@Oakie Dokie
Hello, reader. For reasons you will not understand, I cannot give you my name, so feel free to refer to me as Artichoke Dip, after the cheesy, creamy goodness I am indulging in as I share this story with you.
Now you may be asking, “Well, Mr. Dip, why are you sharing a story with me in the first place?”
I can’t share the answer to that, either.
Yet, anyway.
Now before you continue to bombard my handsome face with questions, let me start by saying that this story has no happy ending, no happy beginning, and very few happy parts in between. If you have any sort of hope that this story will cheer you up or make you laugh in any way, just go ahead and throw it out the window, or go ahead and stop reading here. By continuing, I am no longer liable for any emotional damage caused by the content of the story. Okay? Good.
The first two people you will meet in this depressing tale are Samuel Bell and Rory Rivera, recently engaged and new houseowners. Samuel’s parents have passed mysteriously and they left their $2.4 million estate in his care, leaving his twin brother, Aaron, with nothing but bitter animosity over his more popular counterpart. You’ll hear more about him later.
To keep Samuel company while he began to recover from the news as well as to fill the mountaintop cabin with a bit more cheer, his fiance, Rory, sold his apartment and moved in with him. To celebrate living together officially, they have gone out for Sushi and are now returning to their home in Rory’s Subaru, singing Twenty One Pilots as loudly as possible. Let’s go to Samuel.
~
”I’m bleeding, bleeding, so please on my knees repeatedly asking why it’s got to be like this, is this living free?”
“Sammy! You’re shaking the car!”
The Toccoa, Georgia, air was alight with the dying embers of the distant sun as it slipped silently below the Appalachian Mountains, casting its final golden beams across the town. Rory shielded his eyes with his left paw as he made the left turn into their gravel driveway and then switched paws to hold his fiance’s.
Samuel blushed faintly at the contact and, using his snout to turn off the radio, turned skeptically and faced Rory. “You know, I’ve been thinking…”
“Woah, thinking? Hallelujah, it’s a miracle!”
“Roo…”
“Go on, go on. You probably think more than I do, and it’s my job to think.”
Samuel rolled his eyes dramatically and braced himself against the glovebox as Rory eased the Subaru over a pothole, sending loose items in the backseat flying up and over the headrest and into the trunk. “You’re a psychologist, not a philosopher. Anyway, I know we’ve talked about it before, but would you adopt a kid with me? I mean if you don’t want to-”
Rory sighed softly and cast a loving glance at Samuel, squeezing his paw reassuringly. “I want to. You’d be an amazing dad, I can tell you that much.”
Samuel smiled with relief and a single, solitary tear rolled softly down his cheek like lyrics from a rapper’s mouth and, slowing as it followed his sharp jawline, dripped decisively onto the black leather seat. “You would be too.”
They drove for another few minutes like this, remaining quiet but silently expressing their love, making their way slowly up the steep, winding driveway.
Suddenly, though, things began to get bad.
“Do you smell smoke?” Samuel questioned, rolling down his window and sticking his head out of the opening like the dog he was. “You turned the ovens off, right? Weren’t you making Brie?”
Rory’s brow furrowed and he eased on the gas pedal a little, rounding the final bend just as the last of the light was fading. “I didn’t use the ovens today-”
“Rory!!” Samuel shrieked suddenly, throwing his door open and dashing out into the night. Only… There was still light. Rory swept his vision across the grassy bald where the house stood, trying to pinpoint the light, before realizing it was coming from everywhere.
Everything was on fire.
