CEM: The Moments In Between

Starless Night

The wind whipped through his loosely bound hair, drawing it out from its bind a handful of strands at a time. It was as bitter and cold as he felt inside. He could feel it tugging on his beard and trying desperately to find its way inside his jacket. The light rain that drizzled from the starless sky above him was cold. It was just a drizzle, but the collective drops of water soaked through his jeans and dampened his head and legs. He'd probably catch the death of himself out there in that rain, but he just didn't care. He kept on walking through what passed for a park in that country, then on through the city. He rued to admit to himself that the country was beautiful. It was, but he was not where he wanted or needed to be physically or mentally. He longed for a proper reprieve, a chance to escape, retreat and recharge. There wasn't one in sight for nearly thirty more days. He did not belong in a city, but the nearest forest was hours away. He didn't have time for that, so he walked down the cold and empty street along the side of the square in the middle of the night, with the wind whipping at his hair and a cold rain falling upon his head. He should have been in his hotel room sleeping, but sleep escaped him for the third night in a row so, he went for a walk in the rain.

He just couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to close his eyes. Every time he did he'd just see her standing there looking at him with tears rolling down her beautiful face and his heart would stumble and falter within his chest. How could he leave her like that? Just leave her there with all that pain leaking from her eyes. He cursed himself, it wasn't the first time. It wouldn't be the last.

A sound drifted to his sensitive ears from the narrow alleyway nearby. He had just started to pass it's opening when he heard it. At first, it was just a rustle, a piece of wet paper blown by the wind? Then it was a shuffle followed by the sound of a kicked pebble scraping its way along the alley to scuttled past him. That sound was followed by the skip and rattle of a bottle that lay unseen in the darkness as it warbled and spun when it was knocked by a careless foot.

Alarms should have gone off in his head as he detected the sounds of a person approaching him from within the shadowy maw of the tiny side street. But he was too busy wondering if she'd remember to take her toothbrush when she left to even care about what might befall him. He wasn't startled or frightened at all when the young man stepped out of the shadows and into the dim street light beside him.

"Oi! You should no' be out in da street dis time o'night now should cha laddy. A handsome fella like yourself ought to be more cautious with himself."

"Perhaps I should. Perhaps." He whispered nonchalantly and kept on walking. He didn't even turn to look at the man that had approached him. He just didn't care anymore. He didn't feel like he was in danger, wasn't concerned if he was or wasn't. He didn't feel an ounce of worry over a stranger approaching him in the middle of the night on a dark and empty street. He felt no trepidation or dread like most people would have, in fact, he felt nothing but empty. As empty as a starless night sky.

He moved like a man that had a purpose even though he had no discernible one. He wasn't drugged or drunk, He wasn't physically wounded or otherwise impaired at all. There was no apparent reason for him to be wandering the night streets of the city in a foreign country alone. He was just empty. He had left his heart back home and clearly his mind. He made no moves to get it back. His phone had gone dark, no texts or calls from the one he loved. He got messages and DMs from people he cared about, some friends and family, but nothing from her. It didn't help matters at all.

He walked on like an empty shell. His feet just fell one in front of the other as he wandered the night. The stranger walked beside him in his brooding silence for a long while before he dared to raise his voice.

"You seem like a man on a mission." His accent was ridiculously heavy so his words were hard to pick up, but he wasn't really being listened to anyway. He had honestly forgotten that the young man was there at all.