Welcome to the slightly depressed part of my head. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this, maybe it was because I was holed up in a veterinary clinic, but it came out very different from what I was trying to write. Yet, even through all that, I'm pretty proud of this piece. So, that said, please enjoy.
-Line break-
In the cold, a grey-haired man struggled to breath. He shivered, even though he was bundled in layers of clothes, on the floor of the abandoned building. The more the man struggled, the more the hacking cough tore him up from the inside. Warm blood and spit covered a gloved hand.
Outside on the street, a child wandered. Constantly moved from foster home to foster home, just another government paycheck, had taught her never to rely on anyone. It was freezing and her thin jacket didn't fully cover her arms. Clenching her teeth to keep from biting her tongue, the girl wrapped her arms around her skinny body and continued on in search of warmer quarters.
It was all too much, the man thought, glancing at the gun in his hand. She had gone to that other man, left him alone. His love abandoned, left to crumble. Just like bones. He was determined to fade into the surrounding dust. Trembling, the man raised the gun to his temple.
Books, her life was books. And she herself was just a dust covered book whose pages were already full. There was no room for anyone else. Her late husband had told her as much. She wasn't empty, she had just run out of space in her life, her story was written to the last line.
His father would be home soon. His breath would be stinking of alcohol as he sank into sleep in front of the tv. The teen looked in the mirror, black eye covered with concealer. There would be questions tomorrow, but he couldn't bring himself to care anymore.
He stood tall above the world, higher than any of the buildings. The city was laid out beneath him, all flashing lights and sirens. Darkness too, but no moon. A concrete graveyard for the living. A far cry from his white sands and quartz trees. And yet it truly was a better world. There was pain. And there was beauty. The wind began to play with his hair, whipping it around his head. His blue eyes took it all in. There was chaos and insanity, cruelty and neglect, hatred and indifference. But there was also love and hope, freedom and spirit, peace and happiness. And standing above it, the blue-haired stranger saw it all.