Human Sized Hurricane | Michael Clifford

Chapter 8 - Empty Head

Michael drove and drove and drove until the sounds of the city could not be heard. He drove until the car was surrounded by nothing but wide open fields and country lanes. He drove down a narrow lane and into an opening in the side of a field, levelled on both sides by a rising wall of flat stones and pebbles. A dirt track was ahead and Michael drove down it. Emma watched the rolling hills vanish as the car entered an avenue of tall thick trees which blocked out the sun and she stuck her hand out of the window, allowing her fingers to be embraced by the racing winds and fresh county air. She looked over to Michael and watched as he took off his sunglasses and put them in the glove box by her knees as he was careful not to touch her. Suddenly, the sight of a gun barrel made her freeze and her eyes widen. "Why do you have a gun?" Emma asked, noticing Michael shift uncomfortably in his seat.

"I carry it everywhere" He replied, keeping his eyes on the road as his destination came into sight.

"Why?" Emma asked, her elbow resting on the window as Michael sighed and pulled over, then took his time turning off the engine and leaned his body back against the seat, obviously tense. Emma watched him as he got out and she followed, taking a few steps away from the car to follow in Michael's tracks toward a huge wooden barn. She continued to follow as he entered the barn and closed the door behind her as she gazed around the barn in awe. "What is this place?" She asked awestruck at the huge and simple interior of the structure.

"My mind" Michael replied. "I come here to think slash escape" He said and flopped down onto a separate stack of hay.

"Your mind? It's rather empty" Emma said looking around at the hay covered floor of the bare barn. She noticed a ladder to an upper floor.

"Oh well. I like it that way" He replied.

"So...?" She began but Michael shrugged. "Why do you have it? The gun?" She pointed two fingers at him as if they were the barrel of a gun.

"It's complicated"

"Did you really kill all those men?" Emma fired as if she were interrogating him.

Michael laid back into the hay and groaned. "Yes I did kill all those men and more." He sighed.

"Why?" Emma folded her legs and kept her eyes trained on Michael, examining his body.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. They had something my brother wanted. In this case it was a sports car. Worth more than a few lives" Michael said, staying laid down as Emma got up and walked up to him to stand over him.

"But why do you have a gun? Huh?" Emma asked, glaring daggers down at Michael's closed eyes. "You're a..." She stammered, trying to think of a good enough insult.

Michael sat up like a vampire and stared intently at her as she panicked in her rush to think. "I know what I am! I always knew it would catch up with me. And here it is" He opened his arms indicating the empty barn. He stopped and slapped his thighs with a shrug. He gave Emma one last look before turning to walk under the roof of the next level.

"You deserve jail" Emma murmured, slowly backing away. "I have to call my dad-"

Michael spoke over her. "No"

She continued undeterred. "-so he can put you in jail-" she turned and started quickly to the doors.

"No!" Michael yelled and raced towards her.

"-and get justice for all those men you killed!" Emma said just before she reached the doors and her fingers brushed against the wood.

But suddenly Michael wrapped his arms around her waist and plucked her from the ground, making her scream and try to wriggle free. But he was stronger than her and dragged her back away from the doors as she continued to cry out and scream. He threw her down behind some stacks of hay and grabbed her phone, crushing it underneath his foot in his panicked frenzy. Then he stopped and stared at the fear in Emma's eyes as he realised what he'd just done. He looked around wide eyed while running a hand through his hair under the SnapBack. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry" He breathed with the shock and backed away from Emma looking at his hands as she eased herself up to stand again. He turned away and climbed the ladder to the upper floor and crashed into an improvised mattress of hay underneath an old sleeping bag, then he started to quietly sob.

Emma collected the prices of her smashed phone and put the in her pocket. She knew the only reason he did that was because of the fear of going to jail, so she felt sympathetic and sighed. She moved to the wooden ladder and stood at the bottom. "Michael?" She said expectantly. He was silent so Emma climbed the ladder and popped her head up, surveying the next floor. The floor was bare wood and there was no hay or straw on the floorboards, only what was underneath the sleeping bag. There were a couple of round barrels of straw at the edge near the ladder with some square bales at the foot of the sleeping bag. She looked over to Michael and saw he was gazing straight at her from the other side of the floor. Near the head of his sleeping bag was an acoustic guitar.

"Please" Michael mumbled, curled up. He gained a confused look from Emma as he stared at her. She climbed the rest of the ladder and approached him, but he held his hand out for her to stop and he stared tearfully at her as she obeyed and stopped. "I don't want to hurt you" He said, lowering his arm and flipping over on the sleeping bag so his back was facing Emma. She furrowed her brows and turned, walking close to the edge and then sat down, swinging her legs over the side to swing them back and forth while Michael drifted off to sleep.