Dark Rain: 15 Short Tales Read Free Page A

Jesus, how were they going to move on? How were they going to heal?
    I didn’t know, but I knew they had to.
    I had to trust that I was doing the right thing, even though I was asking the world of them, to keep their father’s death a secret.
    My kids are special,
I thought as the wind thundered over my perfectly aerodynamic body.
They can make it through this.
Of course, most mothers thought their kids were special. But mine weren’t like most kids. In fact, they weren’t like
any
kids.
    Indeed, my son had all the strength of a vampire, without actually being one. And my daughter was growing more telepathic and more psychic daily.
    We’re the Addams Family
. I grinned, at precisely no one.
Only cuter.
Still I flew, higher and faster. I never got tired when I flew. The creature I became seemed to have endless energy. Supernatural energy. A creature that may or may not have been summoned from another realm, another dimension, did not get cold or fatigued. As best I could tell, the creature had armor-like skin. Scales, perhaps. A true dragon. In fact, creatures such as this—such as
me
—were surely the source of dragon legends.
    And I was pushing that creature for all it was worth. Hell, I had even done the research. I knew how fast I had to fly to break free of the Earth’s gravity.
    26,000 miles an hour.
    I didn’t know how fast I could actually fly, of course. My guess was maybe a thousand miles an hour. Maybe more, maybe less.
    Then again, I had never tried to fly at top speed, whatever that might be.
    Well, I was about to find out.
    Crazy,
I thought, even as I beat my wings faster and faster.
Hummingbird fast.
A blur of wingtips that I could see out of the corners of my eyes.
    Nuts, just nuts.
    No way could I fly that fast.
    No way.
    But maybe.
    Just maybe. Certainly, a very strong probability existed that I would die. That something very bad could happen as I tried to escape Earth’s atmosphere.
    Except, this creature’s hide was thicker and stronger than the tiles that protected the various space shuttles. Also, this creature didn’t need to breathe. The vacuum of space, I suspected, would pose little problem in that area. No, this hideously beautiful creature that I had transformed into would be just fine. How I knew this, I didn’t know. Then again, how I turned into a giant flying beast, I didn’t know either.
    But I somehow
knew
that this creature could easily handle the rigors of space. Even more, that it was perfectly adapted for it. Which begged the question again: where exactly did it originate from? I hoped to someday find out.
    I was now higher than I’d ever been before. My guess, maybe 50,000 feet up, higher than most commercial jets flew.
    This is insane
.
    It was, of course, all the more so because I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no precedent, nothing to base the outcome on.
    Just my gut.
    Or rather, the creature’s gut.
    Which got me thinking: did it need to eat? And if so,
what
?
    Who are you?
I suddenly thought.
    There was, of course, no response. But I suspected the Highly Evolved Dark Masters—those entities that fueled creatures like vampires and werewolves—might have an idea. More importantly, they must’ve have had something to do with it. And it occurred to me then, as the Earth slipped farther and farther below me, that the creature itself had taken a sort of back seat to allow me in.
    He’s here.
Watching me, observing me, wondering what I will do next with his body.
    Was he a sentient? As in, could he rationally think? Was he intelligently aware?
    Can you hear me?
I asked him.
    No answer. Still, I thought he was there, listening, alert, curious. I directed my thoughts to him:
You’re not a monster.
    There was no reply, nor did I expect one. To date, I had transformed into this winged nightmare countless times. Never once had we communicated. To be fair, I’d only recently learned that it was being summoned here from another reality. What reality?