this is my kingdom come -- rielle

[

]

IT'S DARK INSIDE

A dark and stormy night - just the exact thing Rielle needed, no sarcasm involved. Who knew what kind of camper shenanigans brought this on but Rielle wasn't about to complain. She had enough of the boring clear nights this camp had to offer. Nice of Mr. D to spice it up.

Rain pounded mercilessly on her window. Overhead, the sky flashed with lightning. A dense fog shrouded everything else from view. Rielle couldn't even see the wall of the adjacent cabin through it. She hugged her legs to her chest, her cheek pressing against the glass pane. Her blanket, draped around her shoulders, wrapped around her like a burrito. She pulled on it firmly, suppressing shivers.

A cold breeze snapped Rielle out of her reverie. She shifted, wrenching her gaze from the window and towards the darkness in her room. A half-smile tugged on the corner of her lips.

"Hey," she whispered to the blackness.

Nothing changed - at least, not to the naked eye. Rielle was fixated on a certain spot on the far wall. Soon she nodded and turned back to the storm outside. "I can't sleep. It feels... different. I can sense it too."

Yet nothing answered, only the howling winds and relentless rain.

"Hope you're right," she mumbled, closing her eyes as her cheek touched the cold glass. "I'm looking forward to it, actually. But I'm scared."

Lightning flashed, illuminating the backs of her eyelids.

"I think he's getting worse. I don't know. I hope I'm wrong."

Then her eyes snapped open as she turned back to the wall, glaring daggers as though it had insulted her firstborn. "Cut me some slack. He's all I got left."

Outside the winds whistled and the thunder rumbled. Rielle idly wondered if Zeus was listening in, though the kind of the gods probably wanted nothing to do with the offspring of his least favorite brother. She shook her head and tugged firmly on her blanket, and to the wall she gave a swift glance.

"Apology accepted. And I'll tell that to my oh-so-immortal father once I see him." She paused. "If I see him."

The curtains rustled even though there was no way the winds could have entered the room, but Rielle didn't seem to find this odd. In fact she smiled and whispered, "Nice talk. 'Til next time then."

She snuggled in her blanket, her attention back to the infernal storm. Perhaps the other campers did not appreciate the nice change it brought to this boring camp. Perhaps they just slept through the pitter patter of the rain and the roars of thunder. Not Rielle though. She stared at the fog though there was nothing to see but the raindrops racing down her window, or the occasional flash of light followed by the boom that could deafen her ears.

Times were changing. Rielle wanted to believe that.