Tomorrow's Light
Written by Drew Clements
Conceptualized by Drew Clements and Bryan Hester
(Part Five - III)

The door to her house shot open as Tomorrow entered, stomping about. Anger ruled her body as she slammed her keys down onto a table just beside the front door. She’d not been this angry in months, not since the whole Tyler Richards thing last year.
“How dare he!”
The last thirty minutes had officially offered up a scenario that made her forget about her original situation: the whole body-going-out-of-control thing. The idea that he’d say such things!
Joey had confronted her outside of the school, demanding to know why she wouldn’t see him that evening. She’d delivered another light retort that left him almost speechless. Almost. He’d followed up her statement with a short pause and then questioned her sexual preferences!
“Idiot!”
The idea that she didn’t want to date someone of his high school social stature meant that she was homosexual? Infuriating!
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” She smiled.
Her mind began to calm and her body soon followed as she stood with her back to the front door. Pivoting her waist slightly, she locked the deadbolt.
“So, Tomorrow, you have the house to yourself all weekend, and then some, what do you plan to do? Be angry?” The words had barely left her mouth before she smiled.

Three hours later, after a shower and quick run to the video store, Tomorrow lounged in her pjs on the living room couch. Without much more going on with her body, she completely forgot about the strange note, well almost. The fact that a pizza was on its way had derailed her thoughts a bit.
The living room was a cozy, medium-sized space that sat just to the right of the front door, if you were facing the home from outside. Tomorrow’s body was spread across, what she considered an “insanely comfortable couch.” There had been many a night she fell asleep watching television down here. She just might do it again tonight… after her potentially life-destroying conversation that she was scheduled to have with a complete stranger in just a matter of-she glanced at the clock-thirty minutes.
“C’mon, just watch the movie.” She said to herself.
Ten minutes later, the doorbell interrupted her movie. After pausing the dvd she jumped up and ran to the door. Tomorrow swung the door open and smiled; pizza time! The smile melted away to pure disgust.
“Tomorrow,” Joey Garner stood before her, “let’s talk.”
He was dressed in a trendy t-shirt, blue jeans, and hiking boots. Behind him sat his jeep; the passenger side door open, as if in anticipation of her leaving with him. Something else was wrong too…
“Didn’t we talk earlier?” She asked, her voice on fire.
“I know and I’m sorry about that,” He smiled.
“You stink,” She shook her head.
“What?”
“No, I’m not kidding, you stink. You’re smelly.” The odor registered with her the moment he began speaking. It was hideous!
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Perhaps it’s these dead flowers?” Joey motioned to a bush beside the front steps.
“Dead flowers?” She was puzzled. There were no dead flowers earlier. The front yard’s plants were immaculately taken care of by her mother. Besides, dead flowers would never emit a smile such as this!
Tomorrow tried to place the smell; it was something like a dead animal and… and feces! She’d heard that people produce a final bowel movement once they die, but she was definitely hoping that there were no dead people on her front lawn.
She looked from the dead bush back to Joey, “So what is it that you want?”
“You,” He smiled.
“That’s not good enough.” She grimaced; the smell was definitely coming from him.
“Look, I just wanted to apologize for everything today and invite you one last time to come out with me this evening.” He continued.
“Joey, I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, but… you smell like shit.” She began to shut the door.
A loud slap stopped the door from closing. Tomorrow looked to see that Joey’s hand was placed firmly against the door.
“I have one last thing to ask you.”
“You want me to call the cops? ‘Cause I will.” She was furious… again.
“Have you been experiencing any strange bleeding?”
Tomorrow froze. Ice built up in her veins. He was the one? He was the one that was going to explain everything to her? He snuck into her room and left the note? Surely not!
“You have, haven’t you?” Joey smiled, reading her expression.
Something was wrong-the whole situation felt wrong. The smell was horrible! His face… something else was wrong-it was wrinkled. Wrinkled? He was as old as she was! How could it be wrinkled?
The smell!
A loud crash thundered across the back yard and echoed through her house; the sudden noise melted the ice in her veins and pumped her adrenaline.
“What the hell was that?”
She glanced back at Joey; his face had turned a milky white. This had him freaked as well-his hand had dropped from her door.
“Just leave me alone!” Tomorrow slammed the door in his face, locked the dead bolt, and ran through the living room into the kitchen. There she slowly crept up to the back door window, which had its light blue curtains pulled shut.
Ducking under the window, she slowly rose and lifted the curtain, just slightly. She couldn’t immediately see anything. Perhaps something in one of her neighbors’ yards had fallen?
Bravely, she opened the door and peered out. Everything was in order. Their small storage shed, set off to the right corner of their fence was fine. The tree stranding at the other side of the yard seemed to have all of its branches, so that wasn’t it.
She slowly stepped out onto the back porch and looked around a bit more. Nothing was out of the ordinary. From her point on the porch she could peak into the neighbor’s yard directly in front of her and the one off to the right; the one to the left was obscured by the tall tree and its full branches.
“Hmm…” She let out a relaxing breath, “now back to the idiot.”
Before she walked back inside, she glanced up to the sky and took in the beauty of the bright, full moon. Breathtaking is what it was.
Making her way back to the living room, she opened the front door and found that Joey was gone. His vehicle was still parked out front with its passenger door open and the engine running, something she hadn’t noticed earlier. She stepped out onto the front porch and looked around, mimicking her movements from the back porch.
Up front, here, there were definitely some things wrong. Parts of the grass on the front lawn were black, as if the grass had been burned. They were spaced out as if they could be…
“No way,” Tomorrow moved down the front steps to the lawn, “they’re footsteps?”
They were shaped like feet, spaced out just far enough to be a normal stride, and they led right to the front steps from where Joey’s jeep sat. She had no rational explanation for their appearance-like most of the things she’d been encountering the past two days.
Tomorrow followed the black prints up to the front steps. The person had completely avoided the concrete path, strangely enough. The foot prints-if that’s indeed what they were--started at a portion of the fence a couple of feet down from the gate, indicating they had jumped over the fence. Why?
“More questions than answers,” Tomorrow mumbled.
Off to the right of the stairs sat the dead bush. It was curled up, brown and black, as if it had been set on fire after dying. It was strange.
The strangest thing of all this was that Joey Garner was nowhere to be found. His car was there and running, but he was gone.
“He’s crazy. Maybe he went down the street to ask another girl out?”
Tomorrow laughed in the face of the weird happenings.
Should she turn his car off? Nah, let it be his tough luck.
 

Fiction Index