A Dark Day (Inspired By Dan Howell)

A Dark Day

I remember last Tuesday like it was my last with the bacon on sale and the fiery hats in the display of the new shop window. As I breezed by, I almost tumbled to the pavement. Something had gone missing, something had changed. I could feel it in my bones as I halted in my tracks, grabbing the breath that had escaped me from out of the air and placing it back into my lungs where it belonged. I stole a glance behind me, not caring if it was mine, trying to find the source of my problem, knowing I wouldn't find it at my feet. My feet! I had two different socks on! Not only that, I no longer had my shoes! The weeping trees swayed in the wind of forgetfulness as the world plummeted into a darkness only known to those who have the secrets. I had the secrets. My entire day had been ruined! How dare I put on socks that don't match and how dare someone else steal my shoes! How they had done it, I did not know. I didn't care to know. I just wanted them to return to port and dock where they belonged. My poor little boat shoes.

So one day he went to a shop and yelled out "Why would you do this to me I don't understand for God's sake where are my shoes and who did you take them from?"  He, very surprisingly, received no response from his fellow patrons. How dare they? He slipped outside into the darkness that surrounded him since that fateful Tuesday. No one else seemed to notice that day never broke. Perhaps they liked a state of affairs where nothing was broken. Yet everything good has been broken at least once, or it hasn't been used properly. It started raining and the dogs howled a final swan song of justice into the cold night.

"I took them," the voice took me by surprise.

"Took what?" my mind was far from my shoes. After all, I am six feet tall.

"The shoes. I took them."

"Well, give them back you bully!" I shouted indignantly.

"You never needed them."

"Of course I did! You ruined my life!"

"How can I ruin something you never had?"

"Who are you to say these things to me?" I cast to my shadow as it ran away for not accepting the truth.

Nowadays, when I reflect back, sat near the waves of the Atlantic, I can't help but wonder what my shadow is up to these days. Haven't seen him since. Sometimes I question if I have become a vampire. It's been a cold dark cave and a fiery wonderful 400 years on this planet and the final lesson at the end of the day is not which socks don't match up in pairs, but which umbrella you take on holiday to a sandy beach. After all, you don't want to burn up in an instant like I seem to do these days.