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Scout on Life and Death Part 1 - A woman,Lyra, watches people through their windows before taking their souls only to shower pity for one she may care for.

     The Ritz showered mercy on me today. The clouded window my transparent complexion peered into did not boast a couple or a family. The ragged clothes and wearing couch held an air of restlessness, evidence of many that visit and none who stay. I could sympathize with the dweller of this room, but I must only observe their final night. It neared midnight, but a person will work tirelessly, unbeknownst how close the end may be and how pointless their toil is. They never enjoy themselves before their souls rise; chasing a dream is more valuable than enjoying a nightmare. Yet whether I peered into a Manhattan penthouse or the many tenants of this creaking apartment complex, no one would be content with what they have. The chase is so surreal; it pleases you past what you receive from it. The idea of improvement is not for happiness, but rather self-importance.

            The creaking red wooden door peeling at the sides swung open slowly as a slouching man dragged his worn feet restrained by a shoe 2 sizes too small trudged inside. He was drunk, wasting the sanity of his possibly intelligent brain at the height of numbness. The respect of living is coming in unaware and leaving with bitter enlightenment. He could hardly make it to the coach before collapsing on the exhausted springs supporting the dead weight of his naivety. A picture frame clattered into the ground as his limp arms searched for someone who wasn’t there and would never come. Couldn’t I spare him, I thought? I knew that I was just as sensitive as the glass I became in the night and as insignificant and monotone as stone in the day. This was not an obligation I could reject, but I would postpone the rising of the empty soul for a day until it is full. A part of me did it for the man across the window, but another didn’t want to kill the only person I had sympathized with in years.

            He would live to stumble blindly around the Earth another day.

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