Snippet #831665

It is dark. The moon is white and pale; an offset purity, accented by the blackened field to which it has been forsaken. Thin clouds, murky and ominous, drift needlessly in the moon's insufficient light, their efforts to shroud it's face proving to be an exercise of futility. Light breaks through in a dim glow, sparsely blanketing the soil of Coast Island and it's sleeping people. It lays over the shifting sand of the shore, and upon the turbulent waves who calm for none.

An iron pole has been stabbed - forcibly - into the ground and grass that border the sand and waves. At it's tip is a plate of crimson, with a command to "Stop" printed in striking white upon the surface. It directs this command to the sands that consistently change at every step of man, and to the waves that pulsate and crash with every violent moment. To the sign's side is a fragile but structured construct of glass: lit by a single, flickering bulb, shut by a musty but limpid door, and occupied by a single girl - a phone booth in use.

She holds the ebony telephone in one hand, and a plastic bottle of water in the other. The console housing both the coin slots and the number pad is ill managed and desecrated by ink, but in fine working condition regardless. Atop it, a familiar orange cylinder rests comfortably, right where it's supposed to be. Placed in the same position, once again. She was accustomed to seeing it.

A digital clock lays quietly upon her wrist. It reads 1:10, only minutes after the twenty fifth hour.

"I know." she answers tersely, pausing. "I know" she repeats, painting her voice with bitter annoyance. The receiver moves away from her lips, and she takes the break in conversation to breathe deeply and nervously. When her breath concludes it's betrayal, she speaks once more. "Yeah, yeah. I said I'd be there." she continued, pocketing her water and pinching the orange vial of pills for examination. Her fingers turned the container tentatively in the flickering light, rattling the contents. Just enough to last a few days. When she was satisfied, she popped a single capsule into her mouth routinely. It slipped down her throat with a short sip of water, tickling her tongue in an unnatural but satisfying way. The rest of the suppressants were left in their bottle, gripped tightly by Ayakou as she pocketed what remained.

"...Right, cause I'm so good at socializing. That won't cause any problems." she answered sarcastically, her fingers coiling absentmindedly at the wire.

A few seconds had passed in silence. A minute now.

"...Hello?"

When the minute of silence neared minutes, Ayakou slowly came to the realization that she was now, much to her dismay, alone. A low echoing beep from the device assured of her it. The cut had caught her off guard, and instinctively (yet quite unnecessarily), she promptly made sure that no one had seen her standing, for no reason at all, in the little booth for the two minutes. Nobody had, of course, which relieved her tremendously.

Her unattended gaze looked fleetingly to the ocean, eyes peering at the sight through a less-than-clear glass wall. They settled upon empty space above the seawater, where the sky, which had long turned sable, matched the sable of the ocean, which bared unseen depths the sky never knew. There was a part of her that enjoyed the sight of the two, in their dual obscurity. But in the morning, when both sky and water shined alike with a brighter tint, their clarity harmonious - that too, was pleasing. Very pleasing.

But it was night now, of course. It would be some time til morning.

And in three days, she would meet SEES.