Gavelston, Tx 1978

Charlie hated rainbows. The decent into Hell began with a rainbow. First with an aura of multicolored light that formed around everything he looked at, and no one else could see. Then would come the blinding headaches, more brutal in their pain and intensity than any beating. Finally, when the pain made it impossible to sit up, much less move, would come the nausea. Almost anything could set it off, but tonight he knew, beyond all certainty, that it had been that smell. It was a smell unique to hospital emergency rooms everywhere, a mixture of chemicals, antiseptics, blood, desperation and fear. Charlie knew that smell would cling to his memory as tenaciously as it now clung to clothing, skin and hair.

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