In passing
The square was bustling. Nice days tended to bring out even the most hesitant and recluse of citizens in Habarr. Families gathered to play and relax and lovers shared food and drink seasoned with sweet promises of forever. The day was beautiful but I was black. A smiling and otherwise approachable ball of resentment and anger.
These moods struck me regularly with no actual answers from the doctors, other then to suggest it was nothing physical about my ailment. Outside I smiled jovially watching everyone from my bench enjoying the day. My soul however seethed. A roiling of imagined hates and preconceived prejudices. None of which I carried in my more lucid and compassionate version of myself.
I leaned my head back to the sky, closing my eyes and everything became silent and still. This did not seem odd to me at the time. An eruption of pressure and sounds assaulted me relentlessly. My eyes shot open and my left hand going to my chest. The beautiful clear blue skies has skewed and turned mercurial. The boiling over of silver cloud after silver cloud shaded the square.
In a few moments or possibly more, time had ceased meaning to me I found myself standing, staring at the ruined square. The families, stuck in the morbid and bestial battle looked as if carved from bedrock. A further glance would show that these embraces were not familial but primal. A hunger that you only recognize from the feeling of your marrow being frozen, congealed. I pulled my stare from that family and unwilling found the couple. They were stone as well but no whisper of debauchery and raw aggression of the family.
Something brushed behind me and my mind reeled screaming I was not alone. I looked over my left shoulder and saw nothing. Okay good all to do next is to look right and reassure myself it’s just a fit. As my head began to swivel a noxious smell hit my nose. The smell of rot, decay, and sulfur. I heaved over and puked on my shoes. It’s smelled exactly like the trenches at Ypres.
Eyes watering and choking for breath I looked to the right. A single gentlemen in black stood staring. He did not look right, maybe it was the tone of his skin or his too bright eyes. He was inhumanly tall but a faux compassion caught me like we may have been old friends in a past life. I stood up straight and stared into the eyes feeling tunnel vision and a hypnotics pull. I snapped out of the tunnel. He tipped his hat at what could only have been me. I blinked rapidly and began to rub my eyes.
The bursting light from the pressure of rubbing my eyes made me completely miss the silence breaking. I opened my eyes and my vision clears. There was nothing changed. I blinked again and opened my eyes. Everyone in the square was staring right at me. I tipped my hat and turned to go home.
Lovely days are truly worth remembering.