Rainstorm

As the elderly woman sat on the hard wooden bench waiting for her train to arrive her mind began to drift to the past and times in her life that shaped her and caused great joy. The sands of time had weathered the memories but enough remained to cause a smile to pass over her wrinkled face. Flashes started coming to her. She saw the pride on her parents faces as she earned her degree. She recalled the pride she felt for herself when she landed that dream job. Meeting and falling in love with her soul mate suddenly felt just like yesterday. The waves of good emotions that were happening with these images made it feel like she was reliving these experiences all over again. The birth of her children, the many holidays and birthdays worth remembering through the years, feeling pride for her own children as her parents had felt for her. This flood of good memories was coming at her fast in a way that she had not experienced before. Sure some bad things happened but none of that mattered now, only happiness was remembered. Untill all of a sudden it was not the past she thought of but the present. Of her little home of almost fifty years that she shared with her husband and how her grandkids should be there now and she should be there spoiling them. She tried to remember how she got to the train station but couldn't. What was she doing here? Where was she going? The woman started to panic. She had to get home to her husband. She knew him. He would be worried sick. But as she tried to flee she realised she could not move. Her feet as if cemented to the ground. Her back as if bolted to the wooden slats of the bench. All she could move was her eyes and with them she saw a train station that only moments before was loud and bustling with people was now silent and empty. The only one she could see was a lone dark figure far down the corridor. The figure started to aproach It almost seemed to float. As it got closer she could not make out a face but she could now see that he was hooded and cloaked as if just coming in from a bad rainstorm....

rainstorm!

RAINSTORM!!

The word began echoing in her head and getting louder and louder. As the volume of the repeated word increased the train station itself began to fade. It finally faded to the point where she knew it had never really existed in the first place. It was silent once more. Although she still could not move the bench was gone and she was now lying down instead of sitting. She was no longer the elderly woman but a young woman of high school age. Out of the corner of her eye she could tell she was in a hospital. She had surgery as a child so she instantly recognised this as an operating room. Upon closer inspection she could tell she was on the table hooked up to many machines that seemed to be tracking her heart beat and such. But where were the doctors? The only one there was the same dark figure from the train station that had never really existed. She still could not see his face as the hood cast such a dark shadow but as he raised his hand to her she could see it was simply bone. The flesh had been rotted away to the point of never being there. She knew at that moment that she would be able to move again shortly. But her only option of where to go would be to follow this being, where ever it chose to take her. It moved it's hand closer and as it touched her forhead all she wanted to do was scream. But sound was not possible. Instead a single tear escaped her eye and slowly slid down the side of her face. The instant her tear hit the pillow the machine that was supposed to be indicating her heart beat became one long beep. The many doctors and surgeons that had been working franticly to save this young woman with such a bright future all knew then they had failed and it was over.

Minutes later in a nearby room her parents wept as the head doctor broke the news to them. The terrible rainstorm that had caused the horrific accident a short time ago was over and had been replaced by the most magnificant rainbow. But the damage had been done. Their little girl had been ripped from them. Just barely old enough to be driving the car she had been so proud of. The elderly woman with the joyous memories would never be. The dark figure had her. Her train had arrived much too early.