He jerked his head up towards the sky and let the warming rays of the sun rejuvenate his spirits. With a deep breath, he returned to his notebook and scribbled skilfully the lines and shapes of what he saw. An hour went by and the sun slowly hid behind tall buildings that surrounded him.

As it fully disappeared, he relaxed and slumped on his bench. With a sigh, he looked around as the city darkened and a gloomy green light engulfed the city. ‘Deadlight’, he called them.

While looking around, he glanced at his sketchbook and frowned. He then stood hastily and walked down the crowded street, clenching his notebook tightly.

A shiver went down his spine as people whisked by him, chafing against his body. He tried his best to avoid them, but it was impossible, too many in such a small space.

He noticed several glances in his direction as he walked, some pointing rudely. He knew what they wanted, but he kept moving; not wanting to give them the chance to stop him. They were polite that way. Though if he remained idle, they would ask for his picture taken, and more would swarm afterwards. One could be stuck for hours if you’d let them. That much he knew.

However, he could understand their fascination for him. He was a rarity in the city. If not for his tallness, his yellow eyes and grey hair; he was surely exotic in their eyes. He wondered on how many family walls his ugly mug would end up on when he finally would be allowed to go back home.

Lost in thought, he was blinded as the sun flared between two large structures. His heart skipped a beat and he desperately looked for somewhere to sit. A couple rose from a bench near him and he grinned happily as he sat in the middle, deliberately taking up as much space as possible.

The notebook was placed in his lap, and in haste, he  crumbled the page that he drew earlier. His movements were quick and precise, having sketched the same thing many times before, his hand moved naturally as he knew its shape by heart.

His hand slowed noticeably as he began on a new section, a section he was unfamiliar with. He gazed back and forth between his notebook and the object ahead.

At his legs, he felt something pull on his trousers. he grunted irritably and glared at whoever disrupted his muse. A small wide-eyed girl stared at him and held the crumbled page he threw away a second ago. She handed the now un-crumbled page to him as if he had lost it.

He smiled at her innocence and accepted the gesture, but then he gave it immediately back to her. Her eyes beamed when he did and she did not hesitate to accept it.

She said something that he did not understand, their language too complicated to learn in such a short amount of time. As he kept his attention towards the small girl, he could feel the warming rays of the sun disappearing and he hastily went back to drawing – but it was too late.

He sighed as the sun completely disappeared, the street lights illuminating on the street once again. Even though he had just missed one of the precious moments of natural light, he felt content.

He looked around at the green ‘dead’ light that failed to inspire him and he made ready to return home when something caught his attention at the corner of his vision. He tilted his head slightly and squinted his eyes. His heart was at his throat and a lightning of inspiration struck him.

He was about to crumble his old page when the little girl placed herself next to him. he snorted in delight and simply ripped the page of his notebook and handed it over to her. Her eyes beaming once again with happiness when she accepted it.

As he began sketching again, a crowd formed in front of him. They pointed and murmured loudly towards the sky, in the same direction where his eyes dashed back and forth between it and the paper.

The lights flickered all around them and people began to shout and scurry. The girl stared in awe at the picture he drew as he finished it. With a loud crash, shards of transparent metal descended on the streets ahead. He looked once again at the small girl. When their eyes met he said. “It is time, it is finally time.”

Authors note: I had no vision of how this story would play out. Like most ideas that turned into flash fiction, I only had one scene played out in my head before writing. However, I never planned for it to turn into a sci-fi. But the curious behaviour of the main character and the interaction with the little girl was too strange to be relatable to the real world – so it kind of had to be. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this strangeness!

© Christopher Stamfors