noise.

It’s midnight and his eyes are still open. Faint music, footsteps, chattering, and laughter resonate from the streets below; the city is alive but drifting, lulling itself to sleep. He clings onto the last strings of its consciousness, wills it to stay awake because the bustling, the drunk yelling, the horns blaring�"all the noise�"keep away sleep, but he prefers them to the voices holding a war inside his head.