M.A. Kleen

Twenty-five years ago, I self-published The River of Rain, a philosophical exploration of freedom, human nature, and the modern world. To mark its anniversary, I’m releasing a fully revised edition, one chapter every Wednesday. This is the novel as it was meant to be.

---

Saturday, November 22nd

7:10 p.m.

The bright stadium lights overwhelmed Ariana almost as much as the roar of the crowd. She should have felt completely at home here. She was a cheerleader, after all. But the energy ran at a higher pitch tonight, sharpened by the weight of a championship game.

The home team’s bleachers were packed, a solid wall of noise and color, while their own section was thin by comparison. Most of the support stayed back home. Away games rarely drew a crowd, even for state, she supposed. Still, she had been sure they would win. They were already up by seven, and the game had barely begun.

Ariana and the other cheerleaders threw themselves into it, shouting until their voices strained, doing what they believed was the best work they had ever done. Everyone buzzed with excitement, nerves jangling under the lights.

Then the onside kick went wrong. The ball fell into the hands of a lightning-fast player from the opposing team, and he carried it nearly to the end zone. Any illusion of an easy victory vanished in an instant.

The players were fired up now. For many of them, this would be the last and greatest moment before the real world closed in. It was their final chance to play in a real stadium, under real lights, with real fans watching. They tried to push those thoughts aside, but how could something that overwhelming not linger?

The clock kept running as the teams slammed into one another across the length of the field. It became a contest of will and endurance, a grinding struggle where only the strongest and most disciplined would prevail.

Night

The forest had fallen into darkness, broken only by the glow of a bonfire crackling deep among the trees. Victor had managed to pull the bear up to the crest of the hill on an improvised sled before rolling it down into the enclave. He built a massive fire and began skinning the beast with his knife. It was brutal, messy work.

The air carried the promise of rain, and he knew moisture would ruin any chance of curing the hide. To guard against it, he lashed together a crude frame of branches and draped the fur across it, letting the fire dry the exposed side. When that was done, he removed the bear’s head and carved thin strips of meat from the carcass.

He carefully laid them on a tripod covered with evergreen branches to trap the smoke from the fire, slowing drying the strips. The whole process would take hours, but the meat would last him through the winter, if he could preserve it that long.

Victor stood before the crackling fire wearing nothing but a strip of fur around his waist. Blood slicked his hands, smeared his face, and gave his sunbaked skin a dark sheen. His eyes shone with something wild. He lifted the bear’s head high and loosed an unearthly cry that echoed through the trees.

Though he had spent years in civilization, something older stirred now, close to the surface. The forest no longer felt separate from him. It simply existed, and so did he, bound together by what had just been done. The bear lay dead at his feet. He had stood against it and lived.

No one had helped him drag the weight of it here. No one had steadied his hands or shared the work. He lowered the bear’s head and looked into its dark, empty eyes, holding the gaze longer than he meant to. A laugh escaped him, rough and unguarded, fading only when the sound seemed to drain away into the trees.

High above, the black raven watched from its perch, silent and still.

9:40 p.m.

The party started in the hotel pool, though a faint note of disappointment lingered in the air. Ariana’s school hadn’t won the game the way she’d been so sure they would. Still, they had made it to state, and that counted for something. No one seemed too concerned about the loss anyway. Right now, the party was in full swing, and the future felt far away.

Ariana splashed around with her friends and a few of the football players, dunking one another under the water and laughing loudly. She kept scanning the crowd, looking for Jimmy, but couldn’t spot him anywhere. Then one of the guys swept her friend Jenny away, leaving Ariana alone at the edge of the pool. A chill ran through her. She climbed out, wrapped herself in a towel, and headed toward the stairs, pausing only as someone barreled past in a burst of laughter and chaos.

She was halfway up when she nearly collided with Jimmy. He was heading down, but stopped short when he saw her.

“Do you want to come to our room?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“Sure,” Ariana said, though her nerves showed.

He walked with her up the stairs to the boys’ room, actually two rooms joined by a connecting door. It was dim inside, crowded with people holding plastic cups and talking over one another. Music pulsed softly beneath the noise. Some kids clustered in corners, others sat wherever there was space. The atmosphere felt unreal, like everything was slightly out of focus.

Ariana settled onto a couch beside a few football players she barely knew, tucking herself in and wishing she could disappear into the cushions.

“Do you want a beer?” Jimmy asked, offering her a cup.

She thanked him and took a tentative sip, grimacing at the taste. He smiled, and she smiled back, hoping she looked more confident than she felt. After a few more drinks, the edge of her nervousness dulled, and it became easier to let the moment carry her along. Jimmy shifted closer, easing the space between them as the room spun gently with sound and motion around them.

Sunday, November 23rd

Morning

Victor woke with the rising sun, as he did most mornings. He immediately noticed how quiet everything was, how the air seemed to hang low and heavy. It was going to rain hard later, he decided, stretching again as he so often did. The scabs along his arms and legs ached as he moved, and he regretted letting himself relax.

Hunger set in, and Victor realized he hadn’t eaten since the day before. He scolded himself for it. He had a habit of getting caught up in things and forgetting what mattered most. He walked back into the cave where he kept the smoked bear meat. Now was as good a time as any to try it. He snapped off a piece and chewed. The meat was tough but flavorful enough, and when you were hungry, that was all that mattered.

He ate a few more scraps until his stomach settled, then moved back outside and sat on the terrace at the cave’s mouth. For once, he decided to stay put. He would sit there all day and let the smells, the cool air, and the quiet weight of late fall wash over him.

10:00 a.m.

Ariana groaned as she rolled over, nearly colliding with the other girl sharing her bed. She had never felt so sick in her life. Nausea churned relentlessly, and the sight of evidence that others hadn’t made it to the bathroom in time only made it worse. The worst part was that she couldn’t remember what had happened the night before. All she could dredge up were a few scattered images from the party, nothing solid, nothing complete.

The door flew open and their cheerleading supervisor stormed in, shouting at them to get ready and clean up. The noise made Ariana’s head throb. It quickly became clear there wouldn’t be time for much of either. Ariana took a hurried shower and pulled her comfortable clothes on, like most of the others. They stumbled down the stairs and out into the parking lot.

They sat on the curb outside the hotel for what felt like at least twenty minutes. Ariana glanced toward Jimmy more than once, but he didn’t notice her, too busy killing time with the other football players. Nearby, the head coach paced with his phone pressed to his ear, his face growing redder by the second, a vein standing out on his forehead.

“What do you mean the bus can’t get here until seven?” he shouted. “What the hell are we paying you for?”

Ariana didn’t like the sound of that at all. It looked like they were going to be there for a long time.

“What else could possibly go wrong?” she heard him mutter as he snapped the phone shut and walked off to confer with the other adults.

Late Afternoon

The sky darkened as Victor sat, still absorbed in the beauty around him. Everything felt in tune, like a symphony building toward its peak. There was electricity in the air now. He knew a violent storm was coming, perhaps even sleet. He hoped Ingram had found shelter.

Victor waited patiently. He could wait all day if he had to, knowing the enclave would protect him from the worst of it. At most, rain might blow in at an angle and lightly mist him. Usually, when storms came, he stayed right where he was, watching, admiring, letting it pass over him.

His gaze drifted to his bed of straw and the new bearskin spread across it. He would be warm this winter now, and he wouldn’t need to waste precious wood on a fire at night. That mattered. Killing the bear had secured his survival, and in that way, it justified the act. Victor felt no remorse, though he did mourn the loss of such a powerful creature.

Struggling to keep his eyes open while his thoughts wandered, he sat with his back against the limestone wall. Inevitably, he found himself thinking about the things he’d left behind in the world beyond the forest. A girlfriend. Friends. A car. Music. The ordinary comforts people rarely noticed until they were gone.

He considered them briefly, then set them aside. Those things had never fit him particularly well, and he knew that now. Out here, he didn’t have to perform or measure himself against anyone else. Besides, he wasn’t alone. The trees and animals surrounded him, and in the warmer months there were flowers and birds to fill the silence.

Everything felt perfect, serene. He couldn’t imagine a better life, and he hoped it would never change. He knew, with quiet certainty, that he would do anything to keep it that way. And what right did anyone have to take it from him?

6:45 p.m.

It had already begun to rain by the time the bus finally arrived. Ariana and everyone else had been sitting on the curb for six grueling hours. Anyone with spare cash had been allowed to grab something to eat, but that was their only relief. The bus driver looked sickly, pale and sweating, and the coach’s shouting did nothing to improve the situation.

When the doors finally opened, the kids piled on in a noisy rush, relieved just to be leaving. “It’s about damn time,” Ariana heard one girl mutter. “I had things to do today.” The sky darkened by the minute, thunder rolling somewhere overhead. Nearby, a knot of adults stood in a tight circle, their faces etched with concern.

“No, we have to get back today!” Ariana heard the coach shout, though she couldn’t make out the rest. Everyone was on board just in time. As the last person stepped inside, the rain came down hard, pounding the pavement. The parking lot emptied quickly, leaving only a few scattered cars behind as the bus pulled away and began the long trip home.

Rain lashed the asphalt, forming puddles where there had been none moments before. Inside the bus, the kids almost immediately began breaking every safety rule imaginable. The adults exchanged defeated looks, buried their faces in their hands, and finally stopped trying to restore order altogether.

8:00 p.m.

The bus rolled into a long, lonely stretch of forest on the return trip. Ariana felt uneasy, even though no one else seemed to notice. She watched the driver, slick with sweat, squinting through a windshield that was nearly impossible to see through. The rain fell too hard, the woods pressed in too darkly, and the windshield wipers barely made a difference.

She glanced around, searching for signs that someone else felt it too. A few did. One girl had curled up in the back of the bus, crying softly, though Ariana couldn’t tell if she was scared or just hated storms. Jenny was gone from the seat beside her. Ariana scanned the aisle, confused, unable to figure out where she’d gone. Her thoughts raced, bouncing wildly from one fear to the next.

Then came the jolt. The crash followed so fast it barely felt separate. Anyone standing or unbuckled was hurled to the floor as screams tore through the bus. The world spun violently, metal shrieking and groaning under the strain.

The lights went out.

Darkness swallowed everything, plunging the bus into a blind, screaming chaos. Ariana was thrown toward the back of the vehicle, slamming into a pile of luggage that absorbed just enough of the impact to keep her moving. The emergency exit burst open, and she spilled out into the mud, rain hammering her body like fists.

Dazed and aching, she forced herself upright and ran blindly into the night, with no idea where she was going, only that she had to get away from the chaos and screams.

To be Continued…