Life in the Gray
an excerpt

The air was cool and brisk as the afternoon skies began to fade into twilight hues, the nights coming earlier now in the winter months. It was not yet time for the snows to fall but people were always ready for the occasion, bundling themselves to the point of having no discernable features and their children so that the little tykes could barely waddle, much less walk. High rise buildings loomed over the streets creating the image of walls and tunneled the chilly winds throughout the city. It was in the bleak months, after the colors of fall had gone and everything was dull and gray, that the city truly lived up to its name; Sombre.

Stepping out from one of the buildings, long, tan trench coat gathered tightly about him, the man looked first one way, then the other. He was not normally paranoid, not even skittish, but lately he had felt that someone was watching him. Pale gray eyes, set in a face that time had barely weathered, darted back and forth once more before he stepped out from beneath the drab colored awning set over the doors and made his way to the curb. Where he usually drove himself wherever he needed or wanted to be his paranoia led him to seek out public transportation as of late. One never could be too careful, not in this day and age.