Chapter 2 - State of Mind

The skyscrapers built the city from the ground up with lights and abundance of life. The streets were overcrowded with people, busy with work and their everyday lives, each as ignorant of each others like anyone else would. The buildings in which engulfed these people raised up high, rows of windows creating reflections of each surface, which lit up everything in sight though the darkest reaches of the night was the cityscape. Though the streets were filled at such a late hour and the pavement itself was nearly impossible to see with footsteps upon footsteps covering the ground. The night sky was dark, but no stars could be viewed, the signs from the building advertising cars, companies and products alike made the sky glow, view-able from far and wide. Each skyscraper touching the sky, owned its own neon bright sign, selling the company the building stood for.

The only thing separating the buildings and the people was the roads connected the entirety of the city to everything around; make a long walk through the busy pavements, a short drive on the even more clustered roads. Every vehicle necessary in modern age patrolled the streets, all of which making noise to make their own way through the maze of the night life.

A yellow steel cage of a bus, steadily pushed its way through the traffic, managing to test its luck with the lights and pass to get to its destination. A crack in the street jolted the bus up and bounced the passengers up out of their chairs for a split second. Leo bounced out his seat and it stirred him from a slumber that had befallen him. He forgot where he was then realized he was heading back to his apartment in the east side of the city. He must have fallen asleep during the long trip, it was night and he had been working as a Curator at the local art exhibit so Leo was exhausted from his long day.

The daydream he felt he was running through, of which he had managed to wake from had threw him off his train of thoughts and the events of the day. It was ironic how, driving through the towering buildings that they drove past the Xenome Company building with which Leo couldn’t release from his mind that this place scared him. He had no idea why, just that the building and Xenome itself was a company known for healing and helping people, but brought such fear images of suffering to Leo's mind. A state of mind that overcome Leo at this point in time but was just a thought, nothing more to him.

Nearing the east apartment complex, Leo left the bus and walked his way home. The east part of the city was an empty place in comparison with the cityscape, no one wandered the street and those who did were wary of any others passing by. Leo quickly dashed through the streets, knowing bad things happened to those who stayed out so close to midnight for so long. There were stories on the news of missing people, abducted from their place of work or where they live, there were flyers nailed to the trees that lined the path with message for help and of people’s faces, deemed missing and wanted their discovery.

Leo entered his dark apartment on the fourth floor the building. The key enters the stained oak door and unlocks a rusted lock which takes an extra forceful hand to turn fully. Entering the apartment, locking the door behind him, Leo throws his keys on the counter of the small kitchen surface. The apartment itself was very small, only a single room, bedroom and bathroom was the contents, the main room being comprised of a small kitchen set, a lounge area only big enough to contain a simplistic TV set, a sofa and an easel.

The easel was Leo's true place of peace, he was an artist. He loved to paint the most realistic landscapes to the most imaginative anime comics and characters. Though he was very talented and detailed in his work, he was unappreciated for it. Not many knew of his talents, some strayed on the internet, commissions for people who'd ask for things for him to draw, but no work was hung up at the art exhibition that Leo worked for and wished his work would be. He worked at the museum for many hours of the day, trying to sell pieces and tell groups of people about the inspirations that created the works that surrounded him, day in and day out.

Stuck in his mind was the dream he had on the bus, one with such fear and imprisonment, it was such real emotion and images cycling through his head, he had to put it to paper. His paints were arranged to his liking and a jar of water perched along side with his brush sitting inside it. He began painting the outline of a white large factory-like hall, filled with consoles along the walls and several pods placed at the center.

After several finishing strokes, he went to wet his brush for minor details and accidentally knocked over the glass jar. As it fell to the floor, Leo stretched out his hand, palm open, trying to catch the jar before it landed, but failed. The glass shattered into many pieces but almost what could be perceived as a miracle took place before his eyes. As the glass spread across the hard wooden floorboards, the water stay suspended, floating above the ground, rippling. Leo was astounding, but in the second that he had took his attention away, the water had dropped. Leo didn't believe his eyes; he did not know what to think. On one hand he had work a long and full day and may have been exhausted from the trials and tribulations of it, but on the other, he was not tired, he was not hungry, he was not dazed or confused, he had witness this feet of sorcery unfold before his eyes. Before he acknowledged what had happened, a sudden slumber had fell before him, his eyes felt heavy and his limbs felt weak, closing his eyes for a moment and like that he fell into a deep sleep.

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