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Tonight



Everyone knows night time is when people don’t think clearly. At night logic escapes us and we no longer consider the future, we live in the present, as we are. Daytime is when people consider the repercussion of their actions, not at night. night is when the parties are, with no thought as to the next days impending hangover.

This night was beautiful in particular. Tree frogs chirped, a sound that drifted into your subconscious and made everything that much more splendid. The moon was a waxing gibbous and shone brightly over the trees next to the road. Even with the moons illumination many stars were visible, except when the headlights of passing cars drowned them out. The trees were silhouettes, but soon would blend in with the night sky, the only proof of their existence would be the fact that they stood between streak and the star it blocked.

Streak was a young boy, 16 years old as of last January, he was walking along the side of the road. He had a black sweatshirt on with a yellow stripe across the chest. His hair was poofy and dyed light blue, it hung just above his shoulders, when it was wet however; it could reach a good distance down his back. He had a backpack and blue jeans. His expression was far off, among the stars. This preoccupation almost cost him his life as a car whizzed past, horn blaring. The sound made him jump and he snapped out of whatever daydream he had been in. With regret he turned his attention back to reality.

For streak the night had caught him in a poor state of mind. His life was falling downhill fast. Whether it was his failing grades, his younger brother’s criminal record or his friends latest issue that he’d rather not talk about, he didn’t want to stay where he was. Looking out of his window just at night fall is when he was caught. It was currently a brilliant idea, just to leave, but then again, it was night. He had packed a change of clothes and all his money. He’d taken the keys to his parents vacation home and he even food, or rather, a bag of chips.

His parents vacation home was where he was staying tonight, tomorrow he would maybe get a train ticket or a plane ticket, he really didn’t know, that much wasn’t planned out yet. He figured some day in the future, when he had his own place and maybe a new name he’d be watching unsolved mysteries or some similar show and he’d see his parents on there, not knowing where he was. But… he wouldn’t go find them again. This was for good this time.

Streak stepped along the shoulder of the road at a fairly slow pace. Paying more attention to the fading branches and the brightening stars than to where he was going. Maybe he was trying to avoid the thoughts in his mind by trying to name constellations, or even make up his own. But inevitably he ran out of stars before he ran out of thoughts. And of course his mind jumped right to the place he least wanted to be.

Back at home and with Terra. Terra had been his friend for, well, forever. Everyone said to him, it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t have stopped her, but they were wrong. Sure, for all the friends of people who overdosed it was true, they couldn’t stop it, but he could have. He was there when she did it. He’d told her a thousand times to stop but she didn’t listen, and that was his fault, he hadn’t been clear enough with her, he should have made her see. That made it his fault, maybe not directly but he had played a part in it.

And that was the last straw, he had gotten the news that she’d died in the hospital at 5 PM today and now he was going to change himself, and he could only do that by leaving. Streak’s determination was renewed, but he still wasn’t paying attention to where he was going. He bumped into the guard rail in one of the curves in the road.

Once again jarred from his thoughts he looked out. The guard rail protected the cars from a lake that was only a few feet from the road.

Streak now was not only captivated by the night but caught in the wonder of the scene. He hopped gracefully over the guardrail and stone stepped out as far as could go before the water deepened and rocks dwindled.

It was the most amazing sight. The whole lake was as flat as ice and perfectly reflected the sky above it. The stars were there in the purple tint of the water and streak was sure, were the scene upside down, no one could tell the difference. The only hint that the lake wasn’t sky itself was the black line of the mountains that cut the division between the two. Streak could have been staring for hours, not even one car passed to jar him from this fantasy scene.

He looked over the beauty of the lake and felt as if he was physically captured, not just figuratively, as before. Not a ripple crossed the lakes surface. Streak stared and stared until he was sure completely positive, that this wasn’t really just a lake at night, it was the edge of the world. The world went no further and just dropped into space. Streak was sure that something better lay out there, another world where he was a different person. He was so positive of this feeling and yet he hesitated. All other thoughts were expelled from his mind, he didn’t register the relief that terra had exited his mind, because if he did, he would be thinking about her again. And finally, just as the mountains silhouette faded in perfectly with the black sky he leapt as far as he could, confident that he was at the edge of everything.

Maybe he made it to whatever world he was hoping for because no one ever managed to find his body in that lake.