CHRISTOPHER PERKINS - THE GREEN NIGHT

Christopher Perkins is a creative writer for fantasy and sci-fi stationed in Winter Park, Florida. When he isn't writing flash fictions he is spending time on developing his own fictional worlds. You can reach him at [email protected].

​The Green Night 

​Long after dark, a truck driver was making his way through the winding dirt roads of the countryside. An ominous green had covered the darkened sky and he was eager to get home, since that usually meant there was a tornado or at the very least, hail, which could break his windshield. There was a loud boom and a flash of lightning, and he was able to make out the silhouette of a person crouched on the side of the road. Forgetting his own worries, he stopped the truck and quickly got out to inspect what was wrong.
“Are you okay?” he said to the shadowy figure. From what he could tell the person was not seriously injured but they didn’t respond to his voice and they were shivering. He crept forward and tapped them on the shoulder. The figure jerked upwards and exchanged a scared look; it was a young fair skinned man with short red hair and oddly green eyes. “Are you okay?” the truck driver repeated.
“Y-yes, I’m just waiting for someone here...” said the crouched man, shrinking away in fear.
“It’s okay buddy, I won’t hurt you. It’s rather dangerous though with this storm going on. You should get in my truck with me and I’ll drive you to a safer location, okay?”
“No,” the man responded, very firmly unwilling to go. 
Then the wind picked up and the noise around them seemed to die out. Hurriedly the truck driver grabbed the other man by the sleeves in order to drag him to the truck but the man slapped the hand away. For a split second, a picture of a happy family-the drivers family-fell from the man’s hands onto the ground and an ear shattering scream bellowed from the man’s throat as his eyes pulsed green. The driver, freaking out, glanced back and saw an incoming wall of wind and death. He rushed into his car, abandoning the screaming man, and floored it forward, unwilling to stop.
When he had gone far enough to be confident to look back he saw the tornado as the moon seemed to light that one spot, breaking through the clouds above. The whirling mass of wind seemed to stop and through the dark the driver could swear that he saw in its midst a tide of green light and a large, floating object. Then the light cut away and the tornado vanished and the driver, feeling hail as it crashed onto his truck, drove off confused and worried.
As the driver finally arrived home he bolted from his truck and ran inside his countryside house. It was evident that his wife and children were sleeping upstairs and realizing this, he slowed his pace as he crept upwards. At the top, he paused as he looked in the mirror and there he saw the same face as the man on the road, his eyes glowing green and fear overcoming him. His body was then overwhelmed by cold and the last thing he saw before his mind blanked was a flash of green.
When he came to he was on the side of the road, crouched over in fear and shivering while holding a certain picture. Bewildered, he felt a tap on his shoulder and he looked up to a face he would have never guessed to see. 
“Are you okay?” said the man he once was, and then at last, everything in the world seemed to fade away...