9 Eyes

She looked at me. I looked at her. Another early morning light streaked through the room.

"Why the hell did people evolve blue eyes," Anastasia said.

"Blue eyes were probably the natural ones. Why did people evolve brown eyes is the better question." I said. She laughed, a familiar Khatya chuckle not tempered by any silliness just different. It lasted for a while. She looked at me. Anastasia is great. A great person, a great thing, just great to talk to, to be with, to be in a way. Her eyes were blue deep blue, not just pale blue, but blue. The right kind of blue. A good intense feeling of blue. Not the blue of a mellow ocean nor of a cloudy sky a blue unnatural, inhuman almost.

"You sound so sure of yourself despite being absolutely incorrect," she said.

"Ah, my specialty being smart when I don't need to and being stupid when I need to be smart. Truly what you find so attractive about me." I said. I sound like Alexander when I talk to her sometimes. Or maybe people just naturally sound like him sometimes. Or did I go out in the middle of the night and take his speech patterns. He wouldn't mind, actually, he would, he really likes that silly sounding voice of his. Not really silly, his voice definitely doesn't sound silly. The bed was small. Smaller than my bed back at the apartment, definitely not large enough for two people. We somehow worked in an odd tower of human bodies. It didn't really work, an elbow here, a knee there, but somehow it was comfortable. No feeling of an itch in my legs, no urge to jump out and run around a room. A source of constant pain irritation and other terrible calamities of the useless nature destroyed. I got up. She got up. I looked at her. I looked at myself.

"Really love is just pure blind luck."

"Ah yes, people like certain people because of crazy pure blind luck that's the reason, not a genuine attraction or emotions or certain traits that certain people are attracted to."

"You were with Alexander for a while," I said.

"He has a couple worthwhile qualities. He drank incredibly well, oh he also was funny." The room was empty. We had stumbled in from the night before. Katya's place was off limits and so was my apartment so we went to hers. It had one window in the center of one of the walls. It had a beautiful view of a brick wall. Light occasionally went through it and reflected off a mirror illuminating what was a mess of clothing, alcohol, and food. It smelled pleasant which was odd considering that it shouldn't have. People just sometimes occasionally smell good. She got up first. Going to the shower, washing for a while before getting out. She came out fully dressed for once. She looked at me. I looked at her.

"Did I do something wrong."

"See there's this wonderful invention called a shower use it." I got up. Went to the shower. Turned it on. Put my head in, washed it. Put my toe in. Finally deciding that it was better to be in a hot hell hole. It wasn't that hot. Smiles just seemed to want to creep up into my face. Burrowing eating away at something in my face. Saying things. Smiles smiles and more smiles. Happiness was good. Happiness was fun. Happiness is fun and so are lots of things. It's nice to have a girlfriend, it's nice to have someone to fucking talk to for once. Even if they don't really listen at all and care about themselves it's really the thought that counts. I wonder if I hurt Alexanders feelings. I got out of the shower. I dried off and put on my clothes. She was there. Sitting on her bed looking at the brick wall that she could see out of her window. I sat next to her and I smiled. Nirvana, ascension, something at least. It was good somewhat. Sunlight bounced off her mirror. We walked out of the apartment and out into the dark gray streets of the outside world.

"You know, I used to hate you right," she said.

"I was kinda an asshole wasn't I."

"Yes, you were kinda an asshole. Just a teensy bit."

"Fuck I was wasn't I." She laughed. We walked out of the building. She lived with the drug dealers. Surrounded by them. Someone trying to sell someone cocaine. Another weed. Some dolls, some drugs I didn't know the names of. The streets around her house were filled with them. Lining up surrounding us, asking our names, our jobs, everything about us. Drugs drugs drugs. They didn't particularly matter drug dealers, I never thought of doing drugs and neither did Anastasia it's just kinda strange thinking of her living in this part of town. She never really seems to live anywhere, sometimes she would be at Katya's house, sometimes she would be partying always somewhere not her home. Most of the stuff that was in the home probably hadn't been washed looked at or even thought of for a while. It was all dejected unseen. People unknown, clothing so old it looked like wispy rags that would break into dust any second. In short, it was exactly like any house that I had been to in the last ten days. It was great, it was wonderful it was home and yet it wasn't.

"Mikhail, do you work out?"

"Umm yeah? Sometimes? No? I got that naturally fit body you know, that's basically the same as working out."

"Ah yes you are basically the pinnacle of fitness, you can do a push-up every day. Every day."

"You've never seen a fit man like me. Sometimes when I feel really good I do a single jumping jack."

"A single jumping jack? You're a fitness genius."

"Agreed all those simpletons should worship my overwhelming might my ten pounds of force that I can lift."

"You have emotional strength maybe." she looked at me.

"Yes my famous emotional strength. The emotional strength that plagued me for a couple months. The emotional strength that got attached to a girl who didn't like me."

"Hey, I like you. I like you for your glorious body."

"It's really the effort that counts let's be real," I said. We walked and walked, deeper and deeper into the city. Past towering giants called buildings and giants. Deeper and deeper until the people got sparser then the buildings. Giant gray things that looked down at us puny people. And then it stopped, the city all of a sudden just stopped in the middle of a road. Finally, there was green, and trees and anything a man or women or child or anyone could want in the middle of the city. A bird chirped, a man talked it was great. A little stream trickled down a hill and under a bridge. Going bending doing around curving around corners. Going around people a little stream. Going around things, going around little ideas.

"Wow never knew we had a park in the city"

"Me neither kinda just appeared," I said.

"Out of the green almost right."

"Yeah, out of the green almost." We walked over a bridge little footsteps sounding off in an otherwise silent world. We walked out, soon the sidewalk gave out to a dirt road. The previous huge giant towers of gray had disappeared replaced by trees. Touching the heights a world with a world a person within a person. The sound of trickling water and the smell of fresh grass. Sometimes a bird would chirp and we would go silent again. Sometimes we could hear the small sounds of the city overtaken by this hidden garden. Occasionally we would talk. About things and stuff and of unbelievable monsters. Of great fear and of great love. It was great.

"You ever wonder if vampires exist," I said.

"No that's stupid," Anastasia said.

"Yeah, that kinda sounds like something Alexander would say," I said.

"Yeah, it kinda does. He's always about the random awkward question with a deep philosophical meeting to make sure we get interested in his apparent wackiness." Anastasia said.

"Though to be fair and I am fair trust me fairest of the fair. If vampires did exist would they be regulated? Would you like only have to drink pigs blood? Would there be vampire terrorists who would drink human blood? Or maybe they'd be like animals. Locked up in cages and forced to be tortured for their mystical secrets."

"That's terrible kinda. Forced to be in a cage. Forced to never be able to feel emotion. Never be able to do anything worthwhile anything generally good. The cage is something but the loneliness that knowing feeling that you are the only vampire who is out of the cage is what gets you." Anastasia said.

"Is that like a metaphor?" I said.

"You know people keep on asking. Is that a metaphor is that a metaphor god damn it everything's a metaphor you're a metaphor I'm a metaphor."

"So is life a metaphor for life. Are we living in life's metaphor." I said.

"Nope. This is stupid all of this is stupid this is exactly what Alexander would want us to think"

"Yeah, I guess he would want us to think this."

"Is it wrong though."

"Oh no, we're falling into his trap in the worst place. Look at those beautiful trees. And trees and trees and trees."

"Wow, there are a lot of trees here."

"I mean trees are good right. I like trees you like trees, everyone likes trees."

"I guess trees are good" We walked through the park. It was big and went out longer then we could see. It started to mist. Droplets of water standing in the air waiting for us to walk through and then attaching themselves to our body and taking our energy. Mist is dangerous. Dangerous to the point on which maybe it would eat us alive. It does eat people alive. It took us up and covered us. Water, air, and mist hovered around us in a halo of water. Mist creeping in like a snake, water grabbing on like a spider, and the air flowing around us like no animal that anyone has ever seen. The elements surrounded us too much to far. Surrounded by terrible animalistic elements.

"It's misty out," I said.

"Yeah it is isn't it."

"I like mist somewhat. Kinda nice to just sit on it and feel the weird feeling it gives."

"Yeah, I guess it does." We found a bench and sat on it looking at each other sometimes turning and looking at the mist. As it watched us looking at us through foggy glasses and a wispy body. With no muscle or energy to speak of. Flowing eating around us.

"We should go shouldn't we"

"Yeah probably. We should go it is misty. The terrible mist oh my."

"I guess we stay then. I guess we do stay then. It's fine to stay." We stayed there watching the mist bounce back to back and forth back and forth over and over again. Approaching us once and then retreating back if interested. The lights reflected against the mist. Those also flickered with each tide of the mist. We watched it like the ocean, a deep breath when a big wave of the mist came and small little breath when it came out. For a while, we waited. A mental block to stop me from speaking, to stop us from both speaking. We waited for a while, I looked at her, she looked at me, none of us willing to speak.

"We should go," I said.

"Yep we probably should"

"But I'm tired."

"Well I'm tired too and yet I'm spiritually in my bed."

"Well even if you take me I will be spiritually lazy."

"Well can you not be spiritually lazy because I'm spiritually lazy and I won't complete anything if you are too," I said.

"True true. One of us has to be the organized one in the relationship might as well be me."

"I want to be the organized one in the relationship."

"Well, you are clearly still spiritually lazy we should leave." So we got up. Looked at the vibrating waves of mist and left. Through the grass, through the trees, through the green, and out the other end. We hit the barrier of smoke. Then we hit the barrier of the city. First, we smelled it and then we saw it. The Giants had appeared again in the world. Great gray beings. Great gray people. There was nobody on the streets except streets and giants. We walked and walked and we made it to her house. It was as messy as it was left. Clothes, people, emotions, relationships, it's like she had picked up everything. I said my goodbyes and left through the front door. I walked out and into the gray streets and things happened as always.