Post 11: final blog

Hans woke up that morning with an urge to run. Not really to any specific place, just to run. He ran all day; past the strip club, past the Vietnamese restaurant, past the whole town. Konigin ran at his side, panting.
Right as the sun was setting, a staircase to nowhere appeared in front of him. Hans paused for only a moment, then began climbing. The air rushed past his face. The smell of the stairs felt rhythmic under his feet. The stairs ended on the roof of watershed heights. Hans stopped for the first time that day and looked around him. The world was quiet here. Konigin came bolting up the stairs behind him. Good girl. I love you, I will always love you.
Hans looked at his hands. They were dirty and stained. Just like his life. Hans had spent the last ten years running from his past. Every day in watershed heights, he had walked past the broken fountain, wanting nothing more than to wash himself off. He wanted nothing more than to leave his past and wash the stains away.
Exhausted, Hans sank to the ground and fell asleep. He awoke that evening, sore and sad. He opened his eyes to a woman standing on the ledge. As he watched, she dropped to the ground, sobbing. Part of Hans told him to help her. But deep down he couldn't. Grief was something to be dealt with alone. The woman stood up again. It was raining now. Dirt dripped off Hans in waterfalls. The woman stood like a statue. When the lightening struck her, it did not seem like a shock. It seemed the most natural sequence of events. Hans felt joy in his heart as he saw her face. She began to fall and looked as though she had never been happier in her life. As she disappeared over the edge, Hans' eyes began to burn. His tears mixed with the rain and cleansed his grimy face. Joy inside of him began to well up and burst out of his throat in great gusts of laughter. The world spun and the ground came up to give Hans a kiss.
The morning light mixed with dog breath woke Hans to a beautiful, new world. Watershed Heights sparkled. Yes, it sparkled! Hans examined his arms and clothes. Clean as a whistle. The door to the roof opened, and Blanket Cobb stepped out of it. He looked at Hans for a moment, as though he had never seen him before. Hans and Blanket had passed each other numerous times on the street, with Blanket always giving Hans the cold shoulder. Blanket's mouth just dropped open now.
"Who...? Where...? How...?"
Preferring to leave rather than explain, Hans gave Blanket a friendly smile and he and Konigin descended from the roof, to walk through the streets. A sound reached his ears. A sound like music, a sound like angels playing harps, a sound like glass falling. The fountain was working. Hans ran towards it and, when he reached it, submerged his hands in it and then his whole head. There was no feeling like it in the world. There was no feeling like freedom. Hans began to walk, Konigin at his side. He stopped outside the Vietnamese restaurant. A sign on the window caught his eye: Help wanted. Apply within. Hans pulled down the sign, opened the door, and stepped into a new life.