Again - September Song

Again – Flyleaf

Two beats -one softer than the other- repeated with a steady rhythm just audible over the pouring rain. Deirdre let out the breath she’d been holding with a shaky sigh. Kieran’s heart still beat, with a strength that belied the pale stillness of his face. Thank God. She squeezed her hands into fists and knuckled them hard against her face. She would not break down and cry now. She focused on her own breathing, the cold rain breaking on her head, the heavy backpack pulling at her shoulders, anything but the terror of the last few minutes.


Footsteps. Someone was coming back. Dierdre grabbed one of Kieran’s limp hands to keep herself from bolting.


Matt came around the curve of the trail. His eyes flickered from Kieran to her.


“He’s not dead.” She said.


No relief lightened the expression in Matt’s eyes. If anything, his gaze became more somber. He looked away.

More feet running. Garret and Shannon appeared behind Matt.

Shivering –with cold or rage Dierdre didn’t know- Shannon went straight to the dropped backpacks and began strapping hers back on, “We didn’t catch them.” The rain had flattened her dark spiky hair to a sodden mess but she looked as menacing as ever.

“Next time.” Garret promised. He had kept his knife out and the blade looked wet with more than rain. “We’re still too close to their turf. We’ve got to move now.”

“Kieran is alive.” Matt said. The flatness of his tone frightened Dierdre. She clenched Kieran’s hand, trying to pull reassurance from its warmth. She searched Garret’s face.

“Take his pack,” Garret addressed Matt but kept his gaze on Dierdre. “Dee, we have to go now.”

Understanding hit her like a lightening strike. “We can’t leave him!”

Beside her, Matt had restrapped his own pack and hoisted Kieran’s with ease. He wouldn’t look her in the eye. Neither would Shannon. Garret’s face had set like stone, he wouldn’t change his mind.

“But he’s not dead!” She wrapped both her hands around his now and entwined their fingers.

“He’s as good as dead.” Garret took a step toward and nodded at Shannon. “And so will we be if we wait another minute.”

Dierdre shook her head. “No.” She felt Shannon take hold of the strap of her backpack from one side. Holding to Kieran with one hand, she fumbled to unstrap herself with the other. “No!”

Garret stepped over Kieran as if he were only a boulder in the path and caught hold of her hand before she could succeed in undoing the clip. She fought him and Shannon but now tears were blurring her vision and stealing strength. “We can’t just leave him!”

Shannon pinioned her arms behind her back and didn’t respond. Garret took Keiran’s pack from Matt and moved away.

“Please, Matt, please.” He still wouldn’t meet her eyes. Wrapping one arm around her legs, he lifted her over his shoulder. Dierdre swore and tried to kick free.

“He’s not dead. Kieran!”

August Song

Paranoid Android



“Did you hear that?”


With considerable effort, I pulled away from my sketches to answer my usually silent friend, “What? The air filter?”


“No,” Joam shook his head impatiently, “The sound that doesn’t fit. Wait a minute and listen.”


I waited. The struggling air filter cut in and out, our cooler hummed in one corner of the room, muted conversation came from somewhere further down the hall, nothing that “didn’t fit”. “Joam-“


“Sh.” He held up a hand. His face was tense with concentration.


Annoyed, I stayed silent but my mind began to turn back to the assignment I had been working on. How could I lower the energy needed to Slyman’s limit? Maybe if I-


My thought process slammed to a halt. What was that? Now that I heard it, I wondered how it had escaped my notice before. It was mesmerizing.


Joam raised an eyebrow at me.


I nodded but didn’t speak. The noise reminded me of a pre-storm wind but more delicate and piercing with a mathematical precision to its movement up and down in pitch. I felt an absurd urge to cry.


“What is it?” I whispered.


Joam opened his mouth to speak but the sound stopped abruptly. Ponderous curiosity changed to confusion on his face. Then an alarm began to shrill.


Air breach, dorm seven. Air breach, dorm seven.


I scrambled to grab my oxygen mask as the door to our room sealed and the air filter cut off completely. The warning sirens shrilled in my ears even after I had sealed the bulky mask in place but the haunting sound from minutes before replayed in my mind. I had to find its source.