Rebirth

[CrazyHobo]

 The sun was shining, the sky was clear. The day seemed, like it would be a good one. The man could feel the light breeze, which came through the large broken windows of the building, rubbing his face gently, as if it were soft female hands. It reminded that man of his home, where as a child, he would run around the city with his friends. Then he would come home, where mother had prepared him a delicious dinner of potatoes with meat and vegetables. Childhood was a lot better, compared to his current state, because surviving on your own turned out to be very hard.
 The man gave out a loud sigh and got up from his make-shift bed: an old and tattered sleeping bag, which was on a bunch of old newspapers. Feeling hunger, the man looked around his surrounding for some food. His pockets only had a small piece of a chocolate bar and the can at the corner only had a small amount of two days old beer. Without having much of a choice, the man consumed the little food he had at his disposal. Not even knowing what he would do that day, he hid his sleeping bag in the corner and dumped the newspapers around it, hoping no one would take it from him.

 The building was two stories high, old and abandoned, the windows were long broken. The walls were covered in graffiti and the garden around it looked, as if it was abandoned for years. No one, except him and a few others visited it, because they had no where else to go. This night, though, he was the only one in the building.
“Maybe they found somewhere else to stay?” was the thought, that came to the man’s mind.
The man didn’t hurry anywhere. He had all the time of the world. Nothing would change anyways. He slowly navigated his way out of the room and entered a small hallway, which had four doors and a staircase, which led downstairs. He chose to go down, because he didn’t want to bother with visiting the other rooms. After transcending downstairs, he ended up in the building’s old and rotten living room. The wallpaper in the room was tattered and hanging from the walls. This was his current home. Sad at how he could even end up in this rotten hole, he decided to simply leave the building and head outside.

He got outside and was blinded by the light from the sun. Waiting for his eyes to adjust, he looked around to see, that nothing has changed in his area: the garden is still all overgrown, the building is rotting and the gate is all rusted. Nothing changes here. Him especially.

“I guess I should find some money. That chocolate cant even be considered a snack.”

He left through the gates and began to walk his way to the city. It was a 40 minute walk  to it’s center from where he was right now. He walked by the river shore.

As he continued on his way, he saw people around him. Some people were jogging, some were simply walking, love couples were sitting on the benches and cuddling at each other. There were occasionally some funny sights, for example some fat woman in a sport suit trying to power walk with ski poles. They always say, that it’s a great cardio exercise and help drop weight, but he’s seen them do that for weeks and they’re still fat and unattractive. But those love couples reminded him of his soulmate, which he was forced to abandon back in his home country and traveled into this rich city, hoping to become wealthy, but found nothing but problems in this concrete jungle.

They all looked at him like at a hermit, an outcast. As if his mere existence in this area is a mockery of their way of life, but he didn’t hold a grudge on them. He would smile at those he walked past and make a silly face towards a small child that was looking at him, only to get a look of repulse, but he never stopped smiling. He sincerely believed, that he must treat people, like he would like to be treated. A principle, that he had came up with back in his childhood.

He turned his eyes at the sky, as he saw a large airship with a large advertisement on it. The advert had the message “We will make you happy” and a rich man was illustrated next to it. Tears flowed from the man’s eyes, as he recognized the man on the advert as his classmate from school. They both left their homeland in search of wealth and only one found it. The man walked into the grass, still looking at the airship and fell on his knees, with tears subsiding on his face.

“What was I thinking, trying to find happiness here? I have left my family, my friends, my love and for what? For this pathetic existence? I’m nothing, a useless beggar, which cant even buy himself breakfast. How bold was I, when I thought I would obtain everything. But he! How did he do it? We were started the same. Why did he succeed? What if they were right all along? They kept telling me, that I would never succeed anywhere, they kept telling me, that I’m pathetic. Were they right? Was it all true? They laughed at me then, they will laugh at me now, they will always laugh at me. But I was too confident. I never believed them. I always went straight at my target. But I’m just a nobody. And now I’m doomed to die in this greedy city, which is flooded with blood sucking jackals. What hope do I have left?”

He would keep crying and thinking like that to himself for another 15 minutes, ignoring the people, that were looking at him. No one bothered to ask what was wrong. No one bothered to help him up. Instead, someone called a police officer for “squishing a flower”, which was governmental property. A flower was now more important that a human’s life. The cop approached the man and kicked him in the side, yelling at him for damaging public property and threatening to write out a fine on him.
 The man, flinching from the pain, got up from his knees and said
“You care for a flower more, then for the life of a man? This city is sick and full of sin”
“Keep talking like that and I’ll have you arrested for attempt at instigating a revolt, ya dirty bum”
 Some people were looking at this with a sort of glee, as if their rich lives were so boring, this drama show was something to entertain them for a while. A group of teenagers were even waving their fists in the air and saying “Kill” at the scene. Bloody animals.

“Dirty bum. Funny, I wasn’t always like this.”
He then turned away from the pig and walked away. The tears had dried out and he continued on his path. The cop kept telling the people, that there was nothing to see, so everyone left with the look of disappointment in their faces.

 The man didn’t bother smiling anymore. He simply walked that day, with his head turned down and eyes almost closed. The people kept staring at him as if he was an outcast.

Maybe he really was one?


This story will continue, depending on your reviews.

[CrazyHobo]

Chapter 2
   Fairview, a city, which is famous for it’s monolithic skyscrapers, that reach out almost to the sky, especially the huge tower of Secrenom Inc, which was almost three times bigger then the Empire State building in New York. The city center was a place, where it seemed as if Mother Nature was not allowed into that part of the megapolis, for there was no green, save for the traffic lights. Everything in the city center was highly technological and modern: huge screen TVs hovered on buildings, luxurious cars would drive in that part and navigate freely, as the roads were designed in such a way, that canceled any possibility of a traffic jam.
   There was one building, a rather high one, called “iBod electronics”. The exteriour of the building was made of mirrors, which were polished daily. The eastern wall leads to the river. That is where the Man was coming from. He had walked for a good five hours, still not smiling after what had happened that morning. Hr he had reached the wall of mirrors and stopped to take a look at himself: he was of medium height, about 180cm, his brown hair had grown to the length of his shoulders and the looked as if they were covered in some oil, as the hair was greasy and dirty. His exhausted, but watchful eyes were concentrated on his beard. In time it grew to be very big, concealing most of his face in it. The Man turned his face down to take a look at his clothes: he wore a tattered brown trench coat, with a dirty white shirt under it. On his legs he had some badly tattered and messed up jeans and old black shoes were on his feet. He gave himself one last look, gave out a loud sigh and began to think to himself:
“Is this what I was preparing for all my life? Have I spent my youth on studying to become a nobody? I remember times, when I would not go to a party only to study, thinking I would be successful, while others would perish. And what turned out of this? I am a nobody, even though my IQ is higher then almost this entire city’s population, while my rival from the past has become a millionaire, even though he’s a naïve person. What legacy will I leave behind myself? I need something to happen, something, that would continue the plot of my meaningless life and hope, that something good happens.”
   With these thoughts he turned his back to the mirror wall and sat down, leaning to the wall and closed his eyes right after giving out another loud sigh. He sat like that for atleast 10 minutes, ignoring the dozens of people, that walked past him, until he slowly opened his eyes and got up. He was hungry once again. The Man went past an Italian restaurant. There was a small alley between the restaurant and a hotel. The Man went in it and noticed the green waste container. He no longer felt ashamed of digging in garbage for food. He opened the can and began his search for “gold in a bucket of ****”. No longer was his mind clouded with thoughts of his existence or meaning of life. His mind had diverted into a primal or animalistic state, where only one thing bothered him: food. And after 10 minutes of prowling in a garbage can he found a semi-rotten cabbage. He tore off the rotten layer to find a decent piece. He held it in his hands to take a glimps at it, before consuming. He did not feel himself nourished, but the cabbage would atleast keep him going for some time.
  The clock in form of a pizza with a chef on it was showing, that the time was 14:30. The Man thoughts to himself, that it was time to head back to his “home”. And he went past the mirror wall, went another five hours, before reaching the park, where the day had started. Some people, that were present for the Man’s morning “confession” still walked the park. He ignored them. He simply had no need to look at anyone. The Man would continue walking down the road, his head pointed down, until he heard a gentle female voice, which somehow contrasted with the rest of the crowd’s voices. He raised his head to see two beautiful females in their twenties. The one with the gentle voice was a head shorter then the Man, her hair was of a bright color, close to gold. Her friend had dark curvy hair and was slightly taller than the bright girl. The Man did not know what was so special but her voice got his attention. He stopped thinking about his pathetic life and was now focused entirely on the lady with bright hair. He thought, that she was the most beautiful person in the world and her seemed like a thousand angels singing. There was a decent distance between them, so the girls couldn’t smell the Man’s stench. He continued following them, gazing at the bright girl all the way. During the walk he began thinking to himself:
 “Some things never change no matter what. Despite my current state, I still cant resist all, that is aesthetic. What a beautiful girl. If it weren’t for my status, I would not hesitate to speak with her and ask her out for a cup of tea or coffe. But what can I hope for now? I despise myself so much, I am ashamed to get closer than five meters. This day just cant get any worse now, cant it?”
  They would continue walking near the river until they reached a bridge, that crossed the river. The Man kept following the two girls until the duo reached the bridge. The Man’s attention turned away from the girls for a moment and turned to a group of young men on the other side of the bridge. When the group was close to the ladies, the Man stopped to observe the group: four kids in their 18s. The Man could see one with his hair in dreadlocks, wearing an upper part of a costume colored black. He wore nothing under the jacket, exposing his torso. His legs had brown leather pants on them and wore black shoes. The second one was bald, but wore a golden chain on his neck. He had a white t-shirt and on his legs were blue jeans, his feet had white trainers. The third one had a white suit with a blue shirt under it. His hair was dark and short. The fourth one had shoulder length hair, which was jett black. He wore a black trench coat and under it was a black t-shirt with the words “death to freedom” on it. All four were crunching crunching their fists, as if they were heading to a fight. The Man stopped at the beginning of the bridge and waited to see what would happen.
 “A bunch of kids with and aggressive look on their faces head towards two lovely ladies…how predictable. Judging by their look, I’m guessing they are some bastardly womanizers…Well, maybe I’ll stay here and observe just a little more.”
 The Man could see how the four had began talking with the two girls, but he could not see the reaction of the later, because they were facing him with their backs, but he could perfectly see, that the bright haired one was a bit uncomfortable, because she held hands crossed and lowered her head a bit. Her friend, on the other, was more confident: she moved her hands up and down, she chatted with the four, but the Man could not hear a word. The Man decided to take a closer look at the situation, so he began to shamble his way to the group in his usual walking manner. When he was only 10 meeters away from them, he noticed, that the kid with dreadlocks grabbed the bright girl’s side after which he received an instant slap on the face. The kid’s face was now half red and his eyes were full of hatred, the Man could see how the kid was gritting his teeth and giving out something, that sounded like a dog growling. That is the moment, when our “hero” understood, that things are starting to get bad, so he continued his shambling move in a slightly quicker pace.
 A mere five meters away, the ki8d had pushed the bright haired girl. Quite hard, I should say: she fell just a foot away from the Man. The Man made another few steps and then he stood there silently, shielding the girl behind him. The girl’s friend had came to help her get up, while the Man just stared at the kid with a look of contempt. After a short time, the kid lashed at the Man with a question: “What the **** are you looking at, you crazy hobo?”
The man stood silent for a few seconds, then said:
“I’m looking at a kid, that just showed his dogs how big of a man he is, by pushing a girl…pathetic” The Man spoke with a very low tembered voice with a small accent, that sounded somewhat close to a russian one.
 The kid in return began to yell at the Man for calling him a kid, swearing at him excessively, almost to the point, where he would say “****” after every word, then began asking the Man in a rude manner, wheter the Man knew who the kid was, to which the Man replied:
“You’re a predictable child, that dresses in expensive clothes to show his status, but deep inside, you feel lonely, because there really is no one to keep you company: no one is pathetic as you”.
 After that statement, the kid was full of rage and lunged at the Man, swinging his fist back to gain more power for his strike. The Man just stood there, still eyeing the kid with a look on his face full of contempt, until the very last moment, when our hero raised his right hand and simply pushed the kid’s fist the left. As the blow went right by his ears, the Man slapped the kid with his fist of the same hand, that parried the attack. The kid shambled a bit to his left, stood there stunned for a second or two, then turned to the Man, having even more rage. That’s when the Man understood what’s wrong: after a few years of eating little and doing little to no physical exercises, he lost a good portion of his muscle mass from when he was younger, so his blow enough to stun a person for a second, but that was the limit of his strength. The Man understood that a bit too late, as all four of his opponents lunged at him and began to brutally beat him down. When the Man fell to the ground, he could see, that the two girls had ran far away and were out of harm’s way…that was before a heavy kick was delivered to his gut.
  After about 3 minutes of beating him up, the four’s rage had lowered. After they all spat on the barely breathing Man, they left in the direction of the girls, leaving the Man to his fate.
 As he lay there in his own blood, all bruised and broken, the Man began to hope for some assistance or intervention. He hoped, that the girls would come with aid to him, or that they called the police and someone would come save him, or a pedestrian would be passing by and call an ambulance. But no one ever came. He just laid there, all alone and not able to move at the moment, because of the sheer pain he felt from each part of his body…and no one ever came to help.
 The Man had lost all hope and began to wonder, whether he would die right now or not, but then his mind focused to a greater matter: will anything change from either outcome? Will anything change, if he survives? His last thought was, that it would be much better to just die, then continue this life. Then his eyes closed and his mind fell into a dark void.
 And no one ever came to help.

[CrazyHobo]

Chapter 3

  Darkness surrounded him, as he stood there in a small light, which was in the center of a black void. The Man tried to move, but he was unable to move a muscle. Then he tried to take a look at his surrounding and realized, that he cant see. He attempted to hear into his surrounding, but that was also to no avail. Finally, he tried to shout, but he couldn’t feel his mouth, and since he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t tell, whether he shouted at all. He didn’t know what was happening. Questions lingered his mind: “Where am I?”, “Am I dead?”, “What is this place?”, “Is this a dream?”, “Why cant I move?”, “Is there any hope left?”. He stood there with his questions for an unknown amount of time, but it felt, as if he has always been surrounded by the darkness and only a small light protected him.
Suddenly a cold low pitched and frightening voice echoed somewhere. The Man didn’t make out much of it at first, but he could somehow hear the echo getting louder, despite not being able to hear himself. As the voice got closer, he could clearly hear it say:
 “Get out of the light”
The Man was terrified from the voice and couldn’t think clearly. Why leave the light? It’s the only thing guarding him? He thought to himself, that he must not leave the light, that the voice is evil and is trying to fool him, but then the voice spoke again:
 “How many times has the light truly protected you? They could see you only when you were in the light. You fell on your knees, when you were in the light. You were broken, when you were in the light. And do you honestly think, that the small light around you can save you from me?....Get out of the light”
He was still shocked, but the voice was talking some sense. He probably wouldn’t have been beaten up by those kids, if they were in the dark, since they wouldn’t be able to see him. He admitted, that the darkness proved to be more beneficial for someone like him. After an unknown amount of time, he tried to move, but was still unable to do so. The voice spoke again:
 “You need to let the darkness consume the light….consume you….Try remembering all the bad, that ever happened to you…..then focus it in your mind”
  The Man began to think, whether he really should leave it or not. Deep inside, something told him, that there was no way back to either choices, so he began a long process of thinking what will happen, if he stays in the light. It was obvious, that he would stay like that forever. His choice was the darkness, since it was larger and unknown. Anything could happen there, but atleast something would happen. And so he began to remember parts of his life, the bad ones. Of how he was bullied and harassed in school, of all the friends, that betrayed him before, of all the problems his family had, of all the women that rejected him, of how he left his home for Fairview and then regretted it, of how he couldn’t not achieve anything in this city, of how he lost all his possessions, of the cold and hungry hears he spent homeless and he kept remembering things up until the last day, when he was attacked by those kids.
  Fear no longer clouded his mind, as it was replaced by the fires of hatred. As he focused the anger, he could feel his head, his mouth and then he gave out a loud war cry, that would probably frighten an army, if there was one at the moment. As he kept screaming, the light around him began to fade and the shadows started consuming him from toe to head. When the shadow covered his mouth, the Man’s voice was finally silenced. He could hear the voice say “perfect”, before the darkness covered his ears. Then his head was covered. After that, he couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t even think.

***
 After an unknown amount of time spent in the void, some senses and feelings began coming back to the Man. He could sniff the fresh air, he could hear the wind blowing and feel it rubbing his face. He was thinking, that he just woke up from a bad dream, his eyes would open and he would see the bridge he was on. But when his eyes finally opened, he was surprised to see, that he was on some sort of field, that was covered in black grass. When he raised his head, he saw, that the sky was red and full of stars. The moon was of a crimson color. Far in the sky, he could see some kind of  black winged flying, but he couldn’t tell, whether it was just a raven or something else.
 The Man turned around and saw something, that quickly put him into a state of fear and shock: he saw a human…well, he saw something, that had the body of a human. It looked like some sort of black body armor, that covered the entire torso and the legs were in pure black pants with black kneecaps and other protection for body. The armor was somewhat strange, as it looked like an advanced Kevlar mesh. Even more disturbing was the helmet the figure wore: it was the shape of some lizard’s head, with black horns on the top and dark red eyes were gazing at the Man. The figure’s right hand was holding a black rapier like sword. Then he heard the voice speak again:
 “I’m glad you joined me, but I’m disappointed you relied on something other then yourself to get here. You should learn to kill hatred. Hatred must be a privilege no one deserves, for the target of your hatred becomes the protagonist in your life, when that should be you. Your willpower should not be fueled by a desire for something or by a sort of feeling. Your willpower must be fueled by yourself. You must order yourself to keep moving on, not rely on something. If you do not learn to control yourself, then you will not endure the test I have set for you….. The time for changes is coming. The world you knew will soon end. Many people will fall. Those close to you will fall, but you must keep going. You and the others I have chosen will continue the path…But first you must pass the test and prove to me, that you are worthy….The test shall take a long time to finish, so you must be ready at all times….Before you leave again, there’s one thing you should learn: aim for the head…Now leave”
 As the words were said, the world around the Man began to shatter like glass and he was thrown into the dark void again. Before loosing focus again, he heard the voice say “Aim for the head” one more time.

***

 He could hear a gentle female voice humming a tune of some sort, before opening his eyes. When he finally woke up, his eyes were blurry and he couldn’t clearly see. He tried to speak, but he was experiencing a strong drought in his mouth, so he couldn’t speak. He heard the gentle voice say “Oh god, your awake! I’ll get the doctor”, before hearing light footsteps in quick pace and the door opening, then closing. As he lay there, he began wondering where he is, since he couldn’t clearly see at the moment. He heard the word “doctor”, so he thought he was in a hospital. Eventually, the blur in his eyes faded and he could see again. He quickly gave a look to his surrounding. A room with white walls, a white ceiling and the door was opposite to his location. There was a white table to his right, which had flowers in a pot on the table’s surface. To his left he saw a machine, that was checking his heartbeats. He was lying on a bed with needles plunged into the veins of his left arm. Obviously he was in a hospital.
 After a short while, he heard footsteps behind the door again. Before the door opened, he could hear the Voice say “Always be aware”. Not understanding what this statement was meant for, he began waiting for the doctor to come in. As the door opened, he could see a short man in his fifties, wearing an all green surgery suit, that they wear in hospitals. His face was covered by a green respirator. Next came in the nurse. She was even shorter then the doctor and had asian attributes on her face. Her hair was dark brown and curvy. She was wearing a pink nurse suit, with a red cross on the left side of her breast.
 The doctor approached the Man’s bed and asked “How do you feel?”. The Man tried to ask for some water, but the doctor couldn’t make out what he was saying. He then said “Listen, you could use some water…Nurse! Get him some water”.
She ran out quickly to get some water, while the doctor kept examining the Man.
“Let’s see….you suffered a heavy beating, but the police patrol found you and called for help, so you are lucky. Honestly, from what I saw, when you first arrived, I had the feeling, that you wouldn’t live or would never wake again. You’ve been asleep for 3 days now”
 The doc kept talking something about keeping the Man alive thanks to life support, but his voice began to fade and darkness filled the eyes of the Man once again. Last thing he heard was the nurse saying “Is he dead?” before falling asleep.