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The wooden broom fell down with a clack as it hit the cold, gleaming stones that made up the whole road. Bending over to pick it up, Levi was hit with an odd headache. For a second, he felt as though he'd just woken up from a muted dream. His fingers brushed over the rough wooden handles of the broom, his head still spinning ever so slightly, before he picked it up.
He's been doing his chores for the last few hours now, sweeping the front area of the sea-side cafe he's working at for the whole evening. He stared into the distance, the colorful buildings and the old-rock pavement filled his whole vision with nothing but a sense of peace and silence. Yet, Levi felt a subtle nag on his side, a restless whisper seemed to call to him with the breeze over Paradis Harbor.
He couldn't make sense of it.
Levi brushed it off as he gripped the broom handle and started to finish of his sweep, the unsettling nerves still all over his arms and running through his body.
"Ah, Levi," A voice called out from behind him. "You can go home right away once you've finished your duties." The warm smile of the cafe owner greeted Levi once he turned around.
"Thank you, sir." He replied, giving the owner a small, respectful nod before continuing his sweep.
Levi's gaze was always known to be focused and sharp. His piercing blue-grey orbs were always undistracted as it guided his hands to do it's work. But, this evening, right as the sun was setting and flooding the whole dock with vibrant, bright hues of oranges, he couldn't focus on the mount of dirt and dust in front of him. His wooden broom in his arms swayed back and forth, his feet would shift from one place to the other as the broom guided the dirt and dust to the dustpan, but all he was seeing were faces of people he didn't know.
With one final sweep, he straightened his posture and looked towards the sunset. He let the golden hues of the sun filled his presence before he finished up his duties as an employee. He placed the broomstick and dustpan in the closet, took off his apron and changed his clothes, bid his goodbye to the owner before walking down the road to his small apartment.
"Good evening, Levi." The old lady living by the market greeted him as he strolled through.
"Evening, Mrs Edwrich." He replied, giving her a small bow as he walked by.
It was just another Thursday in Paradis Harbor. Levi would go to work at seven and walk back home at six. He would stop by at the local shop near his apartment to buy his favorite weekly magazine, some fruits and maybe some ingredients for the day's dinner, and went home. The old apartment gate would creak when he swings it open, and the neighbour cat would meow as it hop down from beside the light-colored fence the moment she heard the sound. Levi would go home to his empty, small apartment room that overlooks the silent beach, arrange his groceries, take a bath, and end the day with a simple dinner.
It was just another Thursday- it was supposed to be another Thursday.
Levi's head throbbed even harder the moment he lifted his teacup by the handles as he turned on the TV to catch on with the news. The pain burned worse when he sipped his store-bought chamomile tea. It nearly made him faint when his eyes glazed over the TV screen for a second, the news showing pictures of the army with their orderly lined soldiers.
And for a moment, Levi saw those faces again.
A goofy brunette with glasses, a stern blond with blue eyes, a messy red-headed girl with equally messy pigtails, a silver haired boy, and much more unknown faces as they come in and fade away as quickly. They were gushing into his memory, filling his head like water flowing out the leaking pipes when rain fell down in the area. The throbbing pain was only getting lighter when he started hearing the voices too. Unfamiliar voices, telling him to watch out, dedicate his heart, run away, or things of the like. He started hearing canons, screams, and thundering inhuman roars.
Levi's breathing was a mess as his hand rush about through his counter, trying to search for some painkillers and headache medicine. He didn't know if his chest was tying in a knot from whatever those visions were or if they were just from the burning pain that he was feeling. His palm clasped onto the cold plastic tube filled with painkillers as he opened it and chugged down a pil.
His chest rose up and down, sweat was starting to build up on his temples, and the more he tried to hold on into the vision the more it slipped out of his grasp. As the pain went away, so did their faces, so did the sounds. As if they were a package, those visions and the burning sensation, those faces and the cold, lonely grief that would hover over him.
Levi drank down the headache medicine along with his tea, feeling the hammering throb of the past headache slowly subside the same way a sand drawing would fade away as the waves crash into shore. Levi let out a heavy sigh, his fingers tracing the rim of his cheap tea cup as he mindlessly lifted it up with his fingers on said rim.
It felt awfully comfortable that way.
He raised an eyebrow as he dragged his feet towards the couch to catch back on the news displayed on the TV. It had changed to the current political crisis on a neighbouring country. He frowned, not being able to listen about the missed news on the military due to his sudden headache.
Levi's eyes darted towards his window where he could see a couple of teenagers walk by, one with a dark green denim jacket with a pair of white wings stitched on the back. Almost suddenly, the headache came back. A groan escaped the ravenette's lips as he massaged the bridge of his nose. Fortunately, it was nothing to worry about. Unlike what he experienced a few minutes ago, this headache quickly went away along with the small forms of the teenagers slowly disappearing from his view.
He took another sip from his chamomile tea, still not getting used to it's scent and sweet taste even though he didn't put in any sugar.
The daily jingle of the nightly news from the TV caught his attention, signalling that it was already 8 o'clock and the day was starting to end as the warm colors of the sun got swept over with the dim blue of the moon-lit sky.
The unsettling nerves from the evening came back when he saw the tree branches dancing in the breeze. Unsettling for what? What was Levi waiting for?
Nothing.
There was nothing he was missing. Nothing was out of place. Sure, he went through some serious painful headache this evening but it was nothing a few painkillers and medicine couldn't handle.
"Maybe I'm too pushing it." Levi murmured to himself, taking note of the extra shifts he's been taking and the extra part-time job he recently took. He placed down his tea cup, closed the blinds, and sat back down on the couch as he heard the faint alarm of the digital clock that was resting on the kitchen table.
It was just another Thursday.