Post by tystys03 on Oct 4, 2010 6:31:08 GMT -5
Hi there, guys! I'm new to the boards and haven't written anything in a long while, but thanks to Rose, I might start getting back into it, 
.
I also wanted to join an RP, but didn't really want to just jump into one without writing something. So, I wrote this little thing up to see if my writing was up to snuff so as to post on the RP's.
Quick Explanation of "The KIDZ". It mainly focuses around Michael, a young man who has been down on his luck for awhile now. Nothing seems to be going right for him and it seems like everything and everyone is against him. Not to mention he has been plagued with this ridiculous head aches that seem to bend and warp the world around him. However, on one fateful night, during a fight with a few drunken ruffians, he finds that he can manipulate sound waves and frequencies in the air, allowing him to incite some incredible destruction.
His world is turned upside down when he is introduced to the world of "The KIDZ", a group of people just like him who possess super human powers. Now, he must learn how to use his powers and exist in this new world of his before...bad things happen.
OK, you'll have to forgive me, it's seven in the morning at the current time and it's been hard to write coherently, but I can promise you there's a really exciting plot here!
This is just an introductory chapter into Michael's world. It moves fasts and sets the tone for what's going to happen...and this is only half of it!
So, without further adieu, here is my first chapter to The KIDZ. Hope you enjoy it.
INCOMING WALL OF TEXT ALERT.
Chapter One: As it stands
Michael wasn’t entirely sure what just happened. Alice had spoken but a few words, yet that alone was enough to send him reeling. It was all that he needed to hear for his sub conscious to register that things were going to change forever. A sharp pain shot through the creases of his cranium. ‘Not again…not now,’ he thought to himself. As inconspicuously as possible, Michael began to massage his temples, hoping to perhaps allocate the pain into one secular area, but to no avail. He’d been feeling these abrupt pangs in his head for months now. He wasn’t entirely sure just when they started or even how. The most he could remember was that it was the very reason why things began to change drastically around him; why he began to change. The happy go lucky nature he had generally been so well known for amongst his peers had fallen to the way side, with a pessimistic attitude in its place. He began to question his surroundings, exhibiting warped and disturbing opinions on life. He had become prone to impromptu mood swings, sometimes exhibiting strong symptoms of psychosis. From one moment to the next, his persona balanced on the tight wire of sanity, swinging wildly from left to right, yet never failing to keep a steady grasp on the thin thread that separated a normally logical man from pure, unadulterated insanity. For some reason unbeknownst to him, his entire life was falling apart. He had been expelled from Cornell, he rarely ever heard from his family and for all intents and purposes he was unemployed. Any sort of light that had shone brightly on his future had been irrevocably wiped from existence, with only a few glints of the radiance that was his former life ushering themselves forth in some of the most inexplicable places. Yet even after everything, this was the defining moment. This…whatever “this” was the end of everything he knew.
He began to scan the environment. No matter where he turned, everything seemed to present some sort of annoyance to him, whether it be a mildly irritating, to downright troublesome. His vision had become hazy from the pain; sounds became accentuated to some of the highest degrees he had ever known. It was almost as if he had heard everything that was going on in the restaurant; the annoying teenage couple laughing raucously a few booths down to the right, the clinging and clanging of dishes hitting a hard, metallic surface, the sizzling of grease from the stove as the chefs prepared their orders. He could hear everything and nothing. He tried to regain some sense of normality, a recognizable form he could tether himself to so as to at least begin the process of coming back down from this ridiculous high. He homed in on Alice, his girlfriend. For what seemed like an eternity, she had done nothing but good things for Michael. No matter where his life went, she was behind him every step of the way. From expulsion, to becoming estranged from the rest of his family, she was a bright constant in Michael’s gloomy life. Yet, there was something about her words that Michael could not exactly understand. They felt alien to him, like she was speaking in some sort of foreign language from a far off land. Yet, as he came back down to reality, he began to put two and two together. It wasn’t what she said that had confused him so much, but the implications behind them. Through the pain, he could hear her calling out to him. She grabbed Michael’s hand and began to squeeze it intensely, attempting to bring him back down from Cloud Nine. Worried that she had perhaps brought this up at the wrong time, she grew increasingly worried about the stability of Michael’s character. For months now, it seemed like he was ready to snap. She tried her hardest to help Michael to cope with whatever it was that had been affecting him so greatly, but it was no use. As time went on, his behavior became progressively erratic, the tantrums he had thrown becoming increasingly violent. For the first time ever….she had grown fearful of him. Never had he raised his hand against her, but there were moments where she could feel his anger longing to lash out towards her, perhaps in an attempt to find an understandable reason to blame her for everything. For months now, she lived in fear of the man she once loved. She tried as hard as humanly possible, but enough had been enough. She could deal with this no more. She had to finish this before she got hurt.
Michael’s senses began to return to normal after some time. When he came to, he could feel a cold sweat falling down the sides of his face. His entire body had been trembling with such violent force, it almost seemed like he was experiencing some sort of seizure. As he looked over to Alice, he could see a flood of tears streaming down her face. Baffled at the sight, he could merely do nothing but listen to Alice’s painfully searing words.
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“Michael…please, do not do this to me. Not now,” Her voice shook with every word she uttered. Michael shook his head and reclaimed his hand back from her grasp. He then took a sip of his coffee to perhaps relieve some of the pressure in his head. “Michael, you of all people have to understand where I’m coming from.” Michael laughed quietly and shook his head some more. He couldn’t muster up the gumption to look Alice in the eye. He couldn’t believe what she was doing to him, especially now. Had he not shown her that no matter what, he would always take care of her? They lived in a nice apartment near the University so that she needn’t worry about transportation. He always found a way to buy her all of the things she wanted and had listened to everything she had to say and yet that wasn’t enough? “Bull shit…” he replied, laughing. Alice’s eyes widened. Confused, in between sobs, she asked “Wh-what? What is?” Once again, Michael simply laughed. He finally looked up from his drink and stared her down, his piercing gaze like tiny needles stabbing Alice through her eyes, penetrating deep down into her soul. “This, right here,” he pointed his index finger down. “What you’re doing to me right now? This is bull shit.” She slowly shook her head in disagreement. “Bull shit? Bull shit?” she began to cry harder now. “I’ll tell you what’s fucking bullshit you insensitive prick; try living your life with some moody starving artist who shows absolutely no fucking interest in you. Try having to deal with a man that can barely support himself, let alone a fucking house hold. Try living in fear of—“Michael cut her off. “In fear of what, Alice? What the fuck are you afraid of?” he shouted. Patrons of the restaurant began to look towards their table, curious as to what was causing such a ruckus. Alice tried to shush Michael. “Michael, please, calm down, you’re causing a scene,” in response, Michael slammed down his cup, nearly breaking it two. Her eyes widened once again and she shouted “Michael, control yourself!” Michael laughed. “Control myself? What the fuck have I been doing for the past two months, Alice?” A look of disgust befell Alice’s face. “What do you mean ‘what you have been doing’? What, were you going to hit me? Is that how you’re going to deal with your problems now, Mike?” he shook his head and slammed his hand down on the table. “You want to play dumb, woman? You think I’m fucking oblivious to the things that are going on around me?” Alice’s face had now shown nothing but innate confusion. “Wh-what are you talking about?” Michael couldn’t believe his ears. Did she really have the audacity to sit there and play dumb? Those long nights where she would be gone for hours at a time, those sporadic phone calls she would receive at ungodly hours in the morning, the little gifts from her “friend at the office”; all of it was incredibly insulting. Every last bit of it was nothing more than a proverbial slap to the face for Michael…and yet here she was, leaving him. Alice opened her mouth, as if to perhaps argue her case, yet all she could do was mutter inaudible gibberish, perhaps in a vain attempt to find some sort of excuse. Michael didn’t have time for this. He wasn’t going to let her have the last word. He wasn’t going to let her become the victim. “If this is what you really want, Alice, than fine. Leave me. Leave me for that fucking narcissistic, limp dicked nim rod. If that’s what you want than who am I to stop you? You’ve obviously made your choice…” Alice could do nothing but sit there with her mouth agape. It was almost like she was surprised he would have this kind of response. Perhaps she felt he’d of taken it a bit better due to his indifference to damn near everything now a days, or would have simply bawled his eyes out, begging for her forgiveness, begging for another chance. Yet this was unexpected. This gave Michael a rise in him that she had never seen...and she had been terrified of it. Michael took another sip of his coffee and laid the cup back down on the table. He sighed and grabbed his hat, placing it firmly on his head. He looked Alice in the eyes one last time, her eyes filling to the brim with tears. Without letting her speak a word, his lips uttered the words “Goodbye, Alice.” Michael got up from his seat and made a bee line towards the door. The lady behind the counter yelled after him, “Hey, come back and pay for your god damn coffee!” As he threw open the door, he shouted back “Just put it on my god damn tab, Tina!” and just like that, he was gone.
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Michael sighed. He honestly didn’t want to up and leave Alice like that, but if he didn’t immediately depart from the premises, he’d of lost it. There were just too many things going on for him to properly react to the news. Even after he got on the subway and made his way home, their breakup simply couldn’t register in Michael’s mind. It wasn’t that he was experiencing what is referenced by most as a “suspension of disbelief”; he just couldn’t find it in his heart to care. He desperately tried to do so, remembering all of the things that had frustrated him about her before, remembering the sheer audacity she had to play the victim in their scenario. Yet he couldn’t find it in himself to get as angry as he was before. “To be entirely honest,” he thought to himself. “Did I ever really care about any of the things she did?” He genuinely had no clue. Michael had known that Alice had been cheating on him for the past two months. The signs were so blatantly apparent that it was down-right disgusting in some instances. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he could have sworn he walked in on the two engaged in some sort of lip lock at least once. But there just wasn’t anything there. It was almost as if his body had simply refused to respond to these supposedly powerful emotional triggers; like it felt that it was unnecessary for him to dwell on such things. Normally, most people would embrace such a feature, but to Michael this was tremendously unfair. He wanted so much to be like everyone else. For the longest time, he didn’t feel like himself anymore…he didn’t even feel human. It was almost like everything that should have normally greatly affected a person were just mere vexations in his life. He wanted so much to scream at the top of his lungs, to damn the world, but to no avail. He merely shook his head, sitting down on a chair and closed his eyes, awaiting the subway’s arrival at his destination.
By the time he had gotten home, it’d been dark. He unlocked the door to his apartment, half expecting to see his things strewn across the landscape hap-hazardly, but was surprised to see everything in the same exact spot that it had been before. Even most of Alice’s things were there, save for a few trinkets she had more than likely left at the other man’s house. Michael let forth a low and dull sigh, deciding that he should just go about this like he would any other day. He took off his jacket, hat and shoes and set them aside, made his way into the kitchen and poured himself a nice tall glass of water. He fumbled about for a bit in the cabinets, but eventually came out with some Advil. He popped two of the capsules and emptied the contents of the glass into his belly. His head aches had become increasingly worse as time carried on. In hope of perhaps relieving some of the pain, he bought Advil in bulk as it always seemed to help Alice whenever it had been that “time of the month”. Of course, Michael’s luck being what it was, these tiny little capsules never worked. Yet that didn’t stop Michael from popping at least two every day. He let the Advil lie for a bit, trying to see if the medicine would finally do its job, but was utterly disappointed once again.
Thankfully for him, he had found the cure to his ailments. Unfortunately, it wasn’t permanent, but for the time being, it helped soothe his soul. Whenever the headaches began to bog him down, he found that a healthy dose of enjoyable music was just the thing to help his sprained noggin. He made his way towards his den, unlocking the door that separated him from the only thing that made sense to him anymore. He couldn’t remember just when it happened, but around the same time that everything began to slowly change for the worse, Michael had found a silver lining: Music. Not only had music helped dull the pains in his head, but it moved him in ways that he couldn’t understand. Each and every melody that graced his ears had inspired him. He felt that every song had a story to it, with its creator longing to let it loose into the world. Every kick drum and hi-hat held a clue to the world conceived by the writer behind it, leaving behind a trail of hopes and dreams in its wake. In his mind’s eye, Michael could envision some absolutely beautiful things. He had travelled to far off lands that he never knew, but felt he had been there once before. He met the strangest and most exotic creatures known to man, whose only purpose it was to move the nomad along his or her journey. He saw the melody solidify into an amazing radiant path of bliss, down a highway of understanding and peace. Each and every song lead him to an answer, a way out, yet he could never reach the end. In an attempt to perhaps replicate this feeling whenever need be, he had attempted to write and produce his own tracks. He would stay up, night and day, writing, composing, mixing and producing, these songs, these “portals into another world”. He would sometimes work on one track for days at a time, fine tuning the bass line, side chaining the kicks so as to the make the synthesizers pop more in his tracks, all in hopes of perhaps finding an answer or a purpose. While his tracks made him a fan favorite around the city, with many speaking of how it inspired them to go on and do great things, he could not find the meaning he had sought in them. It angered him that he couldn’t properly duplicate the same exact emotions he felt as he heard music in his own work, but that did not stop him from continuing to give writing his all.
To those on the outside looking in, the room was a complete and utter mess. The floor had been covered in a seemingly never ending sea of fire wire cables, there were clothes and other articles thrown on the floor and generally everything seemed out of place; but not to Michael. As far as he was concerned, everything was right where it needed to be. He had a book shelf which did not contain any literary material, but instead held a wealth of vintage vinyl’s and several hundred CD’s. He cautiously made his way towards the shelf, so as to not disconnect a wire, wanting to maintain the entropy that he created. As he approached the shelf, he began to sift through the hundred or so albums he owned until he happened upon the one he yearned for. He picked up a random CD cover in which an illegitimate rewritable CD had resided. On the cover, it said only two words; “DJ Shadow”. DJ Shadow had been an incredibly large influence on Michael in the past. Most of his music didn’t have words; most of it didn’t require them. The melodies he had created were so dream-like and of an ethereal quality that Michael wasn’t entirely too sure that DJ Shadow was of this world. “No matter,” he thought to himself. All that mattered to him now was that he heard one of his favorites from this album in particular: “Midnight in a Perfect World”. “This alone will be enough…” He hopped over some more cables and made his way towards his computer. Upon reaching his destination, he slid the CD into the disc tray and let the computer load. The thing had been ages old but it got the job done and it never let Michael down. After a few minutes, his song began to play. He closed his eyes as he let the other worldly melodies take him into a deep trance. He envisioned himself alone at the end of a pier. In the distance, there had been a visage of something that he could barely make out. The shape belonged to that of a human, it’s tiny frame and delicate features insinuating that it was of the female quality. Michael lifted himself up and let the music guide him along. With every inch he flew, the music oscillated into different intoxicating rhythms, propelling him forward. The scenery around him began to change. The pier gave way to a small street, the white lines underneath him racing by in the hundreds, street lights rushing past him. A ghostly voice called out to him, singing a calm and haunting chant that enveloped him. He kept his eyes locked on his target, the visage become clearer as he came closer. He could see a small hand reach out towards him, perhaps attempting to help him. He reached out, praying that she would grasp onto him and pull him in closer. Yet, she seemed so far away. He began to kick his legs, trying to gain speed. The song slowly began to fade out, bringing the world around him down with it. Everything seemed to collapse in front of his eyes, yet he did not let this defeat him. The melody had brought his feet back down to earth, but that did not stop them from moving forward..
“Now approaching, n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-ow appr---“
He ran as far as his feet would let him. After time, his legs began to lose strength, turning into gelatin. His body had insisted on not letting him move any further, but that Michael, stubborn as he was, kept going. Using all of his strength, he pulled himself up and began to crawl towards the visage, whose hand was still out and waiting for him to take it.
“Now approaching mi---mi-n-n-n-n-n-ow-now approaching mi-mi-mi-no-no-now-n-n-n”
He couldn’t move any further. The world around him broke down, the visage still clearly in view. He stretched his arm as far out as he could, the visage approaching closer than it has ever been before. Yet, she did not move forward. She couldn’t, it seemed. This was Michael’s journey…and he had to be the one to finish it.
“Mid nigh—“
The visage’s face was covered in what seemed like mist, making it impossible for Michael to pin point her features, but he did not care. He simply wanted to be with her, to feel her warmth. He reached out for her hand, feeling the soft tips of her fingers betwixt his. Suddenly, he heard a clock ticking. The visage was thrown back violently and the world Michael had found so beautiful had been thrown into the clutches of darkness once again.
“Now approaching Midnight!”
Michael’s eyes shot open, bringing him back into the reality he knew all too well. His heart was racing faster than ever before. He wasn’t sure if it was due to his vision being slightly blurry or because of the dream that felt so real, but as he looked around the environment, it almost seemed like the walls had been shaking. He sighed, throwing the head phones off his ears. As they made contact with the hard wood floor, they made a loud and resounding thud that seemed to echo into eternity throughout the apartment. “I’ll never get to her” he thought to himself. He held his head in his hands, slowly bringing them down to his desk. For nearly half an hour, he remained silent until something very strange and wonderful happened.
He cried.
.I also wanted to join an RP, but didn't really want to just jump into one without writing something. So, I wrote this little thing up to see if my writing was up to snuff so as to post on the RP's.
Quick Explanation of "The KIDZ". It mainly focuses around Michael, a young man who has been down on his luck for awhile now. Nothing seems to be going right for him and it seems like everything and everyone is against him. Not to mention he has been plagued with this ridiculous head aches that seem to bend and warp the world around him. However, on one fateful night, during a fight with a few drunken ruffians, he finds that he can manipulate sound waves and frequencies in the air, allowing him to incite some incredible destruction.
His world is turned upside down when he is introduced to the world of "The KIDZ", a group of people just like him who possess super human powers. Now, he must learn how to use his powers and exist in this new world of his before...bad things happen.
OK, you'll have to forgive me, it's seven in the morning at the current time and it's been hard to write coherently, but I can promise you there's a really exciting plot here!
This is just an introductory chapter into Michael's world. It moves fasts and sets the tone for what's going to happen...and this is only half of it!
So, without further adieu, here is my first chapter to The KIDZ. Hope you enjoy it.
INCOMING WALL OF TEXT ALERT.
Chapter One: As it stands
Michael wasn’t entirely sure what just happened. Alice had spoken but a few words, yet that alone was enough to send him reeling. It was all that he needed to hear for his sub conscious to register that things were going to change forever. A sharp pain shot through the creases of his cranium. ‘Not again…not now,’ he thought to himself. As inconspicuously as possible, Michael began to massage his temples, hoping to perhaps allocate the pain into one secular area, but to no avail. He’d been feeling these abrupt pangs in his head for months now. He wasn’t entirely sure just when they started or even how. The most he could remember was that it was the very reason why things began to change drastically around him; why he began to change. The happy go lucky nature he had generally been so well known for amongst his peers had fallen to the way side, with a pessimistic attitude in its place. He began to question his surroundings, exhibiting warped and disturbing opinions on life. He had become prone to impromptu mood swings, sometimes exhibiting strong symptoms of psychosis. From one moment to the next, his persona balanced on the tight wire of sanity, swinging wildly from left to right, yet never failing to keep a steady grasp on the thin thread that separated a normally logical man from pure, unadulterated insanity. For some reason unbeknownst to him, his entire life was falling apart. He had been expelled from Cornell, he rarely ever heard from his family and for all intents and purposes he was unemployed. Any sort of light that had shone brightly on his future had been irrevocably wiped from existence, with only a few glints of the radiance that was his former life ushering themselves forth in some of the most inexplicable places. Yet even after everything, this was the defining moment. This…whatever “this” was the end of everything he knew.
He began to scan the environment. No matter where he turned, everything seemed to present some sort of annoyance to him, whether it be a mildly irritating, to downright troublesome. His vision had become hazy from the pain; sounds became accentuated to some of the highest degrees he had ever known. It was almost as if he had heard everything that was going on in the restaurant; the annoying teenage couple laughing raucously a few booths down to the right, the clinging and clanging of dishes hitting a hard, metallic surface, the sizzling of grease from the stove as the chefs prepared their orders. He could hear everything and nothing. He tried to regain some sense of normality, a recognizable form he could tether himself to so as to at least begin the process of coming back down from this ridiculous high. He homed in on Alice, his girlfriend. For what seemed like an eternity, she had done nothing but good things for Michael. No matter where his life went, she was behind him every step of the way. From expulsion, to becoming estranged from the rest of his family, she was a bright constant in Michael’s gloomy life. Yet, there was something about her words that Michael could not exactly understand. They felt alien to him, like she was speaking in some sort of foreign language from a far off land. Yet, as he came back down to reality, he began to put two and two together. It wasn’t what she said that had confused him so much, but the implications behind them. Through the pain, he could hear her calling out to him. She grabbed Michael’s hand and began to squeeze it intensely, attempting to bring him back down from Cloud Nine. Worried that she had perhaps brought this up at the wrong time, she grew increasingly worried about the stability of Michael’s character. For months now, it seemed like he was ready to snap. She tried her hardest to help Michael to cope with whatever it was that had been affecting him so greatly, but it was no use. As time went on, his behavior became progressively erratic, the tantrums he had thrown becoming increasingly violent. For the first time ever….she had grown fearful of him. Never had he raised his hand against her, but there were moments where she could feel his anger longing to lash out towards her, perhaps in an attempt to find an understandable reason to blame her for everything. For months now, she lived in fear of the man she once loved. She tried as hard as humanly possible, but enough had been enough. She could deal with this no more. She had to finish this before she got hurt.
Michael’s senses began to return to normal after some time. When he came to, he could feel a cold sweat falling down the sides of his face. His entire body had been trembling with such violent force, it almost seemed like he was experiencing some sort of seizure. As he looked over to Alice, he could see a flood of tears streaming down her face. Baffled at the sight, he could merely do nothing but listen to Alice’s painfully searing words.
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“Michael…please, do not do this to me. Not now,” Her voice shook with every word she uttered. Michael shook his head and reclaimed his hand back from her grasp. He then took a sip of his coffee to perhaps relieve some of the pressure in his head. “Michael, you of all people have to understand where I’m coming from.” Michael laughed quietly and shook his head some more. He couldn’t muster up the gumption to look Alice in the eye. He couldn’t believe what she was doing to him, especially now. Had he not shown her that no matter what, he would always take care of her? They lived in a nice apartment near the University so that she needn’t worry about transportation. He always found a way to buy her all of the things she wanted and had listened to everything she had to say and yet that wasn’t enough? “Bull shit…” he replied, laughing. Alice’s eyes widened. Confused, in between sobs, she asked “Wh-what? What is?” Once again, Michael simply laughed. He finally looked up from his drink and stared her down, his piercing gaze like tiny needles stabbing Alice through her eyes, penetrating deep down into her soul. “This, right here,” he pointed his index finger down. “What you’re doing to me right now? This is bull shit.” She slowly shook her head in disagreement. “Bull shit? Bull shit?” she began to cry harder now. “I’ll tell you what’s fucking bullshit you insensitive prick; try living your life with some moody starving artist who shows absolutely no fucking interest in you. Try having to deal with a man that can barely support himself, let alone a fucking house hold. Try living in fear of—“Michael cut her off. “In fear of what, Alice? What the fuck are you afraid of?” he shouted. Patrons of the restaurant began to look towards their table, curious as to what was causing such a ruckus. Alice tried to shush Michael. “Michael, please, calm down, you’re causing a scene,” in response, Michael slammed down his cup, nearly breaking it two. Her eyes widened once again and she shouted “Michael, control yourself!” Michael laughed. “Control myself? What the fuck have I been doing for the past two months, Alice?” A look of disgust befell Alice’s face. “What do you mean ‘what you have been doing’? What, were you going to hit me? Is that how you’re going to deal with your problems now, Mike?” he shook his head and slammed his hand down on the table. “You want to play dumb, woman? You think I’m fucking oblivious to the things that are going on around me?” Alice’s face had now shown nothing but innate confusion. “Wh-what are you talking about?” Michael couldn’t believe his ears. Did she really have the audacity to sit there and play dumb? Those long nights where she would be gone for hours at a time, those sporadic phone calls she would receive at ungodly hours in the morning, the little gifts from her “friend at the office”; all of it was incredibly insulting. Every last bit of it was nothing more than a proverbial slap to the face for Michael…and yet here she was, leaving him. Alice opened her mouth, as if to perhaps argue her case, yet all she could do was mutter inaudible gibberish, perhaps in a vain attempt to find some sort of excuse. Michael didn’t have time for this. He wasn’t going to let her have the last word. He wasn’t going to let her become the victim. “If this is what you really want, Alice, than fine. Leave me. Leave me for that fucking narcissistic, limp dicked nim rod. If that’s what you want than who am I to stop you? You’ve obviously made your choice…” Alice could do nothing but sit there with her mouth agape. It was almost like she was surprised he would have this kind of response. Perhaps she felt he’d of taken it a bit better due to his indifference to damn near everything now a days, or would have simply bawled his eyes out, begging for her forgiveness, begging for another chance. Yet this was unexpected. This gave Michael a rise in him that she had never seen...and she had been terrified of it. Michael took another sip of his coffee and laid the cup back down on the table. He sighed and grabbed his hat, placing it firmly on his head. He looked Alice in the eyes one last time, her eyes filling to the brim with tears. Without letting her speak a word, his lips uttered the words “Goodbye, Alice.” Michael got up from his seat and made a bee line towards the door. The lady behind the counter yelled after him, “Hey, come back and pay for your god damn coffee!” As he threw open the door, he shouted back “Just put it on my god damn tab, Tina!” and just like that, he was gone.
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Michael sighed. He honestly didn’t want to up and leave Alice like that, but if he didn’t immediately depart from the premises, he’d of lost it. There were just too many things going on for him to properly react to the news. Even after he got on the subway and made his way home, their breakup simply couldn’t register in Michael’s mind. It wasn’t that he was experiencing what is referenced by most as a “suspension of disbelief”; he just couldn’t find it in his heart to care. He desperately tried to do so, remembering all of the things that had frustrated him about her before, remembering the sheer audacity she had to play the victim in their scenario. Yet he couldn’t find it in himself to get as angry as he was before. “To be entirely honest,” he thought to himself. “Did I ever really care about any of the things she did?” He genuinely had no clue. Michael had known that Alice had been cheating on him for the past two months. The signs were so blatantly apparent that it was down-right disgusting in some instances. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he could have sworn he walked in on the two engaged in some sort of lip lock at least once. But there just wasn’t anything there. It was almost as if his body had simply refused to respond to these supposedly powerful emotional triggers; like it felt that it was unnecessary for him to dwell on such things. Normally, most people would embrace such a feature, but to Michael this was tremendously unfair. He wanted so much to be like everyone else. For the longest time, he didn’t feel like himself anymore…he didn’t even feel human. It was almost like everything that should have normally greatly affected a person were just mere vexations in his life. He wanted so much to scream at the top of his lungs, to damn the world, but to no avail. He merely shook his head, sitting down on a chair and closed his eyes, awaiting the subway’s arrival at his destination.
By the time he had gotten home, it’d been dark. He unlocked the door to his apartment, half expecting to see his things strewn across the landscape hap-hazardly, but was surprised to see everything in the same exact spot that it had been before. Even most of Alice’s things were there, save for a few trinkets she had more than likely left at the other man’s house. Michael let forth a low and dull sigh, deciding that he should just go about this like he would any other day. He took off his jacket, hat and shoes and set them aside, made his way into the kitchen and poured himself a nice tall glass of water. He fumbled about for a bit in the cabinets, but eventually came out with some Advil. He popped two of the capsules and emptied the contents of the glass into his belly. His head aches had become increasingly worse as time carried on. In hope of perhaps relieving some of the pain, he bought Advil in bulk as it always seemed to help Alice whenever it had been that “time of the month”. Of course, Michael’s luck being what it was, these tiny little capsules never worked. Yet that didn’t stop Michael from popping at least two every day. He let the Advil lie for a bit, trying to see if the medicine would finally do its job, but was utterly disappointed once again.
Thankfully for him, he had found the cure to his ailments. Unfortunately, it wasn’t permanent, but for the time being, it helped soothe his soul. Whenever the headaches began to bog him down, he found that a healthy dose of enjoyable music was just the thing to help his sprained noggin. He made his way towards his den, unlocking the door that separated him from the only thing that made sense to him anymore. He couldn’t remember just when it happened, but around the same time that everything began to slowly change for the worse, Michael had found a silver lining: Music. Not only had music helped dull the pains in his head, but it moved him in ways that he couldn’t understand. Each and every melody that graced his ears had inspired him. He felt that every song had a story to it, with its creator longing to let it loose into the world. Every kick drum and hi-hat held a clue to the world conceived by the writer behind it, leaving behind a trail of hopes and dreams in its wake. In his mind’s eye, Michael could envision some absolutely beautiful things. He had travelled to far off lands that he never knew, but felt he had been there once before. He met the strangest and most exotic creatures known to man, whose only purpose it was to move the nomad along his or her journey. He saw the melody solidify into an amazing radiant path of bliss, down a highway of understanding and peace. Each and every song lead him to an answer, a way out, yet he could never reach the end. In an attempt to perhaps replicate this feeling whenever need be, he had attempted to write and produce his own tracks. He would stay up, night and day, writing, composing, mixing and producing, these songs, these “portals into another world”. He would sometimes work on one track for days at a time, fine tuning the bass line, side chaining the kicks so as to the make the synthesizers pop more in his tracks, all in hopes of perhaps finding an answer or a purpose. While his tracks made him a fan favorite around the city, with many speaking of how it inspired them to go on and do great things, he could not find the meaning he had sought in them. It angered him that he couldn’t properly duplicate the same exact emotions he felt as he heard music in his own work, but that did not stop him from continuing to give writing his all.
To those on the outside looking in, the room was a complete and utter mess. The floor had been covered in a seemingly never ending sea of fire wire cables, there were clothes and other articles thrown on the floor and generally everything seemed out of place; but not to Michael. As far as he was concerned, everything was right where it needed to be. He had a book shelf which did not contain any literary material, but instead held a wealth of vintage vinyl’s and several hundred CD’s. He cautiously made his way towards the shelf, so as to not disconnect a wire, wanting to maintain the entropy that he created. As he approached the shelf, he began to sift through the hundred or so albums he owned until he happened upon the one he yearned for. He picked up a random CD cover in which an illegitimate rewritable CD had resided. On the cover, it said only two words; “DJ Shadow”. DJ Shadow had been an incredibly large influence on Michael in the past. Most of his music didn’t have words; most of it didn’t require them. The melodies he had created were so dream-like and of an ethereal quality that Michael wasn’t entirely too sure that DJ Shadow was of this world. “No matter,” he thought to himself. All that mattered to him now was that he heard one of his favorites from this album in particular: “Midnight in a Perfect World”. “This alone will be enough…” He hopped over some more cables and made his way towards his computer. Upon reaching his destination, he slid the CD into the disc tray and let the computer load. The thing had been ages old but it got the job done and it never let Michael down. After a few minutes, his song began to play. He closed his eyes as he let the other worldly melodies take him into a deep trance. He envisioned himself alone at the end of a pier. In the distance, there had been a visage of something that he could barely make out. The shape belonged to that of a human, it’s tiny frame and delicate features insinuating that it was of the female quality. Michael lifted himself up and let the music guide him along. With every inch he flew, the music oscillated into different intoxicating rhythms, propelling him forward. The scenery around him began to change. The pier gave way to a small street, the white lines underneath him racing by in the hundreds, street lights rushing past him. A ghostly voice called out to him, singing a calm and haunting chant that enveloped him. He kept his eyes locked on his target, the visage become clearer as he came closer. He could see a small hand reach out towards him, perhaps attempting to help him. He reached out, praying that she would grasp onto him and pull him in closer. Yet, she seemed so far away. He began to kick his legs, trying to gain speed. The song slowly began to fade out, bringing the world around him down with it. Everything seemed to collapse in front of his eyes, yet he did not let this defeat him. The melody had brought his feet back down to earth, but that did not stop them from moving forward..
“Now approaching, n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-ow appr---“
He ran as far as his feet would let him. After time, his legs began to lose strength, turning into gelatin. His body had insisted on not letting him move any further, but that Michael, stubborn as he was, kept going. Using all of his strength, he pulled himself up and began to crawl towards the visage, whose hand was still out and waiting for him to take it.
“Now approaching mi---mi-n-n-n-n-n-ow-now approaching mi-mi-mi-no-no-now-n-n-n”
He couldn’t move any further. The world around him broke down, the visage still clearly in view. He stretched his arm as far out as he could, the visage approaching closer than it has ever been before. Yet, she did not move forward. She couldn’t, it seemed. This was Michael’s journey…and he had to be the one to finish it.
“Mid nigh—“
The visage’s face was covered in what seemed like mist, making it impossible for Michael to pin point her features, but he did not care. He simply wanted to be with her, to feel her warmth. He reached out for her hand, feeling the soft tips of her fingers betwixt his. Suddenly, he heard a clock ticking. The visage was thrown back violently and the world Michael had found so beautiful had been thrown into the clutches of darkness once again.
“Now approaching Midnight!”
Michael’s eyes shot open, bringing him back into the reality he knew all too well. His heart was racing faster than ever before. He wasn’t sure if it was due to his vision being slightly blurry or because of the dream that felt so real, but as he looked around the environment, it almost seemed like the walls had been shaking. He sighed, throwing the head phones off his ears. As they made contact with the hard wood floor, they made a loud and resounding thud that seemed to echo into eternity throughout the apartment. “I’ll never get to her” he thought to himself. He held his head in his hands, slowly bringing them down to his desk. For nearly half an hour, he remained silent until something very strange and wonderful happened.
He cried.
Congrats grimn! You're in the real mode, now. I've no doubt that you'll surprise yourself on just how tough and mature you can be.