One by one the lights of the
city block winked out, the dark coming ever closer. Daniel Clifford regarded
the oncoming dimness with disdain.
“You think I give a rat-fuck if
this shite storm tears this fuckin’ city apart?” he sneered. “I’ve fuck-all to
lose. Fucking garbage hand I was given with this achy-breaky-shake-and-bakey
brain of mine. Should the forces of evil invade, I’ll lay down me life with
nary an ounce of qualm. Come on, you rat fuck sons of bitches, you call this a
storm? Ain’t like it’s anything close to a typhoon or a monsoon. I want to see
the end of everything. I want to be under the sea. Darling, it’s better down
where it’s wetter, take it from me.”
As a strong gust rattled the
windows, the power went out. Daniel rose to part the curtains fully. He heard
his sister give a cry of surprise downstairs and snorted derisively.
“Don’t be a dizzy cow, Amber,”
Daniel sighed. “It’s nothing but a wee zephyr, an innocent tempest wafting in
from the ocean. A whiff of a whisk, a gale in the dusk, the breath of the ocean
bringing the musk of the briny to the shore. A little more violent than the
average breeze is this ill wind from the savage seas.”
Since the computer was without
power, Daniel found a pad and paper to write down the words that came to his
mind, sans the part about Amber being a dizzy cow. As he finished scribbling in
the low light, his eye fell on a statuette on his desk.
Daniel ran his finger over the long, dark hair and angular
face of the figurine made in the likeness of his father, Gerry, at thirty years
of age. This was the Gerry Clifford that most of the world knew; the underrated
genius behind Mainline, a latter twentieth-century blues-rock band that was
either famous or infamous depending on one’s perspective. The elfin guitarist
had an intense expression on his face. Daniel smiled, and a tear ran down his
cheek.
“What were ya thinkin’, Daddy?” he asked. “What were you thinkin’
in the picture they made this model from? Course in the front of your mind, you
were probably thinkin’ about what chord came next, but in the back of your
mind, what was going on? Were you thinking of home? Were you thinkin’ of Mum
and Amber and me?”
Daniel was glad that his father hadn’t lived down to the
reputation that many musicians had of being philanderers unable to keep their
fly zipped whenever a willing female offered them a romp. It pleased him that
groupies found his father tepid while reporters branded him as enigmatic. Had
Gerry Clifford been their only source of sustenance, the tabloids would have
starved, and the world would have been a better place for their demise.
“I hope you know that you were always a hero to me, Da,”
Daniel said softly.
~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~
“Under the Sea” is a song from
the 1989 Disney motion picture The Little Mermaid.
The Cerenarian Sea is part of
H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands. It appears in his story Celephais, first
publication The Rainbow, May 1922.
Mormo is the creation of H.P. Lovecraft. She appears in The
Horror at Red Hook, first publication Weird Tales, January 1927.
Nyarlathotep is the creation of H.P. Lovecraft, appearing in
his 1920 story of the same name.
Inspired by the 11 September 2020 First Line Friday prompt
at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/first-line-friday-september-11th-2020/
Submitted to https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/
on 14 September 2020 for the Write about a character arriving in a place unlike
anywhere they’ve ever been prompt. Also inspired by the Write a story that
feels lonely, despite being set in a packed city and Set your story in a place
with extreme weather, but don’t use any weather-related words to describe it
prompts.
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Awww.
ReplyDeleteThis one melted my heart.
Thank you.
DeleteDaniel is a character somewhat after my own heart. He's very angry about the hand he's been dealt, but he would still give his life to save the world even though he's been treated unkindly by it.