Ethereal

The air was frigid; everything was still, except for the two of them. They stood achromatic amongst the frozen, bleak terrain.

He usually loves the cold. It was his friend most of the time, it was always there when nobody else was, and it never betrayed him unlike the people he had learned to spite. He would embrace its numbing blanket accompanied with its soothing silence lulling him to sleep. He loved how most overlook its beauty. Few could only appreciate how snow pirouettes from the sky gracefully or how they glimmer under the faint light of the sun, it seemed mystical in his eyes, and he loved it with every inch of his soul. He was grateful whenever winter came, because when winter arrives- he knew it will always cover his ears as he forgets the rest of the cruel world and their deplorable ways for a blissful moment. Unfortunately for him it wasn't one of those days.

She sat on the foot of the frozen fountain, her eyes sore from sobbing profoundly. The girl's cheeks were burning a rosy pink color from the icy atmosphere nipping at her frail body. She shivered, not from the cold, but from loneliness she had kept in her heart for so long. Tears, which under the unforgiving weather, froze on her eyelids like fresh pearls, the snow settled on her hair and eyelashes as if someone had sprinkled fine sugar everywhere. It did not matter, nothing mattered anymore. In her youthful eyes, everyone began to blur into nothing but blank slates walking on the now unfamiliar streets.

Their gaze locked. His vibrant olive eyes seemed to contrast her smoke gray ones. She stopped weeping, and for once in a very long time, she felt calm as if the storm that stirred inside her had ceased. He stood phlegmatic in front of the girl, a shadow cast over her petite figure.

There was only one thing that ran his mind, his face did not show it, yet it made his blood boil. It gave him more reason to resent the already cruel world he'd been born into.

'She did nothing wrong to deserve the pain'

************

Jason indulged himself in the deafening sound of rain and his newly brewed coffee. It numbed his senses as the warm beverage travelled down his throat, the sweet scent of coffee and cinnamon tickling his nostrils. Sitting idly, he reminisced the days- the few selected days in which he did not feel being drowned repeatedly in a sea storm nor being scorched to death in the fiery depths of his surreal depiction of hell, that of mostly only occurs when a certain female comes barging in his door- rather his life in general. Somehow, when the skies were painted a charcoal hue, he remembered the only person who saw him human being, someone who acknowledged and cared for him for whom he was and not for whom he was known to be, whether that was the false impression of an ever hateful stereotype or the other reason, the only person he had his eyes on, Emily.

Perhaps the reason for this was it reminded him so much of her ash-gray eyes that saw nothing but beauty everywhere she went, or maybe because she was the one who made him see that gray wasn't such a sad and miserable color, in fact, she always saw the best in everything. He could not decide, the brunette took another sip of his drink.

Jason worried about her often. He wondered if she was faring well without him. Was she sleeping well? Does she take her medications before bed? Did she get locked out of her dorm room? Did she even have a dorm room? He can't quite recall, but apparently, he won't know anytime soon, not after the silent treatment he's been receiving lately. It started so suddenly he didn't even realize that she had stopped communicating with him altogether. The feeling of dread lingering at the pit of his stomach made him feel queasy, now more than ever.

"Hey Jason" The man chirped emerging from the kitchen door, his figure was dusted with fine white flour and what it seemed like bits of baking batter was smudged all over his hands, not to mention there was also dried melted chocolate smothered on his left cheek.