The setting sun hung slowly above the horizon, as the buildings in front of Leon folded in and out of focus. He sat slumped against the western wall of Ray's Liquor, an almost empty bottle of whiskey engulfed in a paper bag hung loosely in his hand. His chin against his chest, he exhaled slowly, and thought about the condition he found himself in at the moment. Walking home from work earlier that day, after twelve hours of constant berating, Leon was suddenly his with the full force of his loneliness. With his degrading enthusiasm for his work at the station, the music he relied on for so long no longer comforted him. He had stopped, and took a different turn at the corner of Sunset Terrace and Benson Street, and headed for the liquor shop.
Presently, Leon's insides were bathed in the golden warmth of the whiskey, and his outsides were washed in the savory glow of the setting sun. He lifted his head, and rested his gray hair against the chipped concrete wall. However, he waited to open his eyes, he felt the dried tears on his face, and laughed half-heartedly to himself. Any consciousness he felt at the moment was from the neck up - everything else was in a state of blissful ignorance. At the moment, the booze had done its job, and Leon no longer felt as pathetic as he had a few hours before. Leon reflected on the fact that it had been years since he'd seen a sunset, usually he was locked in the windowless booth at WTF; riddled with angst and happily perched upon his soap box. At this thought he opened his eyes and toasted the horrible forces at be, for allowing him this moment, and drained the last of the bottle. With a hearty belch, he sighed and readjusted his back against the wall. Losing himself in the swirling pinks and oranges that infected the sky in beautiful wispy veins, Leon slowly closed his eyes, letting the image burn itself into his corneas. The thin stretch of skin had just enveloped his eyes when they suddenly flew open again at the sound of bone crunching against knuckle. Leon glanced about wildly, only seeing the fading visage that the sun had latched in front of his eyes. With the sun in his eyes and the added numbing rush of whiskey coursing through his blood, He was in no state to move. Much less defend himself from whoever lurked near. Leon stood, feeling his way up the wall, his fingers dragging unevenly across the crumbling surface. Blinking his eyes rapidly in an attempt to jettison the sunset from his eyes, his vision began to slowly return. He realized that he had made it further down the alley, closer to the dumpster behind Ray's Liquor. With his knees buckling about below him, he threw himself into the shady corner between the dumpster and the wall. In this cool low place, Leon gazed skyward and ran his hand through his hair. As he lowered his head back against the cold metal and lazily looked in the direction his head was facing. He saw him. In the alleyway directly across Sobchak, he saw a lone figure hunched over something. The figure looked about wearily; he appeared to be contorting his neck in obscene and maniacal ways. For five minutes Leon stared, mouth agape, at the demonic figure in the opposing alleyway, harvesting a soul for their sordid collection. In his rapt concentration, Leon forgot he was hiding, and let out a high pitched hiccup that reverberated between the wall and the dumpster, before launching itself at the demon. He was terrified; the demon would surly come for him next. His pathetic light would fill the next of the devil's vials, sitting in wait for eons just to fuel some satanic cocktail. Leon closed his eyes tight, hoping that his forced blindness might make the searing pain of the demons claws entering his chest, a little more bearable.
When Leon did open his eyes, he was alone, and far from the inner circle of Hell. The sun had set hours before, and the whiskey being found seemingly used, had released itself from his body. Both instances leaving only a searing ache in Leon's left temple. He got to his feet, and stumbled to the entrance to the alleyway across from where he'd been sitting. Leon looked around and scratched his head. "Oh well...” he sighed, as he kicked a piece of loose gravel into the alleyway,"so much for facing my demons."
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