Blood pooled down the face of a man, mixing with the raindrops that fell on the earth, almost like it was trying to wash everything away.
The black-haired man laid on the almost empty street, shadowy figures slowly made their way to him as the rain poured even harder on him.
He stared at the clouds while his clothes grew even wetter with every passing second. Blood soaking his shirt.
A bitter smile appeared on his face as the blood continued to pour and mix. How did I get to this point?
______________
Earlier that day,
Slap!
Glasses fell to the ground, chipped at the corners upon impact as the woman who raised her hand stood in the same position, tears streaming down her face while she glared at the man in front of her.
"What was that about?" The man asked, nonchalantly rubbing the sore spot on his cheek left cheek.
His hair covered the entirety of the right side of his face, under which there is an eye patch fastened to the back of his head. His charcoal coloured eye stared at her blankly while she continued to sob.
"H-how could you?" Her voice broke as she began to wipe her eyes with the sleeve of the shirt while the man continued to stare at her, not moving from his spot.
While she continued to cry and wail, he sighed and picked up the broken glasses on the floor with his gloved hands.
Staring at the cracked glass he thought, I have to buy a new one. Don't I?
"What happened?!" A man with a lab coat ran into the room and stared at the woman crying and glaring at the man fussing over his broken glasses before bursting out laughing.
"What is it, Soren?" The man asked, putting his broken glasses on the table beside him. "Did you see your reflection in the mirror?"
"You- never mind." The man said, tossing his braided hair to the side as he approached the woman. "Miss, here."
Taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he gave it to the woman and began comforting her.
"You are kind." She sniffled, smiling up at him. "Thank you."
"It is my pleasure." He grinned, tucking a stray brown hair behind his ears. "Now, would you tell me what happened? Was it Issac again?"
"Again?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean again?"
"It just slipped my mouth." He laughed. "Do tell me why you are crying for a nobody like him."
She looked at the man pulling up a chair behind the desk as he began to work away on his computers while looking through the stacks of papers in front of him.
"It is nothing." She said sadly handing the handkerchief to him again. "I will take my leave."
"Here." The man gave her a card. "This is my number, call me if you wish to talk about anything at all."
"Thank you." She looked at the card. "Dr. Usoro."
"Please, call me Soren." He said brightly while walking her to the door. "See you now. Be careful!"
He waved at her as she walked out of the clinic and gave a bow before disappearing amongst the crowd of people walking around her.
_____________
Issac continued to type away at his computer as the man closed the door and, putting his hands in his pocket, began to walk to him with a sly smile on his face.
"Yes, I slept with her," Issac said, not looking up from his computer. "Is that what you want to know?"
"I knew you did!" The man laughed, fiddling with the flowers in the vase on top of a wooden table in the middle of the room.
There were chairs and cabinets all around the room, each facing one another in a precise position. The walls were a warm shade of green, the floors a polished wood and a leather chair in the middle of the room for the clients.
At the extreme left of the room was a bay window that overlooked the people walking, or running, back and forth in the hot sun and their restricting office or school uniforms.
Just below the window is a low cabinet with a water boiler on top of it, connected to the outlet on the wall beside the window.
Soren walked to the water boiler and bent down to pull out a bottle of water from the cabinet. He poured the water into the boiler, turning it on as he pulled out two cups from the same cabinet.
"Tea?"
"No thank you," Issac said, looking over a paper while squinting and bringing it closer to his face. "This is clearly not working."
"Clearly." His friend laughed, pulling out a mason jar with dried tea leaves and adding it to the boiling water. He took out another jar of honey and added one teaspoon to one cup and five to the other.
"Are you here just to be my echo?" The man asked, standing up and walking to where he placed his broken glasses. "Do you think they will be able to fix this?"
"Why not?" His friend asked, turning to him and then looking at the glasses as they snapped clean in half. The two watched as it hit the ground in a pathetic thud. "I take that back. You will be needing a new one."
"Yeah." He sighed, picking the broken piece up and placing it back on the table.
"How strong was her slap anyway?" Soren laughed, placing the tea strainer on the cups and pouring the liquid into the cups.
Issac absented mindedly touched the place the woman slapped his cheeks and sighed, "Not hard enough if you ask me."
"Hard enough would be if she took your head clean off." Soren mused, picking the teacups up and placing them on the table. "Come, have a cup of tea."
"I told you I am-"
"Busy?" He raised an eyebrow looking at the man's broken glasses. "There is nothing you will be able to get done with your spectacles in that condition. Have tea and then go make a new one."
The man stared at his friend, frowning as though he was contemplating on what he should do.
"I came all the way here for you. The least you can do is entertain me." His friend batted his eyes at him. Though Issac couldn't see what he was doing, he still knew what he was doing and was not amused.
Sighing, Soren pulled out a brown paper bag from his lab coat and held it up, "I brought you cinnamon rolls."
"You should have told me that before," Issac said, taking two porcelain plates from the cabin and sat down opposite to Soren who placed the rolls on the plates.
"I should have." The man laughed watching his friend began to devour the cinnamon roll with a fork and knife, still not removing the gloves. "You know that there is something about people who like to eat sweets, especially a ton of them."
"Yes. It has to do with their mental state." Issac said, not looking up even once. "Magnesium regulates glucose and insulin levels, as well as the neurotransmitter dopamine. In other words, depressed/sad people equals sweet things."
"You just self-diagnosed yourself, you know that right?" Soren asked, leaning back into the chair.
"First." Issac held up the fork and pointed it to him. "I am a psychologist. I can self-diagnose myself, by default. Maybe. Anyway, and second, I think I have a healthy relationship with sweets."
Soren watched as his friend pulled out another jar of honey and smeared the cinnamon roll with it, coating it until it began to glisten.
He pursed his lips, eyebrows raised but did not say another word as he felt the sugar in his mouth making him want to gag.
"So!" He clapped his hands together, trying to get his mind out of the sugar levels in that room. "What was it with that woman?"
"I don't know," Issac said, leaning back against the couch as well. "She came in here and asked me if I remembered. I asked her what and she became angry before slapping me."
"Do you remember her name?" Soren took a sip of the tea, eyes never leaving Issac while the other man never looked at him.
"No." He said, fork hanging from his mouth. "Should I have?"
"You should. It is common courtesy."
"They are merely partners in bed, why should I remember their names?" Issac asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Besides, they already know what they were getting into when they agreed."
"I know, but unlike you, humans tend to form a deeper emotion with someone they have been so intimate with," Soren said, putting the cup down. "Did you feel no connection to her?"
"She had the personality of a pencil."
"Why did you choose her then?" He raised an eyebrow at him.
"She amused me." Issac looked at Soren for a second before turning away from him, "I guess this only means that I need to find another partner. Annoying."
"Want me to look with you? I could introduce you to someone from my department." He grinned. "I know thi-"
Issac held up his hand to stop him from speaking, "That is a kind gesture but I would rather not involve people around me. I wouldn't want to be too cruel."
The corners of Soren's lips turned up slightly as he walked to his friend and grabbed his face, pulling the eye patch from his face.
He stared at the almost empty socket, still smiling kindly.
"You feast on the souls of people, I think you are plenty cruel already."