Hidden Memories in the Stormy Night

The rain was pounding against the ground, soaking the two young boys to their very core. The wind howled like a banshee, making it hard for them to hear each other speak, let alone themselves think. Brin struggled to keep his balance as he held on to a lamppost, a futile effort in the pouring down rain and hard winds that whipped against his face. His cousin Taepee stood beside him, trembling as he tried to hold onto Brin’s arm for support.

“I can’t see shit!” Taepee shouted over the roar of the storm, and Brin couldn’t help but agree. He had barely even seen his cousin before they ran out into the storm, and now they were completely blind in this downpour. Brin didn’t know where they were going, or what they were doing; he only knew that they had to get away from Mattias, or else risk getting beaten to death by him.

Brin peered through the rain at the lamppost that he was holding onto. It was old and rusted, bent slightly out of shape so that it leaned to one side. Beneath his feet was a cracked sidewalk covered with puddles and mud from years of neglect. He looked ahead of them, towards what little he could see of the street in front of him, and realized that they were on a rundown residential street somewhere in Oldtown. They must have run through several back alleys before finally finding shelter under this lamppost in front of an abandoned house across from a park with nothing more than a single bench. There was no way anyone would be able to see them out here in weather this bad, especially not since Brin had cut off their lights a few blocks back so that they wouldn’t be seen. But even then, there was no guarantee that Mattias didn’t already know where they were going. He probably did, in fact; he knew everything about them after all these years.

Brin gripped tighter onto the lamppost as another gust of wind blew past them, nearly knocking him forward into the puddle below him as he steadied himself against it again. This could go on all night long if it wanted to; he wasn’t going anywhere until it let up some more. But Taepee didn’t seem quite as patient as Brin with waiting for things to clear up, and he began to walk forward along the sidewalk towards an opening between two houses where a worn trail led into the woods nearby. Brin called out for him to wait up as he ran after him through puddles left behind by previous storms and mud left behind by bootprints from hikers who must have walked through here before them in search of an easier path through town instead of walking on these sidewalks riddled with cracks everywhere from tree roots pushing their way up underneath them. Still though, despite how bad the conditions were outside right now, at least they were somewhat sheltered from the worst of it here in this clearing between two houses which gave them some cover from being directly hit by any stray branches or other objects blown around by gale force winds that came their way during this storm. They were far enough back now where Brin could make out his cousin standing further ahead on top of a hill overlooking an empty field below them with barely any trees inside of it except for a few scattered around its edges which weren’t much taller than either one of them at best. In front of his cousin there was nothing but wild flowers growing amidst rocks scattered here and there throughout the muddy grass beneath their feet with tall weeds growing along the sides near their feet as well which made things difficult for Brin as he continued walking through them trying not to lose his balance on account of how slippery everything underneath him was right now due to all of this water being dumped down on top of them for so long straight now without any sign of letting up anytime soon either.

His cousin stopped in front of him as Brin stopped at his side panting heavily from trying to keep up with Taepee who was obviously able to handle walking through such terrain better than him somehow despite how long ago it was since both boys last went hiking together like this while they were younger back when they used to dare each other into doing stupid things like this just because playing pretend outside always meant putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations whenever they ended up doing anything too crazy or reckless which made getting hurt part of the fun rather than something scary and intimidating which put pressure on them whenever they were too afraid to do anything reckless anymore even if it meant avoiding fun altogether because fear got in their way and kept telling them no when all they really wanted was yes. However, what they really needed was someone willing to push past their fears for them whenever those fears became overwhelming, keeping everyone stuck where those fears took hold until it became too late, preventing people from having fun.

And then everything went quiet except for the sound of leaves rustling above their heads as people walked past