From Hunger ||
Fylkir couldn't believe his luck. He'd stumbled upon some subjects perfect to compile a portfolio. It was ideal for the magazine for which he'd been vying to work, and all of it was stored on the memory card currently housed under the battery hatch of his camera. He felt assured in his success, and opted to treat himself to something expensive for dinner as a reward. It was a muggy night; the air felt like a lukewarm skin and if one were not careful, it was easy to break a sweat. Street lamps were swarmed with pale moths, and a steadily sparse crowd wandered up and down the walks off the street. The smell of seafood --cooked crab or lobster, perhaps, was savory on the dense air, which was bereft of its usual mosquito swarm for a light and humid breeze making its softly whistling gales. It was just before he reached the restaurant, dressed currently in his newest jeans, a graphic t-shirt and new shoes, camera in hand, that Fylkir spotted a grey cat perched on the stoop of an empty building. Something about the scene struck him, and he started to turn on the new camera. A light on top flashed feebly, glowing a pitiful orange rather than its usual vibrant blue. But that was alright --he had spare batteries. He dug deep into his pocket and produced them, flicking open the battery hatch on the bottom of the camera. As he was removing the drained ones, his knuckle pushed onto the memory card and caused it to pop free of its slot. The thin plastic piece sprung from the camera and dropped; he saw it all as if it were in slow motion. A hand snatched quickly to attempt catching it, but he missed entirely. The memory card dropped onto the curb, bounced to the left, and landed on the metal grate of a sewer drain. He barely dared to breathe as it balanced precariously, only to suddenly pitch toward the dangling side. It clattered down into the darkness, and he heard its quiet landing on a hard, non-submerged surface. He was frozen for a moment in horror, but slowly knelt before the sewer grate, already puzzling himself as to how he was going to retrieve that portfolio.
