(X) Into The Wild

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Safe to say Luke got a good three hours of sleep before waking up to flashing rays of sun on his eyes, waking him up in the crudest way. He rose at 9 AM, faulty of dark nightmares that seemed so real. Nightmares of Calum leaving again, nightmares that maybe he was never there. And of course, he woke up to a nightmare and he gasped, noting the empty spot beside him and the fear it hollows.

"Calum?" He cried to no avail, got on his feet quickly and floated down the tiles towards the washroom, where for some reason his heart started to beat like a drum at the clean, empty sight of marble.

"Calum!" He yelled as he ran to the open concept of the apartment, where he could openly see every corner yet he could not see a glimpse of the boy he loved.

He grabbed his phone and keys and made his way out the front door, walking down the hallway gallery barefoot. He pressed the elevator button but waited only a second before running towards the stairs, where he descended like an Olympian and took the emergency exit of the building. It was hard to run given he felt ready to throw up as he trotted the street and couldn't see him anywhere. He surrounded the block and came back through the lobby entrance. He was gone once again--life imitates reality. Luke felt something raw cooking up in his stomach; felt a little demon churn and cripple his insides, slightly under the source of the drum beating on his chest. He had a long breath, let air in and out, but it tricked him when his body summoned  in churns and egested through his mouth, letting out piles and piles of pink matter.

His lungs screamed as he vomitted everything going for his stomach. When he could stop to breathe, he knew deep down in his gut that something was wrong. He felt isolated from something that was about to happen. He had dialled Calum's phone over and over and gotten no response. He finally dialled Michael who as well did not respond. He tried Ashton, Cara: he was alone in this.

Tourist and surfers stopped to look at him vomit on the side walk, calling to him something primal. "FUCK YOU LOOKING AT!" He said as he made his way to the parking lot and climbed his car shoeless. He comprehended the infamy for tourists; for some odd reason they represented the "perfect life" of a family, they smiled relentlessly and dressed as if spit by a rainbow. But those who'd experienced enough didn't see happy folk; they saw actors.

•••

He followed the dolphins; they seemed friendly enough—unlike persons.

Luckily he was wearing a good, wide pair of eyeglasses, so he could look up  and see the smiling, hourglass dolphin arched over a banner. As for the words of the banner; he didn't much notice. He seemed to stare into that happiness, and somehow it projected in him.

The crowds grew by the second, the smell of fish became an satisfying odour, the sound of sails and water dropping horned on the laced boardwalks. Men smoked cigarettes and chugged bears by the reef. They told japes and whispered truths; these men were sailors, and although society saw it as a drop-out practice, in this they were lucky too. They knew their way around the waters, and the waters were their life.

Calum admired that. He proceeded to step on the old boardwalk. The paint job seemed older than he was, it had turned grey and dangerous with splinters and thieves. Almost everything around here was old and often desperate. The houses in the area seemed old and rusty, the people seemed more familiar, the air was thicker but jolly. Unlike downtown Jhenis, it was quiet and gloomy... almost peaceful. At least right in that moment, that's what Calum saw as happiness but Calum did so often change his views on things of such importance. After all, the purpose of life is to find happiness? Isn't it? Isn't it? After all, people will do and say anything for it; even sell their souls. Only to find happiness doesn't exist. Things so often became unimportant and things so often became of most importance. That was clear around here. Here, the municipality wasn't selling their souls to improve but rather isolating it for some fleshy sense of conservation. Odd it was that The Maleek Harbour side of Jhenis was like the backbone of Jhenis, were people lived simpler more conservative simplicity. Simplicity was a fine dime because they sure seemed happier in the local familiarity. Simple as the root of the population.

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