Somewhere in the humid night, the cold howl of a siren rises and fades, low and muffled, but audible enough to peck into the restless mind of the young woman amid the rumpled sheets of her bed. The muted absence of the sound following the siren's passing seems even more intrusive, peppered with the softest murmurs of the apartment. The hum of air conditioning, the barely perceptible tic of appliances beyond the bedroom, a hushed chorus of sounds too low to identify, but as common to her ears as her own voice.
Opening her eyes, she sees the phantasmal blue of her clock illuminating the room dimly, providing a spectral cast to the space. She looks about aimlessly, searching for some clue as to where sleep hides. Her gaze casts from place to place, with specific purpose. A small dresser next to a taller cabinet, a cramped little writing desk littered with papers, a standing mirror dully reflecting hinted details of a young woman in wadded linens in the low light.
One in the morning. Too late to be lying awake in her bed alone. Somewhere in the apartment the click and hum of the refrigerator engaging reaches her ears and it might as well be a roaring thunder. With a deep sigh, she pries herself loose from the bedclothes, defying the pull to try and sleep, and swings herself into a seated position on the edge of the bed. The mild chill of the apartment air tickles her underclad body, producing a spread of gooseflesh, where the blankets had previously been almost too warm.
Rising from the bed completely, she stretches herself, peering absently at herself in the mirror. Within it, she appears as little more than a shade, a ghost of herself half-hidden in darkness. Her thick hair wild from her hours of tossing, the form-fitting little tee-shirt twisted about her torso, her panties slightly askew across her hips, drooping slightly. Dismissing the sight, she pads mindlessly into the tiny bathroom, turning on the small tap-light on the wall.
In the soft radiance emitted she peers at her slightly better lit face in the mirror, she ruffles her unruly brown-sugar colored hair with her hand, failing to tame it. For a moment, she considers the large wooden hairbrush on the counter, but turns her attention instead back to her reflection. Mechanically, she runs water from the tap, letting it warm, and then lightly splashes a shallow handful into her face. Looking back to the mirror she meets the gaze of the girl staring back. A pretty girl lost in restlessness. Amber eyes underlined in dark shadow, clear and sharp usually, but now dull and cloudy. The tiredness is there in her eyes, but the will to sleep is just not.
Turning off the tap-light, she slips from the bathroom and out of the bedroom into the rest of her compact apartment, hiking her panties back into place and straightening her clingy shirt. Her stocking feet makes soft sounds on the carpet of the brief hallway as she drifts into the living room, her way lit by the muffled light of neon and arc sodium seeping through thin blinds concealing tall windows and the glass balcony door. It creates an iridescent orange glow about everything, strong enough to reveal the living room and kitchenette beyond it.
Slipping into the kitchenette, she opens the refrigerator, a bright white glare spilling out into the dimmer space. She fetches a glass and fills it with milk, returning to the dark living room as she begins sipping. She pulls aside the tall drape of vertical blinds over the balcony entrance, bathing everything in a bright dawn of tinted light from the streets below. For a long moment, she stands before the glass door, milk glass in hand, peering out at the lonely balcony beyond it. A thin sheet of perspiration frosts the outside of the glass, obscuring her view, the night humid beyond her chilled apartment.
Setting down her glass for a moment to snatch up a thin cardigan from the arm of the couch, she slips into it, pulling it closed over her immodest attire. Retrieving her drink, she unlocks and steps out through the door. A low din of cars and city noises washes about her in the warm night air, reduced to background sound by more than a dozen stories between her and their origins. Despite the humid heat of the evening, a pleasant breeze at this height flutters her loose hair. The scent in the brisk air is tangy from pollution and the rank scents of the city, but seems refreshing anyways, natural and appealing.
She leans against the rail, sipping at the milk and watching the flow of the world below, an ambiguous riot of lights and shadows so high up. After a moment, she turns her gaze upwards, scanning the skyline of the city. The misty night sky appears opaque, reflecting the light from the multitudes of street lamps into a dingy orange over black that erases any chance of viewing stars. The city beneath it appears like a dark silhouette, punctuated by points and lines of light from signs and beacons. It seems to stretch on like an urban ocean of bleakness.
Though her gaze carries no purpose, merely skating across the void where sky meets rooftops, it becomes caught by something in the lower corners of her vision. Across the wide streets, she spies a man standing on his own balcony, much like herself, peering with as little aim as she into the city night. Though distance obscures the finer details, she can tell his is naked to the waist. He seems fit of shape, possibly handsome. His own apartment is dark, same as hers, making him more visible in the neon bright of the evening.
For a long moment, she considers the distant man, her eyes straining to define him more. As she watches him, he seems to register her gaze and looks towards her in return. For a long moment, they stare across at each other, two strangers in the night, but together in their restlessness. Akin in their solitude.
After a moment, she raises her glass towards him slightly, as though in a toast of greeting. Though his hands are empty, he returns the gesture with a raised hand, obviously sensing their connection as well. After a moment, both return to their meaningless scans of the city below and above. However, she finds her attention coming back to him, finding him to have returned his gaze to her as well. For a second, something seems to pass between them, a strange notion tickling at her mind, but quickly being thrown away.
