Martins

-I love you, how could words so powerful sometimes sound so empty that they become almost see trough.

I though as I unfocused from the two leaking, black eyes and came to darkness. Out of the blue I started seeing colors. Mostly reds and blues, then whites, oranges, and then colors so unexplainably beautiful that I don't think any of them could ever be recreated, each so similar, but then so unique in their own way. Unfortunately, darkness ended up enveloping me once again.

But then came a sound, a familiar one. I opened my eyes to find my phone alarm going off. The sound was irritating, some loud and heavy music, not really a starter for a peaceful morning. It went on for 30 minutes or so, stopping every so often, like it needed to take a breath. I just listened to it, unable to go back to sleep and not really wanting to get up and come back to reality, every day of summer was the same, so what was the point of me living through another one. At some point I managed to stand up and turn the alarm off, I carefully made my way through my room, actively avoiding books and clothes thrown all over the floor. I pulled open the curtains, letting the sunshine in after a while. The walls, now lighted up, somehow looked even uglier than usual. They were stained and had that hideous pail gray color on them, it looked like an abandoned ruin. I picked up the dishes that were laying around, mostly half-drank coffee cups and plates of rotten pastries and left the room.

The house I lived in was very spacious, unlike mine, the rooms in it were spotless. The walls covered in the light coats of baige, upon which were placed beautiful artworks. The floors were, unlike the walls, built of dark wood which perfectly contrasted them and gave the rooms overall a more balanced look. To my disliking the rooms had that awful hospital smell which would sometimes leak into my room. I always hated that smell; it reminded me of that time.

Placing the dishes in the kitchen carefully trying not to touch leftover food, I walked over to the fridge where a small green note had been left not too long ago.

Hey kiddo, I didn't have time to make you lunch again. There is a bit of money on the table you could use to buy something to eat, please dont be upset with me.

Have a nice day honey.

Love mom.

I just sighed and went to change from my pajamas, leaving the house not too long after. I didn't really care about my clothes, usually had some sweats on combined with a beanie. I did the same today. Quickly putting on my headphones I headed straight to Martins.

Martins was a small caffe down the street from my house, its placed in the basement of a pretty old building that almost fully burned down in the fire of 1998, so most people usually avoided going there fearing that its haunted or something. But I really like the atmosphere there, orange wooden walls and minimalistic furniture made you feel welcome and at ease. The staff was usually consisting of a two to three people including Martin, the owner and an old pal of my dad's. Everyone was really nice to me, so I felt more at home there than in my own house.

I entered the caffe with the bell rings following my steps. Walking to my usual table at the far end of the room I waved to Martin who was, at the time, waiting tables. His eyes brightened at the sight of me, showing me a smile from ear to ear almost unseeable behind his overgrown hair, he waved back and continued writing the order for one of the usuals. They were mostly some old folks living nearby hoping to get some free food because they were "the main reason this place was still alive". Which was, no matter how annoying, true. No one under the age of 70 except for me would ever cross the threshold of the building so you could guess how surprised I was when I saw a girl, seemingly in her teens sitting at my table.

The girl had shinning brown hair, tied up in two long braids running down her shoulders, with few streaks of hair dyed a lighter shade. Her face was like porcelain, colored with a few red splotches around the places where her cheeks were. Now looking at me were two lapis blue eyes, dazed with confusion.

`Can I help you?` She muttered; her voice filled with this childlike curiosity.

I came back to reality, realizing that I was standing right over her table staring at her like a mad man. The surprise of there being another person my age at a place like this managed to take me out for a few seconds. I quickly apologized and ran of to the furthest table on the far side of the room, hearing her giggles echoing around the room.

As soon as I sat down, Martin approached my table, laughing hysterically after seeing what happened.

`Mate, you got a thing for that girly don ya?`

`Oh, shut up old man, I muttered, still embarrassed about the whole situation, I could feel the blood rushing to my face.`

`Whatever you say kid, your mom forgot to feed your skinny ass again? He said, still laughing with every word.`

`Yeah, I'll take the usual.`

`Already wrote it down, Will bring it to you in a minute. You try and keep those pervy eyes away from the girl.`

Before I could react he walked off into the kitchen, still laughing like a lunatic.

I continued to sit there; my head lowered staring at the floor still blushing after the whole ordeal. Soon enough I got myself back together and pulled out a little notebook from my bag and started doodling.

My so-called art wasn't considered good at all, but I still loved doing it. While drawing I could turn my head and depart from the real world, it felt kind of divine. However, a plate came crashing in front of me soon after, the sound of it hitting the glass table echoed in my ears drawing my attention away from the sketchbook.

`My bad kid, hand slipped. Hope I didn't ruin your little drawing there. Here's your chicken sandwich.`

`Nah, don't worry, and thanks, how much do I own you?`

`It's on the house today kid`, he replied with a big grin on his face, raising his hand which happened to be twice the size of mine

I sighed `Thanks Mart` and moved my hand in for a high five.

As soon as our hands touched all the colors of the caffe faded with the lights following not long after, going out one by one, all but the small lamp coincidently hanging over my table. The room was empty, somehow without a sound, everyone managed to vanish into thin air, everyone except Martin, well not quite.

Where Martin stood now was a tall lanky figure towering over me. A ripped up old robe was placed on him hiding the skin so thin you can see every single one of his bones in full detail. Its cloth, colorless and filled with splotches of some kind of ozzy liquid, enveloped his head fully, allowing it to stay hidden in the darkness. Only leaving two piercing white dots where his eyes should have been. Suddenly a layer of cold thick air started swirling around the two of us, allowing me to see clouds of breath coming from the darkness as the only sign of life from the creature. The smell of it spread like the plague, stinking like rotten fruit and dried up old booze.

`Y..yo..u a..again.. wh.y a..re…`

The creature struggled to make a sound, his voice seemed muffled, like his throat was filled with water. He started to cough uncontrollably as the same kind of black viscus liquid started pouring out of the darkness. Soon after I raised my hand and slowly, keeping my voice as quiet as possible, announced:

`Save your voice, I...`

Before I could finish the sentence the creature suddenly moved his head, placing its face in front of mine allowing me to finally catch a glimpse of it. Long skull with gray skin wrapped tight around with ripped pieces dangling from it was staring blankly at me with two glowing blank eyes, they were surprisingly pure, without a hint of darkness within them. His teeth were a different story. Yellow and rotten to the core, just waiting to fall out. Swiping my hand, I cleared out the darkness. The monster disappeared with it, returning me to Martins.

As soon as Martin walked to the next table I frantically picked up my note book and started sketching the shadow I just saw. "It changed again" I thought, desperately trying to remember each and every detail of the monstrosity. After a few minutes I had the drawing finished, my hands now black from the graphite. Under it I wrote:

Martins shadow: Fisherman

2. of August 2009

Guess: Drowning.

Closing the sketchbook I reached for the napkins. Seeing the sandwich suddenly made me realize how hungry I was. Not eating for a day sure makes a man hungry. The sandwich was good, nothing fancy or particularly interesting about it, but I for some reason loved eating it. I couldn't explain why even if I tried. I just did. Martin knew how to make it for me, after all years of practice know how to teach a man. After eating it, I carefully placed a few dollars under the plate, watching closely so that he wouldn't see me doing it.

Waving goodbye I walked over to the door of the caffe when in the corner of my eye I saw something. The girl from earlier seems to have left, but somehow forgot her wallet on the table. It was, interesting to say at least. The wallet reminded me of those old ones you would see your dad having but with colorful patches of cloth sewn into it. I figured she would probably come back for it soon, so I didn't bother bringing it to Martin. Opening the door, the harsh sunlight suddenly hit my eyes, blinding me for a few seconds. That short period of time was apparently enough for someone to bump into me.

Losing control, I found myself in a snow-covered version of the street outside of Martins. The weird thing was that it was surprisingly warm for how much snow there was. It was very thick, ranging almost over my knees. Turning around, I saw a giant owl standing in front of me. It was covered in beautiful white feathers, allowing it to blend in with the snow around it. Although upon a closer look, not all the feathers were as perfect as the ones on his body. The tail of this bird was almost fully covered in dark ones, all of them damaged in one way or another. It was looking at me with patience, his eyes, matching the tail, were as dark as the sky on a cloudy night. Without any movement, a deep voice came out from the bird.

`Greetings angle, I have finally found you`