Tainted Lenses Part 1

Chapter 6 - The Man of Past and Future

 The world was alive around me, lush and forested. I heard noises I never could've before, the sounds of life. No longer the dust kicking up around me, the wind was gentle and kind, a soft caress, no longer wanting to suffocate me. It was cold, but it didn't sting.

Birds sung, trees wore leaves, green grass speckled the cracks of a cobbled road.

It felt like heaven. I must've died. But I hadn't.

I began to laugh, what was this new world I had found, where was I? This place, just out of reach from me all this time, Just out of reach all this time.

It was a waste to stay where I was, the empty life was over. This new world felt full, unlike anything I had known before. I had been living an empty lie, but how? Who had it been that had taken me to this place, had pulled after me with so much desperation?

I began to walk through the woods, searching for something, anything, a human life beside my own, someone, anyone to talk to me, explain what was happening.

I walked for days.

It was strange walking through that forest that was moving, living, breathing at me, new lives beginning and old ending. Creatures scattering with every step I took.

Strangest of all, despite everything unknown to me, was the sun. As I walked, it moved.

Time seemed to mean something here. The world didn't feel still. I felt the slightest motion of the world around me, and it was strange.

Food was everywhere. Plants and berries were plentiful, and I ended my hunger quickly.

As I walked the sun rose in the sky, set on the other side. The moon, something I had only heard of only in the stories of the residents. It stared at me, wide eyes glowing and mouth agape as it slowly moved across the sky.

Endless life, endless work, everything around me busy with its own life paying no attention to what was around it. That was the one similarity I could find within this place I had been taken to.

It was a long time before I reached a wall. About as alive as everything around me, it stood tall and curled at the top. Keeping everything out.

Noises sounded from through the wall, bustling, honking, sounds of human life. Suddenly everything I had heard before seemed so quiet.

I followed the wall for a time before reaching a tall metal gate, wide open. No one came out, no one came out.

I took a breath and walked through the gate.

People were everywhere, cars barreled down the road, shops stood open selling things I had never thought about in all my problems. Things that seemed so useless to me, all I had cared for was food and drink, to live just a moment longer in hopes that something like this would appear.

A boy who had noticed me entering walked over to me.

"Oy! A newcomer!" A few interested spectators followed him.

He stuck out a hand and I shook it.

"What's your name?" He asked, white teeth gleaming.

He reminded me a bit of Beckham, had he been short. It wasn't the way he looked, this man's curly black hair was somehow neatly positioned along his head, his nose was short, large and red and seemed anything but stiff, as if it were clay I could reach out and mush around with my hand. It was personality that gave me the feeling, a slight aura that encircled the man, a happy energy. I had never met anyone that reminded me of anyone before, or at least that I remembered. Everyone was so different.