• I am an expendable commodity. I am replaceable, neither less common than a light bulb nor more valuable. A tool. An effing tool.
    His dark past obscuring him, the young man seems to shimmer and fizzle. Like a mirage, he fades away temporarily, only to return more prominently at the next glance. He seemed to be shadowed, and the aura surrounding him was obscuring, like a thick fog. Only those with true sight could fully see him. Glancing up into the mirror, he saw nothing looking back. There was only the bland blue wallpaper of his bathroom behind. This didn’t surprise him, or if it did, he showed no sign of it. With a cynical sigh, he trudged out of the bathroom, mirage and all. In the glaring yellow of the morning sun, his shadow flickered, like a broken fluorescent bulb. He was there. He wasn’t. He was. He wasn’t. He was a strange individual, a Christian who dabbled in Pagan spirituality. This made him very aware of all things. Heaving open the window of his bedroom, he leaned out and peered six stories down. There were few people in the street this morning, even at 10:45 on a Saturday. A train grumbled by in the distance. Before the smog of the city could fully irradiate his lungs, he shut the window. The young man bent over double and leaned back against the wall. A few short seconds later, he convulsed with a coughing fit. After it was over, he grabbed a tissue and hacked up whatever didn’t quite make it out. The crimson stained the tissue like the wrong answer on a test. Blood. He wasn’t surprised, considering what happened the night before. If that was the worst of his worries, he was better off than he thought.
    Last night had been rough. He hadn’t had a night like that in almost three years, not since… well; he tried not to think about it. He laid down on his bed, body aching. He was out of shape. He closed his eyes and drifted off again. Today was not the day to be up and about, at least not for him. Afloat in the endless sea, nothing that was on his mind could reach him here. He had long since learned that nightmares didn’t plague him during daylight.