Onoria

He stood at the edge of the cliff looking down at crashing waves, a solitary figure against the mural of dusk. From afar he looked omnipotent, I had this strange urge to proclaim him my undisputed God; but as you grew closer you noticed a slight hunch of the shoulder, an imperceptible shiver of his hands and that haunting empty look. There was something about him that instilled dread and sympathy all at once. He looked all of 16 years but his eyes told a different story. He had not sensed my presence yet, and I took the opportunity to study him. Blood and dust covered what once must have been expensive cloths. He held in one hand a delicate chain, from which a blue stone swung recklessly in the evening wind. On the other he kept counting his digits, I looked up almost expecting him to utter a number, but not a muscle moved - he did not seem capable of life. I stood there stifling though my limited vocabulary for something to say, when he slowly turned towards me. Those eyes again, it took every last word of courage to stop me from running, there was even a brief moment when I contemplated jumping of the cliff - anything that did not involve me interacting with him. However he did not seem interested in conversation. I did not think he was even aware of my presence, until he smiled. "Never again" he whispered to no one in particular. He turned towards the village and in that instance the last rays of sun bid farewell, as if they had only been holding on for him all this while.

It was sometime before I could gather my thoughts and return to my car parked by the side of the road. I had been driving back home to New-Brie after a two-day conference. An event-less 3-hour journey till I had spotted him. My first thought had been that I might have to stop the lad from ending his life and I was not particularly good at selling life to anyone. Now walking back to my battered ride I still could not shake off the dread, it was like I was stuck in a bad horror movie. "You are going to die alone, with people screaming for you to not go in there" I smiled into the rearview mirror as I started the car. The drive eased my tension and I was soon debating what I would make myself for dinner when the inevitable happened.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of sound, my trusty steed had never run without protest. Then oddly enough it was the smell that struck me, eucalyptus; I still had the bottled essence my friend seemed convinced was the cure for all illness. Overcome with my other senses my sight seemed to fail me, for I 'felt' the steering got missing before I actually saw the car vanish and finally like the outro of some unsung song I went hurtling across the ground. "Even when every law of Physics goes for a toss, inertia has to be a bitch" I managed one last ditch at humor before I submitted to the reality I had landed in. To say I was confused would be like calling my neighbor Jeff crazy; he jumped off his roof convinced his Labrador was Pegasus and would fly up to save him. I sat there for a long time, the dust I had kicked up had long since settled and the beetles which had burrowed in when I came flying, where beginning to regain their courage. I just sat there looking all around me even when the wind turned chilly and my fingers started to go numb. I sat there simply because I did not know what else to do. The road I had been on was nowhere to be seen, the city marker I had crossed a mile back was now a large tree. I had lost all sense of direction when I was made a human roulette that I no longer knew where Brie was.

After a long while of staring amongst the trees for a movement, a sound, even a large growling beast, I reluctantly accepted the fact that I was utterly alone. "Smart B! If you had accepted that obvious fact a while back, you could have found a little warmth by now", I hated myself at times like this. I got up to explore what might be my backyard for a while. It was a sparse forest, like a kid had started creating one and then got distracted midway. There were large trees on all sides but not dense enough to stop the moonlight. I desperately looked for shelter from the cold that was now getting unbearable. There was no rock or undergrowth to hide behind; the best seemed to be two trees growing close together. I cleared the ground and curled up in the space between them. I did not believe myself capable of sleep; I was an insomniac on the best of days and here I was in a strange land where nothing made sense. My alert eyes scanned the area; on more mundane nights looking out of my window I had found poetry in the way moonlight made everything precious, yet here lay a rich silver tapestry that I had no appreciation for. Soon weariness caught up and I didn't care for wild beasts, I just wanted this to end. Long overdue tears streamed down without my bidding and like a floodgate had burst I was suddenly aware of my hunger and thirst. The hurried lunch at my hotel seemed like a lifetime ago. However I did not dare venture out in the dark, there will be time to awaken my inner explorer when the sun was up. Then again what if I didn’t get to see daybreak or if there was no daybreak at all... It must have been to this maddening rush of thoughts that I fell asleep, for the next thing I was aware of was the bright sun belting down.