Anthology of Short Stories - Vol. 1 (Literary Fiction)

The Last Scream - @NikoStreki

The Last Scream by Nikola Streker

The door slammed open and Syd walked into his apartment. He looked around bewildered as if he was about to explode into thousand different directions. Syd turned around and closed the door quietly. He pushed his fingers through his wild hair and sat down. Then he jumped back up and walked over to his open window.

"Stop" he screamed.

His outburst echoed down the streets and through the maze of surrounding buildings. The people that were walking nearby looked around and some realized that the piercing sound came from Syd's window. Those that looked up towards it saw a man standing erect and motionless. Some must have thought that he was crazy when they felt his cold stare. They saw a man with wild hair and wild eyes. From a distance, it looked like there were two black holes where his eyes used to be. This was due to his recent bouts with insomnia.

Syd was not staring at the people. He was frozen in this spot and lost in his thoughts. He was not looking at anything specific but rather taking in everything that was in his periphery of vision. Syd stood very still by the window and wondered about a million different things. It was a grey day with grey clouds above. It looked like a rainy day but it was not raining. Syd did not mind rainy days. He enjoyed the after smell and the after feeling of rain. However, it was not raining and it was depressingly grey.

He looked around at the tall buildings and cars. He did not recognize his neighbourhood anymore. Syd felt like a stranger in a foreign land. He felt an urge to cry but no tears came to his eyes. He cried in his mind while on the outside he looked stone cold. A cold breeze blew through the window and this shook him out of his stupor. He closed the window and fell on his bed. Syd looked up at the white ceiling. This seemed to calm him a bit. He just gazed at it for a while and no thoughts intruded his peace. Then one thought broke through.

Syd thought that it might be nice to paint a dolphin on the ceiling. It would be something very positive to see every morning when waking up. His cell phone rang and scared him half to death. His heart was beating so fast that he felt it might jump out of his chest. He was in no mood to deal with anyone. He let the machine pick it up but it would give him no peace as it rang persistently. Now Syd knew the nature of the call. He picked up the cell phone and threw it straight at the wall. It shattered and fell to the ground. There was much needed silence again.

Then he picked up his old radio from the ground and decided to find some music to ease his mind. He went through the stations, none of them had anything decent, and the ones that did quickly went to commercials and Syd could not stand commercials. He turned it off and reached for his CDS. He picked a random one and played it. A bluesy tune started playing.

"Damned to be alone," the voice sang.

Syd knew this song very well. It was one of his favourites but now he felt that the lyrics were hurting him too much. They were very accurate regarding his current state. He turned it off. Syd went back to just lying on his bed. Then he started thinking about the fact that he did not mind being alone. It was when he was alone that he experienced the least amount of stress and no problems ever arose to upset him. He had plenty of books and music to keep him occupied. The social interactions had put him in this distressful situation.

Syd started contemplating how he should finish the day off. He thought about painting, playing his guitar, reading...But he felt that if he started doing one thing he would be limiting the possibilities of doing something else instead. He pondered and then he imagined himself painting. He looked at his guitar and thought about writing a new song. He kept looking around at his books that were all over his apartment. He did not move. He just lay on his bed. There was not enough will in him to get up.