybe he could know her next move. All he knew is that dark things happened there.

When he was 18, about to go to community collage in his hometown, like Amanda did, Tyler decided to get an ally.

He went to the rescue pound, while inside, it only took him a fraction of a second and a glimpse of a 4 months old husky puppy to know that it was meant to be his. He took him right then and there and named him Lancelot.  

The pound was a horrible place for a dog, so Lancelot was very appreciative of his new home and of his rescuer. Even as a pup Lancelot followed Tyler everywhere. Amanda did not like dogs, when she was little a big black dog had bitted her on the knee (she still had an ugly scar) so she stayed away from Tyler when Lancelot was around, which was most of the time.

When Tyler was at school, Lancelot was left alone, and he often worried that Amanda would do something terrible to his canine friend, but Lancelot was not a stupid dog, he could smell the fear and evilness in Amanda. She never got away in trying to get rid of the dog, she tried almost everything: poisoning his food, running over him with the car, throwing him out the window, she even once managed to get leeches all over poor Lancelot. But the dog was a survivor, and like Tyler Nooza, he was very stubborn in not letting Amanda kill him. Lancelot did die one day, but not at the hands of Amanda and her evil plans.

When Tyler was 23 he was finally able to move of house, to a crappy apartment in the same hometown, he wished that someday he could move to another town, city, state, or continent, but he did not have the money or means to that for a while. He one day, would eventually move far far away from Amanda,  but he would realize that you cant really run away from someone who wants to kill you, you cant run away from your past, or your future. 

To be continued......

Ropopooppppooommmmpommmmm.

C.L.S.A