Sickly Glow

Ben’s face, the upper part of his chest, and his left arm were the only things visible in the dark room, levitating in the blackness. The only light was coming from his laptop screen. The LCD glow, the fully artificial light only possible because of highly advanced technology, made his skin look sick, like he was dying of swamp gas and radiation poisoning. And yet, he was stronger than ever before in his life.

It was 4 am, but Ben was still up, looking at the views on his video, refreshing every couple dozen seconds, watching the number climb. He was making his first million. Not million views, his first million dollars. People across the globe watching his video were making him money. He could not sleep.

Ben was alternating between the views page and Tamara’s Facebook page. He was looking at her photos, going back several years. Her face was always so strong and full of character. He too was feeling strong and purposeful now, he was feeling the strength that comes from success. He was feeling worthy.

Ben refreshed the views page, the number had climbed again. he went back to Facebook and refreshed the main feed. “Tamara commented on this,” it said. Her words were “That’s so funny, Greg.” It was a comment on some guy Greg’s post about hipsters having funny beards. At 4 am.

”That’s so funny, Greg,” he read it again. She never commented on any of Ben’s videos.

He went back to the views, refreshed. The number had climbed again, but he had lost all interest. He closed the laptop and lay down, trying to fall asleep. He knew he would wake up tired the next morning, depressed, hungry. He shut his eyes tight, tighter.

As dawn’s first light flooded the room, Ben’s skinny arms and the outline of his thin neck became visible. A sickly white, like bones.

”That’s so funny, Greg.”

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk