Chapter One
The storm rolled in from nowhere.
It hadn’t rained for weeks now, something the old farmer’s in town complained about every morning at the diner. It wasn’t surprising that it was the only topic of conversation, since weather was a serious business when your financial solvency depended on Mother Nature’s whims.
Kansas Frayne didn’t care about the weather one way or another, though his dreams lately had been full of lightning and thunder. All that talk must have soaked into his subconscious, he thought.
Or maybe not.
When the angry black shadows began to skim the tall fields he’d been wandering through, he remembered those dreams and started to care. He’d never seen clouds like that, he was nowhere near the small farmhouse he called home, and a glance at his cellphone assured him he had no signal to call for help.
Storm clouds roiling with violence surrounded him on all sides, and it looked like they were on a collision course with each other—with him in the center. He pocketed his phone and started back for home as the massive thunderheads slammed together more quickly than he would have thought possible.
“Well shit.”
The immediate pressure change made his ears pop as gusts of wind rushed at him through the tall dry grass like invisible linebackers, forcing him to lean forward to keep from getting blown over. Then a switch flipped up in the sky, releasing a deluge of rain that didn’t fall so much as slash sideways, stabbing his body with the sharpness of knives.
This wasn’t normal. It was happening too fast.
The rain turned to stinging mist as the wind picked up more speed and howled around him, ripping the dead grass at his feet right out of the ground.
He had to do something. Running wasn’t an option. There was no time and no safe direction, if he could see in front of him enough to even choose a damn direction.
A deafening roar had him covering his head and dropping instinctively to the ground, knees digging into the fresh mud for purchase. As if that would save him. His heart was pounding in his chest as adrenaline welled up inside him.
Out in the open, no one could survive this.
In that moment, when death seemed certain, time slowed enough to let his life flash before his eyes. He saw his empty house. The long line of days that had passed exactly as this one had until now. In silent, solitary repetition. No color. No passion. No point.
Less than a handful of people would miss him. His fault. His choice.
He wished he’d had the chance to take more chances. To actually live instead of just existing.
Thunder cracked close enough to make him jump, static and trepidation raising goosebumps on his rain-slicked skin. He risked a quick look through squinted eyes.
Holy shit. He swallowed as what looked like the gaping maw of some kind of super tornado sought him out.
“What the fuck...” he shouted, but the wind ripped his words away.
That’s crazy. Tornadoes don’t do that. They don’t hunt.
But he couldn’t deny that it was doing a damn good impression.
Some lizard brain level of self-preservation kicked in and Kansas leapt to his feet, running toward home as fast as his legs could carry him. He should have run more, he thought, panic overtaking him. Why hadn’t he run more when he had the chance?
Debris was pelting his arms and face, filling his throat until he choked. The wind howled in his ears, seeming to shout his name.
Kansas. Kansas. Kansas.
It was coming for him.
Was this how it ended? He’d removed people from his life with an almost surgical precision years ago and now he would die alone. He hoped someone would tell his uncle and his childhood friend, Dee. There might not be a body left worth burying, but they deserved to know. They, at least, would mourn him.
A lashing crosswind ripped his feet out from under him as he ran for his life. He crashed hard into the muddy ground, gasping for breath and clutching at a stitch in his side. He collapsed in exhaustion, his eyes squeezed shut as the hot, angry breath of the tempest rolled over him and tore him away from everything he knew. Lifting him off the ground as if he were nothing. His vision darkened and the world went black.
Kansas was gone.
The storm vanished along with him. Grass and dirt rained down into the empty field as the sky cleared and the sun returned to burn away the evidence that anything had happened.
There wasn’t even a rainbow.
***
“I think it’s dead.”
“Don’t be daft, Lenard. Would it moan like that if it were dead? And just think, if I hadn’t gone left when you told me to go right, we’d never have seen it at all. Look. Look! Its eyes are opening. Ooh, pretty. Have you ever seen a color like that before?”