Prompt
On the fourth night of the aurora, it changes from dancing lights to a strange, swirling maelstrom. A cold wind picks up, swirling wildly. Near midnight, the wind is strong enough to topple lighter bushes and knock branches from trees. No major damage has been done, but it is still a storm no one wants to be out in. Suddenly, the colors in the sky seem to explode. A distant echo, like thunder, rolls through the town. The aurora is gone, and so is its strange spell. The only thing that lingers are the small, colorful beads that fall from the sky like hail. They sparkle in all colors of the aurora and are never any larger than a marble. Most of them seem safe, but if you hold too many at one time you are met with the same sleepless affliction the town was suffering under the aurora.
(WC: 713)
He'd ******** up.
Ultimately, he knew it was stupid, picking up a job when the weather was as s**t as it was. It was probably why the b*****d was willing to pay as much as he had been - no other idiot was willing to risk his own gonads by trekking out into the snowstorm surrounding DC to make a few extra bucks than Paul Jones himself.
In the end, the job hadn't even been hard. Most of it had involved standing around and looking intimidating - two tasks that were easy enough for the burly, sour-faced man. He was sore but the stiffness came more than likely from the hours worth of standing and not much else - getting paid nearly a grand and a half for basic standing skills was a-okay in his book, as far as he was concerned.
Driving home... now that was an adventure. He'd done his husbandly duties and texted Noah on the way home, to keep the ginger updated, as he always insisted he'd be. The phone had then been tucked away in a back pocket as he guided his Baby - his pure black, perfect Mustang - through the wind and the snow on the thirty minute drive back through the city and into the suburbs of their quiet little neighborhood. Fingers curled tightly around the steering wheel as eyes narrowed, peering through the snow and slush to keep his eyes on the road.
The wind had picked up since he'd left the house, the force of the gusts pushing against the side of the vehicle. Windshield wipers were enough to brush back the oncoming snow, but when the random ********' lights that had plagued the sky over the last few nights came to a head, Paul debated the merits of pulling off to the side for a moment and watch.
News channel had said it was some freak storm. Temperatures and s**t made for random lights they couldn't fully explain. Lights weren't hurting anything from what he could tell so he wasn't bothered but this... this was some crazy a** s**t.
Deciding that getting home was more important, he buckled down and ignored the swirling lights, pushing on as he reached the outskirts of their neighborhood. It was about then that the lights accumulated and burst, the sudden impact letting out a low, thunderous boom across the city.
The boom didn't bother him but the large branch that snapped and fell directly in front of Baby's path did, violet eyes going wide as he swerved to avoid missing the fallen limb. The car spun on ice from the sudden jerk, sending the nose of his precious, beautiful car into the nearby ditch.
Curse after curse went flying from his mouth, especially after realizing that throwing the car into reverse did absolutely nothing for the stuck vehicle. No tow truck would dare come out in weather like this, especially... wait, s**t.
Was it hailing????
s**t, this ********' weather was gonna dent Baby and piss him off even more.
Getting out of the car, he immediately noticed that it was no normal hail that littered both the ground and the roof of his car. Beads of beautiful, luminous color scattered everywhere - even bouncing off his head and shoulder.
"What the hell?"
They were annoying as ******** but didn't hurt, Paul's immediate reaction being to protectively gather all the accumulating beads from off his car to brush them aside. Doing so seemed to make him lightheaded, so the beads got dropped to the wayside, rolling down into the trench he'd gotten his most valuable possession lodged into.
The exhaustion settled between his bones and Paul knew he had to make a call. Either sit in the car and nap while he waited for the random-a** storm to pass or make his way back home and call a tow in the morning.
As the beads continued to rain down and the weariness increase, he decided that <******** it, sleeping in bed beat trying to crumple up his body against the pleather interior of his car.
"Sorry girl. I'll be back in the morning."
One hand rested itself on the frame of the car as he gave her one last forlorn look before raising up his jacket to cover his head, heavy footsteps resuming the journey home.
