seventy-one : no need for lights
Chloe slips on the wet pavement as they leave the club, and she grabs on to Jakes arm and looks down as she regains her balance. Headlights and tail lights and traffic lights are mirrored on the slick ground, like another world below their feet. Music echoes out into the street, drowning out the sound of thunder. The night has only just begun. People stand along the wall in twos and threes like islands in clouds of smoke, waiting to be let into the sound and light beyond the doors. Jake pulls her past them, through the misty rain and into a taxi. The driver glances at them in the rearview. In the back seat they feel the space between them like a magnetic field. The driver weaves through traffic. They sway with every corner. The rain gets heavier, until the driver can barely see the road ahead. The ride is slow. The tension builds. By the time the car comes to a stop in front of the hotel, the pull is so strong that the accidental brush of their hands on the seat is like touching a live wire. Street lights flicker.
Inside, a room attendant stands between them in the elevator. Chloe stares at the glowing numbers above the door. They seem to change slower than seasons. When they finally reach their level, they barely make it out of the elevator. As the doors slide shut, the last thing the attendant sees is the door to their room swing open and a white flash of skin like lightning.
Outside, the storm builds. Thunder fills the sky. The air seems to shake with the slow-moving sound. The power goes off then on then off completely and the city falls into darkness.
In their room, Jake and Chloe don’t notice.
I’ve used This Boy’s in Love by The Presets for writerly inspiration quite a few times now… I just keep coming back to it. Apparently this writer is in love with this song.
Sorry for using old pieces in my last two posts, I hate having to do that. Sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day. Particularly this weekend. I went out on Friday night, then to St Kilda for an apartment-planning day on Saturday, then later to a friends party in Cheltenham which I didn’t get home from until about 5:30 thismorning, slept most of the day, worked out my work schedule for the week then went to St Kilda again for another party tonight. Busy busy busy. In between all that, I haven’t had a huge amount of time for writing.
This one is new, though! Will try my hardest to make every post a new piece from now on.
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