Off To The Fireworks

The pulsing life of the city was an animated heartbeat under the brilliant July sun as we made our way toward the pier. My wife and I, tightly gripping our daughter Alenna’s small hand, navigated the maze of people who had already staked out their territories on the riverfront. Blankets of every size, shape, and color formed a mosaic of humanity sprawled across the grass, a microcosm of the city’s melting pot. As we settled down on our own piece of real estate – a square quilt under the shadow of the skyscrapers, I felt a familiar dread creep up on me. The sea of spectators around us, the cloudless sky above, and the sheer scale of the occasion were oppressive. I felt my jaw tighten, my eyes squinted in defiance of the setting sun. Moments melted into minutes, which stacked up into hours. With the cell service dead, the waiting was excruciating. Every few minutes, I would check my phone, a futile exercise that became a Sisyphean routine. Each fruitless countdown was a mocking reminder of the growing unease within me, an echo of the ominous tick-tock of an unseen clock. And then, just as my patience teetered on the precipice of exhaustion, the first firework blossomed in the twilight. My daughter’s eyes, mirror images of the incandescent spectacle, were alight with innocent wonder. But as the cityscape was painted in luminescent hues, an insidious chill crawled down my spine. Turning to my wife, I whispered my unease, “This seems a bit demonic.” Years of flirting with the occult had transformed a childhood curiosity into an adult burden. The scenes playing out before me, a public celebration marked by pyrotechnics, now felt like a grand distraction. Behind the vibrant curtains of light, I saw sinister marionettes at work, pulling on the strings of reality, masking the truth with smoke and mirrors. I didn’t know what it was exactly – but my gut gnawed at the knowledge of an unseen malevolent force. The sense of dread was amplified by the declining morality around me. It was as if the dark energy I had always felt was now seeping through the societal cracks, fueled by the mounting depravity. As the night sky erupted in a grand finale of booming explosions and cascading stars, my mind was elsewhere. I prayed that my daughter would navigate this turbulent world to fulfill her dreams. I prayed that she would conquer her demons, the way I had been fighting mine.