Not the first time nor the last time.

The cold was what I hated the most about it.
A sheer cold grappling your stomach, running down the spine, tearing apart your guts, making itself a place to seat comfortably and for an undetermined amount of time. Melting shards of ice that wouldn’t extinguish, metallic taste of an otherworld pain.

I would bring with me this two-sided coin. A link to all the things, all the things that made me be me.
That made me this four letter words and a body. ”An empty soul in a dead body”.
Empty head would fit too.
But it was probably no use in this other place I let my mind roam in.
Two sides. Nevertheless, no heads no tales.
I flipped it many times. To make sure it ended up as the same result each flip.

Gift of knowledge, I wouldn’t let you in for all the gold in the world, but I took this bit of money from you, you couldn’t blame me. We’re almost as lost one another.

Tomorrow it would be in the newspapers, or even in the afternoon. They praised him as some kind of upper law, down there. None was above when they were asking. Undetectable, dispassionate, apathetic, straight to the point. They called him this other four letters name.
The one prohibited when roaming in the dark alleys, talking to the top hats, searching for new images, waking up at night wondering who I was. Because it surely wasn’t me.
And i surely wasn’t him.

Life is a bet.
Though you’re not the one bidding.
They started without you in an abandoned casino. Red carpet is there but shabby and lost its bright appeal. They just needed an other player to join the table because someone left. So you have to hope you won’t be the next one to leave. Hop in a car sized your height and weighted the weight of your soul. We call that a coffin. Rolling down the hill so you have to choose quickly. Faster. Never enough.

Cards revealed, you lose.

…

Taking a break.
Looking at the picture once again. Young and sweet. In appearance. Her name had… many letters. Letters sent away caused her loss. Risks aren’t always supposed to be taken. Times have changed so much last few days. If people were to have this simple program in mind… This simplistic thought, of ”what, when, where, why”. Leaving the ”who” aside. ”Who” was only a harm, one less arm would it leave you to when taking it too much in account.
If people were to learn, there would be less newspapers.

This said, I still had one last thing to do before leaving. A something that would lead them to recognize my mark. So they could know I did it in a fair way.
Childish task.

One image to replace its past twin.
In an unfamiliar handbag. The polaroid with space for one last sneak peak. As usual.
Throwable garbage. I wasn’t a good photographer.

I guess I did my best to show it in its whole. Even though there wasn’t really much to see.
Therefore, the other could go up in smoke, cancel the air around and devour the low tones of the last few morsels of light. Baltering into ephemeral sentients.

And well…
The new one replaced it as proof.

Snap of the lighter when it closes. I don’t even smoke.
I’m not buying death, it’s too expensive. But what would I know ?

I take the way out.
Behind my back, someone whistled.
An air I knew, forgot the lyrics.
But it sang for me. Clear and awkward, emotionless, between slither and growl.

”Strange things been happening !
I saw your ghost jump into fear…”

As i turned around, it had shut, but I could hear it still. Humming, loud in my brain case, menacing and engaging in a same movement. I could hear its steel. Playing on the sharp edge of a free falling knife. Falling, falling, falling…

Until it would drop, with a dramatic and resonant screeching noise, lost in the sink of the bathtub.
It would go on, down, down, down… tear apart the curtains. Find its way through the warm and afar place.

Somewhere anywhere.

Eyelids close a second. Open.
There was someone else in the room.