Yours Soulfully...

20.

The sky was a confusing enigma that dusk. The red of the shutting down sun cast an unforgiving shade of scarlet on the clouds that suppressed it. The impending night sky was as impatient as a tired man just wanting to call it a day and strip off of his suffocating duties. The dark blue spilled out of the sky's uncomfortable zipper and it blended with the ambrosial scarlet like blue ink mixing with a stream of blood.

The sky looked like a writer bleeding to death while inking her last thoughts. And the message was completely esoteric.

But Kennedy Lincoln had no intention of paying attention to it anyway because he was driving away at his mind's own pathway. No map, no directions, no destination. In fact, his car was fueled by just one thing: his need to get away from his house.

Kennedy has been driving ever since he got out of his house. Amana had dropped a big news on him. Enormous news. Something unexpected and shocking. He was not ready for it by any means.

But, if he were honest with himself, he would have never been ready for that news. Never in his life would he have been ready enough to accept even the news of his daughter's homosexuality.

Sometimes, he feels ridiculous about his own thoughts and beliefs. How would going through a Confession clear your sins? How would maintaining a happy image in the society actually make us happy? How does Amana loving a girl instead of a guy make her any sinner?

How is it that he would not be frowned upon for his sins while she would be cast down for doing nothing?

A hearty laughter was the only answer he could give out to his painfully sharp questions. They formed the razor that wanted to break into the skin of his brains.

A sudden jerk stopped his car. That was when he realized he'd ran out of gas.

Perfect, he thought as he reached for his phone on the dashboard. Except, there was no phone. In the urgency to get out of his house and away from the news, he had forgotten to take anything except the keys to his escapism.

Groaning, he got out of the car and examined his surroundings. From the crisp, dead leaves that crumbled under his shoes to the barren, slender tree that bore no signs of life, everything around him was a symbol of tenebrous barrenness.

Chill ran through his spine.

He took a step forward, seeking any kind of life around him. All he met with was a gush of piercing wind. And then a black figure. It was quick and swift as it whipped past him with the speed of light, but to his eyes, the image transmitted in slow motion. As he followed the mysterious black figure, his pupils finally met the place. A palace.

Anyone could say that it was a palace once, 'once' being the keyword because now it stood a weary badge of impending mortality. The white matte finish walls were barely visible through the knots of interlinking creepers. Where the walls were not covered with creepers, they were infested by the feasting intrusion of termites.

A small tug at his shoe diverted his attention. He looked down to see a ginger cat biting his shoe's end and pulling them off. Crouching down on his knees, he softly pulled the little cat away from his shoes, and that's when he noticed them. The apple green eyes. They taunted him to tune into them, for the eyes had a message.

Get out of this place.

He immediately let go of the cat as the words reached his mind somehow. It was tingling in the gap between his skull and brain, the nerve endings fighting against each other to contemplate the simple instruction.

When he looked up, he noticed it. The palace was suddenly a couple foot nearer him. The door that was once closed was now open, creaking back and forth on its broken latches and luring him in with each squeak.