Solitude for Two

By Dylan Koa

As I stared into it, the window revealed a dark oasis, dotted with warm orange-yellow lights and varied movement below. Bright, multi-colored lights tear at my vision from its place in my reflection, distracting me from my ponderous view of the city. I turned around and sat in a chair, rubbing my eyes and feeling the pulse of the booming music on the other side of the doors. I sank into my leather throne, nauseous and lonely, with only the grooves of the stitching and the sounds of my body interacting with the leather to keep me comfortable. My head pounded like a fist punching the inside of my head, and the thought of doing anything hurt. Finally though, with much pain and delicate care, I got up. A disruptive vibration swept through the entire room like a bomb and everything shook. I stumbled to the ground, my face falling flat onto the carpet, my eyes staring straight into the space under the door sill as the multi-colored lights from before flashed at my eyes from the other room.

“What’s wrong?” I thought. An overnight birthday party at a hotel on a beautiful summer night. Seemed like it could be a great time. Yet I labored in an unwell state of mind.

I got up and walked towards the doors, gently opening them and swiftly entering the piercingly loud room. I needed to clear my head, but I wanted to bring someone with me, someone who wasn’t high on the fumes of the party, who wouldn’t exacerbate the pain I was already in. I wandered the scene, looking for someone who I could bring. Pain shot through my legs with each step I took, bounced around inside my skull with every loud beat and flash of light.

I dodged bodies which swayed to the orchestrated chaos which gave everyone euphoria and me sickness. Disoriented, like a wheel delicately bent on its axle, I moved about in a curvy line. With each step I took I worried I would fall. Finally, I stopped next to someone who met my qualifications. Face neutral and expressionless, eyes pacing the room, Jason’s boredom glared at everything, daring the life around him to come near. I took a deep breath as I sat next to him, my eyes scanning his emotions. He didn’t seem as disoriented as me, but we were both definitely equally unintrigued with the scene.

“Want to take a walk?” I asked.

He slowly turns his head towards me, as if barely conscious I am there, and I could see my voice coming to focus in his mind, and he slowly nods. Simultaneously, we get up and leave, to no one’s notice, and we enter a quiet lonelier area:,; the halls. As we walk, only the light patter of our footsteps, and the occasional booming bass from the party, fills the hallway like a menacing beast bellowing at us from behind. My actions became transitional, like I was doing everything half consciously. In this state of mind a pathway seemingly highlighted itself in front of me, guiding our footsteps. We eventually found a hollow set of stairs, which seemed infinite and mysterious in both directions. The pounding fading, my head became lighter, as if two magnets were pulling me up and down at the same time, ripping my nausea and leaving me clear and awake. I start heading up, and Jason follows. Suddenly Jason starts whistling, which shocked my senses with its volume as well as its pitch. The bellowing party music slowly fades, overcome by the piercing sword of Jason’s music. I kept glancing down, shocked at how high we were, and how dark the abyss seemed.

I stupidly started sprinting for my life up the stairs, and tripped on a ledge. This one hurt much more than my previous fall, and I laid there for several minutes, feeling the shock of pain go through my body like a wave crashing through a sand castle, while Jason patiently caught up with me. When I got up I realized we had reached the top, and found a door which was perched directly in front of us. I contemplated walking down but found it natural to open the door. It led to an ominous, sharp, cage ladder that ascended about 15 feet, which we climbed. On the other side of that ladder we found ourselves in another world: the roof. Glittering and small, the stars smiled down on us. As I climbed up on top, the cold air greeted me and I could detect the sweat from my sprint. Lying down, the clear air and sky astonished me, and I started breathing heavily to take in the beautiful air.

Jason finally joined me, and we gazed at our surrounding landscape. I sat still, but my mind was racing, taking in every thing my senses picked up. I heard the quiet hum of an AC unit behind us, the cars below making it sound as if it were cutting in and out, like a bee flying up and down. Thousands of tiny lights waved at us below. I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, tasting the air in my mouth, and feeling the relief in my bones, like a big stretch after a hard run. This was the perfect moment, just for the two of us, away from everything, in a moment of peace and quiet.