*this is my other story The Runner in short story form. I am not going on with the chapter book one so i shortened it and re-named it as what you are about to read Where The Music Is.*
I was running so fast you couldn’t even imagine. Aside from the deadly shrieks and cries of people, all I could hear were the heaves of my breath and the pit-pot of my shoes. I guess I was just so used to hearing death that I didn’t pay attention to it. The screams where getting louder, I was almost there. I pushed on harder, I had to get there in time. My breathing increased and my worn out gym shoes flew beneath me. Don’t trip Kurt, I told myself. Don’t blow it.
I was close enough to see smoke floating, reaching towards the sky. These peopled lived all the way on the outskirts of town. Almost there, the road went on for what seemed like forever. Dark Falls was a small town but it seems as big as the ocean when you are running to save peoples lives, the lives of people I don’t even know.
I finally reached the burning farm house. Everything reeked of smoke, I hated that smell but it was becoming an everyday thing for me. I ran inside, my job was to get people out, not to stop the fire. Quickly and swiftly I ran through what was left of the burning house. I could hear screams towards the back, that was a good sign. People where sill alive, I hadn’t completely failed.
Yet.
There where timbers and burning embers falling on me. But I didn’t even feel them, I was so used to being hurt and burned it didn’t even effect me. The smoke still did though; my eyes watered, and I was coughing hysterically. It was the smoke that killed you not the flames.
Crack! I looked up a beam was in mid air headed straight for me. I tried to dodge it, but it fell right on top of my left leg. This was the worst pain I had ever felt in my whole experience as a runner. I heard the bone crunch under the weight of the fallen beam. The excruciating pain started at my foot and slowly but painfully burned up my leg. With my right leg I kicked the beam off of me, and jumped up. My vision blackened as I tried to walk, I wobbled on my leg, and blinked furiously until I regained my vision. It was impossible to move my left leg.
There was a little girl rolled up in a ball, I bent down and quickly but gently picked her up. The burning flew up my leg as I straightened myself. The little girl was crying into my shoulder as I haled her further into the burning blazing barn. As I limped looking for a way out of the fiery maze, I knew that the little girl wasn’t the only one screaming.
Was I just being paranoid that I thought someone else was in here? The flames where closing in, It was getting hotter and with every move I made something cracked and broke. This place was going to come down any second. I was getting frantic looking, my hands where sweating, but not from the fire. From the feeling that I had failed. Most of the barn had turned to ash, and I couldn’t dare myself to look up at the condition of the roof, it would only make me more terrified. I tripped over a beam laying on the ground, how foolish of me to be so caught up in my thoughts to not notice my surroundings! My face smashed into a pile of ash and once again the burning feeling came, except this time creeping all the way up to my arm. I screamed out in pain as I struggled to keep hold of the girl.
But as I crouched ready to spring up quickly as to not suffer from much more pain I saw a body. Finally, under a half burned table, surprisingly not turned to rubble. She was bleeding so much that everything around her was covered in a rusty looking liquid. I had to get her out of here, but how? I had the other girl slung over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, this one was much older and a lot heavier. The flames were creeping up behind me, closing in, ready to attack. My arm getting covered in blood, I pulled the her out as gently as I could in the short time I had. I could barley move more then an inch at a time, my muscle flexed and burned as I dragged her. I was already weak from searching and all of my energy had leaked out of me like water swirling down a drain. I could see normal day light and sky, that was the only thing that kept me going.
How much I treasured the nice cool air, thick in my lungs. The wind was blowing a nice breeze, the grass as green as ever. I saw the rolling hills I called home in the distance, inviting me calling me to them. But I knew my job wasn’t done.
I was exhausted and soot was smeared across my face as well as the rest of my body. I liked saving peoples lives, it felt good after wards. But this time it felt different. She was obviously going to die, I couldn’t save her. She looked so serene and out of pain. How was that possible in her condition?
“Ouch!” She moaned. She was still alive. Breathing. Talking. It was a miracle.
“Are you okay?” It was a dumb question, I knew that. I just wanted her to keep talking.
“I…” She stumbled across her words. “I’m not really sure.”
“Don’t worry, you will be,” I soothed her. Number two rule always make the survivors feel reassured.
“How are you so sure?” She croaked, her voice was filled with scratchy notes from the smoke. “How do you know I’m not just going to die?”
“Because,” I paused, thinking. Thinking about what I would like to know if I was going to die. “Because I’m looking over you.”
“Where am I going to go,” She questioned me. “After I die?”
“Where ever you want.”
“Really?”
“Sure, where do you want to go?”
“Somewhere where there’s music,” She replied in a sleepy voice.
“You’re not going there anytime soon though.”
“I’m already half way there. I want to go.” Now I really thought she was crazy. Who would want to die?
“You want to go? Why?”
But the only response I got was, “I can already hear the music.”
I sat up and looked at her, really looked at her. She was beautiful. About my age, fifteen, with elegant honey brown hair that feathered all the way down her back, and pale skin. Her eyes where closed, hands crossed across her chest. I didn't even know her but I feel devastated that she had to die like this. She could have had an amazing future. But it was ruined, because I wasn’t strong enough to save her in time. I couldn’t look at her so I turned to the smaller child.
She was staring at me. Electric blue eyes digging deep into me. “What’s wrong with her?” She demanded, sounding alarmed.
“She is in a better place.”
“Caroline? Caroline?” She yelled.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be okay.”
“I don’t care if I’m okay! I want Caroline to be okay! What did you do to her?”
“She’s where she wanted to be. She’s happy.”
“Where did you take her? Where did she go?”
“Caroline went to where the music is.”
“Caroline, Caroline.” She sobbed, finally accepting that she was dead.
“Shhhhhh,” I tried to sooth her.
“My only sister, dead. Dead and gone. Along with all the others.” She reached out toward her sister, reaching for something she couldn’t have.
“The others?”
“All of them. Tonight you can’t see the stars but they’re still there.”
“If I can’t see it I wont believe it.”
“The darkest night is filled with stars just how the sun casts its light on the coldest day.”
“I guess so.” I was thinking really hard. About where I wanted to go, when I died. About how things are always there even if you can’t see them.
“Love always shines even if you are stuck in a menacing black hole.”
Then I felt it. I felt love and death grab at me perfectly in sync. I fell back and hit the cool Earth, the last I would ever feel of it. If I died from the thick coating of ash in my throat or the fact that my leg practically wasn’t in tact with my body, didn’t matter. When I died I thought about everything I had done, I could have done. My black hair was frizzed up, green eyes closed. I wasn’t scared about where I was going, because I knew. I knew exactly where that place was.
Because I could already hear the music.
Heavy is being too verbose (wordy) in relation to the setting and overdescription is just saying too much about everything)
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