Dead End Friends
Time: Midday; after this
Location: a far edge of the city
Flink.
A tiny flame sprang to life and danced in the breeze. Shielding it, Patrick sucked in until the end of his cigarette was lit. In his mind he could see Kat narrowing her eyes in disgust. He had quit the habit because of her. Mostly. Sometimes he still had a cigarette or two when she wasn't around but then he would shower, change clothes, and brush his teeth immediately after. Even then she somehow always knew what he'd been up to, probably suspicious of the unusually minty breath.
Such were the thoughts he carried with him as he followed the white divider lines in the street leading up to the city's edge, hands tucked into the pockets of a zip-up sweater he was wearing, the warmest article of clothing he had with him. Luckily, the sun was bright. The highway, one that had presumably seen lots of traffic in its day but now sat deserted, led straight into the darkness and disappeared as if passing under a giant black curtain.
Directly ahead of him the barrier reached high into the sky, higher than any building, and seemed to dissolve into the troposphere.
Patrick stopped some thirty feet from it. The air hung ominously silent here as if the darkness could absorb sound. Squinting up at the shadows, he took another drag from his cigarette.
Stood. Stared.
Smoke sluiced out between his lips and teeth but the tobacco did nothing to soothe his nerves this time.
Location: a far edge of the city
Flink.
A tiny flame sprang to life and danced in the breeze. Shielding it, Patrick sucked in until the end of his cigarette was lit. In his mind he could see Kat narrowing her eyes in disgust. He had quit the habit because of her. Mostly. Sometimes he still had a cigarette or two when she wasn't around but then he would shower, change clothes, and brush his teeth immediately after. Even then she somehow always knew what he'd been up to, probably suspicious of the unusually minty breath.
Such were the thoughts he carried with him as he followed the white divider lines in the street leading up to the city's edge, hands tucked into the pockets of a zip-up sweater he was wearing, the warmest article of clothing he had with him. Luckily, the sun was bright. The highway, one that had presumably seen lots of traffic in its day but now sat deserted, led straight into the darkness and disappeared as if passing under a giant black curtain.
Directly ahead of him the barrier reached high into the sky, higher than any building, and seemed to dissolve into the troposphere.
Patrick stopped some thirty feet from it. The air hung ominously silent here as if the darkness could absorb sound. Squinting up at the shadows, he took another drag from his cigarette.
Stood. Stared.
Smoke sluiced out between his lips and teeth but the tobacco did nothing to soothe his nerves this time.