Monochrome beat (boyxboy)✔

Beat 1

1 YEAR LATER

~Jax~

The night sky was black. The streets were dark, so dark you could barely see your own hand even when you held it to your face. The place was dead quiet. It was like a scene out of a horror movie, only it wasn't a scene, my brain thought anyway.

It was real. It was happening. I was somehow in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by things I couldn't see, yet felt. Someone was next to me. I could hear them taking hoarse troubled breaths, as if their throat was scratched and the air followed the pattern of scratching.

And then I heard it, a blood curdling scream. It lacked the overtones of a grown up, suggesting a scream of a child. There was one scream, two and then constant wailing. I moved my hands to my ears to stop the piercing sound, but it didn't help. It was as though the sound was in my head.

My heartbeat quickened. I clutched at my ears, frantically trying to get the sound out of my consciousness. With every attempt it became louder. I closed my ears as streams of tears flooded my cheeks.

I wasn't just hearing things anymore. I was seeing them. I was seeing my little sister lying on a bed while some man stood on top of her. Her clothes were torn. The man kept moving on top of her. I couldn't watch. Yet I couldn't do anything.

It didn't matter if my eyes were closed. I saw it. I saw the man brutally destroy Sally.

"Make him stop", a little girl whispered in a broken cry next to me.

I felt a dry chill run down my spine. I opened my eyes, but there was no one there. There was never ending blackness. And then I felt it, the touch of a dead girl. It was so cold I froze.

"Jax make him stop" she pleaded.

I screamed. I screamed so loud I thought my vocal chords would rupture. I couldn't stop. I needed to get out of the hell I was in. I needed to drown out everything!

Something like lightning struck the sky, illuminating it. Slowly the darkness around me dissolved.

My breath got caught and my eyes flew open. I sat up, noticing that I couldn't breathe. My throat was tight. It was a struggle to get the air out rather than in. It was as if my lungs were withholding the stale air and refusing to give it up. My cough reflex was triggered.

I reached for my drawer, struggling to pull the door open. I finally managed and following a quick frustrated search, I found my inhaler. It took two puffs to open up my lungs. I took much needed breaths and realized I was shaking. I also felt very tired.

I fell back on the bed. I couldn't tell what time it was but it was dark outside. My room was on the side of the road. Since it was dark inside, I could see the street light outside flickering. The little flashes of light entering my room were what woke me up.

I switched on the bed lamp, uncomfortable with the darkness in my room. It took a while for my body to relax. I tried lying prone, and then supine, it wasn't helping. I turned to my side and was greeted by something.

It was a framed picture of Sal and I. I was 14 and she was 3 years old. She looked beautiful with her French braids. I had my arms around her from behind and she was beaming at the camera. I picked up the picture and ran my finger along the glass.

I was distracted by a different kind of flashing from outside. I could still see the orange flashes of the streetlight, but there were more now. It was joined by flashes of red and blue, and these seemed to alternate.

I sat up just as there was a powerful knock on the main door. I went to the window and pushed the curtain slightly so I could look outside. There was a police car in front of the house.