I felt the first drop of rain upon my cheek. Wet and warm and strangely comforting. Despite my fear, I felt a spark of joy burrowing into my thoughts, followed by one of desperate ecstasy, bringing me to my knees. I moaned, my face upturned as the droplets turned to a cascade, thankful, for once, that it was joy, and not fear, that dug its claws into me, blossoming in my quivering flesh, leaving me moaning until the intensity of climax took me.
oOo
The first unearthly storm had swept over the coast one otherwise unremarkable Easter, not so much as blotting out the sun as simply erasing it. Panic, of course, had been my response. All of our responses. Terror born of too many late night tales of alien invasion gripped my mind while Colin had wept openly at God’s wrath as he cleansed the earth of all sinners which, to him, meant every single living being.
We’d survived, Colin and me, although it had nearly driven us mad. Others had not been so lucky. Chaos reigned around us. Madness, paranoia, hatred, fear; the vilest of what mankind had to offer. Worst of all, you couldn’t just see it - you could feel it. While the inexplicable darkness itself would remain forever a mystery, it was the aftermath that caused true terror. Whatever the source, it had stripped away all barriers, taking the raw and naked feelings of everyone it touched, and spreading them like a plague of locusts. In essence, we each felt every single emotion of those around us vividly.
oOo
Someone was near, that much I knew. And they were lost in the throes of passion. Fucking, I thought as I cried out again, lust burning through my brain, translating into physical sensations. For a moment I felt violated, but only for a moment. It had been so long since I had felt anything as pure and uplifting as this. My instinct had been to seek them out and put a stop to what they were doing. That had been my first thought. As a feeling of arousal and love washed through me, I became aware of the desire to fall on my knees and thank them, perhaps begging them to continue. I would have, too, had I not been overcome with such vast pleasure that I was left laying senseless on the muddy track, barely able to breath until, final, the sensation began to fade.
oOo
Many had thought that the significance of the event occurring on Easter had meaning. That was quickly put to rest the when it repeated itself in the middle of the following June. Madness once again took hold as neighbor slew neighbor in a vain attempt to silence the thoughts and feelings that passed through us all like arc lightning. And then, again in September. Watching the news, we knew that our quiet little town on the Western Isles hadn’t been isolated in this event. All over the world the unnatural night had fallen, enveloping the planet all at once. We had, in fact, been lucky. The larger cities hadn’t done nearly as well. While many here had succumbed to violence, we were a small enough community to protect ourselves. The death rate in cities such as London, however, had been sobering. By the time the fifth such event had occurred, we had lost all contact with the outside world, each paranormal storm growing worse. And by the seventh, our small town of barely 300 had shrunk to a mere dozen.
oOo
As it always did, the darkness evaporated as quickly as it had taken root, leaving me laying on my back, soaked to the skin as I stared up at an unnervingly normal sky, the sun sinking slowly towards the horizon with one over-riding need; seek the intruders whose presence had driven the despair I had grown used to and replaced it with pleasure.
oOo
Colin had taken his own life shortly after the fifth storm. It had been a relief, frankly, to have him gone. Had I known how ugly his thoughts had been, I would never have married him. I remember looking down from the cliffs at his broken body upon the rocks, imagining how freeing it must be. The sea had been silent, as if poised, waiting for me to join him. Instead, I turned my back and stumbled back to what was no longer home; it was simply a house in which I existed. Little did I know that, within a year, I would be one of a few dozen survivors, guilt etched in my soul as we waited each other out, hoping that, with every fall of night, another would stand upon the cliff’s edge, freeing the rest of us from the turmoil within them when the next storm struck.