I Amsterdam (Completed)

Chapter 4.2 - Brandon

The setting sun had already repainted the sky dark blue and orange when I turned around and headed back home. I took a different route - the longer one - so that I could cherish my moments outside a little more, the ceiling above my head replaced by nature to breathe. My path back was lit by street lamps that ornamented the twilight sky, and a few flies danced around the bulbs, casting shadows onto the concrete floor.

I was almost back home when ahead of me, I saw flashing red and blue lights. A stray cat scurried past my legs, its furs tickling against my skin.

My eyes drifted to an ambulance in front of me, parked outside a house.

I was on the opposite block of my home. I just needed to turn the corner and walk down the next street to reach it, so the house with the ambulance was our neighbor. It was likely that we had yards back-to-back with each other.

I saw two men heave a stretcher up the stairs and knock on the door. The stretcher held a person, but it was too dark to see who; instead of enhancing my vision, the illuminating red lights of the ambulance more so blinded me. The men carried the stretcher indoors, and came out with it empty as I passed them. They gave me a short, curt nod.

"What happened?" I asked them.

"Nothing serious. Young lady got into a fight," one replied without a glance at me. They sounded tired, and so I didn't bother them anymore. Before I knew it, they were gone, the tires of the ambulance rolling away silently in the darkness.

I contemplated knocking on the door to show compassion for the neighbors, but I decided not to disturb them. I barely even knew them anyways.

I walked back home, and quietly snuck into bed, avoiding my parents. Hailey was already asleep.

It's funny, I thought. The people we are closest to - the people we love most - are most likely the ones we argue with the most.

I stared up at the sky window at the pitch black night above. There were no stars.

I thought of flying again, away from here, journeying to find those hidden stars. Even though they are not there, they have to be there, somewhere. Even when the sun rises, even when you think you see everything, that doesn't mean that's what is. I chuckled to myself. I think Hailey influenced me too much today, to the point where my own thoughts completely contradicts how I live my life, or used to live my life.

But that's just my muddled mind. There are always just too many problems, too many possibilities, too many reminders, too many memories, that even though the human brain could be more than capable of thinking them up, it couldn't ever be able to contain them all. Some ideas fly away, up into the dark night sky, while others are glued and locked in your brain, with your skull as the cage, unable to be ripped off until your body sits dead in the Earth. Maybe even then it would still haunt you.

And so my thoughts drifted to that certain memory that constantly fluctuates within my mind, wherever I am. To the memory that is more than glued to me, more than locked inside my head, but could basically now be part of me. The whole moment just seemed to come alive again as it took over my brain and my vision.