Saturday, September 23, 2017

Void Town Saga - Arrival

I arrived at Void Square. I checked my phone for the time, it said 14:20. Could have fooled me, the sky was the same shade of purple I saw coming here. No change. I had the feeling knowing what the time was was irrelevant here. I walked the empty square. Just to confirm I looked at the clocktower in the center of the square. It had no pointers. "Well, I'm here now..." thought I, but couldn bring myself to ask "What's next?" I walked around the square three times, must've taken an hour. No cold, no hunger. Less to worry about. I didn't want to leave the square, I don't know where I'd go. I had no intention of crossing the stoplights. On my third lap I saw a door opened, a coffee shop, dark inside, I went in. Empty, not dirty, but as cold as outside, even without the snow. On the tables there were different sized mugs, filled with cold coffee. I sat down at a table, not by the window or by the bar but in the middle and drank down a mug. The I breathed in conciously, and I wept. I must've wept for 3 days if I was counting time. I wept for all that I had failed at, I wept for all the friends I left behind, I wept for my mom. "Where did I go wrong?" I asked myself, I couldn't for the life of me find an answer but I knew I must have, somehow. All gone now. Now I'm here, and here I'll stay, no point worrying about it anymore. I sat on that chair until it was my best friend, and then my best friend came through the door, though I didn't know he was my best friend yet.
"Hey hello there" he said. I was frozen. I wasn't grateful or scared to see someone else. "Waiting for someone?" "No." He didn't seem surprised to see me, he walked on and sat at my table. A half smirk and what could have passed for hesitation and then he said "I'm Gill." "I'm... Turtle" "Turtle," he smirked fully this time. "Is that your real name?" "No," I wanted to smirk but I didn't, I was still sad. "Well, Turtle, I'm, oh, going somewhere, want to come?" Sure I did. "Sure." We walked outside. "Just that, y'know, don't want to leave you there alone, it'll be Dog Day soon." "Dog Day..." "Yeah, the square fills up with dogs and, they're harmless but... it's not very nice to be out there alone" Really? "Thank you" "Hey don't mention it, I needed some company too. How long have you been here?" Three days. "Just arrived." "Oh, so you don't know where anything is yet. In that case let's go this way first, do you have any money?" "Yes." "How much?" "Why?" Silence. "400 euros" "Really? Good, good" You're set." We went around a bend, the plaque said "─ ─ . ─ ; STREET." The one before ";, ─ ─ ─ . ─ STREET" and there was a shinty shop. It had too many neons on it, mostly light green, On top also in neon it said "Tobacco," we went in. Only a few purple neons inside, just enough to see everything, and two bright yellow ones by the counter, on lighting the shopkeeper, the other lighting the cigarette packs on the rack. Gill greeted him "Hi Gerald." "Hi Gill, what'll it be today" He was bored but had a smile on. "The usual, the cheapest." "No more cheapest, only the next to cheapest, mint-flavored, good!" "I'll take one, do you want something?" "How much?" "30 cents each," "...I'll take two."

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