It was the perfect soundtrack for a man trying to outrun his own mind.
The edge of the sun finally cracked over the distant mountains, spilling a blinding, raw orange light across the desert floor. It struck the windshield of Leo's car, illuminating the empty passenger seat where Maya used to sit.
Leo took a deep breath, the cold morning air stinging his lungs. He wiped a stray tear from his cheek with the back of his hand and turned the key in the ignition. The engine groaned to life. He didn't know where he was going next, but as the sun climbed higher, chasing away the shadows of the neon city, he knew he had to keep moving. SUNRISE (SLOWED REVERB)
The vocals of the song kicked in, but they were unrecognizable. Slowed to a haunting, low-register drawl, the artist's voice sounded less like singing and more like a confession from the bottom of an ocean. “Wait for the light... let it wash over you...”
But then a heavy, bass-boosted drop hit in the song. The physical vibration shivered through the metal of the car and directly into his bones, violently snapping him back to the freezing reality of the overlook. The memory shattered like glass. It was the perfect soundtrack for a man
The rain had stopped hours ago, but the city still bled neon onto the wet asphalt. Leo sat on the hood of his beat-up sedan, parked on the edge of the overlook where the grid of the city met the vast emptiness of the desert. The glowing digital clock on his dashboard read 4:32 AM.
He looked out over the horizon. A thin, jagged line of pale indigo was beginning to bleed into the pitch-black sky. The very first hint of dawn. Leo took a deep breath, the cold morning
The song began to fade out, the long trails of reverb swallowing the final, lonely notes.