Shadow

05

Ohm's damp hair was sticking to his forehead just like the sheets were covered with his sweat. He tried to get up, but some sort of dizziness took over his senses and his head hit the mattress again. After forcing the air coming in and out his lungs a few times, he could regain a bit of his senses and figured out what was happening to him: it was another nightmare.

Since the first time Shadow appeared in his life, Ohm couldn't get a good night of sleep and this was starting to show. His colleagues at the Station and his personal friends like Boun and Kao had told him he looked like shit lately and even though he dismissed their worries and pretended to be a bit offended by their comments, he knew that was true. He felt like shit too.

After calming himself down, Ohm got up from the bed and went straight to the kitchen. He heated up a bit of coffee that was still on the coffee machine god knows since when and poured the brown beverage into his favorite cup. For a few seconds the color made him recall that someone's big brown eyes staring at him, but he was too tired to even think about that topic at that hour of the morning. 4 am is technically morning, after all.

After making himself comfortable in the long chaise he set in front of the living room's window, Ohm sipped his coffee and a grimace spread across his face: that also tasted like shit. He let out a heavy sigh and a bird that decided to land on the outside of his window captured his attention. The little creature was dark gray with some white and black feathers, just like humans. Everyone is gray, not too good and not too bad, living between the two opposites and trying to do their best.

"What kind of bullshit is this?", he asked himself and then decided to check his phone. "Oh, it's that day of the year again. Happy death anniversary, papa!", he raised his cup to the ceiling like someone could join his morbid toast.

Even if his mind was too troubled dealing with his job's perks, his body was still capable of making him feel the pain. His father died at a young age, he was only 61, but the way he did was something Ohm could never get over.

The man was a responsible husband and father, but one day he came home after his fishing trip looking catatonic. In a few words, the ones him and his mother could manage out of the old man's mouth, were about a fish he couldn't catch. The days after this were a nightmare. His father didn't eat, drink, sleep or talk to anyone. He just sat on the sofa and kept muttering to himself about the damn fish.

They tried to take him to see doctors and treat whatever he was feeling, but it was all in vain. They didn't have much money and wasted it all in pills the man refused to take and only a few days later they woke up to find him hung in the ceiling.

The memory made Ohm shiver and he decided to wear a sweatshirt.

After warming up a bit, Ohm got back to thinking about his father's fate. His biggest fear in life was to become like him. When he was little, his father served as an inspiration, but after the fish incident, was not possible to see him like that anymore. The doctors said his problem was genetic and Ohm feared to be fated to the same thing. Shadow for sure started to look like the damn fish by now: mysterious, intangible.

The phone started to ring snapping Ohm out of his thoughts and he frowned at the screen. "What happened, Boun? It's my day off and you know that!", he answered not feeling very nice to be disturbed by his friend.

"Hey, asshole! What about coming to the gym instead of locking himself inside your filthy apartment?", Boun suggested and as Ohm took too long to answer, he added softly "It will be good for you to put something inside your brain today... Exercises are a welcomed noise in these cases, bro."

Ohm should know his best friend would recall what day it was. It was both a curse and a blessing.

"I'll be there in 30 minutes.", Ohm said before disconnecting.