Lightning rivered brightly across the raging sea of night, shaking Railyn violently from sleep. A sharp cry seeped up from Railyn's throat, but she caught in and shoved it down into her heart. Darkness immediatley crowded over her, sensing her fear like a supressive snake. Fear-stricken and frozen in her spot, flashbacks of a past left forgotten tourtured her mind, causing horrible pain to thunder inside her skull. She didn't want to wake the girls, but her voice was on the brink of screaming. She was too proud or too ignorant; which one, she wasn't sure of. Railyn groped along her bed blindly for her blue bathrobe and grasped it, her hands trembling involuntarily. She covered herself with security and patted her feet on the floor, fishing for her black slippers. Slowly and carefully, she rose from her bed and proceeded toward the only sign of life, the scarce, flickering light radiating from the open stairs. She crept down hastily, darkness laughing and snickering in her wake......

Greg groggerly glanced at his alarm clock sitting quietly on his wood nightstand. '1:24' glared back at him with red light. Shadows of trees and houses snuck into his room, creating opaque murals on his bedroom floor. He reached for his black touch lamped and tapped on it twice, bright light streaming from it like when light passes through a true diamond. He threw the blue flannel covers off him and swung his feet around, wiping at his eyes like salt stung them painfully. He couldn't fall into the pool of slumber, so many things lurked at the surface of his mind. He rose from the bed, his red boxers with white pinstripes flowing loosely on his body. Suddenly, his black cell phone began to ring. Greg bolted his head to the noise, walking briskly to his desk. He checked the caller ID; the call was coming from a payphone. "Hello?" he said, his voice parched and scratchy, begging for the sweet soother of water. "Railyn?...Oh, No, you didn't wake me up. It's OK...Is something wrong? Come over?...OK, Alright. Yeah, no problem. Come in the backyard and up the stairs to the deck...Yeah, I'll be waiting...OK...Bye."

As Greg waited for Railyn to arrive, he quested through the wood dresser for a grey T-Shirt. He claimed it in his hands and threw it over his glistening torso; it was always so hot in his room. Thunder crackled in the night, causing Greg to jump from his stance slightly. Rain began to lightly drip from the skys, intensifying with every passing second. He heard a tap at the sliding door. Greg pulled the blue curtain back to see Railyn drenched with water and fright. Her blue eyes were glazed with fresh tears as he slid open the door. Railyn didn't smile, didn't even look at him; just mechanically walked in, eyes glued to the floor. She sat down on the edge of his bed, crossing her hands across her chest as if defending herself from what lurks in the night. "Railyn?" he asked, consern pasted on his beautiful face as he sat down next to her and layed an arm around her shoulders.

She looked up timidly, rain mixed with tears were downsloping on her hills of facial features and hair. Her voice was wavered and unhinged. Lighting and thunder clashed together like cymbols and drums, forcing Railyn to scowl and cringe. "I...I am very scared...of the dark and...lightning." Surprise filled Greg's mind. Railyn seemed so perfect, so care-free; yet she hid such a horror the caused her eyes to shed tears and her to flee her safe bed in the middle of the night. Greg situated his legs indian-style, keeping one comforting hand on her back. Greg nodded, willing to do anything to make her beautiful face smile again. "My mom...whenever she went out to do, whatever, I don't know what," Railyn stated, sniffles interrupting her thoughts. Greg reached down at the floor to grab a tissue. He offered it to Railyn and she accepted it gratefully. She dabbed it quickly at the corners of her eyes, tears gravatating into the thin cloth. "She used to lock me in the basement with the spiders and the rats and the unexplanable noises. She thought I'd behave down there, be safe down there...it was...so dark. And she thought I could reach the light, but...I was too short...to reach the dangling chain." Her eyes leaked tears; she couldn't stop them. All the pent-up fear and fustration of the past surfaced and surged out of anywhere it could. Greg rubbed her back, undenyable consern flickering on his face. "It was so scary! Especially on the nights when it thundered and lightning streaked through the sky. I thought I could be safe...if I, I just thought about something happy, but the thunder and lightning pounded and pounded in my head and it wouldn't stop..."

Greg frowned, his head in denial that a mother would do such a thing. He scooted over to Railyn and cradeled her in his muscular arms. She just cried and cried as she clung onto Greg for dear life, so scarred and tramatized by the past. Her eyes were beginning to shade red as she calmed down, Greg's sweeps at her back slowing in pace. "I feel stupid. I was always so ashamed to tell the girls," she gasped with a sliver of a smile as she gently pulled away from Greg's soothing grasp, whipping at her moist cheeks.

"I'm glad you told someone," Greg admitted, glancing at the moon fighting to glow through the gloomy clounds. Railyn nodded, her eyes focused on her bare knee. Something still picked at Greg's brain; "Will you tell me how your parents died?"

Railyn gazed at him, a tinge of disbelief stinging her already painful eyes. "Well...OK, I'll tell you," Railyn replied reluctently, supporting her back and clogged head on the wall, her legs placed gingerly on the bed. "They died in a fire when I was 10 or 11," Railyn admitted, raising her pink eyes to meet Greg. "It's funny...the one thing I prayed for, got down on my knees and begged for was the light, the fire, anything that would push my fears away. The same thing I wanted killed my family and destroyed my life." She held her knees to chest and negligibly began to rock back and forth, back and forth.

Greg didn't know what to say, this was all so strange to Greg. You think you know every thing, then you turn around a corner and you're in a different place; it's not the same. Railyn smiled helplessly, attempting to erode the sadness from her face. "I got to pee," Greg announced sparatically, pushing himself to the foot of the bed. Railyn nodded, her eyes squinting to focus on Greg; sleep was beginning to sedate her like a tranquilizer.

After Greg was finished "releasing himself", his eyes caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, dark circles underlining his eyes. He cupped cold water in his hands and doused his face with it, slowing shivers through his veins. He inhaled a profound breath and forced out a stress-releasing gust of air. The door creeked to "tell on him" as he slipped out of the bathroom, tip-toeing as not to be heard back to his room. What Greg viewed next made him awe speechlessly to himself.

Railyn got trapped into the seductive web of slumber, her head ackwardly situated on his green pillow. Her legs and arms were sprawled across the twin bed, rustling the once settled sheets. Greg slunked over to the right side of the bed. He reached over, gently placed her legs beneath the sheets and covered her with the care of a father. He then tapped off the light and slid in motionlessly, trying not to stirr Railyn. Railyn was turned to him, her face a strange shade of blue as the moon casted its sprinkes on her; she looked irresistable. Greg covered himself, squirming deeper and deeper under the warmth of the sheets. He layed there, not attempting to drift away, for a while, just studying every extermity, every contour of Railyn's oval face. He grazed his hand softly over her waves like he was a dolphin swimming in them. Railyn hit a bump on the road to Dreamland and tossed her arms unintentionally over Greg's waist. Greg glanced down, enjoying the sensation he felt jumping from her fingertips. He squirmed closer to her, cupping his hand over her tepid neck and nestling his chin atop her head. The night winds crept through the house, singing Greg to sleep.

Greg didn't know what he was doing; he couldn't help it. We can all guess Railyn was his Sugar Rush, addictive and desirable. He didn't know anything anymore. He didn't know how he felt about Stephanie. He didn't even know how he left about the one-in-a-million that layed by his chest, dreaming imaginatively on his heart. He just hoped every one will understand that this was all...Unintended.