Once Beyond Time [Ongoing]

Chapter 6 : Library's Spark

The darkness embraced his little room except for the ray of moonlight peeping through the window on the left side of his table and behind the bed, making a spectral glow on the worn wooden floor. The sky beyond the glass was full of clouds, some looked magical covering the moon. Soft and pearly. While others were dark with a hint of grey on the edges...just like the grey under his eyes. 

He was moving, shifting sides in his bed. His eyes were squeezed shut, but he wasn't sleeping. A while passed and he stopped moving. He gave up struggling to shift in bed hoping for sleep to be kind enough to bless him with its presence and calm. But all his hopes and efforts were futile. He got up, and clumsily took a few steps toward his desk where different ink-stained pages and half-written notepads were spread out. A small calendar was placed on the corner of the desk, and only the number of the year written in huge bold letters was visible in the dim light,  1920.  He stood beside the desk, eyes fixed on those numbers. A moment later, like he finally remembered something, he shook his head and opened the drawer, He pulled out a small wooden box and dumped its contents into his mouth. He wrinkled up his nose at the taste but swallowed it anyway and walked back to his bed.

 
"It won't always work." A voice echoed in his room. 

"But it's working now."He replied, his eyes closing now, a calm smile was plastered on his pale lean face.

"But have you thought about what will happen if it stops-"

"Go away" Tristan shouted but his voice was muffled in the pillow. He was drifting off to sleep.

⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚

"Healing is not a linear process as we all might think Kei, it has its own ups and downs. Turns and twists. Especially when something triggering happens it is easy to feel like you are back at level one..." Dairo was explaining calmly, an earphone device was conveying his voice right into Kei's ear. She was sitting in a small cafe with a total of 5 tables. The brown wooden walls and beige furniture and tables made this place look like an empty canvas.  The name of place was just as boring as its interior, 'A's Cafe'. An old man was having breakfast on the table at the very front near the entrance and his back was to hers. 

She was looking a bit pulled together compared to their last meeting. Her hair was styled, a lilac cardigan over a purple dress, and light makeup to hide that her sleep schedule was still not cooperating.  She occupied a solitary table at the back beside the window, eyes focused on the screen. Beyond the glass of the window, clouds were covering the horizon making everything look dull despite it being an early morning. She was nodding in between and saying something in a gentle tone. Not wanting to disturb the staff or the Oldman. The staff consisted of just one middle-aged woman who took her order of black coffee and was taking more than half an hour to serve. Kei was busy in her meeting with Dr. Dario and forgot about her order.

"S-sorry mam..I forgot you..." the middle-aged woman who noted Kei's order forty minutes ago came with a mug of black coffee. There was an apologizing look in her dark eyes, her old face looked tired.
"No problem." Kei's lips curved into a smile for a moment taking the mug from her hands and then she went back to paying attention to the glistening screen of her device where Dr. Dario was speaking. The woman disappeared behind the reception counter once again. Kei took a sip of coffee nodding at something Dario said but she froze.
"Black coffee? Again?...now I can't trust you with avoiding reading for a while either...u don't follow my advice?" He questioned with eyes full of concern and disappointment.

An unpleasant expression took place on her face. She never told him she herself was scared of reading.
"I know it's not good for my health...I just...I guess I'm addicted and no I am not reading anything"