Blue. The house was that shade, maybe a light one close to that of a baby. The trim was white, that was no surprise. It made it clean and welcoming and inviting while giving it the look of blending into the sky. The bushes are nice. They were speckled with bright red roses that seemed to have collected a bit of white dust over the top of their crisp petals. The bushes were a deep green, nearly blending into the darkness behind them as if they were becoming the shadow rather than being its creator. The grass had a crunch to it that can’t be healthy by any stretch of the imagination, and the color of piss yellow wasn’t doing it many favors either. I ignored the angry creaking of the wooden stairs that didn’t enjoy having their perfect facade ruined. The white gave way to brown, which turned to black. The porch was old, it needed some work. Splinters dug into my feet as I traversed it to tap on the door that was barely on its hinges anymore. I looked back to the bloody footprints I left behind only once, decided it gave the porch some much needed character, and turned away again.
When the man came to greet me he smiled wide, as if I were invited, and I was let into the tan warmth of the inside. People bustled around, did what they did, and I was forced to talk to the smiling man simply because I didn’t know any better. The lights were much too bright, painting everything yellow with light and black with shadow. I think he told me not to go near the shadows, but they were oh-so tempting. They seemed to reach up further than possible, lining nearly everything that had the chance to make one. I suppose the smiling man didn’t have to worry, though. The shadows in here were much less tempting than the ones behind the rose bushes outside. There were too many people that could also go into them after me, and I don’t think that’s what anyone would want.
I didn’t like the way the walls twisted up and curved towards the ceiling as if they too wanted to escape this gathering. It was mocking and sad, all at once. The ceiling sat flat and indifferent, much more stable than the walls themselves. It was like the couch, sitting solidly on the floor while the other furniture tipped and floated around. The lamp might not have been crooked if it weren’t for the wooden stand that had mangled itself towards the couch, curving one side just enough so its edge may touch the armrest. The lamp table reeked of desperation, which was very grating on my nerves. The chair was also quite desperate, its cushions sitting in a triangle towards the ceiling, wanting to reach it but never being able to.
I was in the middle of looking towards more furniture when the smiling man grabbed my arm and jostled me to another place. I didn’t enjoy this in the slightest. It made the surroundings that had swallowed me blurry and unpredictable. By the smell of rot I knew we were headed towards the kitchen, the place of food and family.
I once had hope, but I soon realized the kitchen is not much better than the rest of the house. Maybe worse, in some sense. The man tells me I flatter him when I tell him so. Apparently it isn’t even good enough to be considered a kitchen. The dishes reach the sky, or the ceiling painted like a sky, creating large and sturdy mountains with snacks and meals piled all the way up. A woman walks by and lifts her plate up, letting anti-gravity take it the rest of the way towards the ceiling.
I grabbed a mini crab cake from one of the trays, but it tries to pinch me and bites off a chunk of my thumb. I decided I don’t like crab enough and manage to shake it off, flinging it towards a woman leaving for the outside. It lands in her hair and she reaches up to pet it, not caring that its gnawing her ear off as she talks to another man, who also happened to be smiling. I bite the cake as I watch them, being careful to avoid eating my thumb, and look around the rest of the “kitchen.” I stared at the pile of trash that stared back at me with curious eyes, ten whole pairs of them, to be exact. When I greeted it, it gurgled in response, which I found much more riveting than the smiling man that had been talking to me for the past five minutes. I nodded and took my leave, stepping of the chasm in the floor to try and reach the back door. Something tried to grab me as I exited, but I was too fast for it.
The backyard was nicer, much bigger, less crowded. Trees lined the inside of the white wooden fence, some even sitting in the holed out seating near the flower bed. I didn’t think sitting there would be enjoyable-too many insects.
The people gathered in groups, everyone having someone to talk to, but the meat on the grill was left standing alone. I walked over to console the crying sausages, but as it turned out that had actually been laughing. I watched the smoke billow up, caused when tears of joy mix with hot embers and coals waiting to consume their next meaty victim. I decided to grab one of the sausages and eat it, not wanting the smoke to be the one that finally gets it.
When I turn I realize the smiling man left me. I felt I should be sad, but nothing was really there except a small sense of betrayal that felt too large to be about him. The fence was open in the back and the forest on the outside was quite a welcoming sight. The shadows looked as if they could swallow me up and take me on a journey with them to some place other than this party, but they were not to be touched.
I was looking for the perfect shadow but my father stopped me and blocked my view. He babbled, I tried to listen, but I drew. The pen scratched laong the paper as I created the form of a being on it. The creature clawed out at me so I wrote along the sides and trapped it in submission. The rest of my art was much more tame, only squirming slightly at first, and I felt the small black figure with the distorted arm should get a fur coat to help keep it warm.
I threw the inked envelope to the ground and looked my father in the eye before heading towards the forest. I knew he wouldn’t follow me and I knew he wouldn’t tell any of the strangers where I had gone. I no longer wanted to be picky with the shadows that I chose, which seemed to not matter the moment I stepped into the forest. The trees shrouded around me in greeting as I walked along a thin dirt road that branched out into many other pathways, much like a tree itself.
It took a while of walking for me to forget which path I was on. I walked along all of them and none of them at the same time, I myself becoming a mere shadow in the darkness of the forest. The tangling and twisted trees were surrounding me on all sides and no sides at all at the very same time. Their thorn bushes were covered with berries, until they turned into fruits and vegetables before not being there at all. The animals would come out occasionally. A deer with feet for hooves and a missing eye, or a bunny that was mangled and limping. The one that came closest to me was the rave that soared above my head with perfectly plucked wings. They all came from different paths and they all left back into the forest only to return a little bit later to make sure I was still walking on all paths at once. I didn’t know where I was or where I was heading, but that confusion ended when all the paths came together and one long road started trailing out of the other side of the forest. If I looked hard enough, past the all-consuming darkness, I could see the light of sunrise just through the trees.
When I stepped out of the forest, fresh air swirled around in greeting, picking up green brown and blue leaves along with it to twirl around me. The only thing in front of me was a cliff, and to my sides were rocky trails that led to somewhere I couldn’t see. I went left, thinking nothing of my choice as I clambered up the rocks and stared down into the hole at the bottom of the cliff. Surely, if I fell I would either die or end up in another dimension. That wasn’t much of an issue though, as the bats had decided to come fly around me, guiding me to a place they wanted me to be. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I needed to get there. My urgency caused me to climb far too quickly and I slipped on the rocks, skinning my right arm as it fell in between two sharp edges. I didn’t have time to worry about that, though, I had somewhere I needed to be.
I managed to climb the rocky path all the way to a bare patch of perfectly green grass with the best view of the sunrise that was beginning to peak out over the mountains. I sat down on the grass, looking at it until the sky turned blue and the birds began to sing the song of a new day. Most of them shrieked as if their lives were in danger, while others tried to overcompensate with singing lullabies and sonnets. It was so peaceful I nearly forgot that I had somewhere to be. However, that didn’t matter, since my phone pinged with the sound of an incoming message. Of course! I was to meet my friend today! How could I have forgotten?
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