Cold Lust

2: Old Stones

♬|--Crow - Cry of Fear--|♬

The morning lights filtered through his room, making parts of it glow in golden yellow. But on bed, Eddy was still drowned in the realm of dreams. It was moderately untidy at best, with his old clothes sprawled across his bedsheets,his pillows to be on the floor. His pale-white skin contrasted greatly from the dark grey sheets of his bed.

His phone alarm went off,  jotting him awake in a second. He hastily scrambled himself together after almost scattering everything from his bed to the floor. He mustered up from bed with every ounce of energy left and headed towards the bathroom to wash his face. However, he gets lost in contemplation as he stared at himself in the mirror, taking note of a pre-teen mustache faintly visible below his nose, despite going past age sixteen. Lost in thought, he stared at his dull brown eyes, devoid of any expression or thought, despite being fully aware of what he's been doing. He hoped that this day would be slightly better than yesterday, as he thinks about not repeating his past mistakes. With one single motion, he splashed a huge puddle of cold water on his face from his hands, making his brown sideburns wet and his bushy hair dripping. He paused again before he splashed another puddle.

As he wore a new shirt which he got from his closet and some shorts, he went out into the living room to see Rose getting ready for work. On her she had a black hoodie along with some deep-blue sweatpants. She had a worn out brown satchel alongside on the sofa before she grabbed it.

"Oh hey, you're up" she said after Eddy came out of his room, "Left your breakfast at the table. Gonna be back soon, goodbye!"

With no second thought, she departed, leaving Eddy all by himself. Hearing this, he retrieved his phone from his room to eat breakfast in solitude. From that point on, there was nothing that Eddy could do other than roll around his bed or engage in fleeting pleasures, which was heavily restricted by his sister for reasons. He watched the sun go down as he sat at one the balcony chairs. The only thoughts running through his mind were of what place will he be at ten years from now on, if he kept it like this today. As the night bore on, Eddy's only escape from his monotonous life was to go down at one of the adult clubs that he visits every two weeks, ditching away the grocery list that he was handed to by Rose. Upon reaching the club entrance, he was stopped by one of the security guards, asking for his ID.

He was let in after showing his ID. The club, unlike his daily life, had a rather vibrant atmosphere to it, with constant lights of purples and pinks flashing in and out around him. To his right, women danced in the most provocative ways possible along with men just like him 'cheering' on for them, a site that failed to spark any excitement in him. Around, he saw doors that led to rooms probably used for illicit acts, which he saved for later. He took a seat at one of the couches of the place to observe from afar, as he only comes here once a while to shake off bad memories. It did not take long for him to soon notice an old friend of his amongst the crowd of patrons at one of the booths. He was also cheering on for them. Observing the person for a while from the bustling crowd, Eddy got up and walked towards the familiar-looking man.

"Hey Jack, what you doing here?" Eddy inquired as he approached the figure through the crowd.

The man hastily moved his head around in confusion to figure where the call was from.

"Jackson, is that you?" He called out after he got a glimpse of his face.

"Oh hey Edd! Whatchu doin' here?" Jackson responds as he reached for a handshake amidst the crowd.

Eddy soon enough grabs for his handshake eagerly. "Doin' nice fam. Let's go somewhere else."

They soon get seated at a nearby couch. All the far away commotion happening front of them seemed foreign the moment they had some time within themselves.

"So, where you been upto?" Eddy began with an eager expression.

"Eh," he uttered, "Life is going crazy right now, you?"

"I don't know," Eddy replied. "Smoking weed I guess?"

Despite his previous activities at the club to which he would not mention, Jackson was shocked. "Ay, why you still smoking that stuff?"

He felt a bit skeptical hearing these words come out of someone like him, "And when did you get out from it?"

"What you mean?" Jack replied."I already quit!"

"Then why you're still here?" 

Without another word, The man rose up from his seat and bolted for the exit, leaving Eddy in the dust. Despite the sudden exit of his old friend, it did not surprise even one bit, "Wow, if you're that guilty atleast spit it out." he said to himself.

The rest of the night soon gets faded into the club as Eddy joined the crowd of men cheering on for the dancers. For the first time, he had felt some bit of joy in a while, slowly forgetting his past mistakes, and even who he was by that moment. All kinds of thoughts ran through his head as he continued, cheering on for the women that he would not see the faces of the next day. it even got to the point where he was coerced into one of the doors leading to the bedrooms by one of the strippers there, before they spent the long hour there.

He then got out of the club after a long time, stepping into the cold exit of the club beside a back alley. On the upper left side of the door placed a flickering neon sign, depicting lined art of a women in short lingerie along with the club's name glowing in cyan, magenta and yellow. Taking out a pack of cigarettes, he leaned onto the brick wall, waiting to get lost in his thoughts. As he prepared to light a cig from his pack, someone tapped his knee from what looks like a homeless person, their voice hoarse as he requested. "Please spare some change, sir."

Eddy was kind enough to spare a dollar  without batting an eye. "Here."

He resumes in lighting his cig from the pack. The smoke from his mouth evaporated into the black sky as the young boy exhaled. He went for another stick and another puff of fumes emerged from his mouth and into the eternal damnation of the black sky as the child watched. After a moment, Eddy felt a sudden chill down his spine, as if someone was talking to him, but he leaned on a brick wall

"You shouldn't be out here at this hour." the voice stated.

Startled, Eddy looked around him to see no one. Unnerved, Eddy took a long drag from his cigarette, the ember glowing brightly in the dark alley. He was about to exhale when suddenly the same voice reappeared once again from the shadows.

"Whatever you do," the voice continued, its tone now low and frantic, "Do not... reach for it."

Eddy soon found out that he had been slowly drifting to sleep the whole time. Panicking, Eddy threw the burning cig into the ground and bolted from the area and onto the cold empty street. The boy ran from corner to corner, like was running from something, drifting through each alley that he came across, whilst his vision was in a gaze of nothing. His frantic runs resembled those of a raccoon which had just now scavenged from a dumpster, making a run before he gets turned to mush.  The only thing that stopped him however was a lightpost to which he struck his head hard upon, causing him to strike the ground. He groaned in pain as he tried to crawl back up, but Failing to do so he lied down flat on the hard concrete pavement, feeling defeated by the gift of his own failures. He gazed through the night sky as he laid there, unwilling to call for any help. The helpless young boy still laid like a corpse on the cold pavement as he watched the twinkling lights above flow amidst the huge blobs of clouds, with the white ball dead center.