Author: Clayton Barnett

Former engineer, current husband and father, layabout Pharmacy Technician, aspiring writer.

Red Rain, 6/x

What an astonishingly poor RealLife early morning. I woke up around 0200, confused; didn’t even know where I was. Fortunately recognized my wife and started asking: where are we? what’s the time? are our daughters here? Needless to say, she thought I was having a stroke, flicked the light on, and did a FAST check, which was negative. I was able to barely go back to sleep, but woke up when people were talking and playing music on our front street. Again, wife sits up; “there’s no one out there.” A somewhat rough few hours later, I texted DayJob I was in no condition to be dispensing meds and that I’d come in tomorrow. Personally? I think I did have a small brain bleed. Oh, well: getting old.

More importantly, Nike flirts a little with Akaiame, as he knows she likes him. The idea of the priests is re-introduced, followed by a non-specific warning about the Wall around this place. Two days later, she has an encounter with a Little Broken, who says something which causes her to have a breakdown.

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Red Rain, 5/x

Busy day, Saturday. Helped Daughter #1 get a car to replace the one she totaled the Wednesday before; while that was going on, Daughter #2 texts she’s at the airport and ready to be picked up. So, I was bouncing around everywhere. Did anything else happen Saturday?

With Akaiame, we learn a little more about the Broken and the town of humans. Several other things are mentioned but remain a mystery for right now. As this will be a busy week for me in the RealWorld, I imagine these segments will pause for the coming weekend.

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Red Rain, 4/x

People settle in to a daily routine fairly quickly, no matter what said people are made of. The quicker I can establish a “baseline” for Akaiame, the faster I can jerk it out from under her. Sometimes being a writer means to be a terrible person.

Their names are related to how they died. I mentioned Purgatory. They’re dead. This blog is a writing exercise; if you don’t like it, my apologies.

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Red Rain, 3/x

Names are important and now she has one, reflecting the title of this short story. Having characters asleep is a cheap way of covering a lot of ground with little typing; a bit like a montage in video. I’m able to have a 3rd person say what happened without spending 3000 words on what did happen.

Now that she’s awake, things shall begin to happen faster and faster for Akaiame. This is supposed to be short story, after all. I’ve already cut the entire “meet the priests” segment from twice now (yes, for once I’m that far ahead) to keep the camera focused tightly on Akkie. I want to see this world through her eyes.

We get our first hint that this is a very different place; time is not.

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Red Rain, 1/x

Starry Sky allowed me to play with the ideas of death and purgatory; really happy subjects. Because I try to do things differently every now and again, I was gifted a vision of what I am starting here. And, to do something I have never published before (I did try my hand at it once; amateur hour writing), I am going to try some allegory. Not 100%, mind you, where “everything points to something else,” but at least 50% or more.

Further, the protagonist of the story, introduced in the second part of this segment, is the antagonist of my romance/horror novel, Cursed Hearts. And, the character of Nike inhabited the two novels of the saga of Nichole 5 Clarke. The young woman is a horrible but tragic figure, a tortured and wounded soul who in the novel lashes out at the world, wanting nothing more than to be with her step-brother. I wanted to see if she could get a second chance.

Let’s see where this goes, friends. Deus vult.

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Starry Sky, 4/end

As I mentioned in the lead in to segment 3, we get into the weeds of some Catholic theology here. However, all of my stories are just about the relationships between people, especially families. So, here, we have a kind of reconciliation between Caillie Pratt (Hartmann) and Clive Barrett, with a call-out to his work in Crosses & Doublecrosses.

A kind-of beta reader thought the last bit was a little too joyous. I overruled her; what is more joyous that knowing you made it? Or, for the long-dead head of both branches of your family to know you made it? Anyway, it is what it is.

Oddly, the next short I’ve in mind is also a kind of purgatorial story. Not sure why I have that rattling about my head these days. I hope to start rolling it out by Wednesday. Thanks for reading.

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Starry Sky, 3/x

This took a turn I was not expecting. I wrote all the way to a conclusion, which shall be out in a day or two, and in the process edited out what would have been the opening of this segment. Fed up, Caillie decides to crawl back to her SUV; in the desert, in the dark. Barrett produces a flashlight and shines it down the path she climbed up. The reflective eyes of a mountain lion looked back at them. “The only reason he has not eaten you is he can just make out that I’m here. That has him spooked enough to keep a distance. “Did you – you – really just say ‘spooked’?”

So, instead, things will take a turn for the religious; I mean, the woman is dead, after all. The Four Last Things are “Death, Judgement, Heaven, Hell.” We start down that path now. If that’s not your bag, check back later in the week.

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Starry Sky, 2/x

Wow. This is very, very hard. There’s a reveal at the end of this segment, making it hurt even more, to watch, helplessly, a grandchild die. I do not understand why I am told to tell this story. And we’re only a few hours into the night.

As I mentioned last time, this is something of an emotional trainwreck. Bypass at your choice.

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