Snowflakes danced down the emptied streets. Old, gloomy lamps cast a yellowish light upon the scenery. Comforting coldness embedded itself onto the scene. Small dancing crystals of ice put a soft blanket of snow on the otherwise so hard concrete street. The stars were hidden between snowflakes, somewhere high up in the grey winter sky, their grasp far out of reach. The moon barely cast its soft ambiance between the snow’s dance, resting on the dark horizon like an ancient presence.
Ekant felt another snowflake hit the bony palm of his hand, the coldness it carried soon overwritten by the hot pulsing present through his entire body. Another snowflake flew by, close to his unmoving face, and added itself into the red puddle of blood-soaked snow which had formed around his limb body. His back rested upon the snowy ground as he could feel his view slowly glide out of consciousness.
Now the time had come…
…His time to be one with the crimson snow.
---
Earlier that night
The door of the coffee shop opened accompanied by the high-pitched tinkling of a bell. A wave of warm and dry air hit him, which was a harsh contrast to the cold, wet outside world. A single head behind the counter turned slowly, as if to sigh at the view of a customer. The staff – a middle aged female – put down her smartphone, put on her service smile as Ekant shuffled towards the counter.
Around 1 meter above the staff’s head, colourfully lit-up screens advertised all kinds of different baked goods and coffee. Some of them carried extravagant titles he had never heard of before, capital letters exclaiming things like: ‘super midnight special’.
He blinked three times. The glaring of the lights hurt his eyes... maybe he had gotten used to darker surroundings a little too much.
“Welcome to the downtown Coffee-shop. The best coffee 24-hours a day, 7-days’a week! How may I brighten up your night?” the staff’s forced, cheery voice stated.
She sure looks like she’s here 24/7, he thought.
“I uh…” Ekant kept his gaze lowered as he spoke, hesitated for a moment, then continued, “...take one coffee.”
“Sure! Milk or sugar? May I interest you fo-”
“None. Black coffee.”
The female behind the counter swallowed, paused for a second.
“Anything else?” she asked.
He tightened his lips, gave the monitors a second glance. Ekant pointed up towards one of the screens, said, “I’ll have one of these... sandwiches over there.”
The staff barely held her-set up smile straight, her cheery voice hurting Ekant’s eardrums from their irritating, motivated tone, “Alright. You can sit down wherever you want. It’s not like anyone is going to take your seat anyway, hehe.”
Silence filled the surrounding space, the silent buzzing of advertising screens the only noise present.
Ekant took a glance around the empty coffee shop, responded to the staff’s attempted joke with a static, thin-lipped smile.
“I will bring the food to your table once it’s ready,” she said. “That will be 4 euros 45 then.”
He fetched his purse out of the side pocket of his winter jacket, which still had some snowflakes on it, and viewed upon his massive wealth.
Around 25 euros left… well, it’s not like I will need them anymore, he thought, scratching himself on the back of his head.
A sigh escaped his dry lips.
He pulled a 5€ note out of the purse and put it down on the counter.
“You can keep the change.”
---
Ekant sat on a white, cheap plastic chair. His right arm – which was currently being used as a pillow – rested on the wooden table in front of him. His head was turned sideways, his coffee breath making the glass-front next to him lightly steam up as he beheld the icy scenery outside. Every now and then a car drove by… but beyond that, there wasn’t much movement.
Besides the dance of the snow, of course.
I wonder what time it’s right now… he thought. Ah, who cares? At least I found the courage to finally leave my apartment. After I finish this coffee, I will get going.
A tinkling broke the silence which had taken over the room earlier. Ekant kept his gaze lowered, didn’t plan on having more social interaction tonight.
Another pretentious and overly cheery person? No, thank you, he thought.
He felt inside of himself, felt a black cloud of emotions hidden away behind an emotionless facade. He felt a sickening burden underneath his mortal shell: the void he had carried with him for a couple of years by now.
The sandwich had failed to lighten up his mood, but who was he to ask for something like that anyways?
Ekant almost smashed his head against the table as he heard the voice of the staff again, the annoying squeaker repeating the usual line: “Welcome to the down-town Coffee-shop. The best coffee 24-hours a day, 7-days’a week. How may I brighten up your night?”
They probably brainwash them or some shit, Ekant thought. They force them to watch tapes on repeat until lines like that are engraved inside their brain.
But after the staff had stopped talking, another female voice responded. It was softer, with a comforting aura of calmness embedded into its sound.
It also wasn’t set up.
Ekant lifted his head, stretched out a bit and took a sip out of his half-empty paper cup. Curiosity now stronger than the void inside his chest, he risked a brief glance towards the counter.
It seemed his ears hadn’t deceived him: There was a girl – appearing to be around his age – ordering some food and coffee. She was wearing a rather thick-looking coat, her hands hidden in her coat’s pockets. Long, curly hair dangled off her head, signs of the snowstorm still visible in her clothing’s fabric.
A quiet, creeping nostalgia had hit Ekant for a moment, but his supposition had gotten disproven after a closer look.
She has some familiarities with her, he thought. Glad it’s someone else. I wouldn’t be able to endure being in her presence. Everything started to break apart after we parted ways, he thought.
Then... their eyes met.
---
Mouna put down the money on the counter, gave the staff an honest smile. After the staff had finished talking, she turned and scanned the room for a place to sit. She was greeted by an almost empty room, plastic chairs leaning against several lonely tables. A single person sat next to the large window facing the street, appeared to be looking in her direction. They locked eyes for a moment, then the male broke eye contact and turned to face the window.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Something in the eyes of the man struck her as familiar. She had seen that expression before. Sadly, the male was too far away to be certain of her assumption… she would need to get closer to make sure her eyes hadn’t deceived her.
Should I? she thought. She took another look around the empty room. Ah, why not? I wonder why anyone would be out here at this time.
She blew a wet hairline – which snow melting from the sudden change of temperature had caused – out of her face, moved over to the table and sat down across from the stranger.
She raised her voice, said, “I hope you don't mind.”
“Go ahead,” Ekant responded, his view stiffly fixed on his coffee.
“I wondered who else would go to a place like this at this ungodly hour.” She leaned back, took a sip from her paper cup. The familiar taste of coffee filled her mouth, washed some of the icy coldness on her skin away.
“Probably someone with a mildly concerning caffeine problem,” Ekant said. His face remained expressionless.
“Perhaps… or rather a caffeine addicted psychopath?” Mouna asked, started smiling as she saw the face of the man lose some of its tension.
He seems to be a little reserved, but at least he has a healthy sense of humour, she thought. I wonder why he’s evading the question.
Ekant was surprised that he wasn’t annoyed like usual, but rather calmed by the presence of the unknown female. He dared to look up from his cup, viewed the features of the girl sitting across from him.
She was around his age… perhaps 20-something years old. Hazel eyes emphasized her pale skin sprinkled with freckles. Her expression was calm and laid back on her rather roundish face. No signs of fatigue could be spotted from the way she looked or spoke. She had leaned back against her white plastic chair, legs crossed, hands on the back of her head.
“How can you look so… lively at a time like this?” he asked.
“The name’s Ekant by the way.”
Mouna hesitated for a moment, then replied, “I usually am awake at nighttime and sleep at daytime. I just prefer it like that. The night is more calm somehow… more quiet. I like that. Also, I don’t have a job right now, so... yeah.”
She hesitated at the thought of going into detail – telling Ekant about ‘him’. But it would probably be a bad topic choice. ‘Hey, I changed my sleeping pattern to go out of the way of my toxic ex-boyfriend’ just wasn’t a good opening line to get to know somebody, even though she still felt an urge to share her current problems with someone.
“Oh also, I’m Mouna. Glad I met someone interesting around here,” she added, having decided to focus on the present for now. “Well... what brings you here at nighttime?”
Ekant scratched himself at his rather unkept beard, hesitated before responding, “Couldn’t sleep. Needed to get some fresh air.”
You fucking coward. You are talking to her for two minutes and are already lying, he thought. Well… it’s not like I can tell her about the true reason I’m here. It really isn’t a suitable topic to set a vibe.
Mouna took a closer look at the person in front of her. The young male appeared to be around her age. He was rather unkept, wore his rather thick and dark hair to the side without any visible care for arrangement. Snowflakes had turned into water which now soaked his clothing. Ekant seemed like he didn’t bother that much about it.
Her view glided towards Ekant’s hand which was currently holding the coffee-cup. Short fingernails... they appeared to be chewed off rather than cut clean. Chewing fingernails? Probably caused by a coping mechanism from being uncomfortable in a certain situation.
From his appearance she concluded that he probably didn’t take much care of himself, perhaps stayed at home the most of the time. His tired looking eyes underlined her assumptions, speaking a thousand words without saying a single one.
To be honest, he really didn’t seem like the ‘needed to get some fresh air’ type of guy, but Mouna decided to just roll with it for now.
“Yea, fresh air can do wonders for sure,” she said. “Life tends to get exhausting from time to time, and some things just suck. I know how you feel…”
No, you probably don’t, he thought. But I can’t really judge you for it, to be honest.
He picked up his cup, took another sip of coffee, then said, “I also don’t have a job. Had to quit mine a few months ago... don’t really wanna talk about it though.”
“Fair.” Mouna swept her gaze around the empty tables for a moment.
“You know what?”
“Hm?” Ekant put the cup back down.
“I was going to head to a favourite spot of mine after eating here…” She hesitated as she saw one eyebrow of Ekant raise, then added, “Wanna come with me?”
Ekant played with the thought of lying and making up an excuse. The girl would most likely just forget about him, and there wouldn’t be any trouble. He really didn’t want to force a burden on her. Yet, for some reason, something felt different this time. He felt like he should at least check it out, since, so he figured, there wasn’t much to lose anyways.
And so he decided to take the risk.
“Yea, why not?”
Mouna spotted the slight dishonesty in Ekant’s smile, even though it appeared like he was used smiling like that.
His lips are lying with confidence, but not because they want to deceive. It seems like they are just scared and being used to it, she thought.
“Alright, nice.” she said. “No worries, I won’t try something shady like stealing your shit.”
“Damn, do I really look that easy to trick?” Ekant returned.
And this time, his smile was an honest one.
“What gave me away? The way I speak?” he asked.
“The look in your eyes,” Mouna replied, then locked eyes with him. “The eyes are the key to a person’s soul.”
Ekant heard Mona’s words, noticed a subtle tone of seriousness behind her irony.
Is she implying something? he thought.
He suddenly realized that his eyes felt heavy. Not physically heavy, but still heavy. He rarely noticed it nowadays, but they felt that way the most of the time. He had gotten used to the heaviness, much like to what originally caused it.
Ekant started scratching the fingernail of his left thumb against his middle finger, stopped himself after noticing.
“Huh?” He took a long sip of coffee, then leaned back. “What exactly do you mea-”
“Uhm… Excuse me...” a familiar voice broke the conversation. The staff’s arms were hidden behind her back in a polite way.
She waited a moment, realized that she had grabbed Ekant’s and Mouna’s attention, then continued, “We close in a couple of minutes. No need to rush, just wanted to let you know.”
No need to rush? Ekant thought. The always present static smile on your half-asleep face underlines your subtle message rather obviously.
But yet again, he couldn’t really blame her. If he would be in her position, he would be dead inside as well.
“Alright,” Ekant said, his fingers scratching again. “We wanted to leave now anyways, right?”
He pushed the chair back, got up. The coffee cup still felt slightly warm in his palm.
“Huh? Uhm, yea.” Mouna said, then chugged down the rest of her coffee in one go. She got up, directed a nod towards the staff underlined with a soft smile. “Thanks for being here this late. Hope you can relax a bit off shift.”
“Yea… right.” The staff member replied to Mouna’s genuine smile with a set up one, which vanished as soon as she started turning away. Mouna wondered if, by any chance, today was ‘fake your smile Friday’, or if she was only imagining it. She held back a gnarly remark, readjusted her sweater instead.
She shrugged it off and followed Ekant, who had already started moving towards the exit. The sound of the bell greeted as they left the building and a wave of snow and coldness washed over them.
Ekant found himself back at the discomforting reality of the outside world. The darkness of the night was partly broken by city lights. He pulled the hood of his jacket up, gripped onto his paper cup with both hands.
Its warmth carried a slight glint of comfort.
“So where exactly is the place you want to show me?” he asked.
“About 15 minutes from here. You’ll see once we get there. Will be worth it, I promise.”
“Ight. Just don’t stab me in a back alley or something like that.”
“We’ll see.”
He smiled.
Genuinely.
---