Fiction | Loneliness | Thought | Self-Awareness | Connection
The Loneliness of Crowds
Part 1 of Give Me a Name
Life without a spark is like a fading dream lost on a breeze
Living in the veil, looking to connect, in a world that doesn’t, as a rule. She looked like any other… not invisible, but indistinct. Some fought the isolation that incurred, generally with vibrant neon clothes or hair, shock-cut patterns and styles, or whatever else teased their fancy.
She faded to gray, a chameleon blending into the cold lifelessness of reality. Pale in the light, darkly occluded in the shadows. Passing in silent agony, she moved on her way.
He stood apart, knowing the hurt billowing off her as she moved, watching it ripple and warp the world around her. He let her pass, then followed safely from a distance. Her dissipating ache painted the road to her more vividly than well-lit signs.
He closed the distance to her as he accelerated. She slowed with each step, cowed by the force of resistance she met trying to be small. He caught a flicker of her thought and shivered.
“Turn away, allow me through, turn away,” the hollow echo reverberated. He felt her eye twitch to movement on her right. “That…
