The Library On Siam Street (OffGun one-shot)

Part I

It was past eight o'clock and the streets that surrounded the Siam centre was bustling with traffic and people. Lots and lots of people, which was nothing special. Siam centre was the main hub of the city so it was bound to be crowded. And with the rains pouring heavily things were bound to get a little out of control. Navigating from one place to another in such a weather always proved a difficult task.

At the east road of the centre the digital traffic light indicated five seconds before it turned red. A figure dashed past the road hoping to make it in time to the other side. Either that person was very brave or had a death wish. Or maybe he was stupid to think that he could cover the distance between the two sides in mere four seconds.

He ran as fast as he could in the hope that he would be able to cross the road. In those crucial five seconds, the digital traffic light always in his sight. Just as he reached the middle of the intersection the green light stopped and so did his heart.

A bike wheezed towards him and instead of running, he stood stock-still in the middle of the road, his brain cells point blank and his forearms shielding either sides of his face.

The tyres of the bike screeched on the cemented road when the rider tried his utmost to prevent an accident.

"Move out of the way, asshole!"

The derogatory word was enough to bring the unmoving figure back to his senses and kick-start his heartbeat which was now running a mile per minute.

"Ss...sorry...I'm sorry." He said, clasping his palms together and bowing to the rider.

The vehicles behind the bike that almost hit him, honked to the maximum. People didn't shy at all from throwing expletives at them for stopping the flow of traffic in such a blasted weather.

Now that he was back to his senses, he might as well get out of the way before somebody came to kill him. He bent and picked up the bag that had fallen down from his grasp amidst the utter chaos and cleared the road in a hurry.

While he walked something came flying at him and hit the side of his cheek making him flinch in pain. He scrunched his nose and adjusted his glasses to see who was rude enough to do that. A woman who looked like she could be somewhere in her forties flicked him the middle finger from her car window and mouthed a curse word. Before he could react the car sped into the scurrying traffic and vanished from his sight.

Curiosity got the better of him and he searched for the thing that hit him. He looked around him and found a ripe strawberry squashed near his right foot. Uggh! People could be so rude and inhumane these days.

Panick overtook him when he glanced at his watch.

"Shit! Just ten minutes more until the library closes."

And then, he ran like a dog that had a firecracker tied to it's tail. He turned a corner on the next street, ran a few more seconds and finally came to a stop, a few paces from the library. The sight before him made his shoulders drop in disappointment. The owner's son was in the middle of closing the shutter of the establishment.

Because of his short marathon a second ago, his throat ached with all the intake of rushed air. He adjusted his bag in the crook of one hand and brushed the wet hair from his forehead with the back of his other hand. He felt like he could faint any moment now, his breaths coming out in shorter gusts.

"You're late, I'm about to close. Come back tomorrow."

His ears pricked when he heard the sentence. No can do. He had come all the way here and he was not leaving unless he submitted these goddamn books. With determined eyes he mustered up all the strength that was left in his body and stood tall, ready to fight.