Micro Fiction March Day 26

 

This is the closest I've come (so far) to missing a day of the writing challenge. I had a load of work to sort out tonight and I didn't sit down to write until almost 10.30pm and I had zero idea what I was going to write for today's prompt (When It Rains). In the end, I drew upon a previous story I'd written and decided to add to it from a different perspective. I feel like it could be better, but I'm tired and this was as good as I could manage...

When It Rains

Have you ever sat at your window and watched the rain spatter against the glass, one fat droplet after another until the entire surface is slick with water? Then he has seen you.

Have you ever noticed the way the world gets distorted through the rivulets of water on the window pane? And have you perhaps ever thought, for the briefest of moments, that you saw something out of place through that distortion, only for that sensation to disappear once you stare hard at the place in question? Then you have seen him.

He comes when it rains.

Dark emotions draw him like a moth to the flame. Not happiness and joy; but anger, loneliness, misery, and fear? Oh, those are the emotions he seeks out. And grief; grief is the very sweetest treat of all for him, for grief is a special kind of cold, seeping misery that he devours with the utmost pleasure.

And what is left of those whose emotion is devoured? Nothing much; he leaves his victims hollowed out like an empty gourd. Oh, they’ll go on about their lives afterwards, but they’ll be little more than a facade of the person they once were. For such it is when one loses one’s soul.

So be careful when you stare out into the night, as the rain rattles against the glass. For just as you stare out, so he stares back.

And if you have seen him, it is too late to be careful. There are things you can do; rituals and such that may serve to slow him, but you can’t stop him. If you have seen him, it is because he is coming for you.

It’s raining now, and you’re looking absently out of the window.

I know, because I come when it rains.