Catching Winds - Fiction Competition : #2 - Larz Graveus Wrath

Time, like flitting grains of sand moves with the wind. It trails the dunes of lost memories and forgotten ages and like empires old, turn to nothing but the fading debris of weathered rocks and ancient legends draining away into the yesteryear of youth.

He stood upon the precipice of a deep fall, it roared like madness against his ears as the waves pounded against the jagged rocks beneath the lighthouse while the winds ushered him to the edge.

He remembered when the world was better, sweeter, like the taste of old candy compared to the new and artificial flavors this world now possessed.

Wizened and wrinkled, he weakly hobbled to the edge; his wife, kids and Grace, his trusted Collie, were all long gone now... All part of the bygone life he once knew while he was forced to live on as an old man, forgotten and alone and without hope for a better future with only memories to live with.

He remembered when his wife would tell him an old sailor's tale of the “Catching Winds” by the great lighthouse on the mighty cliffs; where old men in the ancient days would leap off those perilous ledges and fall into the tides to die but instead brought back tales of their rebirth and countless lives they had relived over and over... He never did believe in them and yet at this very moment, he stood upon the edge of those very cliffs, staring into the tourmaline crashes of the sea and foam against black rocks as he thought to himself that he had nothing left and maybe this was a better end to the hard life he’d had.

He looked up at the heavens with a heavy sigh as the wind blew against his graying hair one last time as if life was caressing him to tell him it understood and wouldn’t hold this against him. He stared out into the turbulent ocean, then to the green meadows that sprawled behind him near the magnificent light house of legend and said one last goodbye to the world with a nod, took one step and plunged into the free fall of death.

He thought of Sarah and how much she used to love when he would surprise her with a rose or bouquet of carnations for no reason at all. He would wait for her outside her classroom at the university and then steal her for the night on wonderful movie dates.

He recalled the moment they had their first child and how beautiful his eyes shone when he forced his eyes open to see the new world that welcomed him and remembered how those little fingers wrapped around his thumb and seemed huge to his little boy then.

As the ocean smeared into a bluish blur, he saw his baby girl running on the green grass as Sarah chased after her to try and force her to put her shirt on while she waddled in her diapers around the lawn trying to avoid the clutches of her pursuing mommy.

He saw Sarah as she wept and held his hand for that one last breath as her cancer took her away from them all and could recall his daughter, already a teenager by then, crying hard on the shoulder of his more reserved son except for the trickle of tears that dripped off his chin.

He remembered his son introducing him to his own little boy whose auburn hair burned brightly in the sun as he ran across the same lawn his aunt once did when Sarah was alive; giggling and avoiding his own mother while shirtless and playful on the green grass.

He saw all of life flash before his eyes even as the chill of the fall brought his bones to freeze and his skin to tighten with anticipation, he tried to recall every moment he said “I love you” to his wife and his kids and a deep pain hit him as he felt he could have said it more for they should have known just how much his heart burned for them now that they were all gone.

He remembered the news when his little town had been hit by a terrible explosion from the built up tension of the war and how powerless he was as his whole world burned and tore away from him while he was on one fated business trip that had saved his life from the conflagration and that would forever end his thirst for career.

The empty coffins he buried.

The heavy nights alone in his bed as he tossed and turned with their faces burned in his mind.

The tears he had spent and the countless times he pounded against walls in heavy frustration, anger and anguish every day as he was lost in his bottle; trying to forget.

He felt his anger and sorrow mix together for once in such an undiluted way that calmed him as the sky whizzed by like razor blades while the clouds disappeared into the touch of darkness with nothing but rain to come.

He remembered the day he found Grace, a dog who had been abandoned on the roadside by careless owners and could not bear the thought of someone just leaving another in such a heartless way.

He thought he found purpose again when he took her home to nurse her and care for her as if she was the very epitome of all his regret and lost hope which he could mend and feed and nurture back into life. She would always gratefully return the kindness by being his guiding light on dark nights and being his companion where he was alone, reminding him she was there.

The years rolled on so quickly before he had become an old man, defeated by life as he took to the shovel to bury his beloved Grace by the lighthouse with the heaviest of hearts that a man could ever burden himself to carry; a weight that crushed him inside and buried his world as he wept heavily for she was all he had left in this world aside from the memories of his beloved Sarah and his wonderful children and their children after them.

But all that was dashed away as he could now see the ocean coming up; the spray of the salt licked at his skin as the rocks quickly grew into gigantic shards of obsidian sharpened by time and weather and life, awaiting his sacrifice to quench their thirst for all those above the cliffs.

He quickly looked up at the sky one last time and his body broke against the water, the slap tore every piece of him apart; his bones shattered like glass while pain exploded into his body as if he were facing a firing squad becoming riddled by a thousand bullets tearing into him, his breath forced out of him even as he submerged and in went the salty tinge of the sea water down his throat as the angry waves curled him beneath the tide and through powerful under currents.

He turned his head to look up at the sky from beneath the mirror-like surface of the water even as his limp and ragged body fell to the power of defeat while the sounds died out...the crashing, the earth, the sky...it fell so silent that all he could hear were his faint heartbeats. Holding on to one piece of hope; he weakly muttered the words “Sarah” as he slowly disappeared into the dark depths of the cold ocean like a memory fading from the thought; leaving all of life to join a dark abyss that may soon welcome his pain and hurt.

"Wake up sleepy head... "

A familiar voice echoed in his ears, he didn't know what was happening but the pain in his wracked body seemed gone and his skin felt fresh again; his bones were somewhat unbroken and the coldness was replaced by a soft warmth.

The light pierced through the veil of his closed eyes and as he slowly pried them open, he saw a familiar setting that could only force his old heart to beat wildly as if youth had returned to him.

He opened his eyes and found his mother standing above him...

He quickly turned to find his closet mirror facing the bed and saw a ten year old boy staring back.

He smiled with tears of joy that found their way out of the corner of his eyes; the legends were true.

His old bed held him in its softness while his old toys were littered about the floor as they used to be, but he didn’t care for any of that.

He knew the reason he was back.

“Wake up, Vincent! Sarah’s here to pick you up for school!”

“—The second time’s the charm.” He whispered as he got up for school.

• Larz Graveus Wrath