I bought a box of dye. I put it on my counter, but I couldn't do it. I kept reaching for it then pulling my arm back, saying tomorrow.
I blame my third-grade teacher who had specifically told us, "Not combing one's hair always results in a negative effect for the day."
She was talking about meeting important strangers and first impressions. She probably hadn't meant for it to affect me the way it had.
I had been terrified for the longest time that if I didn't comb my hair one day that would be the day I died.
For some reason dying my hair felt like a chasm, I wasn't going to ever cross. I was glad I hadn't heard from Anna; she couldn't ask me about my supposedly blue hair. She was probably busy with her sophomore year of college.
I had spent most of the past few days unpacking or playing the keyboard--anything but going out.
My panic from the police event had slowed, but I was still on edge.
That smiling face on the side of the box of hair dye was constantly staring at me, judging me with the words "Three Easy Steps."
I ended up going to the circus in town. It was only seven dollars, and it would certainly give me the escape I wanted.
After arriving at the circus I knew it had been a terrible idea. The amount of people pouring in petrified me in fear. I kept thinking that one of them... one of them had to know me. One of them was going to recognize me. One of them was going to notice that I was there.
I stared towards the center of the large tent, trying to pretend no one else was there.
For the first time in a long time, I was sitting in the audience. It almost felt... wrong.
Or maybe that was the smoke, clawing at my throat. I coughed but didn't change my seat.
"Could I burn a cig from you?"
I almost jumped ten feet in the air. "No, uhh... sorry, I don't smoke."
Somewhere my elocution teacher was cringing.
The man shrugged, and sat down next to me. He started up a conversation, and I managed to relax.
He talked about being interested in music. I told him I was too.
An understament.
He said he'd been into it for a while. I said I had been too.
An understatment.
He said he he liked to write his own music. I said I did too.
An understamtnet.
Aren't understatements forms of lies?
When the show started, we stopped talking. Tom seemed agitated by the show, but I found it slightly humorous. Anna probably would have appreciated the humans pretending to be animals.
The main attraction was these two twins that could control ice and fire. There had to some sort of special effects helping them.
Unless they really could...
I squirmed in my chair, when my mind wandered down that path. No, there was nothing supernatural in this town. I had buried that miles in the past. So had my friends, Anna and Charles. I wasn't going to let this town drag that up again.
Hey I mentioned you in my blog!
ReplyDeleteAs Hay walked out, he felt as if he was being watched. Good;
ReplyDeleteI had been waiting long for this. All of his thoughts about dye and hair, and he barely noticed my presence. Gone are the shadowy days when I had to escape his focused eyes.
Soon, I'll have my revenge. I even lost my life because of him. His nerve allows him to forget, but I never can...not anymore...The pain of undeath is barely withstood, but it's worth it. Micheal Hay will feel the pain he's put me through...
Part I- Path to Exile
ReplyDeleteIt began as I focused my eldritch powers. The other Illithids questioned my commitment to the Elder Brain. It was hard for me to hide my contempt for the Elder Brain in a place where all my peers communicated via their minds. My allies, no, my friends distanced themselves from me and my interest in the Arcane. The day came when my studies were finally questioned by my enemies and the Elder Brain. They offered me exile in the stead of joining the Elder Brain...I was forced to choose between the loss of any community or becoming part of an entity that I detested. I went out of our caverns to scout and prepare for my journey ahead. I returned to say my goodbyes to friends, but they were all dead. I watched the end, in which one drow escaped and an undead one killed every person I ever knew.
I looked upon the wreckage and managed to piece together what was left of my friends. I gave them the best burial that I could: I buried them by the remains of the Elder Brain they held sacred. I swore two vows: To hold my friendships as dear as my own life and to my life to the values such friendships would hold. Should that take me from the Illithid communities to the world above, I will never care.
I looked once again over the wreckage and saw a shining shard. I inspected the shard only to find it was an adamantium shard from a Drow blade. One of the two who destroyed my world. I took it as a reminder of my past and left in true exile to the surface.
Part II- Lost
The strange world of the surface was alien to me. I never will understand all of its strange customs, but I began from the beginning to try to learn their values. As I started out, I was hunted by every person who found me. I hid my appearance from them to at least secure relations. I wished to speak to someone, anyone…
I learned with every new person, who I could become. I learned their ethics and morals, and where other Illithids scoffed at them, I took them to heart. It just couldn’t last. They found out; all the people I had learn to love attacked me. My dreams shattered as I ran from them, and I fell back into my arcane studies.
I ended up in a new world, Alexandria, and set out again to learn the society of surfacers. I was lost in my thoughts, lost my arcane powers, and I was out again in a strange, new world. A new chapter begins in the tales of my joys and sorrows.