Homecoming

Houses lined the road like dominos in the wind. Every cookie cutter house presented a false picture. Who knows what horrors lay behind the perfectly pained doors above the fields of cut grass.

Photos of beauty greeted the eye while walking along the paved road. Danial seemed to walk past the same photograph over and over, or so he thought. Insanity is calcified as doing the same thing multiple times and expecting a different result. The neighborhood captured that.

Daniel stopped at a house like any other. The only true identifiable aspect being five seemingly random numbers on the exterior. Screams should from the echoes of the past, they did from every house on the street. Labor undervalued, sweat and tears poured into these houses. All ignored by the ignorant residents inside. While the people withered away in their plain soulless house the builders disappeared from society’s eyes in places like Maplewood Hall.

The doorbell was like church bell’s ringing at midday. Daniel jumped back before studying himself as it rung. A shuffling could be heard inside the house as the door opened and an older woman opened the door.

Her mouth dropped open as her eyes met Danials. “Oh my… son…”

Danial was still on the couch as he sat inside the house. Hunting gear absorbed the decorations, the house looking like a hunting lodge. Guns lined the wooden walls seemingly with the souls of their victims still inside. Parts of animals filled the rest of the house. Rugs of animal fur and head stuffed with cotton.

Across from the statue-like Danial the old woman sat, looking him in the eyes. Neither said a word. Tension filled the air as Danial hesitated. His mind was worse than a hurricane now. Jumbled thoughts clouded every nerve in his brain. Thought was impossible, the stress denied him the opportunity.

“So about the letter.” The old woman jumped as Daniel spoke. His voice was soft and shaky like a freshly made piece of Geletan.

“To be completely honest, that letter was a shot in the dark son. Every since you robbed us and ran off to Vegas, we have wanted you back. We were mad, very mad, but as they say, time heals all wounds.”

Daniel looked down as if his shoes suddenly became an object of great interest. Nothing resembling a sound come from his mouth as his cheeks flushed red.

“I’m not sure what I can say. I was an idiot who thought about himself more than others. I guess… I’m sorry.” Danial continued to look at his shoes like they were fascinating. His voice came out slowly, raspy as if each word took a million years to say.

The old woman, Daniel’s mother, rocketed out of her seat. Hugs are known as beautiful things around the world. Security and safety radiate from the act. Warmth surrounds the bodies. That is what Daniel was feeling as his mother hugged him, the first hug he had received in a long time. Heat enveloped him like a blanket as his issues faded away like dandelions floating through the air.

“Now, let’s go see everyone else.” Daniel’s mother released him from her cage and lead him across the room towards a wooden door. The shouts of the animal souls faded into the background of Daniel’s mind. Hope conquered the hurricane that was his brain. Thoughts lined up in neat little rows, becoming battalions of soldiers marching to war.

Everything was clear now. Sins had been washed away in this room like sand on a beach.

When the door to the living room closed the chorus of souls became quiet as well. A long dark hallway lay there for Daniel to enter. It was a familiar sensation for him. Memories of walking the hallway burst through the battalion of thoughts. A different hurricane formed, a more pleasant one filled with drops of nostalgia flying around at seventy miles an hour.

Visions ran across the pale grey walls with mariont strings guiding them along. Daniel saw himself running around over and over, slowly growing up as time passed all around the world. He saw a wasted life full of mistakes as the marionett strings grew thinner and thinner before they snapped, and Daniel’s visions disappeared. Daniel had left the house, stolen from the ones who raised him.

His Mother opened a door like any other with a flick of the wrist. Dark staris descended into the great beyond. Menacing air surrounded the two as they looked into the abyss. “Is everyone really down there? You always told us never to even approach this door.” Daniel asked with a worried expression.

“Of corse, this has always been a special place in our family Daniel. We were gonna tell you when you turned eighteen but well…”

“No I understand.” Daniel descended the stairs, not meeting his mother’s eyes. Stairs creaked from under his feet. A damp smell started to fill the menacing air. Neurons flared in Daniel’s brain. They screamed and shouted that something was wrong, danger was all that waited at the end of this eternal staircase. The battalion of thoughts marched towards the neurons, killing them where they stood.

When Daniel reached the bottom of the stairs only darkness awaited him. Stars shined only in his mind that illuminated nothing. An empty void could have lain in the space as far as Daniel could tell. A rare darkness was in the room. No light could break the darks defence here.

“Bang” A frying pan disturbed the menacing damp air as it hit the back of Daniel’s head. His body collapsed to the ground in a heep. Blurry vision couldnt guide his eyes as the lights turned on. He could see people staning around the room. Faces of anger and rage plastered what little remained of his vision as his conscious slipped away.

One of the figures walked over. Each footstep sounded like an earthquake in his ear. His mind refused to register who it was. Their foot smashed into Daniel’s head and a sea of darkness greeted him.