Flash fiction feature: Campus After Dark

There was a quiet sort of melancholy that took over the night. Not in the heart of campus, with the coupled glimmer of the streetlights and the glow of warm laughter from the bar and store. But by the lakeside, where the faint sounds of chatter gave way to the unbroken peace of wildlife. It was in that silence she found her solace, standing on the bridge. Basking in the cool air of the summer night in the shrouded darkness of the unlit area. People still passed her by, hurrying home or only just beginning their own nights. But they paid her no mind, as though she were a ghost watching from the sidelines.

But in the silence of her room, Loneliness gave her an answer all too deafening

But there had been a time she had been at the centre of it too. Chattering away excitedly with friends, strangers, anyone, as she went out to enjoy the night until it turned old. The misty peace when she walked back to home. The tired yet satiated feeling the next morning, being roused by the sunlight peeking out from behind her curtain. Day-in, day out, the same routine. More-so, even, after she had been able to delight in the tedium of post-finals life. Yet as the days ticked by, every night was accompanied by a new chill. Loneliness. It became her new companion, haunting the corner of every place. The reverberating thump of the music coupled with the cacophony of voices drowned it out well enough that she continued to let herself lose her senses. Forget why she had started this strange “routine” of hers in the first place. But in the silence of her room, Loneliness gave her an answer all too deafening.

She warmed herself on the in-between, the precious moments of something still uncertain

It came in the form of the nights she had lived previously. A time so unfamiliar to her, so out of reach now. She still let herself indulge once in a while on drinks (a few) here and there, but she had dedicated her time to the bloom of the new year. She warmed herself on the in-between, the precious moments of something still uncertain. Walking back home, side by side with someone to talk to, along the lake under the warmth of the streetlamps in the cold January night. Someone to celebrate the coming of new spring, surrounded in the ever-lucky celestial red. Someone to look for, over the din of the bar. The very same that the bloom was crushed in, forgotten in the snow.

That night followed her in her dreams, a bitter gift from Loneliness. The anxious pit that swallowed her whole with every step she took towards the centre of campus. The finality of the words under the all-too-bright lights. The rising flood, forced back with a not quite there smile. Until they parted for good, and she was running back home across the street, face streaked with the evidence of her broken heart. Then, the drive away from the pain, watching the blinking lights of her sorrow fade away into the night. That was what she couldn’t run from, as much as she tried.

Loneliness had gotten the best of her and she couldn’t bear the apparitions haunting her room

In one instance, after Loneliness had gotten the best of her and she couldn’t bear the apparitions haunting her room, she strolled around campus much later than she normally did, well into the early hours of the morning. Forgoing her usual shield of songs, she took in the undisturbed peace of the hour, like she had stepped into a different world. One she failed to appreciate properly before. The still, dark water. The world asleep. Except for a few. In her lull, time had slipped by, and she only realised what day it was when she found herself walking by the heart of campus, people streaming out after a night of indulging. Her eyes fell to the couple who had stolen away from the crowd, wrapped in their own world as they spoke animatedly to one another. Watching them from afar, it gave rise to a dull, throbbing ache in her chest. The joy of first love, so evident in the air. But deep down, she hoped she would be able to watch her own story begin again someday.