Page 1 of Thin Lives

Calisto

“Please, just wait a moment,” Father Day begged. “Talk to me a little while longer. Let me help you, Calisto.”

The priest grabbed Calisto’s arm in an attempt to stop him. It barely fazed him at all when he shrugged the man off and continued storming down the aisle.

“You’re too angry, Calisto!”

Words were meaningless.

Unimportant, even.

In his current state—so enraged, confused, and hurting—he didn’t hear them.

Calisto didn’t want to.

“Don’t you remember the last time you were this angry?” the priest called after him.

He did, but it didn’t make a difference.

Calisto flew out of the church and into damp air. He cut through the rain, ignoring the splattering droplets falling from the black sky.

Maybe he shouldn’t have ignored it.

Weren’t black skies omens of sorts?

Before long, Calisto was inside his car and driving down the interstate. Toward where, he didn’t know. But driving felt good—damn good.

He pressed the pedal harder.

He gripped the wheel tighter.

Faster, until the engine roared and gears protested on the last shift.

Rain blurred the windshield, but Calisto’s focus was far beyond the squiggly lines running down the glass before the wipers swiped them away. There was so much agony in his heart, and something akin to betrayal sewing itself into the very marrow of his bones.

Somehow, he just knew …

He had done this to himself.

His car flew past vehicle after vehicle on the interstate. He couldn’t even find it in himself to give a shit about the speed limit, or that he could feel the car loosing traction under his control.

Tires slipped.

He hit the pedal harder, and kept the car straight.

Driving was his one sense of freedom.

Wasn’t that what he said?

Wasn’t that what he told—

Calisto’s gaze caught sight of a black SUV in his rear-view mirror, bringing him out of the hell that was his mind. For a moment, he didn’t begrudge the reprieve it afforded him.

But it was a mistake to look.

The second he stared into the rear-view mirror, high beams flashed on from the SUV behind him, blinding his vision instantly. He was driving far too fast for someone to be following him as closely as that vehicle currently was.

It wasn’t accidental, he realized.