Flash Fiction Blogfest

Cherie Reich is hosting a flash fiction blogfest that ends today. The rules are:

Here are the rules:
1. Entries must begin with the two words: Lightning flashed.
2. Entries must be 300 words or less and be in prose.
3. Entries must be posted on your blog between May 21 - 23.
4. You must sign up in the linky to have your entry be counted.

And here's my entry. This was... cathartic:

Lightning flashed. Thunder crashed. Rain poured.

I heard none of it.

My brain buzzed. Dead, dead, dead.

No.

He couldn't be dead. I had to get there in time.

I had to save him.

"Chase!" I knew he wouldn't be able to hear me, not over the thunder and the rain and the dead, dead, dead, but I willed him to realize I was coming. Willed him to have hope.

Willed him to live.

Then I heard the scream.

"No!" I took the turn too fast, sliding on wet grass and landing hard on my knee, but I only felt numb. "Chase!"

I hit the clearing at a dead run, and I didn't stop to think about the fact that I was small and weak. I just saw the ungodly figure rise up with Chase—my Chase—defenseless below it.

I jumped on its back.

It roared and bucked, but I clung to it as it rose to its full, 14-foot height.

I didn't look down.

The hilt of my knife pressed into my hip, and I fumbled for it. In a swift, confident motion, I ran it up into the spot where the jaw meets the ear. Blood soaked me, pungent and inhuman, but I forced the blade farther, slicing across, severing the head.

It fell, but I rolled away and was crawling to Chase before the ground settled. "Chase." Tears burned my nose. Every part of him looked broken or bleeding. I didn't know where I could touch.

Dead, dead, dead.

Then he coughed. "Lex?"

I laughed, watery and almost hysterical. "Yeah."

Another cough, a little stronger. "Remember when I said I wanted to go camping?"

"Yeah?"

He opened one eye, and the knot of tears in my throat broke as he said, "I'm sorry about that."