Arcadia

Arcadia of the night

It was a time of prosperity.

Everyday, hundreds of ships would arrive and leave the harbours that were dotted around the small country, peace was the commonest sight here, people praised the king for his dependable domination. Laughter, dances, songs were often heard at night when neighbours would gather and share the result of a day's hard work.

It was a pure nation, a heaven dreamt by all, so pure that it almost masked the unbearable pains and intolerable sufferings of its people. Almost. While the outside world sees the country becoming more and more powerful, they looked past the increasing gap of status in the forever existing hierarchy as more grew richer, while those that were less fortunate to be born into poor families only got poorer. Soon the distance between the commoners and wealthy was skies apart. Penniless and inferior they  occupied parts of the alleys, shamefully begging and stealing at whatever they could set their eyes upon, they formed those hideous black stains in a pure clear world of peace, so gruesome and odious that the very existence of them seemed so sinful.

He found himself in this world, struggling to survive as he walked between the mute, frightening shadows of the houses, even the sunshine that most would find as normal, he would often look up and inspect its brightness as if to let himself surrender to a world of warmth and happiness, but soon he would be dragged back into the real world. There were people like him, as abundant as the king's riches, they huddled together in slums, sharing each other's body heat yet at the same time wondering how to escape this harsh reality. A few did, they used whatever methods possible to survive and walked away from the dark corners and never returned, later on, some people would come back and report that they might have seen the shadows of those that had their fate altered or sometimes the rotten bodies that were barely recognisable lying near puddles of rain, a failed attempt to satisfy their thirst. Yet everybody did those for themselves, there were no friendship, no families, everybody was their own cruel individual

That was probably the reason why everybody walked past him, as if they were ignorant of his very presence under their feet, sure enough, he often wondered, what was the use of struggling to live another day if the only ending for him would be that soon he may be fortunate enough to be found lying motionless in an abandoned corner between a bakery and a restaurant, smelling the freshly baked bread that he was never able to taste. That is if he was fortunate enough, if not, he would probably join the thousands of decomposing bodies that floated out from the poorest side of the city into the ocean everyday. Of course, he thought, there were other options too, trampled to death by a passing army equestrian, beaten to death by a drunken businessman venting all his anger received from his patron, shredded to pieces by a couple of wild dogs. None of his thoughts about the future looked too optimistic, but it was the reality for him, it wasn't as if he had never watched on as those things happened to somebody he knew.

So he dragged himself, weakened by starvation and dehydration until he was no longer able to support himself, his frail body pressed against the wet harsh ground, shaking vigorously as raindrops began to collect by his side, the sound of it almost mocking him, telling him all the freedom that even something as insignificant as rain could enjoy. Subconsciously, he opened his mouth, desperate to taste the liquid that was beating hard onto the ground, the liquid that created a melody so gentle in his ears that almost sounded like a lullaby. He closed his eyes, all hopes that may have been present hidden deep inside him vanished, just this once, he wanted to enjoy the desolate greyness of the world, accompanied by the lonely rain, just this one last time he wanted to close his eyes in peace.

Then a deep and hard bass part joined the originally light and quick melody, the bass grew louder and louder until it seemed like it was almost playing next to his ears. He begged for it to stop, he felt his head turning from side to side due to the vibration, he opened his eyes slightly and saw a flash of colour, a colour that shouldn't exist in this darkness.

'Am I hallucinating?' He smiled lightly to himself and prepared for his eternal sleep.