A mess of peonies and roses line the ichor-soaked streets behind the flower shop.
Bumbling clouds roll past our once quaint town, sounding lightning in their wake.
As the billowing gray smoke clears, coughing animals emerge only to come to a full stop,
swatting away at the stinging fog, dozens of dead animals lie, my heart aches hard.
We sneak past the alleyway, watching the animals clamber behind concrete slabs and steel rods.
Animals that sit weeping, hiccuping at the grisly sight of half of a face blown clean off.
You and I dart past the red and blue sirens, the car spots us, we are fighting against losing odds.
“I swear one of the animals is still moving!” I yell, chasing you. You scoff over your shoulder.
These animals I once called friends. These animals I once called family, reduced to mere ash.
As the town slowly escapes my spotted vision, I smirk just a little bit, a petal lands on my foot.
It’s a pink orchid flower, intricate in God’s design, now floating towards my shin—a large gash.
We sprint towards the woods, towards whatever is behind the thick bushes, away from this hell.
The woods shrouded in shadows gets closer. We barrel ahead at full speed.
You and I, both covered in gray soot and coagulating blood.
You throw the remote behind us, I don’t look back, a final salute.
We wave goodbye to the officer that opens his car door,
curses us out, then picks up the remote,
and explodes into a mess of peonies and roses.
Cynthia Cai is a Junior in high school from Houston, Texas. She has lived there all her life but has traveled to more countries than she can count on both her fingers and her toes. She loves the food in Houston, especially Tex-Mex, Thai, and Indian food. In her free time, you can find Cynthia reading a good high fantasy or science fiction novel, as well as sketching or painting. She has several golden and silver keys from Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She was published last year in Hunted, an anthology of micro-fiction stories; her work is also forthcoming in a similar anthology, Trapped.
"Stratford Ontario Canada - Peony - Shakespearean Garden Botanical ~ Heritage" by Onasill ~ Bill is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
