Death and Rebirth
Death:
The church was cold, colder than usual after a Christmas sermon. The candles had been extinguished and the stained glass windows were lined with frost. Every breath he took sent small puffs of steam floating into the air, dissipating after only a few seconds in the icy air. The church was cold, but no colder than the air outside.
There was no reason for him to be here, he wasn't Christian nor did he believe in god. If he had asked himself why he was here he wouldn't have been able to answer. Maybe, it seemed almost appropriate.
"What can I do for you my son?" Willis was mildly startled at the priests approach. There was no reason for it of course; the priest had every right to be here, more in fact, than him.
"I was just…" There was that question, what could he possibly do for him?
"Is there something on your mind?" The priest asked, taking a seat on the end of the first row before the altar.
"Yes," Willis replied simply, rubbing his hands together; trying, in vain, to retain any heat which existed
"Would you like to talk to me about it?"
The question caught Willis off guard; he hadn't really had anything on his mind.
"Yes," He answered out of obligation
"Then come into my office, its warmer there."
Willis obediently followed the priest into a small, cramped office. The priest hadn't lied; the office was a great deal warmer than the church. On the desk piles of paper tottered and threatened to fall, several empty coffee cups littered the room and in one corner a small, ripping vinyl couch huddled. Without invitation Willis sat on the couch and watched the priest as he collected various bric-a-brac and tossed them in a nearby box.
Once he was satisfied with the room around his desk he sat down behind it and stared at Willis
"Please," He offered gesturing with his hand, "begin."
Without thought or care words began tumbling from Willis' mouth
"I'm alone. Not alone as in, I have no partner, alone as in there is nobody in my life." He stopped, thinking, then continued, "I was an only child, my parents are both dead, and as far as my knowledge goes they, too, were only children. I have no pets, my landlord doesn't allow them, and my few friends would not want me imposing in their lives. For as long as I can remember, I have been alone. We lived in the country, the other children were stupid and could not relate; I didn't bother to socialise. All my life the only thing that mattered, even slightly, was my computer and now…" He trailed off nodding his head slightly in satisfaction. He had said it.
"Well, my son, you must realise you are never truly alone. As long as there is faith the lord will be by your side." The priest's eyes bore into his, but Willis was too numb to look away
"And if there isn't?"
The priest was silent but his facial features didn't change. His small watery eyes never wavered from Willis' face. Willis couldn't help but notice how old the priest looked. The skin of his face was terribly wrinkled, his hands were thin and shaking slightly and his skin was blotched with purple dots and strange markings.
Before the priest could speak again Willis stood up and let himself out. The cold hit him before anything else, stung his face and fingers. He shivered and began to exit the church. The light outside the doors looked feeble, like the priest, and the wind blew old discarded newspapers and numerous fragments of litter.
There was nowhere else to go now, nowhere he could think of at least. The idea of leaving the country played across his mind, but what did another country hold for him? More loneliness, more despair, more aimless wandering of nameless streets in unknown cities. Nothing would change; nothing he took notice of anyway.
Out of habit he headed towards his apartment. The thought made him frown; his apartment was about as homely as a bus stop, and just as boring. Then again, since the incident nothing had been exciting. Wandering the city streets seemed like the only logical thing to do since all logic had been lost. The world was recuperating, adapting, he wasn't.
As he reached the entrance of the church another man, oriental looking with skin as pale as a china doll and hair blue like the sea, approached. He was the strangest person Willis had seen all day, and a lot of strange people roamed the streets nowadays. He stopped to let the man through, but he only stared at Willis blankly.
Before Willis could move to leave he began to speak in a thick Asian accent
"May I ask the time?" He looked like he was struggling with the words, Willis' frown deepened
A quick glance at his wrist watch told him the answer to the blue haired man's question, but he didn't answer straight away. For long moments the two started at each other as if they were the only two people on the earth
"Five Thirty," Willis answered at length, blinking and breaking eye contact
"Thank you," The man said, but he still neither moved nor looked away. After a moment he continued speaking "My name is Ichijouji Ken, nice to meet you." He held out his hand and, as a reaction, Willis accepted it; his hands were warm.
"What is your name?"
"Willis,"
Ken nodded and released Willis' hand with a smile. Without another world he turned and began walking down the block. Willis blinked owlishly at his disappearing back, his mind blissfully blank of questions as if what had just occurred had been read off a script.
Taking one last looks at Ken's back Willis turned and began wandering down the street in the opposite direction. The part of town he was in was familiar, familiar enough to unearth memories he would rather have kept buried. He stopped across the street from St. Francis' boys collage, and stared at the large, stark white complex. Against the backdrop of shining city buildings and clouds too black to be real the school looked almost innocent. There were no children there, Willis wasn't sure why, its emptiness and eerie cleanliness gave it a ghastly feel
He had worked there, once upon a time, as a network administrator. The staff had been rude and looked down their noses at him; the children had been close to intolerable. But it had provided money, a lot more money than he knew what to do with. Maybe going to another country wasn't such a bad idea, he had enough saved.
He shook the thoughts out of his head and continued down the street. He wasn't too far from his apartment but he wasn't too far from the Rat and Parrot either, maybe getting blind drunk would cure his boredom. Scoffing slightly and muttering to himself he shook his head. Those kinds of bars weren't often open on Christmas and as much as the thought of alcohol entertained him he didn't like the taste.
As the sun began to set behind the sea of black clouds the rain began. The resemblance the sky held to a gaping flesh wound was astounding, Willis had to stop and stare. The sun behind the clouds had turned a blood red, staining everything around it the same colour. As the rain increased, not falling but collapsing at his feet, he felt smothered and dirty.
Wiping the water out of his eyes he gave in and headed back to his apartment. A block away from his apartment there was an occult shop, he had never been in there personally but because of it a lot of weird looking teenagers and pale faced people were usually seen. On several occasions they had shouted insults at him, he knew nearly all of their regulars by face.
On this particular day, however, a girl, maybe a few years younger than him, sat on a highly stylised bench in the rain. She wore no makeup, less than sufficient jewellery for one of her kind; if she hadn't been dressed completely in black (including the black ribbon that held her long blond hair back in a thick braid) he would have dismissed her as fairly normal.
However, something about her caught his attention. The way the red from the sun set reflected off her pale face giving her lips a rich red hue. The way her hair fell wet and limp about her face, the way her eyes searched the streets for something unknown. He stopped a few feet away from her and stared. She didn't seem to notice.
After a moment an overdressed woman with too much black makeup and skin that clung to her bones like death came out of the shop and shooed the girl away. Once the girl took notice of the thin woman she politely stood up and nodded to the woman. The shopkeeper, Willis supposed, grabbed the seat and dragged it inside. It was then the girl noticed him.
At first she met his stare equally, her eyes blank and glazed. After a moment, however, the glaze disappeared and a thick blush covered her cheeks. She smiled politely and brushed past him, her eyes downcast and her face ruddy. Willis let his eyes follow her, his head turned, his body turned. He would have followed her if it didn't disregard all his morals. Instead he watched her until she was indistinguishable amongst the crowd.
He had seen that look before, the look in her eyes as she searched the faceless crowds for something discernible, someone to relate. He could relate, how often had that look dominated his features? A dark shadow from inside the occult shop caught his attention. The anorexic woman was standing in the doorway scowling at him. He could hear her insult coming before she said it.
"You're driving away business, vamoose." She waved her bony fingers at him and he frowned at them. She suited her job well, if she had climbed into a coffin right then and there he wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised.
He managed to attain one last scowl from the woman before he continued. It wasn't until he walked away from the store's door did he realise just how putrid it smelt. Shaking the smell out of his head he continued through the rain back to his apartment.
A loud distasteful brand of music emanated from his apartment when he arrived. Takeru was back, that was odd. His keys and hands were wet and it took him several tries to unlock the door. Takeru was paranoid about people coming in when he was there and trying to kill him. Willis thought he was crazy. The problem could be easily solved by turning his music down and having a little faith in society. Then again, maybe Takeru wasn't that far off the edge.
When he entered Takeru was sitting at his desk tapping away at the keyboard of his lap top. He sang along to the music but thankfully his voice was drowned out by the heavy bass. Willis made a beeline for the stereo, which he turned off completely. Takeru spun around, surprise etched in his features.
"Oh, it's you." He said, sighing gratefully. He was still wearing a suit; that added more suspicion as to why he was already back.
"Don't sound so excited." Willis replied, peeling his jacket off his soaking frame, "When did you get back?"
"About three hours ago, where have you been?" Takeru replied, turning back to his laptop. Willis pondered the question for a moment before asking
"What happened to your brother?"
Takeru scoffed and his typing ceased
"You actually think I expected him to come?" He gave a shout of forced, humourless laughter, "Don't be stupid."
Willis knew Takeru had been greatly anticipating his brother's visit. He wouldn't be wearing a suit otherwise. When they were young his parents had divorced and his mother had brought him to live in America, while his brother stayed in Japan with their father. They were practically strangers, but since Takeru's mother had practically disowned him once she remarried, his family in Japan were the only he had left.
He was slightly better off than Willis.
"Want to hear my latest poem?" Takeru asked, tapping the keyboard a few more times before turning to Willis. Willis was caught off guard by the question, he knew Takeru had a passion for writing but he hadn't written poetry since he had first moved in.
"Okay…" Willis replied tentatively
Takeru cleared his throat before starting
"Never again be rid of these thoughts which plague my mind,
To never again feel the consumption of sleep rest on my head,
I was so young and naive
Cast down a plague of thoughts; steal the gift of dreams,
Soon I will sleep forever,
My dreams are my reality, my reality a haze of dreams
Repetitive and forgotten. This pain will never die,
Not until by sleep I am called upon eternally.
I offer to the ignorant a tomb of knowledge, forgotten and gone,
I share the mind of an ancient in the body of a child,
Cast down the plague of relentless thought, sent to steal the gift of dreams
And soon I will sleep forever.
Cast down a plague upon us, a plague of thoughts, sent from heaven to steal the gift of living.
Soon we must sleep, a slumber slept on deaths bed, with no more than a sigh to all that is left behind."
Willis stared. He had never really understood or appreciated poetry, this was no exception. From what he could gather Takeru wasn't feeling alright. This was an exact replica of what it had been like when Takeru had first moved in after his mother kicked him out. Back then Willis had accepted his depression and heavy drinking silently; if this was to be a repeat of that he didn't know how long he could stay silent for.
"Are you feeling okay?"
Takeru laughed, this time it was genuinely filled with humour.
"Don't worry Willis; I'm not depressed just because my brother didn't turn up at the airport after I had driven all that way. Though, respectfully, I should be very pissed off. Afterwards I went to get drunk but I saw this girl sitting outside the occult shop down the street, she looked so consumed by thought, so lost. She inspired me."
Willis nodded, remembering the girl with vivid accuracy. Takeru shut the lid of his laptop with care, then asked again
"Where have you been all day?"
Willis blinked at the question, the apartment was cold and the wetness of his shirt was seeping into his bones. He would have appreciated having a shower, but Takeru's eyes were serious. He had often expressed his concern for Willis' apparent loneliness, he assumed everyone in that position had a right to be depressed and always drunk. Willis didn't understand his point of view, he had been alone for as long as he remembered and he had never been depressed to the point of heavy drinking.
"Walking," He replied monotonously, "I'm taking a shower, I'm soaked."
Takeru didn't reply, he only stared, concerned, at Willis' retreating back.
The hot water had been used up at some point during the day and his shower wasn't quite as satisfying as he had hoped. If he had a cold the next day he wouldn't be much surprised.
Once he had put some clothes on and made himself coffee hot and strong enough to kill a horse he sat down on the couch and listened as Takeru tapped away at his keyboard. His apartment was more boring than he remembered.
"Oh Willis," Takeru started at length, not bothering to stop typing while he talked, "Those people from that place called for you."
Willis took a sip from his coffee before replying
"And what did they want?"
"They were calling about that job interview."
"Today?" Willis became intrigued
"Yeah, guess they don't have anything better to do on Christmas, you know what those computer nerds are like. Every day's the same." He laughed slightly at his own joke.
"Did they leave a number?" Willis asked, ignoring Takeru's attempted joke. His sense of humour was completely different from Takeru's, though some would argue Willis had no sense of humour. That could also be true.
"Yeah, it's on the phone book, some guy called Izumi… Izumi Koushiro I think." Takeru waved his hand in the general direction of the kitchen bench. Willis didn't get up until he had finished his coffee.
Automatically he picked up the phone and dialled the number messily scrawled on the phone book. Takeru must have forgotten how to write at some point between his heavy drinking and his discovery of the laptop because it was almost illegible. At length the phone was answered by a man with a strange voice, he sounded like he was confused between being happy and sad.
"Izumi residence," Willis didn't speak until he had properly formed what he wanted to say in his head
"Hello, this is Willis. I am calling back about the job interview."
"Oh great," The man sounded positively ecstatic, "How are you?"
"Great,"
"That's great, now I've read your add in the local newspaper, it says you've had experience in this field of work."
"Yes."
"Prodigious. As you may know we at Accelerin are helping the refurbishment program. We're involved in some government programs as well as personal and international ones. I'll have to get you to come down to the office soon and we can discuss this further."
"Okay,"
"Great, well what do you say about Wednesday at about Four Thirty?"
"Okay."
"Great, I'll see you then, Merry Christmas."
"Yeah," Willis hung up
"What'd they say?" Takeru called from at his lap top, he didn't try to hide the fact that he had attempted to listen in on the conversation
"I have to go down to his office at Four thirty on Wednesday." Willis replied
"Finally, when was the last time you had a job?" Takeru got up and stretched his arms out. He checked the clock on the wall, then his wrist watch, and then continued, "I'm bored, let's go out."
He grabbed Willis a jacket and threw it to him, Willis accepted it without question.
"Where are we going?" He asked slipping the jacket on
"I don't know, we'll just wander the streets a bit and see what we find."
"Okay." Willis followed Takeru out of the apartment. It didn't seem to occur to Takeru that it was Christmas and a Monday night. Willis wondered idly how long it would take him to realise the only things open at this time on a Christmas/Monday night were occult shops, Brothels and Seven Eleven. He shrugged to himself; there was really nothing else to do.
As they walked the less than normally crowded streets Takeru seemed to become aware of the fact that everything seemed to be closed. Even his favourite bar/fish and chips store was closed. He shrugged it off by making general comments about menial things, only one of which Willis heard.
"That Ruki Masano sure is hot; no wonder they got posters of her everywhere." He went on to explain a brief history of her, including how she ran away to join the Victoria Secrets models and immediately became a hit. Willis nodded distractedly. She was probably five years younger than both of them, that didn't seem to hinder Takeru's judgement one bit.
After about an hour of idle wandering Takeru found a small Café that was open. He shrugged and entered. They probably didn't serve much alcohol there but there was really no where else to go. It was completely empty except for one tall, scruffy haired man who was talking to what looked like the waitress. When they entered the waitress immediately stopped the conversation and greeted them.
"Welcome to Goughs, that'll be a table for two?"
Takeru nodded and winked at the waitress, who scoffed and turned her back to him. She led them to their table, as far away from where she was holding her conversation with the man as possible. She disappeared for a moment, then returned and slapped their menu's down on the table.
"My name is Sora; I'll be your waitress for the night." She growled down at Takeru. Willis was surprised at her reaction to Takeru's compulsive flirting; most girls either politely ignored it or swooned over it. He shrugged it off and picked up the menu, everything there was either filled with sugar or meat.
"Do you have any vegetarian dishes?" He asked as politely as he could, the scowl on Sora's face only deepened.
"We have salad, that'll do?"
"Okay." She scribbled it down on her note pad then made to leave
"Hold up gorgeous, I haven't ordered yet." Takeru said without looking up from his menu, "I'll have the steak, medium rare."
Sora was glaring daggers at him while she wrote it down, she turned to leave but Takeru stopped her
"Oh, and I'll have a beer with that, you can get my friend here a soda he doesn't drink."
The muscles in her back bunched up and her hands shook slightly. She looked ready to turn around and hurl insults at him, but restrained herself. After a few moments she seemed to regain control of herself and left.
"She digs me." Takeru said leaning back in his chair, Willis diverted his eyes.
The man who had been talking to the waitress was watching them closely with fire in his great blue eyes. He, too, looked ready to walk up and punch Takeru in the face, Willis wouldn't have argued. In a few minuets the waitress returned to her position on the stool next to the man. Minuets after that their conversation reached a volume which he could hear very clearly what they were saying.
"Hiro, I don't need this right now okay!" She yelled standing up and turning her back to him
"Well what do you expect me to do then Sora, just sit by and watch? I can do that and you know it." The man argued, standing up from his seat also
"I want you to stay out of it Hirokazu. I don't want you to come with me okay." She spun back around and both of their faces became hidden
Their voices softened and the conversation was lost.
"Damn, just when it was getting interesting." Takeru had, apparently, also been listening.
A few minuets later the man left and their food was brought to them. Willis only picked idly at his dish, he was certain the cook had put meat in there. Once Takeru had finished he glanced distastefully at Willis barely eaten food, then at Willis, then down at his food.
"You know you're going to waste away one day. I don't know what's up with all that vegetarian crap, and not only that you hardly eat anything anyway. I don't know how you're even alive. That's probably why you never get any girls, you're skin and bones."
The first image that came to his mind was that of the anorexic woman who worked at the occult shop. He had never seen her before that day; she probably didn't leave the shop often. She looked pale enough to pass for that excuse anyway. He was sure about one thing, even if he was skinny he certainly wasn't unhealthily so. He wasn't even quite sure why he didn't eat meat, he just woke up one day and decided he didn't like the taste of it; same with alcohol. He and Takeru were completely different in every way possible, which must be why they got on so well.
Without speaking the waitress gave them their bill and left.
"Can you get that Willis," Takeru said, "I left my wallet in my other pants."
Willis complied silently, knowing quite well Takeru had his wallet with him. When they left the waitress closed the door and pulled the shutters down. Checking his wrist watch Willis hadn't noticed just how late it was. On their way back to the apartment Takeru once again gave a running commentary on whatever perked his interest. Willis listened in a half dazed fascination.
As they passed the occult shop, which at this time of night had finally closed, he noticed the girl was back. She stood there, her back against the door staring up at the cloud congealed sky. Again her eyes were searching, her face a mask of concentration and thought. Takeru noticed her as well.
"It's you." He walked up to her; she didn't remove her eyes from the sky, "My name is Takeru, I wrote a poem about you."
Still she didn't remove her eyes from the sky.
"Takeru," Willis said, grabbing his arm, "I think you better leave her alone."
"What are you talking about?" He replied forcefully, "She's not doing anything else."
Willis would have said more to stop him, but Takeru seemed to get some response out of the girl. She brought her eyes down from the sky and let them rest on Willis' immediately a blush spread across her cheeks, if the light hadn't been so sparse she probably would have broken eye contact, he would have broken eye contact.
Takeru continued to speak as if the girl were wrapped in his story. Between her and Willis another conversation took place. If, perhaps, he hadn't been so tired he wouldn't have understood that look in her eyes. As it so happened, however, he knew precisely what she had been thinking of, and exactly what she was feeling. She was bored of everything and wondered just how long it would take to climb to the top of the tallest building.
Brushing past Takeru she took his hand in both of hers and whispered
"My name is Alice."
Before Willis had a chance to reply she turned and walked hastily away.
"Oh I get it." Takeru said waving his arms animatedly, "You get all the good ones. Christ if becoming vegetarian gets you girls like that I'll have to rethink my position on the food chain."
Willis ignored him and continued towards the apartment.
Time travels slowly when you're bored, in the time until Four Thirty Wednesday Willis read four books and watched several movies; even some of Takeru's choice, which were usually rated somewhere between R18+ and X. When Four Thirty Wednesday finally rolled around Willis was seriously considering leaving the country to relieve his boredom.
The Accelerin office was further from his apartment than he had anticipated. He arrived at exactly Four Thirty; he was greeted at the front desk by a perky young woman with long purple hair and glasses too big for her face.
"You must be the new guy; my name is Yolie, nice to meet you." Willis took her hand and shook it politely
"Willis." Yolie smiled and tapped a button on the phone of her desk
"Oi, Izzy, the new guy's here." She said into the phone, all the while smiling at Willis. He began to get more uncomfortable by the second. She looked as if she were ready to pounce and rip him from limb to limb at any second. He shuddered slightly at the concept. She didn't remove her eyes from him until Izumi Koushiro arrived.
Ah, Willis, you're here, great." He took Willis' hand in both of his and shook it vigorously, "I guess we'll get started then."
He led Willis out of the reception area, which he was greatly appreciative of, and into a back office. The office was spotless, which reminded him unexpectedly of the priest's office at the church. It seemed like so long ago he had talked to that man, not that he had gained much from it. He shook the thoughts out of his head and took a seat across the desk from Koushiro.
"Now," Koushiro started as soon as Willis had made himself comfortable, "I've got you're resume and information which you mailed to me the other day, and I'm supposed to ask you some questions about previous employers and the like but I think I'll skip that for now. There are, however, a few questions I'll have to ask you concerning our privacy policy. Because we are involved in some official government business and programs I'll have to get you to sign some stuff and you'll be given a lecture on what you say to whom about some things. I know it sounds very tedious and I can tell you aren't the type to start talking about those kinds of things but bear in mind its all procedure. For now however I'll just keep it simple.
Now, it says here you live with one other person, Takaishi Takeru, is that right?"
"Yes,"
"And what does Mr. Takaishi do for a living?"
"He works down at the docks,"
"Ah I see," Koushiro lapsed into silence for a moment, leafing through the stack of papers marked 'Willis', "And you have no immediate family living in this country?"
"No,"
"I see," he stopped and stared at Willis, "Well then everything seems to be in order; why don't you come out the back and you can check out some of the things we do here."
Willis obediently followed Koushiro further into the one story building. They reached a relatively dark room in which several workers were pulling computers apart and putting them back together. Some were typing madly away at screens that moved faster than Willis could follow, and the girl at the reception desk stood behind one worker and was talking casually.
"This is where we work, as you can see we've progressed quite a bit since the incident. There are other organisations just like this one working tirelessly to restore the order to the world. In no time we'll be back on our feet, ready to continue from where we left off."
Willis shuddered at the proposition. The world had been a horrible place before the incident; the people had been greedy, judgemental and careless. Things hadn't changed as drastically since then, but gradually the worst of that kind began to realise there was more to life than a credit card. The thought of returning to such a shallow, single minded world scared him.
Then again, he wouldn't mind it either. The world may be regaining some common morals but it was exceptionally boring.
"... Okay? So you'll have an interview with some government officials later this week and if all goes well you should be able to start here by next week." Willis nodded his head in response and Koushiro led him back to the reception area.
"Well it's been nice meeting you; I'll be looking forward to you working for us." He shook Willis' hand again before retreating back farther into the building. There was a bowl of candy on the reception desk, Willis grabbed a handful and put them in his coat pocket before leaving.
On the way back to the apartment he was hoping to see Alice and, just as she was the other day, she sat outside the occult shop and stared into the window of the Café across the street. He was tempted to stop and talk to her but what would he say? He had never been a hit with the girls before, he never knew how to relate to them, never knew what to say. But that was the same with every other person he met, he had a terrible personality.
So, instead of stopping even to look at her, he continued walking. When her voice reached his ears his heart beat increased dramatically, pounding painfully in his chest and ears. He stopped, turned, and forced a smile to his lips. She frowned.
Neither of them said anything for quite a while, just stood amongst the currant of people and stared into each other's eyes. Only moments after he started Willis couldn't keep the ridiculous smile on his face, so he let his features return to their usual place. Still, she didn't speak, but her frown lightened.
The wind suddenly picked up and his view of her was temporarily blocked by a clump of his curly blond hair being blown into his eyes. He brushed it out of the way and she was standing only inches away from him, her face so close to his he could see every pore on her nose. Slowly, she moved her face closer and kissed his cheek lightly. When she pulled away she was smiling slightly.
She turned and left Willis in a highly confused jumble of thoughts. Eventually he brought his hand up to touch the place on his cheek where she had kissed him. Blinking owlishly he turned and continued towards the apartment.
Since that incident Willis didn't see Alice for a long tedious few days. He was lectured by a very large and fat government official about who he talked to about his job and which parts to keep secret. He was to start at Accelerin in the next week. It appeared that since the incident no one had time for holidays. That would serve as a problem.
Takeru's brother turned up at their apartment door on New Years Eve. He and Takeru left Willis alone in the apartment with a bottle of cheap wine and a paper back novel titled 'Rites of Spring.' After an hour of staring at the wall clock he grabbed his jacket and left. It was 9:00pm.
Absent-mindedly he wandered the streets, pondering. The New Year was supposed to be a time of remembrance, a time of recollecting the accomplishments you achieved during that year. In retrospection Willis had accomplished nothing, in all actuality he had been wasting resources by being alive. He was wasting his life. But he had known that from the start.
For him, life was a river, and he was caught in the currant. But instead of struggling against it, or giving up and drowning in the rapids as most people did; he, quietly and without fuss, drifted along with it. There were no significant events which stood out in his mind, no love or despair. It was all the same, every hour of every day. And again, he didn't mind all that much. He wasn't actively seeking adventure, friendship or sex. He was happy where he was, drifting without disturbance. The way he saw it, life was a preparation for death.
So he walked the city streets while crowded bars and café's sported masses of rowdy people as they rejoiced their life and welcomed the New Year. Though he had tried to avoid it, his feet led him to the occult shop which was, surprisingly enough, closed. And she was there, waiting for him, her eyes never once wandering from his form. When he approached she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him like a lover would. He stood impassively and let her.
When she was finished he took her back to the apartment and loved her long and hard through the night.
**
The poem Plague of Thoughts is property of my lovely friend Joshua Moir.