The world outside is comforting. It's light, mundane, and safe. It's at night that the nightmares come out from the darkness to frighten us. But that is all they are, our imaginations playing tricks on us, misinterpreting what we see or seeing something that isn't even there, so there really is nothing to fear. Collin's parents tried to tell him this when he saw things that weren't really there, even when the lights were on. As he grew older, he grew to ignore these things and just accept his parent's explanations of what he saw. Some men are just very hairy, some ears are just odd shapes, and the rest is just his imagination. And his life went on normally. He grew up, went to college, got a job, and joined the boring repetitive life that was the 'work week'. It was on such a night that something interesting happened.
As he walked home after putting in some overtime, the streets were dark, empty and quiet. Collin liked it; yes, these streets could be dangerous, but Collin knew them well enough to get away, and he never kept much cash on him, only cards that could quickly and easily be canceled. However, that didn't keep him from gripping his stun gun.
When he heard a noise, he jumped and was going to run, until he realized what he heard. Gunshots he expected, but there was more: ringing of metal against metal, and an odd clicking noise. Now he did run, but towards the noise. Collin had always been curious, but it never got him in trouble. Then again, it only takes one time. He rounded the corner into an alley and saw the cause of the noise.
It was a man fighting with two long thin blades with grace that seemed as if he was actually dancing, and the last combatant fell with a spray of blood. When he turned and looked at Collin, time seemed to slow, for Collin couldn't believe what he was seeing. Long ears poked out of the man's long, pale hair, his skin was a stark contrast of pure black, and his eyes glowed red in the darkness. Sheathing his swords, the man was quick to flee to the back end of the alley. "Wait up Zak, my legs aren't as long as yours." The voice was shrill, and didn't fit such a large man. With the other movement in the alley, Collin saw what looked like a small boy trotting after the man whom he guessed to be Zak. It couldn't have been a child though, because Collin definitely saw him holster a pair of guns that he looked too familiar in using.
With them gone, Collin knew he had to check to see if the man, or men, as he soon discovered, that had fallen to the blade— and the guns too, apparently— were alive. It wasn't weird that they had swords; it was weird that they all had the same hair style as Zak, and their flesh was of the same pure ebony. He took out his cell phone but his finger only hovered over the 9. The dead black men were becoming blurry. He had to blink a few times before he realized that what was around them was clear, but they became hazy, and were soon gone along with any evidence they had even been there.
Collin clicked his phone shut. There was no explaining this away. He knew what he saw, and it was real, not just a trick of the light. This meant that everything was real for his whole life. His nightmares were real. This time he did run away, and he didn't stop, until he reached his apartment, and the dead-bolted door was behind him. He was panting heavily and just stripped off his clothes, and fell into bed, restless sleep awaiting him.
He awoke the next morning because of his bladder. After relieving himself and leaving the restroom, he stopped dead in the doorway. Because of his haste to get to bed, he hadn't set his alarm, and was already over an hour late for work. Not even bothering with a shower, and simply swishing mouthwash for the morning breath, he was out the door in a few minutes. He ran to the subway entrance, weaving between other people as fast as he could. Like anyone, he was a few minutes late every now and again, but never this late; this was the kind of thing that a person could lose their job over.
On the subway he tapped his foot impatiently until he heard someone say, "mind if I sit here?" It was the same shrill voice from yesterday. He looked to see a small boy or man in a dark leather trench coat with countless mismatched pockets all over it, with what looked like a bright green t-shirt underneath, and blue denim pants. His hair brown and cut short to reveal pierced ears that were far too pointed. Collin knew he recognized the voice, and couldn't even begin to calculate the odds of something like that. Or maybe, he thought, there was some kind of fate that allowed for this to happen.
When Collin nodded the small man sat, and all thoughts of work fled from his mind. It was all he could do not to stare at him as the train rocked back and forth. He didn't get off on his stop. Instead he waited for the small person to get off and followed him. The small man made his path almost randomly, stopping just to look at something, crossing the street just to look at a poster, or to pet a dog. His path seemed random, and Collin knew that they had traveled in many circles. Finally he entered what looked like a bookstore called 'The Tome Shoppe'. He heard the small person talking to the manager, and at a glance it seemed they were the only others in the store. Hiding among the shelves, he got as close as he could to hear them speak.
"-I tried to stop him, but how am I supposed to stop him, he's twice my size?"
"Well -hey don't touch that-" the shopkeeper snagged a wooden rod that the small man-boy had been holding, and put it back into a glass case. "You didn't have to join in."
"I wouldn't have, but he was really outnumbered, an' there was more then even Zak could handle." The shopkeeper started to move through the store, placing books on shelves while the smaller one trotted behind him. "Would you have rather I let him die?"
The shopkeeper paused in thought, then replied "no, I suppose not." It was at this time that Collin realized that they were getting dangerously close to Collin's position. He then began to act like he was looking at the books, and like any good store owner, when the man spotted Collin he asked "is there something in particular you were looking for?"
Collin thought for a moment. "Well, last night I saw something that I'm having trouble believing." A look of confusion played across the shop keep's face "I saw a man get murdered, a man with a black
face, white hair, and long ears, kinda like yours." He added the tail end for he had finally gotten a good look at the man. He had longer hair that dangled to the side of his slender chin, almost in an attempt to hide the long ears he could clearly see peeking out. Another oddity about this man is that he didn't have any facial hair at all, not the faintest hint of stubble, or the semi-transparent peach-fuzz that some men have. "But the weirdest thing is that before I could call the police, the bodies just seemed to fade away."
A bit of anger seemed to pass over the owner's face at the mention of his ears, but he was still polite when he said "Well, sir we have some fantasy-"
"I'm talking about something that really happened!" Collin shouted loosing his temper. "I know I saw him" he said stabbing a finger at the small man trailing behind "run away from the 'scene'!"
The small man-boy took a step back from the finger and said "Uh-oh" like a child that had just been caught doing something bad. Also like an adult reacting a child that had done something bad, the shopkeeper glared at him. Then looking back to Collin and his face had changed. It was almost that of a teacher speaking to a student.
"I could give you an answer, but you might not believe me."
"Try me." Collin snapped. The calmed a bit and sighed, "Any explanation would be better than 'you're just seeing things, it's just your imagination.'"
The shopkeep smiled coyly "Oh, you're seeing things; things that most of the world chooses to ignore, but it certainly isn't your imagination. Come to the back of the store, have a seat, and I'll explain everything."
