Illusions of Gloom #OpenNovellaContest2020

Chapter Two

❝The most beautiful part is, I wasn't even looking for you when I found you.❞

Ashton stared straight ahead at the dull abstract painting hanging on the whitewashed wall. The painting was bland, lacking human emotion. So, it did no good to bring color to the monotonous atmosphere of the room.

His attention was diverted by the valiant efforts of his client who tried to catch a slither of his attention. Shifting his gaze to those ashen eyes, he tried to detect a sliver of truth in them. When none was found, he stood up from his chair and bid a farewell to his client.

She passed him a small smile before turning around and closing the door to the cabin behind herself.

With a sigh, he sat back on his chair, rolling the paperweight on the table, again and again, his free hand brought upon his chin. Beneath his eyes was an almost non-existent shade of darkness that hinted at the arrival of dark circles. A light stubble covered his jaw, failing to hide the sculpted jawline he possessed.

The clock that hung above the wall behind him ticked, each tick giving way to a new minute, a new opportunity. 

For him though, all it did was make him lose interest in the glassy object in his hands. Leaving it, he took the white paper lying on his desk. The tiny blotches of black spread upon the paper appeared ugly all of a sudden.

Words. Words had always been his solace, but today they were off on the mission to become his poison.

Knowing well that he had no other option left, he picked up the pen with reluctance. His lips twitched as he brought the pen upon the paper, sour droplets of water falling from his temple and making way to his mouth.

With the sour lingering fresh on his tongue, he placed his signature on the bottom corner of the page, where a blank line was given. The signing was quick and the pen was thrown away as soon as the paper held his name in those cursive letters.

A little clank reverberated in the space as the pen hit the wall and another clank joined as it fell on the ground.

His fingers played with his face, and in the end, settled down, caging the bridge of his nose.

The unrest he had hidden from the world was a contrast to the calm of the room, and this made him wonder about the same thing he had wondered of many days.

Was everything as simple as it seemed?

No, it wasn't. He knew it better than the others, he knew that it was wrong to assume or accept the conclusions of the mere vision of a human being. You would never, for a fact, know if a calm sea was calm in real or raging from the insides. Unless you were to take a plunge in it and test the waters, you'd never know. Things on the outer surface had always been simple, but the inner surface, the inner surface had always been the home to unpredictable, creation and reckless thoughts and actions.