The Tales of Vast

Chapter 3: His Arbitrarily Pink Hair September 23rd, 2022

              The sun rises slowly across the horizon, emitting a soft glow of what would soon be sunshine. Rory had slept in a bit longer than he had liked to, on account of his alarm never going off. He glares sideways at his alarm clock. 6:13 A.M. He normally preferred to wake up by six on the dot, to have his coffee and tend to the garden before work began at 9. Thankfully, his schedule wouldn't be too interrupted.

             Rory rolls out of bed, and gets dressed slowly, blinking his eyes as he slowly adjusted to the light dusting of sunlight streaming through his window. In less than five minutes, he is dressed in a light yellow tee shirt with short sleeves, a pair of denim overalls and knee-high socks. He slides his satchel over his shoulder, enjoying the light clacking noise it makes as its contents clatter within the soft, leather material. He ties his medium length naturally gray hair back in a low ponytail, before popping two pills in his mouth, washing them down with the water on his nightstand. The pills had a slightly bitter taste to them when they hit his tongue, and that was exactly the reason he hated them so much.

           Rory slowly climbs the stairs to the first floor, gripping the banister while he sips the remainder water to help wake himself up. Sun light barely peered through the downstairs windows, shrouded only by the tree in his front yard. Rory makes his way to the kitchen, where he starts a pot of coffee. He shudders, looming close to the sliding backdoor, noting how cold it looked outside. Leaves had fallen off his trees, and he knew that soon would come the end to the glorious fall season, and his garden would soon have to welcome the cold temperatures that accompanied winter. He, too, would have to withstand it as well, though he wasn't sure he'd be able to tolerate it as well as his plants could.

           The house is quickly filled with the thick scent of freshly brewed coffee, and he welcomes its warmth. There was nothing like a warm cup of lightly sugared coffee to help start a cold morning of work.

             Rory collects his cup, adding sugar and cream, before walking outside, shutting the backdoor behind him tightly. It's still awfully early, so the sun is still nestled comfortably amongst its bed that was the horizon. The trees, baren of leaves, rattle against the wind; a light breeze causing the air to shift. Rory stifles a cough.

            He never liked Autumn, or winter, even. He disliked the cold with great passion, and even more so, it was dreadful on his lungs. He had suffered many asthma attacks before during weather like this. His father often said, "Rory, you know better than to work during the cold. You leave that stuff for your old man, you hear?" Rory never listened when he said that. His father was in a much worse condition to be walking, let alone working.

           The gray-haired boy places his cup down after taking a long sip of the warm drink. He makes his way down the porch, and retrieves the hose, where he began to fill up a watering can. However, something felt... Off.

           The air was different, and he suddenly felt that odd feeling he always got when he was being watched. But he was alone- wasn't he?

           Rory shudders again, turning slowly, only to see the unimaginable.

           A tall man stood near the edge of his garden, a small garbage bag in his grasp. He had long, poorly dyed pink hair that hung past his shoulders, messy bangs shrouding his eyes. His skin was honey tan, and he dressed in torn jeans and a stripy blue shirt, with a black button-up as an over shirt; unbuttoned.

           Rory stands there for a moment, wind whistling in his ears, staring amazed as he could have sworn, he'd known everyone in town. He thought wrong, apparently. He had never seen this man, who could have easily been 17 or 18, in his life. Before Rory can open his mouth to say anything, the man simply makes his way towards Rory's garden, where he crouches down and begins to pick at some okra plants.