by Marcel Miska
“All set,” he said, blankly. He wasn’t sure how he should be feeling, so he didn’t force himself to feel anything at all.
Climbing into the backseat of the car with his camera in his lap, he heaved a sigh and settled himself in for the long ride. Like Orpheus, Fabio didn’t permit himself to turn around. If he turned as he emerged from the underworld, he would lose everything he’d built here, even if it was only intact in his memory.
As the cab pulled away, he did allow one himself one last indulgence. His camera shuddered and whirred as it came to life and Fabio toggled to some of the first pictures he’d taken here; Julian in the warm, honeyed light of summer with fields of wheat and flat-topped green mountains behind him. That first visit to The Plain when he all but knew the heartache that Julian spelled for him.
It had been worth it.
***
Julian’s fingers felt numb as he stared at the small stiff rectangle of paper in his hands.
This… this couldn’t be it. It couldn’t be all, couldn’t be the end.
The sound of an engine turning over shattered the somber stillness, and Julian’s head snapped up to see the tail lights flicker once, then shine a bright red incongruous to the solemnity of the morning.
A cold prickly sweat broke out across his shoulder blades. His body flooded with adrenaline, already knowing the decision before he’d consciously made it. Could it have been anything else?
The car’s tires made the gravel under them crackle with their slow, initial movements and it was like the crack of a starting pistol. Julian’s feet pawed through the turf of the lawn, desperate for traction, as the cab gathered speed.
His strides became longer, more purposeful and determined as the soles of his shoes slapped the pavement of the main road. All he could hear was white noise and stop him stop him stop him pumping through his veins.
Even as the car pulled far ahead, Julian was incapable of stopping. Running, always running. He was always running for Fabio. Running to dive into the cool, slick summer of the quarry, running through autumn’s gilded fields, running now into the cotton candy colors of morning chasing last night’s dream.
He’d chase the dawn as long as he had to.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcel Miska (*1984)
Born into a worker family in the GDR, East Germany, Marcel Miska grew up with an ever-present passion for acting, music and writing.
As a young boy, he loved to sing and play guitar and drums. Always living by the motto, “Enough moments and you have a life,” and inspired by his idols The Bangles, at the age of fourteen Marcel began writing his own songs and formed his first rock band.
He left high school a year later and got a job at a small radio station in his hometown.
Surrounded by moderators, speakers and performers, Miska wanted to do more than to watch other people use their talents to earn money. He felt encouraged to pursue a professional career in the arts, and decided studying theatre as a way to utilize his love of music, writing, and acting would help to bring his dream to fruition.
In late 2003, Marcel left his band and applied to the theatre school Schauspielschule Charlottenburg in Berlin. He passed the audition and soon relocated to Germany’s capital.
During his education, Miska had a recurring role in the German daily soap opera "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten," produced by Grundy UFA Film productions.
He also found work behind the camera in a production office for a major broadcasting channel that came up with the idea of a brand new German weekly television show.
It was during this time that he started working on his first gay story “Behind the Horizon”.
Marcel graduated at age 25 from the Starter – Berliner Schauspielschule für Film und Fernsehen, an acting school focused on camera, film and television.
Through the years he did a number of short films as well as a cinema movie and music videos; additionally, he was part of different theatre productions, and worked as a voiceover artist for a German dubbing studio.
In 2014, Miska changed course and moved to London, England. There he continues to live with his boyfriend while focusing on acting and writing short stories.
Marcel’s books tend to focus gay romance/erotica stories combined with a true background.
When he is not in London, Marcel lives and works in Paris.