The Broken Silence of Shadows

The nights were growing longer and the days were getting colder. People seem to be rushing more than ever, trying to get to their destination, either to escape the cold or simply get out of the gloomy weather, only they would know.

Watching the crowd from behind a glass, Nox couldn’t help but wonder: if one of those people fell down, would someone stop to help them? Or would they continue to rush, expecting someone else to step in. Humans are funny like that. When you see someone suffer from behind a glass, you wonder why isn’t anyone doing anything, how can they be so selfish. Yet when they see someone suffer, they often become just like those whom they judged and continue on their way.

Since he was young, Nox could always see the world for what it was. His eyes that shared the same blue colour as many more, could see things that not many did. He rose up and left his favourite coffee shop that he often visits for a drink and people-watching. Behind a glass, his eyes took in everything, not missing a single detail, but once outside, his gaze was kept to the ground and headphones covered his ears.

In a way, he was completely isolated from the world, but he wasn’t the only one. Many people passed by, sharing the same space, yet existing in completely different worlds. Some were typing on their phones, looking at directions, watching a movie, or even speaking with someone. Despite siting in the same bus, sharing the same space and air, every single person in there was in their own plane of existence.

Nox always wondered if that was the reason. Everyone shares the same earth, but all live in a different world. Maybe that was why nobody but Nox could see them. Or maybe those people saw them as well, but ignored their existence. Or maybe all the people saw creatures of their own world. Creatures that only they could see as well. Maybe Nox was not strange, or different, or maybe he was.

Since a young age, Nox noticed them. Creatures, of various kinds, walking among humans, filling his world. Just like humans, they all looked different and had their own desires. Some would walk around aimlessly, some would follow a certain human, some fought with others, some even acted human-like. They would sit at a station, board a bus, exit at a certain stop and leave in a certain direction, as if they were a person going home.

At first, those creatures always frightened Nox, but then he realized, they couldn’t touch him. Even the more malicious creatures that ran at him with howls couldn’t harm him. So he ignored them, a fragment of his imagination that leaked, he would call them.

He could live like that, he thought. Like a man suffering from an illness, he would bear it and live on. Ignore their existence and hope for a cure, but unfortunately even this peaceful wish was shattered by a scream.