Cityscape

[Elanat'ti]

Looking around the corner, Mike could see nothing down the street. Nothing at all. Oh, there were buildings all right. And there were signs to go with those buildings, flashing signs, gaudy signs, understated signs. There were TV's on in the fronts of some of the buildings showing images of people laughing, of families eating dinner together, of teams playing football. But there was a hollow feeling inside him as he looked upon this scene.

It felt as if everything was a facade. The TV's felt like eyes watching his movements as he walked down the street. The signs felt like the face of some accuser looking down upon him.

Mike couldn't understand what was going on. Just yesterday he had walked down this very street and there had been people hustling and bustling about, going from hither to yonder. There had been a woman in her late twenties walking a Jack Russel Terrier that he had taken particular notice of. She had been wearing nothing out of the ordinary. Just a pair of loose fitting blue jeans and a light colored knit shirt. The most remarkable trait about her was her curly red hair. Overall just another woman going about her business, but for some reason her image had stuck in Mike's head and came back to him at this time.

Shaking the image out of his head, he continued moving down the street and up the hill. As he past the buildings, most stores but with a few apartment buildings throughout as well, Mike read the signs on the front. Typical advertising hype. Buy this! You need that! No one is complete without our product! But one sign caught his attention and he stopped to look at it closer.

"Do something before the silver cord is loosed" read the poster on the front of the drug store in red block letters. It didn't appear to be associated with the drug store, so Mike mused why it was on the building. Even more, there was something else that was odd about the poster but Mike couldn't place it at first. In the background of the poster was a picture of a man wearing a black t-shirt with blue jeans on a grey backdrop. However the poster ended at the man's head, where the top of the poster appeared to have been ripped off a bit. Suddenly, it struck Mike what was odd about the poster. The man in the poster was dressed in the exact same clothing as he was.

"How odd," Mike thought to himself. Not thinking of himself as dressing particularly out of the ordinary, he still thought that it was odd to see a poster with a man dressed exactly as he was. Out of the corner of his eye Mike caught movement coming from the direction he was walking in earlier. He could have sworn that he had seen the woman from yesterday walk out of a store and crest the hill. But there had been no time to be certain. Wanting to run and catch the woman and ask her what was going on, Mike fought the urge. However he did start walking again, at a fast pace, hoping to catch up with her, or whomever he had seen.

Shortly he noticed another poster with the same grey background as the first poster on a building up near the top of the hill on the front of a deli. Not able to see much the poster yet, he kept walking up the street. He could read the words on the poster now, but still couldn't make out the picture on it. "Seek not that which is easily found. Seek what is hidden." this one read in the same red block letters.

Coming up closer to the poster, the picture was starting to be able to be seen. No! It couldn't be! Forgetting his front of attempting to appear non-flustered, Mike took off at a run towards the poster. Standing directly in front of the poster, he looked at it intently. Yes, it was. It was his picture on the poster, right down to the small nick on his neck that he had made this morning shaving. Suddenly, a shiver ran up his spine and he could no longer deny that he felt a creepy sensation. Something was wrong. Something was going on.

Starting to walk again up the street, much faster, as fast as he could walk in fact and not break into a run, Mike was close to reaching the top of the hill that he had seen the person going over just a minute ago. Or that he thought he had seen the person going over. He could have sworn that he saw someone. Yes, he must have.

Reaching the top of the hill, and peering over Mike did not understand the scene in front of him. Nothing looked right. Suddenly, he heard the scrap of a shoe behind him at the same time that he smelled a perfume that seemed very familiar for some reason. Before he could even turn around, the image of the woman from yesterday flashed into his mind.

And then everything went black.

[Elanat'ti]

Any suggestions? Ideas? Did it even friggin' make sense? It made sense to me while I was writing, but then again... I was the one writing it

[Decker]

You totally drew me in there. Began great, picked up nicely. However, the "No! It couldn't be! Forgetting his front of attempting to appear non-flustered, Mike took off at a run towards the poster." part could have been handled a bit better, might want to reword there. Also, the ending left something lacking. Not a cop-out, really. Just needs to be a little more...conclusive.

I really like it as a whole, though. Good job.