Edits.

Edits

He could feel the light on his face. Who needs an alarm clock when the heat of a thousand suns comes right into the bedroom uninvited every goddamn morning.

Without opening his eyes he furrowed his brow, “Really? A thousand suns? Why didn’t you put in some blinds or curtains on the window?”

“Because that is how you chose to wake up in the mornings remember? You thought it would be more natural or something.”

“Dude, come on. I’m tired you had me running all over town last night!! Try Again, I am fucking tired!”

“Fine.”

“He rolled over off the side of the bed and pulled down the blind then collapsed back into his bed.”

“There, happy?”

“Yes, now shut up and let me sleep!”

After waking up a couple of hours later, and pulling himself together he found himself sitting at the breakfast island taking a sip of his stale coffee.

“Oh come on, Please don’t fuck with a man’s coffee…”

“Fine.”

He looked at the cup like it had personally insulted him, that was strange he thought considering he made it himself. He opened up the new container in which he stored his coffee and sure enough, the rubber seal was ripped. ‘The biggest enemy to coffee taste was air’, A saying that he had annoyed his friends with repeatedly, and although it would have been fine for most people he had become acutely aware of the taste of his coffee, so he tossed the whole container out.

“Ok, I simply asked you not to mess with my coffee, there is no need to turn me into some sort of coffee elitist.”

“Sorry, you have to have some unlikeable qualities, people can better relate to you that way.”

“Fine I guess it could be worse, I mean I do love my coffee.” He opened up his cupboard remembering he had picked up another bag of beans the other day. It was labeled ‘Southern Fuel’, a South American blend with supposed nutty, chocolate, and cinnamon notes. He inhaled deeply as he broke the seal of the bag.

“Mmm, is there anything better than the smell of fresh coffee?”

Dave poured out 18 grams on the scale he kept out on his counte—

“NOPE! No way! Scratch that out!”

“What?”

“Not Dave!! I mean how generic can you get!”

Mark rolled his eyes as he poured out 18 grams of coffee on his scale and put the kettle back on.

“So what have you got in store for me today?” Mark asked.

“I’m not sure. I just thought I would start writing and see where it takes me.”

“What was on that crumpled piece of paper that you threw in the bin last night?”

“What? Wait how did you know about that you weren’t even in it”

“You wrote me on the other side, I think you were brainstorming or something.”

“Oh right, Well it wasn’t much I was playing around with the idea of an abandoned house as a backdrop so I was trying to flesh it out you know, describe it a little. But it had nothing to do with you.”

“You should keep all those things,” Mark said finally enjoying a good cup of coffee. “You never know what you might end up using. Get some more of those lined notebooks and write in those instead of random pieces of paper. A whole story idea might not work out but that doesn’t mean that parts of it are good. You could always use them for other things.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Speaking of, I think I could handle a murder or something like that!”

“Haha, No way, you totally could not!”

“You haven’t even tried though.”

“Well, I guess that is true.”

They both contemplated the empty living room for a moment, it had become a deserted landscape of empty Amazon boxes. The perfect for play room for a cat…

“No dude. Not a cat, I don’t have time to take care of a cat! In fact I think I am allergic!”

All his life he was told by his mom that he was allergic to cats only to find out she used him as a scapegoat for not wanting a cat herself, maybe now was a good time to get a furry companion.

“Prick.”

It was strange how quickly the day turned, it felt that in the time it took him to enjoy his coffee it suddenly felt darker.

“Huh, what? What’s happening?”

Mark walked over to look out the window, ominous, undulating clouds were slowly rolling in. He couldn’t be sure but he believed he felt the air pressure change and the hair on his arms were standing up.

“Hey, what’s going on? Did you go somewhere?” Mark, asked suddenly a little paranoid.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“What do you mean don’t worry about it? What did you… wait!..” His paranoia turned to fear. “You didn’t did you!? Please tell me you didn’t go see her!”

He turned back to the window, the clouds seemed endless no clear sky as far as the eye could see.

“It’s been years! You said you were over her! Do you remember what happened last time?! You ended up in the drunk tank after they found you passed out in the gutter outside her apartment.”

“That time was different.”

“I don’t believe you.” He tried to change tactics hoping some of his recent accomplishments would bring him back to normalcy. “You are doing so well man! You had a couple of books published, making some money, you know, finally doing exactly what you wanted. You don’t want to ruin that do you?”

The lights in his kitchen flickered momentarily, and he nearly jumped out of his skin as lightning struck nearby. The wind and rain started simultaneously battering against the window, melting the landscape into obscurity as huge raindrops covered the glass. Another lightning strike came thundering through and this time it was enough to cut the electricity.

“Ohh, Christ. I was joking earlier, you know? About the murder thingy.” He looked around trying to remember where he kept his flashlight. It was daytime so he could still see somewhat but there were definite pockets of darkness spreading out from the corners of his house.

Another flash of lightning this time lighting up the newspapers he had piled on the side table. The photo on the front page blinked at him like the flash of a camera and burned the image of a cemetery in his mind.

“What the fuck!.. No! no! I know what that is! Don’t pull that foreshadowing crap on me!” He turned around and looked toward the front hallway. A small roll-top desk he picked it up at an estate sale sat there and he began using it to put random junk in, junk like old flashlights. He quickly made his way over and pulled on the top drawer, it slid awkwardly on the wooden groves getting stuck on an angle. As he bent down to look in the back of the drawer he pleaded some more, “Why don’t you just step away for a second,” his hand rustling around as he searched with his fingers, “You know like take a nap or something before you keep writing?”

He felt the flashlight near that back and forced it out along with pens, pencils, and other things that scattered across the floor. He slid the switch and nothing happened.

“Really!? Give me a break!” He shook the flashlight and could feel one battery sliding back and forth. After pulling out all the other drawers the last one finally had some spare batteries, so he quickly replaced it and was relieved as the flashlight came to life.

“Hey, man, just calm down for a second ok…” he spoke while looking around the house with the beam of light. “There is no need for this. You have some good friends, we are lucky to even have one or two good friends that we can count on right…” he walked over to the front door and locked it.

“I mean she didn’t even know your name right?” he stopped at the foot of the stairs, “So it’s not like you’re losing anything.”

“She knew me!”

“Well, I mean, she hadn’t gotten to know you yet is all.” He said quickly as he realized he had touched a nerve. Mark climbed the stairs slowly then paused for a moment when he thought he heard something coming from the spare bedroom.“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“You know damn well what!” Mark took the last few stairs cautiously looking at the closed door at the end of hallway the whole time.

“What’s in there?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, that’s just the spare room of your house.”

“I mean what was that noise?”

“Noise? Was there a noise? Hmm, I guess you’ll just have to go find out for yourself”

Mark pointed the light at the handle of the bedroom, then turned back, “Dude, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just meant that she wasn’t a close friend.”

“What?! She saw me practically every day!”

“You mean, You saw her practically every day.” Mark was not choosing his words wisely as he suddenly heard something shuffling around in the spare room.

“What’s that supposed to mean? We saw each other practically every day!”

Mark found himself suddenly needing to know what was behind the door. He took slow steady steps, his head leaning ahead of him slightly trying to figure out what it was.

“There is no need for this man…”

“I disagree.”

Mark was leaning up against the door now, his ear pressed hard listening through the thick wood. It was definitely someone walking around in there. 

“I am trying to help man. Just because me and the garbage man see each other every week doesn’t mean we’re buddies.”

“Maybe, he wanted to be your buddy but you never gave him the chance.”

“Come on put down the pen. Why don’t you grab a drink like a normal person?”

“Why don’t you just open the door?”

“ This won’t help.”

“Won’t it?”

Mark pushed his ear harder into the door as the sound suddenly changed, There was a hiss, and the wood suddenly began to creek before it splintered into a thousand pieces. Mark went flying backwards small slivers of wood needling the right side of his face and everything went black.

He wasn’t aware at the time but the spare room had a fireplace in it that was was slowly eroding away every time it rained and it finally gave in and collapsed inward. A large column had come crumbling down into the door destroying it and Mark unfortunately took the brunt of it. 

It was an old house and there were many things that he had planned on fixing but never getting around to it. Mark would eventually realize that he was definitely not a DIY kinda guy.

Mark rolled over blinking and looking around at the destruction in front of him. He could see some blue sky through the ceiling of the spare bedroom now that there was no door there to block the view. The clouds seemed to have moved on as well. He did a once over on his body to make sure nothing was broken and slowly got to his feet. He pulled out some of the slivers that had embedded him in side of his face. A look of exasperation came across his face as he looked at the bedroom, and the money he would have to spend to get this fixed.

 He came over to the railing and sat at the top of the stairs, arms draped on his knees, “So… are we good?”

“Yeah. You were right, I just needed a drink and a nap.”

Mark rubbed his face, “Dude that was not cool! And look at my house you prick!”

“I’ll get someone to come by and get it fixed don’t worry. I mean you make pretty good money.”

Mark looked up with a smile, “I do? Sweet! Does that mean I can put in some other requests?”

“Don’t push it.”

“Ok, so you are right, Maybe I can’t handle a murdery-type thing. But you went from like Zero to Sixty in like the blink of an eye.”

“Yeah we should probably get your feet wet first before I introduce you to Daisy.”

“Daisy?”

“Yeah, she was this girl who I grew up with, kind of an imaginary friend type thing. At least I thought she was. She came by my home one day all by herself. She couldn’t have been more then seven or eight. Anyway, I was just sitting by my window and she stopped when she saw me, waved, then turned and walked into the neighboring forest.

I ran downstairs and was about to go outside when my mom stopped me and asked where I was going in such a rush. I told her what I saw and her face went pale she called my father and they sat me down and told me the story the neighboring family, who was found posed in a life size diorama the family was wearing the skin of other humans and the daughter was the only one who was alive. She also was part of the diorama, when she wasn’t running around waving at strangers. They said when they found the family the daughter was just standing within the posed scene not moving they didn’t even know she was there at first. She ended running into the forest and no one ever found her.

So I turned her into a friend that I write about sometimes, I would love for you to meet her eventually.”

Mark sat not sure what to say or how to react, “Oh uh… well yeah, why don’t we put meeting Daisy off for awhile.”

“Yeah maybe it’s best for now.”

“Ok, so what’s next?”

After some time had passed Mark had managed to get some of the things around the house fixed up. He figured if he just sat down made a list and went through them one by one they he might actually get them done. “The place is looking pretty good if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah not bad.”

“So remember that story we were talking about, the one about the guy who found another version of himself in a neighboring town?”

“Oh yeah, The one with the motel that had like a thousand rooms right?”

“Yeah, yeah that one! Ok start me off!”

These days it seemed as thought it was better to buy land rather than buy a house. The prices seemed ridiculous. He had spent the morning walking around the property seeing what clearings were available amongst the brush. There was like forty acres of it but he wanted to be secluded a place that was quiet, no traffic nearby or city sounds. 

People told Mark that he might be lonely but he was sure that he would be able to keep himself busy.

“I’ve always wanted to have my own house built!” 

“Well we can make that happen.”

Mark came across a clearing that looked to have sturdy ground and would be an ideal spot. He was excited. He had seen so many of these crazy built houses in magazines and shows and was obsessed with having one himself. He stood back and admired the spot imaging what his place would look like. “This is gonna be so awesome!”

“Hello!” he jumped when he heard the voice, he thought he was alone. That was the whole purpose of buying this property. He turned to she a girl standing there, very much out of her element. 

“Uh hello, What are you doing here little girl?”

“Nothing I was just passing through. Are you gonna live here?” She said excitedly pointing at, well nothing really. Like if she meant the whole forest around her.

“Uh, maybe. Do you live near here? Whats your name?

“My name is Daisy!”

“NO! No! No! Don’t do this man! This is not funny!”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“Yes you do!!”

“Honestly, I don’t know what you’re talking about! Oh Daisy, I see you have met my friend Mark.”

“Yes!” She said with a smile the practically split her face horizontally from ear to ear, “We are gonna be the best of friends! I just know it!”

The End