Read Online Obscura Burning by Suzanne van Rooyen - Free Book Online Page A

lances my eyes. My neck is cricked, and the comic I was drawing is stained a dark burgundy. It’s ruined, although the stain adds color to the black-and-white flames in the frame. I don’t remember drawing it.
    That’s the weirdest part. When I shift between realities, the one I’m not in seems to carry on as if I’m still in it. Creeps me out thinking about who’s acting like me in my place. Some bizarre doppelgänger?
    Feels like I got beaten up by four guys even though I’m in a different reality. There’s a sticky trail of blood from my nose across my lips and chin.
    Sunday, July 1.
    I’ve lost en entire day. I scribble the date and time on a sticky note. The postcard Shira gave me is propped up next to the terrarium, waiting for a more permanent location. Problem is deciding which way to stick it. Poem or picture side up?
    A knock on my bedroom door.
    “Kyle, sweetheart? It’s almost noon.” The door cracks open and Mom walks in, decked out in her church clothes. At least she doesn’t wake me up for the services anymore. Definitely not in the mood for more doomsday rhetoric, and speeches about sin and repentance.
    “Oh my Lord, what happened?” She rushes over, fussing over my face.
    “Nothing, Mom. Just a nosebleed.”
    “Let me check.” She goes into nurse mode, pinching my septum and feeling my eye sockets. Her touch is gentler on the left where the scars have made pockets of warped flesh under my eye.
    “Told you.”
    She disappears into the bathroom and returns with a cold, wet cloth and presses it to my face.
    “How are you doing?” Mom sits on the edge of the bed, her eyes etched with concern as I dab at the scabs on my face. Her gaze drifts to the terrarium where my vinegaroons are enjoying their breakfast, and she shudders. She never liked my pets.
    “I’m coping.”
    Mom seems about to ask something else, but she catches her bottom lip between her teeth. She’s sporting more gray hair now, and deeper lines around her eyes and mouth.
    “I met a girl,” I say. As soon as the words leave my lips, I want to kick myself.
    Delight registers on her face. “Are we going to meet this girl?”
    “Maybe. I’m going with her to the dance.”
    “I’m so happy for you, Kyle.” She kisses my forehead. “Get cleaned up, you smell like cheese.” Her nose wrinkles. “I’ve got the day off so I made pancakes.” Mom pretty much skips out of my room and down the stairs. I lean out the door, listening. She’s telling Dad I met a girl.
    Groaning, I haul myself into the shower. The smell of burrito is still stuck in my nostrils. My hair is greasy from a night at Black Paw, but that shouldn’t be part of this reality… The room tilts on its axis and I’m falling.
    Dust and blood in my mouth. Early morning sunlight streaming through the stunted mesquite that hangs over the Dumpsters outside Black Paw.
    Another reality shift. They never used to happen if I was awake. Something’s changing.
    I stagger to my feet and head back into the restaurant, fumbling with the keys. Coughing up blood and sand, I rinse and spit several times. There isn’t a single part of me that doesn’t hurt. The TV in the corner, usually tuned to ESPN so Hector can watch the game at work, shuffles through channels until it settles on a news broadcast.
    Saturday, June 30. My lost day found.
    I turn up the volume.
    “The planet many are calling Obscura is set to reach its perigee around the Fourth of July. Given the hysteria with which some doomsday groups have responded to the appearance of this planet, scientists are hesitant to speculate on what the planet being at its closest point to Earth could mean for us over the holiday. Interference from the mysterious visitor has so far been limited to transmission interruptions, although some claim Obscura is having an effect on our climate, gravitational field, and even on our perception of time itself. Despite these anomalies, it seems extremely unlikely at this stage that