LJ Idol Season 8: Week 33; The Call That Never Came
"The poison will take care of you before the symptoms ever hit. Trust me on that one, Brynn". Looking down at the clipboard, he marked her name off the checklist.
"Thank you, Doctor Weber".
The old doctor's lips curled up in a wrinkly smile that felt familiar and safe. Even though he'd grown older and the lines multiplied across his face, the smile had stayed the same. This time though, weariness and defeat haunted his eyes.
"Remember, it's better to die from a poison than from the radiation..." Punctuating his words, Doctor Weber looked at her with his brow furrowed and eyes boring into hers.
"I know Doc", Brynn forced a smile across her face, "I was a physics major before the council prohibited me from studying it, remember?”
"That's what I'm afraid of...” Shaking his head, his eyes briefly scanned the crowd of people before relief settled across his face once more. Brynn gave him a knowing smile as if to say, I'm not that stupid.
Brynn knew to be careful with her words in public, so they kept their goodbyes brief. She wasn't sure how to say goodbye to someone who pulled her out of her mother's womb. A knowing nod and a handshake seemed as fitting as anything else considering their lifelong history.
Sighing softly to himself, he stood ready to serve the family of four who stood behind her. Brynn knew the family well, and tried to avoid making eye contact as she walked by. The Nelson's were neighbors of her parents, and once her neighbors too.
They had a stroller with them, two little girls with names upon their pink and yellow dresses to tell them apart. Lily and Lainey, identical cherubs with dimpled cheeks and just enough white blonde peach fuzz atop their heads to clip into a tiny barrette. Lily smiled up at Brynn, showing two teeth just starting to make themselves at home.
After trying for many years, it appeared the family was finally blessed with twins, which made Brynn happy for them for a brief moment before reality set in.
"Four cyanide tablets, please?" Paul Nelson spoke softly as his wife stared down at her feet, soaked tissues in hand.
Looking up, Melody Nelson glared at Brynn, "Traitor. Your science has failed you and here you are like the rest of us.”
Brynn had no desire to argue with her; like the rest of them she had no choice to be there. It was a mandate to collect your pills. Just as it was a mandate from the town council for her to return to their commune after she had tried to flee to university last year. The council forbid the studying of all sciences, and no one disobeyed the council.
"Good day to you too, Mrs. Nelson...” Brynn slipped away as quickly as she could, trying to wash away the visions of those angelic twin faces from her head. She avoided the gazes from the others in line as she walked by, but stopped suddenly at the sight of her parents. Their eyes met for a brief moment before they turned their backs and faced the wall instead.
Surprised by the fact that it still hurt after all this time, she turned away and walked out the door. Messages from the prophets littered her walkway as no one saw a reason to pick up after themselves anymore.
"Not the way I want to go, let me tell ya..." An older gentleman spoke up from beside her at the crosswalk, eyes fixated on a poster taped against the lamp post.
"I don't know... I think it could be kind of cool to see" Brynn spoke quietly to herself.
"Oh no, my dear. The prophets say it'll burn your flesh right off, you won't see anything. You'll just feel pain. Who wants that?" His eyes bore into her, as if trying to reach her soul with his glassy-eyed stare.
"But the sun... It's so marvelous.” Shielding her eyes with her hand, she looked up into the sky, “And exploding? I think it could be worth it... If it's even true"
"You're nothing but a loon, my dear. Listen to the prophets, it's very much our fate to die this way. End yourself the easy way like the rest of us". He stepped into the crosswalk, his cane helping to guide his way.
Maybe he was right. Maybe there was nothing for him to see, Brynn thought. But her eyes were still able to marvel at the world around her.
Crowding the streets were boys and girls in their finest church attire, their parents wore all black. Dresses and suits, veils that covered the faces of the women to shield the tears from their babies.
"We are going to meet the Gods tonight, right mommy?"
Brynn’s heart raced as panic tried to take ahold of her. Speeding up, she had to get away from the little boys and girls dressed for their demise. She needed to be alone.
The alleyways, her sacred sanctuary away from the rest of the world, had been her home these last couple of months. Pigeons, strays and vagrants made the alleys their home as well, but they never bothered Brynn any other time she needed to get away. Though today she witnessed something more disturbing than pigeons eating rotten moldy bread thrown out from the bakery.
A chubby redheaded boy was kicking and screaming at a dog. Yelping out in pain, the dog appeared ready to die as the heavy boy stepped on his hind leg with a crunch.
"Leave him alone!" Brynn noted the blood oozing from the dog's nose and the blood that covered the boy's shoe as well.
"He's gonna die in a few hours anyway. What's it to you how he goes?" The brat mocked her with a grin that just begged for her to smack it right off his face.
"Because this is cruel!" She picked up a large rock and hurled it at the boy all her might and it hit his jaw with a pop, missing the nose she was aiming for. His yelp of pain mimicked the sound the dog had made earlier.
She readied herself with another rock, one much larger than the last.
"Crazy bitch! Fine, let the mutt burn up!" He wiped the blood from his chin with his sleeve.
Shouting profanities over his shoulder, he took off running away from her. Brynn went toward the the puppy who had started to stand up slowly, his dark eyes watching her every move carefully. Whimpering, tail tucked, he wanted to run but his back leg was held up in a limp.
"Here ya go" With an outstretched hand, she held out a piece of beef jerky that was to be her dinner. Without sniffing and almost taking Brynn's fingers along with it, he gobbled the meat up in one giant gulp. Brynn wasn't sure if he'd bothered chewing or if he swallowed it down whole.
Sadly, she realized that the boy was right about the dog's fate.
It isn't fair, Brynn thought to herself as she leaned against a trash can and munched on a piece of the beef jerky. The dog whined for another bite, and with the blood drying on his face, Brynn couldn't resist sharing more with her new friend.
Suddenly, the idea popped into her head, You can spare him from the pain.
The pill! She'd almost forgotten about it in her pocket. Why let it go to waste?
She pulled it out and rolled it over in her hands. Small, white and foreign to her. It looked so innocuous.
Wrapping the pill in the jerky carefully, she offered it to the dog. Once again, he gobbled it down in one large swallow.
"There will be no more pain for you." She scratched behind his ears, careful to avoid the scabs which covered his head.
Gently, she pulled the dog into her lap as he whimpered slightly at the pain. Brynn had hardly noticed that stars now filled the sky, the night had replaced the day before she even had a chance to say goodbye to the sun. Snuggling in for a long night, holding her only companion who no was no longer breathing, she drifted off to sleep where visions of tiny particles, too small for the naked eye, filled her dreams. The particles started taking the role of the Gods, only unbiased and nonjudgmental in the way they ran the Universe.
Then she felt it.
Pain. Searing, red hot pain woke her.
Here it comes
She forced her eyes open against the burning, blinding light.
Brynn was confused.
It was no brighter than it usually was. The back of the bakery was still there. The common down the way that was bustling with people the night before was still there. Only it stood empty now. The sun was still high in the sky, in one piece.
Glancing in the direction of the pain on her body, she saw her limbs angry and red. From sunburn. From sleeping in the sun that was still in the sky, that was no brighter or more deadly than it was before.
Everything was the same, only different. The typical hustle and bustle of the city was missing. No cars honking as they drove down the narrow street. Brynn could see into the bakery window and where there was usually a line out the door as people were collecting their morning pastries, there was not a soul to be seen. Not even kindly Mrs. Henderson who always tossed Brynn a few rolls out the back door when she could was missing from her post at the counter.
Brynn stood up and laid the dog's body down gently. Walking to the end of the alleyway, she stopped at the intersection. The streetlights switched between green to yellow to red, but no cars came nor went. A loud sound startled Brynn, breaking up the silence around her. The school bell. The school across the way had large windows looking into large classrooms. The rooms stayed empty. There were no kids shuffling in to say their morning prayers.
The old church sat next door, already looking ragged and abandoned after only a few hours. A sign flapped in the wind merely stating what was once a given truth, “The End Is Now”
The finality of the situation hit Brynn hard as her heart raced; she was completely alone.
(This is one of two pieces for Week 32 in therealljidol. Please head over and check out the other amazing entries and spread the love around. If you're a writer and would like to get in on the fun, head over and try your hand at The Home Game, a no pressure way to write along with the prompts. Thank you for reading! Any and all feedback is appreciated.)