Wednesday Briefs #5: The Hollow: Soul Seekers

Copyright 2014  JC Wallace

Each Week a group of authors participate weekly in Wednesday Briefs Flash Fiction. Each installment is 500-1000 words long and is posted to our blogs each week. After you read the latest in my story, click on the link at the end to visit the other flashers.

Welcome my new weekly flash story The Hollow: Soul Seekers. My previous story Diventando: Becoming has been pulled so I can prep it for publication. I will let you know in the future a date of publication.

 Levi hit the snooze button three times before he rolled out of bed after 7AM. The previous day was a blur of memories but the panic and fear were fresh in his mind. Jumping into the shower, he hoped the water would wake up his groggy mind. Despite his lack of sleep, Levi moved quicker than usual, remembering he’d agreed to meet his friend, Gia, in the coffee shop at school to review notes before stats class.

Out in the driveway his father’s truck was already gone as was usual. Logan’s black Ford F150 was still parked on the lawn by the garage. At least he was able to sleep in after Levi’s nonsense last night. Even though Logan would never admit it, Levi’s constant anxiety had to be draining even if his panic attacks had become sporadic over the last few years, well until he’d gone away to college.

Yesterday’s attack had definitely been a result of Levi stopping his medication.  During his teens, the panic had been under control through medication and counseling. However, not a day passed without some level of anxiety. Irrational fears thrived beneath the surface as a menacing presence in an unrelenting state of readiness. His tolerance for low level of anxiety was probably higher than what most people could endure over the long term. Life could progress relatively uneventful at a lower intensity - a nagging uneasiness, apprehension, disquiet. Problems arose when the menace found cracks in his barrier.

Dr. Ross had helped Levi visualize his “dam” in an effort to contain the unyielding troublemaker. Given the enormity of his anxiety, a dam seemed like the intelligent choice. Wasn’t a dam designed to hold back massive lakes of water, thousands of cubic feet of pressure with steel reinforced concrete? Now, the pressure against Levi’s dam was gaining as the fear grew stronger. Fissures had formed, weakening the structure. Patching the holes was creating an enormous amount of mental strain and taking precious energy. It wasn’t just because he had stopped his medication. Tiny cracks over the years had grown larger, branching out. And his experiment of terminating his medication had produced a major panic attack but the long term outcome remained to be seen.

Levi pulled into the closest parking spot he could find behind North Country Community College. This small school close to home was Levi’s consolation prize after having to leave Plattsburgh State in northern NY before the end of his first semester. Another dream stolen by the monster.

As he exited the car, his cell phone rang. Struggling to free it from the front pocket of his jeans, he sprinted across the parking lot to the Annex.

“I’m here,” he yelled into the phone as he skirted through the front door. To the left was the Cyber Café, where Gia waved frantically from a table in the rear. Levi pushed through the bodies and slid into the chair at the small round table already covered with books, a laptop and two large Caramel Macchiato Espressos.

“Hey, Levi. About time. I’d just about given you up for dead. Was already planning my vengeance,” Gia said, sarcastically.

Her bright red lips were a stark contrast to her alabaster skin and darker-than-black hair. Italian from head to toe, hairy and raised on revenge, she’d informed Levi when they’d first met in ninth grade. Levi had paused, unsure if he should have laughed or been mortified. Italians are very hairy people. I’ve been getting electrolysis since the age of five, Gia had explained. And yes, cross me or someone I care about and they’ll never find the body. Four-foot, eleven of pure uncensored Italian.  Disarming to some with her forthright manner, Levi had grown accustomed to what Gia labeled her Dark Side. People for the most part were boring entities. Gia brought color to the world.

 “Rough night. Running on about six hours of sleep,” he confessed, but left it there.

Gia had some knowledge of Levi’s anxiety issues but not the magnitude of the iceberg beneath the surface. Not even Logan knew how behemoth it truly was.

“That’s what happens when you’re up all night having sex with random guys,” Gia said, total deadpan. 

“Especially ones that scratch,” she said alluding to the self-inflicted red marks on Levi’s throat.

Levi’s hand automatically went to his throat and the scratches he’d create during the panic attack. His fingertips stung the raw spots. Quickly, he tried to remove the focus from him. “Ha! Sex. What’s that?” A quiver in his voice threatened to betray him.

“It’s this nifty little thing that your virgin ass needs more of.”

“Says you,” Levi muttered, regretful he’d brought up the subject at all. 

Gia’s perpetual purpose on the planet was to “get” Levi some. Levi had bigger demons to fight than relationships and thoughts of groping and frotting and blowjobs and anal sex. When you’re a hollow husk of nothing, sex tends to take a back seat. Gay sex especially because that shit comes with a whole other set of issues.

Gratefully, Gia dropped Levi’s taboo subject and moved onto statistics. In an hour, they were seated in Mr. Cobbert’s class as he droned on endlessly at the board. Levi fought the profound weight of him eyelids.

He craned his neck to whisper to Gia. “Keep me awake.”

Gia snorted at the likelihood of that. Levi leaned his elbow against the desk and supported his chin with his palm, closing his eyes for a moment. Just a moment.

As sleep overtook him, Levi startled and caught his head from rolling off his palm then righted himself. Eyes still closed, Levi mused at past memories of watching fellow classmates fight to doze with their heads upright.  How many were currently entertained with his struggle? Let them watch, he thought descending further from Mr. Cobbert’s monotone murmuring until words were no longer discernible. A low octave hum followed into him subconscious.

Just as he entered deep sleep, Levi’s psyche smashed into a barrier with the equivalence of hitting a wall at eighty miles per hour. The crash rattled every fiber of his being. With the magnitude of a vocal cry, a guttural scream penetrated his subconscious, ripping Levi from sleep and into consciousness. Disoriented to his location, he startled and gripped the sides of his desk, the force dumping his books onto the floor. The resounding boom echoed into every corner of the room. Heads spun around and dozens of pairs of eyes stared at him relentlessly. Levi could only grit his teeth as a roar filled his ears. Not the familiar roar of rushing blood, but of something coming. Something huge.



Check out the other flashers this week here.