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.

Post 10

There it was. Sitting on the street, old and dirty and beautiful. Hans couldn't believe it, a beautiful 20 dollar bill. Right outside the vietnamese restauraunt. Hans couldn't remember the last time he had a hot meal. He grabbed the bill and ran. Inside, the restaurant smelled wonderful. The owner didn't spare Hans a second look as he walked in. Hans sat down and ordered the first thing on the menu: roast pork dumplings. The waiter looked skeptical when Hans ordered, but at the sight of the bill in Hans's hand, he scurried away to the kitchen. Hans looked around. The room was dark and smelled slighty of old tobacco and BBQ sauce. The air hung thick and the eyes of the other patrons glinted out of the darkness like animals. They were Animals. And they hunted him. They had always hunted him and they always would. He was just prey to them. Prey to be chased and hunted and slaughtered mercilessly for sport and the carcass left for the vultures. The waiter appeared out of the smoke and placed the food on the table. Then he disapeared again. Hans wasted no time in devouring the dumplings. They were heaven. Hans had never taseted anything like then. The waiter was standing by him again. " how is everything sir?" " sehr gut." mumbled Hans through his food. He fished the 20 out of his pocket and handed it to the waiter who disappeared again. Hans finished his food and looked around. Suddenly he felt as though the eyes were watching him. They were hungery. He was full and now it was time for them to be satisfied. They knew it was time to pounce. Fear siezed Hans deep down. He ran out of the restaurant at top speed, ignoring the calls of the waiter. He ran throughthe streets, konigin barking behind him. Hans didn't stop until he tripped over something in the road and fell. He tried to get up but his legs wouldn't work. Hans finally gave in to the struggle and embraced the oncomming darkness.

post 9

When Hans opened his eyes, Königin was looking at him. A half of a hamburger still in its wrapper lay at her feet. She moved it towards him with her nose. "Danke..."
"What the hell?"
Hans looked up. A chick who looked like she had suffered a severe beating was standing at the end of the street looking at him.
"Man what the Hell? Your dog just stole my hamburger and ran off."
The girl moved closer. Hans realized that what he had taken for bruises was actually too much eye makeup.
"Es tud mir leid..." Hans offered the hamburger back to her.
"Hell no! I don't know what your damn dirty dog did to it!"
Hans forced himself to his feet, despite the protests from every muscle in his body.
"Frauline, I am sorry but Königin is not dirty. And she deserves as much respect as anyone else. I cannot stand by and allow you to speak about her that way."
The girl sneered at him. He wondered how she managed to smile with those metal things stuck through her lips.
"Oh so you do actually speak English? Not just mumbo jumbo? I'm surprised. Look this neighborhood is trash as it is so just go to Hell where you belong and tell your damn dog not to steal my food anymore. I worked for that food. You probably never did a days work in your life."
It took every piece of self restraint Hans possessed not to hit this infuriating little child. She didn't look a day over 18 and probably thought she knew everything about life.
"Listen to me, Madchen. I have had enough of your kinderspiel. You do not know everything simply because you stick metal through your face and you do not know trouble because you got your hamburger stolen. I have seen things and done things that would make your childish mind reel. And neither Königin nor I are going anywhere. We have earned our place. Let's see you do as much!"
The girl looked like she wanted to say something, but at that moments sirens wailed in the direction of the bank and the girl turned in their direction. Hans took the opportunity to vanish into the shadows with Königin.

post 8

The flames leaped up towards the sky like a child's fingers reaching for a treasure. People were running every which way, some screaming, some crying. The man with the liquor screamed as his profits burned away. Agnes Monaghan with her cotton candy ran blindly down an alleyway, tears streaming down her face. In her blindness, she ran full force into a man with a dog.
"Oh I'm so so..."
Her voice trailed away as she saw the man. She had never seen him before, but he struck her as familiar. His hair was matter and he wore an eye-patch. The dog next to him actually seemed to smile up at her. But, far stranger then his appearance, the man was laughing. He threw back his head and laughed a wild hysterical laugh.
"Das Feuer!" Ich liebe das Feuer!"
Agnes backed away. Then she turned and ran full speed away. Hans stood there and laughed long after she had gone. The fire warmed his soul with a warmth he had not felt since Leona died. In his mind's eye Hans saw the flames licking the side of his house. Those flames were the work of his hands. Leona was gone and the world had turned against him. Yet he was not tied down.
Meinen Haus ist nicht dein... Ich bin frei...
Hans began to run. He ran towards the carnival, past clowns whose makeup streamed off their faces with sweat. He ran past the collapsing feris wheel, past the stalls and shops that would burn for a while and then succumb to ashes. He was the prince and each tongue of flame was his subject. Nothing could stop him. Königin ran next to him. His Königin... his Queen.
Smoke ran into his nostrils and choked him. Hans fell to the ground, laughing and coughing at the same time.
"Ich liebe dich, Königin!"
Then blackness swallowed him.

post 7

The carnival was in town. If not for that, Hans would have enjoyed the spring weather. The sky was blue and the sun kissed his sad face in a way that made him almost handsome. “Heute ist eine neue Tag…” The thought somehow made him happy. It meant something he had never had: a new start. No one had ever given him a second chance…
A busload of kids was unloading. Their tiny voices made Hans’s head hurt. Pastor Dan was standing on the street preaching about the evils of the carnival. Swinehundt… Königin walked next to him, a quiet reminder that sanity still existed in the world. Hans stood for a moment and looked at the carnival. Nobody would ever let him into that place. They took one look and decided he wasn’t worth it. Hans looked at the ferris wheel. It stopped after every rotation. “Just like me.” thought Hans. “As soon as I get rolling, I hit a snag.” Suddenly, he realized there were tears on his cheeks. Königin nuzzled his hand. “Danke, mein Rose. Ich bin sehr trauig… Ich will nach Hause gehen… Los gehts.” Man and dog turned away from the shouts and laughter and walked towards the sun. They did not look back until the carnival was out of sight.

post 6

When Hans awoke, the world was covered in ice. Cold, wet, unforgiving ice. The ice mirrored the feelings inside of Hans. Königin was not here to warm him. Hans looked down at his hands; they were bright red from the cold. As red as her blood the night he killed her... It had all happened so quickly: Leona crying, his hand striking her just as he had struck Königin, Leona's scream as she fell, all crowded inside his head. The Ultimate Nightmare. Hans blinked. Something lay in the street. Something small and flat. Hans picked it up and examined it. A sock?
Hans looked up the street to where an overweight man was walking slowly down the street, looking at the ground and muttering to himself. "I know I dropped it somewhere..." The man glanced up and, for a brief moment, the eyes of the two men locked. Then the moment passed and the little man did what most everyone did when they saw Hans: he ran away. Hans moved to chase him, but slipped and fell. As Hans sat up, he tasted blood. Tears welled up and began to fall. They mixed with blood from the cut lip and dripped bright red onto the snow.
A rough touch on his face made Hans open his eyes. There stood Königin licking away the blood and tears and whimpering softly. Hans could only wrap his arms around her neck and hold her. Slowly, the warmth from Königin's fur faded the cold, redness of Hans's hands.

Post 5

Hans stood up slowly. He was alone. The rain had soaked him through and the cold had touched him much deeper than the goose bumps on his skin showed. Königin was gone. He looked around the rain soaked streets and realized how hungry he was. Slowly, mechanically, his muscles moved his body off to find food. As he wandered past a restaurant, he watched a man with no pants on wander inside. What a fool. That happy smile on his face embodied all that Hans had found to be naive and childish in the world. He thought he had chance. He thought people would listen to him. The world never listened to anyone who didn't have several million dollars and an army behind them. Hans- Georg was proof of that. All those years, scraping and working his fingers to the bone had been repaid with nothing. He had had no choice. His theivry had been his only choice. Leona had changed that though. Leona... Meine Königin...